Mat Bowles

So, it's summer, which means us school employed non-teacher types get time off. And, unexpectedly, this li'l stepdad found out yesterday that stepdaughter is at Dad's all next week so I have a completely free week with no plans (and very little money).

So I'm tidying, and have even managed to clear the office desk to plug the lovely little netbook into the big flatscreen monitor and decent keyboard. This is a Good Thing. Except, I've got very very used to the netbook over 18 months. It's got a 1024*600 display, and I'm used to seeing everything, including webpages, on a screen that size.

From Blogpostpics

This monitor? 1280*1024. That doesn't sound massive, and it's dwarfed by, say, my father's iMac, but I'm so used to small it seem huge to me now. Here's a screenshot of my browser window resized to netbook size within it. See what I mean? Size matters not? Whoever told you that was your enemy ;-)

Anyway, now I've got the desk setup, I want to try and get more work done, more writing done, and hopefully some coding work on DW, this means I'll likely be spending more time procratinating and linking to cool stuff. I know, I've said that before, but, y'know, stranger things have happened. Now, as you probably know, I redid the Delicious Glue linkposter awhileback to make the whole process easy (and therefore likely I'll do it). I can set it to appear at any time whatsoever GMT. andrewducker has his set for 11am GMT, miss_s_b has hers for 9am, mine's currently set for 9pm but I'm not sure that's the best time. Basically, when it runs, it takes all the links I've posted for 24 hours and puts them here as a digest. What time of day suits you best if you like to read them? I ask because some like stuff to amuse when they're supposed to be working, some when they're on a break, some when they're eating breakfast/travelling, others just before they turn in, and I, frankly, don't care.

Hey, look, tickboxes for everything. Yup, you're allowed more than one opinion on the same topic, aren't I a good little liberal ;-)

More stuff to follow, likely, unless I got play Goldeneye for a bit. Actually, breakfast would make some sense. I'll go do that.

No, I'm not talking about the rather sensible proposals to encourage easier keyboard shortcuts and improve the UI for common applications by dumping the mouse as the main tool for controlling them.

I'm talking about my mouse, the one I'm using on my PC right now. I've had it since I bought my first PC, in Titan with paulatpingu, back in 2002. Because the PC itself was reconditioned bargain basement (because Paul quite rightly wanted to be able to use his own PC more), I bought some more expensive peripherals to go with it. The printer was a mistake (I think I've printed 5 sheets total, maybe 10?) and the ink has dried out, but the mouse, with its programmable thumb buttons, drivers that aren't compatible with XP (in a BAD way-- that was my first Windows reinstall on this machine then) and ergonomic--fits nicely in my palm--sculpted shape goodness has been an absolute trooper and a great purchase.

But the left button is only working intermittently as of last night, it's a bit filth encrusted, I can't find a driver update for it so the thumb buttons don't work and, well, I need a new one. So, oh mighty LJ brain trust, what sort of pointing device do you use, what do you like/dislike about it, and what options should I look further into?

(and no, we don't have a peripherals manufacturer in our Preferred Vendors list at work, so I can't get anything cheap there...)