Who invented these?

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

One of my prof's made a quiz on who originally invented these things. Take your guesses (without looking them up, obviously) and you'll be surprised by the results.

-The computer mouse

-Email

-Laser printing

-What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) word processing (i.e. MS Word)

[Nepa]

How about xerox for all of them? Where do you think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates got there ideas?

[GoblinMason (Craig)]

Way to ruin the fun! /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Yep, that's the answer. I'm guessing you've seen pirates of silicon valley...

[CORed]

Don't forget the Ethernet networking and the GUI (graphical user interface) copied by the X window system, the Mac, and Windows. What was laughable about Apples's lawsuit against Microsoft many years ago is that Apple apparently thought the GUI belonged to them because they stole it first.

The amazing thing is that Xerox, after funding a truly amazing R&D effort, used none of its results. Not even the laser printer, which was based on copier technology and would have been a perfect fit for Xerox.

[namknils]

[ QUOTE ]
One of my prof's made a quiz on who originally invented these things. Take your guesses (without looking them up, obviously) and you'll be surprised by the results.

-The computer mouse

-Email

-Laser printing

-What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) word processing (i.e. MS Word)

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll say Al Gore on all accounts. Just kidding. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I love the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley.

[andyfox]

I've heard that IBM had a chance to buy Xerox cheap at the beginning, but felt that copying technology would be a flop.

[B-Man]

Didn't the head of the U.S. Patent Office once say that "everything that can be invented, has been invented"?

I believe that was said around 1880.

[B-Man]

Al Gore.

AND, he won the popular vote. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[cardcounter0]

They also invented FAX Machine technology, but did a survey and nobody could see a real need or use for being able to send documents over phone lines, so they let the Japanese have the patents real cheap.

[Nepa]

[ QUOTE ]
Way to ruin the fun!

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry about that.

I think the show I saw was Conquest of the Nerds. It explains how Bill Gates got super lucky by buying QDOS(quick and dirty operating system) for 50 g's.