Caffeine

One of the most commonly used computer devices made its debut on this day in 1968, wondering just what that could possibly be?

The humble mouse was first demonstrated December 9th, 1968 in a presentation by Stanford Research Institute engineer Douglas Engelbart. This little presentation of his would go on to be called "the mother of all demos".

Engelbart's mouse pictured to the left was made out of a block of wood, had one button and underneath was two wheels connected to potentiometers. One recorded the mouse's movement along the x axis, the other one tracked the y axis.

The simple mouse has evolved to become for some people an extension of their hand, a piece of art, and most of all an absolutely essential tool. The mouse - as commonplace as the keyboard has let literally millions of people use computers by simply pointing and clicking.

To read more about Engelbert's mouse demonstration on Wired complete with an interesting gallery of mice over the years.

Another thing that always seems to get stuffed into people's Christmas socks are calendars.


A quick look around through google or anywhere else and you'll discover there's a calendar for just about everyone. As these few examples reveal.

From a funeral home in Italy there's the caskets and women calendar. I can't imagine how they came up with this idea or even who buys them but what the heck.


The Lady Farmers Calendar has been printing for a couple of years now in support of British farmers. I think it's just an excuse to get nekid.

Women in Waders? ...whatever floats your boat, who am I to judge?


As you can see online calendars just don't cut it like an old fashioned pin it to the wall calendar does.

For a history of the calendar and man's efforts to organize time check out www.webexhibits.org

Want to make your own calendar then be sure to check out the 10,000 year calendar. They've got a lot of free templates for you to use.

Who can forget the Farmers Almanac, where today I'm being reminded that the word of the day is ..."babbler"

Later folks.