On: 50 Years Later, We’re Still Living in the Xerox Al...

[Aloha]

This is an excellent book explaining the wonders of Xerox PARC and what they wrought for us all. It also explains succinctly why and how Xerox failed to monetize all of the innovations created within. (Their sales force didn't know how to sell something without a lease and a per-imprint charge (where's the click), and management didn't really understand why what PARC created was important or how to monetize it. Also, the people at PARC had some measure of trouble knowing how to commercialize anything.)

I read the book at a 17 year old shortly after it came out, and found it very very compelling.

https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer...

Also, here is a thread about the book with Alan Kay - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22379275

Another thread with Albert Cory is here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31626413

[nbaksalyar → Aloha]

> This is an excellent book explaining the wonders of Xerox PARC and what they wrought for us all.

There's another great book which puts Xerox PARC into context, "The Dream Machine" by M. Mitchell Waldrop [0]. It goes into much detail about how Xerox PARC came to be and how the ideas behind it developed. It's the best book on the computer history I've read.

[0] https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine

[AlbertCory → Aloha]

thanks for the shoutout. Dealers of Lightning is indeed excellent.

My book takes the path of putting fictional characters (except for Dan, who is me) in it, who do not know how it's going to turn out. I had the help of nearly everyone who's still alive, and all the actual events really happened. Xerox really did have a guy with a roll of $100 bills for paying off the unions at the trade shows.

As for the 40+ year-old debate about what Xerox should have done, Jerry Morrison and I considered that at length here:

https://www.albertcory.io/lets-do-have-hindsight

[Aloha → AlbertCory]

That was a great post!

I didnt realize you did 3+Mail too, the whole 3com office suite and hardware is something almost lost to history, same with 3com NBX PBX.

[AlbertCory → Aloha]

Thanks! 3+Mail is in the second book: https://www.albertcory.io/the-big-bucks

Actual events like me pulling apart the ThinNet Ethernet cable and taking down the entire company for a few seconds (no one noticed),

The Lisa adopting Hungarian notation because of the Simonyi influence (in one part of the code).

DataPoint having a terrific LAN before anyone else, and going nowhere with it.

3Com buying Bridge, a leader in routers, and running it into the ground, meanwhile ignoring Cisco.

3Com'ers spending all day arguing about a post on WantAds, because they were so desperate for a social network.

[Aloha → AlbertCory]

Yeah, I read about the Datapoint thing in the book about Datapoint, I was surprised, it was the parallel universe that I knew nothing about.

[AlbertCory → Aloha]

I thought I was the only person who read that :)

[Aloha → AlbertCory]

I suspect we are one of either tens or hundreds on here who have read it ;-)