On 2011/05/23 23:39 (GMT+0300) Stan Goodman composed:
One can view it as a design problem. The failure happened as it did because the photosensors are below the ball, so that gravity drives errant crumbs to cover them. If the sesors were _above_ the ball.... O, wait a minute.... I have to think this out.
I've bought several Kensington products over the past couple of decades or so. My newest one has a big hole at the lowest point, ostensibly to pass junk through and out of harms way, but its optical sensor is in a recess that looks like it's designed to capture as much junk as possible on its way down to the hole. Kensington products strike me as having been designed by direct descendants of the engineers of Lucas Electric during the '50's and '60's, the people responsible for the infamous failure-prone electrical systems of British cars of that period. OTOH, my Logitech trackballs all have holes at the nadirs though which most crumbs and other detritus fall out of harm's way. Their optical sensors are located closer to laterally than to the bottoms, and flush, so that there's nothing to catch junk on its way down to the holes. It's a shame there aren't more trackball designs to choose from. It seems there's at least 100 mouse designs for each trackball design, and most stores don't carry more than one or two at the most. The best trackballs (Logitech Marble FX), like the best keyboards (Northgate OmniKey 102), were last produced more than a decade ago, and cost more now on eBay than they did when new, if any can be found there at all. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org