COMPUTER "MOUSE" INVENTOR DIES-88

 

 

Doug Engelbart Dead: Inventor Of The Computer Mouse Dies At 88

By By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
(HUFFINGTON POST)

"... One of the biggest advances was the mouse, which he developed in the 1960s and patented in 1970. At the time, it was a wooden shell covering two metal wheels: an X-Y position indicator for a display system. (MOUSE)


The notion of operating the inside of a computer with a tool on the outside was way ahead of its time when Engelbart began working on it.

The mouse didn't become commercially available until 1984, with the released of Apple's then-revolutionary Macintosh, a prelude to future breakthroughs such as the iPhone and iPad.

All of those devices were conceived by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011. Although Jobs' contributions to personal technology are far better known, Engelbart left an indelible mark, too..."

( IN 1966 HE CREATED THE "X-Y INDICATOR" OR "MOUSE" BUT MADE VERY LITTLE MONEY ON IT.  WHEN THE MOUSE REALLY TOOK OFF HIS 17 YR OLD PATENT HAD EXPIRED--SAD.
I'M USING ONE NOW & BILLIONS ARE TOO; BTW, HE WASN'T FOND OF APPLYING THE WORD MOUSE TO THIS COMPONENT BUT IT STUCK. HE WAS A VISIONARY WHO SAID WE WERE AT THE BOTTOM OF A TECHNOLOGICAL MOUNTAIN & "LET'S GET ON WITH IT!" HE ROARED)

"Engelbart dazzled the industry at a San Francisco computer conference in 1968.
 Working from his house with a homemade modem, he used his lab's elaborate new online system to illustrate his ideas to the audience, while his staff linked in from the lab. It was the first public demonstration of the mouse and video teleconferencing, and it prompted a standing ovation.

In 1997, Engelbart won a most lucrative award for American inventors, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Three years later, President Bill Clinton bestowed Engelbart with the National Medal of Technology "for creating the foundations of personal computing"