No More Mighty Mouse Cleaning

Fred Moore wrote:
> I have to agree with Howard. I hate buying batteries and pumping them
> into landfills (or recycling them if appropriate). Unfortunately
> rechargeables don't often work well in these devices. They have to be
> recharged MUCH more frequently than replacing a standard alkalines, and
> sometimes, because of their lower voltage, they just won't function.

I have a venerable MacAlly Bluetooth mouse (which was one of the first
available Bluetooth mice for the Mac if not the first) and couldn't be
happier. The mouse works perfectly well with 2 AA recharchables which
must be recharched about once a week.

+ Jolly Roger <jollyroger RemoveThis @pobox.com>:

> [...] because I find the lag of Bluetooth mousing to be irritating.

I don't see this lag that people are complaining abot. Only if it's been
long enough without use that the mouse went to sleep do I see a lag.
Otherwise, mine is as responsive as any wired mouse. Maybe Apple mice
are different? Mine is a Kensington.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell

+ John Smith <john.smith RemoveThis @for.example>:

> I have a venerable MacAlly Bluetooth mouse (which was one of the first
> available Bluetooth mice for the Mac if not the first) and couldn't be
> happier. The mouse works perfectly well with 2 AA recharchables which
> must be recharched about once a week.

Ditto for my Kensington one. Except it uses AAA batteries, which is nice
from a weight perspective. A rodent with two AA batteries in it feels
heavy; two AAA ones, much less so.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell

In article <pcopr8gw9su.fsf RemoveThis @math.ntnu.no>,
Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche RemoveThis @math.ntnu.no> wrote:

> + Jolly Roger <jollyroger RemoveThis @pobox.com>:
>
> > [...] because I find the lag of Bluetooth mousing to be irritating.
>
> I don't see this lag that people are complaining abot. Only if it's been
> long enough without use that the mouse went to sleep do I see a lag.
> Otherwise, mine is as responsive as any wired mouse. Maybe Apple mice
> are different? Mine is a Kensington.

I notice this problem with Logitech mouse as well, so it's not
Apple-specific. Did you try the test I outlined? If you compare a
wired mouse with a wireless mouse, side by side, I am sure you will see
the difference.

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
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JR

+ Jolly Roger <jollyroger.DeleteThis@pobox.com>:

> In article <pcopr8gw9su.fsf.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no>,
> Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no> wrote:
>
>> I don't see this lag that people are complaining abot. Only if it's been
>> long enough without use that the mouse went to sleep do I see a lag.
>> Otherwise, mine is as responsive as any wired mouse. Maybe Apple mice
>> are different? Mine is a Kensington.
>
> I notice this problem with Logitech mouse as well, so it's not
> Apple-specific. Did you try the test I outlined?

No. The article in which you outline a test seems not to have made it to
the usenet server I am using. Odd.

> If you compare a wired mouse with a wireless mouse, side by side, I
> am sure you will see the difference.

Ah. I won't have access to a wired mouse between now and next summer, so
I can't run a comparison test anyhow. But I have been using computer
mice, both wired and not, for a couple of decades so I think I would
notice if one of them became laggy. I am quite easily irritated by even
small delays in any user interface. Probably not good for my disposition.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell

In article <pco8wf3wqd3.fsf.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no>,
Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no> wrote:

> + Jolly Roger <jollyroger.DeleteThis@pobox.com>:
>
> > In article <pcopr8gw9su.fsf.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no>,
> > Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no> wrote:
> >
> >> I don't see this lag that people are complaining abot. Only if it's been
> >> long enough without use that the mouse went to sleep do I see a lag.
> >> Otherwise, mine is as responsive as any wired mouse. Maybe Apple mice
> >> are different? Mine is a Kensington.
> >
> > I notice this problem with Logitech mouse as well, so it's not
> > Apple-specific. Did you try the test I outlined?
>
> No. The article in which you outline a test seems not to have made it to
> the usenet server I am using. Odd.
>
> > If you compare a wired mouse with a wireless mouse, side by side, I
> > am sure you will see the difference.
>
> Ah. I won't have access to a wired mouse between now and next summer, so
> I can't run a comparison test anyhow. But I have been using computer
> mice, both wired and not, for a couple of decades so I think I would
> notice if one of them became laggy. I am quite easily irritated by even
> small delays in any user interface. Probably not good for my disposition.

Here's what I said:

I think "lag" was a bad word for me to use. It's hard to describe; but
I'll try. It's not that the mouse takes too long to respond. It seems to
respond quickly enough. The problem to which I refer is seemingly one of
accuracy.

Here's a way to see the problem. Position a window on the screen. And
then focus on the first letter of the title of the window. Now pick a
place on the desktop that is around an inch or so away from the first
letter of the title of the window. Then try positioning the mouse cursor
from one point to the other quickly. With a wired mouse, I find I can
accurately hit each point. With a Bluetooth mouse, I often overshoot or
undershoot, and end up circling around to adjust.

Adjusting the Tracking Speed setting in System Preferences > Mouse
doesn't seem to help much. Even as lower settings, it's still harder to
hit the target than it is with a wired mouse.

I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do with the
response time of Bluetooth.

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

In article <pcoljj4w9p7.fsf.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no>,
Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche.DeleteThis@math.ntnu.no> wrote:

> + John Smith <john.smith.DeleteThis@for.example>:
>
> > I have a venerable MacAlly Bluetooth mouse (which was one of the first
> > available Bluetooth mice for the Mac if not the first) and couldn't be
> > happier. The mouse works perfectly well with 2 AA recharchables which
> > must be recharched about once a week.
>
> Ditto for my Kensington one. Except it uses AAA batteries, which is nice
> from a weight perspective. A rodent with two AA batteries in it feels
> heavy; two AAA ones, much less so.

Thanks for the data, John and Harald. Power management software must
have improved in these kind of devices since I tested them last.

In article <jollyroger-64D17A.10132122102009.TakeThisOut@news.individual.net>,
Jolly Roger <jollyroger.TakeThisOut@pobox.com> wrote:

>
> I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do with the
> response time of Bluetooth.

I agree with this. I had a MS bluetooth mouse that felt sluggish, much
more than my bluetooth mighty mouse. But the current mouses that I'm
using do not seem to exhibit this behavior much at all if any. These
are not bluetooth but rather RF. And they are laser.

dick

In article <DrJamesSidbury-2F5886.23515522102009 DeleteThis @news.individual.net>,
James Sidbury <DrJamesSidbury DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote:

> In article <jollyroger-64D17A.10132122102009 DeleteThis @news.individual.net>,
> Jolly Roger <jollyroger DeleteThis @pobox.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do with the
> > response time of Bluetooth.
>
> I agree with this. I had a MS bluetooth mouse that felt sluggish, much
> more than my bluetooth mighty mouse. But the current mouses that I'm
> using do not seem to exhibit this behavior much at all if any. These
> are not bluetooth but rather RF. And they are laser.

And you think bluetooth is not RF?

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

+ Tom Stiller <tom_stiller RemoveThis @yahoo.com>:

> In article <DrJamesSidbury-2F5886.23515522102009 RemoveThis @news.individual.net>,
> James Sidbury <DrJamesSidbury RemoveThis @hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> [...] But the current mouses that I'm using do not seem to exhibit
>> this behavior much at all if any. These are not bluetooth but rather
>> RF. And they are laser.
>
> And you think bluetooth is not RF?

More to the point, the non-BT wireless mice, which typically communicate
via a dongle on a USB port, don't need to deal with any overhead
associated with the bluetooth protocol. I am not convinced that there is
noticable such overhead, but I wouldn't rule it out either.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell

In article <tom_stiller-55E254.06300023102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
Tom Stiller <tom_stiller.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:

> In article <DrJamesSidbury-2F5886.23515522102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
> James Sidbury <DrJamesSidbury.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <jollyroger-64D17A.10132122102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
> > Jolly Roger <jollyroger.DeleteThis@pobox.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do with the
> > > response time of Bluetooth.
> >
> > I agree with this. I had a MS bluetooth mouse that felt sluggish, much
> > more than my bluetooth mighty mouse. But the current mouses that I'm
> > using do not seem to exhibit this behavior much at all if any. These
> > are not bluetooth but rather RF. And they are laser.
>
> And you think bluetooth is not RF?

I didn't say that. I just don't know a specific name for the wireless
mouses that are not bluetooth which have a receiver that typically plugs
into a USB port.

dick

In article <DrJamesSidbury-26432F.14582623102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
Dick Sidbury <DrJamesSidbury.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:

> In article <tom_stiller-55E254.06300023102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
> Tom Stiller <tom_stiller.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > In article
> > <DrJamesSidbury-2F5886.23515522102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
> > James Sidbury <DrJamesSidbury.DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > In article
> > > <jollyroger-64D17A.10132122102009.DeleteThis@news.individual.net>,
> > > Jolly Roger <jollyroger.DeleteThis@pobox.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do
> > > > with the response time of Bluetooth.
> > >
> > > I agree with this. I had a MS bluetooth mouse that felt
> > > sluggish, much more than my bluetooth mighty mouse. But the
> > > current mouses that I'm using do not seem to exhibit this
> > > behavior much at all if any. These are not bluetooth but rather
> > > RF. And they are laser.
> >
> > And you think bluetooth is not RF?
>
> I didn't say that. I just don't know a specific name for the
> wireless mouses that are not bluetooth which have a receiver that
> typically plugs into a USB port.
>


Not to nitpick, but you did say "These are not bluetooth but rather RF."

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

+ Tom Stiller <tom_stiller.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com>:

> Not to nitpick, but you did say [...]

Not to nitpick, but if that isn't nitpicking, what is?



--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell