And You Thought Apple was first - Interesting YouTube Vid uploaded by VintageCG

[ComSoft6128]

If you go to YouTube there are two videos, this is part one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn4vC80Pv6Q




And this is the WikipediA page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star
http

[Dagger]

New about this years ago by watching 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' - a great film

[ComSoft6128]

Thanks Dagger,

Missed that film, downloading it now.

Cheers,

Peter

[Bryce]

But I didn't think Apple was first FOR ANYTHING! They have copied their entire life and just marketed them better to the clueless unwashed masses.

UI - No
Mouse - Nope
All-in-one computer - Nope
Smartphone - No

Bryce.

[blackdalek]

Watching this, it got me thinking - computer user interfaces really haven't advanced much in 30 years.

[ComSoft6128]

Bryce,

I agree with you, except for the "unwashed" comment

A triumph of marketing then?

Cheers,

Peter

[Bryce]

"unwashed masses" is just a phrase which means "the common public", although many of those may actually be unwashed

@Blackdalek: There have been attempts with things such as the 3D GUI in Linux. Windows also copied some aspects of this with the Aero 3D UI, but they never really caught on and many users don't even know it's there.

Bryce.

[blackdalek]

Yes, I've tried the 3D interfaces in linux. They are cool to look at for a while.. Maybe an hour if you're bored. But then they just get in the way and are more of a hindrance once you want to get some actual work done.

[ComSoft6128]

Everyone knows that the GUI in Minority Report is the future

[Bryce]

I have a Tom Cruise allergy, so I haven't seen it.

Bryce.

[ComSoft6128]

This is worth reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/18/minority-reports-technology-gestural-control-leap-motion

[GUNHED]

Watching this, it got me thinking - computer user interfaces really haven't advanced much in 30 years.

No, they haven't because humans are scared of new things. So instead of giving new ways a try they usually either ignore it or fight it.

[mr_lou]

The CPC was first.

Any indication of anything else is fake news.

[||C|-|E||]

The Star is a computer that still amazes me. I mean, it was 1982 and the machine had 1024x800 graphics, was expandable to 1.5MB of RAM and even a 40MB hard drive was available. That was completely nuts. It is also true that if you wanted a fully upgraded one it was something like 20000$, enough to buy a flat, but still

[LambdaMikel]

If you go to YouTube there are two videos, this is part one:
And this is the WikipediA page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star

Right, but you have to go back even a little bit further, to the predecessor, the Xerox Alto - watch this one to get a recent live demonstration of the Alto. This was recorded recently in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, to celebrate the Alto - "Yesterday's Computer of Tomorrow - The Xerox Alto" (I attended this event):


https://youtu.be/4m_GhapEBLQ

Even more historical, much of this was already invented for "The Mother of All Demos", including the Mouse, by Douglas Engelbart @ the Stanford Research Institute, nowadays knows as "SRI International":


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIgzSoTMOs

Check it out 

[ComSoft6128]

Thanks,

I will download these and watch them this weekend.

Cheers,

Peter

[LambdaMikel]

... and then this guy, CuriousMarc, who is famous for his Alto Restoration projects:


https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI?list=PL-_93BVApb58I3ZV67LW3S_JEMFnDrQDj

[Arnold]

I did like the little ipod shuffle for a year but other than that nah also not an apple fan . . . after recently watching some "isn't that great" apple stuff and binge watching the computer chronicles I am looking forward to reading the published part of gary kildall's memoirs next seems like a great guy and back then I only had a tape drive so I only vaguely had heard of cp/m

[Arnold]

Yep I think I downloaded that manuscript from that page ... what a small link it shows below but it's there . . .

http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/

[Gryzor]

That Engelbart presentation was just mind blowing. I have watched it a few times over the years (although it's rather long) and... I'm pretty sure that guy was from the future. Though from what I've read he was an ideas guy, not the one to make things happen (equally important, still).


In Dealers of Lightning (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1101290.Dealers_of_Lightning) the story of Jobs at the Palo Alto facility is told in some detail - basically, Jobs was offering Xerox the chance to buy the company (or part of it? I don't remember) so he visited the labs. The developers didn't want to show him the good stuff, but the higher-ups ordered them to show him everything... and then declined to buy Apple