5 Comments

Screen pen -> joy stick -> track ball -> input tablet -> mouse. It was evolutionarily not a flash of brilliance.

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The mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart, before any of those things existed. He is one of the forgotten geniuses who launched the technological revolution.

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Well the joy stick predates computers, n the trackball was invented in 1948, 20 years before Engelbart demoed the mouse. Back when L&N used to make computer systems they offered mice as an upgrade to their trackball and light pen system but they weren’t popular because they were jerky and unreliable. It is pretty funny that I can remember dispatch operator training when the young lady (they always were nice looking - often doubled as booth bunnies) started training by holding one up and saying this is called a mouse…

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I get what you're saying, but using a mouse with an interface is a vast departure from mechanical joysticks. I was a huge fan of James Burke as a kid, but some leaps are too far.

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"The business of America is business..."; thanks; love the echo of the great President "Silent" Cal Coolidge. From his 1925 address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, "... After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world."

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