Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart dies

[webfact]

Computer mouse inventor Doug Engelbart dies

SAN FRANCISCO: -- Computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart, who is credited with the invention of the computer mouse and graphical user interface, has died at the age of 88.

Engelbart died at his home in Atherton, California Tuesday night, according to a statement Wednesday by research organisation SRI International, his employer for more than 20 years.

Engelbart received the National Medal of Technology in 2000, the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 1997 and the Turing Award, also in 1997.

Engelbart, who had worked as a radar technician during World War II, was an early computer visionary who dreamed of using technology to improve communications among people.

He unveiled the prototype of the now standard computer mouse in a December 1968 demonstration in San Francisco. Initially called an "X-Y position indicator for a display system" the device was a clunky wooden box with two rolling disks and a tiny red button.

At the same demo Englebart also initiated the first ever video conference with a colleague some 50 kilometres away and also laid the basis for the internet by describing how information could be tied using text-based laws.

SRI licensed Englebart’s mouse design for 40,000 dollars and later released the first commercial mouse with Apple’s Lisa computer in 1983.

-- The Nation 2013-07-04

[Chicog]

Also the man who introduced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome to the masses then....

[khunbillmex]

Sad comment about a great man. What have you contributed [ or I for that matter] ?

[lomatopo]

An interesting New Yorker article from two years ago by Malcom Gladwell:

ANNALS OF BUSINESSCREATION MYTH

Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation.

BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

MAY 16, 2011

The mouse was conceived by the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart, developed by Xerox PARC, and made marketable by Apple.

After Jobs returned from parc, he met with a man named Dean Hovey, who was one of the founders of the industrial-design firm that would become known as ideo. “Jobs went to Xerox parc on a Wednesday or a Thursday, and I saw him on the Friday afternoon,” Hovey recalled. “I had a series of ideas that I wanted to bounce off him, and I barely got two words out of my mouth when he said, ‘No, no, no, you’ve got to do a mouse.’ I was, like, ‘What’s a mouse?’ I didn’t have a clue. So he explains it, and he says, ‘You know, [the Xerox mouse] is a mouse that cost three hundred dollars to build and it breaks within two weeks. Here’s your design spec: Our mouse needs to be manufacturable for less than fifteen bucks. It needs to not fail for a couple of years, and I want to be able to use it on Formica and my bluejeans.’ From that meeting, I went to Walgreens, which is still there, at the corner of Grant and El Camino in Mountain View, and I wandered around and bought all the underarm deodorants that I could find, because they had that ball in them. I bought a butter dish. That was the beginnings of the mouse.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell

Hovey has shared some of his photographs and sketches from the days of development, presented here with excerpts from Gladwell’s piece.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/dean-hovey-ideo-mouse-prototype.html#slide_ss_0=1

[sunshine51]

An interesting New Yorker article from two years ago by Malcom Gladwell:

ANNALS OF BUSINESSCREATION MYTH

Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation.

BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

MAY 16, 2011

The mouse was conceived by the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart, developed by Xerox PARC, and made marketable by Apple.

After Jobs returned from parc, he met with a man named Dean Hovey, who was one of the founders of the industrial-design firm that would become known as ideo. “Jobs went to Xerox parc on a Wednesday or a Thursday, and I saw him on the Friday afternoon,” Hovey recalled. “I had a series of ideas that I wanted to bounce off him, and I barely got two words out of my mouth when he said, ‘No, no, no, you’ve got to do a mouse.’ I was, like, ‘What’s a mouse?’ I didn’t have a clue. So he explains it, and he says, ‘You know, [the Xerox mouse] is a mouse that cost three hundred dollars to build and it breaks within two weeks. Here’s your design spec: Our mouse needs to be manufacturable for less than fifteen bucks. It needs to not fail for a couple of years, and I want to be able to use it on Formica and my bluejeans.’ From that meeting, I went to Walgreens, which is still there, at the corner of Grant and El Camino in Mountain View, and I wandered around and bought all the underarm deodorants that I could find, because they had that ball in them. I bought a butter dish. That was the beginnings of the mouse.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell

Hovey has shared some of his photographs and sketches from the days of development, presented here with excerpts from Gladwell’s piece.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/05/dean-hovey-ideo-mouse-prototype.html#slide_ss_0=1

Both New Yorker articles are a great read...thanks lomatopo...

And to think of it...we all take the humble mouse and the "personal"

computer for granted nowadays.

[Chicog]

Sad comment about a great man. What have you contributed [ or I for that matter] ?

Well I haven't contributed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for a start.

[lee b]

Well the guy has helped me loads over the years with his invention ! RIP mate

[keeniau96]

I had the pleasure of working with Doug Engelbart at SRI in the early 70s. A really good dude, always helpful and just oveflowing with ideas. The New Yorker article makes an error in assigning the mouse to Xerox PARC. Doug was always at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) as head of the Artificial Intelligence group. He worked with PARC in developing Smalltalk, the first real object oriented operating system. PARC was just up the road (Sand Hill Road) from SRI and there was a constant flow of people back and forth. Great days in Silicon Gulch before the multi-billion deals and lawyers.