120 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
120 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
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<title>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers LG #80</title>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1><font color="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike Orr</a></H4>
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<H2>Here, Mousie....</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:H.Drummond@wlv.ac.uk">Harry Drummond</A>
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<P> If you're reading this, you're probably well at ease with your mouse by
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now. Some of us got the idea fairly easily, while others had to struggle.
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One of the roots of failure, I've observed, is that beginners often hold
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the mouse from above, like a cat that's just pounced on it and is
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determined that it isn't going to get away from <EM>them</EM>. Then they punch the
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button ferociously, and the mouse sheers wildly off target in terror.
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<P> I've persuaded several such people to relax their death-grip; to let their
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hand lie on the surface behind the mouse, just guiding it quietly with
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thumb and little finger, and gently clicking the buttons when necessary.
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And if their hand-eye co-ordination was shakey, then to work in L-shapes
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(e.g. down then across), and allow direct movement to creep in in its own
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time. These people have all come back a week later, pleased to report that
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they've got much better.
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<P> But in earlier days of computer mice, when they were still alien objects to
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many people, it was not uncommon for me to watch students put a mouse on
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its back and twiddle the mouse ball with their finger tips. The screen
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behaviour was wonderfully erratic, and as a method of selection it had
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distinct problems with clicking buttons, too.
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<P> On one occasion I watched two girls doing this and in friendly fashion
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showed them the proper way of using a mouse. They smiled, said thank you,
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and a few minutes later the mouse was on its back again. Not foolish - just
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their way of working. Or maybe I was seeing the birth of the trackerball...
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<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
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[If you have a story about something foolish or ingenious you
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did to your computer, send it to
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<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>-Iron.]
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</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
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<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he has
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to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux enthusiast
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since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
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coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
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Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
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Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
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hahaha.</EM>
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2002, Mike Orr.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 80 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 2002</H5>
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