The link isn't working for me now, so here's the Google cache:On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface.
Did the PC Jr. have a mouse?
if I remember right, it had an infrared mouse and keyboard that were disasters. for example, they wanted to sell this into PC labs at schools. imaging the typing chaos with random IR running around the room.
usually Steve Jobs is credited with stealing the mouse (along with the concept of a GUI) from Xerox PARC, but it looks like Xerox stole the idea from earlier work.
Although I must have remembered wrong, because at this computer museum, I don't see a mouse with the PC Jr. stuff. The hideous IR keyboard is also known as the "chicklet" keyboard.
Although the PC (and PC XT) and DOS were mouseless, I was using graphical software on a PC XT (for drawing electronic schematics) that used a mouse in the early eighties.
Yeah, I don't remember the PCjr having a mouse. What a funny machine that was. Fairly ill conceived, but I have a sentimental spot for in my heart for it.
franklin ace 1000, representin'.
Have you read "The Bug" by Ellen Ullman? its a novel ( a thriller!) about programmers(yes it is a thriller about programmers and its damn good) in the era of inventing the mouse.
Haven't seen that one. "Soul of a New Machine" and "MicroSerfs" are a couple of interesting books about the world of high tech.
If I remember right, "Soul" is a semi-fictional account of a time-crunched project to build a new mini-computer (that's like so SEVENTIES!). A concept I remember from that book is that cool projects are like playing pinball. Your reward for knocking yourself out for the company is that you get to play again.
"Serfs" is a novel set in the early nineties, in the early part of the bubble. A memorable line from the beginning of that novel goes something like "I'm treating my body like an old stationwagon", which is an apt description for the state one is in while playing the pinball described in "Soul".
I read microserfs. I squirmed a lot, but I loved it. that book cuts close to the bone.
Never read The Bug. Sounds like something I might like, although making it all the way through a book is not something I've been very good at lately.
Wired has a story on this.
Thanks, this is interesting!
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- jim 12-10-2003 12:26 am
Did the PC Jr. have a mouse?
- Elisabeth (guest) 12-10-2003 6:44 pm
if I remember right, it had an infrared mouse and keyboard that were disasters. for example, they wanted to sell this into PC labs at schools. imaging the typing chaos with random IR running around the room.
usually Steve Jobs is credited with stealing the mouse (along with the concept of a GUI) from Xerox PARC, but it looks like Xerox stole the idea from earlier work.
- mark 12-10-2003 9:10 pm
Although I must have remembered wrong, because at this computer museum, I don't see a mouse with the PC Jr. stuff. The hideous IR keyboard is also known as the "chicklet" keyboard.
Although the PC (and PC XT) and DOS were mouseless, I was using graphical software on a PC XT (for drawing electronic schematics) that used a mouse in the early eighties.
- mark 12-10-2003 9:13 pm
Yeah, I don't remember the PCjr having a mouse. What a funny machine that was. Fairly ill conceived, but I have a sentimental spot for in my heart for it.
- jim 12-11-2003 8:03 pm
franklin ace 1000, representin'.
- dave 12-11-2003 8:21 pm
Have you read "The Bug" by Ellen Ullman? its a novel ( a thriller!) about programmers(yes it is a thriller about programmers and its damn good) in the era of inventing the mouse.
- sally mckay 12-12-2003 3:36 am
Haven't seen that one. "Soul of a New Machine" and "MicroSerfs" are a couple of interesting books about the world of high tech.
If I remember right, "Soul" is a semi-fictional account of a time-crunched project to build a new mini-computer (that's like so SEVENTIES!). A concept I remember from that book is that cool projects are like playing pinball. Your reward for knocking yourself out for the company is that you get to play again.
"Serfs" is a novel set in the early nineties, in the early part of the bubble. A memorable line from the beginning of that novel goes something like "I'm treating my body like an old stationwagon", which is an apt description for the state one is in while playing the pinball described in "Soul".
- mark 12-12-2003 7:30 am
I read microserfs. I squirmed a lot, but I loved it. that book cuts close to the bone.
- sally mckay 12-12-2003 8:52 am
Never read The Bug. Sounds like something I might like, although making it all the way through a book is not something I've been very good at lately.
- jim 12-12-2003 4:39 pm
Wired has a story on this.
- jim 1-14-2004 6:39 pm
Thanks, this is interesting!
- tom moody 1-14-2004 6:54 pm