Would someone please explain to me...

[thatcrazycajun]

- how a so-called "plug and play" wireless mouse and USB transmitter can simply and repeatedly not work at all on my laptop, even when given a fresh set of AAA batteries and a steady light on the transmitter?

- why on God's green and pleasant Earth someone would write a piece of enterprise Website creation/maintenance software to depend on no less than three separate versions of the Java runtime engine—1.4.1_02, 1.4.1_06 and 1.4.2_12—concurrently resident on the user's computer to do various operations? (One version to edit or check back in fragments, another to navigate and a third to do Baal only knows what else.) And why would they not at least try to reconcile the sumbitch to use only the most current version?

Comments

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

Don't you know it's called "plug and PRAY"?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Do other mice work? Do other things work on the USB port? Is there another USB port? Does the mouse work on a different computer?

The answers to those questions will tell us whether it's the mouse, the port, the computer, or what is defective. (If it's running Vista, you haven't much sympathy here, though; I'm still undecided whether that, or Office 2007, is the worst piece of software I have EVER touched.)

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Other mice and other USB devices work. And yes, the new laptop uses Vista, but the problem existed even with the prior XP laptop. And so far as I can tell, the mouse does not work on my supposedly Bluetooth-equipped Mac, either. I will try it on another computer if I can do so, but my instincts tell me this unit is simply somehow defective. And since I can't find the receipt or even the packaging, if it is fucked, so am I.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You could always use it for target practice....

And I *love* the Marvin icon.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

That makes it sound pretty clearly as if it's in the mouse (or its transmitter, not that it matters which), not the computer.

Could have been lots worse, though it could have been better, I suppose.

Karma

[a-phoenix-afire.livejournal.com]

If you'd switched to Linux like you promised, and stopped supporting those evil YaGooSofters (I forget, what did they do again?)you wouldn't be having this problem.

(signed) baal


Sorry. I've been a good boy for so long I thought I deserved that one. ;-)

I've had literally half a dozen of those radio usb mouses fail or never work straight out of the box. I'll never even try again. They're just crap unless you buy a fairly expensive one. Usually it's the plugged in side that doesn't work, but that doesn't help since they're always sold as a set.

They make some very nice mini-mouses for around fifty dollars. The one I got for my laptop has lasted four years, and is half the size of a normal one, making it easy to use even on my leg if I don't have a flat surface.

Re: Karma

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I never promised I would switch to Linux - I said I was *considering* doing so. But thank you for reminding me. I had pretty much no choice of operating systems if I wanted a laptop immediately; you can only buy Linux pre-installed on mail-order systems, and even those are few and far between. I am still considering replacing Vista with Ubuntu/Linux, but want to at least give Vista a fair shake to see if it's as horrid as everyone is saying it is.

Re: Karma

[a-phoenix-afire.livejournal.com]

I was kidding dude, hence the signature.

I have no input about Vista, except to say that I always let somebody else beta test the new OS for a couple years before I put it on anything I NEED for working. If I'm trying to develop for the new one, I put it on its own machine and image it as soon as I've got a successful installation, and before I add anything but the most essential and basic of applications to it.

As for the laptop not coming with Linux installed, it's as simple as it can be to overwrite the old OS(Vista) with the new one(Ubuntu) if you're serious. And if you're already expecting Vista to be horrid, you may as well do it before you waste a lot of time. I can guarantee that you will find plenty of reasons to complain.