Mouse mats reveal you value system
June 24, 2002 10:59 AM   Subscribe

Mouse mats reveal you value system First it was office desks, then photos on the wall, now the PC holds the clue. "Analysing the computer screen, the images you use or simply the way you organise your icons can reveal much about your inner desires and ambitions." So much for ego, superego and id.
posted by Voyageman (25 comments total)
 
Sorry, but that's one of the least informative articles I've ever read about anything.

Whereas some people may just have company screensavers, others may use something that reflects their personal interests, so a diving enthusiast may have a fish screensaver.

Wow, deep phsycological insight.
posted by signal at 11:10 AM on June 24, 2002


id?
posted by zztzed at 11:19 AM on June 24, 2002


Hmmm. I wonder what having this on my desktop says about me.

Customisation seems to be a habit people grow out of. After you've upgraded your system umpteen times and switched platforms once or twice, re-setting your preferences all the time gets tedious and you just learn to live with the defaults. I still arrange my icons in nice patterns, but aside from that all I do is switch the keyboard to Dvorak (since I like to touch type) and install starfish.
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:22 AM on June 24, 2002


Perhaps a more thought provoking discussion from London's Freud Museum: "Consciousness could be compared to what is visible on a computer screen...most of the activity of the computer is not visible on the screen; this is analogous to Freud's idea of the bodily based instincts, or 'id', in themselves inaccessible to the mind, only to be discerned through their derivatives (desires and phantasies)."
posted by Voyageman at 11:42 AM on June 24, 2002


I thought the part about minimal desktops meaning you're naive to technology was a bunch of bull. I think it's more often the other way around (from my experience).
posted by password at 11:45 AM on June 24, 2002


(A) My mouse mat is a 43x27cm Arttec cutting mat; it seems to keep my balls cleaner than mousepads;
(B) I run geOShell as a desktop interface. It's more minimal than even Litestep.
(C) My desktop image is QNX's nice orange/blue device with the brown paper background.
(D) I use an antique "clicky" keyboard, with real ALPS key mechanisms. I love my keyboard with an unhealthy passion.

I suppose that makes me one of the freaks.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:50 AM on June 24, 2002


I thought the part about minimal desktops meaning you're naive to technology was a bunch of bull.

Oh, absolutely. It's the people who don't know how to tell an installer program not to put yet another icon on the desktop who have the most cluttered desktops. I've seen people with so many icons, they could hardly find anything, many for programs they'd deleted.

I think this guy knows even less about computers than he does about psychology.
posted by straight at 12:19 PM on June 24, 2002


I use an antique "clicky" keyboard

Clicky keyboard's rule. I have an ancient Dell AT101W that I stole from the boneyard, it clacks like a mofo. If you are a freak, fff, then you and I are the same brand of mutant.
posted by UncleFes at 12:41 PM on June 24, 2002


or make your new PC sound retro with Keytick
posted by Voyageman at 12:51 PM on June 24, 2002


begone, dong_resin! Voyageman, you are my new hero.
posted by UncleFes at 12:56 PM on June 24, 2002


five fresh fish: I use an antique "clicky" keyboard, with real ALPS key mechanisms. I love my keyboard with an unhealthy passion.

UncleFes: I have an ancient Dell AT101W that I stole from the boneyard, it clacks like a mofo

Good to know I'm in good company. I'm a dedicated IBM Model M man, myself.
posted by cortex at 12:59 PM on June 24, 2002


I used a massive old IBM keyboard I got for $3 at a garage sale until some of the keys finally wore out recently. I miss it.
posted by rushmc at 1:16 PM on June 24, 2002


fff: it seems to keep my balls cleaner than mousepads;

I'm trying to refrain from making a comment. Honest.
posted by Hankins at 1:26 PM on June 24, 2002


Ah, Hankins, it's not like it wasn't deliberate.

Rush/Fes: ah, yes, ye olde IBM wing o' deth. I loved mine. Stupidly tried cleaning it; succeeded the first time, completely fubared it the second time.

The place for us folk is http://www.pckeyboard.com/ -- they've got rights to manufacture IBM's old-style keyboards. Heaven!
posted by five fresh fish at 1:45 PM on June 24, 2002


I'm a dedicated IBM Model M man, myself.

Gentlemen, start your Paypal!

I'm getting one for when my Dell throws a shoe. Quiet keyboards suck.
posted by UncleFes at 1:57 PM on June 24, 2002


Them old IBMs and Northgates were always my favorites. Northgate's keys didn't require IBM's throw, but landed with a similar satisfying thwack. I understand there's quite a market for old Northgate keyboards on eBay.

And I'm glad I'm not the only keyboard mutant. You who would settle for any 'board just wouldn't understand.
posted by Tacodog at 2:38 PM on June 24, 2002


I'll settle for any keyboard as long as it's built into my Titanium Powerbook. Nyah :-P
posted by Mars Saxman at 2:54 PM on June 24, 2002


It's all about the Model M, and you'll pry it from my cold, dead fingers, but watch out: some (not all) of the later models are squishy keyboards in disguise.

The Northgate OmniKey is a fine piece of work, and I have and would use one without complaint, but I know Model M and the OmniKey is no Model M.

I've got a few of the old Dell pre-QuietKey models. Those are clacky though not clicky, and if my Model M died, say in the course of a nuclear exchange or being hit by lightning, that would be the stand-in. Hmm... maybe I'd better get a few more Ms around the house.

Winner of the Crappiest Keyboard award is the Latitude's. I've been through three of them already, and they tend to "go deaf" after heavy use. The one I'm currently using works well except for left-shift and the U key. You'd be surprised how much not having those two keys can frustrate!
posted by majick at 3:13 PM on June 24, 2002


my mousepad is a cd wallet, my screensaver says "who's a bad motha shut yo mouth" and um, my desktop image is the erudite bear.

and i have a clickety clackety keyboard and i love it so.
posted by sugarfish at 6:12 PM on June 24, 2002


My mouse mat is a little copy of the Rosetta Stone and my launcher is a rotatable cube with nine (3x3) icons on each face. What does that say about me?
posted by krisjohn at 6:13 PM on June 24, 2002


My former employer picked up at mouse mat for me while in London. Harvey Nichols mouse mat with an image of Sid Vicious on it. Sassy, yet stylish.
posted by gummi at 7:19 PM on June 24, 2002


My mosepad is the cowpatterned one that came ith the system, subsequent coffee stains have added zest to to the pattern. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa bobbin'-head dolls sit atop my printer and since music is always playing they never stop bobbing. A foam rubber Rat Fink sits beside them. Atop the scanner is a teeny-weeny pool table, and the patch from Rob the EMT's EMS battery.This says that I am a packrat.

My computer desk is covered with candy wrappers and empty soda bottles.My wallpaper is two topless women kissing. This says that I am a slob and a pervert, but I knew that already.
posted by jonmc at 7:24 PM on June 24, 2002


But, but I don't have a mouse pad...*cries*
posted by Dick Paris at 10:28 PM on June 24, 2002


I agree that the more changes one goes through the less you bother to customize. There are a few things I can't do without, though -- e.g. I'm still a command-line freak and require both 4DOS and the MKS toolkit (unix-like utilities). I have so many customized little things that go with both at this point, you see.

As for icon inundation, the best example I saw was someone who installed all three office suites (Microsoft, WordPerfect, Lotus Smartsuite) and had their toolbars fighting with each other to be on top. She didn't even understand why her word processor was different each time. I think that was the original call, actually: Why do my icons keep changing? She meant the application's internal toolbar. But enough luser stories ...

For myself I used to insist that NO application got to end up either on my desktop or at my first-level start menu, which I divided into "Desktop Applications", "Utilities", "Graphics", "Internet" etc. folders. But it became a hassle to keep track of the reinstalls and uninstalls. (Some badly-written uninstalls actually fail if you screw with their puny little heads by moving the application start menu folder. Having written installers myself using WISE/SMSI, I find this appallingly sloppy.)

And in more laziness, I pretty much use whatever keyboard & mouse that come with my PC these days. But then I haven't encountered a really horribly squishy one in a long while. The old Selectric bangers had their nice qualities but I always found they required too much vertical movement for real typing. And mousepads? Well, I have a ton from all the places I've worked, so I just use one until it wears out.
posted by dhartung at 12:00 AM on June 25, 2002


Mousepads: That's what tradeshows are for...to get new ones. :)

I pity the fool that tried to make sense of my desk...good lord...I file vertically...which is to say, I can find stuff, but it may require archeological digging. Scattered amongst the notebooks, scraps of paper and sticky notes are rubber ducks, rocks, CDs, candles, candy jar, reference books, and probably Jimmy Hoffa.

It's a little cluttered in here. :) Anal retentives have been known to shriek and break into tears upon entering my office. On the upside, the cats seem happy.
posted by dejah420 at 10:33 AM on June 25, 2002


« Older   |   High Finance Run Amok Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments