Is The Trackman A Better Mouse Trap?
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday January 22, 1998
I ONCE won a prize in a computer magazine competition. It was for being The Most Stupid Person Alive, and I won by a mile. I was also barred from ever entering again, given the likelihood of my being the annual winner for the rest of my life. My prize was a programmable mouse that had, if what passes for my memory is right, 24 programmable keys. It was a nightmare and I used it once. I hate long-term learning.
Maybe it was a good idea, a great innovation. But in the middle of my trying to learn my 3x table (3 x 5 = 12, right? I'd make a great programmer), it was too much. My hand-eye co-ordination is sufficiently acute that I can eat with a knife and a fork simultaneously only once in a while, so an object that requires some measure of dexterity and talent isn't for me. Exit Logitech's TrackMan Marble FX trackball.
A mouse is such a mundane piece of computer equipment. Yet, when they were introduced, they were revolutionary. The idea of point and click was a hard one to grasp at first, and with good reason. All those keyboard shortcuts painstakingly learned were very hard to give up, even though using the mouse was often quicker and didn't require a quantum leap in the learning process. The introduction of the mouse also heralded a certain amount of standardisation in software, and that helped make the learning process with a new program less stressful. But those first weeks of getting used to the mouse were embarrassing murder. Don't get cocky and think it's a natural extension of your arm. It's anything but.
If we had all started out on trackballs, the fine-motor co-ordination learning curve would have been just as steep, but by now it would seem to be nothing extraordinary to use. Switching to a roving mouse, a free-floating piece of plastic with a ball on the bottom that moved as we moved the piece of plastic, would be a lesson in damn damn damn.
Laptop users are accustomed to trackballs, given that most laptops have them built into the machines. If I wore a hat I'd take it off to these people, because they are the true leaders of this Earth. They're dexterous with trackballs and mice, and I truly envy them. They can probably walk and chew gum at the same, too.
Why the lather about a simple pointing device? It's like most of the odds and ends attached to your PC, from the keyboard to the monitor - the better quality they are, the more comfortable they will be to use and the more productive and accurate you will be as a result.
I use a two-button Microsoft mouse, not out of any particular choice, but because it came with the PC. Like all mice of its type, it collects more hair and fluff around its innards than I can account for, and I'm serious here. I'm bald. Where the hell does all the hair and fluff come from? Probably aliens kidnap my mouse each night after I go bye byes. Aliens with lots of hair and fluff.
The point is, as the rollers and shafts collect the hair and fluff, they become less accurate, more difficult to move and precision movements become, well, less precise. The job gets harder, but it usually does that so slowly with the build-up on the rollers you don't notice it until one day you clean the mouse, and hey presto! this feels easier. You also realise how bored you must have been to consider cleaning the mouse.
The TrackMan Marble FX makes a point of being low maintenance, of using optics to transform movements of the trackball into movements of the cursor on the screen. Theoretically, precision should be excellent and long-lasting.
In graphics and painting programs, precision is crucial, although those users who want very fine precision or movement control usually opt for a stylus; a mouse, even the best, still has its drawbacks. I tried the TrackMan with Photoshop 4 and quickly realised the transition to it from a standard mouse was going to need more practice and patience than I was willing to put in. Call me a stick in the mud, call me lazy, call me if I win Lotto, please, but I think I've used a mouse for too long to believe I can work better with a trackball, even one as snazzy looking as the TrackMan.
The TrackMan looks like a long sand dune with a big bump at the end which houses the trackball. It's to be assumed a lot of thought went into its ergonomic design. Even so, I found it a little cramping on the hand. It has four buttons, two more than your standard mouse, for which you can assign to each quite a range of functions, from straight selecting to bringing up context menus to having a button act as a Ctrl key, for example.
In Microsoft Office, or any Windows 95 application, really, one of the buttons is set by default to allow for one-click scrolling through documents, saving you the trouble of having to take your great, lumpy hand off the TrackMan to use the cursor keys on the keyboard. If you go through a lot of documents every day, this function alone could save your life. There is also probably a good argument for people with limited hand or arm movement to try something like the TrackMan.
In the end, after all the arguments about the TrackMan being a great-looking piece of gear, of having the potential to make work easier and faster, the question boils down to this: if you have only ever used a mouse, do you have the time and patience to teach your brain how to use a different type of pointing device?
No? Me neither.
TRACKMAN MARBLE FX
Trackball pointer From Logitech $190
**
FOR: Radical design, programmable flexibility; features
AGAINST: Problems in learning to use; fidgety
REVIEWED using Gateway 2000's five-star G6-266M, featuring:
Intel 266MHz Pentium II processor with MMX technology
64Mb EDO memory
512K L2 integrated cache
STB 4Mb Virge EDO VRAM PCI graphics accelerator
17in Crystal Scan digital colour monitor
12-16 speed CD-ROM drive
33.6 kps data/fax/voice modem For more information about Gateway 2000 PC systems, phone 1800 061 595 or visit their web site at www.gw2k.com.au
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald