Douglas Englebart got me a $100

When in March of 2012, Robert Cringely took his family on a day through computing history, he had breakfast at IHOP with Woz, tea with Douglas Englebart, and a grabble in the Google snackbar when visiting Andy Hertzfeld. That was all before visiting the Computer History Museum in Mountain View of course.

When somebody had asked me to plan a similar trip, the same three gentlemen would be part of my trip. (I probably would have tried to squeeze in a few more folks.) All three are in the quiet geek hero category and live in the shadow of Steve Jobs. Even in the valley of geeks are some of them unknown.  I once made a lofty $100 of a bet on who invented the mouse. Steve Jobs $0; Douglas Englebart $100.

Unfortunately my trip through computer history will have one stop fewer as Douglas Englebart passed away last week.