Our computer input peripherals are the shoes of our virtual selves. Our choice is as much a statement of our personal style as much as our physical needs. Some are happy to trip the live fantastic across the many tubes of the Information Superhighway on any ol’ mouse. Others demand the tactile feeling of a touchpad. Some live by the gamepad while a whole new generation is growing up predisposed to letting their e-tootsies go al fresco as they pinch and swipe via touchscreens.
Me? I’m a trackball kinda guy. Always have been. More specifically, I use a centered trackball that is rolled with the fingers rather than the thumb controlled variant. Ever since IBM PCs began to experiment with GUI shells such as GeoWorks Ensemble, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows (none of which bore version numbers in those days), I found the pick-up and re-center act of using a traditional mouse tedious. I also like to keep a cluttered desk, a sin most mouse users don’t have room for. It hasn’t been an easy lifestyle. I still remember waiting with baited breath for power user features such as the scroll wheel or the magnificent 5-button layout to trickle down to my favorite I/O device. It usually took a while, but those features came. And when they did, you could usually expect that vanguard of PC peripherals, Logitech, to be leading the way.
For a decade now, the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman has been my fingerwear of choice for all my computing needs. The plethora of buttons has served not just my Internet adventuring but my hardcore gaming, both at desk and on couch (try doing that with a mouse!), for a decade now. Considering my usage habits, it shouldn’t surprise you to know that I ended up with a left mouse button devoid of clickyness every three years or so. I never complained. Shoes wear out and I’ve been known to traverse terabytes in a day. And thus is was that I found myself yesterday staring forlornly at an empty shelf where my style of e-shoes were usually sold.
The Logitech Cordless Trackman is no more, the history of its existence wiped clean from Logitech’s web site.
I have remapped my trusty back/melee button to serve in stead of the fallen left-clicker. The patch should serve until the new version is released. Because there IS a new version coming. Right? RIGHT?!?!?!
Please! Because I sure as heck don’t wanna have use this:
