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Old Mouse Dot Com

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58 pointsbrudgers23 comments

That's a nice collection of old computer mice!

If any of you are fortunate enough to visit CERN in Geneva, there's a mouse museum:

http://computer-animal-shelter.web.cern.ch/index.shtml

I'd be particularly interested to see a decap of a PixArt chip (e.g. PAW3515DB). The USB circuitry is included in the same package as the CCD sensor, and I'd like to see how they do that! I also imagine that the die geometry is quite large, because power requirements aren't a major concern, but cost is. It would also be nice to see Ken Shirriff do a historical write up of mice over the generations.

This reminds me of the long, and long-past, period where I was frequently teaching people to clean the housing of their mouse’s rollerball.

The old urban legend of the IBM service alert for field techs.

https://www.neystadt.org/john/humor/IBM-Mouse-Balls.htm

Amazing how the what's become the "standard" is the worse possible design, ergonomically speaking. Was it Apple's doing?

Although Apple is at fault for all modern tech woes (/s), the Magic Mouse design (thankfully?) has not been widely copied by mouse makers.

Anyone know where I can buy a modern mouse that has three normal buttons, i.e. the middle button is not a scroll wheel?

A quick google search finds this:

https://elecomus.com/web/product/no-scroll-wheel-wired-2-4g-...

It says it's "designed for 3D CAD use". I know nothing about that but maybe if you search in that space you'll find more choice.

Edit: Non-amazon link

IBM ScrollPoint are very nice, and still available as new old stock. Three real buttons plus a separate Trackpoint-like thing for bidirectional scrolling.

I've got a Logitech G403, which has a little button just behind the scroll wheel that you can program to behave as the middle button. It's not positioned very well for chording, but for middle clicks and middle drags I've found it fine. Certainly much more comfortable than any scroll wheel.

I have been using Evoluent vertical mice for years, they have 3 buttons + scroll wheel. I find the vertical orientation more ergonomic as well, it keeps your wrist neutral.

Hey another request to piggyback on yours, where can I find a relatively normal (non-gamer) mouse with a button that can disconnect the brake on the wheel? I don't even know what it's called but I know I love that feature.

For example to quickly scroll down a long page, just disconnect the brakes and roll the wheel, it will just keep going. Or testing infinite scroll feature, just let the wheel go.

I had one mouse like this that I loved but it broke eventually. Now the only one I've been able to find is a gamer mouse with a bunch of unnecessary feature.

I don't know about other mice, but the Logitech M705 has that.

Logitech seem to have a monopoly on this particular development - you’ll be looking for something like the MX Master series for a non gamer mouse with this functionality - the MX Master 3 is the most recent model. The clutch on the scroll wheel on this mouse can be manually engaged or programmed to release when you scroll with sufficient violence

>scroll with sufficient violence

I've heard used with sufficient persuasion or with sufficient encouragement, but yours is a new one. Remind me to not tap on your shoulder while deep in the zone.

My MX Master 3 was great until the last feature you mentioned decided to enable itself and never disable again...

Logitech calls it SmartShift and other people have reported the same issue, SmartShift enables itself, and from that point onward no settings changes will disable it.

It's pretty frustrating to say the least, the MX Master 3 was poised to fix the reliability issues the previous entries had otherwise (since replaced the physical scroll wheel click with an electromagnet in a very convincing way)

Ohh no, I didn't know that others had a problem with smart shift, I've had my mouse for well over a year now with no issues across Windows, macOS and Linux (minus the ability to configure anything on it on linux, a problem I've not tried solving).

I assume that firmware updates have done nothing to help you?

Logitech M500S. I have one similar, its great to spin it like a fidget spinner

I think that's the one I used until it broke. I didn't even know what it was called because I realized how much I loved the clutch feature long after I unboxed it.

Found it on a Danish site, it's not impossible to order but it's not obviously available here. Thanks stranger!

As of a few years ago you could still get the HP DY651A or IBM 40K9201 mouse (identical apart from logos) with a bit of hunting. Unfortunately I just looked and at a cursory glance I can’t find anyone who has them in stock, so they may have been discontinued, but you may be able to call around and find someone who still has a few in a corner somewhere.

If ye like that ye might like this

https://youtu.be/Cd6lxwjX2Bk

Video of a guy evaluating a weird early cheap optical mouse from 1996 + taking it apart and figuring out how it works.

Ah, the time of Hawley dual roller mice… that brings back memories of DEC X terminals.

KoalaPad!

Koala Pads were awesome. I got on the cover of a 1980's computer magazine because of one.

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