Jolt Country

OK, so I'm a retard.

I was always one of the "Three buttons, please," mouse guys. Basically because I grew up in--and still prefer--X to MS Windows, and I use left click for selection and middle-click for paste. Right click for context menus.

But then when I got my new 'doze box in the fall, it came with a wheel mouse. Which I thought was kinda dumb, but then I got used to using it to navigate around web pages and change weapons in GTA3 and stuff.

Then when I got the iMac in January, the puck mouse lasted about three days before I gave up in frustration and went and bought a mouse. Now my only criteria was that it be USB and it be cheap, and I found an "HP Web Mouse" that was all that and had a wheel.

Fair enough.

Then I started using Safari on that box.

Suffice it to say that over the weekend I replaced my old 3-button mouse on my Linux workstation with another one of these HP Web Mice, and edited XF86Config to contain

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

I've been intentionally going to long-ass Web pages just so I can zoom up and down them with the wheel. It's really sad.

My only complaint is that I wish the wheel were about twice as wide as it is so it would make a good button too. It's easy to slip off the side of the button when you mean to click it.

Adam

The wheel on all my mice (or at least the ones I have control over, which actually are a lot, see below) does a doubleclick. I don't find that I slip off right or left -- as long as the wheel is nice and rubbery. Once it's acquired an even layer of grime, though, after changing weapons too many times, it's time for its semiannual ultrasonic bath. Here, ki^H^Hwheelie, wheelie, wheelie.

Did anyone else notice that most people don't use the middle button for anything but wheeling around? I mean, whatever computer at college I sit down on, invariably the middle mouse button isn't assigned to anything at all (or default=left click or whatever). Ok, that's good for me, since I can then reassign it to whatever i like (and I happen to like a doubleclick), but I mean, what's up with that. Are all people just ignorant twits?

bruce wrote:OK, so I'm a retard.

Also, ITYM "man-child."

k. roo wrote:Did anyone else notice that most people don't use the middle button for anything but wheeling around? I mean, whatever computer at college I sit down on, invariably the middle mouse button isn't assigned to anything at all (or default=left click or whatever). Ok, that's good for me, since I can then reassign it to whatever i like (and I happen to like a doubleclick), but I mean, what's up with that. Are all people just ignorant twits?

I've got a Kensington "Expert Mouse" at home. The "Expert" mouse somehow equals "Trackball" in Kensington speak. I can't wait until they come out with a gamepad that they call the "Expert Paddle."

Anyway, that thing had four buttons, and I had them all in use, including a case where, if I clicked the bottom two buttons, it would act as an Alt-F4.

For a while I had one at work, but it died on me. I have been using a three button mouse with no wheel ever since. It's terrible.

I bought a new trackball for work, but the thing won't work in Windows NT. No idea why. The old trackball worked fine as a serial device, but apparently a memo went out and made serial an abandoned input device. Which would be fine if the new fucking thing worked in USB or PS2 (which it does support). But it doesn't. The thing just wigs out and goes nuts. $80 for the piece of shit -- not that I paid, the company did -- and it's sitting on my bookshelf.

Anyway, I never set the middle mouse button because it didn't occur to me to do so. I wasn't even sure if it had a middle button until I checked. So it could be that people are used to two-button mice and just ignore it.

I know exactly what you mean (With regards to the first Post).

However, I shoud re-iterate that I can't afford a Track Ball.

But I never beat Zork Grand Inquisitor: I got beat at the umbrellas, or something.

DRUNx0r POSTING!

Pressing the middle button on my mouse brings up a little dot with two or four arrows (depending on page size), so you can scroll by just by moving the mouse. This is fairly useless in most instances, but was the default option. I have never owned a traditional three button mouse, and I find myself gripped with a luddite-esque tenacity never to utilize more than two actual buttons.

I personally have a hook for a hand, so you can imagine how a third mouse button would be unweildly for me.


-- Captain Hook

Actually I dig that wheel because when I hold CTRL and twist it I can adjust text size on the fly making web browsing easier than the first four school girls on Battle Raper.

Hook, I'm suprised you don't need something like this. What are your home keys for one handed typing?

Debaser wrote:Pressing the middle button on my mouse brings up a little dot with two or four arrows (depending on page size), so you can scroll by just by moving the mouse. This is fairly useless in most instances, but was the default option. I have never owned a traditional three button mouse, and I find myself gripped with a luddite-esque tenacity never to utilize more than two actual buttons.

Funnily enough, my screen was slowwwwwwwly panning down when you said that, with the aid of that li'l arrow.