Many of the things we do with our computers nowadays have been invented by Xerox. It’s an amazing story, and often recounted - but let me summarize it here. To be more precise, the story is about Xerox PARC, the Palo Alto Research Center.

Nearly everything that’s crucial for our computers today has either been invented there, or applied there for the first time. Graphical displays, graphical user interfaces, WYSIWYG, windows, menus, Ethernet, laser printers, object-oriented programming.
These would all go on to be successfully implemented by every single computer company.
Except for Xerox.

Years ago, I was house-sitting for friends in the middle of France. A wonderful place, far away from the world. Even the internet had a hard time reaching us. I was taking advantage of the time and the place to get rid of all the daily (disturbing) influences and to listen to the sound coming from within me.

I was busy writing an article for a customer, to be published in a magazine. About why on earth I wanted to teach programming to others, instead of doing it myself. I may try to find the article, one of these days. The customer has moved to another world (the oracle appeared after the sun set).