Before you say anything… Yes, I know. We’re about 10 years behind on the news of this mouse, but since we won’t need to use a mouse to move bits around in the near future, we might as well show you what mouse you could have been using all these year. The Evoluent Vertical Mouse. Even thought your spine is curving into your desk, this odd looking mouse has been proven by medical doctors, therapists and ergonomists to “promote a neutral wrist and forearm posture” and just look at it… You can go from mousing about to smashing something 10x faster and with less chance of injury by using it.
‘hardware’
Seagate Rocks the Future of Super Thin Hard Drive Tech

Who woulda thought!? Hard drives getting smaller? and thinner? Absolutely unheard of. Things (we) usually get fatter and uglier over time, not thinner and sleeker. Leave it to Seagate to shake up the universal trend and leave us inspired with a cool, compact design of technology.
You saw it at CES. Now, Seagate has announced that the ‘World’s slimmest, portable external hard drive’ is available. Perhaps the coolest thing about this drive – it has 320GB running at 7200rpm through a USB3.0 socket. Take a look…
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Ask The Reader: How Old is Your Hardware? {Poll}
My good friend, Jeff Mirisola, got a little riled up and started beating foam bats into the skull of asinine expectations with a recent post. He talks about an engineer who couldn’t use SolidWorks… because his computer was 10 years old.
That is way old. I’d put it out to pasture and let it die in peace. But it makes me wonder, 10 years ago a workstation was a pretty hefty expense. Maybe there are more people hanging onto their beloved rigs than we think.
So, what about you? Are you hanging on to aging technology, staying with the latest of sitting somewhere in between?
[poll id="17"]
Image via Nathan Randall (Flickr)
Apply Excitment of OpenGL vs Direct3D Directly to Forehead
Oh, the tangled web of 3D CAD hardware and software. It spans between the cracks of ultimate compatibility for the software, ultimate confusion for the user and sticks to you right after walking through the door of deciding what computer to buy.
SolidWorks uses the OpenGL graphics API. Other CAD companies have decided to use Direct3D. It’s an issue we’ll get into, but take a look how the discussion came about and the difference of opinion in the 3D CAD community.
Run SolidWorks on a Mac: Soft-Mod Your GeForce into a Quadro
Way back, in a recent post that showed all you Mac-ophiles how to use SolidWorks on a Mac a commenter named Peter Privitera was having graphics issues with his MacBook Pro when using SolidWorks.
His MacBook Pro uses a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card, a low-end 512MB card that runs around $130 and up. He did a simple soft-mod (modify in software) to turn it into a beefy NVidia Quadro crankin’ beast and now has the graphics performance you would expect on a Mac.
Product Review: Hands-on With the 3DConnexion SpaceExplorer
Oh to have the power over time and SPACE. The folding and bending and rotating. You take that too lightly and you’ve suddenly destroyed three planetary systems and a shrimp boat off the coast of New Jersey. Take that down a few million notches and you have all the harnessed energy of 3D computational manipulation in the palm of your opposite and less dexterous hand with the 3DConnexion SpaceExplorer.
What does this device do? Does is actually reduce 50% of mouse clicks and make you more productive? I have a mouse to select stuff, a keyboard to type stuff and now a I have a 3D Mouse to rotate stuff. It looks cool, but I want it to do more than provide another way to spin a model around. Let’s see what this thing can do.
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