julian/blog

Autumn hits the Ivy League
Originally uploaded by jmissig.

From one of my vists to Cornell.

MacBook? Or MacBook Pro?

Form factor? Or FireWire 800 and ExpressCard?

Weight? Or a real video chipset?

Crazy magneto latch? Or back-lit keyboard?

Black? Or aluminum?

Geez, it’s hard to decide. Probably I should save my money for now.

I’ve been following Rands in Repose for a while now, and I quite enjoy much of what he has to say. I figured based upon my earlier comments concerning mice that I’d point out someone with a similar “Hey you spend all your time doing it you should get the best” approach. I loved this comment:

A repetitive injury-free lifestyle involves adjustments to habits and environment. The single best habit you can have is a short attention span. Nothing is repetitive when you can’t focus. You think I’m joking and I kind’a am, but my understanding is that much of the RSI issue is that you stay in the same position for long periods of time where the muscles keeping you in said position get angry. This paragraph is five sentences long and I’ve changed position twice.

Rands in Repose, “Desktop Accessories“

Rands has a lot of insightful comments on, well, a lot of things. I find myself nodding in agreement most of the time I read his articles.

I am not a graphic artist; I don’t draw icons. To understand what I do, one of my favorite breakdowns of usable software design is Jesse James Garrett’s The Elements of User Experience (view the original diagram). I have taken his diagram and placed next to it a small selection of some of the methodologies I am familiar with. This is what I do.

(Note that I disagree with JJG’s separation of information design from software design, but that is an argument for another time.)

Many thanks to Jess James Garrett for visualizing the layers of user experience design in a way that has influenced my thinking. I put the above text and graphic up on my project site. I also made a high resolution PDF for people who may want to re-use it.

Goodbye old friend. I loved you dearly.

The replacement they hired is just no comparison:

Logitech has announced the MX Revolution and VX Revolution mice. The “World’s Most Advanced Mouse” and “The Ultimate Notebook Mouse.”

The World’s Most Advanced Mouse does actually seem to tackle the battery recharging issue intelligently. Unfortunately both of the mice are wireless yet neither are Bluetooth. Oops.

Hey Logitech, notebooks have Bluetooth. Dongles are silly.

I’ve been a fan of Logitech mice since, well, since I first started caring about the mice I used. In particular, I’ve been attached to their “MouseMan” line (whose name they seem to have dropped in favor of “MX” or whatever catchletter strikes them). You may recall that I posted a review of using the MX900 with Mac OS X.

Logitech MX900 and SE Z600
Originally uploaded by jmissig.

The MX900 was (and in some cases still is) my favorite mouse of all time. I love that it is Bluetooth. I love its shape and coloring and buttons. I love how the two buttons are not separate pieces, rather just the plastic bending in. I love that I have a cradle to recharge it in.

However, the past several semesters I’ve done more and more of my work as part of groups—which means I’ve been “on the go” more often. This makes the MX900’s bulkiness and lack of an off switch more and more of an issue.

Last September Logitech announced a mouse which was pretty much exactly what I wanted: The V270.

Logitech V270 and Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse
Originally uploaded by jmissig.

I got it for Christmas (it’s on the left—more about the mouse on the right in a bit…). I played games with it and used it almost exclusively in all of my class meetings. It doesn’t have a cradle charger, but it’s Bluetooth, it has an off switch, it’s tiny, and it comes with a carrying case. Oh, and it somehow managed to last me almost six months on a single charge as a secondary mouse, while my MX900 lasts three days. I have no idea why there’s such a huge difference. The V270 is clearly much higher precision to begin with. So, I love the V270 and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a mouse for their portable.

Back when the V270 was announced, I said:

I think I might be picking up this mouse—that is, unless some form of Bluetooth Mighty Mouse is released before I do so.
Logitech Announces Mouse I Asked For: Part II

Of course, Apple didn’t release a Bluetooth Mighty Mouse (nay, wireless Mighty Mouse) until a few weeks ago. I very much feel that the Mighty Mouse is not for everyone—gamers would definitely hate it. But I had played with the Mighty Mouse I got for Alice a bit, and knew that for some things—in particular Design usage—I liked the Mighty Mouse myself.

So I decided to pick one up.

Wireless Mighty Mouse underside
Originally uploaded by jmissig.

Having spent so much time with the V270, I very much appreciate having a carrying case. I cannot believe that after several years of a wireless Apple mouse no one has made a carrying case which fits that or this new mouse. I hope someone does so soon. In the meantime, my wireless Mighty Mouse fits in the V270’s case (I feel like I’m committing some kind of sacrilege every time I put the mouse in there).

Here’s the thing I appreciate about Apple’s mice: I can click with my entire hand. Even with the Mighty Mouse with the Secondary Button (”right-click”) set up, if I press down with my whole hand, it registers as a Primary Button (”left-click”). When I’m spending hours making adjustments which require regular clicks (Keynote, InDesign, Pages, Illustrator, browsing the web), it just feels better to be using my whole hand to click.

Don’t underestimate the Scroll Ball either. It is not the same as using a scroll wheel. It takes some getting used to. It’s better.

Did I mention that the off switch is also a cover for the laser, helping to prevent gunk build-up?

The only problem with the wireless Mighty Mouse is that it’s simply set way too slow. It’s obviously extremely sensitive to the slightest movement, and I don’t think it’s low-resolution. I think they just set it to be really slow. I have the tracking speed set at maximum, and it still feels a little slow for my tastes.

So what am I going to do about having three mice? Nothing. I’ve realized that I use mice so much that it makes sense for me to start having different mice for different purposes. I Get Things Done with my wireless Mighty Mouse, I do serious home gaming with my MX900 (admittedly less and less), and I bring around my V270 for on-the-go gaming. It’s a pretty reasonable situation.

If they ever updated the MX900 to have an off switch, a carrying case, and a reasonable battery life, I’d probably use it instead of the V270. I don’t think that’s going to happen (Why does Logitech seem to randomly show love for Bluetooth one day, then taut the superiority of its proprietary You-Need-a-Dongle solutions the next?), so I foresee the MX900 slowly being phased out of my mouse life.