How does that arrow on the computer screen move?

[BobG]

That's always kind of puzzled me how moving a mouse on my desk can cause an arrow on the computer screen to move around. There's no real means of propulsion that I can see. It's almost like magic.

But, finally, I found a website that explains what's going on. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology and the aid of a magnifying screen lens, you can finally see what's really making the arrow move around the screen:

http://www.1-click.jp/

You have to be patient. Modern technology loads very slowly.

 

[Danger]

Well, no wonder Windows-burners are so useless.
Macs only need three girls on roller skates steering the cursor.

 

[moose]

Macs only need three girls on roller skates steering the cursor.

THAT'S why there is that god-awful acceleration bs.

 

[Danger]

That what? What on Earth are you talking about?

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

He is referring to the mouse acceleration setting in windows. Basically it causes the speed of the mouse not to act in a linear fashion. i.e. if you move the mouse twice as fast, the mouse cursor may move 3-4 times as fast (given any initial speed..)

I hope that makes sense. I am not always good at explaining things =-P.

 

[Danger]

Thanks, Circles. The explanation makes perfect sense; the feature itself does not. I would find that very irritating.

 

[moose]

Thanks, Circles. The explanation makes perfect sense; the feature itself does not. I would find that very irritating.

I hope you're kidding! On windows, you can turn the option off. However, on a Mac, YOU CANT! It's absolutely TERRIBLE on a Mac. Have you ever noticed that when you slow down the mouse, it slows down to like NOTHING, and you have to move the mouse over the pad about two more times once you're within an inch of it!??!?!?

 

[hypatia]

I need a new mouse pad, I've worn mine out.

 

[Danger]

Moose, what have you been smoking? I've owned nothing but Macs since my Atari 800XL packed it in, and I worked on 3 others in the shop when I was doing graphics. That includes every OS from 6.1 to my current Tiger. Not one of them displayed that behaviour, or even gave the option for it. The mouse (or trackpad) settings are tracking speed and double-click speed (both slow----------fast). Tracking is directly proportional to the input speed. The only time it isn't is when the system is so busy that the cursor has to race to catch up after lagging behind the input.

 

[moose]

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=mac+mouse+acceleration&btnG=Google+Search

A ton of people seem to know what I'm talking about.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Try moving your mouse across your mouse pad at a reeeeally slow speed from one end of the mouse pad to the other. Then try it at a much faster speed. If there is no mouse acceleration then they would both cover the same distance on the screen.

In my case when I move the mouse faster it easily shoots across the entire screen very quickly where as it may take me 2 swipes across the mouse pad at a very slow speed to cover the same 'screen distance'...

This doesn't bug me at all but I think that people who do graphic design/and perhaps play first person shooters competetively tend to want to turn it off so the mouse cursor movement is more predictable.

 

[Danger]

Okay, now that I checked out your links and read some of the comments, I know what you're talking about. Unfortunately, the terminology is misleading.
If you pay closer attention to the cursor and play around with it, you'll see that it does not move faster or slower than the mouse at any time. It merely moves farther at higher speeds than it does at lower ones (relative to the distance the mouse moves).
I do a lot of work in Illustrator, and some in Photoshop, and that feature is worth its weight in gold. When you're dealing with complex vector graphics that might have hundreds of different elements in each of several dozen layers, it's critical to be able to plant those cross-hairs exactly on the proper control handle or anchor point (especially in gradient meshes).
Frankly, I've never noticed that the PC's at work don't do that... but then again I don't use them for anything important.
By the bye, I don't use a mouse anyway. The only time that I'll even use the track-pad is if there's no room for my tablet or the battery is going low.

edit: Hi, Circles. You sneaked in while I was composing.