A Chip On Her Shoulder

Sections References

Basic Ideas

Recap: The CumuLinker Revolution

  1. CumuLinker is evaluating its new technology in 2019 just as protagonists Casey Hawke begins her reunion journey.
  2. “Communication As Language Modulation, abbreviated C-A-L-M, accelerates productive interactions in conversational settings controlled by the CumuLinker Cloud network.
  3. The Whisperer is a wearable (like a vest) that can be artfully designed to express the wearer’s personality and interests through life patches.
  4. Whisperers communicate to the wearer through synthetic speech and hearing devices.
  5. The CumuLinker Manifesto declared all privately held data no longer could be used by advertising and other commercial services.
  6. Trust funds are controlled by diverse Internet and social advisors to introduce worthy experiments that rehabilitate and expand former social media.
  7. The theory that explains the history and ill effects that led to the CumuLinker Revolution is known as Surveillance capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff.

TERMINOLOGY: Risks, Hazards, Threats

This novel tries to follow New Media Dictionary:

  • A “threat” is An indication of impending danger or harm, also “to inflict” or the agent for harm”.
  • “risk” means the possibility of suffering harm or loss.
  • a “hazard” is a source or situation with potential for harm.
  • “Threat-caster” is a professional and personal characteristic often associated with the mythological “Cassandra” which is protagonist Casey’s root name. ‘***on book ‘Warnings’ by Richard Clarke describes incidents of threat-casting.

Notes on Section 1: Living Data

Chapter 1.1 Beautiful Data

  1. Ada Byron Lovelace inspires modern women in computing with her Victorian era collaboration with famous industrialist Charles Babbage. Often hyped as “the first programmer”, her thinking employs “representation” that foreshadows modern computing.”private data”, e.g. email and group postings, illustrate the representations used for surveillance capitalism.–::
  2. The IBM 1620 computer was simple enough to trust to an undergraduate for mathematical exploration and IT administration. Some colleges permitted their use like “personal computers” to advance students into computing and science, with encouragement from Sputnik-motivated Eisenhower-era educational initiatives.
  3. “Spaghetti code” describes programs troubled by languages that forced control flow into and out of statements which complicate understanding and testing. Casey is tutoring Brittany to appreciate code complexity as a risk in any application.
  4. The Trickster mythological figure describes the US elected leader in the period of this novel in 2019.

Chapter 1.2Casual Algorithms

  1. This reunion event illustrates CumuLinker in action. Its Cloud is managing CALM conversations as re-introductions and concurrent updates. CumuLinker is using its trove of data about alumni, with permissions granted but not always understood. Life Replayed spotlights class members. Reunion fund raisers have created a timeline of campus scenes scatter with donor data. Attendees with Life Patches to show off art in the Whisperer design contest. The Whisperer manages CALM conversations through attendee hearables, often commercial hearing aids. Recall that 2019 is the year for experiments and demonstrations as CumuLinker matures, uses its private data properly, and tries new approaches to social media.
  2. Algorithmic cruelty” occurred in reality in 2014 when Facebook surprised a parent with his recently deceased child’s picture.

Chapter 1.3 Colorful times

  1. Text contrast is an important aspect of accessibility for people with low vision. It applies to all visual readers controlled by settings usually embedded in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The readability factors for text contrast are specified and can be validated according to Web standards.
  2. Read more about accessibility in Podcasts by Sally and Rebel roger. in Section 6.

Chapter 1.4 Seeing Things Differently

  1. Sally and Casey became acquainted at a (Fifth Generation conference in Japan. Read more about Consequential Reasoning in Sections 2.3 and ???.
  2. Sally’s loss of vision leads to standard practices learned as “vision rehabilitation”. Read more about accessibility in Sally’s Section 6.3.
  3. The Apple iPhone is the primary communication, reading, gaming, and translating instrument for many people with low vision and enough $, see $$. AppleVis.com tutorials and tips on using iPhones with VoiceOver speech and magnification.
  4. Casey has been invited for a special role under the Science Frontiers funding program.
    • reviewing is modeled after the National Science Foundation where a dozen researchers discuss, rate, and summarize submitted proposals and budgets.
    • “Scientific Merit” and “Social contribution” and “Diversity” are traditional criteria.
    • It is assumed that risky problems will be solved eventually or cast into a different scientific program.
    • A counter-example to threat aversion is NSF-funded CyberPhysical Systems about Cyber-physical system.
  5. “Endless frontier”.
  6. The Pink Pages Rampage actions is discussed further in Section 6through podcast-style interviews. CumuLinker Reformation riled up beneficiaries of surveillance capitalism, especially Silicon Valley employees. A protest is organized through the dark side of software and a specific vulnerability in web page design.

Chapter 1.5 Lessons Learning

  1. Here is a summary of preceding Chapters and the protagonist’s planning for the continuing journey.

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Notes on Section 2 “Threats Get Real”

Chapter 2.1 Risky Speaking

  1. “Vocal terrorism” was predicted openly in 2007. Incidents have yet to be reported in 2022.
  2. Speech technology is a mature industry with millions of users.
    • synthetic speech matured from text-to-speech applications as assistive technology alternative to reading by eyesight.
    • Note that speech recognition is a different technology problem that includes translation from speech to text and also voice recognition. Listen closely when you interact with a voiced system to tell whether it is human or synthetic and how you react to its instructions.
    • Hear the story of Apple Siri from assistive technology podcast “Eyes On Success”.
    • Sally tells more about using text-to-speech in Section 6.3.

Chapter 2.2 Internet Down!

  1. Internet outages are common but not often described.

Chapter 2.3 Consequential Reasoning

  1. “Consequential Reasoning” is a coined term for using logic as the basis for computation within a process of documentation and analysis that drives the logic into programs then actions that assign responsibility to humans. Logic programming provides a shell that simulates humans and the environment by calling programs written in current practices. Specifications are interactive and testable and readable independent of traditional code and data.

Notes for Section 3 Another Chance

Chapter 3.1 Whisperers Meetup

  1. The CumuLinker vault of private data accumulated over history is rich in connectivity that amplifies human memory. Casey has tracked Gavin by his books and institutional affiliations. Gavin may have tracked Casey by location or hearsay about her interactions in their peer learning community.
  2. A body reader can sense attention vectors that amplify the personal historical connection with some type of haptic motion. CumuLinker can strengthen that attention-getting signal with settings for memory and feelings.
  3. The “Personal Quantification” aka “quantified self” Movementillustrates measurement motives that are now realized in mobile devices.

Chapter 3.2 Lives Unfold

  1. Casey has a Masters Degree from a unique institution.
  2. The location and institution are modeled after the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies, 1982-1987, Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. Benefactor Doctor An Wang.funded a Software Engineering Master Degree curriculum that migrated to Carnegie-Mellon Software Engineering Institute.
  3. The “Massachusetts Miracle” period produced the mini-computer generation from companies: Wang, Digital, Apollo, Data General,…

Chapter 3.3 Mature Branching

  1. A Osher Lifelong Learning (OLLI) peer learning networkhas many models for peer learning located at over 100 US universities.
  2. “Saging and Aging” directs attention to opportunities that build on life experience and courses on any topic someone knows about.
  3. Carolyn Heilbrun, Columbia University professor and author of Kate Fansler mysteries sums up aging in Last Gift of Time.
  4. Bumper Sticker Computer Science — I forgot why this is here but its a classic.

Notes for Section 4 “Nuclear Shadows”

Chapter 4.1 Getting Acquainted

  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory was site for visit and fictional tour.
  2. Wildfires 2011 threaten LANL.
  3. Example of a Wildfire app

Chapter 4.2 Dining On History

  1. Marilyn aspires to a role like security journalists Julia Angwin, now the Markup” laboratory..
  2. IBM Watson Success on Jeopardy used logic programming.
  3. “Mathematics Written on Sand” by W Kahan motivated floating point standards after exhibiting errors in scientific calculators.
  4. Parnas analysis of Reagan missile defense started discussion of software responsibility.
  5. Scott Rosenberg commentary explains the context of Parnas arguments.
  6. Risks digest of failures in computing starting in 1981 continues documentation and discussion.
  7. Usenet was the primary discussion support network before Web Time and later migrated into Google groups.
  8. Computer Professionals for Software Responsibility (CPSR) had advocated for social and military causes starting in the 1980s as described in Browsers give warnings and privacy errors here… Babbage Institute CPSR oral history by Severo Ornstein.
  9. Lynn Conway engineering research, and academic careers followed a transsexual path and contributed to VLSI Revolution .
  10. Grace Hopper on Letterman explaining her nanosecond and Navy tours of duty working on COBOL.
  11. women educator oral histories.
  12. Women and the Future of Computing, video by Anita Borghelped originate goals and institutes for women in computing, including the annual Grace Hopper event.
  13. Sputnik and the Eisenhower Administration and Sputnik beeps from JPL
  14. Televised software safety case, Therac 25, radiation deaths initiated the “software safety” field from Google Scholar.
  15. “Total information awareness” reaction to 9-11
  16. Bug bounty programs, such as Fire Fox offered new career opportunities.
  17. Computer History Museum

Chapter 4.3 “Team 3G Forms”

  1. Total Information Awareness project
  2. FOIA Effects of TIA

Notes Section 5 ‘Consequential Reasoning’

Chapter 5.1 ‘Chips Fall’

  1. Imposter syndrome is often discussed as a problem for women in computing even afflicted presidents of prominent universities. National Library Medicine analysis of the condition with recommendations.
  2. Casey’s “chip on her shoulder” is explained by the poem, included: poem ‘A Chip On Your Shoulder’ by Albert a Guest.
  3. the ‘geocaching’ recreational activity uses logic puzzles for cache directions. One tool is “consequential reasoning” and ParaLog.
  4. Another use of logic puzzles is/was on the Law School Aptitude test logic questions.

Chapter 5.2 ‘Bad Models’

Sally explains contrasting models of disability:

  1. The social Model of Disability compares with The medical model of disability, that is “fix the environment” versus “fix the person”, a complex topic for Disability Studies. A person losing vision does better by starting early to adjust to one’s environment rather than expecting a medical cure, while government and social organizations work on environmental deficiencies like transportation, documents, sidewalk clutter, etc.
  2. Podcast, such as ‘Eyes on Success’, provide a modern educational medium for people with vision loss and for assistive technology.
  3. A notable model of accessibility recognition is Steve Jobs and the iPhone.
  4. Hadley Institute offers networked educational programs on disability, technology, and adaptation.

Chapter 5.3 ‘Getting Grounded’

Casey reviews the characteristic of Team 3G as its team leader in preparation for their short summer period of activism against the Pink Page Rampage. As team leader, she wants to use everybody’s strengths, talents, expand their knowledge, and have fun together.

Chapter 5.4 ‘Social Messes’

Marilyn needs advice from her Aunt Sally and recent acquaintance Casey about her perception by others as she tries to launch a journalism career. They reminisce about her youth.

  1. The Global Network Navigator ,project assembled early sites on the world wide web as distributed on a CD.
  2. Computer History timeline 1995.
  3. How Usenet worked as the early social network and historical facts about Usenet originating at Duke University show There was Social media before the Dawn of Web Time.

Chapter 5.5 ‘A Social Media Makeover’

Casey and Sally dispense advice to Marilyn about her public image. A dispute about vaccines and autism had embroiled Marilyn in social media opinions. She could be subjected to interactions with terrorist groups through facial identification. Public records plagued Sally and also Marilyn in unwanted attention.
Privacy explanations and experiments are suggested:

  1. 2014 book ‘Dragnet Nation by Julia Anguin grew into a quest for experimentation then and 2019 launch of privacy experimentation laboratory.
  2. A name like “Marilyn Maxxon” leads to alternatives in Google, possibly confusing her identity. Try the search yourself.
  3. The vaccination-autism controversy entangled people who had social media arguments, complicated by required disentanglement of scientific claims. and CDC Gov assurance.
  4. Sally’s “Controversy Discovery Engine” is attached to this novel
  5. The Little Bro movement traces to a book by Corey Doctorow but the Little Bro movement is fictional.

Notes for Section 6 ‘Punk Page Podcast’

Chapter 6.1 ‘Welcome Netizens’

  1. The “Pink Page Rampage” is a fictional event originating in the time of transformation after the CumuLinker Reformation
  2. Marilyn is defining and welcoming the listeners for this podcast.
  3. The term “netizen” is short for “Net citizen”.
  4. Names like “Maxxson” are comically mangled by Google to connect to familiar names popular with advertisers.

Chapter 6.2 ‘Road to WWW’

Casey and Marilyn are describing some earlier facets of the Internet.

  1. Books
  2. Internet Hall of Fame and Internet research leader Jon Postel
  3. Memex, the browser that could have been
  4. Topics

Chapter 6.3 ‘Plain Reading’


Sally explains her view of web page development for people with low vision using screen readers.

  1. Basics
  2. Writing Tools:
  3. Reading Tools:
  4. Principles:

Chapter 6.4 ‘Growing Minds’

Marilyn is interviewing Millennial Matt and her son Wildfire Bob

  1. Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  2. SOLID project led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee
  3. RSS
  4. CumuLinker Trustee Nominees

Chapter 6.5 ‘Punk Sage Roger’

Marilyn is interviewing a senior member of the Punk Page Rampage team.

  1. Book “Dark side of Software: Evil on software Projects” by Robert L. Glass and Hjohann Ross is a source of Pink Page insider attackers.