3 years and going strong!

[Kevin Oberman]

> On Sat, Aug 12, 2006 at 05:48:38PM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 09:35:22AM +1000, Peter Sandilands wrote:
> > > 
> > > 	Thanks, you guys.  I don't have anything against > 866, etc.  
> > > 	I just figured that anything over a GHz *had* to have been
> > > 	"upgraded" to the std scratch-pad.  If not, then wow!
> > 
> > Gary,
> > 
> > As far as i know, all ThinkPads still use the TrackPoint(tm). IBM invented it 
> > and it is quite popular. Seems to be a binary function. You love it or you 
> > hate it. I have not met anyone who was in the "don't care" category.
> 
> 
> 	:-)
> 
> 	I've only talked to one other person, and she said she hates it!
> 	As well as vi and my Unix in general.   For me, altho the 
> 	TrackPoint is harder to use than a mouse, on a laptop it's great
> 	to have a pointer to actually direct the cursor in a steady 
> 	stroke.  
> 
> > 
> > My fairly shiny new T43 has one as does a co-worker's new T60. I don't know 
> > about the new, low-cost 3000 series, but I believe that all other ThinkPads 
> > have a track point as do many Dell and HP systems. Probably other brands, too.
> 
> 
> > 
> > Oddly, the scratch-pad must be disabled to enable the middle button. This has 
> > never made sense to me, but it seems that is the way it is.
> 
> 
> 	So how to you emulate the mid-button: press 1 + 2 simultaneously?
> 	...It's going to be interesting;  at least I'm not looking for
> 	awhile.

If you don't disable the scragtch-pad, pressing 1 and 2 is the only option. It's easier to do that with the two buttons below the scratch-pad than the three above it. But you can disable and re-enable at will. The newer systems let yo udo it at boot time or with the ps2 utility in Windows or DOS. Don't know what all systems have a real boot-time BIOS setting capability, but the T43 does.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4  EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751