No More Bling, Please

mesh gratingI think part of the problem is that many of the companies that makePC components and peripherals don't have proper industrial designdepartments. Either that, or they're told what to make and how tomake it, instead of asking the designers what the design should be.They're told to make hot rods, and I want an exotic car. I want a PC case that's all black matte finish with gunmetalcolored brushed aluminum edging that meets flush with the rest ofthe case—no seams. It needs a couple good intake out exhaustfans—big, slow-moving, 120mm fans (we're talking down to 800RPM) that are virtually silent, hidden behind a mesh that looksmore like the covers for home theater speakers than the industrialgrating that passes for "mesh" on today's PCs. There are no clearwindows or side fans. In fact, all sides are triple-layer, sounddampening panels to make sure whatever components whir and buzzinside my case, and the noise stays in there. Is that so hard? Is it unreasonable to want a mouse that has areally good shape, stable and configurable drivers, and a high-endsensor, but no light-up glowing stuff? There's no technical reasonfor the light on the underside of your mouse to glow. The sensorsare infrared. For some reason, while Apple gains market share selling sleek, want-to-touch-it notebooks andphones, the PC market has decided to slather everything inmismatched colors and stamp half a dozen stickers on the surface ofevery notebook, just so you know exactly who made every littlecomponent inside (if you cared, you'd have paid attention when youbought it, and you don't need a reminder). It's enough to make youwish for a return of the beige box. Okay, not really.