Logitech’s Mouse Software Now Includes ChatGPT Support, Adds Janky ‘ai_overlay_tmp’ Directory to Users’ Home Folders
Stephen Hackett, writing at 512 Pixels:
I know AI is all the rage right now and having a deal to bring
ChatGPT into your software is trendy, but including a tool like
this in what is basically a mouse driver is ridiculous. I’m not
opposed to using AI in software. I’m just opposed to when it shows
up as an unexpected, poorly-implemented feature in software that
doesn’t need it.
At least Logitech’s Mac developers did such a bad job with it,
that it was easy to spot.
Logitech committed a bunch of sins with this mouse driver. First, it just seems ridiculous to add an AI prompt feature to a mouse driver. Second, no matter what the feature, it’s wrong to add a top-level folder to a user’s home directory — and it’s especially wrong to give such a folder a dumb name like “aioverlaytmp”.
It’s more common for poorly-programmed Mac software to create such folders with a leading dot in their name, a convention that tells the Finder to treat them as “invisible”. But that’s poor form on MacOS too. Support folders should be organized in standard sub-folders inside the user’s Library folder. Open Terminal and type ls -a at the root of your home folder and you’ll probably see a lot of detritus that ought to be inside your Library folder.
Hackett has switched from Logitech’s mouse software to the excellent SteerMouse, an excellent $20 mouse driver that supports just about every mouse in the world. I’ve been using and wholeheartedly recommending SteerMouse for nearly 20 years.
★
Stephen Hackett, writing at 512 Pixels:
I know AI is all the rage right now and having a deal to bring
ChatGPT into your software is trendy, but including a tool like
this in what is basically a mouse driver is ridiculous. I’m not
opposed to using AI in software. I’m just opposed to when it shows
up as an unexpected, poorly-implemented feature in software that
doesn’t need it.
At least Logitech’s Mac developers did such a bad job with it,
that it was easy to spot.
Logitech committed a bunch of sins with this mouse driver. First, it just seems ridiculous to add an AI prompt feature to a mouse driver. Second, no matter what the feature, it’s wrong to add a top-level folder to a user’s home directory — and it’s especially wrong to give such a folder a dumb name like “aioverlaytmp”.
It’s more common for poorly-programmed Mac software to create such folders with a leading dot in their name, a convention that tells the Finder to treat them as “invisible”. But that’s poor form on MacOS too. Support folders should be organized in standard sub-folders inside the user’s Library folder. Open Terminal and type ls -a at the root of your home folder and you’ll probably see a lot of detritus that ought to be inside your Library folder.
Hackett has switched from Logitech’s mouse software to the excellent SteerMouse, an excellent $20 mouse driver that supports just about every mouse in the world. I’ve been using and wholeheartedly recommending SteerMouse for nearly 20 years.