AP Document: Info Highway

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Anyone have a 14 " with bad flicker" Maybe we should invest
in getting libratians better displays. Seriously there is a
problem with all day reading screens and it will be a few
years (maybe very few) till we have drool proof computers.


Dave




        "From a talk by librarian Karen Coyle at the 1994 meeting of
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, widely
disseminated on the Internet:
        ``Many people talk about their concerns for the `last mile' --
for the delivery (of service) into every home. I'm concerned about
the last yard. We can easily move information from one computer to
another, but how do we get it from the computer to the human being
in the proper format?
        ``Not all information is suited to electronic use. Think of the
auto repair manuals that you drag under the car and drip oil on.
Think of children's books, with their drool-proof pages.
        ``There are times when I can only conclude that we have been
gripped by some strange madness.
        ``I have fantasies of kidnapping the entire membership of the
administration's Information Infrastructure Task Force and tying
them down in front of 14-inch screens with really bad flicker and
forcing them to read the whole of Project Gutenberg's electronic
copy of Moby Dick.
        ``Maybe then we'd get some concern about the last yard.''"