|
Honestly, I think Microsoft builds better mouse devices than software. For me the Comfort 4500 series remains unbeaten in comfort and durability.
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
|
|
|
|
|
I think a lot of the hardcore MS haters will admit liking their hardware. My preferred keyboards have also always been Microsoft's. I wish they'd update their original beige Natural Ergonomic keyboard from circa 1995 - I've worn out at least two of them.
Although these days they'd be rather inconvenient without the Windows key (and a few multimedia buttons that I've grown accustomed to). My current compromise is the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 v1.0. It's by far the closest thing they had to the original design (in terms of layout), although having the "6" key on the left half instead of the right still trips me up to this day.
|
|
|
|
|
My Natural Pro keyboard has the 6 on the left and that is between 15 and 20 years old
|
|
|
|
|
I had to dig mine out. Holy crap, you're right - the '6' button is on the left.
I could've sworn one of MS's first ergonomic (split) keyboards had the button on the right side (and by "right", I do mean the correct side) 
|
|
|
|
|
I'd say that for keyboards, yes... But mice were always Logitech for me starting with classic MouseMan
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. T.Jefferson
|
|
|
|
|
More than a decade ago IBM made a big, dark blue "ergonomic" mouse. Wired, two buttons and a wheel with a couple of thumb buttons. It was great; it fitted my large hand - and I would still be using it if my son hadn't stolen it for his gaming machine. 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
dandy72 wrote: I've had a few of them, but they've eventually all developed annoying quirks...the left mouse button would stop working and "drop" a window as I'm dragging it by its caption...right-clicks that wouldn't register unless I tried a few times, pressing harder each time...that sort of thing.
Why not just replace the failed button switch? That's what people did with the old Amiga mice back in the day. It's not like the thing's still in warranty. They probably all failed that way, and chances are, someone already posted instructions and the part number of the replacement switch.
|
|
|
|
|
Why don't you give a try to something like Logitech's M500[^] if you want a corded mouse. This one works pretty fine I'd say, although personally I prefer her bigger cordless brothers because they sit better in my hands. Too bad that most of them are right-handed only.
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. T.Jefferson
|
|
|
|
|
When I was a young lad and I played a lot of FPS games, there's was always something about the way the IntelliMouse felt that nothing else could match. When I could no longer get them I gradually just stopped playing FPS games because of frustration that I couldn't get another mouse to feel the same and I couldn't quite adapt to the way other mice moved no matter how hard I tried.
I've tried all manner of hardware for both gaming and development, but IntelliMouse + Comfort Curve keyboards just do it for me in a way nothing else can. The mouse I settled on with the most similar cursor feel to it is actually a Gigabyte mouse right now which I like, but I'm excited to see they rereleased the IntelliMouse! I'll have to give it a try to see if it actually is as good as I remember it or if that's just nostalgia talking.
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Marynowski wrote: I'm excited to see they rereleased the IntelliMouse! I'll have to give it a try to see if it actually is as good as I remember it or if that's just nostalgia talking.
My experience so far with the 'new' one: It's not just nostalgia. It's much better than anything I had tried since the last of my originals had died.
|
|
|
|
|
I hear ya there.
It was a sad, sad day when I lost my MS-Office 3000 Intelli mouse.
I have fairly large hands (Some would call them meat shovels) and pretty much every mouse Iv'e gotten since then is just dwarfed under my hand.
Currently I'm using a bog standard no frills Logitech supermarket £20 job from Tesco, the mouse is tiny, and the keyboard reminds me some what of typing on a ZX81 back in the 1980's.
Mouse wise, it's being a pain latley, trying to use the middle click on it, I sometimes have to press 2 or 3 times to get it to register, or sometimes I have to press, hold, until my action is performed, then let go before it repeats it a million times.
My Intelli mouse size wise used to just fit perfectly in my hand, and the keyboard was pretty good too.
However, about 5 months ago I was raking around in a box if spares in the loft, looking for something and I found one of these
PS2 Track ball on eBay
Which I forgot I had. I plugged it in and restarted the PC, and hey presto, win 7 picked it up straight away, no fuss. Since then Iv'e bitten the bullet and repaved to win 10, and you know what...
Damn thing still works flawlessly, and here's the best part. It's wonderful to use it. All the RSI related aches and pains I get moving the normal mouse around the desktop just disappear.
If I need the cursor to stay still I just take my finger off the ball and it stays still, it doesn't do the little jiggly dance like just about every optical one Iv'e seen does.
All I need now is to convince the missus I should go back to using a "Machine Gun" as a keyboard
|
|
|
|
|
I have had intellimice but now using my Microsoft Comfort Mouse 4500 when I couldn't get a direct replacement. I use it left handed even though I am right handed
I had tennis elbow years ago and realised mouse use was aggravating it so I switched to left hand use but with the buttons configured for right hand use as well
The worst bit is the dirt that accumulates on the glide bits that has to be cleaned off when the mouse starts to drag
What I will really hope they keep making is my Microsoft Natural Pro keyboard which I have now had for 15 or more years, maybe I should buy a few as spares...
|
|
|
|
|
I certainly get where you're coming from. I'm still using an old MS Internet Keyboard from way back. Both of the legs have broken over time and I've epoxied them back on. Of course I have to use a PS2 to USB converter. It's the bulk and robustness of the keyboard I like - most of the ones today are so cheap and skimpy (at least the ones that come with new PCs).
|
|
|
|
|
Recently, i switched from a Microsoft mouse to a Logitech Gaming one (a G300S if you're interested), which is both inexpensive and pretty useful as it has a lot of programmable buttons, unfortunately, to program them you need Logitech drivers, but once you do so, and the profile is stored in the mouse itself you shouldn't need them.
"Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again." Ray Bradbury
|
|
|
|
|
I'm gonna rain on your parade.  Don't take it the wrong way, just expression my own personal view.
This is exactly the type of mouse I started purchasing after my last IntelliMouse died - I thought the extra buttons would come in handy, but instead over time I realized the fancier the mouse, the less useful the extra features tend to be - I'd often find myself accidentally hitting the extra buttons for example. I had one that had a button on top dedicated to changing the DPI setting on the fly - who needs to change that after it's been set once? (I didn't buy it for that reason)... Just as can happen with software, to me these were always cases of packing in extra features, at the cost of usability.
I could even do without my IntelliMouse's extra two buttons on its left side (mapped to the browser's Back/Forward buttons) - but fortunately they're not positioned in such a way that I ever hit them accidentally.
Of course YMMV, and it's perfectly reasonable for you to swear by yours. That's why there's different models. And that's why I'm happy "my" simpler model has made a comeback.
|
|
|
|
|
Don't worry, it's raining season here, so my parade is ready for it  .
I actually purchased it for all the extra buttons (and they're mapped to a lot of navigation shortcuts in Visual Studio), my previous mouse (a Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000) had an extra "zoom" button, that at first though it was was a fancy gimmick, but proved pretty useful as i could remap it to do something more useful, so when it started to fail i look for another one or something similar, but all the ones i could find where wireless, which i didn't like, so i waited until i found one wired and with more buttons.
However, i still miss the solid feeling of that Microsoft mouse, as the Logitech one feels too light for my tastes.
"Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again." Ray Bradbury
|
|
|
|
|
I loved the Intellimouse, and then the Logitech MX510. But - for the last three years, I've been using a Steelseries Sensei RAW (which now has been superseded by the Sensei 310). I love the Sensei as it is perfect for ambidextrous use. It has two programmable side buttons on each side, and a sensitivity change switch on top - which allows you to switch between two distinct "speed" settings. Handy when you are pixel fiddling with images.
|
|
|
|
|
...it's the sign of a junior programmer when they put #region tags inside methods. Because that method then becomes a 10,000 line monster, "neatly organized" by #region tags rather than being broken out into multiple methods.  
|
|
|
|
|
Hey!
I've done that like once maybe, to encapsule error handling I think.
In my infix-to-postfix method?
|
|
|
|
|
Congratulations, you've now probably just given a lot of them that idea...
Sometimes things should just be left alone, never to be discussed. This probably qualifies.
|
|
|
|
|
Where I work it's not infrequent to hear someone say "Think about Uncle Bobbing that" or "Uncle Bob the hell out of that method" as I recently heard.
Nowadays every junior programmer would benefit from meeting Uncle Bob early in their programming career.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
|
|
|
|
|
"Clean code? What, like with a cloth?"
"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."
- Hanlon's Razor
|
|
|
|
|
Of course, some Sr Developers will see 10,000 lines of things that need to be relocated to external methods and will #Regionalize it with a comment of ToDo.... and send it back to junior
Director of Transmogrification Services
Shinobi of Query Language
Master of Yoda Conditional
|
|
|
|
|
I started using .NET 1.0 (whatever it was).
We honestly developed an in-house Web App using .NET 1.1 and from what I remember by the time .NET 2.0 released Microsoft was even decrying the use of #Region telling others not to use it.
I am always amazed (and righteously annoyed!) when I find it in code.
EDIT
Here's a rant on #regions by CodingHorror that dates back to 2008:
The Problem With Code Folding[^]
|
|
|
|
|
Regions are like any other tools - use as appropriate and when needed. I like them because I am OCD and they are the very epitome of neat and tidy - I can hide the code I have no current interest in. Besides, spaces are a far worse crime than regions - they are evil incarnate and I ALWAYS reformat to tabs - what sane person wouldn't?
Keep your friends close. Keep Kill your enemies closer.
The End
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
