The Mother of All Demos
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Pathfinder Linden
Administrator
Join date: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 507
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12-08-2005 03:55
Early this morning I was filling out a user profile page on a website. One of the personal info fields was "name your childhood hero." Instinctively I typed in Doug Engelbart. Inventor of the mouse and the GUI, as well as a true pioneer in his day, he has always been a personal hero of mine. I met Doug in person a few times and found him to be an amazingly insightful man. Soft-spoken and funny, he's someone who focuses mostly on listening to people rather than just waiting for his turn to talk. His presentation style is beautiful, and whenever I give talks I always think "how would Doug Engelbart present this?" Anyway, after typing in his name, I started thinking about him and decided to look up his seminal video demo in 1968 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. This demo is often referred to as "The Mother of All Demos," and it featured the public debut of the mouse, hypertext, object addressing, dynamic file linking, and shared-screen collaboration (2 ppl at different sites communication over a network with audio and video). I haven't watched the video in a long time. As I started watching the it, I noticed the date on the opening screen. December 8, 1968. Exactly 37 years ago *today.* The Lattice of Coincidence is truly amazing... Anyway, if you'd like to see this amazing "Mother of All Demos," you can find it here: http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/video-68-large.htmlTake a moment to celebrate the 37th anniversary of this amazing event in computer science and the work of a pioneer who truly changed the world for all of us.  -Pathfinder |
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Nolan Nash
Frischer Frosch
Join date: 15 May 2003
Posts: 7,141
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12-08-2005 04:38
I am currently viewing it and it's fascinating! I knew mice had been around a long time, but had no idea that they were already around in the late '60s. That special 5 key keyboard is wild, I wonder if it was just to complicated for the average user though, and if that is why it went away. What is particularly fascinating to me is some of the terminology they were using. Again, like mice, I had no clue that this terminology had been in use so long. Some of the terms I have noticed so far which are still very much in use, and in fact, quite standard today: Workstation Peripherals User Links Online Meta Amazing! Thanks Pathfinder.
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Pathfinder Linden
Administrator
Join date: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 507
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12-08-2005 05:13
From: Nolan Nash
That special 5 key keyboard is wild, I wonder if it was just to complicated for the average user though, and if that is why it went away.
I think that's what probably happened. Engelbart's vision was for folks to always have both hands working together for maximum efficiency. Either both hands would be on keyboard, or you'd have your left hand on the "chording keyboard" and the right one on the mouse. I remember him at a presentation saying something to the effect "It's very sad how inefficient the computer interface works today. People use the mouse with one hand while the other hand is completely idle!" A true engineer at heart. I love the part of the demo where he says "I don't why we call it it a mouse. Sometimes I apologize. It started that way, and we never did change it." |
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Kris Ritter
paradoxical embolism
Join date: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 6,627
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12-08-2005 05:20
Pathfinder j00 geek!!!!  Most kids would have been like "hero? Cheetara from Thundercats!" or something. And most kids wouldn't even know who Doug Engelbart was. Hell, most don't know who Tim Leary is. They might just about recognise Bill Gates.  j00 geek!!! |
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Eggy Lippmann
Wiktator
Join date: 1 May 2003
Posts: 7,939
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12-08-2005 05:40
My hero is Kris Ritter.
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Kris Ritter
paradoxical embolism
Join date: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 6,627
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12-08-2005 05:44
From: Eggy Lippmann My hero is Kris Ritter. He said hero. Not 'thorn in my side'. |
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Burke Prefect
Cafe Owner, Superhero
Join date: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 2,785
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12-08-2005 05:54
Yet we only noew have some of those things in mainstream use.
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Hiro Pendragon
bye bye f0rums!
Join date: 22 Jan 2004
Posts: 5,905
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12-08-2005 05:57
ASF is SL is working on rescheduling his appearance for a Future Salon after he had to cancel due to illness. I'm sure SNOOPYbrown will be promoting that like crazy once that's settled.
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Hiro Pendragon
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Ghoti Nyak
καλλιστι
Join date: 7 Aug 2004
Posts: 2,078
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12-08-2005 05:58
Moved to off-topic  Seriously though, fascinating stuff! Kinda striking to think that this technology was born to the world in the same year as me. -Ghoti
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"Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon." ~ H.P. Lovecraft
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Selador Cellardoor
Registered User
Join date: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 3,082
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12-08-2005 06:41
At this time I was working with a mainframe computer in London. My company rented time on it, and I used to have to sort out the punched cards, and deliver them and then collect the results. It was about ten years before I was to learn the programming language of the day, COBOL. And it was after this that the first 'micro-computers' began to appear.
My first 'micro' was called an 'intelligent terminal' and was seen as an adjunct of the mainframe. The first separate, autonomous 'micro' I used had spaces for two seven-inch floppies, each of which held a whole megabyte of data. The thing was so large and heavy it took two people to lift it.
I had no idea the mouse had been invented so early. Especially as the only operating system in general use at the time was CP/M, which had virtually no graphics capability at all.
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Kris Ritter
paradoxical embolism
Join date: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 6,627
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12-08-2005 06:46
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