Ad Terras Per Aspera

About five years ago, my mouse of choice, a Radioshack re-branded trackball, with pretty good precision, two wheels, and half a billion buttons, died. Just flat out quit working. So, I didn’t feel like tracking down a new replacement mouse, so I bought a $5 Compaq optical midnight special, so I can go buy a better mouse later on.

This temporary mouse, originally bought for my Pentium 133, ends up being plugged into my new workstation, the Pentium 3 550. So, you know, the mouse still works, might as well keep using it, right? It’s got two buttons, and a clickable wheel, and it doesn’t suck, right? Wrong.

I finally gut my computer, and put a Sempron 2600+ in it, and did so about 9 months ago. This mouse is still around, and whoever built the mouse (it wasn’t Compaq, they don’t actually build hardware), they did a pretty decent job.

About the time I upgraded my computer, I started playing the classic Quakeworld, the father of all online multiplayer first person shooters, again. And I kept playing, and playing, and playing, and I notice that the sensitivity on my mouse is so bad, I can’t even aim the lightning gun properly… so one day, I got tired of it.

A week ago, I decided to finally order a new mouse, and I chose the Logitech G5. I went from a crappy, old, 200 DPI, three button with wheel mouse to a 2000 DPI, four button with tiltable wheel.

This mouse, my loyal readers, is a monster. It is a God among mice. It is the Cadillac of input devices.

And now on to the review

The Logitech G5 is the next generation flagship product of their gaming mouse line. Here’s what it can do:

• A high resolution sensor (measuring 30×30 pixels) rated at a sensitivity of 2000 DPI allows maximum precision with the included ability to change the DPI (between 2000, 800, and 400) on the fly, using two buttons located below the wheel, without needing to install the included driver.
• The ability to change precision on the fly without needing a driver allows you to do so on literally any platform that supports USB mice, including Linux and OSX.
• The G5 can poll the sensor at 500 times a second on any platform that supports it (such as Windows 2000/XP or Linux) providing increased precision and lower input lag.
• The G5 also uses an expanded protocol allowing higher precision output (16-bit, vs what most mice use, 8-bit or 12-bit). This allows you to use 2000 DPI mode, and move the mouse very fast without precision loss.
• Four buttons, one smooth scrolling wheel, and Logitech’s “TiltWheel” functionality, allowing you to press the wheel left and right to do application specific functions.
• Braided fiber wire covering, to reduce wear and tear on the USB cable.
• A weight cartridge, allowing you to weight your mouse however you want.
• Last, but not least, very smooth feet, allowing the mouse to move smoothly, even if you load the weight cartridge with all 36 grams of weight.

Now, first, I want to actually get to the feet. This is probably the best feature of the mouse. Sure, current and upcoming gaming mice will have 2000 or higher DPI, but these feet, even with all 36 grams loaded into the weight cartridge, glide smoother than any mouse I’ve ever used. This impresses me very much. To put this in perspective, three alkaline AA batteries, or two rechargable AA batteries weigh about 36 grams; that is very heavy.

Now, onto the more important stuff: I earlier mentioned that I couldn’t use Quakeworld’s lightning gun precise enough to be much use due to my mouse. Well, now, with 2000 DPI at my command, I can precision hit fast moving targets at long distances with ease.

Not impressed enough? The lightning gun in Quakeworld requires more precision than any hitscan weapon in any game ever. You thought the Quake3 lightning gun was hard? QW’s is even worse.

Another neat feature is the tilt wheel. You can press the wheel left and right, and generate input events. In Firefox, I can tilt the wheel left, and it goes back in my history; tilting the wheel right goes forward in my history. Other applications can be configured to do other things.

How to get it to work in Linux

As a USB HID device, it already works in Linux; however, to get the full use out of the mouse (such as being able to use the tilt function correctly) edit your/etc/X11/xorg.conf’s InputDevice section for your mouse to say:

and run xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap to update your map. On logging in again, Gnome will ask if you want to load this file: click on the file, click “Load”, and click “Ok”.

See chuck’s comments on May 1st 2008 (on page 5) below, newer X’s require that config.

Summary

Compared to all the mice I’ve used in all my years of computing, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with a mouse. Actually, I didn’t even know it was possible to be happy with a mouse. Most people overlook the importance of a mouse in both gaming and other environments, and now that I have this mouse, I don’t think I can ever go back to ‘normal’ mouse. The only way they could possibly improve this is tighten up the wheel a little bit as to make clicking the middle button and not accidently scrolling a little easier.

Note: I have not reviewed the included drivers or software, as I don’t game in Windows.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Rrreeeeeoooowww!¹ The TIE Interceptor is a fearsome beast, and a complete improvement over the original death trap. Quad-linked laser canons on the tip of each wing, and a stronger hull, it gave the Rebellion’s X-Wings a run for their money.

The 212 piece Lego kit, the 6202 TIE Interceptor, comes with one TIE pilot minifig, a dish with the TIE cockpit hatch art painted on it, a TIE cockpit canopy, and two 2×2 round tiles with the Imperial logo on it. No stickers.

This kit shares much of the design of the 7263 TIE Fighter, the cockpit builds exactly the same way with very little in difference. However, the wings are far more detailed than in 7263, making the TIE Interceptor look a lot more realistic, and less like a simple toy.

Build-wise, the instructions are easy to follow, and the produced model has no major quirks or other problems. The single real flaw in the build process is that the light grey 2×4 plates applied on each winglet (step 10 for the wings) should be attached before attaching the winglets to the center wing section, otherwise the winglets pop right off while you’re trying to do it.

Compared to the A-Wing (which has a few minor flaws otherwise marring a good looking kit), I give the 6202 Tie Interceptor a 4.5 out of 5.

_{[1]: Yes, that’s the sound of a TIE fighter flying by (well, at least as well as one can do in text). The memorable screetch of a TIE fighter’s engines came from sound designer Ben Burtt mixing the sound of cars streaking by on a rain covered road and the trumpeting of an elephant.}

Well, for less than $20, I’m actually quite surprised at how well this kit builds. Lego’s 6207 Star Wars A-Wing is 194 peices, comes with two minifigs, and a little military cargo hover-transport, and a sheet of four stickers.

It takes about 30-45 minutes to build, and easily stands up to playing with it (which not all the Star Wars models can, the ARC-170 Starfighter is on the other end of the specturm, and falls apart if you even look at it), and accurately looks like the A-Wing. The only flaws are completely minor ones.

Flaws

• It uses stickers. I refuse to use stickers, as they peel back off the plastic, and stop being sticky shortly after, when they land on the floor and attach themselves to dust and fuzz.
• Step 3 of the cargo transport doesn’t clearly state what the three peices in the front actually are (two 1×1 slope bricks, one 1×2 plate). They look like one single peice, and I was off looking for such a peice for a couple minutes until I realized what it really was.
• The additional large plates added by Step 3 of the A-Wing, attached to the construction in Step 4, don’t stay on easily until around Step 7 or 8, and is actually quite annoying unless you’re building on a flat surface and don’t pick it up.
• The tail-fins built in Step 24 look unfinished. They’d look a lot more finished if they simply had a 1×3 tile on top. Also, those three bricks on the top tend to “chip” off, and a 1×3 tile would easily keep them in place.

Other than that, it is still a great kit, and quite worth the money I paid for it. I give it 4 out of 5 death stars.