-Caveat Lector-
from:
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/special/engelbart/part2.htm
<A HREF="http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/special/engelbart/part2.htm"
>SiliconValley.com: News </A>
-----
Just two parts of an infromative series.
Om
K
-----
OUR COVERAGE:
Part 1: A virtual unknown
Part 2: Against all odds
Part 3: Debunking the legend of the mouse
Part 4: The crusade
Part 5: It's networking
Part 6: A pioneers' reunion
Tech pioneers
Against all odds
Why was such a brilliant visionary exiled? The answer is clear after
talking with friends, family and colleagues. While they universally
agree that Engelbart is extremely gentle and kind, they also describe
him as "single-minded," "bullheaded," and, at times, a "control freak."
Explains Andy van Dam, who credits Engelbart with inspiring his
pioneering work in hypermedia, the use of graphics and text on
computers, "He's not hostile, but he's going to do it his way. This is
the hallmark of a visionary - they have this huge internal compass and
they're going to sail in that direction, the weather be damned."
Futurist Saffo adds: "It's not so much that people overlooked Doug but
that they studiously tried to ignore him because his ideas made them
uncomfortable."
"It's not so much that people overlooked Doug but that they studiously
tried to ignore him because his ideas made them uncomfortable."
Paul Saffo
Institute for the Future
Engelbart's unwillingness to bend was in evidence when he met Steve Jobs
for the first time in the early 1980s. It was 15 years since Engelbart
had invented the computer mouse and other critical components for the
personal computer, and Jobs was busy integrating them into his
Macintosh.
Apple Computer Inc.'s hot-shot founder touted the Macintosh's
capabilities to Engelbart. But instead of applauding Jobs, who was
delivering to the masses Engelbart's new way to work, the father of
personal computing was annoyed. In his opinion, Jobs had missed the most
important piece of his vision: networking. Engelbart's 1968 system
introduced the idea of networking personal computer workstations so
people could solve problems collaboratively. This was the whole point of
the revolution.
"I said, 'It [the Macintosh] is terribly limited. It has no access to
anyone else's documents, to e-mail, to common repositories of
information,' " recalls Engelbart. "Steve said, 'All the computing power
you need will be on your desk top.' "
"I told him, 'But that's like having an exotic office without a
telephone or door.' " Jobs ignored Engelbart. And Engelbart was baffled.
"We'd been using electronic mail since 1970 [over the government-backed
ARPA network, predecessor to the Internet]. But both Apple and Microsoft
Corp. ignored the network. You have to ask 'Why?' " He shrugs his
shoulders, a practiced gesture after 30 frustrating years, then recounts
the story of Galileo, who dared to theorize that the Earth circles the
sun, not vice versa. "Galileo was excommunicated," notes Engelbart.
"Later, people said Galileo was right." He barely pauses before adding,
"I know I am right."
=====
from:
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/special/engelbart/part3.htm
Debunking the legend of the mouse
The first time I heard about Doug Engelbart I was confused. The
invitation for "Engelbart's Unfinished Revolution," a daylong symposium
in December at Stanford University, promoted the computer scientist as
the inventor of the computer mouse.
"That can't be right," I told my husband. "The mouse was invented at
Xerox PARC."
That's the story I'd been told since arriving in Silicon Valley. The
legend goes like this: In 1979, Steve Jobs was touring Xerox Corp.'s
cutting-edge Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) when he spotted a version
of the mouse. He refined the idea and used it in Lisa, forerunner of the
Macintosh.
What's left out of the story is that the mouse and a multitude of other
personal computing firsts spotted by Jobs on that Xerox PARC tour
actually came from Engelbart's lab at the Stanford Research Institute
(SRI). The ideas were brought to PARC by Engelbart researchers who
started migrating over in the early '70s.
"People say, 'Oh, you invented the mouse? You were at Xerox PARC.' And I
tell them, 'No, I was at SRI.' "
Douglas Engelbart
The symposium, organized by Saffo and co-hosted by the Institute for the
Future and Stanford University Libraries, whetted my interest in
Engelbart's work. I called him and asked for an interview.
Hesitantly, he agreed to let me tag along and observe a typical
Engelbart morning. And so, at 7 a.m., post-gym, Engelbart and I are
sitting in his frigid home office. When I point out that a window is
open, Engelbart looks sheepish. "I opened it last summer and forgot to
shut it."
I bring up the Xerox PARC legend. "Yeah, I bump into that story a lot,"
he confirms matter-of-factly. "People say, 'Oh, you invented the mouse?
ou were at Xerox PARC.' And I tell them, 'No, I was at SRI.' "
Engelbart checks the morning e-mail at home in Atherton. To the left
of the keyboard is a chord keyset, which allows the user to type
commands in a shorthand code.
He is eating granola. Every morning Engelbart breakfasts with his
computer, a ritual he started after Ballard, his wife of 46 years, died
about a year-and-a-half ago.
He still lives in the same Atherton home they purchased for $76,000 in
1968. It is comfortable but lacking the opulence characteristic of
Silicon Valley's trophy houses.
"Doesn't it bother you that Steve Jobs and others got fabulously wealthy
off your work and they get the credit?" I ask.
"I didn't do this to be famous," Engelbart says in his soft-spoken,
understated manner. "And how much money can you give to a guy who's just
doing his job?"
If Engelbart was bitter about his life, he hid it from his three
daughters and son. They never realized until they were adults that their
father was responsible for revolutionizing technology. The only clue in
their home was the teletype Engelbart installed in the '60s.
"He was telecommuting as early as possible," says Christina Engelbart,
associate director of the Bootstrap Institute, her father's
Fremont-based think tank. She describes a warm, fun-loving family man,
who enjoyed organizing neighborhood games. "All the kids loved him. He'd
take us hiking and canoeing," she recalls.
Engelbart's official biography, written by Christina, notes that
Engelbart would help his wife fall asleep by delivering science
lectures, and he'd make up science-fiction tales to entertain his
children, and now for his nine grandchildren.
Engelbart is the first to admit he's a lousy salesman of his own ideas,
a serious handicap for a revolutionary.
Engelbart boots up his computer. The modest-looking PC is networked to
an extremely sophisticated computing system that you can't buy in the
stores - a much-refined and advanced version of Augment, the system he
debuted in 1968 and initially named NLS, for oNLine Systems.
(Engelbart's mission is to augment human intelligence, hence the name.)
He manipulates the screen with a mouse in his right hand, while typing
commands with his left hand on something that looks like five piano
keys, called a chord keyset.
"I can 'talk' to the computer at the same time that I'm 'pointing,' " he
explains. Although Engelbart spent the next 10 minutes describing how
this device works, I never did understand him. He's the first to admit
he's a lousy salesman of his own ideas, a serious handicap for a
revolutionary.
The chord keyset, I subsequently learned, is ingenious. It's an
auxiliary to a standard keyboard, allowing you to deliver commands in a
shorthand code. If your right hand is busy using the mouse, your left
hand can keep working.
"It needs to be much easier to use before I'd buy it," I tell him.
Engelbart's easygoing manner vanishes. "I hate the term 'user-friendly,'
" says the guy credited with virtually inventing the concept. "People
balk if they have to learn a different way of doing something."
The keyset has never been turned into a viable commercial product -
which drives Engelbart nuts. To Engelbart, the fact that many of his
innovations are user-friendly is incidental. He believes the commercial
world's fixation on user-friendliness has seriously slowed down the
computer revolution. Instead of developing the best tools, marketers
want products that are easy to use, even if they aren't the most
productive. So consumers are sold inferior products. He sighs, "This is
what I came up against in the '70s."
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kriss
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