I feel a little like a U2 song: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Searchin' for

It starts like this: I want to replace the cheap-o Compaq Wireless mouse that I use on my most frequently used 'puter.  It works ok "most of the time," but "most of the time" is clearly not all of the time (otherwise why would I bother writing this article?) and there-in lies the rub.  I want a mouse that works "all of the time" or close enough that it works all of the time when I want to use it.

I seem to have determined over the last couple of weeks that perhaps the reason the Compaq mouse was misbehaving was that it was subject to interference from my cell phone.  If so, then and :horror: at the thought of just how much electronic and radio interference must come from that cell phone.  If not the cell phone, then it could be the 2.4Ghz phone that sits on my desk.  Either way, I've moved the receiver for the wireless mouse around a bit on my desk, stopped parking my cell phone so close to the mouse's receiver and seemed to have much better luck with the mouse.  So... perhaps I've fixed the problem and don't "need" a new mouse.

Regardless of "need" though, I still sort of want a new mouse.  I want a wireless mouse, but not just any old USB based mouse, I want a Bluetooth wireless mouse.  And that, dear readers, is a problem.

Oh, you can find Bluetooth mice fairly easily.  I bought one on eBay.  Got a decent price on it.  Turns out it's the exact same thing as the mouse that I got with another laptop 'puter that I got recently (bought it used from a co-worker).  I got a "free" Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 with that machine just after I had already done a buy it now to get the same thing.  The thing was, I didn't realize that the one I was buying on eBay was a "Notebook" mouse.  I missed that part of the item title/description when I got "buy it now fever" and ordered one.  Regardless of not knowing that key point, I probably would still have bought the one I bought on eBay as I hadn't "seen" it up close and in person so I didn't realize that "Notebook" mouse meant 'miniaturized' mouse.

The darned thing is about half or perhaps as much (really, I think it's closer to half) as 2/3rd's the size of my regular desktop mouse.  Yeah, yeah, I know that because it's a Notebook mouse it's intended to be smaller so it's easier to pack and carry along with a notebook (laptop) computer.  Road warriors don't want a big fat heavy mouse, they want a small lightweight one so they can fit it into the over-stuffed laptop bag or backpack and so it won't weigh them down as they move about on the road.  Good for them, but horrible for me.

I want a full sized wireless mouse that also happens to be Bluetooth based.  Good friggin' luck finding such an animal.  There may be a few of them out there, but if they are out there they're nigh on impossible to find in stores to see them in person and confirm what you're getting.  I'd happily order one over the net if I could experience the luxury of seeing one in person somewhere.  I want to hold it for a minute, rest my hand on it for a minute and see how comfortable it is.

If the silly little Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 was regular sized I'd be happy with it.  Heck, if someone wants to make a small fortune selling such things, I'd pay $5 - $10 for an extender of some sort that would just snap onto the back of the little mouse that is sitting to the side on my desk right now.  Something that extended the form factor back to normal size and snapped on/off the smaller form factor would be great.  I just want something that makes the thing closer to the size of my hand.  The mini size is just too flippin' small and I'd still rather not waste a valuable USB port to plug in a full sized wired mouse or a receiver for a wireless mouse.  I have a Bluetooth receiver, can use it for other purposes (and sometimes do) and would prefer to just use that one plug-in device to take care of all of my wireless needs.

Good luck with that though