[rescue] Sun Postscript Mouse Pad

[Ron Wickersham]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2008, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:

> Robert Darlington wrote:
>> Or just get a non-craptastic mouse!
>
> The Sun optical mice work WAAY better than most mice of the era.
>
> Peace...  Sridhar

yes they worked WAAY better, but over time the output of the LEDs reduced
and made them work poorer and poorer as time wen on (most workstations 
those days were on 24/7).    i had some joy in increasing the current
thru the LEDs to restore goodness, but that would cause the output to
deteriorate faster, so they would soon stop working again.

and would scratch or, even worse, accidentally bend the aluminum mat.

one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the original mats had the
stripes in colors that were opaque to red light in one direction and
opaque to infrared light in the other direction.  so that makes a carbon
laser jet pad even less optimum even when you back it with a reflector.

-ron