Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. (c) Ruffin Bailey 2001-2021

I've had my ThinkPad T430 for just over a year and a half now, and I'm to the point that I can't use another laptop without reaching for this danged button a few times an hour. I'm not absolutely sure why I find it so useful -- I think I mainly use it when I'm honestly "laptopping", that is, when it's in my lap. It takes a lot less real estate to use it than the trackpad. But I suppose it's also more efficiently for small mouse adjustments, or, I've noticed, particularly when my "trackpad hand" (right) is "returning" and I want to move the cursor to the right. Strange the habits I pick up.

In any event, I didn't think I'd use it at all when I bought the laptop, and hoped it wouldn't be a nuisance. Now, I guess I'm addicted.

Image via wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick#mediaviewer/File:Mouse_pointing_stick.jpeg

Labels: mouse, thinkpad

Look, long story short: I have newer Macs, wanted a Bluetooth mouse, and bought a Magic Mouse. I also still have a Mac Mini G4 with 10.4 and zero intentions of upgrading the old brick to 10.5. I tried the Magic Mouse with the G4 immediately after taking the Magic Mouse out of the plastic box and guess what? Not only does Apple's Magic Mouse work out of the box with 10.4, 10.4 recognizes right and left clicks. Not bad, huh?

Longer story: I've coveted the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000 for a long time. I found myself in the Office Depot this morning looking to buy a $15 Logitech USB mouse for my Toughbook and, in typical consumerist fashion, figured, "Why not throw that $15 at the Bluetooth model and use the old USB with your Toughbook?" This is the sort of thinking that gets you to buy a quad core iMac when you go in for a new Mini.

Still, I'll tell you why you don't throw in the $15 towards the Microsoft 5000. The 500 is still $50. For $20 more, I could grab a Magic Mouse and finally stop driving myself crazy grabbing scrollbars when I'm coding with my $20 Microsoft Blue USB special. I'd nearly talked myself into getting a new MacBook in large part for the multitouch trackpad, as having 360 degrees o' scroll would be wonderful. I was in the Best Buy just last week trying out the new MacBook. The touchpad really is wonderful.

So off to the Apple store to try the Magic Mouse out (and grab a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter -- why I've left my old CRT monitor sitting in the corner for so long instead of running two monitors on my new Mini I have no idea). Scrolling with the Magic Mouse works great. There's not a goofy double-finger requirement to start scrolling, and it feels pretty natural. It's as if the entire mouse is a scroll wheel, finally delivering on the promise of the old Mighty Mouse with trackball. The mouse also has a good, solid feel to it.

I'm not sold on the swipe function yet, where two fingers allows you to move forward and back in your browser's history. The swipe in Safari is almost useful, I suppose. Swiping does a little less in iPhoto, and allows you to move between albums. In iPhoto, though, the albums are so close to one another, there's really no reason not to click on the next one normally, sans swipe. And if you have to swipe two or more albums over, well, there no time saved and the mouse is worthless. The two-finger swipe up on a mouse really isn't a particularly easy thing to do. When swiping, the mouse tends to move in ways your entire MacBook would not, and it's difficult to swipe anywhere other than the exact middle of the mouse. Swiping will, in other words, take some getting used to, which means I won't unless swiping starts doing something more useful.

Still, with Bluetooth and infinite-direction scroll combined the hope of a little more down the line (can I swipe into Expose with the next Magic Mouse update? Now we'd be getting somewhere), I splurged.

And so far, the best surprise is exactly what I wrote first: The Magic Mouse works with 10.4 out of the fancy smancy packaging, and it has right and left clicks by default. (Note: I think it's obvious that the Magic Mouse doesn't scroll on 10.4. It's more of a ~~Magic~~ Mouse there.) That's a really nice bonus for our G4 Mini, which only has two USB ports.

Labels: apple, mouse

title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude.	descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
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Sunday, November 16, 2014
Trackpoint addiction I've had my ThinkPad T430 for just over a year and a half now, and I'm to the point that I can't use another laptop without reaching for this danged button a few times an hour. I'm not absolutely sure why I find it so useful -- I think I mainly use it when I'm honestly "laptopping", that is, when it's in my lap. It takes a lot less real estate to use it than the trackpad. But I suppose it's also more efficiently for small mouse adjustments, or, I've noticed, particularly when my "trackpad hand" (right) is "returning" and I want to move the cursor to the right. Strange the habits I pick up. In any event, I didn't think I'd use it at all when I bought the laptop, and hoped it wouldn't be a nuisance. Now, I guess I'm addicted. Image via wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick#mediaviewer/File:Mouse_pointing_stick.jpeg Labels: mouse, thinkpad posted by ruffin at 11/16/2014 12:47:00 PM

Sunday, November 29, 2009
Magic Mouse works in Vista -- scrolling too When I first tried Apple's Magic Mouse in Vista, I only got right and left clicks, and had to hold it slightly skewed to get it to move the mouse accurately. Now, not only does it work in 10.4 (minus scrolling), it works in Vista with scrolling, horizontal and vertical, no problems. Nice little upgrade. I'm assuming the most recent Apple auto-update added that little holiday gift there. Neat mouse. Labels: apple, mouse, vista posted by ruffin at 11/29/2009 09:57:00 PM

Thursday, November 12, 2009
Yes, Virginia, the Magic Mouse does work with 10.4 Look, long story short: I have newer Macs, wanted a Bluetooth mouse, and bought a Magic Mouse. I also still have a Mac Mini G4 with 10.4 and zero intentions of upgrading the old brick to 10.5. I tried the Magic Mouse with the G4 immediately after taking the Magic Mouse out of the plastic box and guess what? Not only does Apple's Magic Mouse work out of the box with 10.4, 10.4 recognizes right and left clicks. Not bad, huh? Longer story: I've coveted the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000 for a long time. I found myself in the Office Depot this morning looking to buy a $15 Logitech USB mouse for my Toughbook and, in typical consumerist fashion, figured, "Why not throw that $15 at the Bluetooth model and use the old USB with your Toughbook?" This is the sort of thinking that gets you to buy a quad core iMac when you go in for a new Mini. Still, I'll tell you why you don't throw in the $15 towards the Microsoft 5000. The 500 is still $50. For $20 more, I could grab a Magic Mouse and finally stop driving myself crazy grabbing scrollbars when I'm coding with my $20 Microsoft Blue USB special. I'd nearly talked myself into getting a new MacBook in large part for the multitouch trackpad, as having 360 degrees o' scroll would be wonderful. I was in the Best Buy just last week trying out the new MacBook. The touchpad really is wonderful. So off to the Apple store to try the Magic Mouse out (and grab a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter -- why I've left my old CRT monitor sitting in the corner for so long instead of running two monitors on my new Mini I have no idea). Scrolling with the Magic Mouse works great. There's not a goofy double-finger requirement to start scrolling, and it feels pretty natural. It's as if the entire mouse is a scroll wheel, finally delivering on the promise of the old Mighty Mouse with trackball. The mouse also has a good, solid feel to it. I'm not sold on the swipe function yet, where two fingers allows you to move forward and back in your browser's history. The swipe in Safari is almost useful, I suppose. Swiping does a little less in iPhoto, and allows you to move between albums. In iPhoto, though, the albums are so close to one another, there's really no reason not to click on the next one normally, sans swipe. And if you have to swipe two or more albums over, well, there no time saved and the mouse is worthless. The two-finger swipe up on a mouse really isn't a particularly easy thing to do. When swiping, the mouse tends to move in ways your entire MacBook would not, and it's difficult to swipe anywhere other than the exact middle of the mouse. Swiping will, in other words, take some getting used to, which means I won't unless swiping starts doing something more useful. Still, with Bluetooth and infinite-direction scroll combined the hope of a little more down the line (can I swipe into Expose with the next Magic Mouse update? Now we'd be getting somewhere), I splurged. And so far, the best surprise is exactly what I wrote first: The Magic Mouse works with 10.4 out of the fancy smancy packaging, and it has right and left clicks by default. (Note: I think it's obvious that the Magic Mouse doesn't scroll on 10.4. It's more of a ~~Magic~~ Mouse there.) That's a really nice bonus for our G4 Mini, which only has two USB ports. Labels: apple, mouse posted by ruffin at 11/12/2009 11:53:00 AM

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