Balls!

Hi Guru,

I have trackballs on all of our home PCs.

I used to have one at work too.
It was great, no-one wanted to use my PC at ALL.

I started out with a couple of no-name units.

I really like my Logitech Trackman Vista.
However, unlessyou wash your hands to obsession, the rollers that the ball sits on have the same problem as the mice rollers.

We recently installed a Microsoft Optical.
While it does not suffer from the roller problem, and has a wheel, it is nowhere near as precise as my old Trackman.

Logitech has a new wireless trackball that looks like it may be ideal (if they made a wired version) for me.

I believe that LabTech used to have a very involved track ball style pointing device specifically designed for CADD work.

I had a file about it, but can't find it just this moment.

Chas

Teaching a group of nurses who just got mouse clicking down! I love the track ball but if the people who use it have protective gloves or OR ware on it is not easy to use. And when they are off duty they have food in their hands, which gets into thetrack ball. I need a point and click or a self cleaning touch screen computer:)

When I take the laptop to a customer site, I feel like my arm has been posessed by the demons of uncoordination.

As far as cleaning, the trackball is a snap after cleaning the belly button lint out of mousewheels all this time.

If you have more than one PC on the desktop, the trackball is indespensible for space management as well.

that you were going to question my testosterone levels.
But now that I've got your attention (by the balls) there's a little something that I would like to discuss with you. In the biography section of your Peer Profile, you mention that you are getting 486s to perform like Pentium IVs.
Well I have this little quirk that, while I own newer and much faster computers, my preferred workhorse is a 486 DX 100 with 48 MB RAM. And why? Well the box cost me $AU 20; I picked up a brand new Dynalink 33.6 Kbps external modem for $2, etc etc. And the thing does the job. I run my websites from it and all.

But I have really got AOL pissed off, because I reverted to version 4 because version 5 would no longer run because they had downloaded so many updates. They no longer provide tech support for version 4 in Australia, and the usual answer to any enquiy is: "Upgrade to version 7 and all your problems will disappear."

After explaining that I have two perfectly good Pentium 100 notebooks etc.etc. they finally informed me that version 5 and 6 were also on the version 7 disc, and they did actually realize that some customers didn't have the hardware to run version 7.

Actually I never need tech support for version 4 because nothing evergoes wrong.

So how do you get 486s to perform like P IVs?

Make the thumb button work as the index button, and notice how much better the hand feels then!

For mice without thumb buttons, just make it lefty. It's amazing how much stress this takes off of your hand.

AND no one else will use your workstation.

I have a Trackman Marble on all the PCs in my house and I absolutely love it! The ball is about an Inch and a Quarter in diameter which provides exceptional control. The body is mostly elliptical in shape with a button on each angled side providing extreme comfort. Given the choice, I would never use a normal mouse again.

Ralph

I used to have a Logitech track ball on an old computer a decade or more ago. While it didn't run into wire problems, it was still subject to roller crud.

I think we switched back because we bought a new machine that didn't have a track ball as an option. For family use, at the time, the difference between the two wasn't worth the extra expense.

Of course I might consider it as an option on the newer machines. Just need to have a mouse die when there is a little extra cash in the budget.

(Here kitty, kitty...)

I used to chat a lot with the software manager of a major computer retailer. We used to joke, but of course it was no joke, that every time you did any update, you ended up with a downgrade.

An outstanding example: I keep spreadsheets of all my doings, like household expenses, the petrol I buy, etc. Well Excel 5.0 belonging to MS Office 4.2 allows 8 separate worksheets per file, so than I can have gas, electricity, telephone, mobile, rates, levy etc all on a single file.

From Office 97 forward, you get only three sheets per file, which completely defeats my purpose of keeping associated spreadsheets on a single file.

But of course the whole IT industry (especially Bill Gates) can only keep growing (the primary premise of capitalism) by releasing a new version of Windows, with its associated software, and necessary hardware to support it, every year. And unfortunately it seem that most people mistakenly believe that "the latest is the best"

Well there's an excerpt from my "rave."

I switched to a liquid mouse and find it to be far superior to any of the other type of pointing devices available. The one I use still uses a track ball, but it is so easy on the hand. It is like squeezing Charmin all day. I have tried everything on the market and I came to this conclusion. This is my personal favorite, it may not be every ones.

Well before Windows 95 and they are great not only do they not require much desk space but you don't have to move them around into the bargin. But they are not the perfect solution yet as they still require cleaning admittelly less often but when they do play up it takes as long to clean them properly as an old mouse. I currently have a MS IntelliMouse TrackBall which has just fallen apart when I turned it over to find out what's it's called. I cann't have put it back together properly after cleaning it earlier today. Anyway despite the cost I will continue to use TrackBalls at least until something better comes along.

I still morn the loss of the strip that went along the top of the keyboard telling you all the hot keys and shortcuts yes there still there but unless you read the books completly and don't get lazy like me then you just forget all those nifty little fast ways of doing things and follow the point and click methoid which is far slower but as I said I'm lazy and I don't really miss the time now even thoug on occasions I'd still prefer that little bit of cardboard along the top of the Keyboard it was a real God Send as it sped up all ways of doing things.

Once sold to a person who had a Telecom CD {our phone carrier over here it was then Government owned}. The CD clearly said all you need to get on the Internet was this disk and a modem, so the guy promptly came in and bought a modem only to return it the following day saying it didn't work so I tested it and assured him that it did indead work properly. The next day I got a very abusive phone call saying that the modem didn't work and I would have to go down there to show him how to use the thing.

WhenI got there I found the modem setup in front of a TV with the CD sitting on top of the modem and the person being very abusive about it not working. When I asked where was his computer he showed me the CD {which I still have a copy of} andit clearly said that all that was required was that CD and a modem. I refunded him the money for the modem and told him to contact Telecom to get a answer.

I have a trackball at work and at home, don't have the same size screen though. Love them, can't go back to a normal mouse now, but and there is a but, workmates just can't get on with the trackball....well it does keep them off my machine.