Entry #18 The Mouse Went Over The Hill

Tech News

All though it is a little belated but on December 9, 2008 the computer mouse turned 40 years old. The mouse was first used by Douglas Engelbart in 1968 to demonstrated an new way of interacting with computers. In this demo Douglas used a one button wooden mouse made by Bill English and was used to show how a user could cut and paste text in a text file.
Since 1968 the mouse has become the critical interface device next to the keyboard and even possible more used then the keyboard. the Mouse has taken on many different shapes from multi tracking, ergonomic , multi button and even laser sensing, a far cry from the wooden one first used.
But what really makes the mouse important is it became the first human interface device to a computer that was not the keyboard. It also lead to greater use of graphical user interfaces on computers. Before the mouse computers were text bases terminals that used command line prompts from the keyboard forcing users to memories several text commands and the order at which to use them. With the invention of the mouse people were able to "point and click" their way through a computer using their eye for visual queues as to what to do.
The advancement of the mouse has also lead to new interface models such as touch pads that you find in almost all laptops today and even new multi touch tables built by Microsoft that allow users to interact with a computer like they would a pile of papers on their desk.