Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-5641163-20150522174501/@comment-5641163-20150524021527

When I remember I usually copy any large text to the clipboard before clicking anything. It's amazing that you can't click "back" on a browser without losing everything you wrote before. Such a simple thing.

Heh, your PC reminds me of an old teacher I had with a Mini Cooper he pretty much rebuilt. It had so many switches and custom engine parts that it was impossible for anyone other than him to start it. It also had hilariously inefficient brakes so if someone did steal it they'd end up in a hedge.

Of course, my first instinct as an IT professional is to want to fix it. I could, too (Atlantic Ocean notwithstanding), I could get it stable and reliable the way a machine should be. But I appreciate you probably love it for its eccentricities (and unstealability!) and have learned to live with it. The symptoms you describe are particularly impressive, almost nothing in common with any of them, suggesting about a dozen different possible causes. Skills.

A friend of mine has the same fast mouse, it always amazes me. I guess it must be down to different hand/eye wiring and reaction times, you'd probably do well as a racing driver!

I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of our setups. I started my PC life in MS-DOS, and it was several years before Windows hove into view. As such everything I do is keyboard-focused, and about precision and speed. In my mind the mouse is for gaming, surfing the net and not much else, something I've never been able to shake. Hence my simple 2-button mouse and standard keyboard.

Plus, I spend so much time using other people's computers that I'd hate to be reliant on extra mouse buttons or custom keyboard keys that aren't there anywhere else, something I tend to teach my clients (laptop touchpads are one example, no two models ever seem to use the same features). "Windows+R, Calc" works on every computer, though, and for me that's pretty cool.

I just realised that having all my shortcuts organised into folders dates back to Windows 3.1, when all the icons were in categorised "Program Groups", before the Start Menu was invented. Old habits really do die hard.

Funnily enough, I've noticed my attention-span dropping a little. I think it's because I've started watching livestreams recently for the first time, having them on my laptop while I'm gaming on my desktop. It took some getting used to but now when I'm just watching something I feel like I should be doing something else at the same time! But I love my movies (1500, remember!) too much not to give them my full attention. That said, I've been watching one throughout this entire conversation so it's nice to pause and switch away, do something "productive", and then get back into it.

Anyway, the key theme here remains "to each his own", and it sounds like you've got your setup just the way you like it. I get aggravated when my clients complain about trying to do something regularly and finding it tedious or awkward, and yet continuing to endure it, never considering there might be an alternative. "Every time I get in my car, the visor whacks me in the face". "How long has it been doing that?" "Oh, about five years."

I also find it astonishing when I find a user with the same hideous manufacturer branded wallpaper on their machine as it came with. Hmmm, bright white background, Toshiba logo. What is this "customisation" of which you speak? ;-)