Optical mouse with built-in digital scale is coke fiend blogger's delight

There's little to be done, feature-wise, to make a mouse stand out from the competition short of making it just really excellent: hence, the crap gadgeteer's constant feature mash-ups. This particular $50 optical mouse doubles as a digital scale, capable of measuring up to 500 gram. All of us at Boing Boing Gadgets have some use for this: Joel, to measure his lines upon; Rob, to make sure that a blogger's carpal tunnel will not sturdy his limp British wrist; and me, to keep my parakeet Humbert from becoming a fatty.

Optical Mouse with digital scale [Everything USB via Slippery Brick]

[#1 posted by rAMPANTiDIOCY , December 1, 2008 7:56 AM]

Hah.

I would have guessed that Joel was weighing his greens, not whites.

[#2 posted by geekpdx , December 1, 2008 9:19 AM]

I concur with #1.

Also, though I hate to come to the defense of this sort of crap gadget I'm willing to bet that it's true intended use is not "a mouse with a convenient scale!" - it's probably something more like "a digital scale, hidden inside an innocuous looking mouse".

I guess this because in some places the possession of both a substance *and* a means to measure it automatically means "intent to distribute" or something else along the same lines - which could make a routine traffic stop that gets you a few spendy tickets turn into a routine traffic stop gone bad enough to land you in the pokey for a bit.

Just guessing.

[#3 posted by zuzu , December 1, 2008 10:17 AM]

I don't like the look of that port on the mouse; doesn't look like a standard mini-USB port to me.

I would have guessed that Joel was weighing his greens, not whites.

It's stainless steel, measuring 2.25" by 2.7", is revealed by removing the mouse cover.

Unless the lid can be used as a dish, that seems rather small for Joel's weapon of choice.