Has anyone out there tried “high performance” mouse pads?
What? Are you saying that my car and my mouse pad are both low performance?
My mouse pad is the desk. The wireless mighty mouse seems to have no issues with any surface. Air yes. Doesn’t work well just held in the air. This was evidence of the daughdtitor’s “bolndness”.
m: what are you doing?
d: trying to open your internet. [note I am the technical one, not her]
m: so why are you waiving the mouse in the air?
d: it’s wireless, right?
m: yes.
d: so why wont the pointer move?
m: it is a mouse and they walk on the ground. or at least the wall?
d: Oh. yeah. Did you say wall?
m: dear god no.
d: this is SOOO cool! look! it is moving! will it work on the ceiling? [climbing on desk} WOW! what about …
m: [sounds of file cabinet draw closing on head] why? why? why?
That apple did NOT fall far from the tree.
Funny thing, that’s just what I thought until I began reading gamers - I mean I’m just like you when I write: I type and type and type and type some more, and rarely touch the mouse. But I actually met a screenwriter over the weekend who depends on his mouse. Go figure. (Of course, surfing without a mouse is impossible.)
Not entirely true with Firefox. You can quick search with / and start typing in the name of the link you want, then tap enter to activate it. Cmd-[ and ] for back and forward. This is even more true with Opera, which has extensive keyboard control features, including spatial navigation between headers, links, and home-row accessible browser controls. Back is ‘z’ and Forward is ‘x’, for instance. Where you do get problems are these idiotic “web 2.0” sites which seem to think building their own UI from scratch (over and over and over) is more intelligent than just using forms and operating system widgets. The worst mousepads, I’ve found, are the super cheap (or free give-away) plastic ones with print jobs on the surface. The combination of the shiny plastic and bad dot-pitch printing job are a sure recipe for jumpy pointer woes and “dead spots”.
To the original poster: Unless you are using an old-school mouse, high performance mouse pads are probably just a rip off. Modern laser mice can resolve nearly any surface except polished glass (obviously). That principle holds; the more dull the surface the better it will work. Matte black is probably perfect; a sheet of black construction paper taped to a canary pad would probably be just as good as an expensive mousepad (though not as durable).
With older mice, the best mousepad I ever owned had a very fine, almost suede surface texture made from microweave fibre. It felt ‘stiffer’ than a plastic mouse pad due to increased friction, but the ball never slipped across it and you can make the tiniest movements—so good for graphic design. Probably not so much for gaming, which needs wild, caffeinated gesticulation. This old mousepad is great for laser mice too, because it is not at all reflective and has a good texture to it.
Dear Amber,
You’ve brought up memories of many mice gone by. What a motley crew.
LV
Shiny black, though, sucks. Our “family” iMac sits in an Ikea all-in-one desk, with a black laminate desk surface. Freaks the mighty mouse out – we use a mousepad.
Re High Perfomance Mouse Pads: I’d suggest a mousepad notepad – something like this. Not high performance in the sense you mean, but I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a handy place to take notes that doesn’t take up more space than you’d use anyway.
Mighty mouse easter egg: Hold your Mighty Mouse so it shines on a wall or something in a dark room. Shows you (literally) a laser mouse.
No idea how much they would cost to produce - possibly out of all proportion to their worth - but how about a Scriv mousepad? ‘High performance’ of course and, complete with Scrivener or Lit/Latte logo.
It would sit very nicely with a Scrivener coffee mug 
I use a small wooden cutting board. Works wonders and it has a dual use.
Funniest Mouse story I ever heard was the tech call where a woman called support for the first computer she got. Long story short. She played the organ in her church. She put the mouse on the floor and thought it was a foot pedal. The tech support call transcription was the funniest thing I ever read.
I find the back of a notepad works nicely. For the floor, a large notebook with a thick cardboard cover works well. 
When I’m using my MBA in the sitting room, I use a large wooden cutting board on my knees as a kind of desktop and to prevent my thighs getting roasted. Just room for mousing too and it works well.
The coffee table would actually be fine except it’s made of transparent glass – landlord’s choice, not mine! – and laser mice and transparent glass just don’t go together.
Mark
I use a wacom mouse and pen, so my mouse pad is the wacom pad. However I also have an ergonomic mouse pad which I use in addition to that. It has a squishy bit for the wrist. I have it turned around so that my wrist is on the squishy bit, and my elbow is in the middle of the flat part. So in my case, It’s more an elbow pad than a mouse pad.