optical mice

[dchip]

A salesperson in a store said such mice more "precise" than regular mice, which sounds nice, but comes at a higher price, not to mention the implementation of another potentially conflicting device. I figure such precision, if really that good, would be good for the detailed work on timelines and all the snipping and clipping that video editing requires. Are they more precise and does it help with NLE? Doc, I recall you saying you have a Microsoft wheelmouse. Is it the optical kind and is the wheel useful in editing? Thanks.

[Dr Mordrid]

Doing detailed work on the timeline is what ZOOM controls are for.

My Microsoft wheelmouse is a plain-Jane ball and roller busmouse. Those optical monstrosities are, IMHO, like using a 20mm cannon to shoot squirrels.

Dr. Mordrid

[dchip]

That was my feeling. More overkill when a basic mouse will do. I hadn't long purchased a Logitech Marble mouse trackball and I really like it, but it for sure is not for editing. BTW, I can tell the chill is returning to the air because your ballistic analogies are increasing everyday . As for squirrels, sometimes I wish I could use a 20mm shell (complete with mortar) on those tricky little buggers, just blast the whole tree and everything into pulpwood and feel satisfied. No, I'm just kidding. They deserve a fair hunt too, and I like to leave the forest the way I found it. Thanks for the mice advice. Maybe I'll get an optical if I someday take up CAD or something.

[AlgoRhythm]

One problem with the optical mice is that they sometimes get "lost". Every once in a while my mouse will jump to the corner of the screen. It seems to lose its tracking of the surface.

AlgoRhythm

[LiFe]

I bought an USB optical IntelliMouse Exploerer when they were first released - there was a flaw in the 1st one I got so I got a replacement...

I don't know about accuracy - I mean its very very steady and easy to move - but I never had any problems with a 6 yr old serial mouse other than the ball always crapping up.

I love the fact that the there is no ball to crap up and than I can use it on my clothes, on the table, on the table cloth, on my hand..... I frequently sit away from the computer to watch a movie and I use it on my leg with no problem....

As Algorythm said tho - about once a fortnight it goes haywire and for 3 seconds jumps between corners of the screen and then suddenly settles back as if nothing happened.... I think its a small price to pay tho : )

LiFe

[Brian Ellis]

Hi!

I venture to say I have possibly had more experience of mice as precision input devices than the average user and therefore will expose myself to ridicule.

I have been heavily involved with CAD systems for electronics since the early 1980s. This application was never tablet oriented, unlike mechanical CAD, and always used mice from their very concept. Precision in placing the cursor is essential for efficient use of such a CAD system. In the early days, there was only one mouse that was universally used for this, from the most expensive system costing half-a-million, down to the cheap, inflexible PC software systems costing $100. This was the Mouse Systems Optical Mouse. This worked on a special aluminium mat which had a blue and black grid system anodised into the surface (later, silk screened on for the MSOM II, but this was retrograde). The cursor followed exactly the hand movement. This was popular on PCs as well as minis, through into the start of Windows-based systems.

Unfortunately, Mouse Systems never made the transition to Windows NT or 95 and refused to make drivers for them, on the grounds that the market for optical mice was too small. That meant that we had to turn to ball mice and all hell was let loose. We lost the precision we were used to. Some of us tried to continue with optical mice using the DOS drivers, but they were unreliable in 32 bit systems. Many even went to tablets, just using them as mice. The ball mice had numerous problems and the first thing we did every morning, before starting work, was to dismantle them, wash the balls and the pads in hot, soapy water, followed by a rinse, and try to clean the rollers as well as possible with tissues wetted with soapy water and clean water. Even so, we were not happy and we had to change the mice every few months, as the rollers got polished (we even tried roughening them with W & D but this usually made the movement irregular). I know one company that even rebuilt their mice with precision mechanics, to little better avail. I personally have tried four or five different makes of ball mice, including the big 'uns like Logitech and Microsoft, and each is worse than all the others.

When MS announced the Intellimouse Explorer, last October, I think, I became immediately interested and, as it happened, I was in the US at the end of that month and was able to buy a couple of them. Since then, I have never looked back and use them on all my computers (except for Linux) for all applications. They are different from the MSOMs in that the grid on the latter's pads made them insensitive to the angle at which the mouse was held, at least ± 20°. Of course, this was not the case with the Microsoft offering, but - at last - we had precision back again in our work. I have used them intensively, averaging 10 hours per day, for the best part of a year and have never once had a glitch, bug or any other problem and the precision is maintained. I use it on a plain white melamine work surface. The thumb buttons are rarely used: on the CAD system only the big one is pressed when using the wheel for scrolling in the X axis. I occasionally use the big'un also for the back button when using the Netscape browser. I use them in the USB port, but I have colleagues who have them in the PS2 mouse port with the supplied adaptor.

Maintenance? almost none. In summer, when my hands get really sweaty at 35°C++, the work surface under the mouse gets gummed up and needs cleaning more regularly, perhaps once a week, along with the four elliptical polymeric "feet" on the mouse's tummy, which tend to accumulate a mixture of sweat residues and dust, which polish up into a surface which gives more "stiction", noticeable when making very fine positional adjustments, tending to go slightly more jerkily. Down time for maintenance is reduced by 95%.

There is a negative point: in the USB port, they are operational only after Windows has booted up. For this reason, I keep a MS ball Intellimouse plugged into the PS2 port, usually tucked away at the back of the desk (incidentally, they both work in Windows, simultaneously!). Quite frankly, I don't know whether it is the same in the PS2 port - must ask one of my colleagues.

Now, for the big advantage, at least for right-handed persons. Before the optical mouse was foaled in the Microsoft stable, I had more or less settled on the comparatively poor Microsoft Intellimouse Serial or PS/2 Compatible Model 68874. Put one of these on your table and hover your hand over it, then slowly lower your hand onto it. As it takes up its position, you hand is skewed to the left, turning about 5 or 10°, rotating axially at the wrist. This is a most unnatural position and causes much fatigue after 10 hours of intensive CAD work, even pain. Do the same with the bulbuous optical rodent and your hand falls naturally and comfortably into position with no wrist rotation and less fatigue. This alone makes it worthwhile. The only ergonomic disadvantage is that the rarely used thumb buttons are placed too high, requiring two movements of the thumb to use the big one (I've never used the little one, it's so badly placed).

Now, for editing. I have found exactly the same advantages as cited above and would not wish to go back to another ball mouse. It is great. I have not programmed the thumb button to do anything, but may get round to doing something with it, some day.

I therefore heartily recommend it.

BTW, those of you who know me, know also that I have never been exactly enamoured with most Microsoft products, so when I praise one, it is praise, indeed.

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Brian (the terrible)