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It was the profits from this that made Xerox PARC possible, a little over a decade later. Xerox's monopoly on copiers was going away, and they thought they'd ge
by AlbertCory 4y ago
It was the profits from this that made Xerox PARC possible, a little over a decade later. Xerox's monopoly on copiers was going away, and they thought they'd get ahead of the curve and invent the next generation of office technology.
In my 6 1/2 years there, I never met anyone who worked on optical copiers, and never went to Rochester or Stamford (although lots of friends did). I certainly did meet lots of people working on the new generation of laser printers.
- xattt 4y ago> It was the profits from this that made Xerox PARC possible, a little over a decade later. These timescales of iteration are hard to imagine for folks that weren’t alive at the time. In my mind, Xerox was a photocopying company forever (like Kodak) and PARC was just an interesting thing they did. When you mention that these were about a decade apart, the pace of technological progress seems insane.
- AlbertCory 4y agoIf you read Dealers of Lightning, you'll see that the first Alto was built in 1972. So, only 13 years after the 914 introduction. Laser printing -- around that same time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Starkweather https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Starkweather
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y agoSuch a good book, highly recommended.
- fortran77 4y agoThey actually did invent the next generation of office technology. They just couldn’t figure out how to sell it themselves.