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I'm very peculiar about the keyboard and mouse I'm using. Especially for my daily driver.
I'll tolerate anyone's mouse when I have to use their system, and I'll adapt to different keyboards given enough time, but I'm particularly finicky about my mouse. I still think the best mouse I've ever used was Microsoft's old IntelliMouse (their very first laser one, without a ball). Sadly at one point Microsoft stopped making them, and I spent years replacing mice after that, trying to find the ideal one, because I knew the mouse I was using wasn't going to last forever.
Then years later Microsoft revived it as the "Classic IntelliMouse". Tried one - and despite the change in color (and some white LED they somehow felt was necessary to have), it felt and performed the same. So I bought 5. Given the last one I had been using was still functional, I figured 5 would outlast me.
That wasn't all that long ago.
This morning I've opened the box for the last of those 5. What happened to quality control, MS?
The 4 others all developed problems that became severe enough I just moved onto the next one in the pile. Either the right or left buttons became too sensitive (or I had to hammer them hard). Or the on-screen pointer started moving erratically, even though I wasn't even touching the mouse. This time it was the scrollwheel - move down one 'click', it moved up by 3 and then back down by 1. The faster I tried to scroll down, the faster it scrolled up. That sort of thing. Rather infuriating.
After having put up with this for months, this one feels like bliss again. But how long will it last? I checked on Amazon, and it's either discontinued (once again), or people want hundreds of dollars for them.
No, I don't have a question. I'm not even asking for alternatives. "What happened to quality control" was rhetorical. I know what happened. I'm just commiserating.
 
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Like everything else, built to fail.
I think sales people invented the concept.
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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If the warranty worked off of the "first use" date rather than purchase date, I probably could've returned them all for replacements. That's how quickly they all failed.
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Sales team was/is really motivated?
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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shrug
I like 'em enough, I suppose if they all lasted at least 2-3 years (as these have), I'd be ready to buy another bunch. If the price was reasonable. Which it currently isn't.
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My problem is I can't find a mouse that I like for under $100 and then I'm not sure I will like it.
I've had more luck with my current Logitech wired mouse than I have with wireless. This one has gone about a year without problem. Knock on wood!
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Razers are nice.
They're overpriced chintzy crap, but they hold up longer than the other overpriced mice. Think I have had 3 and all lasted well past a year. It's possible someone here told me to get it (death adder).
The Logitech G3 is great, but one of the main clickers in it failed months into use.
I'm a heavy user so peripherals and the chair ... they just need to last 12 months. I'm not expecting miracles.
I feel like a quality stamp/lab could come back into vogue. UL is still around. Feel like we need a new one that doesn't represent whether your toaster may kill you but the odds it will still be toasting in a decade. Some sort of shared branding for some manufacturers to unite under that says, "we're only going to make high quality long lasting things".
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dandy72 wrote: That's how quickly they all failed.
I use a logitech trackball[^]. I have one that I purchased back in 98' and i still use it!! These were USB A wired and they worked great and cost $19.95 and then recently went to about $39.95. But now, it looks like they aren't available and th one I linked at Amazon is listed at $219.95!!!
Anyways, the buttons in that trackball have never failed. They work as good as when I first bought it in 98. Wow! Probably an accident.
More recently I purchased a trackball for on the go[^] (ala wireless).
I bought that one and the buttons failed in just a little over one year.
I needed another one but I was very afraid that I would just be buying one of these every year.
I researched it and took the old one apart and tried to fix it and all that nonsense.
I also looked up the buttons that they used and those (internal -- not the things you fingers touch) buttons are super cheap. I was going to order strong ones and replace, but it's just a pain.
Taking it apart and cleaning it did make it work again for about three months.
There is nothing worse than clicking a mouse button and having it do nothing so that you have to click it again _hard_ to make it work. So annoying.
I finally bought another one of the wireless logitech m575s and have been using this one for over 2 years now with now problem.
So, they definitely use really shoddy cheap parts and hope they last "long enough".
1 year would be really terrible but I figured maybe we were at that point with them before i got this one.
Also, I bought this one at the store and didn't order it (seems like they have newer product than warehoused online stuff).
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I have had the exact same trackball for years and love it
last year the standard left click started to be unpredictable, often double clicking which wasn't helpful
Luckily I haven't used the two small insert buttons and when I toook it apart I was able swap the two switches that were on the left side and my main left click is now working reliably again
you can buy replacement switches with similar markings but not necessarily from trusted sources I wanted a quick fix and only need the left click button to work reliably
Something to bear in mind if yours ever gives problems
Edit: if anyone wants to do this, I struggled for a while to get it apart as there is a screw in the middle of the bottom hidden under the label, you need to poke a hole in the label just above the "s" in mouse of the phrase "Marble Mouse USB"
modified 4hrs ago.
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Very cool that you made that replacement.
Thanks for the info 
I can't believe how long those things last.
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When is the last time you've seen a doctor?
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Are you suggesting they should have outlasted me, and I need to see a doctor to find out why I'm still alive? 
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If they're supposed to outlast you, maybe they will, be afraid, be very afraid! 
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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dandy72 wrote: mouse
The lifespan of a mouse 🐀 is generally much lesser than that of a human being. 
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With this generation, Microsoft went out of its way to prove you right.
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I moved to Logitech, Logi as they are now known. After various models with more or less successful lives under my ham-fisted use I finally opted for their Signature M650 L - note the "L", this mouse comes in two sizes!
It is quiet, precise and has so far lasted 2 1/2 years with no sign of trouble. Wife & daughter have since got the same ones after using mine (Not the L version, they are not ham-fisted).
Your one with the dodgy scroll wheel might have been fixable by a simple air-blast to clean the optical system.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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My Classic Intellimouse has a blue LED that started going bad around the 2 year mark. I thought, hey, I'll just put a new LED in it. Well, I did put a new LED in it, but it was ridiculously difficult, the LED was a surface mount 1206 in a very confined recess in the optical IC itself. I used my hot air to destroy the old LED to get it out, then some solder paste and hot air again to put the new LED in. I was very worried that I had overheated the optical IC, but fortunately everything still worked afterword. If I have to do it again though, I will, the Intellimouse is also my favorite mouse, the ergonomics just fit.
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Like you, I am very partial to certain keyboards and rodents. I fell in love with the Microsoft Trackball Optical when it first came out -- it fit my hand perfectly and it worked as it should. As a side benefit, anyone who tried to use my computer could never figure it out, so they left my machine alone.
When Microsoft discontinued them, I bought a half-dozen (I think on eBay) for dirt. They last a very long time -- I think I've only worn out one, so they'll definitely be with me for as long as computers have Type-A USB ports.
I've never been a huge fan of mice. Another nice feature of a trackball is that it takes little desk space since you don't need to move it around.
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You must be very hard on mice. I have a pile of working mice removed from equipment that no longer runs. I hand 'em out to my kids when they destroy one, but even they can't seem to wreck mise as fast as they accumulate. My current mouse is a very ordinary J-Tech Digital vertical mouse I've had since the pandemic. Must have cost me all of $25.
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Hi,
I have written a bit of Code to talk to bit of hardware. All good I now having to document it for the records,
In the past I have worked on embedded and analogue test rigs which can be covered by a flowchart and a listing.
This will not work for a Windows program there is too much going on compared to a PIC or Atmel. Is there a way of creating the asked for without going mad? It can't be too odd as I think there must be other companies who need this...
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Welcome to a reason I don't do desktop and server development anymore.
The truth is I've only ever done flow diagrams for embedded code.
To verify desktop applications, rather than design a flow diagram, I design a test matrix. My functional requirements basically dictate the tests.
If you really must diagram your software's behavior, you could use UML, but it won't make things easier, just more comprehensible because anyone with a UML background could understand it.
UML - Behavioral Diagram vs Structural Diagram[^]
Adding: To my mind this is the difference between programming realtime systems and programming non-realtime systems - realtime systems are predictable enough to diagram. As a rough rule of thumb anyway.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Well, there's the high level stuff:
1. What does the hardware do, and why?
2. What are the requirements for the code?
Mid-level stuff:
1. How to integrate the code into a project
2. How to test the code and hardware
Low-level stuff:
1. What are the "public" methods to initialize the code & hardware
2. What are the "public" methods to interact with the hardware -- read/write/reset/diagnostics, etc
3. What is a typical use-case scenario
4. What are the best practices for initialization and shutdown of the code/hardware?
5. What parts of the code are thread-safe, what parts are not? (I would assume none of it is thread safe, but who knows.)
Nano-level stuff:
1. Describe the low-level interface between the code and the hardware.
2. Describe signals and timing (or include the specs on the hardware)
3. Describe specific constraints on the code, like, are there timing dependencies
4. Describe interrupts the code uses when interacting with the hardware
My 2c of some ideas, dredging up memories of documentation I've written in the past for software-hardware stuff 
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Can a part of the documentation be written within the code itself, aka, self documenting code. In the form of class headers, function headers, etc.
And the remaining part of documentation as a high level document giving the overall architecture, hardware interfaces, assumptions, limitations, errors, etc.
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Mmm, self documenting code, sounds good until you have to figure out how and why!
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"military intelligence" is known as perfect example of oxymoron
allow me to add
"self documented code " into the growing list
corollary:
when "open source code " is NOT documented at all - period
is it still
"open source code " ?
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