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Stanford Mouse Video Archive

Posted by chrisd on from the fun-with-a-soldering-iron dept.

serutan writes "Stanford University has a retro-cool series of video clips of a 1968 presentation that foreshadowed the Internet and marked the public debut of the mouse. It is a surreal, weirdly captivating piece of computer history." Part of the site includes a solicitation for those who have memories and stories about the old days of computing, when programs were measured in inches and people felt they were lucky, lucky I tell you, to have ones and zeros.

13 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. We saw this recently - its got a hyperlink demo by iainl · · Score: 4, Informative

    The page linked is, of course, the one from BT's hyperlink patent story we discussed recently. One of the videos on the site demonstrates the use of that very thing.

    --
    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  2. Mac users should be ashamed... by codexus · · Score: 5, Funny

    even the first mouse had 3 buttons! ;)

    --
    True warriors use the Klingon Google
  3. Real by ChrisJC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And why can't we have these clips in MPEG or something that everybody can see?

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    -- PC architecture - what a mess.
  4. The slashdotting rules for this story by Spackler · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you were not born when this event took place (1968) please step aside and wait until tomorrow to view the site. This way, us older nerds with the short memories can have a chance at it.

    Younger folks who actually programmed a PDP-anything also can have a quick look.

  5. repost by joshwa · · Score: 4, Funny

    *sigh* ...

    British Telecom, Hyperlinking And Mr. Englebart Slashdot, 28 Sep 2000

  6. spreading the news. by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Of course, by spreading the link to those very videos around the net, we make sure the almost anyone who cares knows that BT is just being a bit greedy. and very foolish.

    God, I'd love to see this on the national news someplace.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  7. Wither the BT Patent Claim by Beautyon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Doug demonstrates working with a graphic file tagged with hyperlinked items. Clicking on a link in the graphic, Doug jumps to separate items, such as texts, linked to the graphic."

    We call this Prior Art.

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    ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
  8. Mouse is on display at The Tech by ascii · · Score: 4, Informative

    I do believe the original prototype is still on display at The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, CA.

    It's encased in a transparent plastic box and you can actually pick it up and study it at close. I was lucky enough to get a couple of snapshots of it.

    Get a glimpse here.

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    naah sig schmig
  9. So Xerox stole thier ideas from these guys??? by JohnDenver · · Score: 3, Funny

    * Microsoft rips off Apple
    * Apple rips off Xerox
    * Xerox rips off Stanford's Augmentation Research Center

    Who did Stanford's Augmentation Research Center rip off?

    --
    "Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
  10. DEC hockey puck mouse memories by acomj · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember that particular mouse. It was like a big hockey puck, but without a ball. It had two feet that would spin when you moved the mouse. Depending on how both feet spun (together for left and right (cw/ccw for forward and back) it moved the curser (sic). It worked suprisingly well.

    I like the new optical mice better though, especially since the "puck" mouse was awkward fit in the hand...

    That stanford mouse is too old school

  11. First mouse, but not first pointing device by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative
    The first pointing device for computer input was the "light gun" developed for the SAGE air defense system, in the 1950s. The trackball and the RAND tablet both predated the mouse.

    Predating all of these was the sliding crank used as a target designator in the Nike missile system. This was a 2 degree of freedom crank; you could turn the crank, or slide the handle radially. This device is not well known, but can be seen at the restored launch site in Marin County, CA. The guidance computer for the Nike was an analog system, not a digital computer, though.

    1. Re:First mouse, but not first pointing device by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here's a picture of the Nike Battery Commander's Console, showing the sliding crank device. Note the two radarscopes set into the desk, and the crank to the lower right of each. That was how the battery commander selected the target to be shot down.

  12. It's not that it's closed source... by Pope+Slackman · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't really mind closed source.
    Hell, my desktop OS is Windows.

    I never install Real because it's an ugly, ad-laden, untrustworthy piece of spyware crap.

    Besides, I'd rather have files I can download, because streaming...[buffering (10%)]...in any...[buffering(15%)]...format...[buffering(20%)] ...sucks...[buffering(35%)]...my...[buffering(50%) ]...arse.

    And as for MS being an illegal monopoly, I'll just say I think Be's argument is much more valid than Netscape's, because unlike Netscape, Be's flagship product didn't suck.

    C-X C-S