Thanks to an understanding boss and CEO, I have had the blessing of being able to work from home this week so that I can get a few personal matters sorted while still covering my work. However, a day working at home can throw up things that are unlikely to happen in corporate life – like having my very own Rodent Day.
Open-mouse surgery on my iMac's Mighty Mouse
The First Mouse was the Mighty Mouse on my iMac that decided that it was going to stop scrolling altogether after threatening to do so for a month or so. Having solved the same problem before and tried almost every other trick without success, I grabbed my trust Swiss Army knife, a craft knife, a Phillips’ and jeweller’s screwdrivers and performed open-mouse surgery on the ailing Mighty Mouse. After decrudding and decrusting the ball assembly and putting it all back together in the right order, it was working more reliably once again. That said, the interior workings were showing wear & tear so, knowing that the family were just heading to the mall, I asked around a few friends and checked the forums to get ideas for good replacement.
Dude, don't look now but...
I encountered The Rat at the mall when we ducked into a pet store next to the computer store to buy a plant for our fish tank. I noticed one of the staff doing a strange, wriggling dance as he walked down aisle and thought he might be either listening to his iPod or having a seizure. As he got closer, I saw a tail flick from behind his ear and discovered that he had a small white rat poking out of his collar, who was hitching a ride back to his cage after a little walkabout time. Just as the guy was about to relieve himself of his passenger, his passenger relieved himself – down the guy’s neck! After securing his very personable and inquisitive stowaway, the guy grabbed a handful of paper towel and cleaned up while we paid for our plant and laughed at his unintended sideshow.
Let the weapons-grade mousing begin!
The Second Mouse was the awesome replacement mouse that I found a few stores along from the pet store. After looking at a few of the high-end wireless offerings, I went for the highly-regarded Logitech MX518. When used in conjunction with one of the many third party mouse driver app (for there’s no Mac driver out of the box), this seven-buttoned and superfast scroll-wheeling will do everything the Mighty Mouse did and more besides. One of the reviewers was spot on when he commented that the mouse glides like it’s coated with melted butter. What more could I ask for? It takes a little getting used to after the smaller Mac mouse but seems well made and does the job very nicely.
NB: For my understanding boss and CEO, it is perhaps worth pointing out the shopping took place during my lunch break and this post was written after the working day ended – honest!
