Cern Animal Shelter for Computer Mice (2011)
Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago
computer-animal-shelter.web.cern.chTechstory
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NostalgiaComputer HardwareCern
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Nostalgia
Computer Hardware
Cern
The CERN Animal Shelter for Computer Mice is a humorous website showcasing retired computer mice, sparking nostalgia and appreciation for the simplicity of early internet culture.
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ID: 45286369Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 5:23:56 PM
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https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/helicopter-hieroglyphs
Just consider their Large Hamster Collider! It’s a travesty, and last I head, they were colliding billions of hamster per second. You also got to ask what they do with the resulting elephants and whatnot coming out of those relativistic collisions.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/c736301a01cc03ff1f03dac1c8b87f7...
I think things like these have just become harder to find. There are some search engines which try to bring the "old" internet back to life like Marginalia Search.
https://old-search.marginalia.nu/
https://wiby.org/
I find this really cool for some reason.
Also see:
https://kagi.com/smallweb
https://cloudhiker.net
https://randomdailyurls.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse#Etymology
I dread buying a new model of anything these days, knowing that the MBAs will have found some way to shave a cent off a million units, or a millionth of a meter from a poor mouse foot. But I guess I'll replace her before there are only smart maice avAIlable.
Oh and CERN is an amazing place to visit if you ever get a chance. Plan well ahead since I waited a long time for a visitor slot last time I was in CH.
So true... Generally speaking, quality of anything from a reputable brand was taken as granted just a couple decades ago... Now, every time I buy something there's some detail showing how the people in charge wanted to save a few cents making it.
Now i have new questions about how laser mice consume... :)
However...
This was going nowhere, and, after about half an hour of struggle, I asked my mum which way the mouse was in her hand. She had the 'tail' coming out the back, which made sense to her.
Before working this out I was wondering if the light from the window was making it through the flimsy plastic of the mouse, to prevent the sensors from working. Or maybe something else was plugged in, robbing the MS-DOS PC of enough interrupts. Or maybe the ball was clogged with cat hairs.
We got there in the end, however, it was a lesson in not jumping to conclusions. I had just been temporarily defeated by my mother's lack of computer literacy.
It made so much sense that the very first computer mouse had the cable there, which is was why the device was initially nicknamed a “mouse”. They soon moved the cable to be more out of the way, but the name has obviously stuck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
What's wrong with the tail coming out of the back? That's how all mice are used.
At my current FAANG, nobody talks to each other. There is no laughing, joking, or discussion of any matters, other than work.
I can spot two three-button Logitech PilotMouse. It was OEM'ed for many brands (SGI, DEC, ...) and also very common standalone.
The Sun mouse is probably an optical one made by Mouse Systems. I think it is the one in the same style with ball that is rare.