Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died

Re:Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died by WalterBright on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @12:18AM (#25427279)

My idea at the time was to add a morse code key (a rocker switch, one side was dit the other dah) so you could send messages privately while in a meeting.

Another idea is to make a walkie-talkie mode, where you could communicate with nearby cell phones without needing a cell tower.

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Re:Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died by amscanne on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:17AM (#25427550)

Not sure about the US, but Canada had such a mixed cellular & push-to-talk network in the 90s called MIKE, and it was quite popular in some industries (e.g. trades). I don’t think it was actually a walk-in-talkie, but the user experience was identical.

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Re:Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died by Exmoor on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:41AM (#25427671)

In the USA it was Nextel.

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Re:Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died by pfarrell on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @03:45AM (#25428303)

Exactly. Those phones were very popular on construction job sites. Have a buddy who used to sell them. He talked me into getting one that supported J2ME. It really wasn’t much, but, in 2002/3, was the aha moment that showed where programmable phones would go.

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Re:Eric Engstrom, co-creator of DirectX, has died by secondcoming on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @08:48AM (#25430232)

> My idea at the time was to add a morse code key (a rocker switch, one side was dit the other dah) so you could send messages privately while in a meeting.

When the very first phones had physical buttons, less sophisticated UIs and T9 text entry, I remember being able to send an SMS from my phone without ever taking it out of my pocket. All from muscle memory.

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