Tricky Mouse Pad

[Cagey]

I'm no 3M shill, but I gotta tell you the best $6 I've spent since the last time I was at the Wise Guys pub has been on this mousing surface. It's super thin, very durable, and designed to reflect lasers in such a way as to make modern mice have an easy life. They even claim a 75% increase in battery life, but I can't speak to that. Makes a little sense, but I just don't have enough time on it to say. What I can say is the improvement in my mouse's pointer accuracy and smoothness has been incredible.

I remember seeing these things some years back and thinking they were bullshit, but they really do work. I just got this one out of the mailbox a few hours ago, and I can't tell you how pleased I am. I was using a piece of ABS left over from when I covered some speaker cabinets I made a few years ago...

Also very thin and durable stuff, but it was getting too smooth from wear and giving me fits. Mouse bottom was also getting sorta polished, and the two surfaces didn't want to slide very well any more. Thought I was going to have to get a new mouse, but I put some teflon tape on the bottom of the mouse and in concert with this pad, it's like the thing is weightless. Plus, the accuracy is tremendous.

You gotta try it. Throw away those spongy biohazards. You'll be glad you did.

 

[Dan025]

http://www.microthin.com/prod_wowpad.htm

^^ got one of these a few years ago, probably at the bx in japan or something. it's nice because it being so thin you don't really know it's there. but the repositionable adhesive does collect dust and lint. looks similar and has a similar claim about battery life. i don't know how much they cost but while i don't know if it's "more acurate" i guess that depends on the mouse, i haven't felt the need to buy a new mouse pad in several years so i guess i must be happy with it. i guess i don't give it much thought and i guess that can't be bad!

3m makes awesome stuff and if i had to replace my mouse pad or just get a spare i'd probably get the 3m one. i figure if it's not the same it's probably better.

 

[Cagey]

I don't expect to reposition mine, so I'm not worried about the reusable adhesive getting fuzzy or collecting anything up. I had the ABS piece fastened down with some double-sided tape and it stayed in place for several years. I imagine this one will, too. I'm just tickled pink at how precise the mouse pointer is now, and how easy the mouse moves. I'm tempted to buy a couple more and stash them in case they stop making them. Everybody's going to laptops with built-in touch pads (which I hate - seriously - screw you guys; I'm going home) so mouse pads aren't getting the attention they used to.

Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I thought these things were bullshit back when they came out. They were probably charging $25+ for them because they were trick parts for gamers. Now they're begging to clear out the warehouse.

 

[Dan025]

lol, i'm with you on touch pads but more so on touch screens. "oh you can touch the screen to do things as long as you memorize these weird gestures and like using a search function to open apps, isin't it cool gettign finger grease all over the screen?" it's like they use a touch screen as an excuse to make a shitty interface! F-U microsoft, and screw ubuntu too for the gnome3/unity even if it looks like a viable phone interface... maybe if i get a nexus i'll try ubuntu phone but it's not going anywhere near my desktop.

don't get me wrong i can navigate windows 8 just fine with the keyboard. alt+tab, win+r, and win+d do wonders to make it less aggravating but there is no reason for that nonsense. now i have to teach other people how to use the keyboard. though i'm happy that i use neither microsoft nor mac because at this point neither one makes any damn sense. ohh 3 finger does this, 4 fingers makes the screen go dim.. if i wanted my screen dim. i'd turn it off. keyboard commands are great for people that use them. it is the fastest way to do anything, but it shouldn't be the only way that makes sense. you should be able to use a computer without instruction!.

though that magic mouse apple has looks interesting, maybe there is no tactile feedback but i can get used to that. you have a mouse but can still pinch to zoom (not that holding ctrl and scrolling is somehow hard) or do other gestures. i may see if there are nice multitouch linux features in a more practical ui like kde or xfce or gnome 2.x .

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, they can keep their touch screens. If I ever get to the point where I'm so ape-like that all I can do is hold my arm out in front of me and fondle pictures to communicate, I'm gonna take the Colt and a shovel out in the woods and dig a hole, lay down in it, and blow my stupid brains out.

 

[bbl4ck]

Touch screens suck...
We got a new program at the hospital several years ago and purchased 12 touch screen monitors for my department.
We have replaced every one of them with conventional screens.  I can maneuver through programs almost twice as fast with a mouse.
Plus, like DanO mentioned, ya end up with greasy fingerprints all over the screens.  Will never buy another one...

 

[Cagey]

I used to design industrial controls for automation, and often got requests for touch screens. On the surface (no pun intended), they seem like a good idea. You can get a helluva lotta functionality in a relatively small space compared to discrete selector switches, pushbuttons and indicator lights. But, reality is somewhat different.

Most of the time, I could talk the user out of them, but once in a while they had to learn for themselves. Unfortunately, it was usually much too late to do anything about it at that point without spending an exorbitant amount of money. At least it kept them from making the same mistake twice.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Touch screens are a good fit for smartphones (or handheld computing of whatever kind) but not so much for anything else. Much rather use a mouse, or for some stuff, a stylus.