My mouseless computer experience

[hbdragon88]

Yesterday, my optical mouse went out on me. It was a new mouse, too - my dad bought it at Best Buy on Feburary 27, 2005. I should have known it was trouble - it was a $15 mouse sold under the GE name. I should have known it would be a cheaply-made mouse.

Awhile back, I read an pro-Opera rebuttal against the launch of the Minimo project. The writer mentioned something about spatial navigation. I Googled it and volia - found out about it. Basically, all I have to do is SHIFT-(Arrow Key) to choose what link I wanted to select. It was brillant - I could effortlessly go through message lists. Tab and Shift-Tab don't work as well - I'd have to tab through each topic creator's link, slowing me down.

I did some quick resarch and found out common other shortcuts: Ctrl-N (new window), Ctrl-T (add new bookmark), ESC (to get out of annoying windows), Alt-(letter) (access the toolbar functions), among others. I already had other shortcuts for Microsoft Word (Ctrl-Alt-W), Reboot (Ctrl-Alt-R), and Hibernate (Ctrl-Alt-H).

The only downside is that I can't check or uncheck boxes, which means that the likes of Yahoo Mail are out. I can't navigate to switch to basic HTML version of Gmail through keyboard navigation either, making it impossible for me to navigate Gmail either.

I went to Best Buy just an hour ago and found out that, because it was more than 30 days after I had bought the mouse, I'd have to send it directly to the manufactor to get a replacement. Should take three weeks at the latest.

But thanks to Opera's built-in spatial navigation (IE doesn't support it and Mozilla doesn't have it built-in), I don't have to fear going crazy while my mouse is out of action, and I don't have to buy a new mouse in the downtime.

 

[CruddyLeper]

It's an unpleasant yet good experience - it forces people to learn computer short cuts.

Which makes them faster at using computers. Which is good.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Ever heard of Mouse-keys? It's a standard feature of Windows, lets you turn you keyboard into a mouse.

 

[hbdragon88]

Ooooh! I see. Keyboard-aided is slow and jerky, but now I can at least do some mouse-only things.

 

[Souron]

Space should chek checkboxes.

At least, it works on Netscape.

 

[Chieftess]

Here's what you do to enable the keypad mouse:

1 - Press CTRL-ESC. This will bring up the start menu.
2 - Go to Settings->Control Panel using the arrow keys.
3 - Tab over (use the tab key) to Accessibility Options.
4 - Tab to the other Accessibility Options under "Control Panel Option".
5 - You'll get a window. Use CTRL-tab to tab over to the Mouse tab. (CTRL-shift-tab to go backwards).
6 - Tab to "Use Mousekeys" and click the spacebar. (spacebar allows you to select/deselect checkboxes)
7 - Tab over to Settings.
8 - Read what's on that window. It'll give you some info on how to use it. You can even select to use CTRL and shift to speed up/slow down the mouse.

 

[Shadylookin]

try running things on a command line where you don't even get to use a mouse.

 

[Chieftess]

try running things on a command line where you don't even get to use a mouse.

I actually found DOS to be quicker than Windows... it actually took me awhile to get used to Windows.

 

[Shadylookin]

I actually found DOS to be quicker than Windows... it actually took me awhile to get used to Windows.

since I use linux sometimes using the command line just can't be helped. a lot of the times it gives me a lot more options than the GUI gives. I'm not sure about DOS though.

 

[hbdragon88]

try running things on a command line where you don't even get to use a mouse.

You weren't exposed to the horrors of the Internet or the blissful love and attachment to the ease of using a mouse.

The World Wide Web is just a horrid, horrid place - I've had to deal with a lot of sites that are hard to navigate. Gmail practically requires a mouse; basic HTML was slightly better, but not much. One site had all text links bunched up in one big paragraph of text - I couldn't highlight each link seperately; I had to use the mouse to click on each link. Tab and Shift-Tab also lead me to weird and unexspected places on different sites.

 

[Chairman Meow]

try running things on a command line where you don't even get to use a mouse.

I actually spent a couple weeks using only the command line in FreeBSD. It's quite an interesting experience. It's possible to do almost anything you can do in a GUI on the command line (the only exceptions I can think of are image editing, and many websites that don't work in Lynx or Links for various reasons). Links for web browsing, Naim for AIM, Pebrot for MSN, Mplayer for audio and video (though I use aalib for video on the command line, which displays the video in ASCII art form), burncd for CD burning, and so on.

edit - I should mention that on the command line in FreeBSD, you can use a mouse, but it's only for copy/pasting text.

 

[Shadylookin]

I actually spent a couple weeks using only the command line in FreeBSD. It's quite an interesting experience. It's possible to do almost anything you can do in a GUI on the command line (the only exceptions I can think of are image editing, and many websites that don't work in Lynx or Links for various reasons). Links for web browsing, Naim for AIM, Pebrot for MSN, Mplayer for audio and video (though I use aalib for video on the command line, which displays the video in ASCII art form), burncd for CD burning, and so on.

edit - I should mention that on the command line in FreeBSD, you can use a mouse, but it's only for copy/pasting text.

you could have installed KDE on FreeBSD

 

[Chairman Meow]

you could have installed KDE on FreeBSD

I know, in fact I do have it installed. I was just sticking to the command line just for the heck of it, there was no real reason for it. You don't have to type startx if you don't want to...

 

[Aphex_Twin]

I actually spent a couple weeks using only the command line in FreeBSD. It's quite an interesting experience. It's possible to do almost anything you can do in a GUI on the command line (the only exceptions I can think of are image editing, and many websites that don't work in Lynx or Links for various reasons). Links for web browsing, Naim for AIM, Pebrot for MSN, Mplayer for audio and video (though I use aalib for video on the command line, which displays the video in ASCII art form), burncd for CD burning, and so on.

edit - I should mention that on the command line in FreeBSD, you can use a mouse, but it's only for copy/pasting text.

Freaky !

And where can I get an aalib player?

 

[Chairman Meow]

Freaky !

And where can I get an aalib player?

I think it's usually installed along with mplayer on Linux, so to use it you would type "mplayer -vo aa file_to_play". Not sure if there is a Windows equivalent to aalib, though.

 

[Shadylookin]

I know, in fact I do have it installed. I was just sticking to the command line just for the heck of it, there was no real reason for it. You don't have to type startx if you don't want to...

of course you don't have too, but it makes it easier sometimes, especially when web browsing. since I apparently don't have lynx on my FreeBSD.

 

[Chairman Meow]

of course you don't have too, but it makes it easier sometimes, especially when web browsing. since I apparently don't have lynx on my FreeBSD.

It's not installed by default. You either have to select it during the install, or install it from ports later.
And for the record, most of the time when I'm using FreeBSD I do use KDE, but I had decided to see how long I could go without it.