> Each Unisys ICON came with its own monitor and a very robust keyboard with a trackball embedded in it.
The trackballs were robust indeed.
Due to the client/server nature; a classroom of kids logging in at the same time could take several minutes and most of that time would be filled with a classroom of 7 year olds spinning the heck out of the tennis ball sized trackball.
One more knowledgeable teacher once told us that the this probably made the computers slower because each time you do something it has to pause and decide what to do. I guess he understood interrupts somehow.
But that logic doesn’t work on 8 year olds with a trackball and nothing else to do.
The trackballs were robust indeed.
Due to the client/server nature; a classroom of kids logging in at the same time could take several minutes and most of that time would be filled with a classroom of 7 year olds spinning the heck out of the tennis ball sized trackball.
One more knowledgeable teacher once told us that the this probably made the computers slower because each time you do something it has to pause and decide what to do. I guess he understood interrupts somehow.
But that logic doesn’t work on 8 year olds with a trackball and nothing else to do.