Kevin Marsh

The UPS man just came today and delivered my new Wireless Mighty Mouse (I know, I know… it’s pricey for a mouse but I still had the $50 iPod Settlement promo code kicking around). Here are some observations:

• The On-Off switch is merely a shutter to the laser, pretty clever!
• Two AA batteries are included
• The included software was a required install, even on Mac OS X 10.4.7
• It’s quite a bit heavier than the wired Mighty Mouse, due to the batteries (duh)
• You can choose to include one or two batteries at a time
• There is a nice battery level gauge in the Bluetooth tab of the Keyboard and Mouse System Preferences panel
• I think it samples less frequently than the wired version, as mousing seems to stutter ever-so-slightly. This has the potential to get very annoying!
• The new software adds a slick Zoom feature, wherein holding a modifier key while scrolling with the ball will actually zoom the screen in. Problem is, it’s pretty disorienting and doesn’t really work all that well, but it just might take some practice.
• The two side buttons are equally as annoying as the original Mighty Mouse. Their hard pressing requirement coupled with little tactile feedback render them practically unusable.
• It’s nice not having to deal with the (too) short cord, especially with my MacBook
• The laser will track on my glass-topped wooden desk, unlike the optical
• No more LED means no more weird mouse-like projection

Using MySQL’s built-in FULLTEXT searching capabilities, you can add full-text searching to your Rails app’s pretty easily. It’s not quite as sexy as acts_as_searchable but implementation is pretty trivial and no dependencies are required. One caveat: your tables need to be MyISAM.

First, make sure you add a FULLTEXT index to your MySQL table like so:

ALTER TABLE articles ADD FULLTEXT (title, content);

Then, just use ActiveRecord’s find() method, but pass in a :conditions parameter:

@articles = Article.find(:all, :conditions => ['MATCH(title, content) AGAINST (?)', params[:query]])

So I’ve just confirmed that my MacBook exudes similar whining problems as the MacBook Pro. The whine’s pitch varies with CPU usage, such as scrolling or dragging windows.

Solution Hack: Turn off the second core using the Processor System Preference panel:

Now I just have the clickity-clack sound of my vintage Apple Extended II keyboard (oh, and only one core)