The mouse hits 40-year milestone (BBC)

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By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News


(No, not that mouse ...)

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.

"It was a good show, but it was all real," said Dr Jeff Rulifson, now director of Sun's VLSI research group but in 1968 architect and lead programmer for the software shown off at the FJCC.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7768481.stm