Maintenance: soft rubber coating. Tips?

[NFG]

I'm firmly of the opinion that any company coating their products with that soft-touch rubber stuff hates their customers, but they keep doing it.  Recently I bought a laptop coated with the stuff, and I know - like every other product that has it - the rubber will turn to glue in a few years. 

And so this thread: tips and tricks for dealing with soft-touch rubber. 

What I'd love to know is if there's a way to -prevent- it from happening.  The stuff feels great when it's new.  If there was a way to preserve it, like the old Rubber Renu product we used to maintain the rubber drive rollers in printers.

However, for now, I finally worked out a relatively painless way to get rid of the stuff.

Removing soft-touch rubber

First, get a melamine sponge.  These are common in Japan, and available in Daiso shops worldwide, but I'm not sure where else you can get them.  They're a white cleaning sponge product that works magic on all kinds of things.  It'll take boot scuffmarks off a floor, pen off a wall, and most importantly, soft-touch rubber off anything you like.

It's not an immediate fix, it requires a fair amount of scrubbing, and it's a ton easier if the rubber's already turned sticky and is wearing off on its own.  Simply wet the sponge, and keep it wet, while you scrub the item.  The rubber wears down quickly and the original surface beneath remains unharmed, no scratches, no nothing.  I took the rubber coating off a PC mouse in about two minutes.

You may want to remove the thing you're cleaning from the delicate internals before you attack it with a sponge and water though!

Anyone else worked out a solution?

[micro]

Interesting...

I've had a Dual Shock 2 controller once and the rubber on the joystick caps was quite nasty, somehow sticky. But removing the rubber from the joystick caps wouldn't be a good idea I guess... 

[Andy-Antsinpants]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who can't stand it when rubber turns to a gluey something. Thanks for the advice Lawrence.