magical moving pointers and other things

> From: A Computer User
> Sent: May 31, 2005
> To: Ask Leo!
> Subject: magical moving pointers and other things
>
> Leo,

> I have a dell laptop and almost all the time when I am typing
> it does crazy things...like the cursor ends up 5 lines up and
> 39 spaces to the left and it picks up typing there OR and
> this one annoys me most...when I am typing emails in Outlook
> Express all of the sudden my email gets sent and i was still
> typing. I have tried to intentionally make these things
> happen by hitting every button within range of my hands and
> it never happens...so I cannot for the life of me figure out
> what I am doing wrong to provoke this computer so...do you
> have ANY ideas???

I'd first check to see if voice recognition happens to be turned
on. It often is by default. This article covers that:
http://ask-leo.com/why_does_my_computer_go_nuts_sometimes.html

If not, 9 times out of 10 this is dirt, static or simply not
realizing that your thumb or other finger has touched the square
"mouse pad" pointing device, or if your laptop has one, bumping
into the little "eraser head" pointing device in between the keys.

Thanks for asking,

Leo