Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the World’s Crappiest Mouse. EVER.
It’s a Microsoft Compact Optical Mouse 500 v2.0. It stinks.
I’m a mouse-a-holic. I’ve tried them all! Trackballs, wired, wireless, weirdo shapes, colors, and sizes… all sorts of brands. I have a cabinet stuffed with old mouses and mouse parts (I just can’t bear to get rid of them!). You see, I work at home, on the computer all day long (and then some), and I tend to wear out my keyboards and computers mouses. So just about every three months or so, I have to get a new mouse. I get a new keyboard about twice a year. Incidentally, the only keyboard that’s still working well after a year’s worth of pounding is the Apple Aluminum. It’s a great keyboard. I interchange it with the HP Elite wireless and have been very happy.
But mouses and me- we don’t last very long together.
And the Microsoft Compact Optical Mouse 500 v2.0 STINKS. It cost me $20, too!!! :hmph:
For one, the Optical Mouse 500 is too lightweight. The cord is slightly kinked due to poor packaging, so the cord lifts the mouse a little; which means that the weight of the cord is MORE THAN the weight of the mouse! The maneuverability is awful. The buttons click loudly and uncomfortably. The scroll wheel- OH the scroll wheel!- does it work?! Barely. You have to really rake your finger across the wheel to get the blasted thing to scroll. And I have tiny hands, but even the scroll wheel is too small and too far back for me to operate comfortably. I have to lift my finger in a back and up position (an “OK” kind of position) to scroll the wheel.
:-p Microsoft makes good mouses, they do. I like the wired and wireless versions of the Optical 3000, but they both wore out on me. 🙁 Microsoft really bombed on this one, though. YUK. $20 for this piece of trash? I wish I’d saved the receipt…
Life is never dull, and exciting things just seem to always happen to me... why me... when I'm not running around the house fixing things, I'm a freelance writer for national media outlets like USAToday.com, Salon.com, and others. I've even been interviewed by TIME and The Wall Street Journal about blogging. Can you believe it?! Here is where I express my zany, creative, motherly side. 
February 18, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Bummer. I got a wireless Logitech when I bought my new computer, it came with the wireless keyboard. I have the ones that came with the computer somewhere but I really like these. 🙂
February 19, 2010 at 4:10 am
How funny, I was just thinking how I liked my wireless Logitech (except that it DOES eat batteries), when I saw the post above!
February 20, 2010 at 1:44 am
oohhh noo. that doesn’t look like a very happy mouse. I also work at home and the mouse I use is a generic cordless mouse that I think I paid $10.00 with shipping from china. works like a charm. I buy two at a time so when one goes bad I can switch out the parts to the second one and have a third one from the parts. yepper, me too.
I also rebuild and refit my keyboards. I wear the letters off in a week. if I didn’t touch type I’d be in a world of trouble.
February 21, 2010 at 9:32 pm
ooooooooooooohoohooohoohooHOOOOO!! Where’s the sledgehammer?!
hee 😀 i like being animative 😉
February 22, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I’ve been using a Rocketfish wireless mouse & keyboard for more than a year, and I’m very satisfied. The only drawback I’ve found is that the first time you use the keyboard after rebooting, there’s a delay before it kicks into gear.