"Our future is as bright as our faith."
Pres Thomas S Monson
Monday, January 11, 2010
What You Didn't Know About the Mouse
Hey fam. Just thought I would share the next project I have finished. It was fun and it has an unexpected ending. Feel free to visit the site also and join the cause!
I guess your FHE is done, Doug? Believe it or not, Mom has a Deseret Book meeting once a month on Monday nights, so I'm at my laptop (using my mouse!)
Very cool presentation! Nice job of presenting information in a fun way!
This seems to be a growing theme of yours … to replace the mouse. (I checked Twitter earlier today and saw a couple other "anti-mouse" postings of yours.)
Did you mean to say “Royal” instead of “Royak” Canadian Navy? And did they really invent such a thing? For what purpose?
Yes, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has made some very significant contributions over the years. The mouse, Ethernet, the Star computer (including WYSIWYG document creation and many user interface methodologies still in use today), 820-II PC, Artificial Intelligence software, etc. etc. Xerox holds the record for developing the most technology with the least return on their investment. I think the problem was they only knew how to sell copiers.
On the other hand, Apple is the best at leveraging an investment into big bucks. After Steve Jobs saw a demo of Star at PARC, he hired away some of the talent and soon after delivered “Lisa” to the marketplace. It was VERY much like Star. A lack of readiness within the marketplace, and high cost, prevented Lisa from enjoying great success. But Jobs was already working on the follow-up despite strong resistance from within Apple management. He envisioned a smaller, cheaper version called “Macintosh”. There are many visionaries over the years, but he must be the greatest at being able to convert visions into very successful products. And to think that I bought Apple shares the day they first went public … and sold them a few months later due to a lack of vision.
Were you able to use some model of a hand created elsewhere, or did you create it yourself? Seems like that would take a while to create.
I guess you’re predicting that Apple will leverage their “touch” success with the iPhone into their next big product, a touch tablet PC, and then everyone will only buy computers with touch screens? I wonder how much longer before we can finally eliminate keyboards too?
Thanks, Dad. I knew I would have a typo in there somewhere. Since starting grad school I have started to wonder if there is a much better way than the mouse.
The Royal Canadian Navy invented a DATAR system. They used a Canadian bowling ball with is about half the size and they rotated it around in that machine, similar to the way a mouse ball works.
It is pretty amazing how much influence Xerox has had and how Apple gets all the benefit.
The hand I had already modeled in another class last quarter so I thought I could just use that again. Everything else I modeled for this animation.
The Apple "iSlate," as rumor calls it, does seem like it is going to be popular. But that might just be because it will be shiny and has the Apple logo on it. I think it will start the end of the mouse as we know it though. In one of my classes they showed a TED talk that introduced form changing material when charged. There are possibilities for screens that are usually flat and then can be charged to be a keyboard on the same screen. Pretty cool!
Hey fam. Just thought I would share the next project I have finished. It was fun and it has an unexpected ending. Feel free to visit the site also and join the cause!
2 comments:
I guess your FHE is done, Doug? Believe it or not, Mom has a Deseret Book meeting once a month on Monday nights, so I'm at my laptop (using my mouse!)
Very cool presentation! Nice job of presenting information in a fun way!
This seems to be a growing theme of yours … to replace the mouse. (I checked Twitter earlier today and saw a couple other "anti-mouse" postings of yours.)
Did you mean to say “Royal” instead of “Royak” Canadian Navy? And did they really invent such a thing? For what purpose?
Yes, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has made some very significant contributions over the years. The mouse, Ethernet, the Star computer (including WYSIWYG document creation and many user interface methodologies still in use today), 820-II PC, Artificial Intelligence software, etc. etc. Xerox holds the record for developing the most technology with the least return on their investment. I think the problem was they only knew how to sell copiers.
On the other hand, Apple is the best at leveraging an investment into big bucks. After Steve Jobs saw a demo of Star at PARC, he hired away some of the talent and soon after delivered “Lisa” to the marketplace. It was VERY much like Star. A lack of readiness within the marketplace, and high cost, prevented Lisa from enjoying great success. But Jobs was already working on the follow-up despite strong resistance from within Apple management. He envisioned a smaller, cheaper version called “Macintosh”. There are many visionaries over the years, but he must be the greatest at being able to convert visions into very successful products. And to think that I bought Apple shares the day they first went public … and sold them a few months later due to a lack of vision.
Were you able to use some model of a hand created elsewhere, or did you create it yourself? Seems like that would take a while to create.
I guess you’re predicting that Apple will leverage their “touch” success with the iPhone into their next big product, a touch tablet PC, and then everyone will only buy computers with touch screens? I wonder how much longer before we can finally eliminate keyboards too?
Thanks, Dad. I knew I would have a typo in there somewhere. Since starting grad school I have started to wonder if there is a much better way than the mouse.
The Royal Canadian Navy invented a DATAR system. They used a Canadian bowling ball with is about half the size and they rotated it around in that machine, similar to the way a mouse ball works.
It is pretty amazing how much influence Xerox has had and how Apple gets all the benefit.
The hand I had already modeled in another class last quarter so I thought I could just use that again. Everything else I modeled for this animation.
The Apple "iSlate," as rumor calls it, does seem like it is going to be popular. But that might just be because it will be shiny and has the Apple logo on it. I think it will start the end of the mouse as we know it though. In one of my classes they showed a TED talk that introduced form changing material when charged. There are possibilities for screens that are usually flat and then can be charged to be a keyboard on the same screen. Pretty cool!
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