Re: AI agency

Timothy Koschmann (tdk who-is-at cs.colorado.edu)
Tue, 4 Nov 1997 10:48:02 -0700

Dewey wrote;
>Actually, the lab was in Palo Alto, CA. They came up with the mouse,
>object oriented programming, and what is now called a GUI (the desktop in
>Mac parlance), but I'm not so sure about the Intel chip. Jobs apparently
>did 'get it' because Xerox head office didn't.

Dewey,
I'm not sure it was quite that simple---Xerox did market much of this
technology, with varying degrees of success. It could be argued, of
course, that Apple was able to market it in a way that turned out to be
more successful, at least in the short run. There are no magic formulas
for marketing technology, however, as Apple has demonstrated in more recent
years. The story of Jobs coming down to Xerox PARC and stealing the thunder
of the gods has assumed the quality of an epic tale. What actually took
place was undoubtedly much more complicated.

BTW, for those interested in a description of the golden years at PARC,
there was an interesting account that appeared in "Rolling Stone" a while
back.
---Tim