Over the years I have used many types of mouse. From old-style ones with the big rubber ball inside which collected fluff and wouldn't track properly, to optical mice with a scroll wheel which tracked well but tended to scratch your desk. But my all-time favourite has been the Apple Mighty Mouse with its tiny trackball replacing the scroll wheel. It might not be the most ergonomic mouse ever, but the little trackball with it's multiple-directional scrolling is a joy to use. Right up until it gets some fluff in it, when it sticks horribly. As the trackball is so small, it only takes a tiny crumb, hair or other bit of detritus to clog the mechanism up, and this is where your problems really start as there is no easy way to get the ball out to clean it. Searching the Internet produced two main suggestions, major mouse surgery or flipping it over and rubbing the ball vigorously with a damp cloth. As the former looked rather too likely to end in a dead mouse, I had been using the latter technique. The cloth is dampened so that the dirt (slightly) adheres to it, but it is not particularly effective. Using a more adhesive cleaner would therefore seem to be a good idea however sticky tape, for example, is likely to leave a slightly tacky layer on the trackball and actually make it more likely to attract and then clog up with dirt.
The solution came from the observation that a ball a Blu-Tack left on a desk top for a few days develops a patina of dust and hair of similar size to that which I wanted to remove from the mechanism. Rubbing the trackball firmly with a clean bit of Blu-Tack did indeed quickly solve the problem. It was sticky enough to remove the dirt but not so sticky as to leave any adhesive residue. Problem solved.
And then two days later Apple announced the Magic Mouse, ditching the trackball altogether for touch sensitive scrolling. Mind you, with the Magic Mouse costing an eye-watering £55, I think that I will be sticking to the Mighty Mouse and a fresh slab of Blu-Tack for the time being.
