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Meet your desktop's ancestors: AT&T exhumes footage of the Bell Blit (video)
AT&T's video archives are rich seams of juicy historical tidbits, and today's offering is a fine example. It's sharing footage of the Bell Blit, a graphic interface that Bell Labs developed after being inspired by the Xerox Alto. Originally named the Jerq, it was created by Rob Pike and Bart Locanthi to have the same usability as the Alto, but with "the processing power of a 1981 computer." Watch, as the narrator marvels at being able to use multiple windows at once, playing Asteroids while his debugging software runs in the background on that futuristic green-and-black display. The next time we get annoyed that Crysis isn't running as fast as you'd like it to, just remember how bad the geeks of yesteryear had it.
Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center founder Jacob Goldman passes away at age 90
Jacob Goldman, the man who helped found the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as Xerox's chief scientist in 1970, has passed away at age 90. PARC holds a special place in gadget lore, as it was responsible for creating Alto, the first modern computer with a GUI and a mouse, the first WYSIWYG text editor, and Ethernet, among many other innovations. Prior to his time at Xerox, Dr. Goldman was the head of R&D at Ford Motor Company, and after retiring, he served on the boards of several companies, including Xerox. The New York Times reported that Goldman created PARC to research "the architecture of information" -- and the fruits of PARC's labor listed above show that he's made an immeasurable and lasting contribution to the computing world, and consequently, life as we know it. Godspeed, Dr. Goldman, and thanks for everything. [Image credit: PARC]
