Mouse Trouble
- Details
- Duncan
- Editor's Column
- Hits: 10146
I had an interesting experience with mice recently. Both my partner and I have a wireless mouse on our computer. Both mice were the same brand (Logitech) and worked fine. But when we sat next to each other and work on our respective computers, that's when the touble started. It seems the two mice were on similar radio frequencies and interfered with each other. When I moved my mouse, her mouse would act up and vice versa. It only happened when we both used the mice at the same time. So imagine this scenario if you will:
We are both working away, and she leans over and says "My mouse is not working right. This is so weird!" I then stop working and look over.
"OK, show me." I say. Then she tries again and it works fine. In fact, every time I stop to see what problem she claimed she had, there is nothing wrong. From the frustration I know something is bothering her, but she can never get it to misbehave when I am looking.
It took us a long time to work out what the problem was. My partner was convinced I had some kind of magic touch, since whenever I tried her mouse it worked perfectly. She even started to question her sanity at one point. But it was the interaction of the two mice that was the problem. To solve it, I went out and bought a different make of mouse (Microsoft), and we are fine now.
I am not sure if there is a message to learn here. It certainly was a unique kind of problem, and at the time if confounded us for quite a while. It is kind of like quantum physics, where the observer actually affects the behavior of that which is observed. Did anything like this ever happen to you?
Duncan