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GUI Software Hardware

Logitech Ships 500 Millionth Mouse 559

Posted by CowboyNeal from the rodents-who-squeak-lightly dept.
ipxodi writes "Logitech marks the milestone of 500 million shipped mice. Mice first widely appeared in consumer form on the original Macintosh, but have appeared in various forms back through time to 1964 when they were invented by Doug Englebart. My favorite mouse is also my current mouse, a Logitech Optical Wheel mouse. I also remember some oddities beyond the old bar-of-soap shaped mice of the mid 80's, like one with a crosshair attachment for clicking on specific points of a blueprintfor CAD input. What's your favorite current or past mouse?" My first mouse was back in 1987, for my Apple //c. It cost $50, and came with a double-sided floppy that contained an interactive instructional program on side one, and MousePaint (a port of MacPaint) on side two. Memories!
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Logitech Ships 500 Millionth Mouse More

Logitech Ships 500 Millionth Mouse

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  • Wuss (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Mr. Sketch ( 111112 ) *
    My favorite mouse is also my current mouse, a Logitech Optical Wheel mouse

    Any real geek could have a Dual Optical Mouse [logitech.com]. Also available at Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com]. That is definately my favorite mouse.
    • That's what I use, and thus far it is my favorite. Though I have my eye on a MX500 or MX700.

      I do wish that Logitech would attach the slider feet better though... like three have fallen off.

    • Re:Wuss (Score:5, Funny)

      by TexVex ( 669445 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:24PM (#6937101)
      Any real geek could have a Dual Optical Mouse
      Ahh, a nice looking piece of hardware. From its feature list:
      • Sleek shape fits comfortably into your right hand
      Leaving the left hand free to hold your joystick.

      • Re:Wuss (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Alan ( 347 )

        No ball, no sticking, no cleaning

        They lie! My main bitch about the optical mice I've used is that because they are sliding around generally on the desk without a mousepad the feet that they glide on get horribly gummed up from dust and whatever random junk ends up on your desk, making them stick and feel like they give me far worse control than my venerable old MS OEM ball mouse which slides along it's 3m mousepad and has a ball that requires far less cleaning than my optical mouses feet :(

        • Cut a fitting piece of duct tape (or transparent plastic tape, found in any office on the northern hemisphere). Put it under the mouse, on the feet, with one stripe covering two feet (x-axis), one above, one below the center and there you go ready for high speed mousing with full accuracy.

          And here's the catch: if it accumulates junk from the desk and loses that comfortable feel, add another layer of tape or replace the original tape. You can easily stack more than a dozen layers without a notable differe

    • Re:Wuss (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:30PM (#6937157) Homepage Journal
      The Logitech Optical mouse is generally available at $15-20 in retail stores. The dual optical is nice but you must consider the value of being able to replace the thing or just pick one up if you're out somewhere, for less than the price of a pizza.

      • Re:Wuss (Score:3, Informative)

        by Mr. Sketch ( 111112 ) *
        Granted the price is a little high for a mouse, but since this is an above-average mouse, it's worth it. As for availablity, I've seen it at Best Buy, in fact that's where I got mine.
    • Any real geek could have a Dual Optical Mouse. Also available at Thinkgeek. That is definately my favorite mouse.

      I agree completely. I was using a Kensington ADB 4-button mouse on my G3 Mac for ProTools when one of the buttons decided to die, and I had heard good things about the Logitech Dual Optical, so I picked one up and I couldn't be happier. The two things I dislike about most optical mice are 1) the (lack of) mass and 2) the width. Kensington and Microsoft optical mice are a little too wide an

  • Best Mice Ever. Period. (".") (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lally Singh ( 3427 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:06PM (#6936893) Journal
    For the PowerBook G4: Logitech MX500.
    For the PowerMac G4: Logitech MX700.

    I bought the 500 first, loved it so much, that I had to pick up a 700 for home. Now I await:

    - A bluetooth 15" Powerbook
    - A bluetooth Logitech MXx00 mouse
    - Income to pay for it.
    • I second this! I sit here using my MX500 on my PowerBook G4. I may never want a wireless mouse...changing batteries stinks.

      Hurray for MX series!

  • Hardly any software even supported it, but hey, those that did were 1337. Beagle Graphics and MousePaint. I still have them, and I still use them (with EMU][).

    -uso.

  • crosshairs? (Score:4, Informative)

    by ender_wiggins ( 81600 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:06PM (#6936900) Journal
    The crosshairs were on a puck. Connected to a digitiser pad, not a mouse. mice have balls, digipads dont.
    • If I were discriminatory, I might say something like "Male mice have balls, female mice work with light."

      Personally I happen to like my GE Optical wheel mouse. Every once in a while I have to check to see if the lense has dust on it, otherwise no cleaning needs to be done.

      -Rusty

  • Logitech Marble Mouse (Score:3, Interesting)

    by codefool ( 189025 ) <{ghester} {at} {codefool.org}> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:06PM (#6936901) Homepage Journal
    Got hooked on these when I got into FPS gaming. But since I travel(ed) alot, it turned out to be way cool on airplanes. Small footprint, and doesn't require any 'room' to move around. Just sits in place with my hand on it, and the pointer goes where I want. Saves the arm too.
  • A Logitech WingMan Gaming mouse. Unfortunately, they never upgraded that mouse shape with a scrollwheel or optical ability, so, c'est la vie. I'd kill for a optical scrollwheel version of that mouse. *sigh*
    • I'll second that, I have 2 of these 'foot mice' as I have heard them referred to and I wish they had a model that was optical and had a wheel on it.
      • > these 'foot mice' as I have heard them referred to

        I always called them 'bearclaw,' myself, as I didn't have any other name for them. :)

        I just got an MX500 (optical scroller) last month, and, while not as comfy in my hand as a bearclaw model, it'll do. Too many buttons, though. While 1 button Mac mice are ridiculous, any more than three is a bit much, methinks. I wouldn't mind trying one of those side-scrollers that MS just put out.
    • A Logitech WingMan Gaming mouse.

      Yeah,

      I'm using this right now.

      I have about 4 other of the "Heart-Shaped" Logitech PS/2 mice in use. These are lower-rez than the Wingman. Comfy shape + 3-buttons for X-11. I dig 'em.

      Other than that, I have the over-priced Logitech mobile-optical mouse attached to the ThinkPad.

      My first was a Logitech C-7... This was the three-button, "workstation" serial mouse you found on pre-MIPS SGI equipment and CAD PC's in the mid-80's. I'd attach the ASCII picture of this as an

  • Doug Engelbart (Score:5, Informative)

    by VAXGeek ( 3443 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:06PM (#6936905) Homepage
    Doug also invented the GUI and Smalltalk (www.squeak.org). Most of you are familiar with the GUI, but you really should give Squeak a look. It's a pretty cool development enviornment.

    • PARC? (Score:3, Informative)

      by s20451 ( 410424 )
      I always thought Xerox PARC, that place that made money for everybody except Xerox, invented the mouse [wikipedia.org]. Is that just common misconception?

      • Re:PARC? (Score:3, Informative)

        by iocat ( 572367 )
        Actually Xerox PARC did make money for Xerox. The dough they made for developing and licensing the patents to the laser printer made the whole enterprise profitable in the long run. What they failed to do was successfully capitalize on their other achievements, like the GUI/mouse system, etc. "Dealers of Lightning : Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" (available wherever books on Xerox PARC are sold, such as Amazon) is a really good look at the story of PARC.
    • One of my former colleagues, when we were visiting Doug one day, had the bright idea of having him autograph his mouse.

      Doug duly autographed it - and mentioned that this was the first time anybody had asked him. (This was in the late '80s or early '90s, so it wasn't like nobody had had the opportunity.)

      So at that point he had the only Engelbart-autographed mouse. (And even if somebody else has asked since - which the rest of us didn't to avoid me-too ism and maintain the value of HIS mouse - he still ha

  • Not a mouse per se (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:07PM (#6936913) Homepage Journal
    What's your favorite current or past mouse?"

    My favorite input device is my Kensington Turbo Mouse. It's a trackball, but I have been using them for years going back to the original 1.0. They are great in reducing RSI and allow precise control which is important for digital imagery work and image forensics.

    • My favorite input device is my Kensington Turbo Mouse. It's a trackball
      Aren't those the ones that allow you to replace the trackball with a billiards ball, because the sizes are the same?
  • The logitech 3 button mouse without that stinky wheel is the *only* mouse for use with BSD derivatives. Yes, I am a tad biased :-)

  • Days gone by. (Score:5, Funny)

    by ProfessionalCookie ( 673314 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:09PM (#6936941) Journal
    I dunno about you guys but it makes me nothing but upset when Logitech goes out of their way to fill the world with mice. You should see my garden, half eaten roots and stems. 500 Million. 500 MILLION. Corporations now days thing they can just walk all over us.

    I remember the good ole days before the mice took over. Never again.
  • It's quite spooky when it's in-between optical marks, it sits there flashing. Quite spooky in a dark room.

    Probably one of the better wheel mechanisms, my Microsoft wheel mouse's wheel nearly seized up, even with lubrication.

    I somehow don't think the mouse will be replaced anytime soon. Tablets require too much movement compared to a mouse and people are lazy.

    • Re:I have the Logitech optical too (Score:5, Interesting)

      by pla ( 258480 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:17PM (#6937019) Journal
      I somehow don't think the mouse will be replaced anytime soon.

      Probably not, but I'd like to see them vanish.

      For delicate work, such as purely digital drawing, mice force the user to use the whole wrist and arm, rather than far more dextrous fingers. For coarse work like web browsing, mice far exceed the precision needed.

      I'd like a wireless optical thimble, myself - A sort of finger-cap that tracks the surface you place it on, and you can tap your finger to click. Far better for art, and far lighter and less encumbering for "normal" work. Alas, I don't think such a devce exists. :-(

  • Logitech makes a hell of a mouse... (Score:3)

    by el-spectre ( 668104 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:10PM (#6936947) Journal
    $5 says that the first one is probably still functional...
    • I have one or two old Apple ADB mice (the old square kind, after the original/Plus style but before the teardrop) that were made by Logitech. Still a damn fine mouse. Beyond that, all of my old serial and PS/2 Logitech mice and trackballs are still hanging around in working condition, and my current mouse is a 2-3 year old optical Logitech.

      In other words, if the first Logitech mouse could be found, I think you'd get that $5. :)

  • I have one of the original mice (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hayzeus ( 596826 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:11PM (#6936956) Homepage
    It's one of the first mice produced by Engelbart. Powered by coal, and made almost entirely of cast iron and oak, it weighs nearly 1400 pounds. A true marvel of engineering for its day!
    • I saw a brief interview with Engelbart on TechTV a couple years ago in response to tactile mice (like Logitech's iFeel mouse), and he had some interesting things to say about mouse evolution.

      One of the things he mentioned was that instead of a mouseball, his original mouse used two orthogonal wheels arranged in an L-shape. If you tilted the mouse, it would rest on only one of the wheels. Depending on which wheel it was resting, you then could move the mouse perfectly horizontally or vertically.

      This would
  • My favourite mouse all categories is the Atari ST mouse. The distinct click and stylish design was very hot when the standard seriel mouse looked like...a bar of dirty soap.
  • I had a solbourne portable workstation in the early nineties.. It had an optical mouse but required a specific reflective mousepad covered in tiny dots to work.. I've tried tablets, trackballs and other types of input devices, and I still come back to the mouse for daily use.

    reminds me of the infamouse "mouse balls memo" [monster-island.org]

  • Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kworthington ( 678559 ) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [notgnihtrowk]> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:12PM (#6936971) Homepage
    My favorite is actually a trackball. No un-necessary wrist movement avoids carpal-tunnel nicely. My preference is the Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel, which has a scroll button as a third button. It's sort of the older version of this [logitech.com]. Mine is a bit 'wider' left to right, and is white rather than silver/gray.
  • Not the most complex mouse, but I love it for deathmatch. Sure, it does not have as many buttons as other mice, but I find the tracking on it to be excellent.*

    You can still get these mice here [thinkgeek.com]. A good review can be found here [virtual-hideout.net].

    * (Unless you get it on a surface that contains something white and glossy - then because of the dual optical cameras, the cursor can fly randomly about.)
  • I've been using the cordless optical for almost a year, and it's amazing. I initially thought I might lose some sensativity, but it turns out I can snipe just as well as with a corded mouse in FPSs and there's one less thing to clutter my desk.

    I have no complaints regarding this mouse. It is truly spectacular. If you can afford it, buy it.

    -R

  • Best... Mouse... Ever... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Chmarr ( 18662 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:15PM (#6936991)
    The clearly the best mouse ever was the hemispherical, red-clown-nose mouse that came with the AT&T/Teletype 5620 [bell-labs.com] terminal. What a buzz using that thing was :)
  • Defintely my favorite mouse ever. No silly wheel, yet scrolls. Very cool, but hard to come by.

    A second choice would be one of the early Amiga mice. Simple 2 button job, but shaped well and felt real solid.

    I always hated the Sun-3(Sun-4? Can't remember..) optical mice. They felt real cheap....but they were kind of cool because they were optical. But they needed that damn stupid mousepad or they didn't work :(
  • My first mouse came with my old Atari 520ST back in '86. I believe Atari was the first company to ship mice with little Teflon pads on the bottom, instead of plastic stumps like the Mac's mouse had. Atari's mouse felt a lot smoother than more expensive models from other manufacturers as a result, although I never thought it looked as nice as the Mac's mouse, and the buttons felt a bit cheap. Had two of 'em though, which was another advantage over the Mac's.

    Today most computer mice come with little Teflo

  • I don't use a mouse, you insensitive clod! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rhetland ( 259464 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:16PM (#6937005)
    Oh, wait, this isn't a poll.

    But the truth is that I don't use a mouse anymore. I use a touchstream keyboard from Fingerworks [fingerworks.com] that lets me move the arrow and cursor and type on the same interface. This is very nice.

    Anyone who has even a bit of RSI can identify with my hatred, or at least ambivilance toward mice. My tendons ache at the thought of so many mice in the world..
  • By far the Gyration has won me over. Charges on the dock which was the primary reason -- at the time Logitech only has battery replacable mice.

    I use it as a TV remote on the Mac all the time from the lazy boy. Right click is mute, scrolling is channel change, wheel click is full screen toggle, scroll clicked is volume adjustment. So on and so forth...

    You should see the look on the wife's face when I play Quake and I'm just waiving my hand around in the air. :)

    http://www.gyration.com/ultragt.htm

  • Microsoft mice rock (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:16PM (#6937012) Journal

    I swear, Microsoft mice and keyboards are the exact opposite of their OS and Office software; cheap, tough, worthwhile and available without too much fluff. I'd rank MS hardware up to Logitech's level of quality. Too bad I can't say the same for their software department...

    • I've actually run into complications with both of my Microsoft mice. I got the Intellimouse Explorer Optical and I loved it. Until it started messing up :) If the cord isn't placed in the proper position, it won't work. It's like the power gets severed to it. Oddly enough, the way to get it to work is to make the cord run back along the side of the mouse out to my tower which is beside me. So the cord needs to be kinked to unkink the internals :S

      And then I got the wireless one. I loved the design of
    • I like the microsoft mice myself. There's just nothing wrong with the way they look, work, or feel. I really can't think of any more features beyond what are in the Microsoft mice.

      Though I am on my third one in the past few years... I have a suspicion they aren't built to last. I could probably save $$ by going with someone who made more durable peripherals.
    • Actually, I like MS hardware lots better than Logitechs, which I've had nothing but trouble with.

      Although, I know that was *last* generation and people seems very happy with the MX series, Logitech forever burned all chances with me with their crappy mice and keyboards that lost contact with the computer and generally misbehaved.

      I'm on my second MS mouse now (After I "accidently" broke the old one playing CS) and these things are just Great.

  • Put it on the left (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MhzJnky ( 443677 )
    I'm not sure how many people have tried this, but you really should put your mouse on the left, that's where it belongs.

    The number pad on the right of most keyboards puts the mouse to far over to be realy comfortable.

    Plus, for you FPS fans, it's very handy to have your right hand on the number pad and the left on the mouse. If you re-map the keys you never have to move to any other section of the keyboard.

    I allways laughed at those special keypads for playing games... you've alread got one, just move yo

  • My mice... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sylver Dragon ( 445237 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:17PM (#6937017) Journal
    Well, one of the first mice I ever used was one of those screwy Pen-Mice. It was an attempt to make the mouse similar to a known technology, a pen; but it failed miserably. You had to hold it just so, the buttons were annoying to work with, and the cord (which came out the top) was forever in the way. It was an interesting concept, but just wasn't right.
    My current "mouse" is a Logitech Marble FX trackball. It has got to be the most comfortable pointing device I have ever used, and I like the ability to simply pull my fingers away, and the cursor doesn't move, even when I click the buttons. I could never get that from a mouse, clicking always caused me to move a bit this way or that.

  • Apple ADB Mouse (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BandwidthHog ( 257320 ) * <inactive.slashdo ... icallyenough.com> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:17PM (#6937022) Homepage Journal
    The old square one, with the front two thirds sloped down. I used those almost exclusively from '88 till I could afford a big, honking Kensington trackball. (yes, that's actually a billiard ball in those things.) Best tracking mouse I've ever used, although I wouldn't trade the wheel and seven buttons of my Logitech MX-500 for anything. Well, I'd trade 'em for $100, 'cause I can get another one for less than that. But you get the point.

  • 500 Million Mice, and I know where most are... (Score:5, Funny)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:18PM (#6937029)
    ...in a box in the back room where we keep the unused equipment.

    And somehow they have violated entropy and managed to tie the cables of *all* of them together, on their own.

  • As a recent convert, I'm perfectly happy with the single-button Apple mouse that came with my G-4.

    My first mouse was an optical mouse of some sort that I bought to go with the copy of Windows I had started running in the late 80's. It had a special reflective pad marked off with hash marks, and you had to run it on that. Windows certainly looked handsome on that amber monitor!

    I preferred the Microsoft "bar of soap" style for years because my hands are small, and the larger gunboat styles are miserable f

  • Mouse designed by famouse Anime artist - nice... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by blakespot ( 213991 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:20PM (#6937054) Homepage
    Check out this anime-styled mouse [insanefine.com] designed by the creator of the "Ghost In The Shell" series. I have on on order.

    Link to my not-quite-ready-yet site - maybe 7 days premature but whatever, it's been a long day at the office.

    Cheers.


    blakespot

  • Oh how I love thee, modern "three button" mouse. Let me count the ways. One. Twone... twroolllll... twslip-er -roll-er... twthree... dangit!!!! Three. -Unnamed poet of the twenty-first century ____________________________________________ Fight for the survival of REAL thee-button mice!!!
  • Real geeks don't use GUIs. I'm telnetted into port 80 on slashdot.org right now. I don't even have PF-keys. Just wires that I touch together to send an impulse right into my AT-keyboard slot on my 286.

  • My favorite memory is all the mouse ball jokes.

    I almost peed my pants reading about manages giving instructions to take your balls in your hand. Then roll them gently while inspecting them to make sure they are clean and free of debris. I don't know what happened to all of them. But I bet I could find some with a quick internet search.

    Well, I'm off to google to relive my childhood...

  • Why Microsoft, why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zakabog ( 603757 ) <.moc.guamj. .ta. .nhoj.> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:20PM (#6937061)
    Last week, Microsoft Corp. announced a computer mouse with horizontal scrolling capabilities and even a mouse outfitted in leather.

    I know "why" isn't a great question to ask on slashdot but now I really mean it. I think horizontal scrolling would be VERY nice, especially when looking at a large picture and you don't feel like moving to the bottom and scrolling, and you can't use the arrow keys to move because you only have one han... ok I'll stop right their.

    Anyway, why fit a mouse with leather? Your hand gets very warm and sweaty from playing games and sometimes just doing regular work on the computer so why would you want a leather covered mouse? I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun having your hand stick to your mouse when it's too hot. And wouldn't the sweat really wear down the leather and like ruin it? Won't whatever dye they use bleed onto your hand? I dunno it just doesn't seem like a good idea.
  • At least, nice solid ones do. And that's all I have to say about that! :)
  • My first ever mouse was for my Sinclair Spectrum (Timex) back in 84ish and not surprisingly it only worked with a couple of art programs. It also was impossible to draw with because one of the rollers would stop going at certain angles leaving horizontal or vertical lines instead of the lovely curve you were trying for.

    Mice were pretty dull affairs apart from a brief stint with an Amiga optical one that required a special mousemat that was alas prone to scratching and subsequent accuracy problems.

    Microso
  • each time I put my hand on my TrackMan MarbleFX. It's the best trackball ever made : optical trackball, heavy ball, flawless sliding, 4 buttons, great shape for the hand ... I've had mine for 4 years and it still works like new, although it doesn't look like new.

    That trackball has been discontinued, but I like it so much I bough 5 of them in an auction, to be sure I never ever run out of them as long as PS/2 ports are around. But at the rate my current one gets used, I might still have the spares at the be
    • Got to agree with you there! I use the TrackMan+ and I love it! The only way to make it better would have be to make it wireless. When they did they took out the middle wheel button, slammed the left and right buttons together and stuck the wheel tightly between them. Now that's great for your average person, but I have large hands to the three button design was great for me. Today whenever I use a two button mouse I instictively use my index finger and my ring finger for left and right, respectivally.
  • I have the Logitech MX700. Wireless, IR, and best of all it's rechargeable through base! The only thing I don't like about it is that the extra scrolling buttons and thumb curve are on the left side which would make this a "righty" mouse.... I'M A "LEFTY" YOU INSENSITIVE CLODS! Seriously though, it tells you when the batteries are running low by blinking a dinky red LED and a green one when you are charging. The scroll wheel is nice, rubbery soft, and has just enough feedback to satisfy my needs... I had to

  • Is it just me, or does anybody else feel creepy when they use a mouse other than THE ONE that you've been using for the last ten years?

    I sort of feel like my hand is being violated.

    In a way, I guess it's like cheating on your mouse. Maybe that's why it feels so dirty.

  • amazing what google can pull up. here's a website [stanford.edu] about Engelbart's demo of the first mouse
  • I use a trackball [microsoft.com]. (A Microsoft one, despite it being plugged into a Mac.)

    I've always preferred trackballs, moving a mouse around seems to be hard on my wrist.

  • Old-school optical mice (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Experiment 626 ( 698257 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:25PM (#6937109)
    I really liked the optical mice about 12 years ago that were put out by Mouse Systems, and the ones on the Sun workstations at the time. Sure, optical is mainstream stuff now, but these cutting edge mice were so ahead of their time... how many people had an optical mouse on their 386?

    Unlike the modern opticals, however, the early ones didn't let you use any old surface as a mouse pad. They came with special metal mouse pads with a tiny grid of shiny and not-as-shiny areas for the mouse to track. Get the pad too scratched or dented and your mouse started working funny. I liked the pads though, having your mouse on a futuristic metal surface instead of the usual felt-covered rubber was all part of the charm.

  • Amstrad 1512 mouse (Score:2, Interesting)

    by adeyadey ( 678765 )

    Mine was the mouse that came with the Amstrad 1512 [digidome.nl] , europes first really affordable mouse orientated PC clone. Ah, running GEM off a single 360K FD (no HD).. And that nice clunky mouse cursor when you ran the QBASIC 2.0 compiler..

  • I remember reading somewhere that the engineer who first developed the mouse named it the 'X-Y Positional Indicator'. Such a disappointment that it was dumbed down to 'Mouse' for consumers.
  • I thought the GEM desktop and mouse for my Atari were pretty damn cool...even though they didn't really do much, made me feel like I was on a "big computer" ;-)

    Actually, looking back, it's amazing to see how little has changed in 15-odd years!

    -psy

  • Would be one of the triangular 3-button "MouseMan" mice, but with an optical mechanism. I'd take that mouse to my grave.

    steve
  • wonder how many of the half-billion mice are in the garbage, or shipped to a street corner garbage-pile somewhere in singapore.

    the fact that some mice cost ~$1 makes me think that most of the cheaper half-billion mice are being produced overseas, where health/environment regulatons allow them to drive prices down and make cheap crap.

    i'm depressed today.
  • I play quite a few FPS games, but the one thing that annoys me is the wheel. My standard configuration is: Left=shoot, Middle=moveforward, Right=movebackward. With nearly all wheel mice, I've found that the middle mouse button finger tends to slide back and forth and doesn't allow for positive contact all the time. My brother has a Logitech Wingman Gaming mouse, and I have a four-button contoured Mouseman. We don't know what's going to happen if we can't find replacements, because we both have the same
  • were on the amstrad xt's, (two buttons), the feel was just awful and to boot it didn't work exacly like supposed on some games(second button didn't register in some).

    and then the other favorite of mine, the genius mouse with sharp edges.. buy was that fun to use with small kids hands. not.

    of course, add to the list all loysy mouses that had their cords broken(near the mouse end, they make them harder nowadays though), cordless is the best thing to happen to mouses(boy was it fun when back in '92?? when un
  • The Logitech Dual Optical Mouseman is the finest mouse ever made. I'm a hardcore gamer and perfect CS response has always been a pipedream. I used MS Optical mice, and if you moved them too fast, the cursor (or crosshair) would move around randomly.

    The Logitech Dual Mouseman has two sensors that cooperate so it never gets lost or confused. It is very high res, very very smooth, and you can move it very fast without it losing tracking.
  • Check out Doug Englebart [ibiblio.org]'s picture : doesn't he look like Q (in James Bond)? No wonder he thought of a whacky input device like the mouse when only keyboards existed.
  • Not bad for a Modula-2 compiler company!
  • I disliked those Sun optical mice that required a metal "mouse pad" with a grid of lines. Rotating the pad caused the pointer to track diagonally when you moved the mouse up and down. On the other hand, it was fun to flip people's pads 90 degrees and watch their pointer move left-right when they moved the mouse up-down. The marketing material was especially amusing -- it touted the "free mouse pad" when that pad was absolutely indispensible to using the mouse.

  • Cordless (Score:3, Informative)

    by Morth ( 322218 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:55PM (#6937417)
    My best investment mouse-wise was the cordless optical mouse I'm now using. No more cleaning, no more cable getting stuck somewhere.

    • Re:Cordless (Score:3, Informative)

      by Quixotic Raindrop ( 443129 )
      I agree (mostly) ... but, instead of the Cordless Optical mouse, I use the Cordless Trackman Wheel [logitech.com]. I've used the Cordless Trackman ever since it first came out, back in 1997 (IIRC). I find that the thumb trackball is a lot more precise even than the Wacom tablet w/pen that I have, possibly because years of caffeine ingestion have made the muscles in my forearm twitch like a disembodied lizard's tail.

  • when will they bring out a good Bluetooth mouse? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <lynxpro@@@gmail...com> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:57PM (#6937433)
    I think its time Logitech brought out a decent wireless mouse that uses Bluetooth and does not require its own branded USB-to-Bluetooth adapter like the Microsoft products. And while we're at it, a Bluetooth based wireless keyboard that matches the Microsoft Elite series, again without requiring the use of their own branded adapter.

  • Also the chord-board (Score:3, Interesting)

    by John_Sauter ( 595980 ) <John_Sauter@systemeyescomputerstore.com> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @07:13PM (#6938062) Homepage
    I had the privilege, along with many others, of getting a personal demonstration of the mouse from Doug Engelbart when I was at Stanford in the 1960s. In addition to the mouse he demonstrated a device that has not yet become popular: the chord-board. As I recall it was six levers, one for each finger plus two for the thumb, so you could operate it with either your right or your left hand. By pressing the levers in various combinations he could enter data into the computer. The only similar device I have seen since is the keyboard used by court reporters.
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

  • Heavily modded Logitech. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SharpFang ( 651121 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @07:14PM (#6938065) Homepage Journal
    Classic logitech mouse with wheel... But with mods.

    Inertia wheel. I removed the clickety-click mechanism of the wheel, and ordered a metal replacement for the rubber band - a pretty heavy iron ring. Now with a single strong push I may scroll 20-30 pages (while seeing them all as they scroll by!) and stop by putting my finger against the spinning wheel when I see the section I've been looking for. Causes some problems in games (like unwanted weapons switching) but is absolutely superb when it comes to websurfing and all no-game work. BTW, assign "fire" to "mouse up" and you get instant autofire ;)

    Thumb RMB. Since the inertia wheel is slightly bigger than the original one, I can't use it as middle mouse button. All the better, I've placed one in the side of the mouse, under my thumb. It's VERY comfortable. Far more than the wheel was. No moving fingers from button to button, just press with thumb and get things pasted :)

    And prettifiers... Some plastic that is used in "emergency route" labels and shines in the darkness, around the wheel, to mask the hole edges and an op amp tapped into data lines and powered from the power lines with output to a LED placed under the thumb button, blinking on any mouse activity.

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