It was common for mice not to have wheels. In fact, the mouse that came with the computer shown only had one big button. People needed to be able to actually click on the scroll bar to use it.
Back in the late '90s, I worked for an inventor dealing with analog dome switches. We took a mouse that had a rocker for scrolling instead of a wheel and I reprogrammed it to "fake" scroll clicks faster or slower depending on how hard you pressed. You could scroll slow enough to read, or zoom to the end of a doc with really good control. Man I miss that mouse.
i would love to see one of those in the shape of the Kensington Expert Mouse, the square mouse with the ball in the middle, with the scroll wheel as a ring around the ball.
I love the "IBM USB Optical Scroll Travel Wheel Mouse" (search ebay with those terms to see what I mean). $1-2 each (I buy them by the dozen and spread them around liberally to friends and family; when they wear out (scroll wheel gets sticky or clunky) I just throw them out like a used-up pencil).
Wonderful, small, responsive mouse with smooth scrolling. Works on any machine. (I use them with Macs as I'm a fanboi.)
As of a few years ago you could still get the HP DY651A or IBM 40K9201 mouse (identical apart from logos) with a bit of hunting. Unfortunately I just looked and at a cursory glance I can’t find anyone who has them in stock, so they may have been discontinued, but you may be able to call around and find someone who still has a few in a corner somewhere.
Bing IBM SCROLLPOINT 12J3618
reply