Categories
Debated

Saving The Day One Day Too Late

The big Apple news today was news that many people took as hell freezing over: [the no-button mouse is dead, long live the no-button mouse](http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/). Just over five years after the introduction of the “Apple Pro Mouse” (the white, lozenge-like mouse), Apple finally joins the modern input device revolution and introduces the [Mighty Mouse](http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/), a sort of four-button-plus-scroll-nub thing, retailing for $49.

A handful of dear readers put two and two together and pointed out to me that this could be taken as a timely divine intervention to solve my [busted mouse issue](https://vjarmy.com/archives/2005/07/role_reversal.php). And I would agree, except for two problems.

One, it’s a corded mouse. Now I can use a corded mouse – at work, where I’m striving to keep my desk clean on a regular basis. At home, I frequently have to deal with debris, spindles of disks, and most of all, a certain cat who loves to sit on my mousepad. The slack always ends up getting pinched, and this drives me up the wall. As such, I’ve switched to USB cordless mice and have no desire to look back for my home use.

Two, along these lines, I just purchased a new Microsoft Standard Wireless Optical Mouse yesterday at Best Buy. It ran me, after various discounts I had accumulated, a whopping $15. This is well under half the price of the Apple mouse. I’m not against spending money when there’s functionality to be had, but I get the bulk of the functionality I need out of this mouse for less than a third of the cost.

For the Mighty Mouse to win me over, it really needs to come in Wireless, and I really need to see some really worthwhile functionality or neat hacks for it. Otherwise, it’s just yet another Apple peripheral for me to ignore.

Categories
Found

Role Reversal

I’m puttering around on my machine tonight, playing some games and doing the usual rounds online, when suddenly my Wireless Intellimouse Explorer stops responding. I go through the usual rigamarole – unplugging/replugging the USB base for it (no help), trying to re-connect the wireless signal (doesn’t work), swapping out the batteries in the mouse (no use). It is, in effect, toast.

Amusingly enough, though, I’m able to continue using my Mac, even without a mouse. Sure, I could plug one in from my collection of Apple mice acquired over the years, but…what’s the point, really? I can login just fine. I can launch all my apps without it (thanks to my Quicksilver triggers). I can web browse reasonably well without it – well enough to make this blog post.

It just struck me sort of odd how the platform that for years was so frequently bashed for making people rely on the mouse so heavily is now at a point where I can function just as well without. I don’t feel like I’ve had a limb removed or am in any way really disabled at this point. I’m not even sure how much I need to purchase a replacement mouse…

Categories
Found

Who Said It?

Pop quiz: Who said, at E3 a number of years ago, that their console’s graphical power:

> …would be three times faster than anything on the market and offer nearly unlimited graphical visuals. “We’re approaching the level of detail seen in Toy Story 2,” he said, referring to the computer-generated kids film from Disney/Pixar.

Answer – with source – after you click through!