Mice

Mice (Laser) Running Around the Classroom
by Shepard Gorman

Time to share an animal training trick about mice. Mice can be trained to run vertically! The more curious of us know that the performance of a good laser mouse is rarely affected by the type of surface it is used on except when that surface is almost mirror-like. Given that very few of us do presentations in gold lamé suits, a pants leg then makes a suitable surface for “mousing”. If you use a wireless mouse you can certainly pace about while talking and “work the room”

The author has used the Logitech V50 cordless laser notebook mouse successfully in this way. The V50 is slightly smaller than a desktop laser mouse, weighs only 4 ounces , and has an effective range of about 15 feet from its 2.4 GHz wireless receiver. Hats off to the designer who understands that form and function need to go together. Once the two AA batteries are placed in the mouse, installing it is simply a matter of sliding the ½ inch long

installing it is simply a matter of sliding the ½ inch long USB receiver from its storage slot on the bottom of the mouse and putting it into a USB port on the PC. The V450 is highly accurate and has a tilt and zoom wheel in addition to the 2 standard buttons. A low battery light lets you know if you're about to run out of power. Using the wheel allows you to scroll through much slides faster than the buttons on most dedicated presentation devices while the left and right buttons allow you to use the pen functions of PowerPoint to highlight or underline points on-screen. Switching to presentation mode with notes on one monitor and the slides on a second monitor or projector is very fast with the mouse

Logitech claims that the AA batteries reportedly can power the mouse for up to year. What makes this possible is that the docking area reportedly can power the mouse for up to year. What makes this possible is that the docking area for the receiver is also a switch so that the mouse and receiver automatically power down as the receiver snaps into its slot. The batteries certainly last several months but the author hasn’t yet been able verify that they last a year, (Tune in later folks!). The best part is that this mouse costs about $36 on the street, well under half the cost of a dedicated “presenter”. While a single use presenter may have a handy built-in laser pointer, most of us can find pointers for about $6 locally, still making the cost of the mosue and the pointer together very affordable.

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