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Tidying up your room (or at least Luna's) is dangerous.

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I've got a desk. It has iron pillars. I've got a floor, it has a carpet. The touchpad fell of last year (of course also while tyding up and sweeping dust) and out of all things it falls off onto the iron pillar. Got a bumb, slight piece of glass cut out from the left edge, but no big deal. But today, I needed to clean up the table. What does Luna do? Put the thing on a cushion of the sofa. And sits onto it later. It never was a big deal, this thing is pretty sturdy and there is a damned cushion, but no, because of the bump, it just got SLICED.
It still works though and the fissure is barely noticable under my fingers, but sure panicked a wee bit.

Panicked even more, when I realized, they don't seem to be on the market anymore, when checking Amazon. Did Logitech discontinue it? Or is there some fancy new name for this stuff in a newer generation?
There seem to still be some used ones on ebay. Who know however how long they will stay compatible with forthcoming OS.
 
Razor make something along the same lines but I've never had my hands on one of those personally. Try searching for "gaming mousemat" and expect to pay more than you did last time.
 
Bad luck Luna. Last time I had a mousepad was when mice had balls (and I’m not talking about Mickey’s early violent days). Since the advent of laser mice though, I’ve never felt they really did anything. Marketers can talk about their precision surfaces and all that, but unless your desk has a glass surface (which it might) I feel like the lacquer of most desks is pretty much the same stuff those £30 gaming mousepads are made from anyway.
 
These gaming mousemats... They appear to be simple mats? like putting in below a regular mouse? Not a touchpad, is it?

It's not an issue about glass surfaces below a mouse. It's about Usability, speed and health. A mouse is tremendously bad news for your hand and in extention your arms, elbow and back. You don't click, you only tip on a touchpad, that's a whole load less pressure. The whole clicking on mouses always causes some sound, which is plain annoying. The whole moving already does to start with. It's a massive pain to clean, too, because there are all this uneven surfaces and cracks where everything can go in, while the touchpad is just one flat surface and the glass/plexglass doesn't even manage to draw much dirt anyway. They get hot too, and if just because your own hand is warm and will in time start to sweat. And dust. There is always some dust on your table, regardless how much you sweep it. I always get these awful dust + sweat/whatever else "doughs" below these mouses so in time it's just plain awful. Mouses also totally need that surface below it, so no sitting on a couch/sofa/bet and use the thing over your blanket. (And I really need that bit, because of notoriously cold feet). Plus swiping motions depending on how many fingers you use give you far more functions than even a 5 keys mouse. And most importantly: If you use a mouse and want to click left, you always end up using your one index finger. With my touchpad I can use whatever finger I'd like to. For one thing, the distributes the pressure evenly across all fingers of on or even both hands for better health and for another thing, I can eat stuff while watching something and even with my fingers dirty, I can still use mouse functions, because usually my pinky nevers gets dirty. (And even if, you can actually use the backside of an angled finger.) Also the touchpad is very flat, your arm gets to rest in a far more even angle, which is also healthier and no need to get some mouse cushions for your armwrists.

For all I know I've ever wished for a touchpad keyboard, because a regular keyboard is also just such a pain to clean and also always has some sound and pressing key will always be more stressful than just a tip on a touchpad surface. But doesn't look like this will ever happen, when they're even moving backwards from mouse touchpads. ;_;
And I really need one as the above. Those tiny notebook touchpads do nothing for me.
 
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Ah. Now you've taught me about something I didn't know existed. Would a graphics tablet with touch functionality serve the same purpose? I can't really get an idea of the dimensions of your touchpad, but you can get small Wacoms for a reasonable price these days. Personally I wouldn't be without my Intuos and its wonderful scroll wheel even for internet browsing these days.

As for mice, people talk about carpal tunnel and RSI but bah I say, just get kids started young and their hands will adapt - I've been using a mouse for the best part of 20 years and the only thing that's happened is the sides of the bottom of my hand have toughened up to protect the nerves in the middle. I'm sure we'll have our cyborg bodies soon enough anyway.

As for touchscreen keyboards, my tablet has one that doubles as a graphics tablet (and the now discontinued Lenovo A12 had just a touchscreen keyboard) but neither are large or powerful machines.
 
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Dimensions of my touchpad are about 13x13cm.

I also have a graphics tablet from Wacom, but that's a whole diffrent thing. For one, it uses a pen in all its unhadyness there may be for regular use. It's pretty cool for drawing lines or do handwriting recognition (in fact I got it for looking up Kanjis, because searching by radical or writing into Mrcirsoft IME handwriting with a mouse really is a pain. But for everything else that pen is pretty unhandy, because you still need two hands to properly type fast enough, so you have to put that pen aside and get it back into your hand. Next issue is, the touchpad mouse position is relative to how you move (like a regular mouse), the tablet one is mapping the whoe of the table to the whole of you window screen. So if you press on a left side coordinate you will always be at the left side coordinate of your screen as well. This poses some issues with drag and drop (or drawing long lines), because you end up with a frame. Witha mouse, you ust keep the key pressed and move the mouse three dimensionally back on the table and swipe further, with a touchpad you press a second finger onto a diffrent spot of the pad and let go of the first finger and you can continue the swipe as one swipe despite the limitations of the pad dimensions. (That's the single swiping move that needs some exercise to get used to.)

Who needs scroll wheels, if you can just use two fingers and swipe down? =P One piece of movement instead of multiple movements on the weel, which, as it happens, was always the most dirty piece of the mouse, too. (I can't tell you how many mouses I have destroyed because I wanted to clean it properly, damned.) But yes, at the choice of mouse with and without wheel a mouse with none is a big pain in the butt.
Also I never seemed to have manage any mouse whose wheel click was properly accurate. For my touchpad it's simply a tip with three fingers.

I have a colleague, he is in his forties now and he was using computers in his teens or something. (We all being in the IT industry and all.) He has massive problems with his back, arms and whatnot. It does not look nice. I for my part sat before a computer first when I was four. The strain was no big deal, but it's coming by the by for me as well. So so much for adaption, evolution isn't quite so fast. Having low blood pressure that in the worst case causes my limbs to got cold and numb doesn't help on that, either.

I had been looking for tablet computer keyboards, too, but they aren't as nuanced and accurate as my touchpad is. I am also still notoriously bad at typing on a smartphone.
 
Luna said:
I also have a graphics tablet from Wacom, but that's a whole diffrent thing. For one, it uses a pen in all its unhadyness there may be for regular use. It's pretty cool for drawing lines or do handwriting recognition (in fact I got it for looking up Kanjis, because searching by radical or writing into Mrcirsoft IME handwriting with a mouse really is a pain. But for everything else that pen is pretty unhandy, because you still need two hands to properly type fast enough, so you have to put that pen aside and get it back into your hand.
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Does it not have a button that lets you turn it into a touchpad (touch on/off) so you can just use your fingers instead of having to use the pen? I don't know what model you have but all the Wacoms I've used from basic to Cintiq level have had that functionality (I mainly know this because I have to turn it off if I'm using a Cintiq because my hand always registers and interferes).

Luna said:
Next issue is, the touchpad mouse position is relative to how you move (like a regular mouse), the tablet one is mapping the whoe of the table to the whole of you window screen. So if you press on a left side coordinate you will always be at the left side coordinate of your screen as well. This poses some issues with drag and drop (or drawing long lines), because you end up with a frame. Witha mouse, you ust keep the key pressed and move the mouse three dimensionally back on the table and swipe further, with a touchpad you press a second finger onto a diffrent spot of the pad and let go of the first finger and you can continue the swipe as one swipe despite the limitations of the pad dimensions. (That's the single swiping move that needs some exercise to get used to.)
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Hmm. That's a trickier issue to solve. It might be possible via altering gestures in the tablet settings? Also I love that snapping movement with the pen mapping - If only my mouse would just snap to where I wanted it to point... Maybe eventually just to where my eyes look on the screen. I will continue to dream of a transhuman future. :D
 
ayase said:
Does it not have a button that lets you turn it into a touchpad (touch on/off) so you can just use your fingers instead of having to use the pen?
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Mine doesn't. Perhaps it's abit dated. For a moment I had hoped to find the remedy, but...

Hmm. That's a trickier issue to solve.
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It subsequently got destroyed right at once. =/

Eyes locking on screen would be very troublesome to me. My speed when I skim through stuff would result in a mouse flash feast that would kill my eyes. And unless nervlines come into play there must be some sort of command marker there to actually tell the mouse what to do. That's a lag of at the very least a half to full second that I can't stand and also needs extra consiciousness and concentration. Also, I don't always have my eyes just locked on the screen, but use it also for stuff outside of it. It would totally destroy my multitasking mechanics.
 
Oh I’m dreaming much bigger - Probably there wouldn’t need to be a physical pointer anymore on the screen, just eye tracking. Maybe our eyes themselves could be replaced with infrared lasers of some kind? Or some sort of direct feed from the retina - via literal Bluetooth teeth perhaps? Then you click your tongue or something to click.

Ultimately though why even bother with screens and pointers? Just feed everything into our cyberbrains and think our work and play. I’m fully aware that if such tech were available I’d end up being that guy in GitS: SAC who’s just a metal box, I just hope I live long enough to see it (either way I’m going to end up in a box, I’d prefer the one where I’m still notionally “alive”).
 
ayase said:
Oh I’m dreaming much bigger - Probably there wouldn’t need to be a physical pointer anymore on the screen, just eye tracking. Maybe our eyes themselves could be replaced with infrared lasers of some kind? Or some sort of direct feed from the retina - via iteral Bluetooth teeth perhaps? Then you click your tongue or something to click.

Ultimately though why even bother with screens and pointers? Just feed everything into our cyberbrains and think our work and play. I’m fully aware that if such tech were available I’d end up being that guy in GitS: SAC who’s just a metal box, I just hope I live long enough to see it (either way I’m going to end up in a box, I’d prefer the one where I’m still notionally “alive”).
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I too prescribe to the notion of one day just having my brain downloaded into a computer.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I too prescribe to the notion of one day just having my brain downloaded into a computer.
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We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again - A new age.

It's the way it has to be I think. The machines have long since been taking over our physical tasks and doing them better, now they're starting to prove better at our mental tasks too - If we don't integrate ourselves with them before they surpass us we're not going to be necessary for much longer. And besides, our short and finite lifespans are a major factor in holding back humanity's development due to every generation having to learn anew, make the same mistakes as the previous one and then die taking all their accumulated skills and knowledge with them. It's such a terrible waste. What's that saying? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? So I feel like continuing humanity in its current form is insanity. Look at what happens - We think we've consigned things like racism and nationalism to the dustbin of history but then once the days of colonialism and fascism start to fade from living memory people are quick to return to those same ideas. I'm sure if people were living for a thousand, or ten thousand years they'd abandon such ridiculous notions after seeing the suffering they cause. If people could keep learning and building on and combining their knowledge in perpetuity who knows what we could achieve?

I realise while typing this the irony (or perhaps it's appropriate) of my machine person avatar from a franchise where people abandoning their humanity by taking machine bodies was a major plot point, but I think the abandonment of people's physical bodies in GE999 was more of a visual metaphor for their loss of humanity than literal. I like to think humanity is not only embodied in the physical, if it is at all (the physical realm is a pleasant distraction more than anything). It's our minds and our thoughts that make us human and unlike Shadow, I'm not likely to miss my human body.
 
ayase said:
I'm sure if people were living for a thousand, or ten thousand years they'd abandon such ridiculous notions after seeing the suffering they cause. If people could keep learning and building on and combining their knowledge in perpetuity who knows what we could achieve?
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I daresay the one thing that will happen at that is this: Resignation and subsequent standstill. It comes especially with age. The reluctance to move out of your cozy comfort of the known. It's less tiring and safe. People get infected with this in the span of merely a couple of years. Sometimes a few weeks are even enough. I can't for the love of life imagine that to be any better with thousands of years. We'd all be just dull living vegetables.
 
Luna said:
I daresay the one thing that will happen at that is this: Resignation and subsequent standstill. It comes especially with age. The reluctance to move out of your cozy comfort of the known. It's less tiring and safe. People get infected with this in the span of merely a couple of years. Sometimes a few weeks are even enough. I can't for the love of life imagine that to be any better with thousands of years. We'd all be just dull living vegetables.
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Eh, depends on the individual and what they want to use their lives for I think. If people are just going through the motions with no particular reason, direction or goals then I sort of have to question what they're continuing to stay alive for anyway (let alone wanting to live for ever) other than fear of the alternative of course - That may sound harsh but this is a question I'd direct to most of humanity, myself included at times. I think it's an important one for everyone to answer, though it is essentially a "What is the purpose of existence" question which, if people have an answer for it, will be very personal to them. If the answer is "To engineer intergalactic rockets" or "To see the next season of Game of Thrones" I'm not going to judge.

I feel like another positive side-effect of increasing lifespans would be that we'd take much better care of the planet because it would be vital to our own survival - It wouldn't always be the next generation's problem any more.
 
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ayase said:
"What is the purpose of existence"
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I'd say: To find one, fully knowing, that there is none.
No seriously, I don't believe life has any meaning. You can only find something, that might fool you into believing that it those for a little while until it wears out and you go and try to find the next one. And when that exhausts itself, you might just stop trying altogether and dull your mind into the numbness through routine.


I feel like another positive side-effect of increasing lifespans would be that we'd take much better care of the planet because it would be vital to our own survival - It wouldn't always be the next generation's problem any more.
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It would increase your survival, if you stop eating sweets. Witin the given lifespan. I can't tell you how many weirdo looks I get, just because I (and only 75% successfully at an optimistic guess) refuse to eat sweets. What's more these weirdo looks get increasingly more intense the older the people doing them are. (Unless they all suffer some heavy diseases that teach them under the wip of ultimate pain, that they are wrong.)
I really don't believe in it. Not eating sweets is about not doing something, which is vastly easier that actually actively doing something, which, to a big part enviroment protection consists of.

There see, I'm already too old and resignated and just a few steps short of being a living vegetable. Or perhaps I already am and just don't wholly realize it.
 
Just done 7 days (few 12 hours in there with more to come) and will be in tomorrow until Friday/maybe Saturday, so 12/13 days without a day off >_> I don't work in retail right enough, I certainly don't envy y'all...
 
Luna said:
I'd say: To find one, fully knowing, that there is none.
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I agree completely. But I think that could easily see you through a few centuries before you get tied and decide there's no point any more. That would be a better way for anyone to leave the world really, through their own concious decision that the time has come for them to go, rather than their physical body taking them out through its own unstoppable degradation.

Luna said:
It would increase your survival, if you stop eating sweets.
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Your personal survival, sure. But as far as I'm aware people eating sweets isn't likely to render the planet uninhabitable like a lot of the crap we're collectively doing as a species, or allowing non-individual entities like corporations (where it's a lot easier for everyone involved, from CEOs to workers to consumers, to deny anything is personally their fault) to do. I think the thought we might have to live to see the consequences of our actions might make us look at things rather differently, since despite all the cries of "What kind of planet are we leaving to our children?" I don't actually think the majority of people care what's going to happen to their descendants after they themselves are dead, such is the culture of selfishness we've cultivated.
 
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