Ok, I hate to go off-topic and actually talk about the product at hand (ar ar), but ring mice (Mouses? Meese?) only seem like a good idea until you try using one for a while. I had one more than 10 years ago (the original ring mouse), and while it worked well as a mouse (including 3D), try this little exercise: Hold your arm straight out in front of you. Hold that pose for 5 minutes, maybe moving your arm around in slow little circles. Now picture doing that for a whole workday...

There's a reason the traditional mouse-on-desk is still with us after all this time. Same with multi-touch or Minority Report-type interfaces (on vertical surfaces). None of them takes into account that you just can't hold your arm up in the air for hours on end....

Mandatory_Field

What?? Gizmodo promoting homosexuals!!?? Watch out for the Microsoft shareholder anti-rights guy, he'll come and sue you guys! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't read enough blogs). Oh, and to MRIMP, I hate living in Massachusetts, the only state that allows gay marriage.

Crazysamz

Will one of the editors please boot TERMINATOR12139 - The flag function doesn't work over here in Firefox land...

iridius

@Terminator12139: Gaybashing. Hilarious.

aphex242

How adorable, they're so off to Massachusetts after CES...

mrimp

Pitcher/Catcher roles have become clearer

exigent

What a cute couple!

COugh,,, Fags

Terminator12139

Cute, but the Hello Kitty themed Ring Mouse would fit best in this particular case.

Palestina

I don't see this working with 8 hour day production work, but for mobile presentation it sounds like a great idea. Oh, and they are definitelygay for each other ;)

Gann

I noticed the flag failing for me also.

Coexist

strider_mt2k

Chen looks so happy!

Brian Ashcraft

@FredicvsMaximvs: I tried it in IE7 and got the same thing.

strider_mt2k

@iridius: and @strider_mt2k:
Do you guys have the NoScript extension or something similar? That might be causing it. I've got Firefox and I can use the reply/follow/flag icons...

FredicvsMaximvs

I'm jealous now. :(

sarahm

banned

blam

@mrimp: Or San Francisco.

bms

@exigent: And how.

And to the others, should the user be banned for making gay jokes, or should we question the original posting to begin with? OR, should everyone stop being so bloody sensitive? What a bunch of hetero's, man.

PS - Fag has been embraced by the gay community, stop treating like a certain other word that is used widely by the people it is in reference too, and yet is taboo for everyone else. It's a word, it's language, there are more important things to worry about.

Speaking of, screw those starving little bastards in Africa who are dying from AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Let's give em a laptop!

luckypictures

@mrimp: and @Crazysamz:

FYI, MA isn't the only state that allows same sex marriage just look north to NH that as of 1/1/2008 allows it as well. Plus many other states: [en.wikipedia.org]

and @Crazysamz: if you don't like living in MA for the simple reason it allows same sex marriage, GTFO.

iPhoneGroupie

Luckypictures and friends:

I'm a gay gamer and, while I can't speak for an entire community, I can say a few things with relative certainty.

1) Calling someone "fags" is not a gay joke. (Calling someone "gay" in a derogatory fashion is not a gay joke either, but all it does is reveal that the person posting is mentally an eight-year-old.) The pitcher/catcher joke, however, was funny.

2) Should the user be banned for calling someone "fag" or "fags"? That's up to the administrator of the site. However, there are gay men and lesbians who visit the site, and there is at least one gay man who writes for the site. It would be worthwhile taking them into consideration.

3) "Fag" has not been embraced by the gay community, especially for use by heterosexuals as an insult to other people, gay or straight. And neither has the "N-word" been embraced by the black community. (Individuals yes, the community no.) These words are still like sand in the eyes for most of the people they refer to. Try replacing the word "fags" with a plural of the "N-word" in Terminator's post and see how amusing it is for black people.

dd-toronto

Luckypictures--unless I missed something, this isn't BET and it isn't the meatpacking district or Out Magazine. And there's a difference between those targeted outlets and the larger "popular culture".

Just as I would never use the "N-word" to describe friends or strangers because it shows a fundamental lack of respect coming out of a non-black mouth, there are plenty of gay men and women who I would never say "fag" or "dyke" to, and I'm in the community.

Now, if you're saying you're gay and that you're using the term "fag" in an ironic attempt to "take back" the word, that's one thing. And if you and I are interacting in a gays-only context, that's another. But this is neither of those things. This is someone calling two men "fags". Period.

dd-toronto

@dd-toronto: I'm sorry, but I have to disagree greatly. Although a community does not speak for all it's members, let's look to it's popular culture.

1.) Watch BET for a day, see how many times the "n word" or variation thereof is spoken.
That not enough? As of today, every artist that has a top ten album on the Billboard charts for rap has used it in a song, and some of them, on the albums that are on the charts? Not so much on the R&B charts, though at least 3 of the top 10 artists have used the word in a song, or song title.

2.) Go to the meat packing district of NY, or hell, any city that has a large gay population, go to a fw clubs, and see if you hear that word used by its members.

I never said everyone accepted it, but you can't argue that's it's not largely accepted.

I tell you what, go ahead and search Out magazine's website. You'll find no less than 50 instances where it is used by a writer, and not in a derogatory manner, and quite often, self-referential.

On the other hand, a search of gay newspapers will find generally derogatory reference only.

Just as the entire black community has not embraced the n-word, neither has the entire gay community embraced fag. It's a matter of personal choice, and although I do not agree with the initial post, you can't say that the word Fag is taboo in the gay community.

luckypictures

We wants the Precious!!!!

Set to evil

I just want to say that as a black man, I have absolutely no problem with the use of the word "gay" in a non-derogatory context....

Mandatory_Field