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Hotclicks

jackg.org

11–15 of 15 posts

Re: Hotclicks

#11
What? Was he paid to promote this mouse? If I didn't know any better (which I don't) I'd think so. The one big problem with his logic is that he makes his argument seemingly based on the assumption that we only use one hand at a time when not typing.

Correct me if I'm in the minority here but when I'm at my computer (desktop or laptop) I've got my left hand at the keyboard and my right hand in the mouse. It's pretty trivial for me to type a keyboard shortcut and hang on to my mouse at the same time.

Keyboard shortcuts will always be superior for one reason: consistency. Every computer you will ever sit down at will have a keyboard with the same buttons in the same places and a 2 - 3 button mouse. Because I've learned the shortcuts for Windows and Mac I'll be productive no matter what you set me down in front of.

Now imagine I set myself up with a Brand X super duper mouse, invested a lot of time in configuring my shortcuts on both keyboard and mouse then I work there for an extended period and get real used to it. Now for whatever reason I end up somewhere where I don't have my awesome personalized configuration and Ultimate Mouse (TM). At this point I lose all $6,000 worth of those "productivity gains" either reconfiguring the system or retraining myself to remember the defaults. The way I see it, there's a fine line between just enough customization and overkill for the sake of productivity. I'm always for learning the defaults plus a few tweaks if needed that way your "productivity" is always portable.

Maybe I'm out of line though. It just strikes me as odd that someone would write about their mouse and mention a very specific one at that. This just came off to me like product placement under the guise of productivity tips. If I'm wrong then I'm sorry. Sorry that I made the implication, not that it came off that way to me.

Re: Hotclicks

#12
post #7

The author forgot to mention mouse gestures. The reason I still use Opera over Chrome is because of its excellent support for mouse gestures (the various mouse gesture extensions just aren't that responsive and smooth as Opera's native ones are). To switch tabs I just hold the right mouse button and turn the scroll wheel. To open up a new tab I hold the right mouse button and move the mouse a few pixels down, it does…

If you're a Mac user, you can try BetterTouchTool (http://www.boastr.de/). It lets you map trackpad gestures to keyboard shortcuts, system-wide.

Re: Hotclicks

#13
post #7

The author forgot to mention mouse gestures. The reason I still use Opera over Chrome is because of its excellent support for mouse gestures (the various mouse gesture extensions just aren't that responsive and smooth as Opera's native ones are). To switch tabs I just hold the right mouse button and turn the scroll wheel. To open up a new tab I hold the right mouse button and move the mouse a few pixels down, it does…

If you're a Mac user, you can try BetterTouchTool ( http://www.boastr.de/ ). It lets you map trackpad gestures to keyboard shortcuts, system-wide.

I'm using magic mouse with magicprefs - and the best hot gesture for me that seems to work everytime is three finger swipe down, which I use for taking screenshots.

Re: Hotclicks

#14

I thought about getting a mouse once, but... Apple's trackpads are badass, and you get multitouch gestures, so there's no need for superfluous buttons.

Ubuntu has multitouch gestures on an entry-level Dell -- works fine. I prefer a Mac, but use a mouse only when it's "docked" on a stand and an external keyboard.

Re: Hotclicks

#15
Good thing I have aquired "some sort of hyper-zen keyboard/human symbiosis". Working with a tiling wm (wmii in my case) and some sort of web-browser with keyboard shortcuts - Pentadactyl, UZBL, vimperator or vimium - works fine enough. Better than a mouse with extra buttons for sure.
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