I finally was forced to throw out my Microsoft Intellipoint Trackball. If you have never purchased Microsoft hardware you may be unaware of the real problem with them. It’s the same problem I have with Wal-Mart products. If you really like a particular Microsoft product you need to buy a lifetime supply as soon as possible because Microsoft is going to eventually stop making it.

Wal-Mart does the same thing. In their drive to make all the products on their shelves cheaper than they were last year, they often force manufacturers to significantly change a product and make it less useful. This is not a coincidence. Product categories in which Microsoft competes see a significantly faster drop in prices than in other categories where they do not compete.

I once had a great Natural Keyboard from Microsoft. I forget the specific model. It had exactly the right features I wanted for the right price I was willing to pay. I made the mistake of not buy ten or twelve of them. When the keyboard started failing due to my abuse of it, I couldn’t get another one. Microsoft decided I would never want it again.

Now I have a little bitty Logitech keyboard. Logitech assumes I don’t want to use my function keys and that I do want to use their alternates. So, they turn off the function keys by default. I only have it as a temporary keyboard until I can find a better replacement.

The Microsoft trackball I am replacing occasionally sells on EBay for way too much money. Now I have the only trackball sold at a local store. It’s a Logitech device also. They call it a Marble Mouse. It’s a trackball with four keys and no wheel. Two keys are impossible to hit easily and are really tiny. Smaller than any finger. It’s difficult to press only that button and not the one next to it as well. It sucks.

Digg!