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Doug Engelbart Passes Away

Posted by Soulskill on from the rest-in-peace dept.

lpress writes "If you use a mouse, hyperlinks, video conferencing, WYSIWYG word processor, multi-window user interface, shared documents, shared database, documents with images & text, keyword search, instant messaging, synchronous collaboration, or asynchronous collaboration, you can thank Doug Engelbart, who passed away today."

6 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Guess he got first post by Tim12s · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Guess he got first post

  2. RIP, good sir. by Deathspawner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thanks for all of your contributions to our computing.

  3. Riding Bikes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I got to see Doug speak about ten years ago. One thing he mentioned is that you can't let ease of use concerns limit capability. Ease of use is important but it can be sacrificed if necessary to give advanced capability. The example he gave was a bicycle. It's much more difficult to use than a tricycle but the benefits of bikes over trikes are so great that almost everyone goes through the effort to learn to use a bike instead of settling for a trike.

  4. Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Doug never worked for Xerox.
    He went from SRI to Tymshare.

    Many people from Doug's lab went to work for PARC

  5. appropriate mourning by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    for those unsure of how to mourn, Here are a few tips.
    Awesomewm users: remove dust from mouse (small black/beige peripheral.) place hand atop it for a moment of rememberence...both for doug and in trying to recall what people use this thing for
    outlook users: Although its often said not to, today you may in fact click that link in your HTML email for "1000% DIS.CPUNT VJAGRA CIA.LIS"
    Chatroulette users: Adjust the camera from its standard crotch-facing position to a more respectful head-facing position.
    Microsoft Word users: Today, indulge clippy in his helpful banter and accept his offer of assistance in writing a letter. Embrace the ensuing application crash as proof that the spirit of Doug lives on.
    VAX users: Get back to work installing VMS 5.0. Forget you ever heard of 'windowed' interfaces. also those TPS reports, we need them by EOD...so lets plan for saturday.
    Excel users: As you stalk from cubicle to cubicle hunting for the rat-bastard who left the spreadsheet open this evening, ponder Dougs wisdom of shared documents and its profound impact on your ability to hunt down pudgy white coworkers, like some kind of middle aged predator.
    Oracle users: Send a support ticket. Approach your multi million dollar obelisk of remorse and sorrow. slowly push unmarked $100 bills into the ventillation slots. Weep in knowing this is not what Doug intended.
    PDF users: chances are youre holding a document that is nothing but an image with text...no search for you, so you may as well ponder Dougs infinite wisdom as you mash away at the spacebar in time to lady gagas judas.
    YouTube users: "Doug Engelbart Harlem Shake Americas Got Talent" is certainly a mournful keyword search.
    Management: each time you bored us with tales of (a)synchronous collaboration, know that it was pushing this great man one step closer to the grave. If you'd stuck to the 1 hour meeting rule and not called it on a friday, this man may still be alive today.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  6. Re:The Mother of All Demos by nyckidd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Same video, much better quality:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY