bloody white

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

after fecking about with this old xp desktop in the garage on a table trying all sorts of mice I have discovered optical mice dont work on this white plastic table.....I hate bloody computers

[gareth evans]

Jim,

Put a sheet of newspaper down on the table to give some sort of pattern for the mouse to work against.

What it does is to take and record a snapshot, then takes another, and so on, and calculates in which direction and for how far the mouse has moved.

Quite a lot of technology and computing power for your money!

Although it seems overkill for what it does, it's because silicon chips are cheaper to produce and assemble than any of the mechanical components that used to make up a mouse.

But, there's a pitfall, and that is that the mechanical components used to be talked up as being useful for other projects but now they are rare; just as TV line output valves were seized upon as being ideal for the PA stages of ham TXs and now are no more!

Perhaps in the centuries to come the human race will regret how often and how quickly we develop something and then discard it so soon after (in relative historical timescales) for something else and continue to so do as the Earth's resources are plundered and lost.

Apple Inc are bad in this respect, an iPhone, costing several hundreds of squids should be an investment for life but even now Apple are pressurising for its users to upgrade to the latest version.

What of the very rare metals in the now-to-be-discarded older version?

</WAFFLE>

73 DE G4SDW Gareth

[tim...]

they don't work on shiny plastic mouse mats either

HTH

tim

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

oh right

[Max Demian]

The first optical mouse I used was on a Sun workstation. You had a special mouse mat with visible light reflective lines in one direction, and infrared reflective lines at right angles. Under the mouse were LED/sensor pairs for red light and infrared, so you had to have the mat the right way round.

[Paul]

Plenty of variations.

Paul

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Actually you must be very unlucky as I had optical mice that worked on white surfaces 10 years ago when I could still see. They do make mouse mats you know in any case. Brian