my intellimouse (with scroll wheel! needs cleaning every couple of days
You're probably not using a clean mousepad then, or, eat by your computer a lot.
lol, it's 2010 and my school still uses P4 desktops and ball mice , their upgrade was changing some of the crts to terrible 16" lcds
There's nothing wrong with P4: I still use one (although a 3.8 Ghz P4 would be nice). But school P4s tend to be at around 2.4 Ghz...
Ironically, the CRTs were probably better than the crappy LCDs schools get these days. I got two IBM CRTs from my school because they were just going to throw them away... Pathetic.
My Microsoft ball mice never have to be cleaned. They work great.
Yes, my ball mice never have to be cleaned either. I make sure my mousepads are clean of stuff. Sometimes the little axels can use a tiny scrub to get rid of dust and stuff... but I really never have to clean them.
When I got my IBM ball mouse from school, they were ABOUT TO THROW IT AWAY because it "wasn't working," I took it home, cleaned the axels, washed the ball, and it's been working absolutely great.
Gosh people are so wasteful these days.