Apple MightyMouse: The Worst Design Yet

Apple has some pretty spiffy designs, but lately they've ditched usability altogether with things such as the MightyMouse:

1: Try to explain to someone that the little button in the middle is not the main button. Then try to explain that the entire mouse is the button, kind of.

2: Try dragging an icon while picking up the mouse to reposition it. You can't. The whole mouse is the button and if you pick it up, you release the button.

3: I don't know how you're supposed to use the left side button. It's nowhere near my thumb.

Apple, please stop putting design over function.

And some more... :)

The package the iPod nano comes in: When you take the iPod nano out of it's box, you see that it is suspended in a plastic holder thing. Without reading the instructions, it's not apparent how to take it out of the holder - you have to bend the plastic backwards to release the iPod. I don't know about other people but I wouldn't have guessed that almost breaking a container is the standard way of using it.

"Low power" GPU mode

I recently bought a BFG GeForce 7800GSOC (after also buying a larger power supply) to replace my GeForce 6600, and at first had problems with low frame rates. Sometimes after clearing out some cache and reinstalling chipset drivers I thought I was out of the woods, but next time I started up my machine I had the same low framerates as before. It turns out there seems to be a problem with the 2D/Low Power mode switching - sometimes it would not switch to high power mode when playing games.

So if you ever run into this problem, simply get RivaTuner, go to the 'Power User' tab, go to 'RivaTuner \ NVIDIA \ Overclocking' and set EnablePerfLevelForcing to '1' and click Aply. Now go back to the Main tab, select Customize -> System Settings, and set 'Force constant performance level' to 'performance 3D'. It sounds like a lot of steps, but the first series is to simply enable the second.

I can now play Battlefield at 1600x1200 2xFSAA at decent fps with most everything on high. Although I still need to use medium texture - the GPU can handle high, but the disk access makes the game stutter until all the textures are loaded.

I want one too

iPhone! Friggin awesome! :)

The smallest fastest PC?

http://www.ipoxtech.com/ADE-6040.php

You can stick a core 2 duo in there and an x16 PCIe video card. I'm not sure how much it is though. This next one is $300, using the previous generation Intel chipset (doesn't support DDR2 800 ram):

http://www.commell.com.tw/product/SBC/LV-677.HTM

Stuffing an ATX motherboard in a microATX case

I feel like starting a little project. I'm really tired of big bulky atx cases, but there are no good microATX motherboards. Can't I just stuff the power supply toward the bottom front and have enough space for an ATX motherboard? I realize the entire back and mounts will not line up - that's where the 'project' comes in :) I think if I cut the top off the back panel and slide it up it just might work.

The victim: ASUS TM-210 case

Making it hard to buy online

And the award goes to Apple. I just tried downloading an album off iTunes, it is way to complicated for the average Joe. Why can't I just say Buy and enter my credit card #?? You have to create an account, verify it, etc. and it wants my phone number. And it also opens up a browser window, so now you're not even in iTunes anymore. It took more time to do the bookkeeping than to download the songs.