Posted on 03/26/2006 10:31:05 AM PST by BJungNan
The Rodent Mac Infestation
Here I come to save the day!
Will it be another hockey puck?On Tuesday, Apple introduced a new "multibutton" mouse, called the Mighty Mouse. The mouse looks like a slightly modified version of the mouse it replaced, except it has a noticable "Scroll Ball" in the center.
The $50 mouse still has one big mechanical button, but touch sensors can tell if you're left or right clicking. Two pressure-sensitive controls on the sides can be used for another function. The Scroll Ball can scroll in any direction, and also is clickable. Unfortunately, you must have OS X 10.4.2 to get all of the features.
Also, Ars Technica took it apart to see how it works.
Walt Mossberg reviewed it, and found there to be some problems:
"...right-clicking with the Mighty Mouse was unpredictable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. We needed to press the right side repeatedly to get a single right click, slowing us down and annoying us, well, mightily."
Plus, there are plenty of multibutton alternatives for less money. We're just wondering: will this be the next hockey-puck mouse or something great?
And that folks proves why some people will fall in love with anything even if it is round and a nightmere to handle.
Every nuance of Apple's products serve a purpose. Take the new iMacs. Apple has put the logo on the back of the computer. Even when seen from the rear, you know it is an Apple computer.
Open up the box to an iMac or a G4, and the first thing you see is a picture of the iMac mouse on the box of accessories.
The mouse. That round mouse.
Devoid of any other reasonable estimation of a movements worth, people will continue to flock to a bad idea so long as you reinforce their notions with images of it.
And then there were Fonts...
(skipping 1 and 2 to keep this from being a "hundreds-pages-long" post
...Solution 3: Remove the Univox font (if installed).
If you've installed the Univox font from FontManager 3 (Mac Fonts package, 2005 Mac Xware) remove it.
Solution 4: Troubleshoot fonts by disabling a few at a time.
In Mac OS X v10.3.x-10.4.x:
1. Deactivate all font management utilities, such as Adobe Type Manager or Extensis Suitcase.
2. Start Font Book from the Applications folder.
3. (Mac OS X v10.3.x only) In the Collection column, expand All Fonts.
4. In the Collection column, select Computer.
5. Choose Edit > Disable Collection. Click Disable, when asked to confirm.
6. Run the application installer. Then do one of the following:
-- If the problem recurs, repeat steps 4-5 to disable the User and Classic collections.
-- If the problem doesn't recur, the problem font is in the collection you disabled. In Font Book, enable one font at a time in the collection and try to reproduce problem until you find the problem font.
In Mac OS X v10.2.x:
1. Create a folder on the desktop named Mac Fonts.
2. Open the ~/Library/Fonts folder.
3. Choose Edit > Select All, and then drag the contents of this folder (fonts and subfolders) to the Mac Fonts folder on the desktop.
4. Restart the computer.
5. Run the application installer. Then do one of the following:
-- If the problem recurs, repeat steps 3-5 to move the contents of the Users/ [user name] /Library/Fonts folder and the System Folder/Fonts folder to the Mac Fonts folder on the desktop.
-- If the problem doesn't recur, move one font back to the Library/Fonts folder, and then repeat steps 6-8 until you identify the problematic font.
Note to Mac Users: You don't need a "hundred-pages-long" manual to operate your Mac. Just a "hundred-pages-long" Adobe Knowledge Base to help you sort out simple things like why a font crashed your Mac. OK, I'll be kind, the link is here (you know you need it):
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/323354.html
You realize that the Mighy Mouse was introduced in August of last year?
Oh, I see: its BJuangNan posting another odd anti-Apple rant thread.
I could post some strong anti-Apple rants too, but they'd be based on actual timely & relevant events, and as such, would detract from the spirit of your thread.
Well tell us then, if it has been a year since the question was asked: Did the Mighty Mouse turn out to be a Puck?
The only mouse I buy these days is a wireless optical mouse. A wired mouse is old school.
I played with a Mac a few weeks ago when a local store became a Mac retail center. It had that mouse. I don't know if Mac people just have a desire to be different, but that stupid thing was probably the worst part of the user interface.
First, there aren't any "buttons" - you press down on the mouse and the whole top "clicks". Which means you get a click any time your hand puts any kind of pressure on the surface on which it's resting. I had no idea about the "right-click" functionality but I thought Macs were single-button machines anyway so I don't know what good that would do.
Second, and more annoying, was that little scroll-ball. In theory, it's an intelligent improvement to the scroll-wheel that's in common use. But the implementation is absolutely terrible. The stupid ball is literally smaller than a BB and has no resistance whatsoever! You can't control it in any meaningful sense of the word. It would be a nice idea if someone would implement the same idea with a ball big enough and with enough resistance to control. It's also quite schizophrenic in that it works two-dimensionally in some windows and some applications, one-dimensionally in others, and not at all in still others, but that could be a software problem.
Sorry for the rant. It was the first time in a year or two I'd tried to use a Mac, and while the GUI itself was pretty much as I'd remembered it, I was quite stunned that Mac would release such a terrible product as the default mouse.
It's been well-established that you weren't interested in a solution, you just wanted to post incomplete and misleading accounts about your unique inability to use the Mac at your workplace.
He seems to think the antique (1998 vintage) "Hockey Puck" mouse, which even Apple admitted was a major mistake when it replaced it after only a couple of months, is the be-all of all Mac Mouses.
Then he goes off on a screed about a corrupted font...
Weird... PING!
|
Strange... Just recently one of my clients installed seven new G5 iMacs... which included the Mighty Mouse... to replace the aging G4 iMacs. The seven women who use them had absolutely NO problem in adjusting to the new mouse although they had been using the single button mouse for years. They really appreciated the new functionality of the scroll ball.
Macs have not been "single button" only machines for years. Simply plug in a multi-button mouse and it works. The right click brings up contextual menus, just as it does on a PC. As to whether it works in a specific application, that is dependent on whether the app is native OS X and followed Apple's programming guidelines. Almost all "Classic" apps (OS 9 and older) will not use the ball.
I suspect that someone may have adjusted the mouse you were using to be far too sensitive to movement.
I Always liked my Hockey Puck Mouse, I still have 2 of them
You must be calendarally challenged; August of last year was only 7 months ago.
Also your link is misspelled... it links to "Macweekly not Macweakly.
In answer to your question, no, it is quite popular and most user have no problems once you learn how to use it. Your source article is from July of 2005... and was a pre-release commentary for the mouse. Post release articles have had nothing but praise for the sophisticated Mighty Mouse.
Re: the "hockey puck"... do you always rant about 8 year old products that were discontinued almost as soon as they were released?
If you don't like Macs, why post inflammatory and incorrect information?
This is just more FUD... probably because Windows Vista has just announced they are going to miss another "firm" release date and that 60% of their code has to be re-written.
You are not going to convince anyone who actually USES a Mac, and knows better, that your misinformation is true, or that a few minor problems experienced by a few Mac users are somehow rampant in the Mac world and impacting all Mac users. Are you so insecure in your choice of computer platform that you have to attack the choice of others? Just ignore it, and Mac users won't bother you.
I suspect that someone may have adjusted the mouse you were using to be far too sensitive to movement.
It's quite possible; as I said this was a newly-installed demo unit, so anyone could have come into the store earlier in the day and messed around with whatever settings they wanted. Maybe different settings would have made the inadvertent clicks and the lack of resistance from that ball change. But I still can't figure out why they made that ball so small. I spent about a half-hour playing with this computer (just to get a feel for it and to see whether OSX is at all intuitive for a long-term Windows user), and I really think the scroll ball was the thing that stood out the most, because it seems like a logically good idea to have a 2-D scroll wheel, but it was like Apple tried to implement it badly because making the thing big enough and adding some resistance would have been so easy to do. But, as you said, the resistance may have been software-adjustable.
Actually it is even worse than that... he fudged the date of the article... it is actually from July 31, 2005
This article is posted as deliberate FUD.
The resistance is not adjustable but the sensitivity is... You can change the distance at which the scrolling moves relative to the distance you move the ball. With a little practice, you can very easily use the ball to move the cursor exactly as you want it moved.
I think that puts it in the category of FUDD (as in Elmer).
The same third-party scrollwheel, multi-button mouses that you can get for a PC work great with a Mac. (Often even an OS 9 Mac.)
 |
Meanwhile, Nintendo is about to introduce a controller that is not just wireless, but can sense tilt and motion. I'm afraid machines for games are where all the interesting new stuff now makes its debut. |
It works mostly OK, except for Appleworks.
On an unsaved word-processing document using the scroll button usually scrambles the text until it is saved, at which time it straightens itself out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
