CACR Seminar | Monday March 5 2PM | Toward a Minimal Cosmology of Software

Monday, March 5, 2 pm, in rm. 100 Powell-Booth (CACR)

Dr. Theodor Holm Nelson
Designer-Generalist, The Internet Archive

“Toward a Minimal Cosmology of Software”

Abstract: The computer world is a tangle of traditions that are deeply entrenched: operating systems that force hierarchy on a nonhierarchical  world; tables that force regularity on an irregular world; the PARC user interface (”GUI”), designed for secretaries in order to sell printers, which substitutes fonts for connection. Meanwhile, no databases are suitable for casual users who want to manage their evolving lives. We will discuss minimalist alternatives to the prevailing paradigm – not to overthrow it, obviously, but perhaps to create an island / control center of simplicity, elegance and personal usability.

About the speaker:  Theodor (Ted) Nelson is an Internet pioneer and a controversial figure, known for coining such words as hypertext,
micropayment, etc. He was first to envision a personal computer industry and world-wide publishing between computer screens. His designs are for an entirely different computer world to keep track of our ever-changing lives and ideas.

Undergraduate Research Fellows Develop Cell-Phone Medical Devices

One looks like little more than a stethoscope head attached to a wire; the other seems to be an oven mitt with three metal disks sewn on. Simple, yes, but these prototype medical devices — developed by young Caltech researchers working on a SURF project — could one day save lives.

Four undergrads have spent the summer developing and refining the prototypes as part of the cell-phone medicine project, headed by Julian Bunn of the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) and Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor and professor of computer science at Caltech. The lofty long-term goal of the project?  To make the “10-cent medical checkup” a reality.

( … read more at http://features.caltech.edu/features/210 )