Well, now that I've got your attention ...

My mouse at work (a standard-issue Dell one) has been less-than-responsive to movement lately. The clicks and scroll wheel worked fine. But when I moved it around the pad, the cursor only begrudgingly moved in the direction I wanted it to.

I opened it up and there was little-to-no lint inside.

I checked the mousepad and it was sufficiently coarse.

I hadn't changed the system's mouse sensitivity settings since the days when it had been working fine, so I doubted it was a software problem.

So today, I looked at the rubber ball itself. It was covered in a thin film of oily dirt. I cleaned it off, the rubber got its traction back, and now it's working fine again.

P.S. Yes, I've heard of optical mice, but my company doesn't provide them, I don't feel like spending the money and I like the gel wrist rest on my pad. (Yes I also know that they have gel wrist wrests without mousepad attached.)

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.