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Computer Mouse Inventor Dies

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Douglas Engelbart was 88.

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Michael Schmelling/AP

The decorated visionary behind the computer mouse, Douglas C. Engelbart, passed away on Tuesday of kidney failure. The 88-year-old tech whiz began working on the mouse in 1964, and guided a team of researchers to make computers--then massive industrial machines--work on a personal level. The group also developed the concept of windows, hypertext to link digital files, and shared-screen teleconferencing. “With his help, the computer has become a friendly servant rather than a stern taskmaster,” the economist Lester Thurow once said about Engelbart's work. Let's all give three clicks to salute the man whose invention has reached all corners of the Earth.

Read it at The Washington Post