Stop people stealing mice

I'm a technician, in a school, and we have a major problem with students stealing mouse balls (grrrrrrr). I would like a piece of software that beeps continually and sends a message to the administrator when the mouse is removed (winXP/netware environment). I have been looking around I can't find anything out there. My programming isn't up to the task (PHPer not VB or C#!!!), I was hoping that some luverly person out there with some spare time and desire to solve the problem could perhaps help??? or maybe point to me to someone who would (for free lol)

Thanks.

to me it looks like you have many options at your disposal.

1) use optical mice.
2) use super glue to stop anyone from opening the little door that keeps the ball in place
3) make students sign out a mouse for use, then they become personally responsible for it.
4) teach windows keyboard shortcuts, and don't have mice in the school.
4) b) students are free to bring and use their own.
5) prosecute/expel the first student you catch with a mouse ball belonging to the school, repeat until the problem stops.
6) issue each student with a mouse ball.

can't think of any others off the top of my head, but i'll post them if i do.

cheers,
conejito

Assuming usb mice and win xp, you could change the sound setting for device removal to a siren and crank up the speakers.

if only life was that simple (sighs)

1) use optical mice.

the problem is only partly the balls, for example yesterday I found a suite of 12 machines with 5 mice missing, the entire mouse! not just the ball - little *'s. Optical mice are an option to prevent stealing mice balls, but they are more expensive and the entire mouse more likely to be stolen.

2) use super glue to stop anyone from opening the little door that keeps the ball in place

Yup, we use this great stuff that we inject with a syrinj (that's definitely not how u spell it lol) and melt that plastic

3) make students sign out a mouse for use, then they become personally responsible for it.

Considered, but we don't have the time to sign out mice, and we don't want them near the back of the PCs

4) teach windows keyboard shortcuts, and don't have mice in the school.

we run a very locked down network and have disabled many of the windows shortcuts, and it'd be a nightmare for any 'arty' bits in a course.

4) b) students are free to bring and use their own.

again we don't want them round the backs of the machines

5) prosecute/expel the first student you catch with a mouse ball belonging to the school, repeat until the problem stops.

prosecute? expel? hmmmm are you american? this is a UK school, and as much asI'd like to do that, it'd be imposible, to expel a student it has to go through county! prosectuing certainly ain't gonna happen. detentions the best we can do - if i had my way i'd shoot the buggers, lol.

6) issue each student with a mouse ball.

Also considered, but we suffer from malicous damage, so the little doors on the bottom would be stolen/broken, and if a student loses their ball, then it could stop them from being able to use a computer in the school (and they wouldn't learn the short-cuts) which would make the school liable for not prviding suitable 'support' for tyhe student, it's not their fault they lost the ball - human rights can be a pain in the arse at times, no I suppose thats just some ppl interpretation, and sadly often the courts as well.

So i'm sure you can understand why i'd just like a piece o software that does a bit o friendly beeping, at the least to deter them from nicking the mice. I'm sure it'd be possible, XP obviosly poles the mouse, if you remove the mouse then XP unloads the driver and you have to reboot when adding a new mouse (except on laptops????).

I don't know where to get them, but my local library uses some kind of cheap mouse that has a couple rollers under it instead of a mouse ball. They're cheaper looking/feeling then any normal mouse.

Have you thought of attaching a chain from the mouse to the desk, kind of like banks do with pens? Then glue the door closed.

challahc2's idea sounds more like your original plan. If XP is able to play a sound when a device is removed, create a custom sound that's a beep repeated 5-10 times.

you don't necessarily have to give students access to the back of the computer, you could use an extender cable... however, i see what you mean about the mounting costs.

perhaps chaining the mouse to the table is a good idea. you could glue a metal chain to the mouse, and then screw it to the table. alternatively, use the mouse cable itself...

failing that, invent a mouse mat that emits a shrill sound when the mouse has been removed.

make each student who wants to use the computer room sign a form that allows you to make free and unlimited use of your friend "Mr Baseball Bat" if that student is caught stealing/damaging the equipment...!

do you have CCTV in the room? a couple of real (or perhaps the cheaper fake) cameras installed, along with a couple of signs, and perhaps a login message alerting the students to the neww detection methods could act to deter future damage....

good luck, this sounds like an awkward problem...
conejito

btw. i'm english.

Speakers? lol, presumably could be set to a system speaker will look into that, will have to getsome USB mice to play with.

those sound interesting, will have to see if I can csource them cheaply

have considered chains before, but would have to deface all the tables, and would be a bugger for actually using the mice. As for using the cable itslf, that's possible, but we have had some cases where they even sip the cables and nick the mice.

we are pushing for CCTV to be added to the rooms at the moment, again this a cost issue.

are you in the leagl trade? lol.

Thanks for all the ideas, will go and play with USB mice and see if I can find roller mice

Its beyond me why anyone would steal a mouse ball

very odd.

Sorry, I shouldnot have said anything...
This is a real matrix ! I am in there...

Means using 2d matrix can help you finish your projects...

Fiona

Their not very bright, lol. In most cases they are more into stealing the entire mouse - we did found a number of mice missing balls on the playing fields a couple o' months back.

Have played around with USB mice but can only use speakers, not the PC speaker, so that's no good,

ahh... the local college had this exact same problem... someone knocked up something to run in the system tray that would run a net send command when a PS2 or USB device is removed IIRC.... perhaps you should look into this...

Stop ball removal:
http://www.mouseal.com/

Stop mouse removal:
http://bytebrothers.com/qualtec/qpa....htm#Cable-Trap

The Qualtec device seems rather expensive, google of "mouse keyboard cable lock" for a number of similar less expensive solutions.

Clifford.

anyone come to a solution on this... pretty cool timing - but a local college I do some basic website maintenance for them has approached me with this issue. They buy the really cheap £3 mice of ebuyer, the USB or PS2 ones and have this problem 24/7 ()...

I was thinking, if I can get something for VB that will give me a 'false' value if there is no PS/2 devices connected? I can then use winsock, etc.

PErhpas I should ask in the VB forum?

VB .... EEEWWWW.....

Why not trying writing a small daemon of some sort in C/C++ ?