Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse 456
Smivs writes "Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse.
The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.
'It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,' said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley.
'Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.'
The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40.
It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."
Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Insightful)
McDonalds anyone?
Sheesh...
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Insightful)
What about pencil/ballpoint pen companies?
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Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
cornflakes
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Coca-Cola? Pepsi? They've probably sold a billion+ of a variety of their individual product lines (i.e. over 1 billion bottles of Mountain Dew AND over 1 billion bottles of Pepsi Cola), as opposed to Logitech who sold a billion from a category of products that encompasses multiple products.
Same for Budweiser - I wouldn't be surprised if they've hit 10 billion units or more.
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I'm pretty sure I read that ARM ship a billion or so of their chips every year. Of course that may not count as they licence their designs to other companies who actually make the things.
Talking of Coca Cola, if everyone in the world bought a bottle of Coke on average once every 5 years, they would ship a billion bottles a year. I'm pretty sure the figures are much higher than that.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Budweiser ships (far in excess of?) 1 billion units a year (that's only 20 beers for 50 million people, or 50 beers for 20 million people, I'm not real sure how many people are low brow enough to drink Bud, but that seems pretty reasonable).
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I wouldn't be surprised if Budweiser ships (far in excess of?) 1 billion units a year
And that's just to Chico State!!
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Informative)
"A billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. A billion seconds ago, the Beatles changed music. A billion Coca-Colas ago was yesterday morning,"
-- Robert Goizueta, CEO (1980-1997) Coca-Cola Company
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, I have only indirect evidence of this, but roughly 1 billion seconds ago my parents were getting busy.
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see comment below about ARM shipping 1 billion processors last quarter
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Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Interesting)
does anyone have a clue what was happening 1B seconds ago?
The Tenerife disaster [wikipedia.org] occurred on March 27 [wikipedia.org], 1977 [wikipedia.org], which is about 1 billion seconds, or 31 years [google.com] and 251 days [google.com], ago.
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Has any company that makes electronic/mechanical (complex) devices shipped 1B of anything?
Seagate claims to have shipped 1 billion hard drives.
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=null&vgnextoid=43afb55a61379110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD [seagate.com]
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Not just the processing, but the design. It's not like someone mixes up a big bowl of ground beef, a few eggs, spices and whatever, then roughly forms round-ish patties before shipping them out.*
Everything produced for McDonald's is the result of a very stricly controlled manufacturing process to ensure that every meat-like patty, every tallow-spiked fry, every creepily long-lasting chocolate shake is the same to within very strict tolerances, whether you eat it in Miami or Whitehorse.
Make no mistake; that Quarter Pounder with Orange Dairy-Like Substance(TM) is as much the product of a technical manufacturing process as your Cordless Trackball with Media Whiz-Bang!(TM).
.
*That only happens at good burger joints.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Funny)
Same nutritional value, mind you.
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Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:5, Funny)
You assume that there isn't any mouse in the burger.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Congratulations! You're the billionth Slashdot post to misspell its.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, you need a lot of mice to make a big mac.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
Depends what you consider a lot. Obviously you need one to direct the action, and maybe two or three others to gather all the components and.. oh wait. Oh God, that's not what you meant at all, is it? You sick, sick man.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Insightful)
there's an industry term called durable goods [wikipedia.org] which I expect is the category Logitec was speaking of. Consumables such as cigarettes, cheeseburgers, ballpoint pens etc, do not fall into this category.
An ARM processor is also a component, not a finished consumer product, so I would equally count them out of it.
Once you get those two issues out of the way, Logitec's claim becomes a lot more solid. I'm sure there's a few others out there like them, but not the hundreds or thousands that people are speculating.
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Every other example that has been brought up was a consumable rather than a long term product. While you could argue that a mouse is a consumable, it isn't/shouldn't be designed as such. All these other objects you use them, and you throw them away, so you have to get more.
While the statement was indeed broad and vague, I believe that was the intent of it. So really, find me a single company that has shipped 1 billion units of a non-consumable product. Maybe Hanes with their underwear?
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Funny)
find me a single company that has shipped 1 billion units of a non-consumable product. Maybe Hanes with their underwear?
Believe me, I eat a lot of spicy foods. My Hanes last about as long as a consumable.....
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Try our new 68-button MegaMedia(TM) Mouse with built-in subwoofer!!!
I just finally threw caution to the wind last year and duct-taped an old mouse on the bottom of my keyboard. 108-button mouse, biatches! Doesn't have a subwoofer, but I still have duct tape left over.
Re:Any othetr industry?? neve happened? (Score:4, Interesting)
McDonalds ships a buttload of stuff to their chains all around the world. Their supply logistics are pretty damned complex(I'm bidding on their transportation contract right now). Getting the same frenchfries sold in places where they can't grow potatoes isn't easy.
While the "sameness" of Mcdonalds food is repulsive to some, it's impressive that they manage to achieve such generic sameness in the markets they've established themselves in.
You'd need fewer mice if they were built to last (Score:3, Informative)
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:5, Funny)
That's weird. Why on earth would a Mac user not simply use the supplied Apple brand mouse? Oh, right.
Speaking to your criticism directly, I have about half a dozen Logitech mice, spanning a decade, that all work flawlessly. The only reason I have bought more since the first one 11 years ago has been to keep pace with technology (optical, wireless, 2d scroll wheel, laser, etc.)
Then again, it's not like I use mine for grueling tasks like ejecting CDs.
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:5, Informative)
I too am a big fan of Logitech mice. My main computer rig actually sports a Razer Diamondback these days, but my laptop mouse is Logitech, as are the mice on my workstation and server rack's KVM at work. Over the years I've had countless ones. Like you, I mostly have upgraded to keep pace with technology: moving to one with a scroll wheel, moving to an optical, moving to USB, getting a mouse with more buttons, etc.
Like all heavy use devices I've had a few failures (I've had 2 Logitech mice wear out on me), but overall compared with other mice I've still noticed them to be of a pretty high quality. When I used to work as a tech at a college many years ago, I can't count how many Microsoft Intellimouses had a scroll wheel that was jammed where it couldn't be moved anymore.
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Because Steve Jobs only recently relented and allowed a second button on them. Before the mighty mouse, Apple mice were pretty useless creatures.
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He still hasn't relented with the Mighty Mouse. It's only got one button. Sure, there's a capacitative sensor that checks to see which finger is on the mouse, but if you're resting both fingers on the mouse, you can't right-click by pressing the right side of the mouse.
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:4, Informative)
You are incorrect. The click detection is indeed done by detecting the capacitance of your fingers. I accept that there may be more than one physical microswitch inside the device, but that has nothing to do with left/right-click determination. The only thing that matters is whether your finger is resting on the left half of the device or not.
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:5, Insightful)
Holy crap you're right! My parents have a Mighty Mouse on their iMac. I've been trying to right click with it for 2 weeks, with no luck, and its been driving me nuts. I just went upstairs and tried by lifting my index finger when I clicked, and voila: context menu! My reaction: "stupidest mouse ever."
This has to be the worst human interface design ever. This goes way beyond non-intuitive and is in face counter-intuitive. Why should I have to lift one finger to press with another? Point-and-click is now point-lift-and-click? Its going to take forever to explain this to my mom!
Seriously, who comes up with this crap? And how does it ever get past the testing stages? Does Apple deliberately retard their accessories in order to support a strong third party market?
I wish Apple would stop sacrificing function for obscure coolness. "Check it out, my Apple mouse can tell where my fingers are! Sure its a pain in the ass to use it, but IT CAN TELL WHERE MY FINGERS ARE!!!"
"Yeah? Well my Logitech mouse works right." Suck it, Steve.
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:5, Funny)
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Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out ther
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Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft. Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
I bought my Microsoft Trackball optical when logitech stopped making the trackball i liked, and I have never looked back. The software was great (programmable "program dependant" buttons with macros) (If you stuck to the version 4.1) I even bought 5 of them from Microcenter when I learned they were being discontinued.
I still have 4 new in the box, and I see they are going for about $150 on ebay now.
The one I am using right now is... 4 years old I think.
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I'd imagine that the manufacturing in all cases is done by Wun Hung Lo Light Industry and Pre-Used Organs Conglomerate in China. Branding is largely superficial.
As an aside though, the Microsoft Explorer Trackball [google.co.uk] was a Microsoft custom job that Logitech have never produced a direct competitor for. I mention this because, being Microsoft, they killed it off despite its popularity in its niche. Used examples are now selling for $250 and rising on eBay, and there's even a market for cleaning kits and mai
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So to answer the OP's: "there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack"
Something like the G7 but a lot cheaper would set it apart.
Being a wired mouse is fine. The wires don't bother me much, expensive does bother me
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Wow. That was a bit over-the-top in the Snark division. I don't think the guy was WANTING to use the left-mouse button-eject function, since the mouse button was stuck. But yeah, I like the Logitech mice too.
But seriously...posts like yours, as aggrivatingly snarky as they are, are what keep me coming back. It's fun to become agitated AND I learned an OSX function I never new about ;-)
Re:You'd need fewer mice if they were built to las (Score:4, Funny)
It's fun to become agitated AND I learned an OSX function I never new about ;-)
That's the Mac experince in a nutshell.
One billionth? Ha, that's nothing (Score:3, Interesting)
I think McDonald's would disagree with you.
Mice? (Score:5, Funny)
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No, he meant no other industry has shipped a billion mice.
Re:One billionth? Ha, that's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't think consumables can be fairly included in this topic. You could talk about bottles of milk, cans of oil, etc. All of those get consumed. I think the difference is that this is a nonconsumable, like a car or an air conditioner.
1 billion is not uncommon for some things (Score:4, Insightful)
Large manufacturers of small parts like screws can easily reach the billion mark in a decade.
The same goes for "categories" of parts like mice, computers, microprocessors, phones, etc.
I wonder how many CPUs Intel has shipped? I wonder how many phones the pre-1983-breakup version of AT&T shipped. I wonder how many screws and fasteners a large screw-making company ships in 10 years?
No, a billion may be a milestone but it's not huge, not when you put it in context.
Re:1 billion is not uncommon for some things (Score:5, Informative)
Don't know about Intel, but ARM shipped 1 billion processors last quarter, according to their Q3 results statement [arm.com].
Other things that must ship in the billions: screws, nails, paper clips, thumbtacks, staples, sweets (candy), baked beans, soda, LEDs (actually almost any discrete electronic component), copier paper, post-it notes, coins, pens, pencils, bin liners ... it's too easy.
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Other things that must ship in the billions: screws, nails, paper clips, thumbtacks, staples, sweets (candy), baked beans, soda, LEDs (actually almost any discrete electronic component), copier paper, post-it notes, coins, pens, pencils, bin liners ...
... posts nitpicking that quote...
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Intel shipped their billionth chip a few years back. It was reported on /. at the time. ARM sell massively more chips than Intel.
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or ironically, the components used to make those mice.
What about Microsoft? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm curious to know how many mice Microsoft has shipped; theirs seem to be more plentiful than Logitech's in the wild. I know that I've got four or five MS mice sitting in the closet, plus two active ones, but the only Logitech mouse I have is the one at work.
One mouse for every six people seems a bit steep for what is—in my limited personal experience—a minority player in the market.
Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:4, Funny)
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It's OK to use Microsoft Mouse. It's the one thing they are good at.
Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:5, Informative)
their first mouse was a rebranded logitech.
Re:What about Microsoft? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm curious to know how many mice Microsoft has shipped; theirs seem to be more plentiful than Logitech's in the wild.
That's because they pull their own cords and escape to the woods. They're a lot less house-trained than their Logitech counterparts.
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As others have mentioned, if you turn over most of the OEM branded mice the come with a computer, you'll see a Logitech logo on it. As far as straight retail, I still tend to see Logitech mice in far greater numbers than Microsoft (Logitech used to dominate the keyboard market as well, and they're still a strong presence there but I notice more Microsoft keyboards that Logitech these days).
They're far from a minority player. I'd even go so far as to say in the general consumer interface market, Logitech i
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As others have mentioned, if you turn over most of the OEM branded mice the come with a computer, you'll see a Logitech logo on it.
Thanks, I just turned over my lenovo mouse to check, and blinded myself with the laser
Good Job Logitech! (Score:4, Informative)
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MS Mice are almost exclusively Logitech OEMs. Why would you replace it with a duplicate?
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Days numbered? (Score:5, Insightful)
The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.
[citation needed]
No seriously, where is there a mainstream commentator predicting the demise of the mouse, and backing it up with hard data and logic?
How much of everything (Score:2)
how can it be rare when there is an abundance? (Score:4, Funny)
Quite impressive numbers (Score:2)
Toothpicks? (Score:3, Interesting)
"It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company," said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley. "Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone."
Gum? Pencils? Paper? Soft drink? Bag of chips? Stick of RAM? Screwdriver? Television set? Surely some of these items have been sold more than a billion times by a single company...
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Ammunition?
razor blades (Score:4, Interesting)
i believe that the razor blade manufacturers hit their billionth mark within a decade of beginning production. yes, few companies ship billions- but logitech hit billion from multiple models. razor companies from the same model blade.
Bus mouse (Score:4, Funny)
Remember when the "bus mouse" was the cool upgrade over a crappy serial-port mouse, and you had that extra 8-bit ISA card with the funny port on it? IRQs ? I/O ports ? That was back before teenage girls took over the Internet.
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God damn it I need another 25 pin to 9 pin adaptor, AND I need a gender bender! I wish those manufacturers would standardize... oh wait
Yeah I remember playing with jumpers and dip switches to avoid IRQ conflicts. Damn I am too old. Funnily enough, cyberspace was a lot quieter back then. The punks couldn't afford it. Looking at the present economy, they won't be able to afford it again soon.
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Not to mention the wonderful years of playing with your config.sys and autoexec.bat file so you could make sure all your drivers loaded right (or the bastardized add-on sound card I got for my first laptop that plugged into the parallel port with a pass-through for the printer, but drivers that needed to be loaded in DOS which squeezed the precious memory even more).
I think it gave an inherent understanding of the hardware to people who grew up with them (and used them).
I feel like the people who grew up re
One billion what? (Score:2)
Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.
I know it's rah-rah time at Logitech, but come on, talk about stretching the truth : industries routinely ships billions of stuff, if said stuff is small/ubiquitous enough. Remington and other manufacturers has produced and shipped countless billions of firearm cartridges, ball bearing manufacturers have probably stopped counting a long time ago, and McDonald's is even proud to have served a billion obese-making meals.
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if said stuff is small/ubiquitous enough
Nice qualifier there. Now what about products as complex or more complex than a mouse? How many of those have been shipped 1 billion?
And still no bluetooth trackballs! (Score:5, Interesting)
Come on, you can make, and sell, 1 billion mice; how hard can it be to make a minor variant of the Cordless Optical TrackMan that uses Bluetooth instead of an RF dongle???
I can't imagine the market is smaller than for some of the weird niche mice I've seen out there...
Dan Aris
Douglas Engelbart 1968 mouse demo video (Score:4, Interesting)
http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html [slashdot.org]
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http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html [slashdot.org]
Re:Douglas Engelbart 1968 mouse demo video (Score:5, Informative)
Clicky:
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html [stanford.edu]
Unless you really, really like using tags (or it isn't available...), "Plain Old Text" works pretty well.
You are our one billionth customer! (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if when they ship this one billionth mouse to a customer, they will include in the box a flashing ad telling him that he is the one billionth customer and should click here to claim his prize.
Coming Soon (Score:2)
...the Logitech Limited Edition Pied Piper.
Yes it is true. Very rare (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, a billionth of most things are microscopic in size. So shipping it is quite difficult. Great job logitec.
I know, it's been beat to death but... (Score:2)
The people at Coca Cola and Anheuser Bush are pissing themselves out of laughter right about now. Coca Cola is likely to do that in a day.
like grains of sand (Score:2)
Congratulations, now get to work (Score:2)
Congratulations, now get to work on delivering a better Trackball.
My Microsoft Trackball Explorer is ten years old, and in that time I haven't once found a suitable replacement from Logitec. There are a couple really odd ones, but nothing that comes close to the natural feel of the explorer.
I hate mice.
Death of the Mouse?! (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah... right... it won't be mainstream in 3-5 years... sorry, but I call BS.
Touchscreens and facial recognition software will not replace the mouse in an office environment. It won't replace it for gaming. Hell, it won't replace it period.
Take gaming as a simple example. When I'm playing WoW, I'm often looking elsewhere, eating a snack, drinking a beer, or talking to my wife who is sitting on the other side of the room... the last thing I'm going to want to do is stare at the screen and make funny faces at it to move the mouse. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.
Don't get me wrong here; touch screens are a huge boon and will have a place in specialized industries; auto interfaces, shared spaces, Cell Phones, etc.
But making the claim that it will no longer be mainstream and large companies, lets say HR Block, will drop the mouse and replace everything with a touch screen and facial recognition software is the biggest load of crap I've heard in quote a long time.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Not to be celebrated (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't call this an event worthy of celebration. These billion mice (along with the billions of other plastic mass-produced products out there) will one day end up in a landfill somewhere, and will take hundreds of years to break down. The major consequence of mass-production is mass-consumption, and the drawback of mass-consumption is mass-disposal.
I find it a bit sad that a device which, essentially, hasn't changed in 20 years isn't re-used more often. I have 10 year old keyboards and mice I still use.
I guess it's just part of our "throw away, buy a new one" culture that seems to ignore what happens to things once they're in the bin. Out of sight, out of mind.
Re:Not to be celebrated (Score:4, Informative)
While I do agree that mass-disposal is wasteful, the mouse has changed significantly in the last 20 years:
1. computer interface: RS-232, PS/2, USB
2. number of buttons
3. scroll wheel
4. mechanism: ball mouse with moving parts that wear out, optical mouse with special grid mousepad, modern optical mouse
5. wireless mice: IR, RF, Bluetooth
So its not like there hasn't been reasons to upgrade.
-molo
What are we going to do tonight, Brain? (Score:4, Funny)
Same thing we do very night, Pinky: try to take over the world! You see, I have commissioned a company by the name of Logitech to deliver ONE BILLION mice, an army large enough to overwhelm any defence system known to man.
[ding dong]
Ah, that will be my delivery. Soon, Pinky, the world will be ours for the taking.
Crikey, Brain, these mice are kind of odd. Why are their tails so long, and what is this hard shell [toc] all around them?
Millard Fillmore? Please explain (Score:3, Interesting)
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Oh, I hope so! It'll go great with the CDs from my last 3 malfunctioning Logitech mice.
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They makes those by the billion every year^H^H^H^H^H week.
Fix'd.
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