Selected Essays In Contemporary Computing

This book is a selection of essays on relevant topics already published in Computer. The more general essays have been selected for each section, a general introduction has been written, and each section is introduced by a fairly lengthy essay depicting the general area and serving as a prelude the more particular essays in each section.

The intersection of ethics, law, business and computer software is the subject of this collection of essays and speeches by MacArthur Foundation Grant winner Richard M. Stallman. This collection includes historical writings such as The GNU Manifesto, which defined and launched the activist Free Software Movement, along with new writings on hot topics in copyright, patent law, and the controversial issue of "trusted computing." Stallman takes a critical look at common abuses of copyright law and patents when applied to computer software programs, and how these abuses damage our entire society and remove our existing freedoms. He also discusses the social aspects of software and how free software can create community and social justice. Given the current turmoil in copyright and patent law, including the DMCA and proposed CBDTPA, these essays are more relevant than ever. Stallman tackles head-on the essential issues driving the current changes in copyright laws. He argues that for creativity to flourish, software must be free of inappropriate and overly-broad legal constraints. Over the past twenty years his arguments and actions have changed the course of software history; this new book is sure to impact the future of software and legal policies in the years to come.

This collection includes previously published and unpublished essays on modern music, postmodern musicology and literary theory, and analytical studies of Haydn and Schubert, written by the distinguished composer and Columbia University professor emeritus George Edwards.

"The nexus of computer science and cognitive science will remain a fruitful area for research and reflection. Humans, computers, and their context form a trinity that will require the sort of insight that these essays embody. If we are to realize the promise of intelligent systems in all their forms, we will need the concepts, methods, and reflections contained in this book." --Nigel Shadbolt, University of Southampton, "from the Foreword" The notion of Human-Centered Computing (HCC) was introduced as a named program at the NASA-Ames Research Center. Both the evolution of HCC and its current theoretical and research foundations are laid out in the essays that are compiled into this volume. HCC, from this perspective, has the goal of creating technologies that amplify and extend human perceptual, cognitive, and collaborative capabilities. With contributions from more than three dozen coauthors, these 40 essays from the Human-Centered Computing department of "IEEE Intelligent Systems" lay out and clarify the principles of HCC.

Based on author David A. Grier's column "In Our Time," which runs monthly in Computer magazine, Too Soon To Tell presents a collection of essays skillfully written about the computer age, an era that began February 1946. Examining ideas that are both contemporary and timeless, these chronological essays examine the revolutionary nature of the computer, the relation between machines and human institutions, and the connections between fathers and sons to provide general readers with a picture of a specific technology that attempted to rebuild human institutions in its own image.