Brian Toth dot com

Added the Netherlands to the list of Google Maps domains. Sorry it took me a while to get around to it. Version 2.6.2 is now available here.

Until I get a new update out, there’s an easy way to add the Netherlands domain to the plugins’ preferences…

From your Home folder, open Library/Frameworks/GoogleMapsShared.framework/Resources/GoogleDomains.plist. This can be opened with any text editor.

Once open, you should see a bunch of dictionary groups that look like below, between the two <array></array> tags:

<dict>
    <key>CountryCode</key>
    <array>
        <string>us</string>
    </array>
    <key>CountryDomain</key>
    <string>http://maps.google.com/maps?</string>
    <key>CountryName</key>
    <string>maps.google.com</string>
</dict>

You can duplicate one of these groups to create a new one and fill it with the country info that you’d like to add. The Netherlands would be nl and the domain should be maps.google.nl. I will be putting out an update though. Thanks for everyone that wrote letting me know. And, if there’s any special considerations that I need to take into account for addresses in the Netherlands, please let me know.

On August 26th, I purchased an Apple wireless Mighty Mouse. My five week review follows…

First, the reason for buying the Mighty Mouse. Shortly after I bought my PowerBook in ‘03 I wanted a mouse. I don’t like trackpads, especially the Apple ones for some reason, something to do with the texture or lack of texture. I wanted a Bluetooth mouse, no dongles to plug in. I also think a charging dock is overkill for a portable mouse, I didn’t want yet another thing to charge, batteries are just fine thanks. It also had to look nice. The only mouse that seemed to fit my “requirements” was the original Apple Bluetooth Mouse.

It took some time to get used to the single button and no scroll feature but I did and really liked it. I also enjoyed not having to use my fingers to do the clicking — I could use my whole hand.

Well, this summer the bottom slider (for turning the mouse on and off) broke. The mouse still works, but turning it on and off is a major pain so I wanted to replace it with a new one. Well, just around that time the new wireless Might Mouse arrived. I read every review I could find about the multiple “buttons” and scroll ball and figured that, despite the negative comments, at the very least it was the same shape and looked similar to my original. So, I bought one.

I’ll start with my list of cons, they’re easier:

1. The acceleration curve is different than the original Apple Bluetooth Mouse. My original was very easy to point. With the new one, it’s either too fast or too slow. The curve seems too sharp and I constantly find that I over- or under-shoot my target. This was the first thing I noticed about the mouse.
2. Scroll ball doesn’t work. After four weeks I can no longer scroll down. It’s probably just dirty, but come on.
3. I was pleasantly surprised by the scroll ball initially. At least for vertical scrolling. Frankly I’d rather just have a slightly larger scroll wheel. Horizontal movement wasn’t very useful to me as I couldn’t actually rotate the ball enough side-to-side. My fingertip just doesn’t have enough surface area to make horizontal scrolling worthwhile. A scroll bar is much, much faster and more precise.
4. Scroll ball annoyance #2: my scroll ball requires required a bit of downward pressure to get it to scroll smoothly. Though, if i push a bit too much I end up clicking the mouse. It’d be nice if it was more sensitive.
5. Right mouse button requires you to lift your left finger. I figured I wouldn’t care because I was so used to a single-button mouse. But, knowing that the functionality is there I find it hard to resist using it. I would prefer a nice seam down the first half of the mouse to create two real buttons, similar to the MacMice mice.*
6. Even though I found that I only had to squeeze one of the side buttons to activate their action, they still proved to be a pain to use. I disabled them just so I don’t accidentally use them when grabbing the mouse to turn it off.
7. No adjustable click pressure. It seems very noisy in quiet surroundings.
8. The all white shell is actually boring. I preferred the translucent shell of the original with the grey Apple logo.

Pros:

1. Uh… it feels like my old mouse in my hand.
2. It’s lighter weight than my old mouse.
3. Laser = good.
4. Battery life seems better than the original, so far.

Bottom line, it has a lot of potential, though in its current form it just seems over-designed and over-engineered. Besides, it’s too late to return it.

* I don’t know Apple’s thinking in regards to the hidden two-button design, but it is cool to have the option to use it as a one button mouse (if that’s your choice). However, every new Apple computer that I’ve setup for someone has had the secondary button enabled by default and the user doesn’t know it’s there. Then they wonder why sometimes they get the context menu instead of the selection they wanted. Generic buttons would be simpler to understand.