taylor@hpdstma.hp.com (Dave Taylor) (07/22/88)
___________________________________________________________________________ | | | Computers & Thursday, July 21, 1988 | | Society Volume 3 | | Digest Number 21 | | | | Editor and Publisher: Dave Taylor, Hewlett-Packard Company | |___________________________________________________________________________| Contents: Computer Shock (a shareware book) ............................. Gordon Meyer LYRICS - The Song Lyrics Server ................................ Dave Taylor Personal Computers aren't ..................................... Gary Ericson ............................................................ Dave Taylor ........................................................... Gary Ericson ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Shock (a shareware book) Gordon Meyer (TK0GRM1%NIU.BITNET@CORNELLC.CCS.CORNELL.EDU) (As reported in _Online Today_ (a CompuServe publication) July, 1988 pg. 8) The first shareware book, COMPUTER SHOCK: LIVING AND WORKING IN A HIGH TECH WORLD edited by Dr. Roger Bullis, a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, is available for downloading on CompuServe. The book takes a critical look at the changes taking place in society as a result of computers. But it would not have even been published without the help of computers...traditional publishers weren't interested so Bullis took the shareware approach. Readers are asked to send a donation of $7.50. Bullis will supply the book directly, on disk of course, for $15.00. The files can be found in data library nine of the IBMNEW forum on CompuServe. Download files SHOCK1.ARC, SHOCK2.ARC, and SHOCKM.COM or contact Bullis directly at UW-Stevens Point, Division of Communications, Stevens Point, WI 54481 Comments_______________________________________ I recently downloaded the book from CIS. After de-arc'ing, the files will just about fill two floppies. Overall the book is interesting and worth a look. The sources are varied, and the authors come from many backgrounds. The files ("chapters") are not, as I expected, in ASCII format. They have been compiled into .COM files using some other shareware program that is intended for the creation of disk-based books. I found this to be annoying since the user-interface doesn't give any information as the length of the chapter. When I read I like to preview the chapter by flipping through it...this user interface makes that virtually impossible as you can't easily jump N pages ahead. Also, if you have a color monitor be prepared for some garish screen colors. My conclusion: The articles *are* worth it, but the presentation spoils it all. The shareware computer-based book is a great idea (and I would like to see others try it out!) but the user interface has got to be improved. I would have rather seen the chapters provided in regular ASCII format. That way I could load them into my text editor and preview the articles. Another, though minor, issue here is that the .COM files limits it to readers who have MS-DOS machines (or can emulate them! :-). Disclaimer: I'm not connected to CompuServe (other than being a subscriber) or Bullis. ------------------------------ LYRICS - The Song Lyrics Server Dave Taylor (taylor) [the following demonstrates quite well just how far people are branching out with on-line information -- it's from an article in the BITNET publication "NetMonth", edited by Chris Cordon] LYRICS@UMASS.BITNET is a file server storing song lyrics. It accepts commands by mail only. The format for a request from the lyrics server is as follows: Command/param1=option/param2=option/param3=option There are 3 commands available for requests. Lyrics - prints lyrics Albums - prints album titles and authors Songs - prints album titles, authors, and songs on album These commands will accept 3 parameters. /Author=xx restricts search to works of author xx /Album=xx restricts search to album xx /Song=xx restricts search to song titled xx Examples: Albums/Author=Peter Gabriel lists album titles of Peter Gabriel Lyrics/Album=So prints lyrics of any album entitled So Songs/Album=So lists all songs on any album entitled So Lyrics/Song=Red Rain lists lyrics of any song entitled Red Rain Multiple parameters are also valid. For example: Lyrics/Album=So/Song=Red Rain lists lyrics of a song Red Rain that is on album So Albums/Author=Peter Gabriel/Song=Red Rain lists album by Peter Gabriel that contains song Red Rain Requesting Lyrics: To make a request to the server, simply type the appropriate command line in the body of a message to LYRICS@UMASS. If you would like to make a request from the server, a good place to start would be sending just "Albums" (the Albums command with no parameters) which will list all album entries. Multiple requests can be made in one letter by typing each command set on a separate line. The subject line is ignored by the server. The server checks for mail every 10 minutes, so a response shouldn't take longer than that under most circumstances. Network replies obviously depend on other factors as well. Some requests may entail lengthy responses. Users with minimal file space shoudl be aware of this. Note: a * next to a song title indicates that it is an instrumental, or no lyrics are available for it. Advanced help is available by typing HELP/option where option is one of the following available topics: FORMAT - instructions for contributing lyrics SEARCH - describes the wildcard string search capability Contributions are always encouraged and appreciated. Please send all questions, comments, corrections, additions, and whatnot to: Lyrics Manager, LYRMAN@UMASS.BITNET. ------------------------------ Personal Computers aren't Gary Ericson (garye@hpdsla.hp.com) [note: this discussion fragment is taken from an ongoing HP internal discussion of future computer personalization....] In the August MicroTimes (one of a number of free computer magazines in California) an article appeared which emphasized again something a lot of people have been saying, especially recently. One section (reprinted here without permission) says: "The so-called Personal Computer may have been personal when Wozniak and Jobs invented it, but it rapidly became just an intelligent work station for business. Even Apple had to finally surrender and go full force into business usages..." He goes on to talk about some fairly strange, irrelevant stuff, but his (and my) basic point is, the "Personal" Computer really isn't. You can call it "Single User" and "Individually Configurable", but I don't believe you can call it "Personal". My wallet is personal, my checkbook, glasses, clothes, and my Geodex (time manager notebook) are personal, but an HP Vectra at work (or at home) just isn't. Even a portable Vectra doesn't seem personal to me when I have to lug it out of its hiding place (hall closet), clear space on the dining room table, set it up, turn it on, then wade through a bunch of tedious steps to do some very impersonal work. At the end of the article, he says, "Instead of spending the future endlessly cloning IBM's new products, a clever company has the opportunity to make an end-run into the consumer computer market that can be far bigger than all the PCs sold in the past 10 years." There's an opening for some company to define a whole new kind of personal computing - computers that are "personal", that work with and for the individual owner in his/her everyday living. I can't believe they would look like a box on a desk. Maybe they'll look so different that they won't be called "computers" so that people won't confuse them with the "Single User Workstations" in business. Maybe they'll be called "Assistants", "Servants", "Buddies" (well, maybe not...). What do you think? To encourage discussion, I won't tell you what *my* opinion is 8^). Gary Ericson ------------------------------ Personal Computers, etc Dave Taylor (taylor@hplabsz.hpl.hp.com) There are lots of aspects to this discussion of `personal' computers, and this rather long message is perhaps a bit of a new view of the issue... The first thing I'd like to talk about is this whole idea of `personal' objects. To me, the key element here is the ability to customize the object, with that having almost a direct correlation to how `personal' I feel it is. For example, I have a very personal album and CD collection at home (~1000 elements when added together). It is personal because I have been able to customize the combination of consumer elements (eg. individual albums and CDs). Each element, however, is *not* personal because it's not unique. I think this holds true of just about anything we can think about. When I move into a new place it feels impersonal and uncomfortable *until I customize, or personalize it*. This can be done simply by my moving my furniture in and unpacking my boxes of stuff, or even more simply by tacking a couple of posters on the wall. But the transition to when something is *personalized* is when it has had common, `consumer', `impersonal' elements combined in a way that customized it. If we turn to computers, I would argue that the main thing stopping computers being really, truly, personal is that it is too difficult to personalize them. Sure we can do silly things like add aliases that we like, change our prompt, and even $EDITOR, but at a fundamental level we're too bound by the constraints of the system and the packages therein. Indeed, let's again go off on a slight tangent. The best, no, let me restate that slightly stronger; the *best* computer game I've ever seen was one that showed up about five years ago on the Apple II computer. It was called "Robot Wars" and was beautifully simple and really demonstrated just what is missing with the usual paradigm of computer interaction. The game was pretty simple; there was a `robot programming language' that you could write robot instructions in, and then you could pit your robot against other robots, either default ones shipped with the game or ones that your friends had written. What did the game offer, then? The ability to *personalize* the interaction. A big win, but a game that was ahead of its time (indeed, I don't believe the market is yet ready for it still, five years later) For a computer to be personal, we have to accept that it is inherently impersonal. But that's okay, because we can turn that to our advantage and create pseudo-personalities for the machines. Sure it's anthropomorphism, but I think that a suprising number of people would quickly grow to like a computer like HAL in "2001: A Space Oddysey", where not only did it help you do what you had to do, but it was a `friend'. Surely we can't get more personal than that? I'm sure there are people right now shaking their heads, saying "no no no...not another `cute' interface!". I agree. Instead, what I envision is a computer interface that learns how you interact with the machine, the kinds of tasks you work on, the typical mistakes you make, etc, and gradually evolves to HELP you. After all, the computer is a tool for people, not vice versa. A trivial, but lovely example of this, is an abbreviation that I have for use within the "vi" editor; ab teh the That tells the editor that whenever I type in "teh", I really mean to type in "the" and to fix it appropriately. An incredibly simple thing, but it demonstrates exactly how to `personalize' a computer... I think that issues like physical appearance, weight, size of display, etc are all best left for the direct customer interaction groups, just like options with automobiles. I don't want a computer that looks like the one Gary wants. I can guarantee that, independant of what he wants and what I actually want. Perhaps another of the key issues here is our transition into the so-called information society. One of the aspects of that is we are becoming more and more dependant on *information* and the ability to communicate. A glance at just about any field, from academics to agriculture, from zoology to the inner workings of Zoetrope Studios, it's all changing because of the need for information and the ability to `do something with' that information. And how do we accomplish this? Through computers. Surely, then, the need for an `information assistant', or more appropriately, a `personal information assistant' is part of this whole gig too? Fragments like the Elm Filter program are just drops in the bucket... I fear I've wandered around enough that I should probably stop here and let some other people comment... --- Dave Taylor ------------------------------ Personal Computers aren't Gary Ericson (garye@hpdsla.hp.com) Let me rephrase my original posting a little. I have this feeling that there is a revolution lurking around the corner that is going to change the way human beings use computers, and, somehow, it's going to make them more 'personal'. What that means is not clear to me yet, but it's not just "consumer" computing. I can't imagine that desk-bound, whizzy-graphics, powerful workstations will go away, but in the realm under that level, for doing "personal" tasks (like keeping schedules, calendars, phone lists, writing, reading, filing, communicating, organizing,...), I smell something *new* coming, and it will replace everything from calculators to PC's, and eliminate the need for some types of software on the desk-bound stations (like text processing, email,...). Jack Repenning [elsewhere in the discussion] asks: > Do you claim it's not personal because: > > - It's inconveniently heavy Yes, and I can't whip it out easily and jot down a note or look up something. > - It's not personalized to you Yes, though this is partially correctable by installing software I like. Then, can I get it in any color? Can it be covered in cow-hide or suede? > - You have to use it for your work Not necessarily, unless that's *all* I use it for. I'd like it to help me around the house as well. Doug Hartman [again, in another part of the discussion] writes: > I've seen "consumer" used for "personal" in other descriptions > of this market. I'm not thinking strictly of a "consumer-oriented" product. I think some *versions* of this will be for general consumers, but I'd guess HP would make the high-end of it. Like comparing the HP-41C to a Casio "four-banger" or the Vectra RS/20 to a Commodore VIC 20. So, do you see a similar revolution coming? What will computing be like? Gary Ericson ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE: For the next few weeks the information server that was available as info@atom is shut down while I move my home to another computer. It is expected to return shortly. Articles for submission to the digest should be sent to the editor, Dave Taylor, at either of the following electronic addresses: comp-soc@hplabs.hp.com ...!hplabs!comp-soc This digest is published approximately weekly, the articles representing the views of the authors, not the Computers and Society Digest editorial staff, Hewlett-Packard, or anyone else. The copyright to each article is owned by the author, the copyright of the entire digest (including format) is (C) Copyright 1988 Dave Taylor. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, any article can be retransmitted as long as an appropriate citation of the source is included. ___________________________________________________________________________ | | | End of Computers & Society Digest | |___________________________________________________________________________|