HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Jakob Nielsen <nielsen@bellcore.com>
Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on HCI
X-Xxdate: Thu, 20 Aug 92 17:50:57 GMT
Organization: Bellcore - Bell Communications Research
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d7
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 16:51:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.122351.26964@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Michael Seese,
bq276@cleveland.Freenet.Edu writes:
>I am interested in information on HCI.  Specifically, what are
>the SIGs, newsletters, magazines, and other computer-based groups
>I should be looking into?  Any input would be helpful.

The one thing to do would be to join the ACM SIGCHI (special interest group
on computer-human interaction). From there, you can branch out to join
other groups, subscribe to other publications, or attend other meetings.
SIGCHI membership will guarantee you lots of direct mail advertising such
opportunities.

SIGCHI membership gives you a subscription to the SIGCHI Bulletin which is
a nice newsletter with information about current events in the field, again
allowing you to estimate better what other things you want to do. Also, one
of the main benefits is several free conference proceedings mailed to you
every year, including the proceedings of the CHI conferences. For example,
if you cannot afford to go to INTERCHI in Amsterdam in April 1993, you
would get the proceedings anyway by being a SIGCHI member.
--
Jakob Nielsen, nielsen@bellcore.com, fax (201)  829-2645
Bellcore, MRE 2P-370, 445 South St., Morristown, NJ 09792-1910, USA
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: euaneg@eua.ericsson.se (Nils-Erik.Gustafsson)
Subject: Re: Display Settings (i.e background/foreground colors)
Keywords: background foreground display
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 12:17:16 GMT

caldwell@ie.engr.wisc.edu (Barrett Caldwell) writes:

>In article <1992Aug11.201313.21299@tcsi.com> jrk@nittany.tcs.com (John Koper) writes:
>>

>>One school of thought is that the background should be light
>>(i.e. white) and the foreground text should be dark (i.e. black).  This
>>is what is done by default for example on the Macintosh.  The reasoning
>>I've heard for this is that when you shift your eyes back and forth between
>>the computer screen and paper, the foreground and background are the same.
>>
>Although this is a pretty good reason, it's not the only one.  A recent talk
>given here (I'd need more time to dig up the name) pointed out that the 
>retinal accomodation for black-on-white is different than white-on-black.  
>Over time, the VDT user has more eye stress shifting back and forth.  Also, 
>the bright background makes screen reflections less of a hassle.

I believe the final comment to be the most important. A brighter screen
is less sensitive to glare and (possibly) contrast "shock" from looking
at the screen and beside it. However, the luminance of a positive image
VDU is very far from that of e.g. office windows & lighting, and you
still need to heed the old advice of making sure that light comes from
the side and ~never~ from behind or in front of the VDU.

>>Another school of thought I've heard is that you want the least amount of
>>light coming off the computer screen as possible.  Typical use of this method
>>is having a dark (i.e black)  background and light foreground text (i.e. green
>>or yellow, even in a windowing environment where these colors are
>>changeable.
>>
>>
>With light characters, flicker is reduced on many screens, and you can get 
>larger stroke widths, making easier to read characters.  If you can get a 
>screen with a refresh rate of over 90 Hz (many new monitors exceed this), a
>10ms decay to 10% luminance, and stroke widths of over 38mm, the long term
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^
                                                      0.38  (I hope!)    
 
>health of the operator would push towards black characters on white background.


And I fear that only few screens have a non-interlaced 90 Hz refresh...

Let the users decide what they feel comfortable with! Remember
to use character sets intended for positive or negative screens,
respectively. A font that looks good on a dark background will
often be very thin on a bright one. (Think of a snowball in
a coal heap and a piece of coal in snow as a simile.)


Nils-Erik Gustafsson

Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: bq276@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Seese)
Subject: Wanted: Info on HCI
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 12:23:51 GMT


An open invitation:  I am new to the field of HCI.  I work at
NASA-Lewis Research Center.  My focus is on documentation and 
screen design, rather than actual system design.  This fall I 
will begin my Master's at Cleveland State University. 

I am interested in information on HCI.  Specifically, what are
the SIGs, newsletters, magazines, and other computer-based groups
I should be looking into?  Any input would be helpful.
-- 
I'm quite content to take my chances
Against the Guildensterns and Rosencrantzes

                         - Spin Doctors
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Color Schemes
From: chrisp@sdl.mdcbbs.com (Chris Pointon)
Date: 12 Aug 92 12:13:21 GMT
Organization: Shape Data (Division of EDS), Cambridge UK
In-reply-to: mike@isgtec.com's message of 10 Aug 92 12:55:34 GMT

In reply to the original posting:

In article todd@microware.com (Todd Earles) writes:
> I am looking for any information I can find about color schemes as
> they apply to graphical user interfaces. ...

Ignoring the ongoing debate as to the appropriateness of colour interfaces of
any form (which, by the way, I'm finding quite interesting), there is a useful
little book which you might like to have a look at.

A Book of Colors
by Shizenobu Kobayashi of the Nippon Color Design Research Institute
Published by Kodansha International
ISBN-0-87011-800-5

It presents a set of colour tables, complete with RGB values, which are
considered to have certain properties - utility, friendliness, warnings, etc.
etc. etc. Its a jolly good read for this sort of thing.

Chris.
--
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------+
| Chris Pointon    chrisp@sdl.mdcbbs.com | EDS Shape Data, Regent St |
| +44-223-316673                         | Cambridge CB2 1DB  U.K.   |
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------+
From: jimc@tau-ceti.isc-br.com (Jim Cathey)
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Subject: Re: Two suggestions for photocopier designers
Date: 20 Aug 92 04:33:21 GMT
Organization: ISC - Bunker Ramo, Spokane, WA

In article <1992Aug19.142607.1179@miki.pictel.com> oj@miki.pictel.com (Oliver Jones) writes:
>>... how about a big RED button in the shape of a stop sign  ...
>
>Industrial safety regulatory agencies in various countries have reserved
>the color red for safety-related purposes only.  

Fine.  And which is the "Help!  My tie is caught in the feeder!" button?
I thought so.

This red-for-fire-or-shock-or-explosion-hazard-only use can get silly.
In the good old days (when we used to design hardware), it got so bad
that we globally replaced all red LED's (used for error lights) with 
yellow ones, just to avoid the dreaded DIN.  As it turned out, they
didn't prohibit the use of red for a warning light, but only required
that you tell them why.  Our one overloaded guy didn't want to deal
with this.  Unfortunately the yellow LED's were considerably less
visible and had a distinctly greenish cast to them, making them
resemble their neighbors, the green stuff-working-OK LED's.  Instead
of seeing the red light from an angle, you had to practically stick
your nose into the patch of LED's and count them (they were in a little
block on the PCB) to see what was what.

-- 
+----------------+
! II      CCCCCC !  Jim Cathey
! II  SSSSCC     !  ISC-Bunker Ramo
! II      CC     !  TAF-C8;  Spokane, WA  99220
! IISSSS  CC     !  UUCP: uunet!isc-br!jimc (jimc@isc-br.isc-br.com)
! II      CCCCCC !  (509) 927-5757
+----------------+
			"PC's --- the junk bonds of the computer industry"
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: Allen Renear
Subject: Re: Two suggestions for photocopier designers
Organization: Brown University  CIS
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 00:32:44 GMT

Suggestions for photocopier designers?!			

1) Mover the panel buttons away from the edge so I don't keep resetting them
with my stomach.  (no jokes please)

2) Make collate the default for multiple copy jobs.

Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu (Gary Perlman)
Subject: Smith & Mosier "Guidelines" available via anonymous ftp
Originator: perlman@moose.cis.ohio-state.edu
Organization: Computer & Info Sci  Ohio State Univ  Columbus, OH 43210
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 17:39:05 GMT

The text of MITRE's "Guidelines for Designing User Interface Software"
by Smith and Mosier (1986) is available via anonymous ftp in pub/hci at:
	ftp.cis.ohio-state.edu (128.146.8.52)
There are several forms of the file for you to copy:
	guidelines        the marked-up text    (790069 bytes)
	guidelines.Z      the above, compressed (286757 bytes)
	guidelines.Z.uu   the above, uuencoded  (395119 bytes)
To work with the file, you may need uudecode and/or uncompress.

Because the guidelines were produced with U.S. government funds,
the text does not have any copyright.
A version of this file, along with indexing information,
is used as the data for NaviText SAM,
a PC-based hypertext system for user interface design and evaluation.

With some prompting, I might be willing to prepare other
standards documents for ftp access, such as versions of
MIL-STD-1472C and the more recent MIL-STD-1472D.

All units in the text begin with a % delimiter.
% delimiters are followed by a tag, a quoted title, and an
optional count of following subunits of the next lower precedence.
This count may go down to the level of number of lines in a paragraph.

Titles may have hidden text associated with them.
This is delimited by a tilde (NaviText SAM does not print text after ~).
You can use or trim out such text, up to the next double-quote.
NaviText SAM optionally uses this text for searches.

Here are the hierarchical tags for units:
%b	book (the title of the report)
	%s	section (there are 6 titles of sections)
		%a	area (there are 70 titles of functional areas)
			%g	guidelines (944 guideline numbers and titles)
%%	break between major sections of text
	this is used in the introductory section to delimit
	  GLOSSARY
	  REFERENCES
		references are stored as one per paragraph
		the titles of references match the lines in guideline refs
		the ref titles may be followed by the names of citing guidelines
%p	paragraph (text that follows and is subordinate to any of the above)
	The optional titles are usually part of a guideline:
	  Comment
	  Exception
	  Example
		text bounded by vertical bars is unfilled
	  See also
		guideline numbers of x-refs are all on the next line
	  Reference
		references follow, one per line
		these match the paragraph titles in the references section

-- 
Name:  Gary Perlman               | Computer and Information Science Department
Email: perlman@cis.ohio-state.edu | Ohio State University, 228 Bolz Hall
Phone: 614-292-2566               | 2036 Neil Avenue Mall
Fax:   614-785-9837 or 292-9021   | Columbus, OH 43210-1277  USA
Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
From: ematias@dgp.toronto.edu (Edgar Matias)
Subject: Re: Two suggestions for photocopier designers
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 20 Aug 92 04:05:54 GMT


In article <1992Aug19.142607.1179@miki.pictel.com>
oj@miki.pictel.com (Oliver Jones) writes:
>
>Industrial safety regulatory agencies in various countries have reserved
>the color red for safety-related purposes only.

You've got to be kidding!  That's rediculous!!  How about burgandy then...

Edgar
From: mturner@aris.ss.uci.edu (Matthew Turner)
Subject: Re: A Graph Theory Newsgroup, Perhaps?
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 20 Aug 92 00:22:30 GMT

Since it has already been seconded...I'll give a third vote.

A graph theory newsgroup is a VERY good idea.


-Matthion



======================================================================
All the world's an analog stage and digital players only get bit parts
======================================================================
                      mturner@aris.ss.uci.edu
From: yu13@husc9.harvard.edu (Jiu-Kang Yu)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: looking for addresss
Date: 22 Aug 92 22:51:57 GMT



Hi! I am looking for the address of Zachos.
Could any one give me  some direction ? ( the e-mail address , of course)
Thanks.
Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: cscc13@judy.uh.edu (NAVEED IQBAL)
Subject: Lempel Zev Coding
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 04:46:00 GMT

What is Lempel Zev Coding? Is the algorithm available to use in a C
program or one has to use some Discrete structures etc. to use it?
I just wanted to play with it to see if I could compress a file.

Thanx for any responses
Naveed
NIqbal@uh.edu

Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: guha@sprecher.cs.uwm.edu (Dr. Sumanta Guha)
Subject: FOCS Proc.
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 21:58:56 GMT

Sorry, but my last message seems to have been amputated.
Let me try again. 
I am looking to buy FOCS 90 and 91 proc. If you wish
to sell please contact me at
guha@sprecher.cs.uwm.edu.

Thanks,
Sumanta Guha
EE&CS
UW-Milwaukee



Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: mumey@cs.ubc.ca (Brendan Mumey)
Subject: Re: Pippenger's address
Organization: Computer Science, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 17:27:36 GMT

victor@watson.ibm.com (Victor Miller) writes:
> On Tue, 18 Aug 1992 03:23:40 GMT, cubric@cs.mcgill.ca (Marija Cubric) said:
>> Does anybody know an email address of dr. Nicholas Pippenger?
>> Marija Cubric.
>It's nicholas@cs.ub.ca.
                    ^
                    missing a "c"

It's nicholas@cs.ubc.ca          

Brendan
  

Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: naylor@research.canon.oz.au (William Naylor)
Subject: boolean satisfiability problem
Organization: Canon Information Systems Research Australia
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 01:04:17 GMT

I am looking for information on algorithms to solve the
"boolean satisfiability problem".  What is the largest problem that
can be solved routinely?  What is the best known algorithm?  
Any good references?

The "boolean satisfiability problem" is a well-known NP-complete problem.

A boolean function is expressed as a product of sums, for example

F(a,b,c,d,...) = (a | ~b | c)&(~a | d | ~e)&...

where the variables can take on the values TRUE and FALSE, and '|' represents
logical or, and '&' represents logical and.  The problem to be solved is:
does any assignment of values to the variables cause the boolean function 
F(...) to be TRUE?
-- 
William Naylor                               | naylor@research.canon.oz.au
Canon Information Systems Research Australia | Phone +61 2 805 2000
PO Box 313 NORTH RYDE NSW 2113               | Fax   +61 2 805 2929
From: west@symcom.math.uiuc.edu (Douglas West)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: A Graph Theory Newsgroup, Perhaps?
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:35:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BtB2vr.FF
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

msh9848@hertz.njit.edu (Matt) writes:

>In article <1992Aug18.084914.27141@reed.edu> orpheus@reed.edu (P. Hawthorne) writes:
>>
>>  Graph theory is at the heart of so many fields that it is somewhat
>>obscured by its own versatility.
>>
>>  I feel that there ought to be a graph theoretic newsgroup, if only for
>>the insights that such a multidisciplinary newsgroup could offer.
>>

>Is this a CFD, or CFV? 

>If so, I think that such a group would be a good idea, especially since 
>graph theory cuts across so many fields, such as math, Computer Science, and
>economics. I think that the group should be unmoderated.

There is a list-server for graph theory (GRAPH-NET(?)) in north dakota
(nodak.edu) run by Warren Shreve.  I think it is under-utilized, precisely
because it is a list-server arrangement and not a newsgroup.  Newsgroups
are much more versatile and flexible for the user, and they are not invasive
(i.e., you look at it when you want to instead of getting lots of mail).
There is a similar list called THEORY-NET, but it is much easier to handle
the traffic in these newsgroups (many of the articles are the same).

I support the proposal.
Doug West
From: gonzalod@amex-trs.com (Gonzalo Diethelm)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Generic sorting functions
Date: 21 Aug 92 21:51:57 GMT



Distribution: world

Hello everyone,

A very generic question. Given a set S of n strings (the `|' characters
are used as delimiters):

  s1   |dunno|
  s2   |I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy|
  s3   |eschew clever rules|
  ... ...
  sn   |bzzzzt!|

and an ordering sequence O:

  {s4, s1, s6, s2, sn, s3, ... s7}

is there any way to determine a fixed, hopefully cheap function

  f(): SxS -> integers

with the property that

  if si comes before sj in O, f(si, sj) < 0
  if si comes after  sj in O, f(si, sj) > 0

that is, could be used to sort the strings in the given sequence?
For example, if the desired sequence happens to be the alphabetical
descending ordering of the strings, f() could just be

  f = -1 * strcmp(si, sj);

My intuiton tells me this is possible, but I don't really know how
to approach the problem. Any help is welcome. Please send answers
and flames via e-mail. Thanks in advance and kindest regards.

gonzalod@amexphx.amex-trs.com
Gonzalo A. Diethelm                 (602)375-8410  home
16220 N 7th St Ap 1314              (602)492-3536  office
Phoenix, AZ 85022                   (602)492-4248  FAX
From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Round robin problem
Date: 20 Aug 92 17:02:41 GMT
Reply-To: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles C. Lin)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park


   Sorry, if this is the wrong place to post.

   Anyone know of a solution to the following problem:

   Given a complete graph of n nodes (vertices) where n is even, 
and given n - 1 colors, color the edges so that:

   (1) each vertex has at least one edge with each of the n - 1
       colors

which by definition of a complete graph implies

   (2) each vertex has at most one edge with each of the n - 1
       colors.

   Basically all colors touch each vertex once and only once.

   This can also be restated as a round robin problem where
there are n (n, even) players playing a tournament.  Every
day, one match is played.  Every player plays every day, and
must play every other player once.  Hence, it takes n - 1
days to play this.

    I have a solution to this, but I want to know if there
are references to previous solutions of this problem and
more importantly, the complexity.

    E-mail preferred, but I will read this newsgroup as
well.   Thanks in advance.

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu
From: fredrikm@eik.ii.uib.no (Fredrik Manne)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: A Graph Theory Newsgroup, Perhaps?
Date: 18 Aug 92 11:46:24 GMT
Organization: Institute of Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway

In article <1992Aug18.084914.27141@reed.edu>, orpheus@reed.edu (P. Hawthorne) writes:
|> 
|>   Graph theory is at the heart of so many fields that it is somewhat
|> obscured by its own versatility.
|> 
|>   I feel that there ought to be a graph theoretic newsgroup, if only for
|> the insights that such a multidisciplinary newsgroup could offer.
|> 
|>   I'd be interested in hearing from others, to see if a more formal
|> approach to creating such a newsgroup is warranted.
|> 
|> 
|>   Theus (Prometheus Hawthorne - Jones, orpheus@reed.edu)


This is something which I would strongly second. Graph related problems
seems to be turning up lots of places and would certanly merit its
own group.


Fredrik Manne
Newsgroups: comp.theory
From: shillsp@leonardo.cs.curtin.edu.au (Stephen Hill)
Subject: Linear programming HELP REQUIRED!
Keywords: linear programming
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 07:40:40 GMT



Currently I am working on the Vehicle Routing Problem under
Capacity constraints. I am using a cutting planes technique
to get lower bounds which are then incorporated
in a branch and bound technique. I have programmed
the dual and revised simplex with upper bounds, using an LU
decomposition to solve equations involving the basis, and these both
work for problems with around 450 variables and 50 constraints.

With larger problems I encounter numerical instability and cannot
get a solution.

I am looking for ways to get rid of this problem. Alternatively I am
willing to purchase a linear programming package, either commercial
or otherwise (to run on a Sun SPARC station 2) or working source code
which I can incorporate into my own code. 

I hope that someone out there can provide me with references, advice or
code. Thanks in advance. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Stephen Hill- shillsp@euler.cs.curtin.edu.au                  

                 Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia                  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Stephen Hill- shillsp@euler.cs.curtin.edu.au                  
                                                                                
                 Elvis: Too young to die, too fat to live!                     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: eker@loria.crin.fr (Steven Eker)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: boolean satisfiability problem
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:25:05 GMT
Organization: CRIN (CNRS) Nancy - INRIA Lorraine

In article <Bt5Mz6.3xs@research.canon.oz.au>, naylor@research.canon.oz.au (William Naylor) writes:
|> I am looking for information on algorithms to solve the
|> "boolean satisfiability problem".  What is the largest problem that
|> can be solved routinely?  What is the best known algorithm?  
|> Any good references?
|> 

Well BDDs are fashionable for this sort of boolean equivalence (to false
in your case) problem - especially in the hardware community.

The classic ref is

R. E. Bryant, Graph-Based Algorithms for Boolean Fuction Manipulation,
IEEE Trans. on Computers, Vol. C-35, No. 8, pp677-691, 1986.

There are many refinements on this idea eg

S. H. Horeth, Improving the performance of a BDD-based tautology checker,
Proceedings of the Advanced Workshop on Correct Hardware Design Methodologies, Turin, Italy, 1991.


Steven
From: jos@and.nl (Jos Horsmeier)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: boolean satisfiability problem
Date: 22 Aug 92 11:10:31 GMT
Organization: AND Software BV Rotterdam

In article <Bt5Mz6.3xs@research.canon.oz.au> naylor@research.canon.oz.au (William Naylor) writes:
|I am looking for information on algorithms to solve the
|"boolean satisfiability problem".  What is the largest problem that
|can be solved routinely?  What is the best known algorithm?  
|Any good references?
|
|The "boolean satisfiability problem" is a well-known NP-complete problem.
|
|A boolean function is expressed as a product of sums, for example
|
|F(a,b,c,d,...) = (a | ~b | c)&(~a | d | ~e)&...
|
|where the variables can take on the values TRUE and FALSE, and '|' represents
|logical or, and '&' represents logical and.  The problem to be solved is:
|does any assignment of values to the variables cause the boolean function 
|F(...) to be TRUE?

That reminds me ... Have a look at:

Wang, Hao. `Towards Mechanical Mathematics'
IBM J. Research Develop. VOl. 4
No. 1. January 1960.

This article describes exactly what you need: a method of deciding 
whether or not a WFF in the propositional calculus is a theorem.

If you can find it (I think it's out of print for more than a decade
now) you could have a look at:

John McCarthy
Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual
The MIT Press
ISBN 0 262 13011 4

It describes a complete Lisp implementation of Wang's algorithm.

kind regards,

Jos aka jos@and.nl