Multi-Button OpenOfficeMouse At OOoCon 2009

An anonymous reader writes "WarMouse has announced their new multi-button OpenOfficeMouse for OpenOffice.org at the 2009 OOoCon in Orvieto, Italy. The mouse, which features 18 buttons, a scroll wheel, and an analog joystick, has double-click functionality on every button and stores up to 63 application and game profiles in its 512k of flash memory. The OpenOfficeMouse runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X; its customization software will be released as free and open source software." We couldn't decide if this was a protest against Apple's new magic mouse, an elaborate practical joke, or just plain insanity run amok. In any case, it is hard to imagine a world in which so many tiny buttons on a mouse make sense.

Comments

Reinventing the wheel

[Tablizer]

Just put a mouse-roller on the damned keyboard instead.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[clang_jangle]

That's pretty much what I have -- an integrated keyboard/trackball. Love it, never going back.
But the device in TFS sounds like a nightmare!

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[clone53421]

Grandparent meant the bottom of the keyboard.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[MBGMorden]

They're not useless - those stupid gadgety mice with a bazillion button ensures that the poor little 2 button and a wheel optical mice never cost more than $15. If simple mice were the norm I might be paying $75 for a decent one :).

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[oldspewey]

I have a mouse (Logitech MX Revolution) with the functional equivalent of 10 buttons.

You know, I though it was a pretty cool idea when I bought it, but I now must admit that I really only use 2 buttons.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Arancaytar]

Or rather, an optical sensor. They're superior to track balls even before you take into account the bulk of the keyboard... trying to get that to roll smoothly would suck.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Arancaytar]

QFT. My current mouse has two side-buttons which I never click on purpose. Particularly the one on the thumb side just ensures that I randomly move back in my page history when I grip it wrong.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[zippthorne]

True, but they're also hard to find if you want "just a basic" anything but USB mouse. For instance, it's very difficult to find an encrypted, bluetooth, full-sized, optical, wheel mouse without side-buttons.

Whoever thought side buttons are a good idea for a non-gaming mouse should be drug out into the street and pelted with rotten produce. Freakin' have to hold the mouse ever so gingerly if you don't want to accidentally flip web pages* or, if you're on a mac, something even more annoying.

*It's freakin' 2009. netbooks have 2GB of ram. Why the 'F does the page have to reload when I hit the back button, or two pages reload if I did so accidentally and hit the forward button immediately thereafter. Why aren't the fully rendered pages cached for several levels of back-ed-ness? (determined by some algorithm relating to the available RAM, to balance off use against the filesystem cache) If I need to reload, F5 is right there on the keyboard. My main use of tabs at the moment is because "back" is not implemented properly on any of the browsers I use.

It seems I have a lot of anger.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[LordVader717]

Can't you just turn that function off? Or trade it for mine, I'm sure I#d be happy with it ;-)

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[LordVader717]

Not entirely. Human interface devices are very stubborn with PCs. That's why gamers still play on devices specifically designed for easy typing.

Most "revolutionary" devices o offer improvements, but as applications don't support them they're seldom used and quickly fall into obscurity.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[LordVader717]

For instance, it's very difficult to find an encrypted, bluetooth, full-sized, optical, wheel mouse without side-buttons.

Keyboards I can understand, but why do you need to encrypt your mouse signal?

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[mR.bRiGhTsId3]

To answer your question. Dynamic content on almost any page worth viewing and/or your cache settings.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[scot4875]

Opera is excellent in this regard, and it's one of the reasons I use it. If you navigate back, not only will the page not have to refresh, but in nearly all cases, the page will be in the same state as it was left in after any Javascript had run on it. (Say, you clicked a couple of things and expanded some AJAX-y controls, the controls will still be expanded when you navigate back)

I *believe* that this even works after a restart->restore previous session, but honestly haven't experimented with it that much.

--Jeremy

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[HTH NE1]

Keyboards I can understand, but why do you need to encrypt your mouse signal?

So that no one else can spoof your mouse and take control of your system from remote. It's still a HIG device. Are you sure you can't make a system think a mouse is suddenly a keyboard?

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[iron-kurton]

If you need that much security, you're probably better off going with a wired mouse anyway. Besides, you also get better accuracy and less/no lag.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[HTH NE1]

I've often thought about integrating a mouse on the underside of a detached numeric keypad. And with an = key and a normal-sized + key, you'd have 18 buttons as well. Perfect for people entering numbers into spreadsheets.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[EvanED]

What's wrong with yours? It randomly type #s?

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Zerth]

They exist

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[blind biker]

Grandparent meant the bottom of the keyboard.

We know.
But the mouseball-on-keyboard is still a very nice idea. Compaq used to make a server keyboard with a mouseball. It lacked a keypad, for compactness. It was very functional, we who worked in the lab all loved that KB.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Imagix]

Regarding side-buttons? I love my side buttons. However, it is a small button and doesn't rest under my thumb in the normal rest position. Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000. (OK, it is a wired mouse).

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Xtravar]

Wow, I think I use tabs for the same reason. For pages with multiple links, I end up right clicking and opening each link in a new tab instead of going back and forth.

PS: If you're that angry, use software to map those buttons, or 'mod' the mouse to your specifications. It can't be too hard to jam silly putty in there or remove a vital part. :)

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Tablizer]

Actually I *did* mean the bottom. I wasn't clear. -1 ambiguous spec

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[The MAZZTer]

"Why aren't the fully rendered pages cached for several levels of back-ed-ness"

Because then people will claim your browser has a memory leak.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Larryish]

... we who worked in the lab all loved that KB.

Can a keyboard handle that much love? Seems like it would get sort of... sticky...

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[clone53421]

I know. I was going for informative, not funny. :S

Oh well. I can't complain.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Tablizer]

Sorry, I didn't mean you manipulated things. Some others simply interpretatified[1] it a different way.

[1] Dubyatization

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[clone53421]

Don't apologize. I'm as confused as you.

BTW, if you're looking for a laugh, perhaps this or this will elicit a chuckle.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

The most awesome game controller ever was the Logitech Cyberman. On the right side, it had a single puck with 6 full degrees of freedom, not the limited "degrees" often cited by other manufacturers. So, for example, in a FPS game you could use it to look around and move simultaneously.

Then, under the left hand, were 2 buttons each under the thumb and first 3 fingers. 8 buttons in all. All in a very ergonomic design that sat comfortably on a table or in your lap.

It beat the holy crap out of X-Box style controllers. What took both thumbs and a finger or two of each hand on the X-Box (moving around and looking around) could be done very smoothly with one hand on the Cyberman, with a hugely lower learning curve. And then you had 8 more switches on the left for whatever.

The Cyberman was actually used for controlling very expensive equipment on the Space Shuttle.

But they discontinued it. Why? Lack of support from the game companies.

Just the other day, I saw on television someone using a "futurisic" controller very similar to a Cyberman. No doubt a ripoff of Logitech's design. 10 years after Logitech discontinued it.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

I just found a picture of one:

http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/work/case-studies/large/Logitech_Cyberman2_cd.jpg

Doesn't look like much, but man was it functional. You can do more with this, with less effort, than the X-Box controller ever dreamed of. But without adequate software support, it just doesn't work with very many programs.

I actually have one in the other room, but I didn't want to dig it out just to take a picture.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

Hmmmm... that just made me think. I could get a game-port-to-USB adapter, write a driver to map Cyberman signals to X-Box-controller signals, and kick some gaming ass...

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Airw0lf]

*It's freakin' 2009. netbooks have 2GB of ram. Why the 'F does the page have to reload when I hit the back button, or two pages reload if I did so accidentally and hit the forward button immediately thereafter. Why aren't the fully rendered pages cached for several levels of back-ed-ness? (determined by some algorithm relating to the available RAM, to balance off use against the filesystem cache) If I need to reload, F5 is right there on the keyboard. My main use of tabs at the moment is because "back" is not implemented properly on any of the browsers I use.

Opera does this. Sometimes I've found myself (deliberately) stepping back and forth through 10-20 pages of heavy content (such as galleries on flickr) and Opera does not miss a beat.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[countertrolling]

Rollers are so passe

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[martin-boundary]

Yeah, but the special silver mousemat it needs to make it work is just annoying like hell.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Guillaume Castel]

"Why the 'F does the page have to reload when I hit the back button"

Because a lot of web pages (including slashdot) are served with HTTP headers that tell the browser not to cache them, and the browser follows that directive. Yes, it's annoying. I use tabs for that reason too.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Com2Kid]

In contrast I cannot stand NOT having side buttons on my mouse. Back and Forward in my web browser, wait, why would I click buttons now?

I actually want a mouse like this for playing FPSs though. :) I'll see if any reviewers get their hand son it and evaluate it for that purpose.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[martinmarv]

To each, his own. I like mice with side-buttons for when I'm too lazy to go back any other way.
The side-button mice I've liked have two buttons positioned just above the natural placement of the thumb, which I never hit accidentally and are comfortable to use.

The OpenOfficeMouse, however, is surely a joke.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Arancaytar]

The optical sensor? I'm sitting on the sofa right now and moving the mouse around on the cover fabric - perfect.

In fact, if the surface is reflective, the optical mouse won't work at all.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[martin-boundary]

Probably before your time?

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Anonymous Coward]

not to mention semantics of HTTP

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[tietokone-olmi]

The CyberMan 2 (which you described above) was seen in Farscape. Tarted up in gold spray paint and everything, but instantly recognizable.

Mine still works, too.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[tietokone-olmi]

How the dick is that generic?

How can a 6DOF controller ever be "generic"?

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[darthflo]

IBM/Lenovo makes an USB ThinkPad branded keyboard with TrackPoint, a touch pad and a number pad. Great if you don't need too much mouse dexterity; runs about
$90-$100 though.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[darthflo]

Why the 'F does the page have to reload when I hit the back button, or two pages reload if I did so accidentally and hit the forward button immediately thereafter.

You're looking for Opera. Be advised, you won't need the forward/back buttons anymore, though, as holding the right button and left-clicking works for "Back" and switching buttons will get you "Forward".

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Requiem18th]

I have iron bars over my windows you insensitive clod.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[iron-kurton]

Bluetooth (the interface most mice use) has a transmission rate of 3Mbits/sec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth)

USB 1.1 has 12Mbits/sec, where USB 2.0 has 480 Mbits/sec. USB 3.0 has 5.0Gbits/sec

A mouse over a BT interface will be orders of magnitude laggier than the SAME mouse over a wired interface.

As for security, it's very simple. You need physical access to wired stuff (or a very close proximity to it), whereas someone can "see" your wireless data from their car.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[iron-kurton]

Goddamn, now even wireless mice have fanbois?

It's funny because I see no obvious advantage of having wireless mice, unless you are sitting really far away from your computer. In fact, wireless has many disadvantages: lag, batteries, security (as the GP points out) and interference. To each his own I guess, but for me the deal-breaker is lag and the resulting loss of precision.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[zippthorne]

That's great, but I have a touchpad....

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Simetrical]

"Why the 'F does the page have to reload when I hit the back button"

Because a lot of web pages (including slashdot) are served with HTTP headers that tell the browser not to cache them, and the browser follows that directive. Yes, it's annoying. I use tabs for that reason too.

The HTTP specification explicitly says that caching headers are not to affect history traversal:

13.13 History Lists

User agents often have history mechanisms, such as "Back" buttons and history lists, which can be used to redisplay an entity retrieved earlier in a session.

History mechanisms and caches are different. In particular history mechanisms SHOULD NOT try to show a semantically transparent view of the current state of a resource. Rather, a history mechanism is meant to show exactly what the user saw at the time when the resource was retrieved.

By default, an expiration time does not apply to history mechanisms. If the entity is still in storage, a history mechanism SHOULD display it even if the entity has expired, unless the user has specifically configured the agent to refresh expired history documents.

This is not to be construed to prohibit the history mechanism from telling the user that a view might be stale.

Note: if history list mechanisms unnecessarily prevent users from viewing stale resources, this will tend to force service authors to avoid using HTTP expiration controls and cache controls when they would otherwise like to. Service authors may consider it important that users not be presented with error messages or warning messages when they use navigation controls (such as BACK) to view previously fetched resources. Even though sometimes such resources ought not to cached, or ought to expire quickly, user interface considerations may force service authors to resort to other means of preventing caching (e.g. "once-only" URLs) in order not to suffer the effects of improperly functioning history mechanisms.

So no. The reason is because the browser doesn't want to cache all the necessary info, e.g., for memory usage reasons. Complain to your browser vendor if history navigation is too slow.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

How is it NOT generic? Please explain.

Other controllers (X-Box has been my example of choice here) have 4-way switches, each to control 2 degrees of freedom. And the X-Box controller has 3 of them: 6 degrees of freedom, or at least an approximation thereof. And a few other buttons.

A 6DOF controller, depending on how you set it up in software, can use any 2 of its DOF to control the SAME things you control with one of those awkward 4-way switches on the X-Box controller. So, how is that not generic? It does the same damned thing, dude. Just in a slightly different way. A better way, actually. In most cases it is a lot more natural.

You are arguing about a problem that does not exist.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

Hahaha. Off-topic. Do the modders even read the threads of the posts they mod? I am thinking half the time, not.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[blind biker]

We used latex gloves :)

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

Another advantage, that makes this device "more generic", is that you can control all 6DOF at one time. With the X-Box controller: sorry, but you only have 2 thumbs. You can only control 4 DOF at any one time.

Sorry, X-Box, but you lose the "generic" contest.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[Jane Q. Public]

Hah. Sorry. I did not see the post to which you were replying. My response was out of context. No offense meant.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[darthflo]

As long as it's not an Apple one, it'll still work just fine, though I must admit to prefer the forward/back keys (completing the holes in the cursor key block) on ThinkPads to the rocker gesture.

Anyhow, if it is Apple, it ought to have MultiTouch, right? Opera natively supports mouse gestures, so full MT gesture controll shouldn't be more than a bit of hackery away.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[zippthorne]

It is the apple one. and I just downloaded Opera in response to this thread. It's much more awesome that it was when I gave up on it several years ago, but still rough around the edges. I haven't figured out how to enable the apple gestures with it yet.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[darthflo]

I'm not sure if it does the Apple ones natively, but if it doesn't, some hackery might help. There's a pretty active community over at my.opera.com, try them.

What works are Opera's own gestures, see Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Shortcuts or just hold your right mouse button (uh, yeah...) and do try any gesture. Not sure how they're done on Apple hardware, though.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[tietokone-olmi]

It's general then.

Re:Reinventing the wheel

[tietokone-olmi]

I wondered about that. No offense taken.

OpenOffice Mouse?

[zapakh]

That is clearly a FlightGear mouse.

A modest proposal ...

[rrhal]

Perhaps we could just mount a mouse ball on the bottom of a key board. You just move the whole keyboard around when you want to scroll. The 105 button mouse.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[networkzombie]

Why stop there? Mount a small LCD to it, throw in a small HDD, and call it a mouseputer. If you attach a chair to it it would be a SOMO (Small Office/Mouse Office).

Re:A modest proposal ...

[tom17]

Home Office/Mouse Office

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Carewolf]

What about scroll-wheel? My keyboard doesn't have one.. Even this bland featureless mouse oly has ONE? Even the old Microsoft Explorer had atleast two. I am not buying it until it has more scrollwheels!

Re:A modest proposal ...

[just_another_sean]

Maybe SHOMO would be good; won't upset as many people.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[CopaceticOpus]

That's nothing. I keep my mouse stationary, and rotate Earth to scroll.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Tibia1]

Let's just get it over with. A clickable scroll wheel on every button on the keyboard, each with 6 additional micro buttons.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[zapakh]

That's nothing. I keep my mouse stationary, and rotate Earth to scroll.

You rotate Earth to scroll? I have a teamouse. It scrolls by Brownian motion and then I simply destroy the Universe when the cursor moves in a way I didn

Re:A modest proposal ...

[NEDHead]

Can we connect two together?

Re:A modest proposal ...

[rrhal]

Smart Heuristic Reprogramable Open Office Mouse (SHROOM)

Re:A modest proposal ...

[oldspewey]

This could actually be a decent workout if you built some kind of variable resistance mechanism into the roller.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Nerdfest]

Please stop disrupting our seasons Mr. Norris.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Beardo the Bearded]

Imagine a Beowulf cluster!

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I've heard of a video editing keyboard that was a lot like that. I didn't see it for myself, I was told of this from a person that made a living selling high end computers for video editing. He could have been kidding, but it seemed plausible to me.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[nine-times]

Why stop there? Mount a small LCD to it, throw in a small HDD, and call it a mouseputer.

Keep going. Replace the keyboard with a touchscreen, put a mic and speaker in it, and wifi/3G networking. Then put the CPU in it and let it run independent of a computer.

Nah... never mind. That sounds retarded.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Nerdfest]

My keyboard has a scroll wheel ... handy on occasion.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[that this is not und]

I think you're confusing the fuddy duddy armchair dude with Johnathan Strange.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[iron-kurton]

Didn't they already do that? It's called a Optimus Maximus keyboard (http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/)

Re:A modest proposal ...

[sortius_nod]

no, that'd be SOHOMO

Re:A modest proposal ...

[AnonymousIslander]

Why stop there? Mount a small LCD to it, throw in a small HDD, and call it a mouseputer. If you attach a chair to it it would be a SOMO (Small Office/Mouse Office).

Sweet, now Steve Ballmer can improve his chair handling technique!

Re:A modest proposal ...

[JumpDrive]

Why stop there? Mount a small LCD to it, throw in a small HDD, and call it a mouseputer. If you attach a chair to it it would be a SOMO (Small Office/Mouse Office).

I call it my phone

Re:A modest proposal ...

[SeaFox]

Um, you mean this?

http://hothardware.com/News/Asus-Eee-Keyboard-With-BuiltIn-PC-Shipping-Next-Month/

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone starting a project to convert an office chair into a mouse? you get 2-D movement, a rotation movement, tilt, bounce, and at least two levers. Should be enough for most applications.

I just want to see one in action by someone with a large screen....

Re:A modest proposal ...

[Unoti]

OMG, that Optimus Maximus is... really something. I'm sure it's a godsend for someone, but it kinda looks like a really bad idea for a $2000 keyboard to me!

Re:A modest proposal ...

[ArsonSmith]

Just in general, or of these specifically?

Re:A modest proposal ...

[pintpusher]

Did u find ur bukkit?

Re:A modest proposal ...

[abhi_beckert]

Sounds like a lot of effort to move a pointer around.

I have a small device (slightly smaller than my hand) which achieves the same result.

Re:A modest proposal ...

[countertrolling]

Oh, you, too, huh?

Oh yeah?

[avg_joe_01]

Clearly you don't PvP...

Re:Oh yeah?

[VeNoM0619]

Agreed, summary is speaking of ignorance. I have a 8 button mouse (only 5 work in a game/are comfortable), and I still wish I had more buttons on it.

Additional info for fps layout:
1st button for primary fire
2nd for secondary fire
3rd for "help" in game command (yelling for medic, etc.)
4rd for favorite weapon autoswitch
5th for voice chat (I hate voice activation for myself and when others have it on)

There are still many other actions I could use: flashlight, "use" key, jump/crouch, other in game commands, spray logo, throw grenade, lean... that's just off the top of my head, and don't say a keyboard is easier, because it can be harder to do multiple things on a flat surfaced keyboard.

Re:Oh yeah?

[war4peace]

You seem to run out of fingers very fast with this sort of approach. But again, maybe I am old and can't learn to use that many buttons. I have a mouse with 5 buttons, and I only use 4 of them; 18 buttons on a mouse with X functions each is just a proof of concept, nothing more. "We can do it!"-style.

Re:Oh yeah?

[adamchou]

Seriously. They're obviously not as l337 as we are. They don't know how hard it is to PvP in OpenOffice. Those damn characters come from everywhere using all kinds of punctuation weapons. Go troll elsewhere you n00bs

Re:Oh yeah?

[0xdeadbeef]

No shit. The whiners in this thread are like those who can only drive automatics complaining about the controls in a fighter jet.

Re:Oh yeah?

[RESPAWN]

Actually, I've run into the same problem before. If it looks like this mouse might start to gain traction in the FPS community, I'll have to consider it yet. Right now I don't see any TF2 configs, but I'm hoping for one. I did buy some frag pedals from Thinkgeek, but they aren't as useful as I'd hoped. I just end up leaning backwards in my chair instead of actually activating the button with my foot. :/

Re:Ahem

[Anonymous Coward]

Well Apple just did away with even the 1 button they had on their mouse, so this offering appears to be the opposite end of the spectrum.

Wonder which will a success and which will fail?

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost makes me want to reopen my wow account,

Then i could bind them all to the same key and face roll my whole desk.

I was just thinking...

[AtomicDevice]

...hmmm, what could make my computer better? Eureka! 16 more buttons!

Seriously though, this might be nice for a game like wow, or torchlight, where people have lots of different pew pews to shoot

Re:I was just thinking...

[camperdave]

Not only are there 18 buttons, but there is:

• An analog Xbox 360-style joystick with optional 4, 8, and 16-key command modes
• 512k of flash memory
• Adjustable resolution from 400 to 1,600 CPI
• 20 default profiles for popular games and applications, including Adobe Photoshop, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, World of Warcraft, and the Call of Duty series.
• Audio notification of profile switching with customizable wave files

Re:I was just thinking...

[Jesus_666]

No rumble. No motion sensor. No nunchuk addon. No lightgun mount.

...No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

Re:I was just thinking...

[camperdave]

Those must be on the "pro" version.

God damnit

[moogied]

This is like the 300th time I've posted this.. STOP MAKING UP NEW INTERFACES. Mouse and keyboard? 30 some odd years now.. mouse and keyboard. Its not that confusing.

Re:God damnit

[db32]

Yeah! Pen and Pencil has worked for a long damned time...why did we go to this damned computer thing! Also, no more new modes of travel...we have had feet for a long time, there is no need for cars, or planes, or trains, or any of that other stuff that comes from advancing technology!

Re:God damnit

[maxume]

I suppose you were pissed off when scroll wheels first came out too?

Re:God damnit

[jayme0227]

Actually, it wasn't that long ago that the scroll wheel was added. I thought that was pretty cool. Also, the side buttons on my mouse are pretty useful while browsing the internet or gaming.

But if you're still attached to your same old mechanical ball-style mouse with only two buttons and no scroll wheel, I guess that's your prerogative.

Re:God damnit

[zapakh]

Oh look at db32 and his fancy schmancy pencil. Why can't you record information by typing knots in string like everyone else?

Re:God damnit

[Beardo the Bearded]

I use the side buttons to switch tools in microstation. (CAD program)

It's extraordinarily convenient.

Re:God damnit

[maxume]

I used to have a string with a keyboard, but it broke.

Now I type things into my computer.

Re:God damnit

[esampson]

Sure, if you want to go all high tech with string and everything. What's wrong with carving data into rocks? Not only is the data better protected but you have far better range when transmitting the data through the air as long as you keep your packets small.

Re:God damnit

[LordVader717]

Exactly

I'd like to see Steve Jobs face

[ClaraBow]

when he lays eyes on one of these -- 18 buttons! Seriously, I don't know how I would work this mouse as it looks cramped and it would be like learning a new keyboard layout.

Re:I'd like to see Steve Jobs face

[StreetStealth]

While Jobs did need a certain part of his six-month hiatus this year to recover from the liver transplant, the majority of it was recovering from seeing an early prototype of the hardware in question.

Redmond isn't the only place they throw chairs.

Re:I'd like to see Steve Jobs face

[Daemonax]

Learning a new keyboard layout takes on average only about 3 weeks to get back up to fall speed. I switched to dvorak a few years ago, and took a little less than 3 weeks... If I'd known about it at the time, I'd probably have gone with Colemak though.

OS/X

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is OS/X? Bastard child of OS/2 and Mac OS X?

Re:OS/X

[KillShill]

You mean OS/A thru OS/W :)

I call Shenanigans

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

The features of the OpenOfficeMouse include:

• ...
• Clickable scroll wheel
• ...

It truly is the world of tomorrow... Today!

Re:I call Shenanigans

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

Also, if anyone wants to see what this monstrosity looks like now that the site is slashdotted, I got this in the coral cache: http://www.openofficemouse.com.nyud.net/branding/images/OOM-OSS.jpg

Re:I call Shenanigans

[sconeu]

Oh no! They've put the WordPerfect 5.0 interface on a mouse!

Re:I call Shenanigans

[Peter H.S.]

Oh no! They've put the WordPerfect 5.0 interface on a mouse!

A lot of people seem to forget that WP 5.x was fully menu and mouse-driven. The many keyboard shortcuts where for those who wanted to work fast without the slow downs of reaching out for the mouse. WP 5.x was faster and much more ergonomically sound too than modern word processors in that respect.

WP would never need a 18 button mouse, in fact it was fully functional without a mouse at all.

I still miss my WordPerfect 5.1 and the "reveal code" (Alt-F3) function.

--
Regards

Re:I call Shenanigans

[Peter H.S.]

Duh!
I forgot to close the italics bracket: The first line is a quote, the rest is my comment.

--
Regards

Re:I call Shenanigans

[Bitmanhome]

That's stupid. vi is a much better interface for a mouse.

Re:I call Shenanigans

[Enleth]

Wouldn't having 18 mouse buttons all labeled "Esc" be somewhat redundant?

Re:I call Shenanigans

[LinuxIsGarbage]

Not graphical (with the exception of preview) but WP 5.1 for DOS could use a mouse. Much like DOS Edit or QBasic were text-mode but could use a mouse.

Right mouse click brings up the menu bar (Or Alt+ "+")

Try googling wp51.zip on your favorite abandonware site.

Re:Ahem

[Red Flayer]

Since when does insanity not involve running amok in some sense?

Some guesses:

An insane bicyclist
An insane paraplegic
An insane clown posse (they are all riding in one small car)
Catatonia

Now that the snark is done:

Running amok is characterized by rage. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off isn't the same as running amok.

The more you know....

11

[Gothmolly]

Do the dials go to 11 ?

Metaphors

[sbeckstead]

This mouse is a good metaphor for Linux and OSS. Too many choices and very confusing interfaces. Good job guys!

Re:Metaphors

[amplt1337]

Finally, someone who got the joke!

Well, this is /. All the commenters above you probably didn't read the article, the summary, or even the commenters above *them*.

Re:Metaphors

[Abcd1234]

Too many choices and very confusing interfaces. Good job guys!

Yeah, but it's so customizable! Sure, you might get overwhelmed by the clutter and the huge number of rarely-used settings, and yeah, maybe the result is confusing and a little bit ugly. But boy oh boy, it sure is flexible!

And I'm sure the minute they started removing some of those buttons to try to clean things up, there'd be nerds coming out of the woodwork to complain...

Re:Metaphors

[CyberK]

Well, at the moment the article is slashdotted, so all we can do is speculate wildly based on the introduction. Which, if you think about it, is what we do best anyway.

Re:Metaphors

[cupantae]

You remind me of all those people in school that would take my funny comment, dumb it down, say it louder and get all the laughs. It's clearly a joke.

Re:Metaphors

[BlueParrot]

Incidentally, Microsoft has responded by releasing a mouse custom made to help developers integrate with the MS Office exclusive interface:
http://savecapitalism.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/bear-trap1.jpg

Re:Metaphors

[tietokone-olmi]

This mouse is a good metaphor of American Liberty and Freedom. Too many choices and very confusing interfaces. Good job, Stalin!

Re:Metaphors

[sbeckstead]

Wow, perhaps you would feel better on an island all alone and without any infrastructure like fire departments and police forces. No grocery stores, 7-11s or gas stations, just you and the island. Now that's freedom! Liberty has always consisted of a series of choices, American Liberty doubly so. It's confusing and yes it's work to figure out how to stay free. There are guidelines in several documents that are available to you for free however. But there's one or two things that always get in the way of Liberty and that's idiots that don't bother to educate themselves. Linux is very trivial and deserves to have jokes made about it, Liberty is great because you can make jokes about it.

What if, for a start...

[fgaliegue]

the OpenOffice "effort" split into the (clumsy) user interface and (not that good) underlying render library? And make the whole thing available in a more free license?

Instead of coming up with such an ergonomical disaster?

While I resent using Microsoft Office because of its sheer cost (its business model being but a nail in the coffin), I have to admit that the look and feel of the Great Evil(tm) outweighs that of OpenOffice by (hundreds of) miles. Such a pointless effort from the OO staff just makes me wonder whether Sun (or is that Oracle?) just want to ditch OpenOffice altogether. Well, fine, but they could just ditch it by dropping support for it and changing its license so that a real, motivated community take it over and make something really useful out of it.

Re:What if, for a start...

[Lehk228]

it's a joke, the only effort expended was to shoop a shitload of buttons and a logo onto a mouse.

Re:What if, for a start...

[fgaliegue]

Even if it is a joke, this is "man hours" (well, I hope "man minutes" in this case, really) that could have been better spent elsewhere.

For that matter, I don't even see the motivation behind an OOo conference at all at this stage (of the software and community around it). From my point of view, OOo is shipped with the vast majority of user oriented distributions for lack of a better choice, and while I praise Sun for the initial effort, the time has long come since they should have let the child (OOo) loose and adorn it with better clothing (a better license), so that others can take over its education (growth). Even if it means slashing it to pieces (rendering engine, user interface).

Re:What if, for a start...

[finity]

Yeah! Those jerks should get back to coding! I'm not paying them to goof off!

Re:What if, for a start...

[blind biker]

The look and feel of Microsoft Office is horrible, while that of OpenOffice is standard, familiar, unobtrusive and very functional. It outweights that of Microsoft Office by (hudreds of) miles.

See how that works? Opinions are like haemorrhoids, every asshole has them.

Re:What if, for a start...

[fgaliegue]

The look and feel of Microsoft Office is horrible, while that of OpenOffice is standard, familiar, unobtrusive and very functional. It outweights that of Microsoft Office by (hudreds of) miles.

See how that works? Opinions are like haemorrhoids, every asshole has them.

I use both. I have to use both. I've had to use both for three years. I've had to user PowerPoint vs Impress, Excel vs Calc, to produce workable documents for the Higher People Out There(tm). Can you say the same?

Fact is, I had to resort to MS Office every time I had to produce documents readable, manageable, by upper management. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it.

So please, don't comment unless you have at least some experience on the matter at hand.

Re:What if, for a start...

[countertrolling]

KOffice, ja?

Re:What if, for a start...

[blind biker]

Fact is, I had to resort to MS Office every time I had to produce documents readable, manageable, by upper management. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it.

That may very well be (in your case), but what the fuck does that have to do with the user interface of either product? I know that your brain isn't of the highest quality, but it appears that your memory is rather poor, too, or else you'd have little problems remembering what the issue at hand, is. I hope the words "clumsy user interface" and "look and feel" will help remind you of what you were talking about.

So please, don't comment unless you have at least some experience on the matter at hand.

I am starting to think it's you who should refrain from commenting, as your misplaced feeling of self-worth far exceeds your cognitive capabilities. You think you're so unique and highly qualified because you used both OO.o and MS Office for 3 years? And anyone who dares to disagree must be lesser than you? You're a pompous douchebag.

I use both. I have to use both. I've had to use both for three years. I've had to user PowerPoint vs Impress, Excel vs Calc, to produce workable documents for the Higher People Out There(tm). Can you say the same?

Yes, you pompous douchebag. I've been doing the same thing for 3 years, too. Most of my colleagues have - we all have both MS Office and OO.o installed on our standard desktops, the whole department. And my group has to produce presentations, spreadsheets, plots, manuscripts and the occasional grant application. As researchers, we do need to impress a lot of people very often, or else we get no money. We need to write our papers according to strict specifications of the various journals. And those specs can vary widely. Finally, we present our work to our upper management and/or our colleagues regularly, to keep them abreast of what's cooking.

Re:What if, for a start...

[bigpresh]

[What if, for a start...] the OpenOffice "effort" split into the (clumsy) user interface and (not that good) underlying render library? And make the whole thing available in a more free license?

Instead of coming up with such an ergonomical disaster?

[...] Such a pointless effort from the OO staff just makes me wonder whether Sun (or is that Oracle?) just want to ditch OpenOffice altogether.

Their FAQ says:

Is the OOMouse part of OpenOffice.org?

No, the OOMouse is produced by a private company called WarMouse. OpenOffice.org is a open source software community. The OOMouse comes with profiles designed specifically for use with the five primary OpenOffice.org applications utilizing information gathered by OpenOffice.org's Usage Tracking group.

It was produced by a private company, it seems the most OO had to do with it was providing stats on which features were most commonly used, and agreeing for their "brand" to appear on it.

Tablet pucks

[White Flame]

I used to use a 12"x12" digitizer tablet when working with AutoCAD back in the early 90s. The tablet overlay had a ton of controls to click, and the puck itself had 16 assignable buttons. It was incredibly useful to have all that functionality assigned and available right on the mouse while working with complex GUI-oriented programs.

Bring on the buttons.

Re:Tablet pucks

[Animats]

Graphics systems used to have huge numbers of controls. Evans and Sutherland had a workstation with eight knobs, a trackball, a joystick, and a tablet. There's some justification for this in 3D CAD and animation programs - for example, it's really useful to be able to zoom while you're dragging, resizing, or drawing something. Mouse wheels were a big win in 3D work - at last, you could get that capability without nonstandard hardware. People who do character animation often have a knob or slider box on a MIDI port, driving the character's joints. Some shops make up a jointed model as an input device. In 3D work, you're trying to control so many interrelated adjustments that you need all the help you can get.

But for an office program, it's just silly.

OpenOffice does need UI help; it's hugely inferior to Microsoft's products in that area.

Re:Tablet pucks

[Anonymous Freak]

Yeah, someone obviously had never used those. I loved all the buttons.

Engadget handles Slashdotting much better...

[93 Escort Wagon]

So here's a better link if you want to see this monstrosity. The guy earlier in this discussion who was joking about putting a mouse wheel on a standard keyboard wasn't far off.

I'm sure if anyone actually buys this a lot of wrist surgeons will rejoice...

Re:Engadget handles Slashdotting much better...

[gander666]

Shudder. That is ugly...

overkill

[wizardforce]

It's too bad that hardware built today has little to no ability to just add or remove components as needed instead of designing a sepate piece of hardware for every possible combination. Imagine instead of buying a mouse with 18 buttons and tons of things you may or may not need; you could get a bare bones mouse that you could just clip on new components as you needed. As an analogy, it'd be like snapping lego blocks together to make different things yourself is better than having to buy a specific configuration of blocks that can not be modified. Want a 10 button mouse? get the components together and snap the pieces into place. Hate that trackball after all? swap it out for a laser tracking component instead. The possibilities are nearly endless. Of course, there's already something liek this just not for mice and such yet... Open hardware.

Re:overkill

[dangitman]

Imagine instead of buying a mouse with 18 buttons and tons of things you may or may not need; you could get a bare bones mouse that you could just clip on new components as you needed.

OK, I'm imagining that... it would be an absolute disaster.

RAZER Naga

[jgtg32a]

There already is a mouse like this and it was actually designed much better. The Naga, it has all the standard buttons and then it has another 12 on the side, its an interesting idea and would be rather useful in some gaming situations. They market it to MMO, I also think it would be rather nice to have in RTS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153054

Re:RAZER Naga

[wembley fraggle]

I love my Razer naga, but it's worth noting that the Naga's buttons are not reprogrammable. They're either the top row of your keyboard or they're the number pad. If this is really 18 fully-programmable buttons, it's got more functionality that way. Of course, it's totally lacking in the Panache department. I mean, where's the cool backlight?

It belongs to the "special" list...

[Hurricane78]

...you know:
- MS Bob
- Star Wars Christmas Special
- Power Glove
- OpenOffice Mouse
- And this

Double the buttons

[geekoid]

and you could start considering it for Emacs.

Fuck it

[Anonymous Coward]

We're doing 19 buttons

Re:Fuck it

[Icegryphon]

Which is one higher then 18.
Thing is starting to look like a keyboard and mouse had sex.
Seriously I don't think I can go on living without one.

Re:doesn't seem so bad

[johncandale]

I can't open TFA, [Slashdotted?] but based on your link it doesn't seem so bad. Finger Memory works just as well on a mouse as a keyboard and once you learn buttons, I think it could be useful. Have a button to close program in 1 click, I suggest a alt+f4 style so you are still prompted to save if relevant. Lots of stuff I do daily I don't keep my other hand on the keyboard consistently. Copy, Paste, select all, would also be good all around fuctions. I"m sure if you use a certain apps you can think of more. skip to next song? so you don't have to tab to the mp3 player or stop clicking through web sites. Just because it hasn't been done successfully doesn't mean it can't be

Re:Ahem

[mikael_j]

Actually, the Mighty Mouse has had right and left click (plus a scroll ball) for quite some time now.

The Magic Mouse added multitouch, not a second mouse button.

/Mikael

A joke?

[musicalmicah]

Seriously, is this a joke? Because it really looks like one.

"Double click" functionality

[aardwolf64]

"has double-click functionality on every button"

Oh yeah? Well, I can click MY mouse buttons three times fast, so there. My buddy has a mouse that allows him to click four times quickly.

I'd use one

[Judinous]

Although this is most likely a joke product, I would definitely go for something like this for gaming. MMOs in particular require an absolutely insane number of buttons to control your character proficiently. Changing the movement keys to TFGH, binding every other key within reach, and using an 8-button mouse still falls short most of the time.

Re:I'd use one

[dangitman]

The sad part is, that this is not a joke product. This is actually a press release that they are proud to release to promote Open Office. Complete with product photo that has for some reason been shot in harsh sunlight and overexposed, and a headline in ALL-CAPS.

This is actually OpenOffice.org's idea of advertising and marketing. Unbelievable.

Is for the Windows version

[gmuslera]

and paired with this keyboard

Digitizer

[Jaysyn]

I had a Calcomp Digitizer tablet with 14 or so programmable buttons.... back in 1995.

That being said, I'll probably buy this to go along with my Nostromo n52.

who can come up with more buttons?..

[anton_kg]

18button's mouse 1 .... 18button's mouse 2 .... sold!

Which is more scary?

[VGPowerlord]

Which of these is more scary?

1. OOo has its own convention.
2. Someone thinks OOo is popular enough to need its own mouse.

I mean, to my knowledge, even MSOffice isn't popular enough to have its own conference or its own mouse! Every mouse I've seen with more than the standard number of buttons either has them mapped to web browser actions or to game functions.

Re:Which is more scary?

[Ukab the Great]

3. An official OpenOffice Snuggie that's worn at OpenOffice conventions.

Re:Which is more scary?

[VGPowerlord]

3. An official OpenOffice Snuggie that's worn at OpenOffice conventions.

OK, you win!

Re:Which is more scary?

[mobets]

Not a mouse, but it did have its own keyboard.
http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/keyboards/ms/office_keyboard/index.shtml

Re:Ahem

[Nerdfest]

I'm normally not an Apple fan, but the magic mouse actually seems like a good idea. If they lower the price a little, and someone creates some Linux drivers for it, I think I'd be interested. It seems like a very flexible design in theory.

Anybody tried one?

Re:The Mouse

[gander666]

only one windows server die? Seems like too small of an aspiration to me...

Re:Ahem

[sconeu]

"An insane clown posse (they are all riding in one small car)"

What does a hip-hop duo have to do with this?

But...

[mr_lizard13]

...does it run Linux?

Didn't work for me

[Mathinker]

Which is kind of why I am posting a reply!

Maybe this post was gunning for "Funny"?

Re:The Mouse

[cruff]

Please, where do I sign up to take part in this scheme?

Really?

[sensei moreh]

THA says,

Developed by WarMouse in partnership with the OpenOffice.org community,...

. I'm part of that community, as I'm sure many of us here on Slashdot are, and that monstrosity was certainly not developed in partnership with me.

HealBot

[TheGreatOrangePeel]

Anybody else configuring the HealBot addon for WoW in the back of their mind?

For the reference impaired

[rsborg]

The Onion is often prescient (this was before the "Fusion" which has 5 blades).

Another great article ahead of it's time: here. Again, note the date.

Re:For the reference impaired

[LinuxIsGarbage]

From the onion site:

Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!

Gillete did one better. There's five on the front and a sixth perpendicular.

this might explain the outrageous design

[ChipMonk]

TFA says the mouse was designed by Theodore Beale. Is this the same Theodore Beale who pens his outrageous columns on Weird Nut Dully under the pseudonym "Vox Day"?

"Mouse roller?"

[ThrowAwaySociety]

Just put a mouse-roller on the damned keyboard instead.

When I read that, I immediately thought of a keyboard with attached hamster wheel.

I want one.

one downfall

[damn_registrars]

That's nothing. I keep my mouse stationary, and rotate Earth to scroll.

This only works provided you only scroll in one direction, ever.

Re:one downfall

[MaskedSlacker]

Incorrect. Rotate mouse around it's vertical axis to change your direction of motion--the real bitch is holding the mouse over a radio button long enough to click.

Are you kidding? Far better suited for VI

[SuperKendall]

A button per mode. You could have edit mode, define macro mode, mode where you type only letters with no numbers, a mode where each key changes the background color of the editing window...

Emacs users never needed mice, and if we did we'd run M-x mouse and control it via the keyboard and meta keys.

That mouse is fat too easy to use

[rishistar]

I'm holding out for an emacs mouse

Re:Ahem

[techess]

I gave one a try just a couple of days ago.

The good:
The multitouch worked very well. It was very responsive for scrolling and left & right clicking was a breeze. The special mutlitouch motions they included were fun and easy.

The bad:
At this time the mouse doesn't support the pinch motion so no zooming in and out. NO MIDDLE CLICK!!! So if you use middle click to copy/paste into X11 apps this is gone. I did some googling, but I didn't have long with the mouse so I wanted to play as much as possible. I'd have to make sure I had a good solution for the middle click before buying though.

The other thing that was odd in the limited time I got to play, is that as you use the mouse it has a habit of twisting around on your mouse pad. I'd wonder why the mouse was going off at odd angles and then realize that my mouse was sideways again. I'm guessing that is something that would go away with some training and use.

It's like the Homermobile from the Simpsons

[Quarters]

To all of the people who ever said, "OSS should stop copying and start innovating" - this abomination is your fault.

18 Buttons? Madness!

[Bob9113]

it is hard to imagine a world in which so many tiny buttons on a mouse make sense.

You think that's crazy -- I've heard that some people keep an entire extra grid of buttons next to their mouse that has -- get this -- over *100* buttons. Not only that, but some of the really extreme cases out there actually develop *pure muscle memory* of where all those buttons are. There are even people who call themselves "Eee-Maxers" (sp? e-macksers maybe? emacsers?) who also memorize and even customize dozens of what they call "key chords" -- pressing multiple buttons simultaneously to extend vastly beyond the 100 key limitation.

Re:Ahem

[MaskedSlacker]

I keep my insanity confined to the bedroom. There is very little running, but many moks.

Does Microsoft own Warmouse?

[Culture20]

Naming such an abomination the OpenOfficeMouse is a perfect way to help discredit OpenOffice. If so, expect OpenOfficeSocialMedia with mandatory PGP for the desktop and iOpenOffice with no save-file feature for the iPhone soon.

Re:Ahem

[v1]

They removed the squeeze and pressing the scroll ball though so they reduced it from a four button to a two button mouse, and added multitouch.

Though afaik, only a small percentage of users used the expose functions of squeeze and center button for dashboard. So "nothing of value was lost" and all that. The ball became the entire top surface of the mouse, taking over scrolling AND adding multitouch gestures. I'm glad to see that ball go, it was a major point of failure - collected lint and typically stopped scrolling down (or at all) properly.

Though we have heard a few squeaky wheels over the loss of the squeeze for dashboard. I'm wondering if it has the sensors in it and they're just not configurable yet, does anyone know? Apple has apparently promised a vastly upgraded mouse control panel for 10.6.2 which among other things is supposed to bring expose (somehow) to the magic mouse. Does anyone know if this is possible with the magic mouse? Is the gesture system entirely handled by the firmware in the mouse, indicating it would have to be added by apple?

What I would personally like to see is either apple or someone else come up with a way to turn the magic mouse into a touchpad. Maybe even get a little "docking tray" to set it in, and use it like a touchpad on a laptop works. I know several people that prefer external touchpads on their desktop computers. (they're popular in register computers in businesses, especially automotive, where fingers are grubby and can foul mice in under a day)

Heathens

[confused one]

The prophet says "Thine mouse shall have at most one button"

Why only 18 buttons?

[timbck2]

Fuck everything, we're doing 36! [theonion.com]

Well

[rinoid]

My girl only has one button and so does my Mac but they are both MULTITOUCH!

I have a RAZER Naga...

[BobMcD]

...and I play WoW, and I have no idea how I would ever go back to playing an MMO without this device. I can go into more detail if desired, but the thing is absolutely the correct way to play a game such as WoW. Best $80 I ever spent re-WoW.
 

Re:I have a RAZER Naga...

[Kamokazi]

Ditto here, I use it in Aion. Took a few days to adjust to it, but now that I did it is like second nature. They did a GREAT job of the curvature on the buttons...makes it easy to find the one you need to press...I was worried about that but not anymore. I'm using it in Dragon Age: Origins too, works great. Very glad I got this mouse...still hate the cord, but the Razer cords are quite nice and much more manageable than others.

It is a little bit smaller than other mice I use (Razer Mamba, Logitech MX Revolution), but I think that may be due to the need to angle your hand a bit to make pressing the buttons easier.

Who is responsible for this monstrosity!

[Orion Blastar]

$74.99 and 18 buttons and analog joystick. The mouse that Homer Simpson invented for his half-brother who owns a computer company. The Homer Mouse. It should do as well as Powell Motor's Homer car.

Now all it needs is a cup holder big enough for Homer's drink. :)

Mod funny

[EvanED]

Damn, and I had mod points when I loaded the page but just posted. Oh well.

Re:Ahem

[WCguru42]

Agreeing with the parent post and adding a few extra.

You cannot customize the multi touch features. Two finger swipe goes forward or backward in Safari and goes to the next picture in iPhoto. Hopefully they come out with an ability to determine the function of two finger swipes (and other gestures).

No squeeze buttons. That's taking a long time to get used to.

The mouse is very slender and short which hurts the ergonomics for those with larger than small hands. This is probably the cause of the parents twisting mouse problem

No middle button. Probably the biggest drawback of the mouse.

An alternative idea...

[ignavus]

Why not integrate the mouse with the mobile phone (aka cellphone)?

It just needs a trackball underneath and a BlueTooth connection to the system unit.

Heck, some phones already have motion sensors in them - you could use them to control all sorts of things in the PC: a combined mouse, joystick, communication device, microphone, and speaker.

actually..

[pbjones]

I could use a side mounted analogue 'stick. As for those of you who have the slightest thought that this might be real, all power to you.

Men Are from Mars

[PingPongBoy]

And women want a penis.

Introducing the new pointing device strapped to your joystick!

Re:Men Are from Mars

[cptnapalm]

No need for the joystick. The mouse already has one.

Where's my accelerometer mouse?

[jijitus]

Why adding more buttons, when with an accelerometer you could tilt your mouse right or left to fast scroll, for example?
Or adding Opera-like gestures to send commands and keyboard shortcuts to any application.

Mmm... this is so obvious that someone must have done this with a Wii controller

Correction to Article

[Dr. Donuts]

The OpenOfficeMouse runs Windows, Linux, and OS/X.

Fixed.

Anyone think a mouse with 512k memory is funny?

[lena_10326]

I did. Btw, 512k ought to enough for any mouse.

http://www.openofficemouse.com/about.html

OpenOfficeMouse Manufacturer WarMouse Price $74.99 OS Microsoft, Linux, Mac, PS/3 Buttons 18 Commands 52 Memory 512k Profiles 63 Autoswitch Yes Macro Size 1024 Joystick Analog Wireless No Weights No DPI 400-1600 Dimensions 110 x 68 x 43mm

Gestures will do the trick instead

[purplie]

Gestures will do the trick instead: StrokeIt for Windows and xGestures for Mac.

Re:Gestures will do the trick instead

[pankkake]

No. Why? RSI.

CAD Mouse

[Fencepost]

Years ago I had a mouse designed for CAD work that had probably twice the buttons on it that this has. Pulled it out of a closet at the office. Unfortunately, I was never able to actually use it ("Because it was there"), because the manufacturer went under before they ever finished the Windows 95 drivers for it.

Even now you'll find folks doing CAD work who want many programmable buttons on their pointing devices.

I want one!

[belmolis]

I've been waiting for something like this for years. I want one! The critics may well be right that this is not a good interface for the average OO user, but multi-button mice can be terrific timesavers for people who use do a great deal of work with certain kinds of software. It isn't just gamers: one task for which I would use one of these would be making repetitive measurements of speech data. When I was a grad student, we had a homebrew box with four knobs, four switches, and two pushbuttons that we used the same way.

Re:I want one!

[OrangeTide]

It could be handy for EDA type software or maybe Photoshop/GIMP. But I've gotten pretty used to having a tilt-wheel to make it easy to scroll sideways on zoomed-in work. This mouse does not appear to have a tilt wheel.

goes in the garbage

[OrangeTide]

no left hand version. Sorry, but some of us mouse left handed. silly joysticks that can only be used when held in the right hand suck and get in the way when holding it left handed.

Re:Ahem

[jonbryce]

Yes, I tried one at the Apple shop. The ergonomics are inspired by the hockey puck mouse, so I think the next mouse for my MacBook will be a Microsoft mouse.

The design

[Lord Lode]

The new Mac mouse looks MUCH more sexy than this one. In the 90's the design of this one was already old fashioned!

The last time I checked, 18 was less than 104+

[Zero__Kelvin]

We couldn't decide if this was a protest against Apple's new magic mouse, an elaborate practical joke, or just plain insanity run amok. In any case, it is hard to imagine a world in which so many tiny buttons on a mouse make sense.

Great point. Why would you want that when you can memorize 18 letter sequences typed up on a 104 key keyboard while choosing between ALT and CTRL, and having to memorize which to use when for good measure? Utter foolishness, I tell you. I just can't imagine it!

Re:Ahem

[itsdapead]

The other thing that was odd in the limited time I got to play, is that as you use the mouse it has a habit of twisting around on your mouse pad.

Oh dear. They really didn't learn from that hockey puck mouse...

Thing is, though, the pros and cons of Apple mice are a bit irrelevant: as long as Apple only offers one or two options, they'll inevitably veer towards "one size fits nobody" - which usually dictates that they have to be relatively small, light and and ambisinister (opposite of Ambidextrous - equally useless whichever hand you use*).

The main purpose of a mouse is basic pointing and clicking - for that I want to choose a mouse which feels comfortable in my hand - and only then do I start worrying about what other bells and whistles it has.

I prefer larger, heavier, "deeper" mice which are shaped for right-handed use - but can you imagine the outrage if Apple started shipping Macs with a right-hand-only mouse? Also, I know at least one person who liked the hockey-puck mouse (or, at least, used one for several years without defenestrating it). Then again, I also know someone who likes Windows Vista...

(* That one's from Pratchett, I think)

I like the joystick idea

[Requiem18th]

A joystick would work great in a keyboard. Like a track point but more comfortable.

Keep an eye on USB Overdrive [was Re:Ahem]

[mingrassia]

For me, no squeeze buttons was a downer. I live off of Exposé and hate having to use the keyboard to invoke it.

That being said, I'm excited about what can be done with gestures on this mouse. This is why I'm keeping an eye on USB Overdrive. I've been using this driver for a while now so that all five buttons on my Logitech mouse work flawlessly in OS X ... where flawlessly means mapped to exactly the actions that I want.

Here is what the developer has to say about the new mouse: "Apple Magic Mouse update: I've been working hard on the device and I now know how it works. I am writing a lot of code to support it properly and I will post a new version as soon as it is ready. Until then, please be aware that without specific support the Magic Mouse is a two buttons mouse with no scroll wheel. The current version of the USB Overdrive handles it as any other mouse so you lose both the scroll wheel and the ability to configure gestures using Apple's own drivers. The good news is that this mouse can do a lot more than basic gestures, and I'll do my best to make it even more magic."

World of Warcraft mouse

[DonkeyG5]

After discovering that the available World of Warcraft mice were nothing more than regular two-button mice decorated with orcs, dwarves, and Night elves

Yeah, two-buttons and full of dwarves. But only if two means fifteen, of course.

It looks like this mouse...

[xutopia]

... has hit puberty.