marklabedz

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

Which is why my first response to almost any medical invoice, is "Would you take ["total"]*0.5 to settle the bill?"

You can also get a 1x6 piece of oak (or other hardwood) from your favorite lumber yard or home improvement center. I grabbed an offcut of red oak for about $2 a year ago. Thirty seconds with a jigsaw to form a handle.

I have a Matias Tactile Pro that I'm quite fond of, but its loud. A quick glance at their website and it looks like they now have a "quiet" version. I might have to give that a try...

There's a pretty good one in the New Yorker (paywall, though I've seen scans of the article floating around): http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/05/29/1995_05_29_045_T...