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Posted

Not many things stand the test of time but the computer mouse still remains a staple today.  :clap:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/computer-mouse-co-creator-bill-english-dies-at-91/

Computer mouse co-creator Bill English dies at 91

Microsoft and Apple can thank Bill English's work on the mouse for computer interfaces they introduced in the 1980s. | WATCH NOW

William English, one of the key engineers who helped create the mouse and a way to move images on a screen, has passed away.

English died from respiratory failure in California on July 26 aged 91, according to the New York Times

 

 

As per the New York Times, English understood concepts behind Engelbart's vision for a future computer that Engelbart struggled to articulate in an era when information was still stored on paper, such as punch cards.     

According to Bill Duvall, a colleague at SRI, English was a problem solver "who made everything happen". 

English played a key role in what became known as the 'The Mother of All Demos', a demonstration in 1968 where Engelbart used a split-screen video to show hand-controlled mouse movements on one side, and a cursor on a screen tracking those movements on the other side. 

"I don't know why we call it a mouse," said Engelbart. "Sometimes I apologize. It started that way and we never did change it."

English was behind the scenes producing the video, apparently using a car-sized projector owned by a NASA lab. The demonstration offered a glimpse of desktop computer interfaces that would arrive in the 1980s from Apple and Microsoft. English also used Engelbart's sketches of a computer mouse to build the device in the mid-1960s. 

One suggestion for the device being called a mouse was because the on-screen cursor, called a CAT, appeared to chase the device's path on a physical surface. 

In the early 1970s, English joined Xerox's famous Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he brought ideas from SRI's oNLine System (NLS) to the Alto machine, which would influence Apple's first Macintosh computers and Microsoft's Windows PCs.

billenglishdougengelbartmousecomputerhistorymuseumyoutube1999.jpg

 

  • Like 4
Posted

Imagine working with punch cards, then seeing that demo.  My head would have exploded!

Posted

Imagine what satisfaction you would get from knowing that billions of people use your invention every day ....for decades :clap:

  • Like 1
Posted
5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Imagine what satisfaction you would get from knowing that billions of people use your invention every day ....for decades :clap:

What about for over a century? Joseph Mortimer Granville would be looking down on Earth and smiling, seeing his invention give great joy to billions of people, more than a century later. :lookaround: :whistle: :sneaky:

Posted
6 hours ago, Fuzz said:

What about for over a century? Joseph Mortimer Granville would be looking down on Earth and smiling, seeing his invention give great joy to billions of people, more than a century later. :lookaround: :whistle: :sneaky:

So true. Both men and women have a lot to be thankful for :cigar:

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