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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2194 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Logitech thumb track ball. Its faster and more precise than any 'arm flailing' mouse. There is however a substantial learning curve and adjustment period when switching, up to 6 months before you're better with it than a normal mouse, which turns a lot of people off. I've been using one since 1997. For a classical mouse, any good corded optical one is fine and you don't need a pad for these at all if you have a good desk surface. If you have to have cordless then avoid bluetooth if you can (this is good general advice, bluetooth is terrible tech). A lot of competitive players also use a small armature that holds the mouse cord up and away from the desk surface so it doesn't get in the way. Here's a popular example: https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Gaming-Mouse-Bungee-RC21-01560100-R3U1

What's wrong with Bluetooth?

it operates on a pretty crowded/noisy band of the wireless spectrum. For example, if you're using a bluetooth mouse on a modern desktop computer, it's very likely that your USB3 ports are interfering with the bluetooth signal whenever they're active https://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/327216.pdf

Not to mention microwave ovens.

Somebody really needs to write a history about how a small chunk of unregulated spectrum set aside for microwaves ended up containing all the stuff we actually use.

Is the entire rest of the spectrum just camped? I think we're missing big chunks of 5ghz wifi spectrum because it was licensed to some satphone operator who never even used it(?)

Yeah, it’s pretty congested. There’s a ton of stuff we want to broadcast.

I was going to say that going higher in frequency is more expensive due to requiring faster sampling, but then I realized I don’t know the receiver architecture. Do they just down convert everything to baseband?

Either way, there’s definitely historical reasons to want those tasty lower frequencies.

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