🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <10...@claris.com> cth...@claris.com (Paul T.S. Lee) writes:
> ...about messing with mouse balls, and other assorted mischievous
> endeavors.>

     We used to have a lot of fun with the Mouse Systems optical mouse
on the IBM PC.  I suspect the same mouse is used by Sun Microsystems.
You can recognize it by the metal mouse pad with lines on it.  First, we
discovered that we could freak people by turning the pad sideways.  The
pads are very nearly square, so it's not immediately obvious.  This
tends to confuse the mouse, so it doesn't report movements correctly.

     People catch on to this quickly.  The next step is to turn the
mouse over.  There are two holes with LED-phototransitor pairs in 
them.  One pair is red, and detects horizontal motion; the other
is infrared, and detects vertical motion.  If you put a write-protect
label over one of these holes, the mouse won't report motion in that 
direction.  Harder for the novice to spot, because the label looks like
it belongs there.

     We also discovered that the mouse will work properly if you use a
piece of newspaper or even your jeans as the pad.  Apparently, the
lettering or the stitching is enough to allow it to detect motion.

     My last boring anecdote requires that you place the mouse against
your monitor.  The passage of the electron beam really messes with the
mouse.  It shakes and jitters wildly.

     Enough of this silliness.  I must away, ere break of evening
to rent some pale enchanted movies...

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 "Nuke 'Em!  Get them before they get you.     | Ron Harding
  Another quality home game from Butler Bros." | rbha...@crocus.waterloo.edu
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