xerox

EP# 039: Xerox: Fumbling the Future

EP# 039: Xerox: Fumbling the Future

A great book by Douglas Smith and Robert Alexander called Fumbling the future: How Xerox invented, then ignored, the first personal computer. This book explains how Xerox failed to profit from all the amazing innovations developed at the company's computer technology lab, Xerox PARC. Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was the epicenter of the digital computer revolution.

We have seen many examples of companies dropping the ball on game changing technologies and trends such as Kodak, Research in Motion, Nokia, and Blockbuster. But Xerox and PARC were great examples of mismanagement and arrogance. So let’s do a quick review of Xerox, PARC, and the personal computer.

EP# 013: Chester Carlson and Xerox

EP# 013: Chester Carlson and Xerox

The ultimate game changer in the history of making copies was xerography, developed by a quiet, unassuming man who was sick of being bent over a desk for hours at a time making copies by hand. This man, Chester Carlson who grew up under unimaginable poverty, never stopped dreaming of inventing a machine to automatically make copies.

As an assistant to a patent attorney and later as a law school student, the nearsighted Carlson spent hours bent over his desk. With his muscles cramping and his back aching, he dreamed of a better way to make copies. He was never interested in money. He wanted to help society with an invention that would change the world.