Another Quiet Day
Start of a New Course
I asked my students on the MA to start weblogs, a place where they can put up their research notes and the links they find on the lecture subjects.
Stuff like that.
(Optional, of course, since this is an extra-curricular effort on my part to get them to experience the practical benefits of having an online notebook.)
The first few 'blogs have been launched, just in time for my first proper lecture, done in collaboration with the esteemed Tom Abba.
The weblogs so far:
The typographically playful Regurgitated Thoughts of Chloe.
Wenchuan's Yes By Default.
More to come.
And because I'm a nice guy, (despite my evilness) I'm going to give them a couple of links that might be relevant to tonight's lecture:
"The Early History of Smalltalk." This is a lot more readable than the PDF version I read before, but it did have a few typos last time I checked.
It's also a pretty heavy read but it is the most comprehensive overview of the first and last proper graphical desktop environment in computing history.
Douglas Engelbart's Bootstrap Institute. It is dedicated to trying to further his vision of how computing could help you think rather than merely helping you work like the current systems do.
Also important: The greatest computer demo in history. Douglas Engelbart's demo of his Augment system, the first demonstration of concepts such as the computer mouse, hypertext, shared screen collaboration and a lot, lot more.
And finally, simply because the parallels with his own ideas are simply too strong: The wikipedia page on Ted Nelson.
That should get people started.
Baldur Bjarnason – 7/10/05
