jps@cs.brown.edu (John Shewchuk) (04/24/91)
I've been using the Ballpoint Mouse on my Sharp 6220 extensively for about 2 weeks now. So far I am reasonably happy with it but there are some things that annoy me. The biggest problem is that the ball is made of a fairly slick plastic and it is very light. As a result, sometimes you will be moving the mouse in one direction and the cursor will simply stop, even though your thumb is still moving. I think this is because the ball is slipping on the rollers that pick up the mouse movement. This really, really bugs me. One way that Microsoft might fix this is to make the ball rubberized. I have been thinking of tracking down a mouse and swapping the balls to see if this helps. However, another aspect of the Ballpoint Mouse design might prevent this. The Ballpoint Mouse was designed with a plastic spring-loaded retaining ring that is used to force the ball into the rollers that pick up mouse movement; I would guess that this design is due to the fact that the mouse can be mounted at various angles and because the ball is so light. This design results in a fair amount of friction on the mouse ball which prevents it from rolling freely and unfortunately, it feels (to me) like you have to push hard on the ball. (It also sounds scratchy if you listen closely.) I tried removing this spring-loaded retaining ring and the mouse (again, to me) "feels" much better. Finally, the buttons feel pretty flimsy, they can bend in weird directions. This is not to say that I don't like the Ballpoint Mouse. The best part about the Ballpoint Mouse is care that went into the design. The button placement and the ability to adjust the angle make it very pleasant to use. Also, very important to me is the spring-loaded mechanism that attaches the mouse to the laptop. This allows the mouse to pop off in the event of excessive force- more than once I bashed the mouse into something that caused it to pop off and prevent damage to either the computer or the mouse. Impressive. In summary, I prefer the old Microsoft Mouse. On the other hand, if you want portability the Ballpoint Mouse is great. The Ballpoint is pleasant and easy to use and the thoughtful design protects both the computer and the mouse. On the down side, the Ballpoint Mouse "freezes" once in a while and I think I would prefer a heavier ball that had a rubberized surface. -- John Shewchuk, Computer Science Dept, jps@cs.brown.edu Brown University, Box 1910, Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-7664