Magically mousey and scrollingly slow
Oct 20, 2009 Geek, In The News
Among the many new products Apple announced today was a new mouse design. Magic Mouse replaces the former Mighty Mouse product, and is the world’s first multi-touch mouse.
This mouse looks really cool, and I’m looking forward to trying one out when it appears in Apple Stores (the press release announcing Magic Mouse says it will be available at “the end of October”). The scrolling functions look like quite the improvement over the Logitech V270 Bluetooth mouse I have a mild gripe with now. More on that in a minute, though; first, I did notice a possible problem with using it in my setup.
Coincidental with the announcement of the new mouse, a new tech support article was published on Apple’s support site indicating that the scrolling and two-finger swipe controls were not available in Boot Camp (even in version 3.0, the version that just came with Snow Leopard last month). I can deal with not having the swipe, but I use the scrolling controls quite a bit, especially in games. I can imagine it being a problem on games, though, as MouseWheelUp and MouseWheelDown are essentially button presses to which games can map controls, and they would be difficult to map to a fluid scroll motion. Â With any luck, they may release drivers for it in Boot Camp at some future date.
My Logitech mouse, understandably, works great in Windows on Boot Camp (as it did on my previous Windows laptop). The mouse wheel scrolling behaves a little weirdly in Snow Leopard (and presumably in previous versions of Mac OS X, too; I just haven’t had a chance to try it out yet); since the mouse wheel is the version that “clicks,” instead of a smoother-scrolling wheel like many newer mice or the Mighty Mouse’s scroll ball. I’m used to my wheel scrolling the exact same distance with each click no matter how fast I scroll it, whereas in OS X the slower I scroll the wheel, the shorter the scroll distance. At it’s slowest, one click of the wheel scrolls a whopping total of one pixel line, which is next to useless.
From all this, I’m left with a few choices:
- get the Magic Mouse when it becomes available,
- get the Magic Mouse, but hang on to the Logitech mouse for Windows gaming use,
- continue searching for a way to make the mouse scrolling on the Logitech mouse work in Mac OS X the way I’m used to in Windows, or
- go with an altogether different (and presumably more cross-compatible) Bluetooth mouse (Bluetooth is important; I don’t want to tie up a USB port either with a wired mouse or with a wireless transceiver for a different type of wireless mouse).
I’m probably not doing anything anytime soon, but I’m interested in your feedback: which of these do you think is the best way to proceed? Plus, if you’ve got any ideas on the Logitech mouse wheel scroll speed in OS X, let me know that too. Comments are open below!
Beware of Kal Durak
Mar 5, 2009 Geek
Who is this Kal Durak, and why should you beware of him?
Some of you already know. A few more might know.
Several can figure it out with some Google hunting.
And a large number of you are probably very, very confused.
What does it all mean?!?
Stay tuned to find out.
UPDATE: Announcement coming at noon EST on March 6th.
Best iPhone Sudoku?
Nov 29, 2008 Geek
I’ve got a number of different games for my iPhone, but one is missing — the perennial favorite, Sudoku. Try searching for a Sudoku game in the App Store — there’s over a hundred results.
I know there’s at least a few of my readers out there with iPhones or iPod touches, and I can probably draw a few more out from Twitter and the like. Anyone have a recommendation as to which one’s the best?
Tragedy Befalls Macy’s Parade
Nov 28, 2008 Geek, Memes, Teh Funny, Videos
My god, it was so horrible…Â you just have to watch…
How was your Thanksgiving?
Fun time-wasters on the iPhone/iPod touch
Nov 24, 2008 Geek, That's Hot
I’ve been playing a few really addicting games on the iPhone lately. Two spring to mind as getting the most time from me lately.
Frenzic is, on the surface, a simple little puzzle game: place the wedges into one of the six circles, and get points as you complete the circles. Oh, but you have a limited number of “lives” that you lose when you can’t fit a wedge into a circle, and you get bonuses and extra lives for making sure the circles are all the same color (out of three possible choices). Plus, you have a limited amount of time to work with for each wedge. Gets crazy and frantic pretty quick — therein lies the challenge. 
Blue Defense! also appears to be almost stupidly simple. You’re job is to defend a blue planet against red alien attackers. The guns are on auto-fire; you just have to tilt the phone to aim the guns — which always shoot straight up — at the oncoming attackers. Seems pretty easy at first, but each wave has more and more aliens coming at you all at once, and the planet can move around from level to level, prompting you to need to reorient the iPhone to be able to shoot properly again.
If you use an iPhone or an iPod touch, what addicting games are you playing lately?
Space Station Decade
Nov 20, 2008 Geek, Spaceflight
Ten years ago on this date, the first module of the International Space Station was launched into orbit from Kazakhstan. After some delays, it’s only a few short years from completion.
Building a space station is a challenge, to be sure, but the cool part is what you do with it when you’re done building it. Here’s to a decade in space and a launchpad to the Moon, Mars and beyond…
Obama to have to turn in his BlackBerry?
Nov 18, 2008 Geek, In The News, Politics
Leo, Patrick, Jason and Alex were talking about this on TWiT this week: Barack Obama has been a CrackBerry addict for some time now, and will likely have to give that up to be the President:
For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign.
“How about that?†Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.
But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.
Politics aside, Obama and his campaign have made mention that the incoming administration is going to seem more connected than past ones, what with recent announcements of YouTube’d editions of the weekly radio address, the official transition website of the (amusingly nonexistent, though that’s another story) Office of the President-elect…Â All politics aside, it’s going to be interesting to watch the next four years, to see how this term plays out in new media and how it connects with the newest generations of voters.
Fly Baby Fly
Nov 14, 2008 Cool Links, Geek, In The News, Spaceflight, Videos
After watching the Space Shuttle Endeavour take off tonight for the International Space Station on STS-126, I’ve been bombing around Wikipedia and YouTube reading and watching about the Space Shuttle. It’s a shame it’ll be retiring in a few years… I’d have loved to be in Florida to see a launch in person some day.
Watching the YouTube videos reminds me of one my friend Dave posted a couple years ago. As he put it, the first 30 seconds give you goosebumps:
I’m gonna miss these things.
Have you ever been fascinated by the space program?
Classic Gaming: Non-electronic Variety
Nov 13, 2008 Geek
I learned how to play SKIP-BO today.
My parents got us a copy of the game, but I never really learned how to play it until today. It’s actually quite easy to pick up.
My great aunt and uncle had a copy of Mille Bornes but I never played it until I was in college. When I was younger we just looked at the funny pictures on the cards.
Speaking of games from my great aunt and uncle, I haven’t played… I don’t remember what it was called. I want to say Michigan Rummy, but Wikipedia doesn’t describe the game I remember… I remember a pot in the middle, with a bunch of smaller pots around the outside of the board with different cards and combinations of something… Anyway, whatever game it was, I haven’t played it in over 15 years, either. I’ll figure it out and update later.
I miss those games. I should play board games more often.
What non-video game did you enjoy most from when you were young? What games do you miss?
On emails and comments…
A week ago, I announced the changeover of the comment system here to Disqus. One side effect of this changeover is that, if you were using the feature before, you now no longer have the ability to receive emails notifying you if someone else replied to your comment, unless you are a registered member of Disqus. If you want this option back, go sign up for a Disqus account, then look back at my previous entry on it to learn how to claim your existing comments here for your new account. “Real” content posting resumes tomorrow.
What do you think of this new comment system?
