Dec 10 2008 11:43AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
hardware,
Apple,
Technology,
cool,
learning,
invention,
gadgets,
desktop,
tool,
science,
fundamentals,
history,
geek
Today the computer mouse celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Pictured is version 1.0, held held by inventor Douglas Engelbart.
[Image credit: CERN Courier]
Modern mice have come a long way since this wooden prototype but the essential function — transferring physical motion to moving a cursor on the screen — remains the same.
Some great factoids about the computer mouse, via Wikipedia:
- The name ‘mouse’ originated at originated at the Stanford Research Institute, where researchers noted its similarity of the cord to a certain rodent’s tail
- Bill English, builder of Engelbart’s original mouse, invented the so-called ball mouse in 1972 while working for Xerox PARC.
- The first mouse shipped as a part of a computer came with the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981
- Inclusion with Apple’s Macintosh is where the mouse really took off
The BBC has posted videos of Englebart explaining how the mouse got its name and the first demonstration of the mouse in a fascinating story that includes extensive quotes from the inventor. (Sorry, no embeds available for BBC video content.)
Gearlog also has a great guided tour of 40 Years of The Mouse, if you’d like to take look back at the evolution of modern computing’s most ubiquitous peripheral.
Just move that cursor over and click on the hyperlink above — and thank Engelbart for his vision.
Nov 30 2008 5:38PM GMT
Posted by: Ivy Wigmore
Uncategorized,
messaging,
wireless,
Mobile,
applications,
video,
social bookmarking,
design,
gadgets,
social networking,
CIO,
demonstration,
Mobile Computing,
browsers,
Fennec
Site director Margaret Rouse and I were IMing a couple of weeks ago, which we do a fair amount of because our “office” spans about 800 miles. We were discussing a definition for Fennec, Mozilla’s mobile version of the Firefox browser when suddenly she said, apropos of nothing I could discern, “It’s so cute!”
As you probably know, IM conversations are prone to the occasional missed step or dropped thread. I wondered briefly what she was talking about. A cute browser, I wondered? But I had faith… and then there it was, a link. Here’s what I saw:
 |
No denying, it’s cute. But I was still none the wiser. I knew that Margaret is a dog person and, in fact, has raised guide dogs. That’s a cute pup, I said. “What kind is it?” It’s a fennec, she told me. A little fox. (Comprehension was, you’ll be glad to hear, swift and, well, comprehensive: Big Firefox: full-sized fox mascot. Small verson: small fox mascot. Gotcha.) |
At least at this point, the mobile adaptation of Firefox is named for a small, desert-dwelling fox. Here’s a video demo:
All clear? Me too. Now I wonder what this week's IMs will bring...
~ Ivy Wigmore
Mar 31 2008 9:53AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
fun,
blog,
free,
MP3,
music,
songs,
gadgets,
blogging
Linking to ITKnowledgeExchange.com could be music to your ears.
Over the course of April, our sister site will be running a promotion whereby anyone that links to them or adds them to a blogroll will be eligible to win an iPod Shuffle.
All you have to do is add ITKE and then send Brent Sheets an email to let him know about it.
Good luck!
Mar 27 2008 9:42AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Mobile,
Technology,
video,
YouTube,
innovation,
useful,
interesting,
futurism,
event,
entrepeneurship,
gadgets,
geek
Geek Squad’s Ish Matos examined the demonstration of wireless charging for iPods and cell phones at the iVolta booth at Macworld 2008.
Mar 19 2008 4:38PM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
open source,
Mobile,
interoperability,
applications,
YouTube,
design,
Development,
gadgets,
software development,
conference
This video captured Dave Burke, an engineering manager within Google’s mobile team, at the Future of Mobile conference in London talking about Android and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).
Mar 17 2008 10:20AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
hardware,
Mobile,
media,
Technology,
video,
YouTube,
multimedia,
innovation,
cool,
invention,
gadgets,
desktop,
display
This clip demonstrates a prototype of Sony’s flexible OLED display. The color screen is only 0.3mm thick and fully flexible, even while content is being player upon it.
HowStuffWorks has posted a helpful explanation for how OLEDs work.
While the above video shows Sony’s prototype, the technology is actually licensed from Kodak. The Eastman Kodak Company, in fact, has been busy signing licensing deals with a number of electronics manufacturers, including an agreement with LG this past week.
GE’s announcement of a successful demonstration of the world’s first roll-to-roll manufactured OLEDs lighting devices (press release) spurred the normal engaging commentary on a Slashdot thread.
Kyoto Prize winner Hiroo Inokuchi, whose organic chemistry work led to the development of OLEDs, is bullish on the techology. In this interview with Wired, he forsees applications in photovoltaics and improved energy conversion.
Will these thin, cheap and green color displays be embedded in surfaces around us within the next ten years? Maybe. Toshiba engineers are reporting problems with high OLED power requirements. In other words, cereal box cartoons may take a bit longer than that to play at a breakfast table near you.
Mar 14 2008 11:39AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Mobile,
applications,
news,
programming,
Apple,
fun,
video,
YouTube,
multimedia,
cool,
design,
invention,
event,
downloads,
Development,
code,
gadgets,
buzz,
interface,
software development,
display,
geek,
gaming
Two weeks and less than 10,000 lines of code result in this demonstration of a starfighter action game on an iPhone that takes advantage of the device’s accelerometer, touch screen and high contrast display. This is a great use of the interface and should inspire some creative thinking the software development community.
My immediate thought upon seeing Steve Forstall’s demo is that there could be a lot of flying iPhones, similar to the stories we’ve heard about the Wiimote. Remember those videos of plasma screens when the Wii debuted?
Now just imagine it’s a device that costs more than $500 direct from Apple in the U.S. and often much more than that in Europe.
That being said, I’m excited to see how software designers take advantage of that new Apple iPhone SDK.
That and Spore. Given more than two weeks to work on this game, I think this could be a killer gaming app for the device.
Mar 12 2008 10:53AM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Audio,
innovation,
cool,
hacks,
interesting,
invention,
creativity,
gadgets,
RFID,
authentication
This canine version of access control combines radio transmitters with a high pitched warning signal to keep each dog away from the other’s bowl. The scenario is similar to many that role-based access control (RBAC) solves in an enterprise.
Unfortunately, programmers would still have to eat their own dogfood.
I wonder if this would help keep my roommate out of my beer.
Jan 7 2008 12:29PM GMT
Posted by: Alexander Howard
Microsoft,
news,
software,
Technology,
video,
culture,
interesting,
futurism,
downloads,
IPTV,
gadgets,
trend,
humor,
interface,
geek
Last night, Bill Gates gave his swan song keynote at CES 2008. Before his speech, which as always enjoyed blanket coverage from the tech press, the outgoing chairman of Microsoft played a hilarious video.
(Thanks go to the Future Shop for the video.)
Gates was able to pull in celebrities from all walks of life to participate: Speilberg, Clooney, Bono, Hillary, Al Gore, Obama, Jay-Z and a particularly hilarious bit with Matthew McConaughey. Even you didn’t make it to CES, this one’s worth adding to your lunchtime video snacking. It turns out that Bill balances funny with brilliant, though not so much on a fitness ball.
Aside from the humor, Gates orated at length about the next “digital decade,” where we can expect vast improvements in hardware and software to drive media to places it’s never been, though he painted in broad strokes rather than introducing many specific products or services. He outlined three major themes : high definition displays with 3D, multiple devices always connected to Web-enabled services ( so-called “cloud computing,” a trend we and others are documenting) and the power of vastly improved natural interfaces. To that end, Gates managed to get through a successful demonstration of snowboard design software using the Surface I/O platform without a single crash, an improvement on past experiences. Gadget geeks, epitomized by the Engadget and Gizmodo crowd, took note of the Windows Mobile 7 (Photon) image that snuck into the presentation, promptly linking to leaked interface designs for the OS that might show up on an upcoming Palm/Treo handset.
It looks like the iPhone’s multitouch interface spurred Redmond to improve on the feature-laden but complex interface of Windows Mobile 6.
The nascent Silverlight platform also scored a big win, as Gates announced that MSN would be NBC’s exclusive online provider for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing. That means that if you want to watch the Olympics online, you’ll need to download the player and install it on your browser. Well, legally, anyway. I’d be shocked if NBC wasn’t chasing .torrent files around the Net or YouTube mashups. I had to install Silverlight to watch the slive last night, actually, with a few bumps along the way. Version 1.0 of anything always worries me. You can watch the entire Gates CES keynote here.
