Monday, January 09, 2006

The mouse

I remember the days when a mouse was just a pointing device. It had a little wheel in the bottom of it that got hair and other disgusting little things in it, and you knew when it had to be cleaned. It had 2 buttons, the left click and the right click. Now, I have an optical wirelss mouse with a scroll wheel. No ball to clean, no particular part to blame when it's slow or doesn't move, just a red little optical beam that magically senses where it needs to move.

The beam doesn't like mirrored or glass surfaces, that much is obvious. The wireless functionality is equally as frustrating as the batteries run low, you're not sure if when it's slow to respond it's your computer, the batteries, the wireless part or the red little beam underneath. You just don't know. How frustrating for a geek. Then there's the scroll wheel. I can't live without it. I had occasion to use some older mouse and my fingers kept dancing to the scroll wheel that was not there. My fingers wanted to shoot down the page FAST! Not drag an ancient scroll bar down the side of the page.

How we have evolved, I think.... Or perhaps we're just more productive? Or perhaps we just can surf the internet quicker...

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