On Jan 13, 2006, at 2:19 PM, Len Gerstel wrote:
<http://us.kensington.com/html/2200.html>
Sweet piece of hardware, for all it looks like a Klingon prop from
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I've got older mechanical versions,
they're real 'pry them from my cold, dead fingers' devices for me.
OH MY GAWD, I get to disagree with Bruce. I have never been a fan
of trackballs. Clicking and holding to drag and draw, even
reprogramming a button, just never felt right. I guess it depends
upon what you are doing, but to each there own.
It probably has a lot to do with the size of your hand. Mine is
somewhat large, and it fits perfectly right on the trackball.
With my index finger on top to move the ball, the lower left button
is right where my thumb naturally fits and the upper right button is
where my middle finger naturally sits and I never use any of the
other buttons. I did have to reprogram the thing a bit, as shipped,
the lower right button is control-click, I just moved that to upper
right.
If your hands aren't exactly the right size I can see the issues you
would have with them. I never did like Kensington's Orbit models, and
Logitech's TrackMans, the ones where you move the ball with your
thumb, makes my hand ache after just minutes of use, though I suspect
that with some use I'd be able to use them. Actual mice fell almost
alien to my hand now.
There's also a retraining bit, switching does feel awkward for a
little while. Its like trackpads on laptps. Lots of folks run right
out and get mice for them, instead of learning to use the trackpad.
But then they're always looking for someplace to put the damn thing
when they use it, and have to lug it along.
(plus they really annoy the cr*p outta me when I go to work on their
laptops and try to use the trackpad, which is shut off by the mouse
they've got hidden under a like of papers..;-)
I really like the big ball on the Kensington models because it does
give me much finer control over the mouse pointer. (I also fed a ton
of quarters into Missile Command in the day...) A lot of your control
is in being able to tweak the acceleration curve in the advanced
portion of the Kensington software. I've got it set so that when I
move the ball slowly, it moves the pointer really slowly, and when I
move it fast, it moves really fast. I've got a 19" screen, and rarely
have to "friction car" the trackball...picking my finger up to keep
moving it in one direction, unless I'm doing something like drawing a
tricky mask in Photoshop.
--
Bruce Johnson
This is the sig who says 'Ni!'
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