The computer mouse was a pointing device invented in the 1960s by Douglas Engelbart as a means of avoiding the use of the finger to smear dirt and oil on glass particularly at ATMs and PoS stations.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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I remember seeing a device in the cellar at a place I worked in the 90s. It was basically a box with a horizontal slot that had a lever sticking out of it. You could move the lever in and out and to the sides which controlled the pointer. I was told it was a proto-mouse of sorts, but it was just collecting dust so never saw it in operation. Could not have been pleasant to use for any extended period of time. Don't remember if it had buttons to click with. Anyone remember seeing something like that?
No but that sounds hellish. The craziest mouse i ever saw had a coil in it and a huge pad with intersecting lines. Instead of reading the mouse ball or a laser, it apparently always knew where it was on the pad. They used it for drafting.