August 17, 2006 - Computer Trivia

Lot's of folks checking in tonight and lot's of folks getting the trivia question right! I'm just going to have to make these questions harder!

Trivia Question:

On this date in 1970, an inventor by the name of Douglas Engelbart received a patent for something that millions of people use with their computer. What did Douglas Engelbart invent?

A - The Computer Modem

B - The Computer Hard Disk Drive

C - The Computer Mouse


Trivia Answer:

C - The Computer Mouse

In 1970 Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels (computer mouse U.S. Patent 3,541,541), describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system". Engelbart later revealed that it was nicknamed the "mouse" because a wire tail came out the end.

He never received any royalties for his mouse invention, partly because his patent expired in 1987, before the personal computer revolution made the mouse an indispensable input device, and also because subsequent mice used different mechanisms that did not infringe upon the original patent.

Currently (at age 81 in 2006), he is the director of his own company, the Bootstrap Institute which he founded in 1988 with his daughter, Christina Engelbart. It is located in Fremont, California and is housed rent-free courtesy of the Logitech Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of computer mice.

The following web page has some interesting links for you to check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart


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Until next week, 73!