>
> 1. Why has the mouse remained so popular when it's clearly inferior to
> just directly pointing (even with a stylus)?  Surely the technology of
> the digitizer has gotten much cheaper over the years.  It can't be just
> a cost issue anymore.
>

I couldn't agree more! Personally I can't understand why touch screens 
aren't de rigeur. I once developed a touch-screen based system and the 
'paradigm' of interaction is so string that when returning from the 
shopfloor to my development PC I very often found myself touching the 
monitor and then realising it wasn't a touch screen!

Given 'economies of scale' i can't understand why every laptop doesn't 
come with a touch screen as standard. I think that would be an amazing 
way forward for personal computing.

Mind you, most of the time these days I want to touch the PC, with a 
hammer...

Sean Charles.