[vrprabhu]

Here's a New Year Surprise!!

This is not a hoax - Three button mouse anyone

I don't remember how adept I was at using this!

Specifically, see the port - Parallel!!

Should be atleast 25 years old, if I am not mistaken.







If my memory is right, INFY Bangalore campus has a PC, used by the founders in their initial days, on display (for cross checking my claim on the mouse with a parallel port), because I have seen a similar mouse there.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

Here's a New Year Surprise!!

This is not a hoax - Three button mouse anyone

I don't remember how adept I was at using this!

Specifically, see the port - Parallel!!

Should be atleast 25 years old, if I am not mistaken.

If my memory is right, INFY Bangalore campus has a PC, used by the founders in their initial days, on display (for cross checking my claim on the mouse with a parallel port), because I have seen a similar mouse there.

Are you sure that this is not a 25 pin serial port rather than a parallel port? Iask since I have used a 25 pin serial port mouse in the late 80s and externally they look similar.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

This is not a hoax - Three button mouse anyone

Wasn't it pretty common, especially if you were using Unix workstations?

Here I am 25 years ago, next to my Sun SPARCstation 10, and the 3 button mouse is visible on the table. Color screen too...

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by swissknife

Are you sure that this is not a 25 pin serial port rather than a parallel port?

Originally Posted by Samurai

Wasn't it pretty common, especially if you were using Unix workstations?

Thanks, swissknife & samurai! I guess, that is what it is. Now, where did the Win 3.1 PC's mouse go? I have to start a mouse hunt

Now, the picture, Samurai, is really something else - may be it warrants a new thread on how our moderators look like three decades ago

[Thad E Ginathom]

Indeed, a great picture

My mouse has three buttons. And the middle one is a wheel that can also be pressed. The three-button mouse actually become standard, with added functionality and changed looks. Most of us are probably using them! But what did those three buttons each do?

(actually my mouse has a lot more buttons. I don't game, but it is more of a gaming mouse)

Didn't the Mac mouse have only one button? Do they still? Never had anything to do with Apple.

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

But what did those three buttons each do?

Exactly my thoughts too.

I don't even remember what I was using the X-windows on Unix for (other than alt+F10 or F11) which would bring GUI screen.... heck, I don't even remember any of the unix or dos commands any more, as now I am not even remotely connecting to any kind of computing (I am just using a desktop for Word, Excel, e-mail or browse - and I guess one day soon Alexa will be doing what I am doing )

I too have used 5 button mouse (the brand was i-ball, with a red 'i') - it was pretty cool not just for gaming, but also for multitasking on windows. This was much before all those fancy gaming keyboards made their appearance.

BTW, is Netscape Navigator still around?

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by swissknife

Are you sure that this is not a 25 pin serial port rather than a parallel port? Iask since I have used a 25 pin serial port mouse in the late 80s and externally they look similar.

It should have been serial port, not sure if PS/2 mini din or full serial. Parallel ports are normally for printers and monitors.


I had a Microsoft mouse with 3 buttons. The middle button with wheel came much later I guess. Best thing with those mouse was, one can take out that roller ball and clean it and the mouse is as good as new.


The first laptop I worked on was a dell with a joystick and no mouse pad. The adapter was as big as my car' hand rest. I remembered, it was like a punishment to carry that laptop and those days it used to be a side leather bags results in neck aches.

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

It should have been serial port, not sure if PS/2 mini din or full serial. Parallel ports are normally for printers and monitors.

Just saw the picture, it is a classic D type.

P.S. Moderator Samurai looks exactly like the typical geek in those days (it's a complement).

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

BTW, is Netscape Navigator still around?

Netscape Navigator is alive, (arguably) in a different avatar, as Firefox. From around 2000 to 2004 is was Mozilla.

It seized to exist as Netscape Navigator around 2008.

[asingh1977]

Anyone remember this. Image taken from the web.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by vrprabhu

Now, the picture, Samurai, is really something else - may be it warrants a new thread on how our moderators look like three decades ago

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Indeed, a great picture

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

P.S. Moderator Samurai looks exactly like the typical geek in those days (it's a complement).

Well, that look is also as ancient as RS-232 ports and floppy disks. This was at AT&T Bell Labs, the mothership of telephony and computing technology. I could launch the employee directory program, and find the inventors of Unix, C, C++, etc., in the employee list. That gave me goosebumps then, and does even now.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by asingh1977

Anyone remember this. Image taken from the web.

The logo program of the mid 90s? I remember learning it to teach my nieces and later my sons.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Samurai

... I could launch the employee directory program, and find the inventors of Unix, C, C++, etc., in the employee list. That gave me goosebumps then, and does even now.

I've expressed my awe that you worked in that environment in the past.

I'm afraid that I find it difficult to write a shell script these days --- although I do occasionally succeed, with stuff like having my back-up scripts detect which external disk is attached (simple way: the look for the label in the mount directory). But with no previous computer experience, I immediately took to Unix. The whole attitude of Microsoft/Windows was different, and sort-of objectionable. Unix documentation told one how to do stuff: Microsoft documentation told one what we should be doing... and endlessly repeated the word Microsoft, just in case we forgot. Unix documentation even included rare drops of humour!

My viewpoint here is certainly nostalgic. But as the grandparent of Linux, there is no nostalgia about Unix: it lives and thrives

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by swissknife

Netscape Navigator is alive, (arguably) in a different avatar, as Firefox.

Never knew that - stopped using Firefox long ago; company policies are pretty strict choice is Chrome or IE

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Unix documentation told one how to do stuff: Microsoft documentation told one what we should be doing...

Quite right. I remember that SCO Unix OS being shipped from US with four different volumes of manuals. Had to dump it when we did spring cleaning about three years back - rifled through it then and all the shell commands quickly popped out.

The only exception among Microsoft products was FOXPRO - the early versions had really good documentation (even better than the dBase manuals available or for that matter DOS manuals, which were BTW pretty comprehensive)

I guess the habit of reading books / manuals is a vanishing habit....

[Thad E Ginathom]

My first machine came with a whole shelf of manuals! I recall that there was one on writing device drivers. Haha for a novice! Two volumes of man pages.

[srishiva]

Remember in the early 90s when we did programming, we had to have books for reference for library details etc.
Even in Bell Labs, we used to have our own libraries (not gnu) even in late 90s and had to look through the manuals to find the details.

Its easier now a days to just search for whatever we need. Sun workstations were very common in those days before we switched over to Linux for development environment. Still remember moving grudgingly from unix mail servers to outlook