To wire, or not to wire.

Mike over at Silent Corner makes a good point about wireless peripherals.

Me, I like my wireless optical mouse and my wireless keyboard. But yes, the rate of battery consumption is problematic, and as a result, I'm probably going to get rechargeable batteries for both of them soon. To be honest, the problem is mostly with the mouse, as the keyboard seems to last a long time.

I think the mouse eats through batteries like they are candy because the optical eye always seems to be on or at the ready. And my wife's will sit there and flash when it isn't doing anything, as if begging for attention... which I just don't really understand. The computer can even be off and the optical will be sitting there, flashing happily away. My mouse doesn't do it, so I think it may be related to the surface upon which that mouse sits. I almost wish there were an 'off' button on the mouse so it would conserve juice when it wasn't needed. Removing the batteries is also an option, but an inelegant one.

Anyway, if you do want to go wireless, I'd highly recommend also looking into a rechargable battery solution along with it, because otherwise it just feels a bit wasteful. To me, though, the desktop freedom that comes with a flat-panel display and a wireless desktop solution is really quite nice, and worth that little bit of extra expense.