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]



Hah.
I would have guessed that Joel was weighing his greens, not whites.
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.
I don’t like the look of that port on the mouse; doesn’t look like a standard mini-USB port to me.
Unless the lid can be used as a dish, that seems rather small for Joel’s weapon of choice.