Thursday, December 15, 2011

This Mouse is Good

I bought my iMac back in 2007. That's a long time ago in computer years. It has served me very well. In another year or two, I am probably going to be forced to buy a new computer in order to keep up with the system requirements to play World of Warcraft. But until that happens, my computer and I are good friends.

In March or April of 2008 (I'll have to dig out the paperwork since I would have saved it.), I bought a gaming mouse. My original Apple mouse died and, because it was still under warranty, I was able to replace it free. The guy at the Apple store said, when I brought the dead mouse in, that Apple makes phenomenal products, but not gaming mice. He recommended I go to Fry's Electronics and ask one of their sales people which mouse they use. He recommended the Logitech mouse that I actually wound up getting, after looking at all of my options. It was expensive, but it was a great mouse. It was wireless, which, at the time, before I got a hub, I needed. It was rechargeable.

Lately, however, it's not been a great mouse. I know that rechargeable things don't last forever. It wasn't fully recharging or it would look fully recharged and then, when I'd go to use it, the charge would drop within the first 5 minutes, indicating that it wasn't charged at all. Then, the buttons wouldn't work and I'd find my WOW toon unable to move out of stuff that I shouldn't be standing in. I couldn't attack things or things that I'd target wouldn't stay targeted. It was getting incredibly frustrating to play. But, I can't afford a new mouse right now.

I dug out the old Apple mouse. After years of playing with a mouse designed for gaming, yeah, this isn't going to work. I started preparing myself to log on and just stay in the capital city, cleaning out the guild bank and learning to "play" the game's Auction House feature because my ability to do anything other than move via the keypad and click items was severely restricted. Enter my friends, specifically, Matt.

I was grousing to him about this stroke of bad luck. I had done a bit of research into gaming mice and was not real happy with the costs. Matt has a Mac and he asked a bunch of questions about my gaming style, what kind of mouse I used and why I was using a wireless mouse. Then he asked for my address. "What did you do?" "Nothing. I just want to send a Christmas card." And if I believe that, he has ocean-front property in Nebraska to sell me. I gave him my address and he said "Watch your door step and merry Christmas."

So, yesterday, we have a day full of rain. At times it was like god tipped over a bucket of water. Matt says the box is supposed to come. Oh...dear. I hope it comes later in the day and not earlier so it doesn't get soaked. I was delayed a bit in getting home but when I did, I found this. UPS had put my box in a nice plastic bag so it didn't get wet. I brought it inside and gave it a cat scan. 

Once I opened the box, Pilchard wasn't interested anymore. Mija was. The box is probably just a touch under cat size. I have not put it on the floor, yet to test my theory.

Here was the same mouse that I have known and loved these 4 years but WITH a cord. The dark black cord was to allow my hub to move closer to the edge of my desk so the mouse cord could reach. Oh man. No one has dusted back there in months! Setting up the new mouse required me to clean the back of the desk behind the computer. Yeah, some places I don't clean regularly.

Once that was done, I turned off the old mouse, plugged in the new mouse and, viola! It worked, first time, out of the box. I didn't need a degree in computer science to set it up.

It was great playing the game last night, moving, targeting, getting out of stuff and all those things you do when you play a computer game. I have the old mouse in its recharging cradle. Come Earth Day, I'll probably recycle it at the computer recycling place along with the very old printer I found in the basement. The Apple mouse that I have will go back in the box. It's no good for gaming but if something happened to this one, at least I could log into the computer and check email.

The kindness of my friends humbles me.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

1 comment:

  1. We use Razor Death Adder mouse , works well with PC and Mac .... Amber stole mine and I had to get a new one ........ just got myself slapped , Amber's is actually for Mac , really good for gaming or WOW .

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