| William H. Magill on Thu, 21 Aug 2003 10:42:06 -0400 |
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On Thursday, August 21, 2003, at 04:41 AM, Art Clemons wrote: Actually, I'ld suggest switching to optical trackballs instead if you're worried about tracking reliably. They don't need to be moved, and little folks who start out with them seem to love them. They don't even have to be the clunky ones from a few years back, Logitech for example has one that isn't much larger than a mouse which can be successfully used with either hand (something that's important to me, since I use my left hand to operate rodents and trackballs even though I theoretically am right handed). I admit though that cleaning one that has had coffee, tea or some other sugared beverage spilled is no fun but that usually causes us to throw out keyboards too. I'd love to switch to an optical trackball, but the last time I checked there were none. There are a couple of optical "thumballs" but no real "trackballs." A "trackball" is something you can control with your ANY of your finger tips, not just your thumb, and normally, two or three simultaneously. (A "palmball" is about the size of a softball.) I used the Logitech TrackMan for many years, but ultimately gave it up because it was killing my thumb. Right now, my favorite trackball (but non optical) is the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro, wireless. It has a pool-ball sized ball I can operate with my finger tips as smoothly as an optical mouse, four primary buttons, and a bunch of weird little ones and a scroll wheel. The design is completely ambidextrous (you can use it with either hand and program the buttons anyway you like). As an adjunct to my iBook, I use a Microsoft optical USB mouse, which seems to work well on virtually any surface. I'm still not "happy" with touch pads even though my newest keyboard from Adasso (www.adesso.us) [ADESSO TRU-FORM 3D Ergo USB TOUCHPAD KEYBOARD (EKB-2150)], an ergonomic, split, contoured keyboard, has one (as does the iBook). T.T.F.N. William H. Magill # Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg # Flat-panel iMac (2.1) 800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg # PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg]- Tru64 5.1a magill@mcgillsociety.org magill@acm.org magill@mac.com _________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug
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