Of Mice and Keyboards - Wired vs Wireless

When it comes to the question of whether or not to go with a wireless keyboard and mouse - you must ask yourself how much control and dependability you want. Now I'm an early adopter of new technologies. When wireless mouse and keyboard first started coming out I was the first on the bandwagon. The reason I loved the concept was that I have an HTPC (home theatre pc). I was one of the first persons to adopt the concept of using an HTPC to watch movies, play games and use the computer's functionality from the couch. Early on, the only way to do this was to put the keyboard/mouse wires underneath the carpet and feed them to a hole underneath the coffee table. This was not ideal.

The first combo I used was a keyboard with a mouse joystic that used infrared. This did work however the mouse functionality was tricky at best. Also, since this used IR, it needed line of sight to work properly. The next combo I tried was a Gyration mouse/keyboard. The concept of being able to pick up your mouse and point really seemed exciting. My excitement waned when I found out that the combo didn't work from the distance of my couch. The Gyration unit does use RF and I believe the reason I had such a hard time using it was because of the RF interference from my high powered floor standing speakers (which happened to be right next to the computer).

So I went back to using wires. You know - wires aren't that bad either. Theres no need to recharge or replace batteries. Interference doesn't phase them and they also provide a high level of control on your computer. This is key because I love to play FPS games in which you need to be able to point your mouse on an enemy head in a very short time. Boom! Headshot!

I've had several iterations of my HTPC since the beginning. Below is a picture of my current setup.




As you can see from the picture, my latest solution is to just use an on-floor cord protector. This works pretty well and I'm feeding one USB cord through it to a hub at the coffee table.

Gabe's Tip of the Day:

Does your mouse feel old and not very precise? You can increase the precision of your mouse without paying for a new one. USB Mouserate Switcher allows you to modify your USB subsystem to poll for changes more frequently. The result is that your mouse cursor with movement as smooth as silk. Great for graphics editing and games - plus its free!

Softpedia Download of USB Mouserate Switcher 1.1

Cheers!

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