
The OpenOffice.org Mouse is Real - blasdel
http://notes.husk.org/post/235896208/ooo-mouse
======
eplawless
I'd like to thank them for creating a better parody of themselves than anybody
else could have.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
When did OpenOffice become a shorthand for 'bad usability'?

I mean they're basically just cloning Microsoft Office (There's a joke there
but I'll avoid it). I can think of a bunch of problems with OpenOffice but
I've never felt they had a particular problem with usability, not compared
with Microsoft Office nor with your average Windows or Linux app.

Don't get me wrong there is always room for improvement and they used to do
some crazy stuff years back (like have their own desktop) but I'm fairly
certain that's in the past.

~~~
TravisLS
The problem is that they're "basically just cloning microsoft office". No good
usability work comes from basically cloning.

Taking ideas / inspiration from Microsoft Office is great, it's a successful
product. But basically cloning just means it works sort of like office, but
different enough to be annoying, with no attention paid to designing the
overall user experience. It's the same reason Gimp is such a nightmare for
Photoshop users.

~~~
warfangle
Gimp isn't a nightmare for Photoshop users just because of usability. It's a
nightmare for Photoshop users because most of the features we rely on (say,
layer grouping and layer blending effects) are flat out missing.

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misuba
I think this is actually going to be popular amongst electronic musicians who
perform live. Two-dimensional analog position data that you can map to effects
sliders and such, plus the joystick, plus all the mod buttons? Not too shabby.
Might let yo do things with one hand that'd be complex at best to do with two
hands on a mixer.

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weaksauce
It sure looks like a 3D rendering to my eyes.

~~~
Keyframe
unless it was photographed in outer space or hard vacuum, judging by the
shadows alone, it is a 3d rendering (not to mention speculars, pinhole etc
etc..

~~~
Semiapies
From the second sentence of TFA: "Many people doubt it’s real, especially as
the images of it are renderings"

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fnid
This will be really great for designers who do a lot of formating and dragging
things around the screen with little typing. You could set borders, padding,
alignment, columns all sorts of things to make documents look really nice.

~~~
BigZaphod
Maybe... except it's horribly ugly. I don't know any designers that would use
it. They'd immediately reject it for the aesthetics alone.

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mattmcknight
I am surprised it is missing a horizontal scroll wheel- although it could be
programmed to use the vertical wheel in combination with another button. Does
Apple have some kind of patent coverage on the little trackball scroller? I
use that for horizontal scrolling in spreadsheets quite frequently.

I generally find buttons and other physical controls much more usable than
touch style interfaces and would be willing to give this device a try to see
how it compares with the Space Pilot.
<http://www.3dconnexion.com/spp/index.php>

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charlesju
OpenOffice is getting ridiculous. All we want is a super-fast client with
capabilities on-par with office 2003. YComb should fund some company to do
this; load times are getting way out of hand, especially on the mac.

~~~
viraptor
What are they on macs? I get 7s cold and 3s warm start on my quite dated linux
laptop. Which I'm ok with.

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zefhous
If you want more more buttons I recommend this:
<http://retail.contourdesign.com/?/products/23>

I can't imagine using using a mouse like that.

~~~
wheels
That's not a mouse, it's a controller for media production. Key phrase: "pairs
with your mouse"

~~~
zefhous
I know... I have one and use it every day.

I do a lot of video editing, but I'm also a programmer. It turns out to be
great for both and for anything else.

My point is that it's a great way to get more buttons if you feel like you
need them. You can map the buttons to do whatever you want depending on the
application, so it's useful in other contexts as well.

It's a good companion to a mouse because it uses your other hand. You aren't
going to be typing with one hand when using the mouse, so it's great to have a
bunch of single buttons available for common tasks.

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onoj
It could be a photo but the keypad is fake. The image shows too much smooth
colour distribution to be an unmodified photo.

No sane product designer would propose a keypad execution like this anyway.
There is a massive ergonomic difference between thumb typing and pressing with
the tips of extended fingers - put your fingertips on the keypad of your phone
with your hand stretched out to see what I mean.

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buugs
The undeniable proof of the blog posting:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougerino/4077512246/>

Blog posting of worse comedic quality than the actual mouse and if he is
serious well then I fear for his logical thinking.

~~~
DougBTX
Sorry, up-voted you by accident. The link you posted came after the "if you
doubt the conference is true" comment, it is just proof that there was an
OOoCon conference, which frankly I find hard to believe myself.

Somehow I thought you were linking to this post:
<http://openofficemouse.com/blog/?p=25>

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hussong
I'm still waiting for the foot pedals.

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joe_the_user
The many-button mouse is appealing as way of reducing movements between mouse
and keyboard.

But it's even better to just stay on the keyboard and skip the mouse
altogether. Mice have to be the number one source of computer-based tendon
injury. Fortunately, the standard laptop is relatively "ergonomics".

~~~
sp332
They should have just put a laser tracker under a keyboard. Then you'd have a
104-key mouse and you'd never have to move your hands again.

~~~
ivank
<http://www.combimouse.com/>

~~~
KevBurnsJr
I had the exact same idea a few days ago.

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elblanco
Not sure about the future of a product most people think is a joke.

~~~
nkassis
Like the red swingline?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Can someone explain that joke(?) ?

~~~
warfangle
Before the film Office Space, there was no red version of the swingline
stapler. After the film, they were inundated with requests for a red version
of their stapler.

So they manufactured it.

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sown
This would be very useful for WoW.

~~~
zouhair
I'd say Starcraft won't be against it either.

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moron4hire
It's not that far off from other products offered by Logitech
[http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices...](http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/5092&cl=us,en)

here's a 15 button mouse built for World of Warcraft
<http://campaign.steelseries.com/us/>

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cmang
Hey openoffice mouse, I'm real happy for you and I'mma let you finish. But
iMac's hockey puck was one of the ugliest mice of all time.

edit: seriously, I'm joking.

