One day last summer I had a mind opening experience, although I did not realize it then. At the time, I was sure it was a tragedy. I was sitting on the couch at my sister's house editing an article for publication on Bright Hub, with my laptop computer on my lap, plugged into an extension cord, with the AC adapter cord hanging down to the floor, as was the cord for the mouse. I put the laptop down on the couch and stood up to walk into the kitchen. I took a large step to clear the extension cord, and snagged the mouse cord with my foot without realizing it. One further step, and the computer and I were on the floor. After picking myself and the laptop up, I sat down again and tried to turn it on. It was dead.
I decided I would never use a wired mouse again. I haven't. I learned, with the help of an article on putting your internal hard drive into an external enclosure and several emails from fellow Bright Hub contributing editor Lamar Stonecypher, that I could remove my hard drive, put it into an enclosure, and rescue documents and pictures from my scrambled hard drive. I replaced the hard drive in my laptop with the help of the Dell manual, reinstalled Vista, and used the touch pad to order a cordless mouse.
I got the Logitech V220 notebook mouse, in bright red, to match my resurrected laptop. The mouse felt great. It fit my hand better than my old mouse ever had, and it came with a mini receiver that stuck out of the USB about an inch and a half. I loved it. There was no way I would ever trip over that! And I never did. However, over the space of the next five months, I managed to break off the 
receiver three times. Once I put it into the laptop bag without removing the receiver. When I pulled it out, it was at a 45 degree angle, and when I tugged on it, the plastic case case came off in my hand. Another time I was using the laptop in bed, because I had a cold, and the receiver caught in the sheets and bent at a 60 degree angle. That time the case stayed on it for a day or so. The last time, I knocked the receiver against the side of the couch and the plastic case came off completely. Luckily, Logitech will let you order a new receiver for $10. After the third time, I decided that there had to be a better solution.
