Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 7, 2011, at 9:46 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote:

> Remember the Lisa! Remember Xerox PARC! ("Founded in 1970 as a
> division of Xerox Corporation, PARC has been responsible for such well
> known and important developments as laser printing, Ethernet, the
> modern personal computer, graphical user interface (GUI),
> object-oriented programming, ubiquitous computing, amorphous silicon
> (a-Si) applications, and advancing very-large-scale-integration (VLSI)
> for semiconductors." -- the Wikipedia. And they invented the computer
> mouse.)

My friend Tony worked on Ethernet at Xerox when PARC was hot. I once commented 
that Xerox didn't know what it had with it's experimental graphic user 
interface (icons) and mouse; that Steves Jobs and Wozniak saw the possibilities 
when they were granted a tour. Tony said "We all knew what we had -- except 
management." the failure to pursue their vision led to Xerox getting out of the 
computer biz. 

Jobs took Xerox's $10,000 behemoth mouse and made it cheap and useable. And 
don't forget cut copy and paste. 

BTW, recognizing and appreciating the
contributions of a particular person to the toys and tools of humanity does not 
necessarily make the acknowledger a cultist! It might just be gratitude. 

Dan


_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l

Reply via email to