Thanks for the responses. Comments inline.
--On Thursday, September 09, 2004 18:24:15 +0300 Tuomo Valkonen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I use an old-style 3-button Pilot, and have a spare one if this breaks :), so I don't need to buy the scroll wheel crap that the mice are these days. (But it has lasted six years unlike my previous noname mice, so it probably won't.) If the scroll whell was in the middle of the third button instead of also being the third button, it might be ok to have, though. But I haven't seen such mice.
I like the scrollwheel especially when I am short on mousing space (why that is will become apparent below). What drives me crazy is accidental clicks though, which is why I thought the scroll ring looked interesting.
As for keyboard, I'd like to find a compact find one without the numpad, and possibly the cursor key block also more integrated to the main block, but with full-size keys in the main block. Most of the mini keyboards (and all available in Finland) are too compact in laptop style with one-line mini-enter, mini-space etc.
I have never used the Happy Hacking keyboard, although I have heard from some people who like it. Also have a look at <http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/compact/compact.htm>. I use a G80-1800 at home and for a keyboard with a numpad it's amazingly small. I also like mechanical keyswitches although last time I checked Cherry didn't offer them with key-click actuation characteristics anymore.
--On Thursday, September 09, 2004 16:39:44 +0100 Giles Constant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
How anyone can even consider attempting to fly a type-4 alpha class battle frigate through the notoriously hostile kusari asteroid system with a trackball, I'll never know, but maybe I've got my priorities wrong.. :-)
I recently talked a guy at work into getting one of these: <http://www.monstergecko.com/products.html> I have no use for it, but I was curious if moving the sensor to the front (where it belongs) makes it difference to his needs.
This varies a bit on how stiff the button is in comparison to the radius aand looseless of the wheel. The first scrollwheel I had was on a compaq mouse and it was small, stiff, and virtually impossible to rotate without accidentally hitting the button. Since then, I've used a microsoft intellimouse explorer and a logitech mx300, and both are actually trouble free with a nice freewheeling action. I can't imagine life without a scrollwheel now :-)
Funny you'd mention this since I have that exact problem with a Microsoft mouse as well. Seems to start getting better over time, but every once in a while I still accidentally click, which is especially annoying when Firefox decides to contact Google about what just happened to be in my paste buffer.
--On Thursday, September 09, 2004 10:54:24 -0400 Ted Zlatanov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My work mouse doesn't even have a scroll wheel (Sun USB mouse); I
Crossbow. Nice, simple, three-button USB mouse.
You didn't ask but I'll volunteer the keyboards I use: at work I use a Sun type 5 keyboard, which is OK but needs the CapsLock remapped to
Personally, I never quite survived the switch from Type 3 to Type 4 :-)
Control; at home I use a $7 Memorex keyboard. I've used *many* keyboard, from the MS Bluetooth version to the Memorex, and price is definitely not a good indicator of quality and durability. The Kinesis keyboards are pretty good too but I never got used to the awkward (for someone with large fingers) hand posture. Anyhow, specifically for Ion any keyboard will do although a few extra buttons for launching apps are nice.
Some people recommend the http://pckeyboard.com/ keyboards which are like the old IBM keyboards, but I never liked those.
At work I use: <http://www.cvtinc.com/products/keyboards/stellar.htm> I like it and it's as solid as can be. The keyboard weighs more than most laptops these days, but is also a bit large, which limits mousing space. I don't use the programming features as much as I thought, mostly because you need to run the software on a Windows desktop systems (most laptops won't work). I used to use the macros quite a bit though.
This brings up one question though that I think I have asked before: Does anybody have an Ion keymapping that doesn't so heavily rely on the left hand? I tried to move my mouse to the left for some more balance, but kept running into problems with some key combinations. Actually, coming to think of it, I think it mostly was Mod-numbers while moving a tile to another workspace and I could map those to numpad numbers.
Alex.
