Happy Birthday - the Mouse turns 40

"Jonathan Mars" <JM.TakeThisOut@here.invalid> wrote
> "Jonah Falcon" <jonahnynla.TakeThisOut@mindspring.com> wrote in message

[link to his own blog]

> Didn't know it had been around since 1968. It's almost as old as me.

Yup. It's a member of the "invented by Xerox, stolen by Apple, f***ed up by
Microsoft" club.

CC

"Magnate" <not DeleteThis @receiving.here> wrote in message
news:e8j416-pks.ln1@news.terminalarrogance.com...
> "Jonathan Mars" <JM DeleteThis @here.invalid> wrote
>> "Jonah Falcon" <jonahnynla DeleteThis @mindspring.com> wrote in message
>
> [link to his own blog]
>
>> Didn't know it had been around since 1968. It's almost as old as me.
>
> Yup. It's a member of the "invented by Xerox, stolen by Apple, f***ed up
> by Microsoft" club.

Stupid Microsoft, adding the 2nd button and ruining the skills of all Apple
FPS players everywhere. LOL

On the 10 Dec 2008, "Magnate" <not.RemoveThis@receiving.here> wrote:

> "Jonathan Mars" <JM.RemoveThis@here.invalid> wrote
>> "Jonah Falcon" <jonahnynla.RemoveThis@mindspring.com> wrote in message

> [link to his own blog]

>> Didn't know it had been around since 1968. It's almost as old as me.

> Yup. It's a member of the "invented by Xerox, stolen by Apple, f***ed up by
> Microsoft" club.

Thing I've always wondered is this. Xerox are most famous in the UK as
a photocopier manufacturer. What was it that they intended to use the
mouse for?

Like a lot of people who grew up with computers in the 1980s, the
first time I became aware of a mouse was the adverts for the AMX one
that came with the mighty AMX Pagemaker.

--
Jades' First Encounters Site - http://www.jades.org/ffe.htm
The best Frontier: First Encounters site on the Web.

nospam.RemoveThis@jades.org /is/ a real email address!

On Dec 10, 7:19 pm, "Jonathan Mars" <J... DeleteThis @here.invalid> wrote:

> Apple used to think one button was all we needed.

When you put it this way, it does sound along the lines of the famous
"who could ever need more than 640K?" quote.

As I first heard it, the idea was very different. With a one button
mouse, you could never hit the wrong button. The target market is NOT
the bleeding edge, but people less comfortable with adopting new
technology. It's so easy to add more buttons to a gadget that I think
this story makes a lot more sense.

- Prelgor

Graham Thurlwell wrote:
> On the 10 Dec 2008, "Magnate" <not RemoveThis @receiving.here> wrote:
>
>> "Jonathan Mars" <JM RemoveThis @here.invalid> wrote
>>> "Jonah Falcon" <jonahnynla RemoveThis @mindspring.com> wrote in message
>
>> [link to his own blog]
>
>>> Didn't know it had been around since 1968. It's almost as old as me.
>
>> Yup. It's a member of the "invented by Xerox, stolen by Apple, f***ed up by
>> Microsoft" club.
>
> Thing I've always wondered is this. Xerox are most famous in the UK as
> a photocopier manufacturer. What was it that they intended to use the
> mouse for?

Xerox was pouring money into creating this newfangled wordprocessing
workstation thingee which today would look like a personal computer with
a single application as a turnkey device. At the time it looked like
science fiction.

dfs

Prelgor wrote:

> When you put it this way, it does sound along the lines of the famous
> "who could ever need more than 640K?" quote.
>
> As I first heard it, the idea was very different. With a one button
> mouse, you could never hit the wrong button. The target market is NOT
> the bleeding edge, but people less comfortable with adopting new
> technology. It's so easy to add more buttons to a gadget that I think
> this story makes a lot more sense.
>
> - Prelgor
>

Well, it works both ways. The truth is that Bill Gates never, ever, made
that statement about ram. It's just one of those internet legends that
are not true.

David Short wrote:

>
> Xerox was pouring money into creating this newfangled wordprocessing
> workstation thingee which today would look like a personal computer with
> a single application as a turnkey device. At the time it looked like
> science fiction.
>
> dfs



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star

The Star workstation, officially known as the Xerox 8010 Information
System, was introduced by Xerox Corporation in 1981. It was the first
commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have
become commonplace in personal computers, including a bitmapped display,
a window-based graphical user interface, icons, folders, mouse, Ethernet
networking, file servers, print servers and e-mail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)

The first marketed integrated mouse – shipped as a part of a computer
and intended for personal computer navigation – came with the Xerox 8010
Star Information System in 1981.

"Magnate" <not DeleteThis @receiving.here> wrote in message
news:jbt916-fm3.ln1@news.terminalarrogance.com...
> And you know that how?


Here you go MacLoser. Look it up yourself.


http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.asp

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasi...rticleI


"Jonathan Mars" <JM.TakeThisOut@here.invalid> wrote in message
news:SHO0l.331797$6p1.175794@en-nntp-07.dc1.easynews.com...
> "Magnate" <not.TakeThisOut@receiving.here> wrote in message
> news:jbt916-fm3.ln1@news.terminalarrogance.com...
>> And you know that how?
>
>
> Here you go MacLoser. Look it up yourself.
>
>
> http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.asp
>

"Jonah Falcon" top-posted the following:
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasi...rticleI
>
>
> "Jonathan Mars" <JM.DeleteThis@here.invalid> wrote in message
>> "Magnate" <not.DeleteThis@receiving.here> wrote in message
>>> And you know that how?
>>
>> Here you go MacLoser. Look it up yourself.
>>
>>
>> http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.asp

So, we can conclude that on the web you can find articles alleging that he
said it, and articles alleging that he didn't. Wow. Thanks guys. Absolutely
definitely not conclusive.

If anything, the fact that he "strenuously" denies saying it lends it a
certain credibility. But I guess he's the only one who will ever really know
(along with anyone who heard him, if he actually did say it).

Nice assumption about me being a Mac user btw - way to make yourself look
stupid.

CC

"Magnate" <not.DeleteThis@receiving.here> wrote in message
news:52qh16-ar1.ln1@news.terminalarrogance.com...
> So, we can conclude that on the web you can find articles alleging that he
> said it, and articles alleging that he didn't. Wow. Thanks guys.
> Absolutely definitely not conclusive.
>
> If anything, the fact that he "strenuously" denies saying it lends it a
> certain credibility. But I guess he's the only one who will ever really
> know (along with anyone who heard him, if he actually did say it).
>
> Nice assumption about me being a Mac user btw - way to make yourself look
> stupid.
>
> CC
Dear MacLoser, these are real facts and not alleged facts. The simple truth
is he never said it. If you refuse to believe anything you read on the
internet then you can buy a HC book that will tell you the same fact. But I
have to wonder how is it that you don't believe anything you read on the
internet but you choose to believe this stupid internet "rumor"?

Magnate <not DeleteThis @receiving.here> wrote:
>So, we can conclude that on the web you can find articles alleging that he
>said it, and articles alleging that he didn't. Wow. Thanks guys. Absolutely
>definitely not conclusive.
>
>If anything, the fact that he "strenuously" denies saying it lends it a
>certain credibility. But I guess he's the only one who will ever really know
>(along with anyone who heard him, if he actually did say it).
>
>Nice assumption about me being a Mac user btw - way to make yourself look
>stupid.

It's no assumption, I remember you saying that you used Macs.
Don't bother to deny saying it, it'll only prove that you did.

The fact is that the Bill Gates "640k" quote is false. He never said it,
no one heard him say it, there's no reasonable evidence, no proof that
he did. Malicous rumours don't make it inconclusive, no more than me and
Jonathan saying you love Macs. The burden of proof isn't on Bill Gates,
otherwise you could say anyone said anything.

Ross Ridge

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge DeleteThis @csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/
db //

>Thing I've always wondered is this. Xerox are most famous in the UK as
>a photocopier manufacturer. What was it that they intended to use the
>mouse for?

As I understood it they
a) had lots of money
b) were wondering what to sell after photocopier patents expired

So they started designing an electronic office environment.
Unfortunately, they were not able to sell all those good ideas.

(I wrote some papers on a Xerox Star in 1988, and it was
really impressive. Especially compared to then-standards
WordStar or Word)