The computer mouse must rank among the most useful things ever invented. Like all great inventions, it’s pretty well impossible to even calculate the value that it’s brought to society. But many more ways to point at something on a pixellated screen have been developed since the mouse was born back in the sixties. According to an analyst at Gartner, these new methods of pointing and clicking will make the mouse lose its dominance — perhaps in as few as two to four years. … next-generation operating systems