There is always a world leading expert one can catch up with in Silicon Fen with its creative cluster of scientific, medical and technological inventors. And as it’s been a long time since I caught up with Hermann Hauser, I didn’t need much persuasion to sign up for an evening with the great man himself this Thursday when he will give a lecture about his “unique insight” into the future of computing and the mobile world.
Here are a few of my guesses; computers will naturally become faster, hold more data, and become sleeker. I’ve read that mobile phones will be styled similar to a credit card, and of course they will have enhanced voice and video features. I also think scanning apps will be developed so you can pay your supermarket bill as you walk along the aisle with your trolley. There are definitely going to be huge leaps forward with apps. These are just a few random thoughts, what are yours? I will be interested to hear what Hermann’s views are about privacy and security. It could only be held in one venue, of course, the Hauser Forum, dedicated in his honour.
Despite my fondness for geeky gadgets, I am saddened to learn that Wellington College is throwing out 80% of its books – about 16,000 – in favour of literary downloads on iPads, retaining an archive of only 2,000 titles. A library with no books doesn’t bear thinking about, but how can the old way of life continue unchanged with the advances of modern technology?
The Hermann Hauser lecture is a fundraising event for the Wallace Cancer Centre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Well done to them for coming up with such an interesting and unusual fundraiser.
You need to remember that it was working with his friend Chris Curry ( late of Clive Sinclairs stable ) that helped Hermann Hauser get where he is today .
He didnt do it on his own .
Chris however was and still is a somewhat larger than life figure and seemed to always spend his earnings !
The Cambridge days of Curry. Hauser the Sinclair brothers , Acorn folk and some of the Kimbolton School mob ( my husband being one of them ! ) were more than famous at the time especially the legendary amount of booze they all consumed , happy days.
disaffected, I remember those days with fondness. Clive and Chris were very generous hosts, and Clive had the most wonderful New Year’s Eve parties in Cambridge. I met Hermann at a couple Cambridge techie parties during that amazing era 🙂
Did you see the drama the BBC made a couple of years ago about Acorn/Sinclair? It had Alexander Armstrong as Sinclair and I think Martin Freeman as Chris Curry, the person who played Hermann had him off to an absolute tee. It was a good drama, I think it was called Micro men or something like that.
Hi Veronica, Yes, I did see Micro Men and kept the video recording. What heady days! It was almost like Crick and Watson discovering DNA all over again.
Ellee did you get to the party that Chris gave at his rambling old house in the middle of the Fens ?
Clive Sinclair was present.
We had a toddler at the time who we took to it , he had a wonderful time being fussed over and was quite taken ( as we all were ) by the pig that Chris had installed in one of the downstairs rooms !
There was another of his great ” do’s ” in the wonderful old hall that he bought near Caxton , we were treated to a firework display fit for a royal do .
Yes, I went to a couple of parties at Chris’ house in the Fens, it was on a farm on the A10 just before Stretham, but burnt down many years ago. We lost touch when he moved to Caxton. My boyfriend at the time was close to Chris and Clive and when we parted, I lost touch with them too.
Hermann did mention the further development of touch screens which makes the iPad such a delight, with its thousands of apps.
He said he was ready to ditch his PC for his tablet, and believes future computers will be sensory too and could respond to something like a wand.
Here is a follow up post I wrote about Apple and the ARM chip:
https://elleeseymour.com/2011/05/24/how-the-arm-chip-saved-apple/