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The Mouse Turns 40
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:22 PM
from the well-it-wasn't-born-that-day dept.
from the well-it-wasn't-born-that-day dept.
Smivs writes with an excerpt from the BBC marking the anniversary of what may be the most famous tech demo outside Trinity site: "The humble computer mouse celebrates its 40th anniversary today. On 9 December 1968 hi-tech visionary Douglas Engelbart first used one to demonstrate novel ways of working with computers.
The first mouse that Dr Engelbart used in the demo at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC) was made of wood and had one button.
Much of the technology shown off in the demo inspired the creation of the hardware and software now widely used. ...
The mouse, which was built by Bill English, helped Dr Engelbart demonstrate how text files could be clipped, copied and pasted as well as showing ways of using computer networks to collaborate on projects or co-edit documents." According to the article, "A day of celebration is planned in California to mark the 40th anniversary; with many of the researchers behind the original demo reunited to mark the event."
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Logitech Makes 1 Billionth Mouse 456 comments
Smivs writes "Logitech has hailed as a major landmark the production of their one billionth computer mouse.
The news comes at a time when analysts claim the days of the mouse are numbered.
'It's rare in human history that a billionth of anything has been shipped by one company,' said Logitech's general manager Rory Dooley.
'Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone.'
The computer mouse will achieve a milestone of its own next week when it turns 40.
It was 9 December 1968 when Douglas C. Engelbart and his group of researchers at Stanford University put the first mouse through its paces."
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Celebration? (Score:4, Funny)
We're rejoicing over an input device?
No keyboard monument? Or was it overshadowed by the typewriter?
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
The mouse was seen at the local Maserati dealership evaluating cars with his 20-something year old girlfriend.
Re:In other news (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, USB has been around 20 years? I didn't know they were even an item, I just thought they were fooling around.
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Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
If I were that mouse, I would steer clear of USB...I hear she'll let just about anyone in to her "ports".
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Obligatory review comment (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory review comment (Score:4, Informative)
P.S. I remember when I first used a PC, I kept wondering why I needed a second button. Back then (Win 3.1) the right mouse button was rarely used. The left button would be well-worn while the right button still looked new. It took a couple years for Microsoft to invent the idea of right-button context menus. (Or maybe that should be stole? The Commodore Amiga had been using right button menus since 1986.)
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Re:Obligatory review comment (Score:5, Funny)
jesus christ. it's been 40 years and the mouse still ONLY has 2 buttons? wtf?
It's been 7000 years and the WHEEL still comes in just ONE SHAPE? WTF?
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Not just mouse: the mother of all demos (Score:5, Insightful)
Congrats (Score:5, Funny)
Aw, and it doesn't look a day over 30.
Except it lost its ball. Pretty sad to lose a ball while you're in your prime.
Re:Congrats (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Congrats (Score:5, Funny)
It may have lost its ball, but look at what it gained...a frickin LASER!
Parent
Re:Congrats (Score:5, Funny)
Except it lost its ball. Pretty sad to lose a ball while you're in your prime.
Oh, I don't know...I hear losing a ball makes it easier to win the Tour de France, so it might not be all bad.
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Mouses (Score:5, Funny)
And lets be clear. The plural of computer mouse is most definitely not 'computer mouses'.
Re:Mouses (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Mouses (Score:5, Interesting)
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese.
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
When couldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give a boot - would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and plural is these,
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!
So our English, I think you will all agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see. I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there.
And dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I'd learned to talk it when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five!
Original Source Unknown..
Parent
Re:Mouses (Score:4, Interesting)
The poem (and one line in particular) reminds me of a book of essays by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) called "The Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough."
It's been a long time since I read the book, but the style of your poem could easily pass for a Seuss work (though there are uncharacteristic awkward parts in the above example, for example the kiss line).
I'm not saying it is from that book, nor that Geisel wrote it. I believe the book contained his work from his twenties and early thirties. But it might be fun to read that book if you haven't done so.
Parent
Re:Mouses (Score:5, Insightful)
"You'd think someone would come along and say, "Enough is enough" and start spelling English the way it sounds: "Enuf is Enuf"."
Already happening! The generation of SMS messengers and facebook status updaters are already setting off down this path.
Parent
I can't do with these new fangled inventions (Score:5, Funny)
(what's happening. How do I get out of this)
Re:I can't do with these new fangled inventions (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Guess what else is 40 years old? (Score:5, Funny)
used oscilloscopes years before memory chip (Score:5, Interesting)
These were character screens however. Graphics screens took another 10-15 to become personal. The first generation were programmable oscilloscopes, i.e. vector drawing machines. They had their special graphics languages, e.g. GKS, that emulated pen plotters. Limited bit map grapics came in the meantime. Steve Wozniak is famous for one baroque scheme of graphics in the Apple II. It wasnt pure bitmap as we know today. Xerox PARC sold the first B&W bitmaps at $30K a pop ($120K in 2008$). Then about 1980s the first general purpose color raster screen computers came out. At $30K a terminal these were shared in a lab. That was because a megabyte still cost $10K. Finally as memory prices dropped "workstation"-class computers came out around 1985 giving each scientist their personal graphics screen. This was SUN Microsystems original product.
In 2008 I bought a $7 cellphone with 64K pixel color graphics screen.
Re:Priorities, people, priorities (Score:5, Funny)
Oh come on, we already have a special event for when an Illinois politician gets busted for corruption...we call it "Tuesday".
Parent
Re:Priorities, people, priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
The Governor of Illinois has been arrested on charges of selling a senatorship to the highest bidder and we're celebrating the birthday of a fucking mouse?
1.) Not everybody is reading this story from Illinois.
2.) The mouse has already survived longer than this scandal has any hopes of being remembered.
3.) What are we supposed to do, collectively worry about what this guy has already done?
We're not Borg and you're not superior for having a spaz attack over it.
Parent
Re:Priorities, people, priorities (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Copycats (Score:4, Funny)
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