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Mouse Jiggling

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by itgirli

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I'm sure most of us have done it once or twice in our lives, or if you are like me, many times a day. We sit there staring at our screen, waiting for whatever it is to download, install, open, close, or just perform some sort of action. It's either taking too long or it looks like it hangs and we reach out and give the mouse a little jiggle.
I've always been an avid mouse jiggler and I know many other mouse jigglers in the IT world; however, when I went back to school for a more in depth look at IT, the instructors swore that mouse jiggling did nothing. It seems to do something for me, even if to just get a little frustration out in a jiggle.
What I want to know is where the TR members stand on the facts and myths of mouse jiggling. Do you jiggle, or do you not?

79 replies

by jck

but, I do it when things don't respond to see if there's a total computer lockup, rather than a process-locking that I can kill.

From a computer perspective, all a mouse jiggle will do at the OS level is take up more cycles redrawing the mouse pointer for you.

by jdclyde

If the mouse moves, the computer isn't completely frozen (yet).

I also look at the icon to change, to indicate if it is processing or not.

After that, it is into the task manager to look at processor usage.

by maecuff

Perhaps, someday, I'll get some substance. Until then, I'd rather just find the humor in life.

by dc guy

You kids are so civilized. I miss the good old days when you could kick the card reader.

by jck

Wouldn't seemingly broken flipping the toggles on the old vacuum models be equivalent to the modern mouse jiggle to making things go faster??

hehehe...man...card readers...the stuff of childhood memories :)

by m_a_r_k

Yeah that brings back memories. Mostly bad memories. It was hell if you had a 12-inch thick stack of punch cards sequentially and neatly and carefully arranged in a box and you dropped the box on the way to the card reader. Took a monumental effort to put Humpty-Dumpty back together without your IF statements turning into infinite loops and your function calls diving deep into the OS and crashing the whole damn mainframe.

by maecuff

I worked for a company that did their data entry on DEC writers (green bar paper instead of a monitor. And when we converted our software, we took the old DEC writers and demolished them with hammers. It was satisfying.

by cp7212

When I was in seventh-grade, our school had a terminal that connected to the mainframe across town. It printed on that recycled-mash paper that cost about .50 a roll. We didn't have the punch cards to save things, we had the paper tape and a lot of thick rubber bands. God help you if you tore one edge of that tape, never mind that the edge was about two millimeters thick.

Back then I thought that was the greatest thing since sliced bread....having a "computer" to play with. lol

by m_a_r_k

I move the mouse around but I don't jiggle. If I started to jiggle, that would be a good indication to me that I am in dire need of more exercise and less food. However, it is good when women jiggle. As long as they jiggle in the right places. I have never seen a mouse jiggle. I have only seen them sitting plaintively in a corner staring at me with their beady little eyes.

Now, as for your comment about your instructors swearing that mouse jiggling doesn't do anything. First of all, it is not polite to swear. Damn, I hate impolite people. Second of all, are you referring to trying to make the puter finish what's it's chomping on faster by jiggling your mouse? Nope that won't do anything to get things moving faster or unlock a locked program. Totally separate line of processing in the computer. (I hope this post doesn't qualify as an IT-related thread for me. I need to keep my streak of 240+ non-IT posts going).

BTW, yes I do jiggle the mouse while waiting for something such as a download or program to start.

by tonythetiger

I think it distorts your sense of time, to where whatever is taking so long won't seem as long. Like the "watched pot never boils" theory.

I've also whacked the side of the computer case (It's called percussive maintenance).

by itgirli

I have been known to give the case a little kick. If it looks like it helped, I'm all for it.

by neil higgins

Jiggle the mouse,kick the case.How about stroke the dongle? oops,my wife says this is a "nice" site,and has just put the boot-in on my hard drive. :)

by itgirli

How about the CD drive? Do you use the "open/close" button to close it, or do you slap it shut like I do?

by m_a_r_k

It's best not to force something to go into a hole where it does not want to go.

by jdclyde

Who has time for reaching UNDER the cup holder just to push that button?

That would just be silly!

by itgirli

you push the button to open it, once it's open you can slam it in.
(i'm having a hard time typing with a straight face. Hey! guess what word I typed)(I can be juvenile)

by m_a_r_k

I'm glad I'm not the only uncoordinated person who has a hard time twisting my arm and hand below the cupholder that doubles as a CDROM tray to push the button that would be on top instead of on bottom if whoever builds the damn things would get a clue.

by montgomery gator

I do it, but only to stop the screen saver from kicking in, or as a nervous habit, like twiddling thumbs or tapping fingers, when bored and waiting stuck in "blue bar land". I am well aware it does nothing, except use up a few processing cycles.

by master3bs

is to see if the pc is responding. I also tap the num lock key to see if the light comes on and off.

by dmambo

(Oh, crap - another bad title)

If you keep posting like this, people will think you are some sort of mouse-bangin', jiggle-minded, Jello-slurpin' pervert. That is NOT a suitable reputation for King Geek.

And since you're near Atlanta - Go Yellow Jackets!!!!!

by jaqui

just in case of accidents.
I sequentially numbered the cards on the top left corner of the backs.

after the first time I dropped a stack of 2500 cards on my way to get them read into the system.

by m_a_r_k

I couldn't number my cards b/c my code was wrought with bugs and unintentional trojan horses. So I'd always have to insert or delete many, many cards (lines nowadays; thank goodness for text editors). My friends and I used to watch the computer whizzes haul their boxes of punch cards to the reader, and we'd hope and pray that just once one of them would drop the box and cover the floor with their cards.

by jaqui

that's what that bottle of oil under the card reader was for.
did you think it was to oil the mechanism inside the reader?
no it was to create slippery spots to get the whizzes to fall on thier a$$es just like the rest of us. :)

by ozi eagle

Just ruled a diagonal line across the edges of a stack of cards. Out of sequence ones stood out like the proverbial.

by surflover

used a decimal system for inserts... when we got a newer punch (I forget the model), it had a function which would re-punch the deck (it had a reader attached), and number the new deck at the same time... saved lot of tedious re numbering by hand, but killed a lot of trees...

by m_a_r_k

About a dozen witty and prose-filled comments just now flooded my brain but I invoke whichever amendment is used to keep from incriminating oneself.

by jaqui

if the system has locked, or appears to have locked, the caps lock key tells me so.
( tap that once, if the keyboard light comes on it ain't locked up, tap second time to turn caps lock off )

if the program ain't responding, then I open a konsole window and kill the process.
if the gui has locked, I use the 3 finger salute to kill the x-server and am back in console with the system running.

by m_a_r_k

The LED is not driven by the computer, is it? I think the keyboard has its own processor that detects keys being pressed (and hence turns on the LEDs when the right keys are pressed) because it has to formulate and send the key code to the 'puter. It would be unneccessary overhead for both the computer to continuously monitor the keyboard, and overhead for both computer and keyboard if the computer had to tell the KB to turn on an LED when the KB already knows the key was pressed.

by jaqui

that's okay, I had the same type of thoughts.

and the only reson I didn't start making comments was her reply wasn't to me. ;)

by jaqui

naw.. better not, this is supposed to be a pg13 site.. and my wife would get upset if I did.

by m_a_r_k

But I will ask how in the world does one make a devil emoticon here? That little face seems quite appropriate in situations such as this.

by jdclyde

use the ] then the : and ) all put together as ]:)

The thing I find disapointing is there doesn't seem to be one on TR for an angel! Being sweet and innocent as I am, it would come in rather handy!

There is a list on here somewhere.

by m_a_r_k

Thanks jd. Who knows what other kinds of secret emoticons may be lurking around here. There might be an angel there too. Try every possible combination of keys. No telling what kind of monsters you'll create. If TR published a list, it would help.

Let's see if this works.... ]:)

by m_a_r_k

...what pumps the data (to indicate the key that was pressed) across the interface to the PC? For example, the brain-dead matrix won't know how to generate a stream of data compatible with the USB interface. I'm pretty sure there's some brains in there. Probably nothing more than an 8-bit microcontroller with a few hundred bytes of onboard RAM. Maybe I'll crack open one of my keyboards at home this evening and see what's inside.

by jaqui

naw I have a ps2 keyboard.

a micro current down the line which the adapter sends to the subsystem on the mainboard which sends a signal to the keyboard light.

so if the cpu locks down, the light stops working. :)

by m_a_r_k

I can see your point. Slapping it in is OK. It's good to hear you don't want to force it out when it's already in. That might break something.

by tony hopkinson

by telling it not to pay attention to anything jiggling and concentrate on coming up with an answer a bit quicker. So now jiggling is deferred.
Perhaps I should put a switch in and sell it as a feature.

by charliespencer

I haven't done it since I had Task Manager open once when I jiggled. Watching the hit on the CPU broke me of the habit. If I think the box is hung, I move the mouse once, down to the clock in the tray. If the date pops up, it ain't hung.

I also don't get jiggy or jiggly or juggly or whatever. I don't make Jell-O Jigglers. I did like watching the "Juggies" on "The Man Show".

by m_a_r_k

Do you think ITgirli knew what she was starting when she began this discussion? I think she did. haha

by jdclyde

you will have to be serverly punished!

Hey swill, where do I get one of them ballgags? that and a nice set of shackles!

by bmedlock

But let me explain why...
In my experience the computer will lock up when there is a diruption in the space-time continuum centered somewhere near my HDD.
The fix is to "jiggle" the mouse which will then send a short tachyon burst into the center of said disruption restoring normal space-time.
At least, that's how things work in my dimension...
;)

by m_a_r_k

I think you have too much empty space between your ears and too much free time. haha

by dmambo

I've seen people get frustrated and slam the mouse on the desk. Or get clicky - ie clicking 20 or 30 times hoping that will get things moving. I'm sure these people press the lighted elevator buttons a few extra times to speed things up, as well.

On the flip side, I had a person recently call me and say that they've been waiting for their PC to boot up for about 1/2 an hour. Patience of a saint. :)

by bfilmfan

I laughed aloud when I saw your message title.

I had a picture of Mr. Jinx outside Dixie and Pixie (the world's first gay mouse couple) hole in the wall" saying, "Come and get it meeces!"

by thechas

Mouse jiggling to attempt to speed up a process is counterproductive.

All of the computing activity that takes place to move the cursor around the screen just makes it take that much longer for the process you are waiting for to complete. (Web page loading is an exception.)

So, why do we jiggle?

It's a remnant of our superstitious past.

We somehow perceive that shaking the stick at the evil spirit will cause it to do our bidding.

Chas

by itgirli

I think you have figured it out! That's it! Shake a stick, jiggle a mouse. It all makes sense now. You're a genius!

by absolutely

If your computer does periodically freeze, the occasional jiggle during extended periods of high CPU utilization saves time overall by telling you when it's time to CTRL-ALT-DEL or reboot, rather than waiting until the end of time, or buying a new computer whenever your computer freezes.

by jessie

phylum. I've always liked that one. File'em. Phylum? No, file them, idiot.

King = Kingdom
Philip = Phylum
Came = Class
Over = Order
For = Family
Good = Genus
Sex = Species

by kelseyl

Nervous jiggling (i.e., Random in direction and oscillation time) and absolutely no effect on processing or downloading time. However, I do believe that carefully timed horizontal "jiggling" can have a soothing effect on the "Jiggler" rendering the time involved in processing or downloading irrelevant.

by tonythetiger

Maybe is some peculiarity in my mouse pad or something, but occasionally, I'll be say, watching a video, and the mouse pointer will move slowly (usually on a diagonal until it hits an edge but sometimes in a circular motion), even though the mouse isn't moving (it's optical, by the way).

by jdclyde

my sweet and innocent self has been crushed, mambo!

Haven't you seen the love and emotions streaming out of my every post?

Not to mention, I am ALWAYS respectful of women and would never treat them like the sex object they are! :^O

Just ask my boys. "Innocent of all wrong doing!" ;\ I taught them to say that early on.

The best was when I would have Thing Two on the Motorbike and we would pull up beside some hot babes. I would say "What do we say to the hot babes?", and his response would be "WOO WOO!".

Always got a laugh out of the babes before we rode off into the sunset.

by jessie

Where on earth did your wife get the impression that this is a "nice" site? Damn! Things must have gone uphill since I've been on leave. I need to get back in here and muddy the waters some more!

by roger99a

I have convinced many that there is a proper method to mouse jiggling. You must go in circles, counter-clockwise. This creates an electro-magnetic gravity well that speeds up the hard disk motor. Anything else just slows it down.

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