Nextel Phones, Logitech Mice, And X, careful administrators Options

[verbose]

<story type="offtopic:slightly">

Was helping a friend debug a router config yesterday. Had my headset on, plugged into my Nextel phone. While I was talking to him, I was recording some unrelated information in a StarOffice spreadsheet. Every now and then, my view would "jump" in the spreadsheet, and I've have to scroll back to where I was working. I figured out that the midde-mouse button was being "virtually depressed" sporadically, which is how you pan in StarCalc. I thought StarCalc was freaking out, so I restarted it. Same problem. So I thought "X is freaking out. Surprise." I restart X. Problem *still* exists. At this point, an xterm had focus, so every now and then, my cut-buffer would get pasted into the window.

I looked down at my mouse, an noticed that my nextel phone is on the desk, right next to it. I already knew that nextel's have a wicked field around them when they're in use, for it creates a noise in any nearby computer speakers that sounds like one of those oscillating sprinkers -- chit chit chit chit. You can mostly eliminate the noise if you orient the phone properly in relation to the speakers (align the electromagnetic field so that it doesn't induce much current). I had done this early in the call, as I still wanted my music going for some odd reason; I normally just turn my speakers off until I'm done. In adjusting my phone, I had moved it much closer to my mouse than normal. So, as an experiment, I moved my phone away from my mouse. Problem went away. Moved it next to the mouse, and my buffer starts getting pasted into my xterm, over and over. I of course repeated this experiment until I had sufficient empirical evidence, and had several coworkers observe the phenomenon for witnesses.

I was amazed. My nextel knows how to middle-click! Well, it knows how to send a middle-click in the intellimouse-compatible PS/2 protocol, in any case.

The lesson of the story is: Nextels cause cancer.

This post has been edited by verbose: Mar 4 2003, 08:31 PM

[SuicideDog]

HAHAH that's great! I have a MS Optical cordless mouse. While it doesn't cause any button to be clicked.. it does go hay wire if I hold the phone to close to it while on a converstaion. Verbose.. does your mouse happen to be cordless?

[verbose]

Corded Logitech Dual Optical. Most accurate mouse I've ever used (haven't tried the new MX mice yet). I sold my Boomslang 2000 after using the dual optical. That's how much I love this mouse.

[MonsieurEvil]

That's bizarre and cool. I always thought that wireless mice ran in like the 27Mhz range though, which was why they were only good for about 4 feet from your PC. Are yours the new 2.4Ghz 802.11B mice that you can use 1/4 mile from your house?

[cracker_jackmac]

LOL, you'd need a big monitor to see that far.

[MonsieurEvil]

You just buy the new compatible 31,500 inch plasma screen so you can see it like a 21"... But then you'll need 802.11b keyboard, 1.44 external floppy with a 1500 foot fiber cable, etc...

lol.

[cracker_jackmac]

/me dreams of the ultimate Game machine with 1/4 of distance..


don't forget the speakers!!