I didn't know they were called pointing sticks. When I worked at a high school I always called them clits. It's a miracle I wasn't fired and/or arrested.

I figured "help me find a laptop" went under "Everything Else" rather than what I perceived to be a tech support section. I *tried* to put it in the right place and was rewarded with my post being gutted and having to resurrect what I wanted to say from browser history. Can the moderators not move posts here?

Wikipedia to the rescue.

Pointing stick is kind of a generic term for it, each manufacturer has its own name (trackpoint, trackstick, etc) - and knowing them makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for.

Under no circumstances should it be referred to as it was in the original thread.

For trackpoints, you've got Lenovo, HP business line, Dell Lattitude, Toshiba Tecra (possibly not all of them) and I think a few Fujitsu's. You can't find a trackpoint on a consumer grade notebook AFAIK, and a smaller laptop is more expensive than an equivalently performing larger one, so meeting your requirement of "cheap" is going to be your biggest challenge. Unless you substitute a different value for "cheap" than I use

Wassuh? Logitech all the way. Microsoft made decent mice before they started using gummi worms for mouse wheels. I use a Bluetooth MX1000 for my laptop mouse, oh yeah.

I'm not looking for a desktop replacement, or a gaming machine. Just something with a decent processor with 802.11b/g & perhaps bluetooth.

If I planned on using a mouse I wouldn't care about the touchpad, I would just ignore it.

I really like the pointing stick for a couple of reasons. It's really efficient to go from typing to moving the cursor. And I'm so used to it I wouldn't need to hook up a mouse or need a good mousing surface. I could actually use the laptop on my lap in a car or whatever. I'd almost rather use it than a regular mouse for development too.

I've used mine for quite some time. Mouse wheel works fine, it's quite solid.

Only problem with these is you can only get the ULV processors with them -- which may or may not be OK depending on what kind of apps you're going to run. The Lenovo X series can be had with a regular mobile Core 2 Duo, so that would be a better choice for more demanding apps (but you'll get less battery life).

OK, which of you is the xkcd comic dude?

It's been called that for as long as they've been around.

Of course you're not going to find that, since the... umm.. track point came first. My grandfolks had a 386 laptop with one quite some time ago.

Overall though, I agree with other folks in the thread; I prefer these to touchpads, but I've got a caveat to that; If I can turn the touchpad on and off, I like those a little better.