The North Bay Linux Users’ Group is a computer users serving the San Francisco North Bay and surrounding areas.
We strive to promote Linux, Free Software, Open Source, open standards, and to generally have a good time by hosting social events that educate, allow members to share ideas and knowledge and to build friendships.
We hold regular meetings on the second Tuesday of each month with a selected topic presented by a guest speaker.
Meetings and membership are free and open to the public.
Please sign up for the announce mailing list to receive notifications of upcoming events, or join us on the talk mailing list or in IRC to get help with Linux.
For April, Kyle Rankin is back with a talk! He’ll be presenting “UI Lessons from Antique Computers”:
Calculators are intuitive, right? Punch in some numbers on the number pad, choose an operation, and the answer appears. But it wasn’t always this way. One hundred years ago, an antique mechanical calculator’s UI was completely different depending on what company made it. Calculators directly exposed the mechanical mechanisms underneath, with few abstractions and little regard to ease-of-use. If you sat in front of one today and I asked you to perform basic arithmetic, you’d probably couldn’t do it without a manual, and that knowledge probably wouldn’t transfer to a different calculator.
If you’ve ever introduced someone to Linux for the first time, this might sound familiar. Fragmented, inconsistent UI, and applications that only barely hide their underlying code structure behind their interfaces mean a steep learning curve for new users. In this talk I will dive into the rich history of mechanical calculator UI, and draw parallels with modern Linux applications. The past, present, and future of calculator UI provides a roadmap FOSS would be wise to follow.
Join us Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00pm, at Redwood Cafe: