From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!Carter@RUTGERS
Newsgroups: net.works
Title: thumbpads vs. mice
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1069
Posted: Sat Apr 23 19:50:00 1983
Received: Wed Apr 27 07:17:29 1983

From:  _Bob <Carter@RUTGERS>

    From: harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!sdchema!jmcg at Ucb-Vax
    Re:   thumbpads vs. mice
                                                  Jim McGinness
          sdcsvax!jmcg    (619)452-4016           UC San Diego, Chemistry
     or   decvax!jmcg

    * Will the future remember Bill Joy as the inventor of the Joystick?

Hi Jim,

Would you be kind enough to supply a pointer to documentation for your
observation?  I had thought that the word 'joystick' (to mean a small
gimbaled stick, often connected to two or more potentiometers, and
used for computer games and other applications) had a different
origin.

Such devices have been used for radio-control of remotely piloted
model aircraft since the 1950's, and 'joy-stick,' to mean the control
column of a full-scale aircraft, appears as early as 1916.  It was
most probably originally a mildly dirty joke.

Unless you were also joking (and I am being dense about it), your
remark suggests that there is a Bill Joy, and that he used 'joystick'
as a trademark.  What product did Bill Joy manufacture?  Is he still
in business?  Do you happen to recall where you first saw this use of
the word?

Thanks,

_Bob