Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!csdev!ll1a!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!reed!tart
From: tart@reed.UUCP (The Hunger Artist)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Mouse cord nuisance from lap (was Re: Monitors: What Next?)
Summary: Hark!  A bold, brilliant new idea!
Message-ID: <8819@spl1.UUCP>
Date: 2 Nov 88 07:32:39 GMT
References: <15572@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <16891@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <5164@saturn.ucsc.edu> <3549@phri.UUCP> <3954@encore.UUCP>
Sender: news@spl1.UUCP
Reply-To: tart@reed.UUCP (The Hunger Artist)
Organization: Dark Men in Strange Suits
Lines: 43

In article <3954@encore.UUCP> bzs@xenna (Barry Shein) writes:

>>ulmo@ssyx.ucsc.edu (scritzifchisted ulmo qzutvchsxik) writes:

>>	If I was designing a mouse, I'd loose the tail completely.

>What if you put the "tail" on the mousepad instead of the mouse and
>made the pad the active component, sensing the mouse's movements and
>sending them. Seems that could be done with some sort of magnetic or
>similar interface in the mouse, even a battery in the mouse would be
>within the stated design parameters. The point is that the mouse
>wouldn't be attached to anything.

You don't mean . . . a _graphics tablet_?!?

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.
Putting a cord on the pad is no solution.

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.  Old light pens
tended to scratch up the screen, and touch screens got fingerprints all over
them.  But the original Apple idea (that is, the original Xerox Park idea) 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 . . .

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 . . .

"Our new operating system uses an interface you're already familiar with . . .
	 . . . typing!"

=)

- grontor who smash

-- 

"I do not take drugs.  I am drugs."
			-Salvador Dali (still alive, 9/27/88)