Mice

[Brian Ellis]

Have just done some tests with an Intellimouse (ball and wired) on a fairly hard, smooth-surfaced, polyurethane foam mat.

About 1 in 10 times, on lifting my hand off the mouse, the cursor moves by 1 or 2 pixels within a second (not always immediately). This simply does not happen with a wireless optical mouse directly on a table top. For CAD work, where many commands require keyboard intervention, this is simply unacceptable; a single pixel error is often sufficient to require correction that often takes twice as long as the original action.

I agree that this would not matter, and would probably not be noticeable, for word processing and the like.

[GNEP]

My longest-serving mouse is an Intellimouse Optical. Still works lovely like.

I do find however that it works FAR better on a fabric-type mousemat. None of the move-after-hand-removal problems that you describe, due to the increased friction on the mat. And no skittishness either that happens on my current polished wood tabletop.

[Fluff]

hey that's what i'm using. Intelli mouse w/intellieye v1.0, think it's bout 5-6 years. Bit yellow mind. and bit skitty sometimes.

[Claymonkey]

Brian are you one of those guys that can't wear watches because they mysteriously die on you? I've actually known quite a few people that this is a reality for. Why would this matter with a wireless mouse versus a wired one? Good question and I don't know. However, it jumped out at me as a possibility.

Also if you have to stick with wired mice I've often been a fan of these: http://www.mousebungee.com/ and only really stopped using them when I went wireless.

Oh and I've been using the logitech wireless mice for 4 years now and love them dearly. I've never had one die on me.

[Brian Ellis]

Nah! I can wear any kind of watch! The problem, I believe, is because the tails on the mice have a silicone rubber sheath on the cable, for flexibility, and silicone rubber has a memory of where it has been. IOW, it tries to resume it's former shape from its recent past.

[az]

Have just done some tests with an Intellimouse (ball and wired) on a fairly hard, smooth-surfaced, polyurethane foam mat.

About 1 in 10 times, on lifting my hand off the mouse, the cursor moves by 1 or 2 pixels within a second (not always immediately). This simply does not happen with a wireless optical mouse directly on a table top.

You make it sound like there are no wired optical mice. As I said, I've been using a wired optical mouse for years now, with a very high mouse sensitivity even, and the cursor never moves even one pixel when I take my hand off the mouse.

I have about 35 cm from the end of the mouse to the end of the desk and just let the cable dangle off the far edge of the desk. I don't notice it at all. I do notice mouse cables when using mice with stiffer cables (mostly cheap ones), or when people restrict the mouse cable's movement by placing objects in its path or clamping it between desk and wall.

[Brian Ellis]

I used to have 3 Microsoft opticals with wire, as stated in post #13 of this thread and they all suffered from dislocation of the nerves in the tail due to faulty design after about a year's intensive use. I looked at Logitech equivalents to replace them with, but their cable was as rigid as the bishop's zizi when cavorting with the actress and it was this that inspired me to go wireless. From the point of view of the freedom from that cable and consequent improvement of precision, I've never regretted it. But from the point of view of reliability...

[az]

As I said - absolutely no problems with either reliability or precision or freedom of movement with a Logitech Dual Optical (long discontinued) here, but also not with my first mouse, the Microsoft Mouse (which had a ball). And I do have very high standards about the devices I use.