OT: Rubber disintegration on Microsoft Bluetooth mouse

For no-slip, I use Awesome Goo: It comes in a squeeze tube and initially looks like dull tar. Hit it with a heat gun, or submerge it in hot water, and it sets to hard rubber. I've been using it mostly for shoe repair, but have also fixed some cables, rubber feet, broken plastic, etc. No sign of any loss of vulcanization in about 2 years. The catch is that it's expensive at $10 per tube. If you want cheaper, try Shoe Goo or black RTV from a caulking gun, but I think that urethane based Awesome Goo is closer to the original rubber feet than silicone rubber.

I use a cordless presenters mouse around my office. I typically update and repair several computers at the same time, located on various workbenches or desks around the office. Being able to click "OK" to the prompts from across the room is a time saver. Every time a customer sees me doing that, they want the mouse. Nobody has stolen any of the mice, but I've had quite a few customer ask to "borrow" them so they could try them out. Even at $100/ea, they're interested. I eventually get paid for them, but only if I remember to invoice. Oddly, nobody has "borrowed" any of the $10 cheapo BlueTooth presenters mice that I've been buying off eBay.

That eliminates me. I make no claim to being organized. I recently tore my office apart looking for something. I eventually found it, but also found multiple pens, scratch pads, whisk brooms, and other items where it was easier to buy a replacement than to find the original. Bar codes won't help if it's buried under layers of junk.

It varies. Try it with a smartphone using Red Laser: The problem is that the phone will need to have an autofocus feature. It takes a few seconds to focus, which is frustrating. Older smartphones, that do not autofocus, simply don't work. For example, my iPhone 3G barely functioned reading QR codes, while a 3GS or later works quite nicely.

The commodity USB camera for a laptop is much the same. If the camera has autofocus, it will work. If it's fixed focus, you will have trouble framing the QR code in the reader application window, especially if you're using different size QR codes. Since the laser bar code readers don't have a focus problem, they're certainly faster. I printed my QR codes to match the focus setting of my USB camera, so the focus was always correct, but that doesn't work with random QR codes off the internet. Here's my contact info in QR:

I'm wondering if maybe I just have seriously corrosive finger oils!

Could it be the equipment objecting to your source material? :^)

Good idea. But the self-adhesive backing has to be very durable.

What is sad is the poor customer contact of companies like Microsoft. Despite looking for quite a while I could not find a single useful email address.

Well, even if that was the case they are supposed to test for all that. I have the impression that the thoroughness of engineering processes is seriously going downhill in some industries. Just had a chat with an automotive electronics engineer. I've always had little respect for their products and it seems it's not their fault. He is a very knowledgeable guy. But management is screwed up, pushing people and projects too hard and in the wake there are the consequences such as shoddy product design.

that may be old enough to have their lifetime warranty on mice and stuff like that.

I've used it before too (the obscure warranty) - they sent a modern equivalent to what I had fail, which was one of the early optical mice that didn't require the silly grid mousepad.

Interesting, didn't know it has a lifetime warranty. How did you contact them? All I found was a 1-800 number which normally is very time-consuming to get through the usual "listen to all blah-blah-blah because the options have changed".

Come on, Phil. Everyone knows that's why Naugas, hide...

-- Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.

When did Microsoft ever make any hardware? Sure, they slap their name on stuff, but did they actually make it? Also, what is the expected life of a mouse? Maybe he needs to upgrade to a Rat 1.0?

Have you ever seen one of the oak mice, and the matching keyboards? Geeks.com used to get small batches of them, but sadly

I'd be leery of trying "yet another synthetic" -- only to discover at some future date that it, too, has gone to hell and cost me some grief having to refinish a piece of furniture, etc.

I've just learned to NOT expect things of "insufficient mass" to be immobile. Worst in this regard is a high-speed inkjet I have. *Best* is a large server that I can freely reposition without having to remove the stuff piled atop it!

I can't afford to use wireless devices in the office as I'd never be able to ensure the "right" machine was responding (pre BT). So, I only use BT with devices that I *know* are paired so there is no ambiguity (but, then I need to keep track of which mouse/keyboard goes with which machine, etc.)

No one is allowed in my office. If I need to show something to a client, I go to them (or, send the demo to them). Don't want to risk someone seeing something that they *shouldn't*...

Imagine that! ;-)

Being organized in physical space is very different than being organized during a *presentation*. My office is a "controlled mess". OTOH, I can find a (hand) tool, or particular "consumable" with my eyes closed.

Most distressing is the state of my numerous "file systems" :<

Then, not usable. E.g., with a barcode scanner, you can be pretty lazy and still capture the barcode accurately. Biggest issue is making sure the reader doesn't "hit" on a "foreign" barcode (so, you encode "your" labels and don't let the scanner itself indicate a valid read but rely on *your* software to perform that indication -- after verifying it's one of "your" labels)

Even contact readers -- as long as you span the length of the label.

I'd like QR codes with the convenience and first-pass-read-rate of barcodes!

Yep. I was involved in making a few. At $200/ea, we made money. When they became available for under $50, we bailed out. I kept some for myself, but they all disappeared as gifts over the year. Others can be found online, mostly on eBay and Amazon.

Hint: Start with Google images and Google Shopping with a search for "wood computer mouse": Click on any picture that looks interesting.

Some items for sale. $17 $15 $30 $30 $30 $20 $170 (etc)...

Don't forget to buy a wooden mouse pad, keyboard, key tops, iphone case, and such:

However, if you're a control freak, you might consider a more feature infested alternative: or perhaps their minimalist 3D mouse: Sorry. Only available in plastic.

List of Microsoft Hardware: Most companies outsource their manufacturing to China these days. If that were the criteria for "making" a product, there would be few US companies that qualify.

Microsoft actually did manufacture one board themselves:

A gray house mouse lives about a year as limited by predators and food supply. The lifespan of a Microsoft Mouse varies between about an hour if operated by young children to many years if kept clean and filth free. Your mileage may vary.

The RAT is a weird looking gaming mouse which would probably be an improvement over an MS mouse: $60 to $135.

When I first started doing CAD work, I had mounted a bowling ball on a set of pillow blocks with a pair of encoders. I.e., giant trackball.

This works *great* for very fine motion (obviously, controlled with your feet) and lets you keep your hands on keyboard or digitizing tablet. I.e., rest your heel on the stationary part of the enclosure and use the ball of your foot to nudge the bowling ball a little in each direction, etc.

The real problem is you can't use it for any *large* motions cuz the ball has way too much inertial.

It also required a high workbench/surface as your foot ended up almost 12 inches above the floor while "in use".

I am very fond of their Space Balls as motion controllers. Takes a bit of getting used to but definitely convenient when working with 3D models!

I used a small size bowling ball and furniture casters to do the same thing. However, mine was on a desktop. It was prototype for cursor control on a radar display. The eventually opted for a joystick, even though the bowling balls worked better.

It had a felt pad on the bottom of the ball to add some friction. That kept it from going out of control and also kept the ball clean. It also had a crude form of velocity sensing, which helped with the hacked Pong game that the programmer wrote for "testing". This wasn't my project so all I was allowed to do was watch.

The usual "foot mouse" was a block of something on carpet casters. I play organ (badly) which involves foot pedals for the low notes. I wanted to connect some foot pedals to the function keys and number keys on a keyboard. Test marketing among my friends and coworkers soon showed that this was a truly lousy idea. I never built the prototype.

That would be the Spaceball 5000. It doesn't appear on the 3DConnexion web pile, so I guess they no longer sell it. I'm trying to learn SketchUp 2013 and am getting tried of switching views constantly when inputting 3D lines. Think the mouse will help?

I don't know that your has this warranty, but for me I kept the box with the details and then emailed them and they took care of it.

Mine was an OEM deal from Newegg, purchased along with lots of other stuff:

I still have the packing list, that was all that came with it. But the links says these only have a 1-year warranty :-(

Anyhow, it's sad that such companies have stooped so low when it comes to product quality. It doesn't matter where it's made, if the comapany's name is on there then that's the reputation that gets tarnished.

Ages ago, Atari (?) had some arcade pieces ("Football" comes to mind) that used a large trackball for user input. The ball was about the size of a bocce "ball" (not the boccino/pallino but the larger balls).

This was great for use with a *palm* (not a thumb or forefingers like modern trackballs). But, it would have been too small for the sole of the foot (esp with a shoe on!).

Having already lost much desktop space to digitizing tablet (12x12 or 12x18), I was looking for a way to get the mouse off the desktop. Floor was the only other place!

I had originally designed an "electronic gearbox" that I could manipulate with my foot. Basically, just a set of programmable dividers in the X/Y pulse trains. But, this was too clumsy. Using your foot for anything other than *tiny* movements proved to be a waste of time. So, use other pointing tools to get in the general area and then nudge things along with the "foot"ball.

But, as I said, if you aren't seated *high* so the sole of your foot can comfortably rest on the ball, it's difficult to use. You'd have to downsize the ball to be able to rest a heel on the ground and manipulate the ball with the ball of your foot.

I have a set of "footswitches" from a dictation system that I want to experiment with. I've found that a "thumb-ball" is OK for fine positioning -- but, sucks when you try to activate the "mouse buttons" with your fingers WITHOUT altering the position of your thumb on the ball (and, thus, the cursor on the screen). The foot pedals may be a viable option.

(I've also tried a "finger-microtrackball" -- you *wear* it like a ring -- which is OK. But, interferes with typing. :< )

I think mine are older than that. 4000's rebadged as "IBM"

No idea re: *mouse*. Spaceball *could* help if you got adept with it's use. The big problem is it's a "relative" control (like so many) and motion control almost wants an *absolute* control (i.e., twist the controller into a particular orientation and the model follows that orientation).

As a result, you have to get a feel for how much turn, push/pull, twist, etc. you need to apply to "nudge" the model in the desired direction (which, of course, also depends on the complexity of the model, redrawing speed, CPU horsepower, etc.)

Finally, you have to learn to let your hands "think" independently. So, you're moving the pointing device with the dominant hand (typ right) *while* manipulating the motion controller with the other hand. (walk and chew gum)

It's worth playing with if you have an opportunity!