Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!wjh12!n44a!ima!cca!human-nets From: human-nets@cca.UUCP Newsgroups: fa.human-nets Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V6 #29 Message-ID: <4776@cca.UUCP> Date: Wed, 1-Jun-83 03:10:43 EDT Article-I.D.: cca.4776 Posted: Wed Jun 1 03:10:43 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jul-83 19:21:55 EDT Lines: 300 >From Human-Nets-Request@Rutgers Wed Jun 1 03:10:37 1983 HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 1 Jun 1983 Volume 6 : Issue 29 Today's Topics: Computers and People - Ergonometrics (5 msgs), Call for Papers - Phoenix Conference on Computers and Communications, A Little Humor - "High-Tech Dressing" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 May 83 09:36 EDT (Wednesday) From: clark.wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA Subject: Re: TERM AMB LENGTH 48 AIR-JETS HIGH LASERS ON NO NUKES: I think such air jets would be highly annoying, assuming you could think of a simple, cheap way to implement it. A tiny bump on the F and J keys, similar to the one on the middle keys on accountant's calculators might be nice, but they usually make them too big. On many keyboards, once you are used to them you can often tell from other context, although I am not real sure what... probably other keys or the case or something like that. The F and J keys are not necessarily the right ones, since the D and K fingers stick out a little more, although on the third hand you don't want something that will tend to wear a hole [or calouse] in a finger after a while. --Ray ------------------------------ Date: 18 May 1983 0948-PDT Subject: Let your fingers do the servo-ing From: Dave DyerThe keyboard used on the Symbolics LM2 has noticeably deeped finger cups on "F" and "J" keys, which I have always assumed was help touch typists' fingers servo themselves into position. ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, 18 May 1983 22:04:50 EDT From: Larry-E-Engholm-H@CMU-EE-AMPERE Subject: Air Jets on keyboards The idea of putting air jets on terminal keyboards between the F and G and the H and J keys is certainly a good one. However, I think it would be more useful (though maybe not as practical) to have the air jets come from the center of the F and J keys, for your fingers to home in on. Alternatively, you could shape the surface of the F and J keys differently from the other keys, so they feel different. For example, you could make the curves deeper for those keys. The terminal that I use at work has this feature, and although I still sometimes spell things yjod esu, I think I do it much less often than I would otherwise. Larry ------------------------------ Date: Thu 19 May 83 09:27:26-PDT From: Ken Laws Subject: Air Jets I assume that Phil Agre was not serious about air jets to solve the keyboard positioning problem. Raised dots on a pair of keys are just as effective -- I don't know why they are not more common. I am not surprised that "people who wander into [Phil's] office" at MIT have a problem with keyboard registration. The EMACS editor forces use of a new "home" position with the hands at the sides of the keyboard and the thumbs on the "meta" keys. The right hand is particularly susceptible to loss of registration if a side keypad is used for common cursor motion commands. I occassionally type in near darkness (to let my wife sleep). I find it much easier to use VI under these conditions, although I still have some trouble finding the special symbols on the top (or numeral) row. If my keyboards at home and at work were not identical I would be unable to edit except by hunt and peck. I hope that some new keyboard layout (e.g., the one with separate tilted keypads for the two hands) will catch on, and that the editing functions will be rationally assigned to the standard keys (using a mode switch!!). EMACS and the space-cadet keyboard are not the answer. -- Ken Laws ------------------------------ Date: 23 May 1983 10:38 mst From: <@MIT-DEVMULTICS:Falksenj.Multics@SYSTEM-M.PHOENIX.HONEYW> Subject: Keyboard layout (air jets!?) We all have seen the multitude of keyboard layouts on our various machines. The problem is World-wide. In Stockholm I saw a terminal and typewriter behind the counter at a bank. Swedish has 29 letters and so there are 3 more letter keys. These two machines had them in different places. I don't know if some new keyboard layout will solve many problems. Too many new layouts seems to have caused the problem. Let's look at the situation from this perspective: A person wants to get work done. It is not as important to he-she what the layout is as it is important for them to be well acquainted with it. Proposed -- typewriters and terminals be equiped with a connector which is easily accessable to the user. The user owns his own keyboard which as a matching connector on its umbilical cord. The device receives its input from your keyboard as 8 (9,10?) bit ASCII. It does not care how the data was presented (set the toggle switches and press ENTER button, even). The keyboard is whatever you wish to buy or construct. You could use a VIC-20 or whatever to be an intelligent keyboard with macros which you may redefine on the fly. You can use Dvorak layout if you wish. You can get used to whatever you buy or you can buy/make whatever you want to get used to. The main thing is that you can type the same way whether your keyboard is plugged into an Apple ][ or a Victor 9000 or a VIP7801 or a Selectric. You get used to the feel of your keyboard; some are very light and some are very stiff. That is not as important as the fact that you have adjusted to it. While we're at it, let's make an identifier available to the keyboard so that it can adjust itself, i.e. if you are hooked to an Apple when you press the key it must send esc-D whereas if you are plugged into a VIP7801 it must send esc-A. Then software could also send an identifier so that after you have entered EMACS, the key sends a ^P. Perhaps the ultimate in synergy would be: 1) a "keyboard" which is something like the TRS80 model 100, i.e. a computer in its own right with its own limited display. 2) a "monitor" which gives 132x80 display and is a computer on its own but with more horsepower (hard disk and RAM enough to make a local editing protocol workable. 3) a "modem" which has its own processor and can be told to institute CRC and/or Hamming code checking for when a line is very noisy or when the data integrity is worth the overhead. 4) a "computer" with LOTS of horsepower and the smarts to handle an LEP. It can be viewed as a Number_Crunch utility by the "monitor" in the same way that the "monitor" can be viewed as a Number_Grind utility by the "keyboard". (Crunching is abrupt, grinding is a little slower.) ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1983 19:08 mst From: VaughanW at HI-MULTICS (Bill Vaughan) Subject: Call For Papers Last year at this time I put the Call for Papers for the PC3 conference out to these mailing lists and bulletin boards. We seemed to get a good response, so here it is again. Notice that this year's theme is a little different. Further note that we are formally refereeing papers this year. If anyone out there is interested in refereeing, please send me a note. --------------- Third annual Phoenix Conference on Computers and Communications CALL FOR PAPERS Theme: THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE - Applying Evolving Technology. The conference seeks to attract quality papers with emphasis on the following areas: APPLICATIONS -- Office automation; Personal Computers; Distributed systems; Local/Wide Area Networks; Robotics, CAD/CAM; Knowledge-based systems; unusual applications. TECHNOLOGY -- New architectures; 5th generation & LISP machines; New microprocessor hardware; Software engineering; Cellular mobile radio; Integrated speech/data networks; Voice data systems; ICs and devices. QUALITY -- Reliability/Availiability/Serviceability; Human engineering; Performance measurement; Design methodologies; Testing/validation/proof techniques. Authors of papers (3000-5000 words) or short papers (1000-1500 words) are to submit abstracts (300 words max.) with authors' names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Proposals for panels or special sessions are to contain sufficient detail to explain the presentation. 5 copies of the completed paper must be submitted, with authors' names and affiliations on a separate sheet of paper, in order to provide for blind refereeing. Abstracts and proposals due: August 1 Full papers due: September 15 Notification of Acceptance: November 15 Conference Dates: March 19-21, 1984 Address the abstract and all other replies to: Susan C. Brewer Honeywell LCPD, MS Z22 PO Box 8000 N Phoenix AZ 85066 ---------------- Or you can send stuff to me, Bill Vaughan (VaughanW @ HI-Multics) and I will make sure Susan gets it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue May 24 1983 22:20:44-PDT From: Lauren Weinstein Subject: "High-Tech Dressing" The following article was obviously written to be strictly non-serious. Right? RIGHT? --Lauren-- ---- HIGH-TECH HOPEFUL GETS A DRESSING DOWN by Art Buchwald (from "The Los Angeles Times" [May 22, 1983]) Apparently the job market for college graduates is still in the high-tech industries. The trouble is that most graduates don't know how to apply for a high-tech job. When Rod Beaver came home from an interview the other day, he was very discouraged. "The personnel director only spent three minutes with me and then said I wasn't qualified." "Of course you weren't qualified," his uncle, who works for IBM, told him. "Look at the way you're dressed. You're wearing a blue suit and a white shirt and a conservative tie. And you shaved. Is that any way to apply for a position in a high-tech industry?" Beaver said, "I don't understand. I wanted to make a good impression." "You don't make a good impression in high-tech by wearing a shirt and tie." "I thought everyone at IBM had to wear a dark suit, shirt and tie." "That was in the old days, when it was important to look nice. If you want to be a salesman you can dress like that, but if you're going for the big money in programming and research, they don't trust you if you're too well dressed." *** "What should he have worn?" Beaver's mother asked. "A sport shirt, blue jeans and open sandals. You have to look like a crazy genius before they take any interest in you. You kids think you can just walk into a high-tech company all slicked and dressed up and they'll be impressed with you. But it isn't so. They want people who look like they know something about computers." "I've got an outfit in my closet I can wear, and I'll go out for an interview this afternoon." "Don't go out until you grow a beard. High-tech executives hate people who are cleanshaven. And don't get a haircut for a while -- you want to look like a gorilla if you hope to get the personnel director's attention." "Does he have to grow a beard?" his mother asked. "It could make the difference between $25,000 and $45,000 a year," his uncle said. "What do I say to the personnel director?" Rod asked. "You don't say much. I'll be the personnel man. Now the first question I'll ask you is if you think you would be happy working for the company." "Yes, sir. It's always been my dream to work for a company like this." *** "That's not the correct reply. You say you have no idea, but you're willing to give it a try. Except you don't want to be bugged about how long it takes you to come up with something. And you don't want anyone checking on how many hours you put in." "Does he have to be that surly?" his mother asked. "There are hundreds of kids waiting out there for jobs in high-tech, and all the companies are looking for are surly loners who don't want to be told what to do." "If Rod is going to look unkempt and be surly, how is he going to impress the high-tech clients?" his mother wanted to know. "If he gets the job, he'll never see a customer. The people they hire for research and development are kept in a separate building in cages and they get a banana once or twice a day." Rod thanked his uncle for the advice, and came back the next month to announce that he got a job with the Apple Corp. "I did everything you told me, and they were so impressed with the way I looked and how surly I was that they selected me over two guys from the Stanford Business School, and gave me a surfboard so I wouldn't get bored in my office." ------------------------------ End of HUMAN-NETS Digest ************************