Much has been written about the Alto, the computer developed in Xerox's PARC (Alto original price? $32,000), the graphical interface and mouse ideas eventually leading directly to MAC, and all PCs for that matter.

Here is a clip from Byte Magazine in 1981 describing some of the new devices and ideas:

The mouse is a small box with three buttons on the top and several ball bearings on the bottom. A slender cable connects the mouse to the Alto keyboard . . . The mouse is typically held in the user's right hand and rolled along the table on a soft piece of plastic that provides traction for the ball bearings.

Movement is detected by the motion of one of the ball bearings. The mouse reports changes in position to the Alto. From this, a cursor on the Alto display can be positioned. . . . Alto programs can be controlled with the mouse alone independent of a keyboard.

Then this paragraph that was like a fortune teller:

A stand-alone Alto is usable, but the best configuration is a group of Altos connected by an Ethernet system. Since the Ethernet system is a local network, a special device called a gateway was developed to allow local Ethernet networks to speak to other Ethernet networks or packet networks of other types. Many companies are researching network schemes that would allow packet transmission across cable-television lines. Since these cables are currently installed in many homes and buildings, it is not difficult to imagine a city with an "information grid," analogous to the electric-power grid that exists today. Combined with an electronic mail system (a prototype called Laurel is used on Altos today) the possibilities are staggering.

Update: Forgot to mention the coincidence that the digitized Bible resides at The University of Texas at Austin near my sister Meredith. I was overestimating the age, as well. I was thinking a thousand years; actually printed 1454 or 1455, 548 years ago.

We saw these strange round balls along the side of a side road in East Windsor Connecticut. They were hard and bumpy and most were about the size of baseballs - some like softballs.

Sadly my digital camera croaked, so here is a scan from my scanner - pretty good 3D picture for a flatbed.

It took Martha a while in the books to find out they were from the Osage Orange tree. The internet was little help until I knew the name - then there were a lot of neat references to this strange tree. Google and even Jeeves search engines just didn't know what to suggest when my search was "I found these weird bumpy green things off a tree" If you want info about these, here is one link.