According to this The New York Times article, Douglas C. Engelbart died this past Tuesday due to kidney failures at the age of 88. He is survived by four children and nine grandchildren. But even moreso, what lives on after Engelbart's death is a techological contribution that most people know simply as, the mouse.
In 1964, Engelbart attended a computer graphic conference during which he first thought of the idea of the mouse. His vision was to design a way to move a cursor across a computer display, and thus designed a small case carrier that could hold the mechanical contents to do so. His early mouse had three buttons; however, he wished for there to be more. Today most people use a more simplistic version of the mouse to navigate their computers.
I find the fact that Engelbart was a part of the first wave of inventors and scientists that dealt with the evolution of computers to be fascinating. For him to see a vision back then in the 60's and for it to be widely implemented by the 80's is inspiring. The mouse is something I have always used, but never stopped to think about who invented it.
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