Push Me, Pullman

UPS is here! When I was young enough to anticipate the Christmas bounty that would be awaiting me under the tree, but old enough to know the bringer not to be Santa Clause, it was Willie the UPS man’s arrival that I anxiously awaited. Today it was a gift to myself I was anticipating. Since Amanda stole my Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse 2.0 I was forced (yeah, something like that) to find a suitable replacement for what was the best mouse I’ve ever had had the pleasure to use. It fit comfortably in your hand. All four buttons were well placed and easy to press. And it had the tilting scroll wheel allowing not only for quick scrolling up and down, but left and right as well. So whatever was going to replace my old mouse had to be something special.

I’m not an impulse buyer. All of my electronic purchases are usually scrutinized and contemplated for days. And I don’t mean I wait a few days then buy. I mean, I spend so much time reading and trying the product that by the time of purchase the hours of research total days. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. When the J.C. Penney’s Christmas Catalogue would arrive in October, I would spend hours perusing it, laying in the hallway next to the closet reserved for blankets, encyclopedias, and catalogues. When Mema and PaJack would take me for my weekly toy run to Wal-Mart; a mutually beneficial arrangement where I loved toys and they loved spoiling me; I’d walk up and down every aisle numerous times before finally making a decision on that one perfect toy. With no catalogue, grandparents to take me to Wal-Mart, or Wal-Mart for that matter I began my search on Cnet.com. After an hour or so of reading editor and user reviews I had something in mind. What would follow are numerous Google searches and trips to electronic stores for hands on testing that would eventually lead to a froogle purchase.

The Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 is a beautiful metallic blue with black trim keyboard and mouse combo. It features a programmable keyboard with many extra features including buttons for all your common programs and media functions and an additional scroll wheel for which I have yet to find a use. The more is better approach is in full effect. It’s a great keyboard with quiet, responsive buttons, but not the reason I bought this combo. The shining jewel of this package is the MX1000 Laser Mouse. This thing is freaking sweet. It’s a little heavier and bulkier than the Intellimouse but performs insanely better. I expect it will shave miles of my mouse’s movement. It’s amazingly accurate without requiring a steady hand. I immediately was getting more head shots and pwning in America’s Army. It features the standard left and right buttons; standard unless you’re using a Fisher Price My First Mouse or Apple; tilting scroll wheel and the can’t live without forward and back thumb buttons. In addition to these the MX Laser has a fifth button positioned between the two thumb buttons for quick window swapping which in addition to everything else saves more movement and time. The keyboard uses two AA batteries while the mouse has an internal rechargeable battery with the sensor doubling as the recharging cradle. The only complaint I have is there’s a three light charge indicator on the mouse but not a single lock indicator on the keyboard. You can choose to have on/off messages displayed on screen when the lock keys are pressed, but they tend to cause annoying stutter in the frame rate of games. How they missed such an obvious and cheap addition within such a 1337 setup is beyond me.