Slimline Mouse Is Finger-clicking Good
The Age
Monday August 2, 1993
I HAVE always been a big fan of cheap ``clone" mice, working on the principle that, for $30 or $40, I could buy three or four of these essentially disposable items for every genuine Microsoft Mouse I might otherwise have purchased.
I have also always been a fan of flat, or slimline, mice. The flatter the better. Some of the big, bulbous mice available may have been termed ``ergonomic", but to me they seemed just plain awkward.
But recently, I had occasion to try the new Microsoft Mouse when a client requested that we supply him with one. It seemed an ideal opportunity to give the new version a test run, so I ordered two.
I must say I was very surprised. For the last few months, a long day mousing around would almost inevitably result in some finger pain and I had this down to a changed desk and mentally noted that I should be on the lookout for an opportunity to purchase a good ergonomic workstation at the right price. But in only a day or so of using the new MS Mouse, the finger pain simply went away.
Though a little on the ``bulbous" side, the new version has a shape that virtually forces me to use the flats of my fingertips to do the clicking rather than the points, which was what I'd always been used to do. In fact, reverting to my old mouse showed me that not only had I been using my fingertips for clicking. I'd also been using them as the means to actually move the mouse ... a bad habit that's next to impossible with the new version.
At first I felt that this may have been a disadvantage, as I can be considerably more precise in my movements with a fingertip than with my wrist, which is basically how the new mouse wants to be guided, but the new Windows (and DOS) drivers supplied with the mouse provide plenty of control of acceleration and sensitivity so that my wrist doesn't have to move far at all to have the mouse from one side of the screen to the other, with plenty of control, once I got the settings to my liking.
In fact, the new drivers (version 9.0) are available from Microsoft directly for only $30, and with the ability to change the cursor, set up different colors and sizes, specify pointer growth and special features like magnification of what's under the cursor or changing orientation (so that, for instance, up is down and vice versa) most Window users should be on the phone offering Microsoft their money ...
it's the best deal in town.
You can even set up so that the cursor ``wraps" around the screen, starting at the bottom when it reaches the top, or at the left boundary when it passes the right. I've tried this option, but can't for the life of me get it under any control ... actually finding the top of the screen can get pretty tough.
The new mouse would appear to be a right-handed version, as it has both a curved end and a larger left than right button, but Microsoft insist that left-handers think it's pretty good too. Mice are a very personal choice, but for me the new MS mouse is a real winner. It certainly deserves a look if you're considering a change.
That makes my environment safe, but Windows also appreciates a little housekeeping from time to time, especially after a General Protection Fault or other abnormal program termination such as a power failure.
Frequently, applications create temporary files which may not always be deleted in this circumstance, and which clutter up your precious hard disk for no good purpose ... and Windows users especially know just how valuable hard disk space is.
The first step is to ensure that your Windows applications are using just one place for their temporary files. Most will search for a DOS environment variable called TEMP, and will use the directory stored in that variable as the place where they create temporary files, so it's important that you have this set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
Unfortunately, by default DOS sets this variable to the DOS directory, which is not the best place to store temporary files ... and if it is not set at all, then Windows applications create their temporary files in your Windows directory. Neither of these options makes much sense, and its much better to have a separate directory set aside just for temporary files. This makes cleaning up very much easier.
I like to create a TEMP subdirectory in my Windows directory and set the TEMP variable in my AUTOEXEC.BAT by adding a line which says set TEMP=C WINDOWSTEMP, as it means that I can safely assume that most of my temporary files will be created there, and I can clean them out on a regular basis.
One way to do this is add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT that simply deletes all the files in your specified TEMP directory.
This way, whenever you reboot your PC It will automatically do the housekeeping for you. I use a line which looks like this: DEL C:WINTEMP, which then asks me do I want to delete all these files, which I prefer for safety _ though AUTOEXEC.BAT ought only to run as start-up, an inadvertent double click in File Manager can set it on its way as well ...
On no account ought you to delete any temporary files whilst actually in Windows (or any other application, for that matter), as they may still be in use. Equally, leaving old temporary files lying around can waste substantial disk space and can even confuse some programs in some circumstances.
© 1993 The Age