The humble computer mouse that we all take for granted (and have plenty of problems with) has turned 40. It's hard to imagine it's been around that long. The original mouse had two wheels set at right angles to each other and the computer plotted the distance each wheel moved. Then in 1972 Xerox came up with a ball mouse, which remained popular for decades. Logitech sold it's first mouse for $199. In 1984 it designed it's first cordless mouse, but it never took off. For further reading, PCWorld has an extensive timeline with some interesting facts.
I remember back a few years cleaning the ball and the cogs on the old roller-ball mouse and have had fewer problems since the introduction of the optical mouse.
And speaking of the computer mouse, I've spent the last few days being extremely frustrated with mine. When I click on an email it opens rather than just being selected, and when I delete an email, it will delete the next one too. I've tried slowing down the click rate, but that hasn't helped. If I try to minimise a window, the window will open in full screen, if I click again, it will minimise. It's driving me crazy.
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