February 23, 2006

  • Not all mice are created equal ...

    Mice are a favorite research tool.  Medical researchers love to work with mice that have this or that gene "knocked out", because it enables them to look at the effects of specific genetic defects.  In terms of programming, mice can be a wonderful enabler, too, with added wheels and buttons introducing shortcuts and speeding up code generation.

    Several years ago for Christmas Joel gave me my first MS Intellipoint Optical mouse.  At the time I am sure it far exceeded what he had to spend, but he was excited to give his dad a new tool that only the two of us in the family would really appreciate.  I was skeptical at first, but I quickly got over my skepticism.  I programmed buttons to cut, paste and execute within my favorite stat programming software.

    A year ago I got a new Mac.  Of course, at the time I was excited about the Blue Tooth mouse you could get and I dutifully bought one.  It's beautiful.  It has no wires.  Unfortunately, it only has one button.  So, yesterday when I got the message that the second set of batteries (that drive the Blue Tooth) were on their way out, I looked over at the old Intellimouse sitting on the shelf and thought .... hmmm?

    I plugged it in yesterday and the Mac immediately recognized it.  Today I downloaded a MS app that allows me to program the buttons (all five of them).  It's great.  I still love it.  A wheel to move within documents and five buttons:  left, cut, paste, copy, execute.  I can live with the wire.

    Life is good.

    Thanks, Joel!

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