Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!nsc!voder!apple!casseres
From: casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Mouse cord nuisance from lap (was Re: Monitors: What Next?)
Message-ID: <186@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 Nov 88 00:49:44 GMT
References: <15572@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <16891@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <5164@saturn.ucsc.edu> <3549@phri.UUCP> <3954@encore.UUCP> <10868@reed.UUCP>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 37

In article <10868@reed.UUCP> tart@reed.UUCP (The Hunger Artist) writes:

>The annoying thing about mice on the Mac is not just the tail, it's the
>mousepad as well, because those durn mice won't roll on just anything, y'know.

In my experience they work fine on any surface you could use for writing,
e.g., an ordinary desk or table top.

>Me, i was always partial to light pens.  If only there was a light pen you
>could aim from a few feet back and still be accurate with.

If only there was a light pen you didn't have to put down every time you
want to use keys, then pick up again.  Except for very specialized users,
light pens are useless.

>...  the original Apple idea (that is, the original Xerox Park idea)

Try SRI - the mouse was invented by Doug Engelbart's group there, before
Xerox was in the computer business at all.

>... was
>to be intuitive by "pointing" and "clicking".  I can tell you stories about
>new Mac users who would actually pick up the mouse and gesture at the screen
>with it . . .

Well, it's less intuitive than some of Apple's hype would claim, but it's
much more intuitive than anything else (except some special-purpose rigs).

>Side note:  the IBM PC Jr. (remember that?) had a cordless keyboard that
>worked, I think, on some infra-red technology.  Worked real well, too -- I
>could type from across the room on the one they had at my high school.
>Couldn't see the screen, of course . . .

Hmmm.  You and I must inhabit different spectra or something.  What I heard
at the time was that the IR keyboard barely worked at all.

David Casseres