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ter novatot d
' 's ream
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ß :,_.,,:," ' .. .,.. ...::..'
ß .BY:DAVID PLOTNIKOFF :' .'." v,',':: ' ",' manufacturers of .comisuterj: mice, would' shlte?a ,
.,.. ,Nostwr '.. ' - ' ',: ', .-., 69-year-old researcher ,who's' been all but forgbtten
, - ....... '" '-'-: ............. by industry and acadmiao .Call it a prophet:shaing
"'.':;;,:;:T.,?AIER Drive in Fremont is no place for a guru.: ..... ß ....
"';:!(f,'.,,T. he View is uninspiring. The graceless elec-' plan. They re very good to me here, says theman
who invented the mousse. ' .... .','::::' 'v :J.!,' ..
.:.:::,:,:t0nics.plants that loom like giant white salt ' .. ß ,, '. .-':.. /,, ..,i', ,
-qi'P-,on fertile bottom land'by th Dumbarton Bridge ß , ß , ..... .,. -.-'x, ,,,:. ,, ,,, .'-,.,.',, .:.,
Next weekend, the' pioneers who built the Internet
.d6:i6t"lend.themselves to big-time dreaming.. 25 years ago will gather in Boston for two days. of
ß :'-Dogl as' Engelbart does not complain 'about .the
.. iy!_from.Kaiser Drive. These days, he's grateful for.
ß .thspa.ce/.:From his tiny office right off the main
ß Aobby..'oœ Logitech's headquarters building, he can see
.-----------------------------
still.,ve,. ..... :.muchalive
.rY ,f ...... ..... ....¾.. ..... ..
Contact,.wjth.:him in the glory
it's this: Doug-
of the kind-
they've ever
Bill Gates. He
ß finished last.
on a 'recent
he looks
pilot-
Highway 1
:.'the next cy-
nications. With
his. sensible
elbart; ' who
his wife of
pres-
people
,rn when he ....
about 'how it
r .first stretch
,25. years
off the'
iing..'why .the an-
!,mpor-
vances
that time.
(the pre-
went
15 years on
'augment hu-
?StAnd in 1968,
ntatton at a
,nc in San Fran-
demonstrated
nferencing. So
we
would just
more peo-
gs_we_were_.
:was one of the' first,'
if n0t.[thelfirst,:to think of corn-.
pu .teri' ..,Lqo,.m, picafions devices
r ath,era,i. "juõffiant adding
chine s'earl as 1950 'at a Ume
ther[,..,ereno'.more.than a dozen
electronI. g}:,puters .In the
wriah";:inkin about ma-
nipUiafg, mb%ls 0ncreens. He
recei'.dSate in electri-
cal e''ffffi':iff'1955 from the
ley..'A'.% '. stint an
at Berkeley,
he bved..to.SRI,..which w, at
that :hme';soiad with Stan-
ford UaiYity'jz',?;: ....
ß ,., - .....,. :: ....
He'd Spend the next 2)
SRI, '18 Of them running his:own
lab, with as many as 47 scientists
..work{riff[ihder him:'The sh6iZtl list
of Engelbart, breakthrougl ' in-
cludes,-os-screen windouSe. the.
mou'(d:a fivefinger key 't .
to go?:tE:':it), leconfehg:,::
real-time.collaboration-'and
ext (a non-line way ,:0f or,
gizing t oun' of :mfor-.
mation). :::.' '. :.i ._....,,?. "'L '
- The:technologies were..an
pa :of:::i ' bier..'vision. h'., had,
ß whic':i'{olved gøups .0ffork-'-'
e using the werful
speed up the cycles of
" ' a
-- a concept he cled boor
:ping, Ame say
higN:h" m.:.'a' lfiely. .de'eh'd
visi6n:t'hat...w .. big :..ver'
work,.:- ............ :: ...... ' ..v:- ........
.5; Rheing01d puts it
ß 'Th..ouse, Doug will"continr'-:
ue %ell[you;[ is a'sml p.of a
lar piur,__.iCh - ts.tn: 'turn
pa o:'. 'even larger system,
Pe0i;K". fixated e'elves
.'on pie''e' of hardware 0'[pleces'
of software. From th very begin-
.mng,he:? symg, .Yo'.gotta
. Ioo at%his a.whole. . '-, .:
, , .'.:-: ...' ."- '. t];
"By 1974, Engelba had gone'
.far '' h could' to get thetother
:researchers in the, lab, behind
."auntf0n,'j.hi..to[tsystem
"fof.c611%orative poblem-'01ving.
.."It: ' the .wa:, we. livd'? back
thaV the day-to-day work setup at
SRI-h ls ?such' his hy-
e system --.that were more
th 20 yea ahead of the cue,
Then;;he sted .to encounter.re-
Sise'..ong' his sta," Four-
,teen['0f;:is researchers would
.,evenfully migrate to t''Xeox
?s legenda
sech-'nr (PARC.., inter-
. estqn, his':[ work. lagged. SRI,
EngMb' hi,elf moved -
sh,.'.'.'cbmpy that bought
the(Rgh : his "augmention"
chnolog '1977 .... """ '"
San Jose Mercuw News ß .i¾ng ß Sunday, September 4, 1994
... ,. . . ..."' ,.;,,:,
!;'. Jon Postel had been a grad tu-
dent working at UCLA a thq...{jcme
of the:first network transmission,
.He later went to work fO..Er{gel-
barc,'just the exod,,'
w under .way, oda:.h.i'.'
Engelbart's. estrangement,t:l[om
the. industry he pioneerda
agic .tow." Postel
gelb s doed dete
stick wih his big
in the. long n.
for him::I would go
Work 'with things on
.'d tk. It 1
ee me while
:.,g, d then I'd leave:.h/6f.
:d say.to mylf, Nw
/??. Although some of:his.
.forwd-lookm des..(su
hext) were simply.;shel,
the diiples at PARC
'other pa into their new-wSkk:
The evolutionaw link fro m Eel-
b's lab to PARC's Aim n-
al computer m the Apple MaCin-
tSh is'a direct one right dbn
to the mouse, a device: Engel'
had Pgtened "he X-Y
.indicd'to for displa.,yste'"
ay ack in 1963. :
', ' , . .-:. ' .
". EngelSart laughs' ana",1oos
_'Way when it's pointed o..ha.if
he had a nickel for eve mouse
"ever sold, he could fund .his own
.research.."After I'd bn gon.:a
.>:3ong time, they (Ski) had'me OVer:
.. to dinner,' d the m".who'
"resident then gave me a.'hek/'
he says. That's standard practice
fsr think-tank habitust::When
'you me your living' {nnting
things, ou're expected.to Sign
ß /over the: paten to the fol ho
:e p:cking up t ab....,.,, :...,.: ::.q!:.
':::: Engelb says that in th ely'
.'80s, he,ted to sell the,deve10
'"e of onal compute
'alue of' networking, but they
' wanted :'nothing to do:.wih'i.
.-----------------------------
SEPTEMBER 4, 1994
.... . ....................... '.. ........................................ . .................................... , .........................
':< .... ' ' urlti'e 'i. ," :iFEATURES ß ADVICE ß FAMYf ß
in 19}]_jhen!iie'(:.'t - up
nter8 ' ide-'
ple mpute, SUn Micro-
m. , aP0L the
r of . me
the.
he
sole
says
in
He
'h'6 ,sala-
there is
Engel-
plus
eminar
i'
i/ion".
3
"irned
.and ß
:'inierest
hand out
,)enture
;. of
com-
ß great
no-
/
r chmsin
will
;o to
soon that
he, says.
are
the
'that
soon people avoid talking
It's hard enough to invest in a
vision that's somewhat esoteric.
It's doubly hard when the main
proponent of that vision is a soft-
spoken man with no feel at all for
the swashbuckling, self-promot-
ing ways of entrepreneurship.
"Doug,..was a_
early on, and I don't think he's
really gotten his due,'.'. says UCLA
computer-science chairman Leon-
ard Kleinrock/thi .man on the
other end of that 'first .Internet
packet. "He was-.arely modest
guy. I don't think the world will
remember him aSmore' than the
!nventor. of the: moUSe.: Doug was
never a .very good ipromoter. He
had the vision,ß but he couldn't
articulate .it very well. That was
the case early on --:.his stuff was
hard to understand.]... . . .
"When you.:listen to it, it
sounds great, but-----------------------------
