The Mother of All Demos — 150 years ahead of its time

birthed the modern computer mouse ???

First time i used a "pointing device" was in 1966. They were in fairly common use in the mid 60s. At least one British computer manufactrer (making computers not their main business, of course) was using them for CAD in 1967.

So I don't think this demo birthed the mouse at all.

Maybe it was the first time those dumb clucks in West Pondia had seen a mouse?

Some of the other stuff may have been new, but using a mouse most certainly was old hat.

ich verstehe *nix [geddit?!]

isn't it funny [not to say ironic] how we've had a couple of *nix heads sieze on the article and proclaim "aha! -you see how us visionaries are always ridiculed at the time, by the short-sighted establishment"

i think you're missing the point folks - it's you linux folks who're the short-sighted ones, left behind as the world moves on. the rest of us cannae be arsed spending all afternoon up to our elbows in obscure command line spaghetti just trying to get an app installed and running, or a peripheral recognised by the OS. we're too busy being narrow-minded by clicking on our silly icons and getting actual work done, while you 'visionaries' are sitting there tapping strings of goggledygook into a terminal window for hours at a time, just to move a few files and folders around.

BTW - what was the article about? i got bored after the first paragraph and didnae read any more. this is 'el reg' tho' so i still claim my right to hold a strong opinion on... er... whatever we're arguing about.

Good job!

@ jake: then don't, fool. You're still master over and responsible for your own fingers.

@ Cade: very enjoyable article. Perhaps not entirely balanced or whatnot, but hey - I'm reading El Reg.