Reply to: MacBook Pro / Bootcamp / Vista

[bogeyman]

Happens every other week but I would not change it, I find it particularly useful scrolling on the horizontal as well as vertical in a spreadsheet.

To take the dirt out is easy -

Turn mouse upside down onto a piece of A4 rolling the nipple around for 10 seconds or so. It's as good as out of the box after this.

Scooter! You brand loyalty is amazing

C'mon. Even the most die-hard Mac-head admits the Mighty Mouse is a complete piece of crap - like every other mouse Apple have made, and then worse.

I don't have to roll my inverted Lasermouse 8000 around on a piece of A4 or any nonsense like that. It just works!

Oh! and having to lift your left button finger off the MM before you right-click! Hillarious!

[Sysman]

I agree that the mouse is complete carp. Have to take ours apart on a regular basis to clean them.

Disagree about the keyboards though. I like the aluminium ones and never got on with the white ones.

I got a cheap noname mouse for less than a fiver and it works fine.

The white keyboards died like flies on me, so although roughly half the price, it was a false economy.

[scooterscot]

Hardly a day went by that I didn't have to disconnect it and hold it upside down while sliding the trackball nubbin thing around furiously in an attempt to get it scrolling again

Happens every other week but I would not change it, I find it particularly useful scrolling on the horizontal as well as vertical in a spreadsheet.

To take the dirt out is easy -

Turn mouse upside down onto a piece of A4 rolling the nipple around for 10 seconds or so. It's as good as out of the box after this.

[OrangeHopper]

I agree that the mouse is complete carp. Have to take ours apart on a regular basis to clean them.

Disagree about the keyboards though. I like the aluminium ones and never got on with the white ones.

[NickFitz]

The Mighty Mouse is anything but 'mighty', Mike. Bin it. It's junk.

+10. I was lumbered with one of those at a former ClientCo. Hardly a day went by that I didn't have to disconnect it and hold it upside down while sliding the trackball nubbin thing around furiously in an attempt to get it scrolling again

I think it was tiny crumbs from my Fuzzy's Grub sandwiches getting to it

[bogeyman]

Congrats on the purchase I'm just pondering when I'll be replacing my 17" MBP.

Rant time: IMHO, Apple keyboards and mice are just plain tulip! The mice gives me cramp which never happens with the MS optical mice. The old plastic Mac keyboards are heavy but still better than the abomination that are the thin aluminium ones that came with my Mac Pro.

I really like the white wireless keyboards. I'm hoarding them, because the new ultra-thin aluminium jobbies are complete shyte.

[TroubleAtMill]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

...

Just waiting for the MPB to be delivered now, not sure about the Mighty Mouse, that may be returned and I'll stick with my usual mouse, spur of the moment purchase

Thanks Again.

Congrats on the purchase I'm just pondering when I'll be replacing my 17" MBP.

Rant time: IMHO, Apple keyboards and mice are just plain tulip! The mice gives me cramp which never happens with the MS optical mice. The old plastic Mac keyboards are heavy but still better than the abomination that are the thin aluminium ones that came with my Mac Pro.

[bogeyman]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

I phoned Parallels (London Number) to ask them about battery life and they said they would email me the tech sheet. Great I thought till it turned up in German

Anyway a bit more digging and video watching and I have purchased Fusion 2

Just waiting for the MPB to be delivered now, not sure about the Mighty Mouse, that may be returned and I'll stick with my usual mouse, spur of the moment purchase

Thanks Again.

The Mighty Mouse is anything but 'mighty', Mike. Bin it. It's junk.

Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 is my fave.

Logitech MX Revolution is pretty good too but had some problems with Bluetooth connections with Mac after reboots.

[MikeC1408]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

I phoned Parallels (London Number) to ask them about battery life and they said they would email me the tech sheet. Great I thought till it turned up in German

Anyway a bit more digging and video watching and I have purchased Fusion 2

Just waiting for the MPB to be delivered now, not sure about the Mighty Mouse, that may be returned and I'll stick with my usual mouse, spur of the moment purchase

Thanks Again.

[bogeyman]

Thanks for the replies.

Another U turn has been executed and the following is being purchased

13" MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz 4Mb

Now to decide on Parallels or VMWare to run XP Pro. It seems each has it's own set of Pros and Cons and there is no real out right winner.

Want to purchase the above at the same time as the MBP but may result to downloading each in trial version and picking the one I get on with best.

Thanks again for your help.

FWIW, I prefer VMWare Fusion. Much better tech support in my experience.

I can use (in a Windows VM) printers and scanners physically attached to my Mac with Fusion straight out of the box. Parallels gave me all kinds of grief doing this last time I tried it - which was admittedly about 18 months ago, so maybe things have improved.

Good luck with it anyway.

[MikeC1408]

Thanks for the replies.

Another U turn has been executed and the following is being purchased

13" MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz 4Mb

Now to decide on Parallels or VMWare to run XP Pro. It seems each has it's own set of Pros and Cons and there is no real out right winner.

Want to purchase the above at the same time as the MBP but may result to downloading each in trial version and picking the one I get on with best.

Thanks again for your help.

[bogeyman]

Forget running them in a VM. I used to use VM Ware Fusion and Parallels just for Office, Project and Visio. VMs suck resources dry and not worth it unless you fully need to be in a Win environment.

Now I use Bottles for each app and it works like a dream - no resource hogging, light running of Office apps, use it only when I need it. Check out CrossOver and see for yourself.

P

Don't understand that.

I use Fusion to run Visual Studio, Office and other Win-only apps all the time and find the performance pretty good, once the VM has booted up.

You have to expect some performance hit and resource consumption, but if you have a machine with a bit of poke and enough memory, it works fine.

[Moscow Mule]

I find my MacBook bought a year ago has terrible battery life. Even just browsing the web it's not great, and never has been. It charges up fast enough, but I don't think I'd ever get 7 hours from it, 4-5 is probably the most and less if I was using it intensively.

It's the new ones with the fixed internal battery that have the monster life. if you bought it a year ago it will have a removable battery and 4-5 hours us quite good...

[Peter Loew]

Forget running them in a VM. I used to use VM Ware Fusion and Parallels just for Office, Project and Visio. VMs suck resources dry and not worth it unless you fully need to be in a Win environment.

Now I use Bottles for each app and it works like a dream - no resource hogging, light running of Office apps, use it only when I need it. Check out CrossOver and see for yourself.

P

[MikeC1408]

Thanks for all the replies.

It seems that which ever way I go it would seriously reduce the battery life.

Looks like it's the Sony Z Series.