
The Demo - sturadnidge
http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html
======
teej
Reflecting on the fact that this video was recorded before the unix epoch was
humbling.

~~~
roryokane
This led me to wonder why 1970-01-01 is the Unix epoch. Answer:
[http://stackoverflow.com/q/1090869/578288](http://stackoverflow.com/q/1090869/578288).
In short, Unix was developed in 1969 and first released in 1971.

------
hkmurakami
Main Engelbart discussion going right now on HN (in case it drops off):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5986307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5986307)

------
neona
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-
zdhzMY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY)

^ Youtube link to the demo, as I can't get the video on the site to work.

EDIT: better quality version

------
roryokane
Archive.org has this video, too, and lets you download it:
[http://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCnt...](http://archive.org/details/XD300-23_68HighlightsAResearchCntAugHumanIntellect)

Also, this demo has a Wikipedia article:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos)

------
marcosscriven
I absolutely love all the buzzing and whirring in the video. Combined with the
fairly heavy reverberations of his voice, it's almost ethereal.

~~~
voidlogic
I was actually thinking about writing something to generate these computery
sounds as I work. :)

~~~
marcosscriven
Drop everything, and do it now. I _need_ this :)

------
danso
I read "1968" as "!986" and when looking at it again, still read "1986"...as
in, the mouse was a pretty big deal back in 1986, from what I barely remember.
But 1968? My mental picture is just circuit boards and punch cards. How
amazing this technology must have seemed.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Well....Sutherland's SketchPad demo was done in 1963.

~~~
aidos
The SketchPad demo is just amazing. Whenever I work with a crappy interface I
think about SketchPad and wonder how we collectively haven't set higher
standards for the way we interact with computers.

------
sowhatquestion
Did anyone else notice that the "word processor" demoed here is really more of
a flexible outliner, like WorkFlowy (
[http://www.workflowy.com](http://www.workflowy.com) )? Actually, the more
features he ran through, the more I was struck by the similarity.

------
jared314
It is things like this that show why every college should have a history of CS
course.

------
LAMike
Wow hearing him explain the concept of a mouse to a room full of people who
may or may not be convinced that computers are the future is really
interesting.

One of the most important demos in tech next to the invention of fire and the
iPod

~~~
hkmurakami
love the wit

posting this before someone inevitably rails against your _obviously genuine_
belief that the iPod was the greatest invention ever. X_X

~~~
PanickedOmlette
That's sarcasm.

------
laacz
And reflecting on this demo, today's XKCD is nice:
[http://xkcd.com/1234/](http://xkcd.com/1234/)

------
mortehu
This reminded me of the original presentation of the iPhone, which I didn't
watch until recently:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hUIxyE2Ns8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hUIxyE2Ns8)

Points of similarity:

1\. Both presentations happened in San Francisco (at the same convention
center?)

2\. Both demonstrate major advances in user interfaces

3\. Both include demonstrations of remote communication :)

~~~
glurgh
Other than the fact that they are both demos and happened in SF (in different
locations, Brooks hall has been closed for many years), they're almost
entirely dissimilar.

One is a demonstration of new technologies, previously unseen by many in the
audience. The other is the introduction of a new product integrating many
existing technologies. You could buy an iPhone a few months after that
introduction. Computers with mice didn't become generally available to
consumers till 1984. You're either underestimating the impact of Engelbart's
demo, overestimating the importance of the iPhone or both.

~~~
gfodor
I'm going to disagree and say that Jobs' unveiling of the iPhone will be up
there with The Demo in terms of watershed moments in computer, and indeed
human history. It wasn't the iPhone per se, but what the iPhone represented
and the clear inflection point it has proven to be for realizing much of the
vision originally hatched by those at PARC.

~~~
cubancigar11
That is ridiculous. Please, have some imagination. In preparation of The Demo,
just think about the algorithms that were discovered and technologies that
were invented.

Unveiling of iPhone was a marketing gimmick. And please look outside America
before talking about human history, and indeed computer.

I really don't want to sound rude but this kind of vanity gets to me.

~~~
paganel
> And please look outside America before talking about human history, and
> indeed computer.

You're too harsh on the OP. As Doug Engelbart discovered himself at some
point: "One of the basic things you soon learn is that after a certain degree
of quantitative change, you almost invariably go into qualitative change."
([http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/ssvoral/enge...](http://www-
sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/ssvoral/engelbart/engfmst1-ntb.html)).

Before Apple put everything together for the initial version of the iPhone
nobody else other than technology enthusiasts (or masochists) were using their
mobile phones as windows into the world. Not 10 years have passed and now I
can see 12-year kids chatting with their friends on their iPhone5s while I'm
taking the tramway home, or 20-something lady-drivers checking their Facebook
while they're waiting for the green light.

If it matters I live half a globe-away from the States, and while I do own an
iPhone 4 I still fondly remember how I used to write Python scripts for a
Nokia N73 that would somehow try to pair the images I was taking with said
phone with the geo-coordinates recorded by an external GPS device, both of
them (the GPS device and the phone) connected through bluetooth.

~~~
cones688
> "windows onto the world"

People were emailing each other and secure IM'ing in 1999 on BlackBerries, I
think you forget there was "internet phones" before the iPhone in 2007. This
wasn't some "geek machine" it was something every wallstreet, government
employee and exec had.

