Dubbed the Mighty Mouse, Apple has released a new, multi-button mouse that can apparently scroll horizontally, vertically and 360 degrees. It looks very much like the existing Apple Pro Mouse — same shape and size — but it does a lot more.

For those that are attached to the Apple Pro that came with their system, it works in exactly the same way — depressing with a small click for a left-click and using Ctrl+Click for a right-click. It also functions out-of-the-box like a single-button mouse too, with the right button set to left-click by default.

Just go to System Preferences and change your mouse prefs to tell the various bits and pieces how to behave.

It retails for US$49, but it seems it’s unclear whether or not Apple plans to package them with new Macs.

Ars Technica’s initial review of the Apple Mighty Mouse gives more detail.

I’ve just added accesskeys to the menu items and “skip to” links on my re-vamped business website. (And about time, too, I know!)

Of course, I had to test them — and as a web user who doesn’t need them, I just wanted to share that I think they are incredibly handy for anyone who works faster using keyboard shortcuts than continually clicking with a mouse.

I certainly hope they make life easier for people who can’t, for whatever reason, use a mouse effectively — but for other users, have a look for yourselves on my aforementioned DistinctiveWeb website.

The convention is that the accesskey letter is given emphasis with the EM element. On the DistinctiveWeb site, as on this one, I’ve styled EM as bold. To use the accesskey, type Alt+[key] on Windows or Ctrl+[key] on Mac OSX.

Then try navigating through the site using accesskeys rather than clicking with the mouse. Isn’t it waaaaaaaaaay easier?

Well, I feel thoroughly put in my place. 🙂

I do tend to jump the gun, somewhat! I suppose I’m guilty of making assumptions based on Microsoft’s past record, which may not be fair, but I did conveniently forget that the IE7 beta is just that: a beta.

Molly Holzschlag — who has a very tricky role as a “liaison officer” (so to speak) between the WaSP and Microsoft — wrote a great piece about how it’s only a beta – and then posted a list of fixes that will appear in the next beta. It truly is much more encouraging.

So, I revise my opinion. Without going into security issues about which I know very little, as far as features and functionality are concerned IE7 just may rival the other browsers out there by the time it’s released as a stable version. One can only hope! CSS support? Again, one can only hope. 🙂

Dave Shea from Mezzoblue was quick off the mark with his review of the new IE7 beta.

My first reaction: disappointment. Second reaction: it might serve to fire the movement towards browsers that do a better job (and I’m talking from a CSS and usability here) like Firefox — and, more importantly (haha), which are easier for us to develop for.

I just love this script from Project Seven.

You can see it in action on this very site: notice that on pages where the columns are of different lengths, the column outline on the shortest column gradually extends right down to the footer? Very tricky to get equal heights using CSS and hacks, but couldn’t be easier using PVII’s nifty little script. Simply save the script, link to it in the head of your (X)HTML document, add a call to it in the opening body tag, and you’re up and away…

(And if you, like me, just started singing to yourself, “Up, up and away… with TAA… the friendly, friendly way…” then I know at least how old you are. 😉

Anyway, everything I’ve used from PVII has been robust and of the best quality, and the support is excellent. (And no, I am not affiliated with them in any way!)

I gave Rani his 3rd (out of a total of 4) injection today. It was supposed to be two weeks (in other words, around about now) before an improvement in the swelling was evident. But there is no change at all.

The vet (from the Bullsbrook branch of the Bullsbrook & Midland Veterinary Clinics) called a few days ago to see how things were going. It was the second time he’d called and I really appreciate the professionalism. Given that Rani is not in any apparent pain or displaying signs of lameness, it’s all a bit mystifying.

We agreed to wait till the full 4 injections had been given, but I really am not sure what will happen next. The vet is reluctant to probe (with a needle or whatever) into the joint itself because of the risk of infection, given that, to all intents and purposes, Rani appears to be happy as Larry. I support him in this. But it’s still mystifying.

I had given up on this. The widget automatically picked up (presumably from my system) that I am in Perth so I assumed it would know I was in Perth, Western Australia as that is the setting on my system — but the temperatures being returned were ridiculously different to the actual weather here. I assumed this widget was only useful for U.S. users who could also enter their ZIP codes to choose their city.

John Gruber on Daring Fireball explains that by hitting Return, Enter or Tab after entering your location instead of simply clicking “Done”, a list of choices appears and you can actually choose the correct location that applies to you. I tried it immediately and, sure enough, it works.

As John also points out, it’s a particularly bad example of UI design, but now I know the “secret” I am happy. 😀

This is really just a heads-up for some not-new news, but I thought this idea shows promise.

It is basically software that will allow users of mobile technologies such as mobile phones and PDAs to drag the point of a stylus over a keyboard to draw lines between letters, forming words.

Texting can be really slow and frustrating but speeds of 50-80 wpm are nothing to sneeze at.

Longhorn is no more. (Well, it is, but it won’t be referred to as Longhorn from now on!) Microsoft has announced the new (well, upcoming) Windows version is to be called Windows Vista.

It would be nice if there was just one new feature — and by that I don’t mean new to Windows — that wouldn’t be hard — that isn’t already in use by other operating systems, like Linux and Mac OSX. In fact, part of the reason the release of Vista has been so delayed is because MS have had to play catch-up.

Except — they never will. Likely by the time Vista is released, the other OS-makers will have updated their OSs to introduce yet more features. But MS will still have the greater market share for some time to come. Most consumers are simply afraid of change, especially related to technology: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So they continue to have no idea just how broken MS products are. Ironic, huh?

Sadly, web designers have been informed that while one or two concessions have been made for web standards, the Vista browser Internet Explorer is still going to ensure that its users (the majority of web users) have a degraded internet experience, especially as more and more designers are embracing web standards. There are just lots of neat things that web designers can do in standards-compliant browsers that IE users will never see. And IE has a lot of catching up to do in relation to browser features too, but again, users who never try anything else will never know that.

A friend’s ex-wife, who had the misfortune to be involved in the London bombings a couple of weeks ago, has apparently pocketed some cash from talking to the media (tv and magazine).

My first instinct was: “That’s shocking. Making money out of a tragedy and other people’s misery.” But actually her story didn’t come across like that and truthfully I don’t care what her motives were and are. It is my own reaction, which was identical to those of the friends and family to whom I mentioned it, that interests me.

How is it that a woman who gets paid to talk to the media about her experiences “instinctively” becomes an object of scorn? When mass-media journalists or photographers sell their words and experiences, we do not see anything wrong with that. But when an ordinary person does the same it is suddenly “bad”.

Why?

Yes, sure, some media reports on — and profits from — tragedies, in the interests of public education and human compassion and to help generate support for the victims of the tragedies. But plenty of others just sensationalise this news — and they do it because people read it, just as this woman told her story to the media because the media bosses know it’s what people want to read.

OK, it’s true many us don’t have a lot of respect for the integrity of much of today’s media reporting. Nevertheless, we don’t react to the general media with the same abhorrence with which we respond to an individual selling the story of his or her own experiences where others have suffered.

Our society has clearly conditioned us but — largely as a direct result of reading The Tao of Equus — I am starting to question those things we take for granted and adopt as our own thoughts as if they are truth — fact — just because we’re told it’s so.