i had a colleague at one of the jobs who was very conspiratorial regarding all things bluetooth and he wouldn’t talk to me or anyone else unless we turn it off.
Strange word we live in where he is more right than wrong
i guess so
Sounds like a peaceful life
he was fun to be around - big X-Files fan
the cursor has a tail tbf
A call for some support on Mac came in one day and I told the cx to go to the Finder. Cx said “Mac doesn’t have a ‘finder’. Sounds like windows talk to me. You sure you know what you are doing?” So I said “You called me. You see the icon on the dock with the smiley face? What name did you make up for it?” Cx said “Apple actually calls that the task master.” So I said “Sure they do. Click the task master.” Proceeded to fix cx’s issue for him (PEBKAC issue) and then got a one star customer survey back.
What is cx and what is PEBKAC?
Cx = customer/caller. PEBKAC = problem exists between keyboard and chair (user is problem)
Oh, that one was new for me. In Denmark we something similar. We call it Error 40.
”Error 40", where the error is not in the machine, but approximately 40 cm in front of the screen.
Another one I know is the ID-10-T error. Spells idiot.
Nice haha, also a new one for me.
approximately 40 cm
Hmm, how approximate?
Oh, the Master Control Program?
The mainframe. When you click it you have to say “I’m in”.
I’m guessing that the user did eventually figure out it’s labelled as “finder” and got pissy at you for being all pedantic and not just calling it what they call it because really, is the correct name so important?
(Or is your standard-issue “read customers’ thoughts to know what exactly they mean” device broken? Really, how can you call yourself support without crucial equipment to spare customers from having to be clear?)
It’s been a while since I used a mac but doesn’t it literally say ‘Finder’ at the top of the screen when you open that?
You think all long time apple users know that the application name is up there, or that there is even a menu for the app at the top of the screen? No, sometimes telling people to click on the apple in the top left, so that they can go to restart, blows people’s minds.
I honestly still find it such a weird UX decision to decouple the menu from the application window. Especially when you have multiple windows open on a large screen, the menu is on the opposite corner of the screen. Makes no sense
it’s a really interesting decision because while it makes the menu positioning consistent, it also creates a hard link between the active window and the desktop, which means that things like “hover to focus” and “click button in background window” fundamentally cannot work.
Huh? Both hover to focus and click button in background work in macOS, though hover to focus usually requires an external application. There used to be a focus follows mouse that you could enable via a terminal command, but Apple removed it.
The top menu bar kind of seems to be more of a result of historical happenstance, and maybe some different philosophies regarding Fitts law.
Bill Atkinson, who designed the UX for the Apple Lisa recounts that part of the decision was to avoid the problem of menu items being possibly obscured. If the window of some application is near the bottom or partially off the desktop, the menu bar of individual windows can become obscured and inaccessible.
Historically the menu bar would’ve been easier for normal people to learn due to consistency, and also helped with limited screen estate.
Memories of Lisa - CHM - https://computerhistory.org/blog/memories-of-lisa/
it’s been a few years since my last mac but i remember that clicking on things in background windows would bring them forward rather than trigger the action, so you needed a second click to actually do the thing. i did enable focus on hover and it wreaked havoc on the window management so i had to turn it off. can’t remember the details though.
It sure does.
yes
If it weren’t for rating you poorly, that’d be incredible performance art.
I did had one support call, a long time ago, where I told the guy to use the mouse and click on the start button. Then I heard the sound of something tapping on glass.
“Sir, please keep the mouse on the table and then move it. You’ll notice the arrow moving too. Move the arrow to …”
Yeah, that was still when everybody had CRT screens. That should give you an indication how long ago it was.
I did a support call in the 90’s where “clicking the left mouse button” was stumping her. After trying a few variations of instructions, I decided to take a step back and better assess the situation.
Me - Ma’am, are you left or right handed?
Her: right
Me: Lift your right hand, and look at the mouse. It should be a palm sized white plastic device with two buttons, one on the left and one on the right where your fingers rest. There should also be a small cable that extends from the far side and plugs into your computer. The underside of it has a little grey ball in the middle. Do you see it?
Her: You mean the doohickey on the floor?
Me: Pardon me?!? Well, it should be on your desk, not the floor. Why would it be down there?
Her: You mean the foot pedal?
Me: *light bulb clicks on. Are you really familiar with sewing machines?
Her: yes, but this doesn’t work anything like that.
Me: ok. We have found the problem! This is great. First step is to take the foot pedal off the floor and place it on the desk, under your right hand when you are sitting comfortably.
From there everything went smooth as silk.
To be fair, some mouse designs back then really did look like a foot pedal, albeit rather small for a foot.
Props on figuring it out and being able to help her.
Dear god…
Ah, reminds me of this good old collection of stories http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/
This is gold!
I once had a support call where I told the customer to click the Start button and they didn’t know what it was. I clarified by saying that it was the button in the corner of the screen. They did it and then said that their entire screen turned black.
Apparently they’d pushed the power button on their monitor.
To the guy a few weeks ago that said I wasn’t being fair to users not reading error messages and comparing it to a doctor reading your charts. Read this fucking thread.
A ton of power users who never worked in service desk don’t understand how incompetent the average user is. It is quite something.
I’m laughing my ass off reading this threat because I can imagine every single one happening.
Yeah, my last job I was part IT. It was amazing how bad some shit was. We had an old old computer running a machine and it was on windows 2000 (there was no upgrade path for this thing). One day it broke, HDD failure. User sends in a ticket saying its not working and that the software seems to be out of date…
At some point the place I was working at was acquired, and the new parent company bought one of our competitors across town. These people were a fucking tier 1 issue factory. “My teams doesn’t work” they weren’t connected to the internet. “My old email doesn’t work” that was discontinued 3 months ago. “My old email still doesn’t work” sir this is the 8th time you’ve mentioned this, it was discontinued 5 months ago.
When I was young, older people thought the monitor was the computer and had no idea there was a chassi under the desk connected to it. :)
Enter the imac.
Have you ever seen the original Mac?
Yes, but was never a mac dude.
When I was young people thought the keyboard was the computer. And they were right.
Vic20?
Or commodore 64. Amiga 500. Schneider 6128. ZX spectrum. Just to name a few from my time.
Actually yeah, I didnt think of that but commodore 64 was my first computer. Its actually incredible the things it could do without any cooling or fan, and tiny graphics chip…
Reminds me of that story where a company secretary thought the towers are just junk and asked the whole lot thrown out the entire office
i guess some people are too young to remember wired mouses
I prefer wired accessories. They don’t need to be charged, and I don’t have to worry about them having connection issues.
Yeah, and because the distance is less than a meter and nothing has to move between the 2 devices, a cable makes so much more sense.
I especially loathe wireless keyboards on desks. The thing don’t even move. There is no functional reason to be wireless. If you really want a wireless desk for some reason, just drill a hole and pull the usb cable through. It will save you about 200€ and tons of faff keeping the connection working properly when the device eventually runs out of battery.
I only use wireless keyboard with my home theater or TV setup. Otherwise wired all the way.
I was a fan of wireless keyboards. But between still requiring a wired one for the rare bios visit, connectivity issues, if the dongle is not in front of the PC, and the last one just dying, they are banned now.
Most mice are still ok in wireless. A Razer one was too power hungry. But it’s wire-optionally design was great, except that the wire was too rigid.
I only use wired. Batteries and charging suck.
Wireless has gotten pretty good over the past few years. I have a super cheap wireless mouse from Aliexpress that I use to control my PC while I’m on my couch (I have the PC plugged into my TV to watch Youtube videos and play the occasional game) and I only have to charge that thing every 2 months or so for like 20mins. The much bigger problem is the annoying latency and random connection breaks, but that might just be a factor of the mouse being super cheap.
My keyboard does both wired and 2.4ghz wireless with a physical toggle and it’s super reliable, but I have no idea how long the battery would last because I use it wired for my work Laptop during the day and wireless on my couch at night, so it’s basically always at full charge.It only works well because you have a super cheap wireless mouse from Ali. I have a fairly expensive wireless mouse from Logitech and I have to use it in Bluetooth mode to get less stutter because the USB port on my display, literally 10-20 cm from the mouse, is angled the wrong way and apparently the Logitech unifying receiver is DIRECTIONAL but not by design.
I use one on my main computer. It still works while charging, and even on Linux I get a notification when the battery goes under 10%. I plug it and use as a wired mouse for the day, and maybe leave it charging overnight and unplug it in the morning. Had it for 8 years now, never an issue.
This is the way.
I still use them exclusively lol
Same. The mouse is always something I’m going to use on the desk next to the computer. I don’t understand the advantage of making it wireless, that’d just be one more battery for me to keep charged. Honestly, if I had a wireless mouse I’d probably just leave it plugged in to the charger as I use it. (And don’t get me started on Apple’s mouse charge port on the bottom.)
I switch mine (and my keyboard) between private PC (located under my desk because it’s cramped enough atop it, to the right) and company-issue laptop (placed atop it, to the left) when working from home. Like hell am I pulling the cable(s) out of my cable management to move it (them) over and move it (them) back, sometimes multiple times within the same day.
I’ve got my private headphones and my controller wired, but mouse + kb are keyed to the same dongle, which I proceed to move as needed. It’s a concession to convenience.
They’re also very efficient - I chronically forget to turn them off, but they still last so long that I was genuinely puzzled when the mouse started acting up and turning off until I noticed the blinking signal to indicate low battery. They’re not rechargeable, unfortunately, but I probably should see about getting rechargeable batteries.
I have a KVM switch for that.
When you get rechargeable batteries, get yourself some good ones! Usually it doesn’t matter, but input devices are the one big exception because weak batteries can cause lags and sluggishness. VR controllers run on batteries too and some games turn into motion sickness hell if you have bad batteries, so a lot of people in the VR community have strong opinions on what rechargeable battery brands are good (iirc, the consensus is Eneloops and Eneloop Pros are a good choice, but that might have changed in recent years)
I’ll save that comment for when I actually follow through on that resolution. Thanks for the advice!
These generations of wireless mouses are fine. The advantage, as small as it is, is less drag from the wire and not having to juggle with wires when working with a laptop. Given the batteries these days I’m fine with wireless.
Now I do not have the same view on wireless keyboards as these are pretty much stationary by default.
If you complain about the wire dragging, you should also shave your arms because the hairs on them drag even more than a cable would.
The batteries are my main issue.
12 hour battery? I charge every night.
4 day battery life? I forget to charge until it dies, and then it dies in the middle of using it.
The mouse I have is only wireless for the “less drag while gaming” aspect but the cable is actually super nice, so I dont even mind the cable… I just leave it plugged in now.
The batts last around a year
https://cherryxtrfy.com/mice/mz1-wireless/
This mouse is designed to be extremely light weight. So the battery is small (500 mAh is less than half a AAA battery).
And it’s designed to handle up to 50g of acceleration (ie, fast FPS twitch movements), so it has to be doing a lot of tracking.
So between higher power consumption than normal mice and a smaller battery than normal mice, it only advertises 75* hours of use (
* Depending on Hz, lighting on/off and playstyle).I could absolutely get a mouse that lasts much longer. But not one that meets all the other criteria I have for a performance gaming mouse. I wasn’t attempting to come in hot about “wireless bad” or anything, just sharing my experience.
My laptop’s wireless mouse has used the same AAA battery for months, and it gets used regularly. It’s not daily, but it’s at least a few times a week for an hour, and usually a lot more.
My wired mouse on my PC gets used about the same amount, but the cable occasionally catches under the corner of the keyboard. It’s not helped by the fact that I move the keyboard around depending on what I’m doing. That’s also the reason I’m considering a wireless keyboard as well though.
I had a wireless keyboard where the internal battery was total crap, had to keep it plugged in because it would drain within an hour. Got one with replace batteries, plenty of those available. Might be safer bet for you as well.
I’ve been using a wireless mouse at work now for over 12 years and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to change the batteries
Mine lasts several weeks. Also, it has a little light that turns red when it’s low (as in, needs charging within a few days). It can also be used while charging without much issue. When I see the red light, I just plug it in while I’m not using it or doing something like watching media. It’s really convenient. I have a mouse bungee, from when I had wired, and the cable just sits there waiting until it’s needed.
Just to join the poll, my logitech mouse will do about 2 months per charge. When the battery is low, it wil indicate with a red LED, but it will keep going for several days (thoigh I’ve never had the issue with not finding a charger within that time, so I don’t know how long it could run after the LED lights up).
My logitech wireless mice will run on a single AA for like … 2 years of daily use, I wanna say? At least 18 months.
Great, and my wired mice will run on no battery for eternity, no matter how much it gets used.
It’s running on your laptop battery
The mouse I have is only wireless for the “less drag while gaming” aspect but the cable is actually super nice, so I dont even mind the cable… I just leave it plugged in now.
This is what I do. The mouse is plugged in most of the time but if I’m playing a game or working in like Photoshop, it comes off for the freedom of movement.
On the keyboard side it’s nice if your setup has you moving the keyboard to store it when not using the computer, eating when watching media, etc.
I think the main selling point was less the mobility and more that the cord didn’t get caught on things. Still not a huge concern, imo.
I used to live with a cat that chewed on cables. Other devices could have protective sleeves on the cables, but for the mouse that wasn’t readonable. So that’s the only reason I know for having a wireless mouse.
I work tech support. And I’m often working in weird or cramped places on site with my laptop.
I hate using the touchpad! So I always bring a wireless mouse.
It’s a lot more convenient than a wired one.
Also, I can connect the laptop to a TV and watch movies from streaming sites, using the mouse as a remote while I’m on the couch.I actually do this. I have a small power bank I keep the mouse hooked up to, and when it falls low enough it taps into it. Every few weeks or even a month I recharge the bank up. But wires being a problem will depend on your setup and desk real estate. This doesn’t bother me, but having a wired keyboard would lose some space, so I’m glad for my wireless there. And that’s even less of a hassle, as it’s still running off the original batteries it came with years (and years!) ago. Makes sense, there is very little power usage there being a boring old Logitech non-backlit keyboard.
For me, the computer towers are across the room so I use cheap wireless battery mice and a nice wireless keyboard. I use rechargeable AA for the mice, and they last a pretty decent amount of time. I had a lot of rechargeable AA and AAA already. The keyboard has built in rechargeable battery and can swap inputs with a button press so I just have the one for the towers. If I turned off the backlight it would hardly ever need charging, but since I like the light, it needs a charge every few days of actual use.
For my laptop, which isn’t across the room, I still use a wireless mouse because I just have them. I can also have one mouse tethered to two dongles and use the same device for two PCs that I don’t have on at the same time, so I do that between the laptop and the gaming pc.
I bet you still have a mousepad and have to clean your balls on occasion
I know it’s Lewis Black, but I’m still not gonna watch a video
i mean, it’s social media, i didn’t reply just for you to see
What are you talking about? This is my playground.
But seriously, a significant number of us aren’t going to watch a video, even if it has the promise of high quality as I purposefully indicated.
Same here.
With wireless you get:
extra cost, extra weight (drives me nuts), either a battery that eventually fails or replaceable batteries that you need to buy and replace, and if its not bluetooth, some usb adapter that either gets lost of broken.
Plus that adapter takes up one port…oh wait. But I’m still team wired mouse.
Most reasonablemice now support wither a 2.4GHz dongle, or Bluetooth. If your device has WiFi it almost certainly has Bluetooth support. So many motherboards are coming with built in wifi now, as do a lot of prebuilt towers. For most usage a Bluetooth connection is just fine.
Wired vs. wireless is whatever works for you, but no one misses balled mice. No one.
I miss balled mice. They worked better, IMO.
There are people who swear to trackballs though
Whoops! Big mistake buddy, you said something on the internet. Now we’re gonna fight! I miss balled mice. How ‘bout them apples? Nothing is as satisfying as cleaning the lint out of those things was
Stealing all the balls from the computer lab at school was fun.
You’re a monster. And also my type of people.
Like they said, nobody.
Now days sure, but I’d take one of later really good ball mice over many of the shitty cheap mice you get packed in with stuff now. The first few optical mice that I owned were legit worse than ball mice, while being much more expensive. I kept going back to the ball mice and regretting my wasteful purchases. The first one good enough to really kill them off was probably the MS InteliMouse 3.0.
Get a naked mole rat if you like bald mice. 😌
I will concede only in the fact that it made me look like a miracle worker to my parents when I “fixed” their mouse that had stopped working with my magic.
On the other hand, the Christmas I gave them an LED mouse was peak level for all of us.
I miss the weighty rubberized balls IN the balled mice! Talk about a free fidget toy!
However, do trackballs count as balled mice? Because I got one for my laptop recently and I LOVE it. Wish there was more of a market for nice trackballs, with an assortment of ball materials for different inertias and whatnot. Lol
No, trackballs are a separate thing. And their design is usually better at keeping debris out of the ball meaning less maintenance even though it’s exposed literally all of the time.
Less debris on the ball, but in my experience there’s more dust on the rollers. So it’s the same maintenance anyways.
Relying on batteries is for suckas
Mine is wired for a bit when the batteries need charging.
I highly prefer a wireless mouse, but only if does also come with a wire.
I highly prefer replacable batteries though, as i have chucked too much stuff just because its internal battery died.
I can hear this image.
dabadeebadeebadodo deebabiddado
For everyone who hasn’t experienced the 90s https://youtu.be/6WpMlwVwydo?is=Cjw-SD_OOXoA9LmI
And … of course… there plenty techno remixes out there. Have fun.
Damn, I was thinking Hamtaro.
Hamsters do have tails though. /UmAckchually
I asked my hamster yesterday if he has a tail and he told me no. Are you saying my hamster’s a liar?
Well, this one data point you present does suggest as much but I’m not prepared to make any definitive statements on such little evidence.
It doesn’t have fur so it’s a naked mole rat
You know what doesn’t have a tail? A guinea pig.
Indeed!
Computer mice is an area where females have completely displaced males.
I’ve not seen a male mouse at work in a long time.
Mine have all been male.
Old stock, or is someone still making them?
We are talking about their ports right? All mice I have used had male ports or bluetooth dongles.
Mice used to have a mechanical ball in the bottom. You needed to remove it periodically to clean out the gunk that formed on the rollers. When optical mice appeared, they steadily replaced the old style. It became an IT joke. Mice with balls were male. Optical mice were female.
