[fidotron]

Amazing lack of proof for the assertion in the title.

That said, dials, and especially jog/shuttle (although this isn't quite one of those), are something that once you've had are annoying to live without. Video editors, music production equipment etc. have them for a reason, and that is you get much more feedback through your fingers making fast but precise changes much more achievable than by other means.

Griffin did this before ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_PowerMate ) and there have even been peripherals for good old UNIX workstations like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial_box .

[mcphage]

I had a PowerMate. I really liked it, too—other than this teensy tiny little bug where if you hit the button while the computer was asleep, it instantly woke up and kernel panicked.

Ugh.