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Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse
Smivs writes "Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse.
The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.
'It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,' said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley.
'Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.'
The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40.
It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."
...still come packaged with that WildTanget spyware mess?
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
McDonalds anyone?
Sheesh...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
A colleague called me to his office the other day. His PowerMac was "locking up" not responsive to clicks. And when he'd reboot the optical drive would eject. Turns out his Logitech USB mouse was stuck in the left click position. (Macs eject their optical disk on restart if the mouse button is clicked.)
I think McDonald's would disagree with you.
Large manufacturers of small parts like screws can easily reach the billion mark in a decade.
The same goes for "categories" of parts like mice, computers, microprocessors, phones, etc.
I wonder how many CPUs Intel has shipped? I wonder how many phones the pre-1983-breakup version of AT&T shipped. I wonder how many screws and fasteners a large screw-making company ships in 10 years?
No, a billion may be a milestone but it's not huge, not when you put it in context.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'm curious to know how many mice Microsoft has shipped; theirs seem to be more plentiful than Logitech's in the wild. I know that I've got four or five MS mice sitting in the closet, plus two active ones, but the only Logitech mouse I have is the one at work.
One mouse for every six people seems a bit steep for what is—in my limited personal experience—a minority player in the market.
Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
I've pretty much used Logitech mice exclusively since I've stared using a computer. They've consistently provided high-quality, low-priced products. My mouse I use at home is a simple $12 Logitech optical mouse, and it works perfectly. Unfortunately, I'm using a MS mouse at work. I think I will buy another Logitech mouse to replace this one.
The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.
[citation needed]
No seriously, where is there a mainstream commentator predicting the demise of the mouse, and backing it up with hard data and logic?
What about producers of nuts, bolts, screws, nails? They makes those by the billion every year.
Statistically this means that there are at least 1 Billion logitech mice out there.
N.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Quite a lot of mice are logitech mice. I wonder how many PC's have ever been built, and how many mice in total, to compare logitech with the other mouse brands.
ball bearing balls? bottlecaps? shoes? Bolts? Lesbians!
One billion units in under 40 years is remarkable. Especially when considering that they weren't mass produced until the 80s!
"It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company," said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley. "Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone."
Gum? Pencils? Paper? Soft drink? Bag of chips? Stick of RAM? Screwdriver? Television set? Surely some of these items have been sold more than a billion times by a single company...
i believe that the razor blade manufacturers hit their billionth mark within a decade of beginning production. yes, few companies ship billions- but logitech hit billion from multiple models. razor companies from the same model blade.
Remember when the "bus mouse" was the cool upgrade over a crappy serial-port mouse, and you had that extra 8-bit ISA card with the funny port on it? IRQs ? I/O ports ? That was back before teenage girls took over the Internet.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.
I know it's rah-rah time at Logitech, but come on, talk about stretching the truth : industries routinely ships billions of stuff, if said stuff is small/ubiquitous enough. Remington and other manufacturers has produced and shipped countless billions of firearm cartridges, ball bearing manufacturers have probably stopped counting a long time ago, and McDonald's is even proud to have served a billion obese-making meals.
That's weird. Why on earth would a Mac user not simply use the supplied Apple brand mouse? Oh, right.
Speaking to your criticism directly, I have about half a dozen Logitech mice, spanning a decade, that all work flawlessly. The only reason I have bought more since the first one 11 years ago has been to keep pace with technology (optical, wireless, 2d scroll wheel, laser, etc.)
Then again, it's not like I use mine for grueling tasks like ejecting CDs.
Come on, you can make, and sell, 1 billion mice; how hard can it be to make a minor variant of the Cordless Optical TrackMan that uses Bluetooth instead of an RF dongle???
I can't imagine the market is smaller than for some of the weird niche mice I've seen out there...
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Obligatory Douglas Engelbart mouse demo video link:
http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html
the no
I wonder if when they ship this one billionth mouse to a customer, they will include in the box a flashing ad telling him that he is the one billionth customer and should click here to claim his prize.
...the Logitech Limited Edition Pied Piper.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
says a lot for the quality of their mice.
Yes, a billionth of most things are microscopic in size. So shipping it is quite difficult. Great job logitec.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Bluetooth IS just as much RF as any other way to get signals from the mouse wirelessly. You may want to do some checking on your logic.
"It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,"
I doubt that, a billionth is *tiny*.
I too am a big fan of Logitech mice. My main computer rig actually sports a Razer Diamondback these days, but my laptop mouse is Logitech, as are the mice on my workstation and server rack's KVM at work. Over the years I've had countless ones. Like you, I mostly have upgraded to keep pace with technology: moving to one with a scroll wheel, moving to an optical, moving to USB, getting a mouse with more buttons, etc.
Like all heavy use devices I've had a few failures (I've had 2 Logitech mice wear out on me), but overall compared with other mice I've still noticed them to be of a pretty high quality. When I used to work as a tech at a college many years ago, I can't count how many Microsoft Intellimouses had a scroll wheel that was jammed where it couldn't be moved anymore.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Because Steve Jobs only recently relented and allowed a second button on them. Before the mighty mouse, Apple mice were pretty useless creatures.
"It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company," said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley. "Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone."
The people at Coca Cola and Anheuser Bush are pissing themselves out of laughter right about now. Coca Cola is likely to do that in a day.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft.
Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
Wow. That was a bit over-the-top in the Snark division. I don't think the guy was WANTING to use the left-mouse button-eject function, since the mouse button was stuck. But yeah, I like the Logitech mice too.
But seriously...posts like yours, as aggrivatingly snarky as they are, are what keep me coming back. It's fun to become agitated AND I learned an OSX function I never new about ;-)
One billionth mouse just in time for the Diablo III launch. Maybe Logitech is stacking up ...
noone remembers this story:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/23/1159206
but toxic
I have a Logitech C7 that still works, although it did need one ball transplant.
Or logitech products in general. Seen way too many fail. and don't even get me started on their joysticks and gamepads.. pure crap.
I like my super generic MOUSE from walmart over anything else i've found. it costed $5. throwaway. high dpi. good shape.
where the logitech throwaway mice are at least 25-30 dollars.
I like my cheap plastic crap to be cheap in price as well as quality.
I had an Macintosh Apple once. Tried to get the optical disk in and all it managed to do was slice the apple in half. It was much less messy just plugging the mouse in.
He still hasn't relented with the Mighty Mouse. It's only got one button. Sure, there's a capacitative sensor that checks to see which finger is on the mouse, but if you're resting both fingers on the mouse, you can't right-click by pressing the right side of the mouse.
ttuttle is a rankmaniac
Congratulations, now get to work on delivering a better Trackball.
My Microsoft Trackball Explorer is ten years old, and in that time I haven't once found a suitable replacement from Logitec. There are a couple really odd ones, but nothing that comes close to the natural feel of the explorer.
I hate mice.
Whoever makes cockroaches passed the billion mark a long time ago. And using a model with very few variations, too.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Yeah... right... it won't be mainstream in 3-5 years... sorry, but I call BS.
Touchscreens and facial recognition software will not replace the mouse in an office environment. It won't replace it for gaming. Hell, it won't replace it period.
Take gaming as a simple example. When I'm playing WoW, I'm often looking elsewhere, eating a snack, drinking a beer, or talking to my wife who is sitting on the other side of the room... the last thing I'm going to want to do is stare at the screen and make funny faces at it to move the mouse. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Don't get me wrong here; touch screens are a huge boon and will have a place in specialized industries; auto interfaces, shared spaces, Cell Phones, etc.
But making the claim that it will no longer be mainstream and large companies, lets say HR Block, will drop the mouse and replace everything with a touch screen and facial recognition software is the biggest load of crap I've heard in quote a long time.
I hope there will be a headline where computer equipment manufacturers are recycling this shit.
A single counter-example doesn't contest his statement about rarity at all.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
That's not actually how the mighty mouse works. It's a single piece of plastic for the two buttons, yes, but there are two independent buttons inside that register the clicks. I've had to take mine apart to clean off the scroll ball.
Got a new logitech mouse recently. New to me anyway, it's a G5
Has 2 buttons on it to increase or decrease the mouse sensitivity in real time. I don't play many games these days, but I could see that being very useful for first person shooters.. zoom in with a sniper rifle.. decrease mouse sensitivity at the press of a button ..etc
Also the mouse has a weight cartridge with adjustable weight, so each user can adjust the physical feel of the mouse to their liking.
Plus it's laser and my old optical one sucked.
"A single counter-example doesn't contest his statement about rarity at all."
Ok, how about Coke? Pepsi? Two quick ones just off the top of my head.
I love their wired mice/keyboards. The mx518 is one of the most useful I/O devices I've ever had short of a keyboard.
However, I've had horrible luck with their wireless products, usually only lasting about a year to a year and a half if they've been very carefully taken care of.
I abuse the wired products to no end, and they JUST WON'T DIE. Put them in backpacks, toss them around, leave them somewhere in storage where stuff falls/sits on them. I've not tried hydrous immersion yet, but I don't think they'd survive that.
Wait, my mom killed a keyboard on the computer I built for her a while ago. It took three cans of Pepsi and two cups of coffee over the course of 6 months.
So, yeah, I like Logitech's wired stuff.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
Yup! And don't let us forget it - even Microsoft also can get something right. Not too often, not too complex, and with a lot of trumpet blowing - but, nevertheless, they end up getting something right. Not often, but it happens.
Smile - you are having a good day. Don't spoil it !
You are incorrect. The click detection is indeed done by detecting the capacitance of your fingers. I accept that there may be more than one physical microswitch inside the device, but that has nothing to do with left/right-click determination. The only thing that matters is whether your finger is resting on the left half of the device or not.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
I'd have a lot more respect for Logitech products if their QA and Support Managers would actually give a shit about resolving hardware/engineering flaws in their products, specifically mice, that have existed for years.
back in my day when we advertised a product like logitech(c) brand mice we used banners.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Nokia has made a billion phones.
http://www.nokia.com/A4303016
Ok, how about Coke? Pepsi? Two quick ones just off the top of my head.
Intel? I would also imagine quite a few products made by P&G as well as Colgate-Palmolive. Diapers and razor blades immediately come to mind.
So McDonald's ships and manufactures all their food now?
There's a difference between service and retail.
Speaking to your criticism directly, I have about half a dozen Logitech mice, spanning a decade, that all work flawlessly. The only reason I have bought more since the first one 11 years ago has been to keep pace with technology (optical, wireless, 2d scroll wheel, laser, etc.)
I think that's about right - you replaced your mouse every 1.5-2 years on average. Not exactly a typical interval for the rest of the IT hardware industry.
-- Sig down
No, he meant no other industry has shipped a billion mice.
I've been a fan of Logitech for years, but the last two mice I've gotten from them (both the VX Revolution model - awesome mice, when they work anyway) have died in exactly the same way, within a couple months of each other. Makes me wonder if their QC has been slipping of late.
-subtraho
How about stuff like zippers? YKK makes a lot of them per year.
:).
I sure hope the zippers on my clothes are long term products, would be a problem otherwise
Same goes for stuff like screws, nails, nuts, bolts etc.
No, you're wrong :
Bluetooth IS just as much RF
Bluetooth is A form of RF. Among others.
Most Logitech products come into 2 flavours :
- either they use Bluetooth, in which case any Bluetooth enabled computer running a "BT-HID" aware OS can use them out-of-the box.
- OR they use what Logitech calls "Wireless 2.4GHz" which, although using the same frequency, is an entirely different beast : it's a form of wireless usb designed by Cypress. As this standard isn't widespread at all, it requires using a special-purpose RF dongle (which usually plugs into an USB port)
The parent was complaining that, apparently, where he lives, Bluetooth peripherals are rarer, which forces him to buy the other kind. That in turn forces him to always block 1 free USB port because of the RF dongle, and on some machine free USB port are a limited resources (subnotebooks, netbooks, or older laptops) or are inconvenient (with the exception of the mini-receiver, all other RF receiver are long and significantly stick out of the case requiring removal before putting a laptop in a bag - whereas nowadays Bluetooth is built-in).
This situation is going to change soon as Bluetooth 3.0 is incorporating a different form of wireless USB : UWB.
If Logitech needs that much wireless usb for the mice, they could switch to UWB and thus not require a cumbersome RF dongle if the laptop supports Bluetooth 3.0
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft.
Doesn't Logitech actually make the Microsoft-branded mice for them, though? I mean, yes, it's Microsoft-designed and branded, but I thought manufacturing was done by Logitech (or so I've heard).
This guy's the limit!
McDonald's has probably shipped a billion mice, too.
I wouldn't call this an event worthy of celebration. These billion mice (along with the billions of other plastic mass-produced products out there) will one day end up in a landfill somewhere, and will take hundreds of years to break down. The major consequence of mass-production is mass-consumption, and the drawback of mass-consumption is mass-disposal.
I find it a bit sad that a device which, essentially, hasn't changed in 20 years isn't re-used more often. I have 10 year old keyboards and mice I still use.
I guess it's just part of our "throw away, buy a new one" culture that seems to ignore what happens to things once they're in the bin. Out of sight, out of mind.
Weren't those mice made by Logitech too?
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Ok, McDonalds, screws, whatever, you got those... But you forgot:
"Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 20 billion per year"
Live food provisioning for captive predators ?
What a depressingly stupid machine.
There is something that optical mice could do better.
I've noticed that for some optical mice, if you move them very fast, their sampling or something is not fast enough so the mouse makes a blind guess on the direction and magnitude of the move.
This is bad for some games...
The usual "ball" mice seem to better able to keep up.
The other thing would be latency. My guess is wireless mice are more likely to have higher latency than wired mice since they have to encode/modulate stuff to RF/IR and then decode/demodulate.
A few milliseconds here and there and it could add up to something significant.
What I don't like about the ball mice is they tend to accumulate gunk in the rollers.
Hmm, my own experience has been different. I've owned two logitech mouse like devices, both of them have been great. The first was a logitech marbleman that I bought like 11 years ago. It finally kicked the bucket a few months ago. Now I have one of those bluetooth laser mice. It seems good so far.
I have a Compaq optical mouse I bought in Radioshack. I think it's 8 years old. Two buttons and a scroll wheel.
Occasionally when I boot my computer I have to unplug and plug in my mouse to get it to work, but other than that it's survived 8 years of heavy use. I can't think of anything I've owned that's survived 8 years of heavy use and worked this well.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Funny. So did my uncle.
A little off topic I guess, but McDonald's wasn't the first to hit 1 billion burgers either. I'm pretty sure White Castle hit 1 billion back in 1961.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
The mouse evolves
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft. Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
I bought my Microsoft Trackball optical when logitech stopped making the trackball i liked, and I have never looked back. The software was great (programmable "program dependant" buttons with macros) (If you stuck to the version 4.1) I even bought 5 of them from Microcenter when I learned they were being discontinued.
I still have 4 new in the box, and I see they are going for about $150 on ebay now.
The one I am using right now is... 4 years old I think.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
Other companies haven't shipped a billion of anything? What about paperclips? Sheets of paper? Ballpoint pens? Resistors? I'm sure it happens all the time...
While I don't have exact numbers (or any), but I'm sure there are other companies, in other industries, that have shipped a billion of somethings. The 'gotcha' is that Logitech didn't ship 1Bn of a single model of mouse. They generalized and lumped all their mice together. As such, what about the Federal Reserve? I'm sure they've shipped 1Bn+ dollar bills in their time. What about screw/bolt manufacturers? About about lumber mills, when you consider linear feet? Paper mills? I'm sure they've shipped well over 1Bn pieces of paper. The list goes on...
I'd imagine that the manufacturing in all cases is done by Wun Hung Lo Light Industry and Pre-Used Organs Conglomerate in China. Branding is largely superficial.
As an aside though, the Microsoft Explorer Trackball was a Microsoft custom job that Logitech have never produced a direct competitor for. I mention this because, being Microsoft, they killed it off despite its popularity in its niche. Used examples are now selling for $250 and rising on eBay, and there's even a market for cleaning kits and maintenance marketed specifically at this device; I doubt we'll ever see any particular Logitech branded pointing device being missed as much.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Look at any other industry and it has never happened.
I think you need to look up what "never" means. A single counter example does in fact counter his statement about rarity.
I still have an old Logitech ball mouse. Have no idea how long I've had it for, but it must be a while.
In fact, my keyboard and mouse have outlived everything else I have had.
I was a fan of Logitech until I realized that one of their bluetooth mice was the source of many woes on my Powerbook G4. One, it came with crappy drivers that made the machine lock up when it went to sleep while the mouse was on. Two, the bluetooth mouse had movement lag compared to wired mice.
I fixed both those problems by switching to a Kensington bluetooth mouse. I'm not wild about its design (buttons stop short of top end, annoying side-click mouse wheel, battery eject button right where my thumb and pinky grip the sides). But at least it doesn't choke Mac OS X.
You don't think your local McDonald's runs down to the grocery store for hamburgers and buns, do you?
.. on Mickey and Minnie; I'm sure they surpassed making a billion mice years ago. (You know they wepwoduce like wabbits, wight?)
Same thing we do very night, Pinky: try to take over the world! You see, I have commissioned a company by the name of Logitech to deliver ONE BILLION mice, an army large enough to overwhelm any defence system known to man.
[ding dong]
Ah, that will be my delivery. Soon, Pinky, the world will be ours for the taking.
Crikey, Brain, these mice are kind of odd. Why are their tails so long, and what is this hard shell [toc] all around them?
Trojan
Durex
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
They probably make some, or even most, but I'm fairly certain the one I have (Sidewinder X5) is not manufactured by Logitech.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
Holy crap you're right! My parents have a Mighty Mouse on their iMac. I've been trying to right click with it for 2 weeks, with no luck, and its been driving me nuts. I just went upstairs and tried by lifting my index finger when I clicked, and voila: context menu! My reaction: "stupidest mouse ever."
This has to be the worst human interface design ever. This goes way beyond non-intuitive and is in face counter-intuitive. Why should I have to lift one finger to press with another? Point-and-click is now point-lift-and-click? Its going to take forever to explain this to my mom!
Seriously, who comes up with this crap? And how does it ever get past the testing stages? Does Apple deliberately retard their accessories in order to support a strong third party market?
I wish Apple would stop sacrificing function for obscure coolness. "Check it out, my Apple mouse can tell where my fingers are! Sure its a pain in the ass to use it, but IT CAN TELL WHERE MY FINGERS ARE!!!"
"Yeah? Well my Logitech mouse works right." Suck it, Steve.
blog
The Logitech G5 Laser Gaming mouse may not be able to bear my children, but it will raise them.
I'm pretty sure Logitech has brainwashed me. My wife's computer has a Logitch DiNovo Mouse/keyboard setup, I've got the G5, and my laptop has a logitech ball mouse. The other day, I woke up with a headache, couldn't remember the night before and I had a fresh Logitech symbol tattoo on my forehead.
Logic is flawed
Forget CPU's. How many transistors has Intel shipped? It's probably on the order of billions per minute now days.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
I have a huge box full of mice due to looking for the perfect one for gaming that. Picked up the Logitech G9 on sale six months ago and it's about the best I've tried so far. Wish I would have gotten another one.
I don't think consumables can be fairly included in this topic. You could talk about bottles of milk, cans of oil, etc. All of those get consumed. I think the difference is that this is a nonconsumable, like a car or an air conditioner.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft.
I'd have to agree.
Their "IntelliMouse® Optical" (5 button version) is one of the most popular computer mice ever, to the point that they brought it back after trying to cancel it in favour of newer mice, and still sell it now. Popular with gamers because it has extra buttons and is very sensitive. It's ambidextrous. It just lasts forever. And it's dirt cheap.
I have one that is five years old, and except for the scroll wheel needing cleaning out it still works like new.
I also have a several-year-old updated version, the "IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0", which aside from being dark coloured and having both extra buttons on the left, is much the same.
Just don't get a wireless mouse for normal computer use, the novelty quickly wears off.
I've not tried hydrous immersion yet, but I don't think they'd survive that.
I'll bet they would, if you let them dry out first. Before I donated an old computer a while ago I washed the keyboard off in the sink (no soap obviously) because I was embarrassed at thickness of the Dorito grime on the keys. Gave it a few days to dry, and it worked like new.
I've had scores of mice over the years. I've had them plug up with fibers, get beer spilled in them, have the buttons stop working, worn out the wheels, you name it. The Logitech ones always die hard, and the $20 USB wired optical wheel mice are great. It usually takes spilling something into them to wipe them out. As a gamer, I've clicked many a more expensive mouse into the trash bin in as short as a few months. Logitech makes fine products!
Clickety Click
A company nearby recently produced its (estimated) trillionth gel capsule.
Microsoft ball mice were my favorite up until 3 years ago or so. For me nothing could touch them for gaming. I don't know why people think a ball mouse won't last very long. I'm still using all of mine and they are close to 10 years old (good old ball Intellimouse). They do require more maintenance than an optical mouse though.
With that said, 3 years ago I switched to a Logitech MX518 optical on my primary computer and it has been bulletproof. Pretty good for gaming I guess but I don't play games like I used to before I got this mouse (competition level stuff).
...unless I'm on drugs (or getting old & decrepit), but didn't Logitech started as the maker of a Modula-2 compiler running on VAX?
I don't remember when I saw my first *hardware* product labeled 'Logitech' nor what it was exactly. Was it a mouse, or could it have been speakers, or what? /ac
p.s.: Taco, if you are reading this, I really hate the way /. looks on anything that is not MSIE 6 (Lynx does not count). This fancy-schmancy side-bar '25 comments / 23 full / 2 abbreviated / 0 hidden / 157 more ...' and the layout that goes with it is supremely dysfunctional IMHO. Please put a *VISIBLE* switch to have a 'MSIE6' mode so that /. can look the way ${deity} intended it to. I hate having to open MSIE to be able read & post on /. instead of FFox (or Konqueror or...).
Why the Milliard (sic) Fillmore tag? What does the 13th president have to do with this. Sorry for my noob question...
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
... in comparison with Microsoft, I believe they still haven't shipped their 1 billion-th service pack yet, but they're catching up real quick!!!
1 billion mice, why cant they make drivers that don't suck?
Best ever IMHO. I haven't used anything else since 199? Great for FPS. I've tried about every other trackball made and they suck in comparison. I hates mices to pieces.
I have one at the office, and one on each of my 2 home computers. I have 1 dead one for spare parts, and 3 backups that I got off eBay for too dang much. Haven't had to use them, cause these things are still going strong. Superior construction. I which they would make these again. They had a similar wireless version, but it didn't feel right.
LEGO bricks!
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
I don't use particularly old mice because I keep upgrading for features, but my everyday computer keyboard is over 15 years old: Northgate Omnikey Ultra
Most of the older mice still work fine, but are in the parts bin in case I need a quick replacement.
I agree, I've been using a MS Intellimouse optical 5 button(plus the wheel) foreeevver.
It's not going anywhere
Does on billion mice indicate that something on the order of one billion computers must have been sold (though admittedly not from any given vendor)? More than that even because there are other mice manufacturers out there, and not every computer comes with a mouse (laptops have the touch pad, for example).
Jealously hoarding mod points since 2007.
Logitech mice have always been alright, but their drivers are terrible and the software is obnoxious, bloated, ugly, difficult to use, and extremely terrible.
Not to mention I'm sick and tired of the middle mouse button being so hard to click and the notches being so easy to roll over that 50% of the time I roll the mouse when I mean to click it. Every mouse of theirs I've tried has this issue. I vastly prefer my razer diamondbacks, but support for those in linux is even worse.
The only reason I have a Logitech mouse at work is because using my razer diamondback is non-feasible in linux due to no drivers and it being way too sensitive. X's mouse settings are designed to make slow mice accelerate, there's no good way to make a too-fast-mouse slow down that works worth a damn. But good luck finding an 800 DPI mouse these days, especially since that's not a specification element most manufacturers even list.
Question everything
Which does make me wonder - how many of those logitech mice are now in a landfill site along with the billions of AOL CD's sent out in the nineties?
Let's see, if we want to just pick technology, Nokia shipped its billionth phone in 2005 and ships several hundred million phones a year now, meaning they've probably done this at least twice now, if not three times.
Yea, this is rare in human history, indeed.
How many electrons have they shipped?
In fairness, they've improved it a lot for the mighty mouse 2. All you need to do for a right click, is to point your mouse at the screen, and slap your forehead with your left hand until the context menu appears.
Zippo lighters have only sold about 500 million.
As of 2005 Nokia has sold more than a billion phones.
Snake snack suppliers?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
How do you deal with the unsightly bulge the 3"x3"x1" dongle leaves in your laptop's case? ;-)
If I had a desktop, I wouldn't care: I'd just leave it plugged into the back of the tower, or to the hub.
The point is, I don't want to have to get out the dongle, plug it into my laptop, have to worry about carrying the dongle when I move my laptop from place to place, then unplug the dongle and put it back in the bag every single day.
Ideally, it could pair with multiple computers, too, so I could use it on my home laptop *and* my work laptop (the trackball is mine).
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Mice replaced joysticks because they have increased precision and speed. Using a joystick to move a pointer is slow and error prone, but the mouse software can apply acceleration curves to make mouse operations quick and easy.
Touch pads can also have acceleration curves applied, and this has allowed them to replace mice in most laptops. However, no acceleration curve can be applied to touch screens.
Mouse gestures have been available in browsers for quite a while and are generally not used. The problem is that the gesture takes a unit of time and can't be done in parallel like pressing keys can be. For most things, a keyboard combination like Alt-F4 or Ctrl-Tab is easier than a mouse gesture, and keyboards will always be there.
Touch screens are most useful where keyboards are too cumbersome to be used; otherwise, judicious use of the keyboard is generally better. In portable devices with touch-screen keyboards, gestures arguably have their place, but they would need to be standardized and perform necessary tasks to be worth while. Otherwise, people will just ignore them.
And lastly, how much changes in 5 years? Iraq was invaded in 2003, it's not yet sorted out. We had Athlon's and P4's, AGP was being replaced by PCI-e. We already had LCD screens. 5 years is pretty short.
You are a LAZ douche. Get it. I am too lazy to bother spelling it correctly just as you are too lazy to plug in a frelling dongle. Give a dog a frickin' bone here.
LAZY. Spell it with me. L-A-Z.
You know, I always seem to end up buying Logitech mice. I'm not brand-conscious, and I only want the most basic features (if you consider a scroll wheel and optical tracking "basic"). You'd expect such an item to be a beige commodity by now, but whenever I need a new mouse, the cheapest one in the store that looks like it would fit in my hand is always a Logitech.
Oh really?
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/trackballs/devices/189&cl=us,en
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/trackballs/devices/156&cl=us,en
Not that it matters - finger-operated trackballs suck anyway, because you have to pick up your thumb and other fingers off the buttons to roll the ball. Which means every time you need to click, it takes that extra split-second or so to find the damn buttons again.
Thumb-operated trackballs are much better, but apparently they're too much of a niche product to release a new model of, seeing as how the last one produced by either Logitech or Microsoft first came out about 7 years ago.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
Zippo was my first thought. Too bad for their planned non-obsolescence...
Certainly the rare-to-have-shipped-so-many statement does not refer to consumables, but they couldn't be more specific because the consumers are supposed to be keeping up with the pace. Likewise the phones
-1 redundant
And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good... Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
Ive still got the intellimouse optical i bought when back when the opticals first came out.... its still my primary mouse after, what, 10 years?
Scroll wheel still works great, the only problem im having is that the plastic is starting to wear thin in the places where my fingers rest.
Perhaps the difference is the fact that i wash my hands 3 or 4 times a day.
Unfortunately my G15 keyboard did not prove quite so durable. (And wouldn't you know, it's also one of only 2 or 3 keyboards they sell that has a 1-year warranty instead of 3-year.) It only took one can of pepsi to take out most of the numberpad and the little group of keys that includes insert, delete, etc. as well as print screen, scroll lock, and pause. The worst part of it is they have since discontinued that model of G15 and replaced it with a newer G15 that completely sucks compared to the original.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
you gotta have a lot of balls to ship a billion mice
frog blast the vent core
From my first introduction to the mouse in late 1994, I hated the things. For a decade, I used school and work computers and the mouse, next to the network, always seemed to be the weakest link. Then I got my own computer about five years ago and discovered the optical mouse, which came with my HP computer and thought I was in heaven. About ten months and maybe a billion batteries later, I bought a Logitech MX1000 laser mouse based solely on the rechargeable battery and I've been in love with this mouse ever since. What a masterpiece! Thank you, Logitech!
Yes, submitter is crazy and the mods are irresponsible to let total stupidity into the summary.
"It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,"
Isn't:
1 Billionth = 1,000,000,000
A Billionth = 0.000,000,001
??
And they aren't the only one. You know all those Totino's party pizzas you always see in the supermarkets? The ones you used to eat so much of in college? The Totino's plant makes over 1.25 million pizzas a day. At that rate of production, it only takes about 800 days to produce 1 billion pizzas.
And that don't forget about Totino's pizza rolls... 30 million of those are made daily. Totino's is truly an amazing story of high volume manufacturing (and Americans are amazing for being able to eat that many frozen pizzas a day, since this number doesn't even count other brands).
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
How about:
*Tables
*Chairs
*Doors
*Beds
*Couches
*Drapes
*Curtains
*Blankets
*Carpets
That's just off the top of my head. And most of these are significantly more durable than computer mice.
Uuuuh.....You mean like this? I'll admit I've never used trackball mice so I can only go by the pic you linked to but it certainly looks similar to me. And if it isn't close enough here is a whole page of them with balls on the top, side, large and small trackballs, wireless, etc. So I think that niche has plenty of choices to choose from.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's not just hotkeys.
Plug in a USB optical mouse some time and you'll be amazed at how much nicer it feels. The more accurate tracking afforded by the optical sensor combined with the vastly higher polling rate afforded by USB makes for a significantly more pleasant experience.
Of course, I haven't bought a new mouse since my optical, USB MS Intellimouse Explorer in 2001, but I'd say that's where mouse technology last froze.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
The right mouse button on my Logitech cordless optical mouse at home has started acting up. I'll be using mouselook in WoW and it acts as if I released and repressed the button, meaning that I tend to attack or interact with whatever I was mousing over at that moment. Alas, battery replacement didn't fix it, so I guess it's time for a new mouse.
The next one will also be Logitech. That last mouse I carried from my last PC to my first Mac, and I discovered that use of a Logitech mouse and the installing of the Logitech control center was an easy way to avoid the stupid insane Mac mouse acceleration curve. I have to reward them with another purchase just for that.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
It's fun to become agitated AND I learned an OSX function I never new about ;-)
That's the Mac experince in a nutshell.
A colleague called me to his office the other day. His PowerMac was "locking up" not responsive to clicks. And when he'd reboot the optical drive would eject. Turns out his Logitech USB mouse was stuck in the left click position. (Macs eject their optical disk on restart if the mouse button is clicked.)
You know, about that...
I have a Logitech Optical Trackball - the original 3-button model... I probably bought it in 1997 or so. It started failing within the last year or so - buttons started failing. I could probably pop it open, replace those switches, and get another ten years of service out of it - apart from the fact that it's a PS/2 trackball and I don't feel like getting an adaptor or converting it... So when I overhauled my computer last month I also replaced the trackball with a newer Logitech model.
Now, on the other hand, my current Logitech trackball at work is a later model of the same basic design: one of the silver ones with the scroll wheel, instead of the old beige one like I had at home. I got it in 2002 or so, still working great. However... - this model has a painted-on silver finish and some rubber external parts (including the scroll wheel itself...). Over time the silver finish has started flaking off and some of the rubber has dry-rotted. Basically it looks and feels like shit but it still works fine.
I really wish they'd drop the metallic finish and the rubber parts. There's no reason why the actual working parts should be able to stand up to ten years of use but the outer shell should fall apart after less than six...
Bow-ties are cool.
Perhaps the difference is the fact that i wash my hands 3 or 4 times a day.
No offense but I'd call that kinda light. I have that many bathroom breaks per day. 1 washing per trip there, plus 1 before each meal, then several while cooking a meal, then again if I touch the dog. They add up pretty quickly. I'm literally closer to around 15-20 hand washings per day, but I'm just that way.
The Intellimouse that I'm talking about specifically is the pre-optical one. The original one that introduced the scroll wheel. For whatever reason they just seemed prone to sticking. Logitechs on the other hand I've traditionally noticed buttons wear out on if they're going to fail.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Hot Wheels® today announced its year-long plans to celebrate the brand's 40-year heritage at the 105th American International Toy Fair®. Anniversary activities were kicked off with the unveiling of a custom jeweled 1:64-scale Hot Wheels® car, designed by celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills. This one-of-a-kind car, the most expensive in Hot Wheels® history, was made to commemorate the production of the four-billionth Hot Wheels® vehicle.
I think Logitech just got over excited. Still a billion of anything is a lot.
Halitosis - (n.) Halle Berry's Camel Toe.
My family is still using a Logitech wheel mouse from 1995-1996. It is still one of the better ball mice I have used and better than many cheap optical mice made today. And i bet it only cost $20 more than some crap mouse that ended up in the landfill back in 1998.
Organizations like Greenpeace should have a look at how long a product stays in use before they judge electric companies. My Nintendo Entertainment System is another ancient electrical product that I still use. Twenty years later.
"billionth of anything"
doeth he have a lithp?
I've been trying to right click with it for 2 weeks, with no luck, and its been driving me nuts. I just went upstairs and tried by lifting my index finger when I clicked, and voila: context menu! My reaction: "stupidest mouse ever."
I guess.. While I agree it happens relatively often that it treats your intended right-click as a regular left-click, I also became aware very quickly that it happens when your left finger is pressing down to a fair degree. What this means is, a simple adjustment of holding the mouse to cause less pressure on your fingers will make it pick up the right-click properly.
My complaint with the Mighty Mouse was the "scroll ball" which would get jammed incessantly. I started using my ancient, second-hand crappy old Logitech USB optical mouse.
However, Logitech isn't a lot better, at least in terms of hardware that works reliably. My less-than-year-old mouse from the $150~ MX5500 keyboard/mouse duo, no longer left clicks properly. It double clicks very very often, when I only click the button once. Needless to say this caused a lot of unintentional app launches, unintentional overwriting of local files when double-clicking in an FTP program instead of single clicking, etc. etc. etc. Same thing was happening with the previous Logitech mouse I used at work (MX5000 keybd/mouse duo).
I feel a bit surprised Logitech has made 1 billion mice now, considering even the absolute newest mice of theirs I've bought have had show-stopping failures, specifically the physical button-clicks.
The last two Logitech mice I've used (I mean "last" in both relevant senses) have developed this problem where a single left-click very often results in the mouse sending a very fast double-click.
Obviously this causes a lot of problems, like unintentionally opening documents (and thus launching applications I wasn't planning on opening), overwriting local files when accidentally downloading a remote file in an FTP client, closing two programs instead of just the one I was trying to close (because the "underlying" window would have had its close-window button clicked as well)... etc. etc. Had a pretty hard time not throwing the mouse across the freaking room, after a certain point.
The most frustrating thing is that I've had the most recent mouse well under a year. I'll send it back for RMA, because it's unacceptable to have this kind of hardware defect, but the fact that it keeps happening is the most frustrating aspect.
I'm curious to hear if other people experience this problem. I've read it on forums (seems like a huge problem of Logitech's actually), but wondering to hear some anecdotes in response to mine...
I Googled "how many cars has Ford made?" and saw 8 billion, but I have no idea if the number is accurate. Any thoughts?
Completely agreed. I also have the IntelliMouse Optical, and I wouldn't ever want another mouse. If mine ever breaks (God forbid), that's the first mouse I'll be going for.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
note that the first 500K have already been discussed: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/11/1854205
I have to agree about the Microsoft mouse. I got a Intellimouse Explorer v1 USB for a present at Christmas 2000. Several trips back and forth from college, lan parties, and long hours gaming...and it still works. Paint and rubber on it is well worn (pretty ugly to look at these days), but still functions perfectly. I'm pretty rough with these things to, beating on keys and buttons, but it has lasted me through 3 keyboards. To bad the v4 mouse I use at work is junk. I'm on my third one, the left button gets some dead spots in it.
Shhh, be quiet, you have just exposed the built-in lie detection circuit Big Brother uses to tell whether or not you click the "I Agree" button on an EULA with conviction or not. (If you're not sweating enough when you click, that will register as an abnormal capacitance level, time for them to call their lawyers)...
The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
At this rate Douglas Adams will have got it right. In a few years they'll outnumber us and the world will be run by white mice, well beige ones at any rate.
1) First off is bring back three full buttons on the top. Those tiny 3 mm above the scroll wheel aren't adequate for quick responses. And using the mouse wheel as a third button is ridiculous. You could accidently spin the wheel when trying to middle mouse click.
2) Move the scroll wheel to the thumb. The thumb is a natural appendage for spinning. You would put the mouse wheel rotating from left to right and not up and down. Try it. It makes ergonomic sense. Fingers that spin the scroll wheel up and down cause other fingers to move meaning it's less natural.
3) Don't force people to palm mice.
a) The MX510 line of logitech forces the palm to be 1.5 inches above the surface.
b) And the length of the mouse prevents the average hand(males and females) from resting the palm on the surface. This is detrimental to the 180 mouse flick cause you lose your pivot point.
c) The buttons should be as close to the surface as possible. I'm not sure why it's elevated. If you rest your palm on a table, isn't that more comfortable than say resting with say a 2" book under just the finger tips?
How about having a mouse design competition?
You consume the bottles and cans? You're hard core.
I can see people retiring their old mice for new ones for new capabilities over the past two decades (improved ergonomics, more buttons, optical tracking, wireless)...but over a billion?
I hope I'm wrong in inferring part of that can be attributed to shoddy designs or parts. Two personal examples: A wireless mouse that often had trouble talking to my computer, and a Microsoft mouse that zig-zagged all over my screen at random.
In other news, my Atari 400 and all attached peripherals still work...
I must have landfilled a billion of those all by myself.
"1 Billionth Mouse"?
Well, I don't see how they could make two or three. After they've made the billionth mouse, they can't make it again.
"it puts a rose on every cheek"
http://grenfell.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/vegemites-one-billionth-jar-at-large-somewhere-in-australia/1358557.aspx/
No, I think my collection of M$ mices have a lot more uses. They're great for target practice, door stops, swinging around in the subway to stop folks crowding around you. And the wireless models are great for skeet practice :)
"Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse. The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered" :)
and today that number is 1 billion
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
I sure hope those are durable goods.
Do not look into the laser with remaining eye.
Sounds like some innumerate marketing hype. Many natural gas companies have shipped their trillionth cubic foot of gas, many oil companies their billionth barrel of oil ($10 - $150 each). The mints, billions of pennies etc, the Fed billions of many denominations of bills. Many consumables, gallons of milk, frozen chickens, toilet paper, reams of paper, pencils etc.
You'd think those are competitors for the Microsoft Trackball Explorer, but having used them both (and a whole bunch of other trackballs over the years), they're not. They're not even close. Nothing that I've ever tried or seen is close.
Your point about finger vs thumb operated balls is absolutely correct, and I understand that some weird mutants actually like thumb balls. But the joy of the Trackball Explorer is that the ball is precisely under the first two fingers, the (big) buttons 1 and 2 and the (big) scroll wheel/button 3 are precisely under the thumb, and the (big) buttons 4 and 5 are precisely under the ring and little fingers, so it's got finger-ball ease and accuracy without the need to lift any digits, ever. The most movement you ever have to make is a (very) small thumb movement to click, much less than you have to make with a thumb ball.
The Cordless Trackman Optical is a nice try - it's what I'm using in the office - but the buttons are too small and fiddly, and the scroll wheel is in the wrong place, meaning you're back to finger lifting or unnatural extensions. It's not a patch on the Trackball Explorer which is truly ergonomic, and not in a bullshit marketing sense.
I hope you get a chance to try one some time. I have two, and I am seriously considering springing for another as a backup, at any price, while they're still available. They really are that good.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Mmm, they look superficially similar, but the only one that's even remotely in the same ballpark is the Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical, and that's a poor substitute. Once you go Trackball Explorer, everything else is fiddly and shoddy and a literal pain to use.
I've enthused in detail above, but I'll give my wife the last word. She doesn't care about her computer hardware. She'll take whatever I give her. Doesn't care about the case or processor or RAM. Doesn't care about screens or printers or scanners or webcams. Cares a little about keyboards; likes them black, like her men. But once she'd "borrowed" my Trackball Explorer, it instantly and forever became her Trackball Explorer, and I had to score myself another one. Nobody touches it, not me, not the kids, not nobody, not no how.
I'm looking into medication, and possibly some form of secure accomodation. Then I'll have two Trackball Explorers.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
The world's wrists writhe without a mention of their 39 plus years of pain since the mouse invention. No one would ever have known of Dr Carpal Tunnel and his discovery of the eponymous syndrome. Thanks Logitech, Microsoft and that famous development lab.
The Mighty Mouse is basically Apple's solution for letting the fanboys claim that Apple ships a 2 button mouse, while at the same time not admitting that the critics of the one button mouse for the past 20 years were right. It's kind of one of those things that Steve's ego is not going to let go of, kind of like the menubar on the top of the screen and the lack of a maximize button.
Well, it's true.
Logitech seem to think flashier, weirder, blingier the better. ..... I'm that whiny little dork with small hands!
I hate to be that whiny little dork with small hands......... but
All their mice nowadays (Microsoft too) are like putting my hand on top of a smooth sliding SMALL FAMILY CAR with buttons on it.
For goodness sakes, can we start to make a mouse which is small and full featured?
I love all these gamers with massive, huge mice and 530 buttons on them but the mouse is massive.
I've purchased a razor copperhead (and have a previous post here about it) the thing is slender and small and 214 feet long, I can barely touch the buttons with my fingers.
Very few mice are made for finger mousers anymore, they are all made for palm mousers - good luck with your elbows in 20 years fellas.
More information here.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=-1&mode=nested&commentsort=3&op=Change&sid=188411&cid=15531265&pid=15531265
If only they had waited another week, they would have made the 40th anniversary of that mouse. That would have been really something...
A place I used to work would put keyboards through a dishwasher (no soap as well)as a last resort if they weren't working right. Usually worked to fix most problems.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
On the other hand you have to remember that this is also for the kind of users that sometimes manage to miss the button on their single button mouse (actually told to me by an adamant Mac user some years ago defending the 1 button mouse as already complicated enough - needless to say I could do nothing but agree with him at that point...). Some Mac users can be pretty weird.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
"It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."
And if it paralleled the history of the hard drive, it was as large as a Volvo and weighed 300 pounds.
The automotive industry beats 1 billion easily. For example, Bosch shipped more than 10 billion spark plugs, more than 8 billion just from one plant.
Source: http://www.bosch.us/content/language1/html/715_5859.htm
Who has more?
Are there products that were shipped 100 billion times?
Let me guess: you were fixing something on her PC and were stupid enough to leave it plugged in while you were away from it long enough for her to try it? If so i feel your pain bro. I was stupid enough to bring my brand new first gen Logitech optical gamer mouse out to fix my Mom's PC on a service call and did the same damned thing.
I thought I'd do the good son bit and clean her Gateway ball mouse after I put up my tools only to come back to find her playing AoE I and $20 on the table next to the Gateway mouse. Clueless guy that I was I said "Mom you don't got to pay me, I was on my time, not shop time." to which I got "Oh, that's to let you buy yourself a better mouse, since that white one of yours is lousy.". Of course I was still not getting it and said "Uuuh, no. The white one is yours, and the black shiny one you have your hand on is mine" and got told "Uuh no. The nice black one is the one you gave me because you are a good son who didn't want his mother's fingers to hurt anymore from using that white mouse. But since I didn't want such a good boy to hurt his hands with the lousy white mouse I'm giving you $20 to go get yourself a nice one like mine."
That is when i learned my mother is truly the undefeated champion of the Olympic sized guilt trip. So I gave up and simply tossed the white junker in the trash and had to buy a crappier one at Staples so I had something to use. So to this day my nice shiny black first gen Logitech optical mouse is stuck to a damned Gateway Astro playing AoE I every night. So good luck ever getting your trackball back buddy. I've learned a long time ago trying to get back any piece of hardware a female has "appropriated",be they GF,mother,sis,etc is about as productive as pissing in the wind. Better to just cut your losses.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
If you've used a Mac for any decent amount of time then you know that "right-click" has always been achieved by holding Ctrl and clicking. The only reason I can think that the average computer user wouldn't have their non-mousing hand not on the keyboard is that they're wanking to porn. That being said, it doesn't take long at all to get used to lifting your finger to right-click. I just hate how the little scroll ball gunks up quickly. Plus if you don't like the mouse, swap it for a model you do like.