More than anything else, the greatest danger to good computer science research today may be excessive relevance ......As the intensity of research in a particular area increases, so does the impulse to keep its results secret." |via dr dobb's

the full quote:

More than anything else, the greatest danger to good computer science research today may be excessive rele- vance. Evidence for the worldwide fascination with computers is everywhere, ftom the articles on the financial, and even the front pages of the newspapers, to the difficulties that even the most prestigious universities experience in finding and keeping faculty in cornputer science. The best professors, instead of teaching bright students, join start-up companies, and often discover that their brightest students have preceded them. Computer science is in the limelight, especially those aspects, such as systems, languages, and machine architecture, that may have immediate commercial applications. The attention is flattering, but it can work to the detriment of good research.

As the intensity of research in a particular area increases, so does the impulse to keep its results secret. | ritchie's turing award lecture: reflecting on software research, cacm, vol27, 8. august 1984

larry tesler received the chi "life time practice award" 2011. In his talk he goes from the 1960s upwards to tell his personal story of how things developed in the area of usability, interfaces, ... in labs as parc, nls, apple, ...

be aware: participatory and collaborative design existed already in the 1960s: simply take some art students and a stadium ...

in there his story about how "cut&paste" (publishing houses) became "copy & paste"; how functionality and use of the mouse changed over time. in his collaboration with a secretary he found out the following:

- character key type characters, not commands. - the intuitive use of a mouse is to point at things, not to accept and delete commands | tesler: designing for 6x10⁹, CHI2011

not sure if the chaps who are searching for map,

Search request: GM manufactoring automation protocol | referrers

will be satisfied to find this. the gm heritage site at least promises to offer more, if you contact them.

anyhow, i enjoyed to recall the old findings, especially strange hugo gernsback and his vision for what we call, by now "e-health". published 1963, thought of by gernsback, date not identified.


good to find out erbzine is not a dead link by now.