Personal Computing Pioneer Jacob Goldman Has Died

Although this was supposed to be an off week for TechByter Worldwide, I must make note of the death of the man who was responsible for establishing and guiding the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Jacob Goldman was 90.

The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) invented just about everything used in your personal computer and notebook computer. PARC also invented the laser printer, which it licensed to HP. Sadly, although PARC invented the mouse, the desktop computer, and the graphical user interface, Xerox never saw any value in trying to bring these devices to market even though it could have done so years before the beginning of the personal computer era.

Before establishing PARC for Xerox, Goldman worked at Ford where, according to Wikipedia, he worked on sodium–sulphur batteries for electric cars. After narrowly surviving a fiery crash of his gasoline-powered Ford Lincoln, Goldman is reported to have said, "I guess I proved gasoline is more dangerous than a sodium–sulphur battery."

In the late 1990s, Michael Hiltzik wrote Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age in which he described the operation and the inventions. Engineers under Goldman's guidance gave Xerox the knowhow the company could have used to introduce the first personal computer three years before IBM's PC. PARC is responsible for the mouse, responsible (in a roundabout way) for Ethernet, and largely responsible for the graphical user interface. PARC is also responsible for the laser printer, and that one device made the entire operation financially worthwhile.

In 1971 engineers at PARC were trying to figure out how a computer might be placed in a container the size of a pizza box. This was happening at a time when a cabinet with 64 KB of memory weighed 10 pounds or more, cost thousands of dollars, and required a desk-high cabinet for housing. In other words, these engineers were a looking a good 10 years into the future.

Charles Geschke and John Warnock left PARC to be the co-founders of Adobe Systems. Gary Starkweather worked for Apple and then moved to Microsoft after leaving PARC. Alan Kay went to Atari from PARC, then to Apple, and next to Disney. John Elenby left Xerox to form Grid, one of the earliest makers of laptop computers.

PARC nearly failed before it was launched when some "forward thinking" Xerox directors fought against the idea of a distant research center. Xerox is headquartered in Connecticut and Palo Alto is, of course, in California. The suspicion about distant developers and their toys continued to plague PARC. As fast as PARC could develop new devices, Xerox's bureaucracy jumped into action and quashed them.

This must have been frustrating for Goldman.

Both Apple and Microsoft saw what PARC was inventing and what Xerox was failing to capitalize on. So work at PARC led to the Apple Lisa and then the Macintosh; at Microsoft, Windows was the result.

In an interview with the New Haven Advocate in 1988, Goldman was quoted as saying, "A big company will not make the investment to bring out a new product unless they see it makes a big difference." Xerox could have owned the personal computer market had the directors in the 1970s been willing to take a chance.

Happy Winter Solstice 2011

Earth as it appears from the International Space Station.

solstice

Wishing you a scientific, logical, peaceful, and honorable 2012.