Serial mice... where have they all gone?

[shiftomnimega]

I still have one, heh. Just wondering why they went to PS/2 for keyboards and mice.

Was serial and AT not good enough or something?

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

for the same reason we don't drive steam powered cars or get across the sea in a boat(most of the time ).

 

[bluewall21]

Hey, I'm still using a serial mouse from the '80s. But it is because the PS/2 port on my mobo is fried. I do like it however, makes me remember DOS and real floppy disks.

 

[buleyb]

and its `mouses`, not `mice`

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: bluewall21
Hey, I'm still using a serial mouse from the '80s. But it is because the PS/2 port on my mobo is fried. I do like it however, makes me remember DOS and real floppy disks.

You don't have any USB ports?

I hope you don't game...

 

[bluewall21]

No, I son't game much on this rig (I like consoles!). And the mouse is too frickin quiet for me to give up, it is silent. I cant hear it click over the quiet PSU in the comp. Its unbelievable

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: buleyb
and its `mouses`, not `mice`

from the fine folks at dictionary.com:

mouse Audio pronunciation of mouses ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mous)
n. pl. mice (ms)

1.
1. Any of numerous small rodents of the families Muridae and Cricetidae, such as the common house mouse (Mus musculus), characteristically having a pointed snout, small rounded ears, and a long naked or almost hairless tail.
2. Any of various similar or related animals, such as the jumping mouse, the vole, or the jerboa.
2. A cowardly or timid person.
3. Informal. A discolored swelling under the eye caused by a blow; a black eye.

4. pl. mice or mous·es (mousz) Computer Science. A hand-held, button-activated input device that when rolled along a flat surface directs an indicator to move correspondingly about a computer screen, allowing the operator to move the indicator freely, as to select operations or manipulate text or graphics.

I've never heard of more than one being referred to as 'mouses', but hey...

 

[buleyb]

its probably one of those 'fixed' definitions. Realistically, it shouldn't be 'mice' because `mouse` is the name of the input device. But if its going to be another bastardized word, who am I to stand in the way.

 

[Matthias99]

Realistically, it shouldn't be 'mice' because `mouse` is the name of the input device.

I'm missing something, then. The computer term is derived from the name of the animal. The plural of 'mouse' (the animal) is 'mice'. The plural of 'mouse' (the computer version) should not be 'mice' because...

 

[Maximilian]

Ok Mouse= Singular Mice= Plural u dont like it? tuff! deal with it. Mouses dosent sound right if u say it.

 

[Sunner]

The 20Hz rate of serial mice is enough to drive me crazy in a matter of seconds.
PS/2 OTOH can handle up to 200 Hz.

 

[optimistic]

Serial mice... where have they all gone?

Into my desk cabinet.

I thought it was mices?

Anyways "all your serial mice belong to us"

 

[batmanuel]

One big thing that killed serial mice is that the serial port doesn't carry any power like it does on PS/2 and USB mice. Without a source of power for the light, you can't have optical serial mice. Since no one wants to clean mouse balls, the serial port mouse became a thing of the past. Plus, as Sunner mentioned, it is really hard to nail someone with a headshot when you only have a 20Hz report rate.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

We sell serial mice at work =)

Well, they are FOR sale, I don't think anyone buys them though.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: batmanuel
One big thing that killed serial mice is that the serial port doesn't carry any power like it does on PS/2 and USB mice. Without a source of power for the light, you can't have optical serial mice. Since no one wants to clean mouse balls, the serial port mouse became a thing of the past. Plus, as Sunner mentioned, it is really hard to nail someone with a headshot when you only have a 20Hz report rate.

Heck, it's hard just to use a GUI when the mouse is jumping around rather than floating.
On a sidenote, I still clean mouseballs eventhough I have two MX500's, for one thing, I hate wheel mice, and secondly, IMO the MX500's aren't good enough for FPS gaming.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: buleyb
its probably one of those 'fixed' definitions. Realistically, it shouldn't be 'mice' because `mouse` is the name of the input device. But if its going to be another bastardized word, who am I to stand in the way.

You hates meeses to pieces!


It's always been mice, unless you're a toon cat.

 

[viking1966]

i hate meises to peices.. meeeeeoooowww.. lol.

 

[Jeff7]

Where are they? All in my junk box - I've got maybe 2 or 3 of the things from way back when.

Originally posted by: Sunner
The 20Hz rate of serial mice is enough to drive me crazy in a matter of seconds.
PS/2 OTOH can handle up to 200 Hz.

Only 20Hz? Geez, how'd I ever use those things?
And USB seems to work even smoother than PS/2.

 

[gloval]

it's meeces. as in "I hate meeces to pieces."

 

[nitromullet]

Hopefully, one day, PS/2 will also go the way of the serial mouse. It would be nice for USB to become the standard interface for both mice (or mouses, meises, mices) and keyboards. I have been considering going to a 2-system set with a kvm switch, but the price of a switch that supports PS/2 (for the keyboard) and USB (for the mouse) is quite high, as opposed to a switch that supports PS/2 or USB only. I don't want to use the USB-to-PS/2 converter for my mouse because the plug constantly falls out, and regrettably, USB keyboards still aren't very common.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Where are they? All in my junk box - I've got maybe 2 or 3 of the things from way back when.

Originally posted by: Sunner
The 20Hz rate of serial mice is enough to drive me crazy in a matter of seconds.
PS/2 OTOH can handle up to 200 Hz.

Only 20Hz? Geez, how'd I ever use those things?
And USB seems to work even smoother than PS/2.

Yeah, I thought something like that myself after using a friends aged P-MMX 166 MHz back in the day.
I'd just gotten a monster P2-266 and was used to my PS2 mouse(had one on my 166 MHz as well), so when I used his comp and played some Quake I just started wondering how the hell I could ever hit anything with that mouse.

PS2 defaults to 40 Hz under Win9x, and 60 Hz under the NT's, but using some tools(Mouseware, PS2Tool, etc) you can set it all the way up to 200 Hz.
USB by contrast is 125 Hz(IIRC, might be "just" 100 Hz).
So at default settings USB will certainly feel faster.

 

[Jeff7]

PS2 defaults to 40 Hz under Win9x, and 60 Hz under the NT's, but using some tools(Mouseware, PS2Tool, etc) you can set it all the way up to 200 Hz.
USB by contrast is 125 Hz(IIRC, might be "just" 100 Hz).
So at default settings USB will certainly feel faster.

Really, is that all? I did the tweaks to get my Dual Optical (USB, but, wary of USB at the time, used a PS/2 adapter) to 200Hz refresh. It was smoother than default, no doubt. But after awhile, I finally tried USB. It seemed even better then.

 

[Sunner]

Should be, mice are not my area of expertise, but I have a hard time seeing what would affect this.
Of course maybe using an USB->PS2 adapter changes the playing field?

 

[CWilkins32]

There is this one company on the internet that still sell the good olde Serial Mouse

 

[Luthien]

Let's talk about lice, louse and lousy, lol.