Mouse with scraper, to scrape off sweat spots.

Hey, you're the poster child for video-induced neuropathy.

John

Dumbfuck. I was talking about the clear mouse case paranoia.

ChairmanOfTheBored hath wroth:

(...)

Thank you for you concise and brief comments. However, you might want to work on the diplomacy. It's far more effective to be insulting if you leave out the profanity.

With the clear mouse case, may I trouble you to explain what benefits could possibly be derived from a clear mouse case? It makes the design more difficult because the optical sensor must be shielded from ambient light. I once owned an early ball type of mouse, with a somewhat translucent plastic case. The shaft encoders picked up ambient light and caused the mouse to operate rather erratically. It would literally only work in the dark.

Perhaps the clear case mouse targets all those latent geeks that might want to show off all the electronics inside. That's kinda like the old hot-rods from my youth driving around with the engines exposed. I believe that Apple was the first to introduce a clear case mouse. Apple users are not particularly known for being compulsive geeks, so this market segment is rather dubious. Clear cases are typically fairly easy to scratch, but Apple chose to use polycarbonate which is far more durable, but also more expensive than ABS. All this trouble and expense just to get a clear case? There has to be ulterior motive.

In my never humble opinion, there's only one possible justification for an optically clear case. The mouse camera is spying on the user. It's probably a part of the ever expanding war on terrorism, where public funds are laundered through the Dept of Homeland Security to vendors willing to spy on computer users. At a minimum, they now have your fingerprints from imaging the mouse case. Anyone operating the computer that looks like a terrorist (ethnic profiling) will be monitored through their mouse actions and mouse camera.

Osama bin Liebermann. That was me 25 years ago, but once a terrorist, always a terrorist. (I shaved off the beard immediately after I bought my first clear case mouse). Of course, the mouse will scan and possibly read everything it can see.

Also, the lack of government comment on the clear mouse case issue is very suspicious. It implies that they are a key player in the conspiracy. If you see a program to distribute free clear case mice to the GUM (great unwashed masses), I'll consider my suspicions to be verified.

There's also the question of what's inside the bloated mouse driver? MS Intellipoint 6.2 for Vista is 15MBytes (compressed) big. That's a far cry from the old MSDOS drivers that were perhaps 50KBytes. It really doesn't take 14MBytes (compressed) to run 3 buttons and 2 shaft encoders. So, what's inside all that surplus bloat? My guess(tm) is that it's the video driver, data collector, encryption, and file transfer utility necessary to do the spying.

You also seem to have something against paranoia. I consider paranoia in electronic design to be a good thing. One should never stop worrying about what might go wrong. When you think you have all your calculations and predictions set in stone, that's when you'll make your fatal mistakes. Instead of complacency, you should be worrying about undiscovered screwups, slipped decimal points, and bad guesses. Question everything, don't trust anyone elses numbers, and never assume that you're done (until the check clears the bank).

No. They have photovoltaic cells inside. They steal your ambient light, save up the electrical energy, and send it back to China by email.

For sure.

John

Mine uses a red LED, d'oh.

And why do you assume that, just because you can't see ambient light because of its wavelength, it isn't there, d'oh? Infrared doesn't exist because you can't see it?

You have zero sense of humor, but you can still be awfully funny.

John

John Larkin hath wroth:

Not really. I have the book and it's not about the benifits of paranoia in tech companies or designs. It's really about the decision point as to whether a company is going to take off or crash miserably. See review at:

Although the title fits, the content does not.

I usually keep my mouse stationary and move the desk. I'll try your way and see if it works.

Some people might flip over the mouse to look at (his) ball(s)...

Awww..."love" at first fright...

Hint, it's a M$ driver! You have to expect a crazy amount of bloat. Look at the size of a Win3.1 installation and then the size of a Vista installation. People still write e-mails and letters on both so why the need for the huge bloat?

Hey Man,

Somebody else confirmed it already he has it as well.

He described it as cotton stuff.

And it probably is cotton stuff.

I think it's a combination of:

Sweat + Cotton.

Or maybe it just cotton only.

Little spots on the desk.

My mother's PC has it as well. And no dirty jokes about my mum and me ! :) :P* !! ;)

Bye, Skybuck.

Your mother should be jailed as a felon for the crime of not flushing your retarded ass down the toilet the moment your retarded ass exited from her retarded ass.

What is with this toilet/ass/excrement thing? That's all you ever talk about.

You are obsessed with butts and poop, and you accuse me of being gay!

If you disagree with my observation, try real hard to reply *without* mentioning digestive by-products.

Even better, try saying something nice, or on-topic, once in a while.

John

Including your retarded ass.

:)

"Can't we all just get along" :)

Personally, I like the clarity in your most recent cross post. Before it wasn't so obvious that you've lost it.

You're a goddamned idiot. As well as being a piece of s*it.

Looks to me as if you are guilty of the same behavior, yet you claim mine is an obsession. You don't see me making the same claim about you, even though here you demonstrate the same exact behavior. Good job, hypocrite.

They wouldn't need to call you or ask where you are. Most cell phones have GPS in them, and the ones that do not can be triangulated to from the cell node towers. All they would have to do is poll your number. No call required, no query required.

The only way out is to walk around with your cell phone completely turned off. Another way would be to have a cell phone that is registered to someone else.

S-word: 1

Hey, much improved! You're on the road to recovery!

John