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Hardware

Cryogenic Mouse Mod 169

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-can't-feel-my-legs dept.
mrsaggy writes "When you get sick of putting an aluminium case on your PC, and lighting up the keyboard, here is something you can do with your optical mouse. Does anyone know where I can get a Han Solo lego figure ?" Thats a pretty funny mod. Ya don't see many mouse mods, and that one is pretty cool.
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Cryogenic Mouse Mod More

Cryogenic Mouse Mod

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  • w00t! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:18PM (#3830002)
    Now I can overclock my mouse to 800 dpi!

  • Cache (Score:2, Informative)

    by bleckywelcky ( 518520 )

    /.ed already, geez. Here's the cache [216.239.39.100] (although somewhat useless without the pics, heh).

  • ... especially on that site.

    /. Effect and all ...

  • ...obviously, you're violating the rights of the Lego Creature. Everyone knows, you're only allowed to detain people without charges and without a lawyer, indefinitely, if they're "enemy combatants." I don't see the little Lego dude exersizing free speech, so he hasn't done anything wrong! You can't do this!

  • instead of mod'ing your mouse ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Triumph The Insult C ( 586706 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:22PM (#3830028) Homepage Journal
    you could
    • go outside
    • take a shower
    • switch to diet coke
    • get the artifical cheese dust out of your facial hair
    • get a real, living girlfriend. japanese anime (although cool) doesn't count
    • instead of spending time insulting somebody, you could:

      - go outside
      - take a shower
      - switch to diet coke
      - get the artifical cheese dust out of your facial hair
      - get a real, living girlfriend. japanese anime (although cool) doesn't count

      *crash* goes the sound of your glass house losing its final and fourth wall as your rock careens across the lawn ..

      Yes, I realize I'm being hyporitical, but at least Im being upfront about it. ;)

    • Re:instead of mod'ing your mouse ... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      you could

      go outside
      Check

      take a shower
      Check

      switch to diet coke
      Check

      get the artifical cheese dust out of your facial hair
      hang on ... Check

      get a real, living girlfriend.
      Check

      japanese anime (although cool) doesn't count
      Dammit!

    • Re:instead of mod'ing your mouse ... (Score:5, Funny)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @06:03PM (#3830179) Journal

      get a real, living girlfriend. japanese anime (although cool) doesn't count

      Yeah but the problem is that I don't meet any gorgeous green-haired female ninjas with 38DDs who can kill monsters effortlessly in my line of work...

      GMD

    • Watch the Simpsons:

      Woman: Comb the Sweet Tarts out of your beard and you're on.
      CBG: Don't try to change me baby.
    • * go outside,
      I do this every time I go to my car, oh. (Actually, I plan on going swimming Sunday.)
      *take a shower.
      I do.
      *switch to diet coke
      I drink milk, I can't stand sodas.
      *get the artificial cheese dust out of your facial hair
      I hate facial hair. Shave regularly.
      *get a real, living girlfriend.
      I'm still working on the "how" part. Intentionally neglected this skill in highschool. Skipped college. Hate bars.

      Then again, I'm not modding my mouse either.

      Oh well.

      IMarv
    • You seemed to have left out the phrase "Nice mouse mod... for me to poop on! "
    • I'm surprised he didn't try to make a bong out of it. . ;)

  • Why Mod?? (Score:3, Informative)

    by oldzoot ( 60984 ) <morton.james@comcas t . n et> on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:24PM (#3830036)
    Computer modding seems to me to be the current day version of hot-rodding cars back in the fourties and fifties. Sure, people still hotrod cars, but not to the extent that they did back then. It was a just maturing technology that had not reached it's performance peak - much like computers are now. What standards exist give a reasonable base for which to develop commodity enhancement products which can be used to customize the look and boost the performance of a computer , allowing the owner to express their individuality and technical prowess.

    • ...It was a just maturing technology that had not reached it's performance peak - much like computers are now...

      give me *one* explanation how neon lights and acrylic windows and whatever make your computer perform better;

      on the contrary -- do you know why computers uses metal cases? because in the times of solar flares, radiation will pass through you tiny tiny capacitors in your DRAM, usually leaving a stream of drained capacitors; -- metal cases help in that respect. (and i am not making this up)

      so i would think that with a window on your PC, it would be *more* flimsy rather than less.

      as for mouse mods... sigh... get a life yo.

      • Re:Why Mod?? (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        That's wonderfully wrong.

        Cases are metal to prevent the computer from causing interference with other electronic devices. That's it. Any protection from solar radiation is minimal at best. More memory errors are caused by the natural radioactivity in the metal the components are made of than from solar radiation.

        • Re:Why Mod?? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by inburito ( 89603 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @06:42PM (#3830396)
          Not exactly correct. The metal cases are there to diminish any interference your computer might cause to other electronic devices AND to reduce the interference other electronic devices might cause to your computer! They cannot totally shield your computer but definetly do a better job than not having anything.

          Suppose, for instance, that you have an poorly shielded switching power supply. These are not terribly uncommon among cheap computer equipment. Generally it would be a brick that's between your electrical equipment and the outlet. Now take this brick next to a regular monitor (pretty poor shielding here too) and you begin to see nice interference effects! Now guess what happens if you have something similiar next to your unshielded computer.

          You don't even need to consider anything related to memory but just the hard drive cables at udma speeds of 33 and over are highly suspectible to noise! It won't take very long until your computer is pretty much locked up and you got corrupted data on your hard drives. I've even had problems from using bad udma-cables (all the problems disappeared when I just got new cables) due to electrical noise probably generated by the fans or other hard drives or the powersupply.. who knows.

          The fact is that solar radiation isn't going to do much to your computer (satellites are affected, however) unless you live in polar area and the flares leake from Van Allen belts, but that's a different story. Not shielding your computer is a bad thing because of not only the interference it creates but also the interference it receives..
          • ...AND to reduce the interference other electronic devices might cause to your computer!...You don't even need to consider anything related to memory but just the hard drive cables at udma speeds of 33 and over are highly suspectible to noise!

            Which is precisely why placing a Tektronix 608 Vector Scope (basically a CRT in a box) - that is hooked up to your soundcard to produce weird swirly effects - directly on top of your computer is a Very Bad Plan.

            Trust me, I know from what I speak:

            "Hey, that looks pretty cool."
            (mere moments later)
            "HEY! WHERE ARE ALL THESE BAD SECTORS COMING FROM?!!

            Fun while it lasted...

      • neon lights dont but others do...

        water cooling... huge fans... blowers... suckers... better power supplies... ram heat sinks... video card cooling mods... BIOS tweaks... NEW BIOS... higher quality round cables...

        there are plenty of ways to mod your computer to go faster...

        lights and windows are like the old mods donre to hot rods tomakethem look good... we have all the same things... shiny engines... paint jobs... decals... all that stuff...
        • see -- still -- with all those cooling and "high quality cables" -- you are only increasing the margin of safety (which is fairly pointless, btw -- because chips are tested to -40 / 125 anyhow), but not make them work better;

          re-boring an engine would be the equivalent of redoing the litho in a chip to optimize the interger pipe line. i will bow to the first person that "mods" his PC that way.
      • so i would think that with a window on your PC, it would be *more* flimsy rather than less.

        So, you've just demonstrated that it's not only cars, but also computers that work better without windows :)

        Sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation

        • heh (Score:1)

          by lingqi ( 577227 )
          i saw that when i was proof-reading the preview text but decided to leave it alone so some poor unsuspecting individual will cleverly take advantage of the opening so i can say "ha! knew you were gonna do that" like i am doing now. ;-)

    • Re:Why Mod?? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by balloonhead ( 589759 )
      There seems to be a lot of "why?" questioning about this whole mod thing. Firstly, Why not? It's arguably a form of art - are you saying why should anyone do art?

      Secondly, the issue of aesthetics is a big one - if you think it looks good, then do it. No-one else needs to agree, otherwise we'd all wear the same clothes and part our hair the same. A lot of human existence is about aesthetics, not even going into Darwinism.

      Thirdly, individuality. Before skateboard-style (or any other fashion) became mainstream, it was done only by a few people expressing themselves in a new way.

      If you still don't understand why people mod then I presume you wear your dad's clothes, don't look at them before or after you put them on, got the car which was the most practical for the cheapest colour, have no wallpaper in your house, have a two-colour graphics card, and your {girlfriend¦boyfriend} is ugly as sin but has a lovely personality.

  • What this really needs is a Sigourney Weaver doll,
    like from the start of "Aliens", with a little spider-crawley alien climbing in through the glass.

  • That effect.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tetsu no Chef ( 572951 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:25PM (#3830042)
    (images had to be scaled down due to linkage from HardOCP)

    Congrats! Now that Slashdot's linked to you, you won't even notice that HardOCP traffic!

  • sites I'll have to wait until tomarrow to check, thanks to the slashdot effect.

    (wink wink.. mirrors)

  • mods (Score:1)

    by axehat ( 590580 )
    Aesthetics are very important. I have a Mac because I love OS X. OS X has Aqua, quite possibly the best GUI ever, IMHO. Its unix, but pleasing to the eye. Also, Apple hardware is also very pleasing to look at. Case mods on PCs are something that shows how much you love your computer, as well as how much time you spend looking at it. A beige box isn't nice to look at for ten hours, but a black box, with a window kit with a Tux etching on it with a blue neon inside is. I have never heard of a mouse mod, though. Seems interesting, if the website wasn't /.ed already.

    • Re:mods (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Case mods on PCs are something that shows how much you love your computer, as well as how much time you spend looking at it. A beige box isn't nice to look at for ten hours, but a black box, with a window kit with a Tux etching on it with a blue neon inside is.

      Ummm if you're looking at your computers case for tens hours you're using it wrong...

      Here's a hint: even though the cpu is in the case, you use the screen to interact with it...
    • Strange...many people say it is slashdotted. I got everything just right now (0:40 CET, and not many comments).

      Anyways...I think looks are important and that is indeed why I bought a Mac too. I have a cool case mod on one of my PC's (well a simple one, my concept...dad did it...he's better with his hands) but that one is out of nessecity: very big fan on the side of a overheated machine...looks cool too.

      My first reaction was: why mod a mouse with a Lego figure? Well...I woudn't do it...but it looks very cool. 10 points for originality :-)

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • That, or it is /.ed. I check up on /. around something like 25 times a day, when a new story comes up, I am usually there. Only seven people had replied comments to this story when I tried reading it. You can also notice how I said nothing about the actual mod itself, being as I hadnt't seen it, I only regarded mods in general. Now that I have seen it, it seems like a pretty cool mod. Someone posted something about a Han Solo Lego figure, that would be perfect. Props for originality. - But he was unmoved, and cried: "If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!" - H.P. Lovecraft "The Temple"

  • Talk about cruelty to Lego's... (Score:5, Funny)

    by stirfry714 ( 410701 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:31PM (#3830064)
    I mean, first we cut off your legs, then we enclose you in a small airless chamber, "freeze" you, and then jerk you around for the rest of your pitiful existence...

    Hmm, sounds like the plot for a B-grade movie. Wait, didn't it already get used in "Boxing Helena"? Sherilyn Fenn in a box, Serena in a box... hmm, what will the MPAA say?
  • at: Here [216.239.35.100]

  • Mice modding... (Score:3)

    by Wrexen ( 151642 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:33PM (#3830075) Homepage
    Does anyone have advice on how to open these mice? I have a bunch of the MS Optical mice pictured in the page I'd like to mess with, but I'm not sure how to get the cover off in a non-destructive manner.

  • Slashdot Cache (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Photar ( 5491 )
    OK ok. If they don't want to bother to provide a slashdot cache system. How about just linking straight to the google cache and save everyone some effort.
    • Surely this would just mean the Google Cache would get Slashdotted. Unless they have better servers than the sites original host?
      • Google getting Slashdotted? The day that happens is the day CmdrTaco can declare himself lord and ruler of the whole Internet.

        What'd they say on another post here? 10,000 computers in their server farm?

        Hmm... are there any sites out there that can take more traffic than Google? (Maybe something like Akamai?) I'm out of my league on that question..
      • I'm pretty sure google has a million billion servers with bandwith out the wazoo.

  • Mirror Site Here (w/pics).... (Score:5, Informative)

    by codewolf ( 239827 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:40PM (#3830098) Homepage
    Mouse Mod [codewolf.com]

  • Easy mouse mods (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tycho ( 11893 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:41PM (#3830107)
    Mouse mods aren't that hard to do. You can get a multi-button ADB mouse if you make a solder bridger and switch out the IC, the cable, and the through hole resistors of a Logitech made Apple branded mouse, with those of a Logitech made PS/2 mouse. The mouse automatically works as a multi button mouse in OS X and Linux, but to get the other button to work in older versions of the MacOS you can use a shareware program or you can hack up the MouseKey control panel from Logitech so that it works with the mouse. The PS/2 mice that work for this are non-scroll wheel Logitech mice made from 1994 to 1998. You can tell if the Apple mouse will work for this if the first two letters of serial number starts with LT or LC and the third character is a number four to eight. Inside the PCBs of both mice should look very similar.

  • Body Mouse (Score:5, Funny)

    by Comrade Pikachu ( 467844 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:50PM (#3830139) Homepage
    You want a mouse mod? I got yer mouse mod right HERE [cgtalk.com].

    And HERE [cgtalk.com].

    The Body Mouse creator's website [brinkster.com].

  • What is the world coming to... (Score:4, Funny)

    by swaic ( 541592 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @05:51PM (#3830146)

    Everyone seems to think that every piece of hardware needs windows... :)
    • Just wait, pretty soon we'll be reading articles about computers with (beowulf) clusters of mice. Although once you have more mice than you have appendages, there isn't much point to it.

      Actually, that raises a serious question though -- has anyone ever used a computer with two mice, or even wanted to? Was it/would it be useful in any way? (I could see a computer with two mice in a public place, easily used by left-handed and right-handed people. Any use beyond that? Is there ever a time, other than while playing games, that two separate 2-D controls would help?)
      • Yep. 2 (or more) player hotseat games (turn based multiplayer on one box). That way, nobody need move when it is their turn. It also helps if you have multiple keyboards as well, but only for some games. I would also imagine that with USB it would be entirely possible to have player 1/2/3/x on seperate mice for live one machine play. Aside from games, I cannot however think of any uses for 2+ mouse systems
      • We use two mice for some stereo mapping/GIS applications like DVP [dvp.ca] The second mouse controls your Z axis (height above ground)
      • i'm using to mouse now: one for X and one for console. mouse wheel don't play nicely for me with GPM in repeater mode.
  • How the heck did he put that blue LED in there? I'd like to do something similar, but How did he know where to sauder it in?
  • If you try to visit the site and keep the browser window open for like 2 minutes, the site will eventually come.

    nice stuff there :)

  • Mouse mods. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SN74S181 ( 581549 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @06:12PM (#3830241)
    Ya don't see many mouse mods,

    On a few occasions I've cut my track ball or mouse open and used trace cuts and jumper wires to make it into a 'natural' left handed mouse. There are control panel settings in most windowing software to do this for you, but not that often on games, particularly older classics like Heretic (which I still occasionally enjoy playing). There's also some satisfaction in telling right handers who use the machine that they need to go into the control panel and switch the mouse to use it right handed.

  • Han Solo Lego Figure (Score:2, Informative)

    by mshowman ( 542844 )
    http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?id=%7B9E27F7B5%2D 67FB%2D4DC3%2D81C9%2D0F33C98BF11F%7D&OrderBy=0&Cat ID=%7BA319A2F3%2D2540%2D4F7E%2DA702%2D4FF709118FB7 %7D

  • Does anyone know where I can get a Han Solo Lego figure?

    Get your Lego Han Solo here [lego.com]!

  • A more useful mouse mod (Score:3, Interesting)

    by shird ( 566377 ) on Friday July 05, 2002 @07:35PM (#3830592) Homepage Journal
    For a slightly more useful mouse mod, check out this MouseFan [metku.net] mod, which will cool your hand as you surf. Seems like something that could even go commercial.

    Its too bad I have a cordless mouse and this would drain the battery, otherwise I'd probably do it myself.
  • I'd rather have something more esoteric.

    Like grafting Walt Disney's face on a Lego and "freezing" it. Or maybe just a Mickey-on-Ice.

    (Yeah..it's urban legend, but it's still amusing.)
  • http://home.pacbell.net/toqer/P1010007.JPG

    Sorry about the small pic :)

    I used terminatorX
    http://www.terminatorx.cx
    and mounted my optical mouse to a cheap 10 dollar turntable I got at the flea market. Instead of connecting it to the gearing like the terminatorx site shows, I rely on the actual vinyl underneath which makes it much more like spinning vinyl.

    I have a few issues with it, maybe some /.'ers would want to take a stab at.

    1. I would really like to raise the mouse to be about an inch above the vinyl. How would I change the camera's focus?

    2. It seems "laggy" (sorry best word I could think of) Would it really be worth it for me to go out and spend another $40 dollars to see if the 2.0 versions are less laggy?

    Anyways, I hope you found my comment to be both insightful, interesting, and informative, please mod accordingly :)

    --Toq
    • TerminatorX is (pick three of the following):
      1. Up to (at least) version 3.60 now.
      2. Not particularly "laggy" on my box (caveats: IANADJ, YMMV, and I haven't given it that hard of a workout. Oh yeah, and my box is a 300mhz/32meg AMD)
      3. Free as in GPL, so no $40 investment required.
  • "Poor Serena, all alone in that chamber. Now comes the evil modder and adds some liquid nitrogen (not really but bare with me here)."

    I may bare with Serena but certainly not you dude!

    This is too funny! you just can't make this shit up, you just can't...
  • Namely Hunter, Kimball, and Kaminsky. Or you know, I can get some kind of life.

  • Thank you all. (Score:2, Informative)

    by japala ( 546358 )
    Nice to see so many visitors in my site. Too bad that the line is so slow. Hope you still have the patience to wait the page load. Thanks. :)
  • I hope he didn't short anything out with that alumunium next to the PCB in the mouse. A modded mouse isn't a lot of good when the electronics stop working...

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