Mastodon/Fedi: The social network for people who have actually cleaned mouse balls 🖱️

[johntimaeus@infosec.exchange]

@FlockOfCats

I was in the meeting when the head sysadmin for a large university dumped a box of mouse balls onto a conference room table.

"You turned down my request for optical mice.
You want to know why trouble tickets take so long and I can't get projects finished?
Here's why. Two hundred mouse balls replaced this quarter, thousands cleaned and serviced.
Every time one of my staff touches a mouse with a ball, it costs twice what a modern ball-less mouse would cost.
Every time you cut my capex, you pay twice that in opex."

A truly epic scene.
He got his budget request.

[jannem@fosstodon.org]

@crouton @FlockOfCats
My original plan was a self-aiming autoloading desktop trebuchet. But they're a bit too heavy to throw at people I basically like.

[mangotable@famichiki.jp]

@FlockOfCats why you have to trash my hose water drinking X gen childhood? ‍

[rachelthornsub@famichiki.jp]

@jamesrg @pussreboots @FlockOfCats I had to look up both of those. You're from the UK, no? Interesting that it would be so different from the U.S. in the same period. Things were more wide open back then. It didn't take long for one or two global corporations to drive the rest out of business.

[iamdannyboling@mstdn.social]

@mangotable

This is so perfect

@FlockOfCats

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@FlockOfCats Ugh, and that stupid fiber-like formation of hairs and gunk that would form on the rollers was so hard to get off even with a q-tip... Actually, it was, more than anything else, the biggest culprit in reducing mouse accuracy. I never actually had to do any of the rest there, just get that off the rollers.

[urig@mastodon.online]

@FlockOfCats I still do and you can too!

I use a trackball lol

[falcennial@mastodon.social]

@mangotable @FlockOfCats yeah the hose thing is definitely Gen-X I think.

our boomer friends drank directly from the leaded petrol nozzle didn't they

[riverpunk@defcon.social]

@FlockOfCats man, I remember growing up we used to have a mouse that actually had a ball still, until it finally got replaced with a laser one.

[brabo@milliways.social]

@FlockOfCats thanks for making me remember that

[kilroy_was_here@dobbs.town]

@zillion @FlockOfCats

[jamesrg@famichiki.jp]

@RachelThornSub @pussreboots @FlockOfCats

i think the attitude of those early UK companies still lives on in the Raspberry Pi initiative

[alterelefant@mastodontech.de]

@kilroy_was_here
@zillion @FlockOfCats

[yon@sakurajima.moe]

@FlockOfCats Rotary phones, pre internet (commonly at home), pre cell phones (commonly), grew up on two channels, no VCR, and rock music and Dungeons and Dragons were evil and computers had 8-bits.

Old enough?:) Born closer to Leon Trotsky being removed from the Politburo than today!

[mekki@mas.to]

@zillion @FlockOfCats I am amused by this new proxy variable for age>=40.

[rayotron@mstdn.social]

@FlockOfCats Back when I was an annoying Mac fanboy I called a PC store and asked:
"Do you have mouse balls?"
"Yes"
"It sure must tickle when you walk!"

[disorderlyf@todon.eu]

@zillion @FlockOfCats Not like the above pic and not very often, but yes.

[zalasur@mastodon.surazal.net]

@FlockOfCats I never did the "dunking into cleaning solution" thing. I cleaned it with a wipe, and *maybe* ran it under water and patted it dry. Cleaning solution? What kind of fancy-pants mouse balls are you cleaning over there?

[flockofcats@famichiki.jp]

@zalasur

Truth be told, me neither. I always used wipes, too!

[luc0x61@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@FlockOfCats Oh, I did it a lot of times, since I had an Atari ST.