Mouseballs...domestic and foreign

[Miulang]

OK, you pervs out there who thought you'd see something salacious here...Sheesh.

This is a memo (http://www.neystadt.org/john/humor/IBM-Mouse-Balls.htm) from IBM that has recently started making the rounds again. Shows how myopic techies can be sometimes. But if they weren't so myopic, they wouldn't produce gems like this that make us roll on the floor... :D

Miulang

[lurkah]

OK, you pervs out there who thought you'd see something salacious here...Sheesh.
I must not be one perv if I dunno even what da hybolic words salacious and myopic means. Plus da last time I wen go roll on da floor, I had hahd time getting up again. :D

[pzarquon]

Geez. A classic. I remember this one from before the web - USENET, to be exact. Here's a brief writeup (http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/mouse.htm).

[Miulang]

Geez. A classic. I remember this one from before the web - USENET, to be exact. Here's a brief writeup (http://www.snopes.com/humor/business/mouse.htm).
I think the version circulating now is probably the "original" because of the part numbers specified at the bottom of it. With my experience with geeks (having to work around them and trying to be "at one with them") I don't think the original field service update was urban legend.

Miulang

[pinakboy]

classic!! :D

[adrian]

OK, you pervs out there who thought you'd see something salacious here...Sheesh.

This is a memo (http://www.neystadt.org/john/humor/IBM-Mouse-Balls.htm) from IBM that has recently started making the rounds again. Shows how myopic techies can be sometimes. But if they weren't so myopic, they wouldn't produce gems like this that make us roll on the floor... :D

Miulang
Who you calling a perv? I thought mouse balls were gone because of infrared mice.

In fact, at my house, if there was a user error and someone called me, I'd fix it, then grab the mouse, remove the ball, and throw it at them (playfully of course, aiming for the stomach or leg). It also makes a good stress reliever, and if you lose it, then it'll take your mind off of that paper that is due in a few hours.

And since when IBM been making mice?

[Miulang]

Who you calling a perv? I thought mouse balls were gone because of infrared mice.

In fact, at my house, if there was a user error and someone called me, I'd fix it, then grab the mouse, remove the ball, and throw it at them (playfully of course, aiming for the stomach or leg). It also makes a good stress reliever, and if you lose it, then it'll take your mind off of that paper that is due in a few hours.

And since when IBM been making mice?
It was probably before you were born, Adrian. They used to make PC's, but within the last year, they sold off that business to the CHINESE. I was given my first PC in 1985...an IBM 8080 with dual floppy drives (no one had even thought of hard drives back then), no mouse, everything written in DOS. I got my hands on one of the first MacIntoshes in 1986 or so. Even had some fun trying to use the precursor to the Mac, the Lisa. That was "fun" to use. You had to keep popping diskettes in and out of it because it didn't have dual drives. :eek: In the early 80s, I was playing around with a Radioshack TRS80, which didn't make any sense to me. I also had to learn how to keypunch data cards for a minicomputer in school.
Miulang

[helen]

Sorry but the first IBM PC used the Intel 8086 processor. I think the processor speed was at 4.33 MHz.

[lurkah]

Sorry but the first IBM PC used the Intel 8086 processor. I think the processor speed was at 4.33 MHz.
My parents spent over $5 grand for one of those when they first came out.

Fast forward to around 1990...blazing fast Wang 286 PC with 2MB of RAM and a roomy 20MB hard drive...no way were you gonna be able to fill that drive up for years! :rolleyes: WordPerfect 5.1 anyone?

[Miulang]

Remember when they also said that the computer would revolutionize things so much that we wouldn't need to keep paper documents anymore? Sheesh...you should see my desk today... :eek:

Miulang

[kimo55]

Remember when they also said that the computer would revolutionize things so much that we wouldn't need to keep paper documents anymore? Sheesh...you should see my desk today... :eek:

Miulang



wot. piles of computers all ovah!?

[kimo55]

Remember when they said the computer would revolutionize things so much that we wouldn't need to keep paper documents anymore?


"This Rock and Roll thing, it's just a fad. Oh, and Yea.... computers will create a paperless society. And the mouse... will be replaced by a steering wheel."

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/images/rand.jpg

[adrian]

It was probably before you were born, Adrian. They used to make PC's, but within the last year, they sold off that business to the CHINESE. I was given my first PC in 1985...an IBM 8080 with dual floppy drives (no one had even thought of hard drives back then), no mouse, everything written in DOS. I got my hands on one of the first MacIntoshes in 1986 or so. Even had some fun trying to use the precursor to the Mac, the Lisa. That was "fun" to use. You had to keep popping diskettes in and out of it because it didn't have dual drives. :eek: In the early 80s, I was playing around with a Radioshack TRS80, which didn't make any sense to me. I also had to learn how to keypunch data cards for a minicomputer in school.
Miulang
No, I know they made computers, but I was wondering how did IBM get associated with mice? (probably because they've been making computers for a while huh?)

My first computer experience was an IBM, with 2 5 1/2 floppy drives, and I remember typing documents on a small monochrome screen, and printing it on a dot matrix printer. Ah, those were the days. Ooh, and playing snake on Qbasic. I remembered going into the code and act like I knew what was happening (but in a few months, probably I can understand some of it) and playing snake for hours, just looking at the orange snake and black background.

Now you can make word processing programs, and send a document to a printer at school or across the world, or get rid of paper and just email it.

And speaking of paper, I got more papers on my desk than what I have in my backpack for school.

Oh, and that pic kimo posted, that was supposed to be what every home should have in 2005. ;) I wish I can have that, so my computer can have that much buttons. :D

[kimo55]

how did IBM get associated with mice?
they were introduced at the MacWorld trade show, S.F. one January...

[Miulang]

OK Adrian, here's the real story about who invented (http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081898.htm) the computer mouse. And the guy is still alive and running his own company! :D

Miulang

[kimo55]

and a buncha pics on dat kine stuff too.

http://tinyurl.com/aj4nq