Monday, March 14

Douglas Engelbart - The Demo (1968)

   This post follows up on one of the books I reviewed last week.  "From
   Memex to Hypertext" included a report by Douglas C. Engelbart, "Program
   on Human Effectiveness".  The full text of that report is available
   online:
     <http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/Archive/Post68/PrHumanEffectiveness.html>

   The program's aim was "to bring significant improvement to the real-life
   problem-solving effectiveness of individuals".  The culmination of this
   program was a live demonstration in 1968, retrospectively dubbed the
   "Mother of All Demos", where the computer mouse made its public debut:
     <http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html>

   "On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17
   researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at
   Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute
   live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been
   working on since 1962. ... This was the public debut of the computer
   mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that
   day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as
   well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different
   sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface."

   Some highlights:
   * Clip 8: Doug demonstrates working with a graphic file tagged with
     hyperlinked items. Clicking on a link in the graphic, Doug jumps to
     separate items, such as texts, linked to the graphic.
   * Clip 11: Doug describes the goals of NLS (online system).
   * Clip 12: Describes the mouse in more detail... "I don't know why we
     call it a mouse. It started that way and we never changed it."
   * Clip 22: Doug illustrates how NLS can be used to construct,
     collaboratively modify, and ultimately publish reports and papers.
     (including hypertext linking)
   * Clip 25: In this segment Doug shifts to two-person collaboration.

   Another page about the Demo:
     <http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/dougs-1968-demo.html>

   This page includes links to 30th and 40th anniversary panel discussions,
   plus links to related publications.


   [If links in this email are garbled, try viewing the post on the blog
    <http://b-list.posterous.com/> ]

Sunday, March 6

Mini-Reviews of Books Read, February 2011

   Mini-reviews of books I read last month.  The highlight was definitely
   "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.


   1. "Zero History" by William Gibson
     <http://www.amazon.com/Zero-History/dp/0399156828>

   This book completes what has become known as the "Bigend" trilogy.
   Hollis Henry, formerly of art band "The Curfew", has been lured by
   marketing big-gun Hubertus Bigend to find out who's behind the exclusive
   underground "Gabriel Hounds" fashion label.  Other characters from
   previous books in the trilogy, such as translator/codebreaker Milgrim,
   also feature.  Eventually the plot develops from a simple search for a
   denim designer into a battle for the very existence of Bigend's Blue Ant
   agency.  The hostage swap climax at the end of the novel arguably makes
   good action movie material, but comes across as contrived and
   unbelievable.

   Gibson's recent trend of brand name-dropping continues in this novel.
   This time everyone's using iPhones and MacBook Airs, posting to Twitter.
   Very current, at least for 2010, but even an Apple fanboy like myself
   found this irritating.  Why would a so-called "visionary" author date
   his work so readily?  Maybe he should ditch his MacBook and go back to
   using a typewriter, thus forcing him to think in more abstract terms
   again?  Or maybe he's tired of the cyberpunk label, and wants to be
   recognised for writing "serious" literature?  The problem is, his recent
   work fails to satisfy me on any level.  I think this book confirms that
   I no longer consider myself a William Gibson fan.


   2. "The Snow Goose" by Paul Gallico
     <http://www.amazon.com/Snow-Goose/dp/0394445937>

   This short story is about the unusual friendship between a reclusive
   hunchback, a young girl and a snow goose.  The girl found the wounded
   bird, and took it to the man who has a reputation for healing injured
   birds.  The snow goose recovers and soon flies off to join its fellow
   migrating snow geese.  But the bird never forgets what the man did for
   him, and often returns to the lighthouse where the man lives.  Later,
   when the man volunteers to help evacuate stranded soldiers on the
   beaches of Dunkirk, the snow goose flies with him, acting as a lookout.
   Possibly a bit sentimental, but still a good fable about friendship and
   courage.

   The edition I read included a second short story: "The Small Miracle".
   Set in post-WW2 Assisi, it's a story about a young orphan.  He wants
   to take his sick donkey to the crypt of Saint Francis and ask for a
   miracle to cure her.  But before that can happen the boy has to deal
   with the Church hierarchy to get approval.  In a way the boy's situation
   parallels Saint Francis' own struggles with authority.  Another simple
   but uplifting story, about faith and perseverance.


   3. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
     <http://www.amazon.com/Road/dp/0307476316>

   "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what
   had gone before.  Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the
   world."  These lines are from the opening paragraph of "The Road", a
   story about an unnamed young boy and his father struggling to survive a
   nuclear winter.  The world has become a bleak, unforgiving place, and
   the lack of food has turned some survivors into lawless savages who do
   terrible things.

   The pair are travelling along a road in search of somewhere warmer.
   Flashbacks are used to fill in some of the back-story.  Nothing is said
   about what caused the end of civilisation as we know it.  The focus is
   not on the global event, but rather on the personal story of the man and
   his son.  The precariousness of their situation is clear: "Borrowed time
   and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it."

   The author received a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2007 for this novel.
   It's not hard to see why.  While some may find the storyline depressing
   and often disturbing, it is told in an engaging way.  The words are
   well-crafted, and the themes about human strengths and weaknesses
   (mostly the latter) are so compelling that you want to read on.  The man
   knows he will die eventually and worries how his son will cope without
   him.  They are "good guys", carrying "the fire" (or flame of humanity).
   Ironically, in protecting his son, the man sometimes does questionable
   things.  The boy seems to realise this, and starts asking things like:
   "We'll always be the good guys, right?" There may be hope, after all.

   The book was made into a movie, and is well worth a look if you don't
   have much time to read.  The movie is faithful to the original story,
   with solid performances and a great soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren
   Ellis.  I found it helpful watching the movie a couple of weeks after
   finishing the book.  I'll probably read more work by Cormac McCarthy in
   the coming months.


   4. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories"
      by F. Scott Fitzgerald
     <http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Benjamin-Stories/dp/0143105493>

   This is collection of seven short stories by Fitzgerald, a preeminent
   writer of the Jazz Age (between the World Wars).  "The Great Gatsby" is
   one of my favourite novels.  The title story was recently made into a
   movie.  I haven't seen it, and apparently there are major differences.

   A varied collection of stories.  The twist in "Head an Shoulders" is
   amusing, and the title story touches on some interesting themes about
   age-related prejudices.  Other stories are cautionary tales.  Overall,
   an entertaining mix, although not always politically-correct.


   5. "Inviting Silence: Universal Principles of Meditation"
      by Gunilla Norris
     <http://www.amazon.com/Inviting-Silence/dp/0974240508>

   This book provides simple advice on how people can use mediation to help
   cope with the challenges of everyday life.  The need to be constantly
   entertained and stimulated seems to make us afraid to embrace silence.
   However, silence and meditation are useful.  The use of meditation is
   common to various faiths, but this book doesn't focus on meditation
   just as a religious aid.  It's a more general-purpose technique that can
   help anybody deal with an otherwise busy lifestyle.

   I found this book by chance while looking for something to read on a bus
   trip home.  By coincidence, I had recently decided to cut down my TV
   viewing (I still regularly watch a handful of programs, but usually
   time-shifted).  This book reinforced what I'd experienced: quiet time
   free of distractions not only helps me clear my mind and focus, but also
   makes me feel less stressed and rushed.  As they say, it's the pause
   that refreshes.


   6. "From Memex to Hypertext" edited by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn
     <http://www.amazon.com/Memex-Hypertext/dp/0125232705>

   This books collects essays written or inspired by Vannevar Bush, a
   pioneer of the modern "information revolution".  Bush developed early
   electromechanical computers, starting in the 1930s.  Later he started
   thinking about the nature of education and scientific research, and
   devised ways to help extend human ability using technology.  Key essays
   "As We May Think" and "Memex 2", written for mainstream press, described
   a literal desktop machine (i.e. the whole machine was built in the form
   of a desk).  He called it the Memex, or memory extender.  The goal was
   to provide a complete library in miniature, with tools to bring together
   existing content and create new content, linked together in "trails".
   Such machines, he argued, would help us learn as well as promote the
   development of new ideas.

   While the vision proved prescient, the technology described by Bush was
   biased by his work with electromechanical or analog computers.  Instead,
   interconnected digital computers would eventually deliver much of the
   vision.

   The book also contains essays that expand or restate Bush's vision, for
   example "Program on Human Effectiveness" by Doug Engelbart and "As We
   Will Think" by Ted Nelson.  Consequently, this book brings together the
   foundation works on hypertext, a key component of the World Wide Web.
   Well worth a read for anyone interested in the Web and technology in
   general.