5 years? Then it can't be optical can it? If it is, it's very early optical, first gen, they come a long way... *thinks* 1999!!! Has it been that long already???

Anyway... Have you seen these if you have to stick with Microsoft? The tilt wheel is pretty slick... Or these if you want to try Logitech? Both great mice...

WOW . Those are sweet . And no it doesn't have to be microsnot . If I ever have problems with this one I know I can get a great 5 button mouse .

And I'm sure it's 5 years that I had this one . I could be wrong . Damn ........ you got me thinking now , and I don't like to do that . :D

I think the first one is the latest version of what I use. I have the Explorer 3.0 version's without the tilt wheel on my computers. Since I run @ 1600x1200 its very seldom if ever that I need to scroll left or right.

I'd be more inclinded to switch from Logitech to Microsoft if the tilt function was picked up by DirectX in games... Can you imagine how much control that would give you on just one hand? I'd map the right mouse button to fire, left to jump, front right side to alt fire, back right to use or grenades or something, middle to toggle zoom, scroll wheel to switch weapons when not zoomed, and zoom in and out when zoomed, and tilt left and right to change ammo types. *drool* What else do you need to do? Walk, sprint, crouch, prone? That's about it... Anything to get closer to WASD being all you need your left hand to worry about...

Of course it wouldn't be just for FPS, RTS for example would be helped as well...

Sadly some games STILL don't pick up all the buttons some mice with more than three have... I can use my simple thumb button in many games...

Your right . That would be sweet . :D

Can anyone show me a mouse with lots of features/buttons which you don't have to use your right hand for? Being a leftie and sharing the comp with a right-handed requires a neutral design. I switched to a cordless to make less of a tangle with the keyboard cable when switching sides.

On a side-note, using the right hand for the keyboard enables me to use the arrow keys instead of WASD – nice to have it asier for a change...

The best ambidextrous mouse I've seen it the Logitech MX310 I mentioned further above. It "only" has 6 buttons, and the one under the scroll wheel is kind of hard to use, but it sure is nice otherwise...

Edit: For awhile when Jennifer and I were sharing my computer after we got our house we just had two mice, one on each side of the keyboard...

Edit 2: For the longest time I used to remap movement over to the arrow keys for use with my left hand! :eek: I'm not quite sure why... However, I think it was when NOLF came out that I finally went with WASD because I needed more keys nearby for all the different functions...

BTW, does anyone out there use the right mouse button to jump? None of my friends did when they gamed and they all thought I was crazy, but I swear by it.

I have a non-digital video camera.
I want to input video from it into my computer to make short digital clips that I can post on my homepage.
Do I need a special video card and software?

Yes, you'll need some sort of video capture card. You can get USB and Firewire based solutions as well. Here's some of the stuff newegg has (yeah, I know they can't ship to you). Most of them will come with software for movie making, but it won't be the best out there by any means, though it should get you started. If you're looking for a video card upgrade at the same time you might consider and ATI All In Wonder series card, then you'd get a TV tuner and FM tuner as well...