Self Cleaning Mouse 204
mikesd81 writes "LEWIS Wire is reporting on a self-cleaning mouse that disables the survival of bacteria with an auto-disinfecting surface. From the article: 'According to a recent survey from the University of Arizona, the average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat. Despite this, office workers rarely have time to clean their desktops frequently or thoroughly enough to be effective. As a result, the presence of microbes contributes to the spread of pneumonia, the flu, pink eye and strep throat, among other extremely contagious viruses.'"
Whats wrong with hygiene? (Score:2)
Re:Whats wrong with hygiene? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Whats wrong with hygiene? (Score:5, Funny)
That must suck for Louisiana.
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Now if they said toilet bowl, that would be much different.
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I don't have any references handy, but I remember seeing somewhere (so it's a fact!) that the average toilet bowl isn't very dirty, for the reasons you mention, sterility of urine, and because it's cleaned regularly.
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That's if you're not counting all the piss and dried up semen.
Then it's a pity most toilet seats are made out of plastic or wood.
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You can't count the extreme cases - so I'm sure that the bathrooms along the NJ Turnpike weren't tested for this particular staistic.
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If that's really a problem, then a little review [ivillage.com] might help.
But to address your points seriously, urine is composed of plasma, uric acid, and other elements that your kidneys filter out. It doesn't smell good, but it's not ridden with bacteria. Semen won't produce a good bacterial culture either, and I'd like to think that most people try to avoid cumming all over their toilet seats anyways.
Then it's a pity most toilet seats are made out of pl
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Sure there is. That is, unless you never wipe your ass, which is not very probable even on Slashdot.
Then again, I don't worry about my desk. How is my immune system supposed to work if it never gets anything for training? There is a good reason why allergies spread like an epidemic nowadays. Ask old people whether they knew anyone who was allergic, say, 40 years ago.
An old co-worker used to say... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Whats wrong with hygiene? (Score:5, Funny)
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Disinfection does. Which I practically never do anywhere except for the kitchen sink, garbage can and the bathroom/toilet.
Speaking of which, the average publich toilet gets a thorough (?
I would expect it to be cleaner than say my keyboard. I would not want to dip that in Domestos/Bref whatever.
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Blimey, where you do live?
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A third! you Slacker! However I agree fully. Personally I change my keyboard, both at home and at work about once a year, and I get rid of mice at nearly the same rate. I also wipe them (in particular the mouse), with a disinfectant spray once in a while. My desk chair (at home) is changed about every two years (I've also swapped out my chair at work with unused matches before). As anyone who know
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I've also swapped out my chair at work with unused matches before
Aren't they kind of uncomfortable to sit on? Besides the obvious fire hazard..
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So... (Score:5, Funny)
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Oh no! "bacteria"! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you "disinfect" a surface, it's like clear-cutting a rain-forest. You've upset the balance, making a fresh new playground where the really baad and hardy weeds might take hold.
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Re:Oh no! "bacteria"! (Score:4, Interesting)
By making a service no current bug can live on, won't it leave a whole new world for tha one bug that happens to mutate in such a way to be tolerant(considering about divisions bacteria make with the percentage of mutation which is only likelier to increase given adverse conditions that may cripple its DNA). A la current anti-bacterial super-bug problem?
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Has anyone checked these oxygen-radical producing mice for connections with muslim-radicals?
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Bacteria clogging up the printer? That's easy to solve -- just print out something toxic, like a full-nude picture of Bea Arthur. That ought to sterilize the entire paper pathway.
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Make it "different," instead of "hostile." (Score:2)
The objective isn't necessarily making a surface that's totally impossible for bacteria to live on, it's to make a surface that's so different from the inside of the body, that the bacteria that could concievably live on said surface wouldn't be capable of harming you.
Sorta like how there are bacteria evolved to live i
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Nonetheless it does sound like a good idea. For non-mouse environments.
Re:Oh no! "bacteria"! (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, these "studies" are usually trying to convince us to buy an anti-bacterial soap, or as in this case a self cleaning mouse so they play on people's fears and doubts to make them want to buy it, ie... it's just FUD.
Re:Oh no! "bacteria"! (Score:5, Insightful)
And of the other 3%, most of them we couldn't survive without and the primary way they can harm us is by dying. The human lifeform is symbiotic with a whole bunch of bacterial species, which do everything from cleaning your eyeballs to assisting with digestion. The biosphere relies on bacteria to maintain everything from soil conditions to oxygen levels in the atmosphere.
Killing bacteria to stop infections is like chopping off people's hands to stop shootings - before they happen.
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So... are you feeling lucky?
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Agreed, but it's the 3% (often from other people) that can get you sick. During flu season, people generally pick up the bug from hand contact. You touch something that someone else has touched, or you shake hands, your own hands end up
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-Eric
So: (Score:5, Funny)
Laser (Score:2, Funny)
I should have posted this anonymously... (Score:2)
Special coating??? (Score:5, Insightful)
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It works very well there.
"Nano particle" is marketer speak for "we grind this shit up really small before we spray it on".
I have no idea the thickness of the coating, but at least while new, this should work for a while. Frankly, I'd rather save my antibacterial weaponry for things that matter, but having these at the nurses' station in hospitals might actually be a very good idea.
Good grief (Score:3, Funny)
Re: Toilets (Score:5, Funny)
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Useless (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other hand, using such surfaces in hospital for example on doorknobs or armrests may really be helpfull.
Bacteria or Virus (Score:3, Funny)
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What's it for? (Score:3, Funny)
Dan East
Germs are good (Score:3, Insightful)
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How to breed super-germs (Score:5, Informative)
Why do you think the most violent, nasty and resistant bacteria stems are found in hospitals?
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Of course they're aggressive (Score:5, Funny)
Of course they're aggressive. You just killed their family, and tried to kill them. They're pissed, they're armed, and you gotta sleep sometime.
Toilet Seats!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
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Makes (Score:3, Funny)
My Toilet is Cleaner than my Desk (Score:2)
I didn't see anywhere in the article about prevent oil and dirt build up. That's my main problem. My oily and sweaty hands like to build up these nice dirt outlines that I scrap off with my fingernails every month or so. I guess I can start wearing rubber gloves when I touch the mouse.
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Toilet seats are a terrible comparison (Score:5, Informative)
Okay, just to clear this up: the average toilet seat is, believe it or not, one of the most sterile and least bacteria-ridden places you will find anywhere in your household. It is usually a barren plastic surface with little purchase for bacteria or moisture, it is cleaned and disinfected more than most surfaces, and the only real chance it has of catching anything that bacteria feed on is if someone ends up smearing crap on it - I'm really hope that's not the norm. In addition, what is unfortunately likely to end up on the seat is urine, which is totally sterile and would kill rather than feed most bacteria. Anyone who ever cleans their house will have a pretty sterile seat, and there is not much chance that anything you do pick up on the back of your legs is going to be transferred directly to your face by your hand.
Just about the opposite of all the points above can be said about your keyboard and mouse. It should come as absolutely no surprise that these things are riddled with bacteria...
As is your skin. All of it. You are fucking covered in the little guys, and it's rarely a problem. If you're the sort of person who's likely to get sick from a mouse that hasn't been disinfected, your life is too sterile for you to survive easily in the wild. Self-cleaning mice and mobility-scooters for the morbidly obese - they amount to the same thing: people's poor lifestyles causing them to be unfit to survive normally. I understand why people need these things, but if they'd exercised moderation in all things from the start, they wouldn't be in this situation.
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As is your skin. All of it. You are fucking covered in the little guys, and it's rarely a problem.
And don't forget your intestines, plenty off the little buggers inside you too. In fact [too lazy to search for a link] you carry more cells around that are not part of your body than cells that are. Fortunately your own cells are a lot bigger.
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I don't know where you're from, but here in the USA, we don't do anything in moderation. It's against national policy or something.
Seriously though, most of the problems that we face as a culture stem from the fact that we take everything too far. Think fast food, playground safety, automobile size, etc. If we just tried to balance things a little better, I don't think we would have so many problems. With a few notable exceptions, most thin
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The older I get, the better Marxist theories of history ("follow the money") sound.
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I'd like to add that people need to think of their hands, stomach and environment as an "ecology." What you want to discourage is the "Lions, Tigers and Bears." Our skin has bacteria that has adapted over millions of years. Many things that are now perfectly fine on our skin and don't cause problems, were most likely at one time an infection. Afte battling for a long time, immune system and invader become either benign or dependent. Much like the bacteria in our stomach
To add to this (Score:2)
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However, try staying in that routine for a few years and then go back to on-site support. I guarantee you'll be more susceptible than ever. Constant moderate exposure doesn't make you completely immune to anything (you still get sick), but it does im
Self-Cleaning Mouse? (Score:5, Funny)
I told him, "You better pet him first; he might bite."
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"Give him a biscuit and he might let you..."
Oh please! (Score:5, Insightful)
There's even more bacteria INSIDE YOU! And no, they're not only "your" bacteria. They are in fact bacteria that you ate, breathed in and so on and so on. They live and breed inside you, and defecate inside you! They also *eat* from whatever is laying around (i.e. YOU).
Shocking? Well it better not be, since they're not going away any time soon. I'm sick of gem-counting revelations and toilet seat comparisons.
I'm proud to say I use a regular dirty mouse and keyboard and I'm still alive and healthy. If someone is concerned he might catch something bad from a computer mouse, he wouldn't be alive to buy this product anyway.
I'll lick your mouse if you lick my toilet seat... (Score:2)
How about comparing the number of harmful bacteria on each?
Plus, as others have pointed out, the toilet seat is very often a clean surface due to its being regularly cleaned.
bacteria or virus? (Score:5, Insightful)
mod parent up (Score:2)
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A must-have gadget... (Score:2, Funny)
I'm surprised, though, that the marketing idiots didn't come up with an ant-terrorism angle - after all, if your mouse kills little bad bug things it'll Keep You Safe(tm) during a biological attack!
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TOP TIP! (Score:2, Funny)
Thankyou for your attention.
Wrong name (Score:2)
Never mind that (Score:2)
If contamination were a problem, we would be dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, desinfecting too much actually leads to other problems. Current studies suggest that too much hygiene may be a big factor in the recent increases of allergies. Also, fighting too aggressively against any kind of etiologic agents only produces more resistant etiologic agents. A prominent example is the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a Staph.A. strain that developed antibiotic resistance and is responsible for a good share of all nosocomial infections (i.e. infections you get that you get in hospital but are otherwise unrelated to your actual treatment there).
IANAMD (I am not an MD), but I have an education as combat medic in the Austrian Army where infectiology is a huge subject during education.
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I also mentioned the part that lack of contact with etiologic agents leads to a higher risks of suffering from allergies later on.
Dishwasher-proof Mouse (Score:3)
(Also iPods, 'phones, tv remotes and all types of electronic goods in all types of washer. NB patent trolls, if this is original, I claim prior art by publishing here. PS eeuw [gardenweb.com])
Cats have been doing this for years (Score:2, Funny)
Illiterate marketing (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting product, illiterate article.
Fomites (inanimate objects that can spread disease by holding infective organisms between hosts) can spread organisms, but office equipment, including mice and keyboards, has never been shown to contribute to the spread of serious disease. In a hospital environment, especially in something like an ICU where you have multiple providers working with the same computers, this might be an interesting thing to study. In the office, there's no point. You're at far more danger from shaking hands with your co-workers than you are from using their mouse. Tellingly, neither the author of the study nor the manufacturer quote any actual scientific study showing that an antibacterial mouse makes a difference anywhere. This is a talisman, pure and simple.
Which doesn't stop the writer of the article, who breathlessly refers to "the spread of pneumonia, the flu, pink eye and strep throat, among other extremely contagious viruses." As a physician who is continually explaining the difference between viruses and bacteria, and the difference between diseases caused by transmission of specific organisms (like strep) and general conditions that have hundreds of causes (like pink eye or pneumonia), this sentence made me twitch violently. Suffice it to say that with this single phrase, the author ensured that I would ignore the rest of the article as an obvious waste of time.
Fortunately, the manufacturer of the mouse did better. I love the disclaimer:
And there you have it. Remember, don't ingest the damn thing under ANY circumtances.
Anti Bacterial Plastics (Score:2, Informative)
They have similar mats in showers, boats, dairy farms http://www.animat.ca/ [animat.ca].
I'm suprised they haven't done this before. Inter-office disease spreading via keyboards and such is a HUGE problem, costing billions per year.
Think about it? How many times have you been nailed by a cold going "around" the office?
"Superbugs" (Score:2)
So we're clearing the way (Score:2)
my self cleaning keyboard (Score:2, Interesting)
Copper? (Score:4, Interesting)
Plus after time your mouse will go from copper color to green, so you'll get 2 styles for the price of 1
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Useless, I say!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Where it's needed (Score:2)
I believe the British military first designed silver particle embedded antibacterial clothing, and I don't want to wear anything that has really nanosized particles of anything in
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Why do we need any of these things? I know they say no bacteria can survive on these surfaces, but how do we know that for sure? Once the bacteria has a mutation that allows survival on this surface it will be everywhere, and it will probably be a superbug. Our normal wood, metal, and glass desk surfaces have worked fine for hundreds of years. Why should we change them just so that
only anti-bacterial (Score:2)
Bacterial presence is only one aspect of cleanliness.
If this mouse were truly self-cleaning, it would have some way of automatically scraping of the schmutz that collects on the underside and where the fingers rest.
(In this respect, the optical mouse is the greatest advance in mouse technology ever. I really don't miss jabbing a pencil eraser into the empty socket of my ball mouse, trying to coax strips of black gunk off the rollers every couple of months.)
So the mouse is a rat? (Score:2)
Any EVIDENCE for that "contagion?" (Score:2)
Touching the dry, smooth surface of a mouse that someone else has touched has got to be less dangerous than shaking hands with them.
All this "Lysol kills
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Personal items don't make sense. (Score:3, Insightful)
After all, if you touch the phone to your face, and then wait a while and touch it to your face again, you didn't accomplish anything. The bacteria that were on your face are still on your face; even if you hadn't used the phone they just would have stayed there.
Now, if you had a phone that was shared by large numbers of people, there might be a re