What makes this mouse unique is that it has what Logitech calls Darkfield Laser Tracking. This feature enables it to track on glass. How often someone mouses on their windshield is uncertain, however.
The mouse is advertised to work anywhere, on anything, and with anything. Anywhere MX works with old and new systems from Windows XP through Vista – if anyone is still using this failed operating system – to Windows 7, 8 and RT. Mac compatibility wasn’t overlooked in the design either. The Unifying receiver connects up to 6 compatible devices.

Logitech offers several wireless Unifying mouse choices from $29.99 to the top Performance MX at $99.99. They have eight Unifying keyboards in various configurations including solar powered, touch, and illuminated.

Anywhere MX mouse moves smoothly on this rubber-based cat – uh mouse – pad.

The mouse glides across my cat-n-mouse pad and the scroll wheel moves like silk rolling the image quickly and smoothly. Here, the documentation is helpful. The wheel works as a toggle, pressing it down changes the scrolling from a smooth rolling action to a slower, jerky page up/down movement. If you have good coordination, you can press the wheel left or right within the web page to scroll the screen in those directions. It is not necessary to position the cursor on the horizontal scroll bar to do so.

The left click button is solid and effective for selecting items from a list and positioning the cursor within a document. Right click immediately displays the appropriate menu listing. Navigating forward and back between web pages is controlled by buttons beneath your thumb if you run the mouse right handed. The buttons are slightly stiff, but you can apply appropriate pressure without interference from buttons on the opposite side of the mouse since there are none.

Symbols beside the scroll wheel and on the side buttons indicate directional movement.

A little green light on top of the mouse comes on when you set the Darkfield slider at the bottom of the mouse to On. There is also a button above the Darkfield label which led me to think they functioned in tandem. However, the identifier in the documentation indicates the Middle button’s function varies by application.

The back-to-back, single page of documentation provides mostly graphic images rather than text. For example, Item 1 points to what are described as left and right buttons. Item 7 indicates back and forward buttons. It obviously is assumed the user has mouse experience and knows what these left/right, back/forward buttons do. Yes, there are still people out there who are computer novices and could use a little more guidance. I suppose it could be argued that they shouldn’t buy a computer until they’ve attended a few classes, but who does?

The Anywhere MX package includes two AA batteries, however documentation which is written in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Portuguese – claims it runs on either one or two batteries.

Get the picture? Can’t get more concise than this.

Step 2 of the documentation has a great graphic that indicates you can slide the Darkfield button On or Off, but oddly, it doesn’t explain what the Darkfield function is. Don’t throw the box away. That’s where you’ll find the explanation which as I mentioned earlier says you can use the mouse on glass.

The graphic in Step 3 indicates where the USB is inserted into a laptop and contains the most information of any step. It tips Mac OS X users that if the Keyboard Setup Assistant appears they need to close the window.
Step 4 directs you to the Logitech website to download the most recent software and review other configurations and features. Finally they ask you to go to the “ithink” website to tell them, well, what you think.

If the mouse is not working, a very brief Troubleshooting paragraph asks: Is the mouse turned on? Yes, the fundamental first “duh” question asked by every support department. Maybe the problem is related to the USB port, maybe the battery is in upside down or the mouse is too near a metallic object. Other than those tips, you must go to their support website for help. Phone numbers for the US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Latin America and Mexico are listed. We can only assume they are direct lines to the support department and not the corporate president.

I’ve always been happy with mice from Logitech, but the assumptions evident in the documentation only makes one wonder what other assumptions might have gone into its design and operation. We all know what ASS-U-ME stands for.

The Important Information, read CYA, insert is more comprehensive and in smaller print than the quick start instruction page. It warns of potential carpal tunnel damage from repetitive mousing, although it doesn’t mention the disability by name. Keep the mouse away from water and heat. Now isn’t this one piece of information they could assume the user would already be aware of?
Radiation is mentioned as a concern – BTW, did they ever decide if cell phones caused brain cancer or not? Misuse of or using the wrong batteries can be harmful to you and/or the device. You are warned to keep the batteries [and fireworks] out of the reach of children. Just how dumbed down has the general public become?

Oh, did I mention they warned of possible interference with your TV or radio? A couple paragraphs regarding compliance with FCC and International Standards for laser products rounds out the Important Information insert.

This mouse comes with a 3 year limited hardware warranty. That could be a good thing because several user comments around the web since 2009 indicated they needed to replace the Anywhere mouse or fix its left click button. The mouse received 3.5 out of 5 stars and 70 percent said they’d recommend the device. I haven’t had their latest version long enough to vouch for the viability of the model I received, but so far so good.

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According to FAA documents released, their Record of Decision, basically gives many details of SpaceX’s proposed spaceport located just outside of Brownsville, Texas. The proposed spaceport which was given FAA approval, pending some conditions are met and approved, is located in a small corner of South West Texas. This place, just outside of Brownsville, Texas basically sits between the city of Brownsville, the Gulf of Mexico, the border with Mexico and a small group of bays.

Proposed SpaceX Spaceport Launch Site

As you can see, they are neatly nestled away in that little corner of Texas which is known as the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area. Obviously, they are going to be limited exactly to what they can and can’t launch there, but they clearly have a pretty well established plan for how much area they are going to need to block off.

This launch site will be in addition to the launch site that SpaceX already has and currently uses on Vandenberg Airforce Base near Lompoc, California. This is a great strategy for SpaceX to have because it will enable them to maintain two launch sites for their rockets if they have to scrub a launch at another based on certain launch windows.

Additionally, having launch sites in two different states means that they aren’t beholden to one location being available based on weather conditions. After all, Brownsville is on the Gulf Coast which means it could be susceptible to hurricanes and other extreme weather, which is why the FAA is requiring they provide a hurricane plan in their follow up documentation.

Overall, this is great news for SpaceX and space travel overall because it will help the company to be able to launch more rockets and more payloads, increasing their overall capability. By doing so, they make themselves more competitive and hopefully more attractive to companies looking to find a good launch partner. We may also see SpaceX eventually launching astronauts from one of their two launch sites, which also makes it much more flexible for their customers (including NASA) to be able to launch from Florida, Texas or California.

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According to the latest release by Wikileaks, the NSA is recording all calls coming in and out of Afghanistan. They reported this even though other publications and journalists strictly opposed to releasing the name of Afghanistan in their disclosures that the NSA was recording all calls in the Bahamas. Under a week ago, The Intercept (Glenn Greenwald and co.) along with Wikileaks and a few other publications had disclosed that all cellular calls were being recorded by the NSA and that there was another country that had yet to be named that was getting a similar treatment. However, The Intercept refused to publish the name of the second country for fear that it would cause actual and gave harm to people’s lives if that country’s name were to be released.

However, Wikileaks did not agree with The Intercept and The Washington Post on the Afghanistan topic and chastised them publicly on Twitter for not wanting to disclose the name of the second target country, even though Wikileaks did not believe that the truth should be withheld or that knowing the truth would actually affect anyone’s lives or put anyone in danger. The Washington Post and The Intercept both chose to withhold the name of the second country but really, it seems quite pointless to have done so if Wikileaks was already going to release that information. Additionally, I don’t quite understand how The Intercept and The Washington Post necessarily rationalized that releasing Afghanistan’s name would somehow endanger lives. If anything, it would merely result in the US being pushed out of Afghanistan sooner rather than later, which is already an inevitability as it is already.

Not to mention, the Afghani people have the full right to know that the US is effectively spying on all of their cellular communications without their consent. They are already living with a heavy US military presence but in addition to that, everything they’re doing is effectively being monitored by the NSA and likely passed on to the military and CIA who are partaking in drone strikes. Overall, this information is certainly not surprising, but it is still quite worrying that the NSA is capable of spying on an entire country’s cellular communications and record every bit of it as well. Also don’t forget that the NSA is also collecting metadata on people in Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines as well. None of this is surprising, but the sad part is that the NSA is allowed to continue to violate people’s electronic privacy in the name of ‘national security’.

It will be interesting, however, to see how the US’ dipolmatic relations and military engagements with the aforementioned countries will be as a result of this disclosure. No, I don’t think people’s lives are in danger, just the political climate is a bit more difficult than it was a few days ago.

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