Douglas Engelbart

I am well acquainted with this breed of people. My grandfather Joseph invented life. Submarines, fixings, attractions for children, kitchen equipment and even household plumbing. I do not remember that he ever complained of the obscurity. On the contrary, it seemed to him that he was too conspicuous figure - colleagues, students, neighbors, all she loved to consult him on technical issues. No, he ran away from fame, if fame did not prevent him from working. The last ten years he dreamed about the invention of "an ideal vehicle for the equitable distribution of benefits and penalties". Whatever you may say, fate is playing with a man: the final certificate of authorship grandfather received for his invention of an improved model of the toilet. The parallel with the protagonist of this story is obvious. What is the attentive reader, if you please verify.
But back to our hero. I'm afraid his name you would not say anything. Douglas Engelbart (Douglas Engelbart), distinguished himself for many, did not become a celebrity. If thirty years ago, he said to himself, "Stop, I'm nice to bother, it's time to think about their daily bread," now, he probably could have been richer and more famous of these guys, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Marc Andreessen. And Microsoft, and Apple, and Netscape went on paths blazed Engelbart. In order for you from the start were able to assess the creativity of the dignity of antiquity Arc, to name just one thing, the most "popular" of his inventions - a computer mouse. OtseniliN That's it.
His ancestors were among the first pioneers of the West. Doug grew up in a small family farm in the vicinity of Oregon. In the 42 th he left school and enrolled in a local university, thinking later work as an electrical engineer. The war has confused a few plans. Labor activity Sergeant Douglas Engelbart began as a radar technician naval base somewhere in the Philippines. Even then, he seriously pondered the prospect of the use of sophisticated military equipment in civilian life. Instead zhutkovatykh loops and curves on the radar screen he had visions of a peaceful life paintings and great works of mankind. His handbook in those years was polubredovy work of Vannevar Bush "As soon as we are able to think" (As We May Think), acquired directly in the library of the Red Cross. The procedure described in her theory of the animation of inanimate nature was contagious.
. Retired sergeant Engelbart lucky, three years after the war, immediately after graduating from university, the commission on the distribution sent it to the lab NACA Ames (forerunner of today's super-giant NASA)
. However, in the minds young Douglas vital far beyond the walls of the secret. He saw thousands and thousands of fellow citizens sitting in front of their computer monitors and breathe life into inanimate machines. He drew the idea of creating artificial intelligence. But first, required at least get the coveted computer in its own undivided use. Doug began searching for a place.
The place was soon found. Although the long goodbye with a computer one by one count at first did not have. The newly Assistant Professor D. Engelbart vpryagsya in the collective yoke of designing monstrous supercomputer at the University of Berkeley (staff affectionately called by his brainchild Neanderthal, . on whose it is very much like and dimensions, . and reason),
. The Tu-t'u comes at a time to pretend to be ordinary executive tadpole technologist, for saying abstruse ideas about the possibility of a gradual growth from the Neanderthal man could deprive him of such a "lucrative" places. He fed unreasonable child Mountains punched and lived the dream of a miraculous transformation stubborn piece of iron in a rational creature. In the case they were invented a half-dozen "bi-stable gaseous plasma digital devices", which allowed us to obtain a doctoral degree.
. With a pile of fresh patents and a reputation of "a strange small" (from colleagues not to be concealed) to the mid-50's, Doug moved to the Stanford Research Institute
. Despite the plain (compared to Berkeley) location, there are much easier to breathe. In order to placate the fathers of Silicon Valley, a couple of years, Dr. Engelbart nasochinyal even with a dozen other all the difference and ask you to freedom. Liberty did not give him (who would dissipate as valuable kadramiN), but allowed to own project. Gradually Engelbart was being formed around a very conspicuous company fully endorses his crazy ideas. Among the theses put forward by the most hilarious (and simultaneously repulsive) was the thesis of the need to "increase the intelligence of computer users for a generation, working with a computer, rather than sucking juices out of it". Soon after Douglas's team managed to grow out of this whole thesis of the technology on which occurred, for example, and an additional set in the command itself. The approach to the staffing issue was quite remarkable: every new applicant first tested on the ability to increase the "collective IQ" (for the uninitiated, IQ - intelligence quotient - IQ). Nowadays, this method of recruitment considered canonical.
In the 60's benefited the fate of our hero. He allowed "zolotopogonnym" drag his laboratory in the military draft ARPANet, than fully untied their hands financially. His method of recruitment formed the basis for organizing the team around the first distributed computing network. Engelbart and his boys have become the main developers of the core information management system, which guarantees that the knowledge gained will not be lost or become inaccessible due to the imperfections of technology management formats and protocols. That's when Douglas offered the world on Wednesday NLS (oNLine System), . includes a fundamentally new operating system, . universal programming language, . email, . split screen teleconferencing, . context help system and much more,
. Alas, despite the obvious advantages, widespread it has not received. Network Solutions then seemed necessary only a narrow circle of sober-minded scientists and generals.
. At the same time, . unexpectedly, . burst of public (but not professional!) interest in the works laboratory Engelbart display after show them on a computer technology conferences of the two strange-looking devices, . replace the traditional input device - keyboard,
. Under the left hand rested Rapporteur multibutton hedgehog, called the "lump-keyboard" (chordal keyboard), but under the right - a handsome man on wheels of polished wood with a short row of buttons on the nickname "Mouse" (mouse). "One-off keyboard" allowed to set "one left", using both individual keys and key combinations (as assured on to learn this is not more complicated than the "blind" version). But the present furor made inconspicuous "mouse" (or, in the language of a scientific report, "Indicators of positions x and y"). You can use it to manipulate objects across the plane of the screen.
According to conservative estimates, at present day in the vicinity of large and small computers would move hundreds of millions of "mice". Only one company Logitech, a recognized leader in its industry, and produces annually about 50 million of these cute devices. Today, old Doug - one of the most highly paid professionals of this company, but of him who says little, and then, in 68 th he received from employers for his invention of a check for $ 10,000, and all. The entire fee was immediately introduced as a first contribution for a modest house away from luxury villas, familiar in Silicon Valley.
The first notable success whetted the imagination Engelbart, it seemed that the time has come to invite you to the world. Ideas poured out of a cornucopia. "But, . whom two-dimensional text redaktorN! Marvelous, . much better and productive old one-dimensional!: No sprosaN How takN "Multiple operating system! Multitasking, . with a single command syntax, . graphical user interface: No nadobnostiN Well: "" Jobs, . Let's teach your personalki gather in packs to hunt big game and, . general, . for fun,
. ChtoN wolf hunts in odinochkuN Well, as you know "(plus habitual shrug). In the early 70's Doug's team began to flee, taking with them pieces of his ideas. Failure to sell Douglas drove it into the shadow. He devoted himself to the family. They summoned the children to pick mushrooms, on berries, digging worms for fishing, swimming on stormy rivers of Oregon. A friend of mine called it "rolled under the cabinet. Then there was a terrible fire in the fire which burned all that was easy come with such difficulty. Doug's Family (wife and four children) roam to a friend for several years until she managed to collect funds for the restoration of the house.
But even stymied Engelbart did not deny humanity to new ideas. "To live in this world is becoming increasingly difficult. So every day I have to invent another wheel, designed to bring you some relief ". Colleagues Douglas called it "an endless revolution Engelbart". However, sluggish current oblivion "was delayed by almost a quarter century. That here and there revived the idea of Arc. In the 80's they eagerly caught up Jobs-Gates. Meanwhile, Douglas stayed in a small telephone company Tymshare, content with a modest salary employee. In 84-th company was eaten by a large conglomerate of Air Navigation, which restless Engelbart (inherited new owners as a free doveska) offered to and from an elaborate scheme of constructing intranet. But then the words of the "intranet" (intranet), no one knew. A company's management was overwhelming his logic: "This is not even in the IBM or HP. At the hell do we do sdalosN "Doug felt that he had reached the bottom of the bottomless pit from which he did not dokrichatsya or to whom. In the same year, doctors diagnose cancer. (- O Lord, why me these mukiN! - Well, I do not love you.) Frustrated Engelbart began the struggle for life. Perhaps it has always lacked is this desperate frenzy. For the first time in his life, he swam against the tide. I survived. And made me think about. Even earn something around a million dollars in his old age in a very prestigious awards. I'm afraid this is one of the most expensive in the history of millions of computer technology. Time of human life is directly proportional to the difficulties that he can afford to overcome. I allowed myself a lot ". The magazine recently published a phrase Engelbart, paid him for a quote more than the other times he paid for the next revolutionary invention.
Here's another memorable phrase (note, absolutely free). "To improve the process should not, and participant in the process" - love of saying old Doug. Imagine how many enemies can amass people, allowing themselves such statements. But Engelbart was not limited to words, he has developed his own style of intellectual self-improvement, designating it as "bootstrapping" ( "lacing abilities, if you like). Ten years ago, Douglas organized a public institute of the same name (Bootstrap Institute), entrusting the management of their beloved daughter Christine. Children tend to inherit the intellectual abilities of parents. "Without a penny to his name, had to share with children: the no hitting". In any area Engelbart can not stand "dummies", it seems abhorrent idea to adjust to someone's "want-not-want" if we are talking about people physically and mentally healthy. He never held the idea of creating a "friendly" systems. Servants' laziness he considers the greatest evil on the planet, so finally the old man wants to upgrade the operating system of a person. (Be sure to reread the second paragraph.)