Computer room 210 has spiralled into chaos in recent weeks with the introduction of seemingly innocent ‘hot air balloon’ design mouse mats. The relaxing nature of the design was originally thought to help students unwind and disconnect with the daily stress of coursework but has instead driven some to the edge of their sanity. When used with an optical mouse the clear blue sky of the design means the laser cannot detect movement and results in the mouse pointer sporadically jumping around the screen.
Recent figures have shown a massive decline in 210 attendance figures with many students flocking to the safe ‘roller ball’ haven of 317. Some have questioned how such a thing could possibly happen in one of the world’s top educational institutions. One student was quoted as saying: “How am I supposed to design a solar panel on SolidWorks when given such a shoddy mouse mat?” Another fumed: “I was forced to use my diary as a replacement mat and then left it in the computer room.” The defective mouse mats have also been blamed for low SOLE completion rates and the additional heat from frustrated students overloading the air conditioning units.
Emergency guidance has been issued advising the use of only the lower parts of the mouse mat where higher balloon density results in improved mouse pointing accuracy. The problem looks set to continue however as students are so busy with coursework and revision that nobody actually gets round to letting IT know that it needs to be fixed.
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