Here's another easy question:

The Mac Mighty Mouse is great but as everyone knows the scrolling ball gets stuck after a couple of months. Eventually after cleaning it several times it's not worth trying any more.

I can source more Mighty Mice from Amazon, but they're quite pricey.

What's the best alternative?

What I'd like is:

Wired
Scrolling ball (preferably 360 degrees scroll not just up+down)
USB keyboard Plug and play - no software required!
Obviously Mac compatible (Tiger)
Less expensive than Mighty Mice (currently priced ~£25 or so)

I'll buy four if they do all that. Don't care about the colour.

Thanks!

Thanks to Joemikeb, I have learned how to successfully clean the track ball of my Mighty Mouse. It needs cleaning every few weeks (a bit of a PITA but not terrible). I take a lint-free cloth and moisten it with rubbing alcohol. Then, I turn the mouse upside down and turn the scroll wheel with the moistened section of the cloth. I make sure that I turn it in all directions while pushing it in with my fingernail. Then, I wait about an hour or so to let the alcohol fully dissolve any gunk that was inside. JMB had suggested a different solvent but I find that alcohol works fine for me.

Give it a shot. It may solve your problem and then you can keep the mouse.

You might try Apple's new Magic Mouse. It is wireless and touch sensitive instead of using a scroll ball. In addition to vertical and horizontal scrolling, Alessandro Levi Montalcini, the developer of USB Overdrive is working on a driver that will enable some of the same "gestures" on the Magic Mouse that are used on the iPhone.

That one needs OS 10.5.8 or later. No chance with Tiger.

Oops I forgot Bensheim is using Tiger. Thanks for catching my faux pas.

I think apple has the market on horizontal scroll balls. Anyone else seen any alternative?

and I'm STILL looking for a way to disable horizontal scrolling while leaving vertical scrolling enabled, on my mbp. (10.5)

I bought a Logitech laser mouse from the local computer shop, just to get that issue dealt with and out of the way.

I then found out that AppleWorks doesn't support scrolling mice but what the hey, it scrolls in every other app.

<rolls eyes>

Appleworks is an older carbon (procedural) code base and support for such things as scroll wheels/balls has to be specifically written into the code. The Appleworks code preceded those devices and therefore does not support them.

Many, perhaps most, carbon apps on OS X have been modified to provide support at least for vertical scrolling if not vertical and horizontal. Virtually all Apple's OS X apps have been written using the Cocoa (object oriented) programming environment so that when the Cocoa libraries are updated to support new technologies such as horizontal and vertical scrolling, all Cocoa apps automatically inherit the added functionality.

One more reason for you to begin and/or complete the migration from Appleworks to iWork or other Cocoa applications. (FYI NeoOffice is a Java application (another object oriented environment) but it is in a Cocoa wrapper so it too inherits many, if not all, of the features in the cocoa environment.