The other day my 5th mini-mouse in a year quit,
the left-click button went, all of them were cheapies
with parts from China.  So instead to going up to
the store to spend another $20, I rumaged around
and found the pile of dead mice I hadn't got around
to tossing out yet and soldered out a switch and
put it in this mouse. Saved a few bucks and a trip
to the store.  It also was kind of fun, so I figured
I'd go look up that project where a guy rigged the
mouse sensor to work as a camera, (they're sort of
low resolution at 18x18). Anyway, I was reading
the comments on the forum there and saw that
one guy had tried to get a mouse to work as a
barcode reader, which sounded (somewhat) handy.
So I googled looking to see if anyone had
actually managed to do that yet, and what pops up?
The Chineese mouse chip manufacturer has patented
the idea, how is that even legal? It wasn't their idea,
they didn't invent barcodes, it's just a camera, they
haven't even actually built a working one, and they're
looking to get over on some mouse maker putting a
barcode reader in a mouse.

What's with the Chineese (PRC) anyways?  This
weekend they broke into the Pentagon's computers,
and now nukes are flying around without orders,
hope it's not related.

Post a reply to this message