Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/09/xeroxs-1979-vision-for-the-o.html
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Ah but could it play Minecraft?
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Why is it that people who are uncomfortable with computers, or ads aimed at such people, always say, “Push a button,” when what they really mean is “Hit Ctrl-Alt-F7…”?
In 1987 I went to work at a company that still had three Xerox 850 and or 860 workstations, as the commercial version was called, and even though PCs were starting to make inroads, those big boxes still were way cooler than anything our cheapskate overlords were going to buy any time soon. They had touchpads, a graphic display, and printers that did proportional spacing.
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It’s a Xerox, of course he prints his emails!
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I’ve seen the office of the future: It’s a “virtual workspace.” It has beige walls and a maroon carpet.
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Mmrrhmm… listen to the clack on that keyboard.
thigh rubbing commences
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I think the reason the ad keeps saying ‘push a button’ is because the public, or most people for that matter, didn’t have any concept of a ‘mouse’ or a ‘pointer’.
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Xerox was way ahead of the curve with their technology, but they fought attempts to market it tooth and nail. It was weird. You’d visit PARC in the 1970s, and there would be all sorts of amazing stuff, but Xerox was dead set against marketing it. I assume this was because they had a great income stream based on their copier leasing and sales, so this kind of stuff was seen as a side show and disruptive.
P.S. It’s when Apple stops pushing out products people aren’t sure about, like the Apple Watch, that we should start worrying.
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A great income stream and a sales force that only knew printers and “clicks” (the revenue from each printed page).
The one invention that Xerox embraced was the laser print engine. It paid for the entire PARC investment many times over.
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It wouldn’t surprise me if someone has built a working model in minecraft.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=minecraft+cpu&search=Search
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That Shiva Ayyadurai sure did get around! Somehow he had time to invent email for his dental school in Jersey and get over to Xerox and do the same thing for them.
And now…I barely have time to read them all in a day.
If only I knew who to punch in gratitude
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