Plugs, Plugs, Everywhere! (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I am having a hard time understanding how you decide what should be the norm and what shouldn't.

--
H

 

[MarkHastings]

I'm not deciding anything. I just don't think hard wired devices should take a back seat.

It sounds similar to those gripes that people have with Wal-Mart because they'd only stock Fullframe versions of DVD's (instead of both FF and Widescreen).

Fullframe doesn't bother me as long as I can get the widescreen (easily enough), but once FF starts pushing Widescreen off the shelves, you bet I'm going to gripe about it and have every reason to.

 

[Holadem]

But widescreen should be the norm for reasons that are familiar to every member of this forum.

I am not disputing your preferences (I've no use for yet another battery powered device either), but trying to understand what drives you to think wired mice should be the norm, something you repeatedly expressed.

--
H

 

[JeremyErwin]

compusa.com has 102 wired mice, and 93 wireless. So, perhaps your store was anomalous.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i dont think so, every best buy and compussr around here has mostly wireless mice. i dont know what the norm should be, but a fair selection of each would be nice.

CJ

 

[MarkHastings]

But that's the thing. The web sites sell them, but the stores don't carry them. I want to be able to test out the mouse (in my hand) before purchasing, but the B&M stores are pushing so many wireless devices that I can't find a place with a decent stock of hard wired.

 

[Linda Thompson]

Your comments reminded me of something I read recently:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P60/

#63

 

[Scott L]

The stores have limited real estate and cater to what gets the most revenue, meaning what are the most popular products. Everyone is going wireless with mice like they did with home telephones in the late 80s.

We did banking over the phones and security was an issue but wireless still became "the norm." Wireless everything does make the most sense, we just have to bear with the fact that the technology is still catching up to be just as good as wired. So suck it up and deal with it

 

[MarkHastings]

With computers (mainly a desktop)? How does wireless make the most sense? That's like making a wireless steering wheel for your car.

Seriously, I don't see how a wireless mouse, on a local desktop computer, makes the most sense. A desktop computer is meant to be sat at (not moved around). The screen isn't large enough to be sitting halfway across the room, so unless your computer is on the other side of the room, how hard is it to plug a mouse in?

p.s. and if your computer is on the other side of the room, then wires are the least of your issues.

 

[Scott L]

You're just stuck in your ways where wires have to come out of *everything*. It would be ideal if you could place your appliance anywhere you want without having to worry about outlet plugs, extension cords, or turning one outlet into 6. Cords are nasty to look at when you have a lot, a pain to route, and constricting for devices that have to move around.

I don't have a huge problem with having a wired mouse for the most part but I've had both and the wireless for me is better. If you had problems with connectivity, power, or weight check out the upper-model Logitechs. Really amazing mice.

 

[JeremyErwin]

speak for yourself. The columnist Jerry Pournelle preferred (perhaps he still does) a large monitor and used it from an extended distance away.

Some people like to kick their feet up and use a keyboard in their laps. Harder to do with a wired keyboard.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Columnist? Columnist?

What about aeronautical engineer, or famous science fiction author, or something? Come on, columnist?

Anyway, I don't see the incentive in filling up one's home with all kinds of radio waves; and when the objective is to transmit electrical impulses over a short distance, a wire does it much more efficiently. Seriously, you have to have an encoder, an amplifier, a transmitter, a reciever, an amplifier, and a decoder to do the job usually taken up by two strands of wire and maybe one buffer amplifier ; and more than 99% of the power radiated by the transmitter is lost to the enviroment, to show up as heat in your house or as one more increment in the RF background noise. Wireless transmission makes sense when it is a question either of transmission from one point to multiple unspecified points with more-or-less general access [broadcasting], or of communication between objects with large relative motions or other barriers to a physical connexion [mobile, air and sea applications]. If either of these characteristics describes your computer, you're in trouble!

 

[JeremyErwin]

yeah, yeah. It's just that I don't read his novels (except his collaborations with Larry Niven), and when he talks about computer stuff, I think to his Byte columns...

 

[Holadem]

The same could be said for just about any technology. No one really needs anything beyond the basics. Such needs are often created by the advent of the techonlogy in question. At some point, you will wonder how you ever lived without this thing, to which you never gave a thought before it came into existence.

--
H

 

[MarkHastings]

Very true and I do agree, but again, it's not about the technology, it's about the availability. While iPods are the new 'cool' thing...imagine if CD's virtually disappeared from the shelves? Or what about if movie downloads became popular and DVD's started disappearing from the shelves. As much as I can see the use of downloaded movies, I know I'd be pretty pissed off if I could no longer buy DVD's because everyone would rather to download them.

Look, I'm not saying you can't have wireless mice, I'm just saying that it sucks that they're pushing the tried and true products out the window.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I don't have a wireless mouse because I'm afraid if I had one I would lose it. It's already hard enough to keep up with all my remotes without having to add one more thing to look for if I misplace it.