I am asked to give many talks in various venues. To save some effort (and because I don't have a designer to create unique talks for me for each appearance), I generally prepare three talks before each academic year. One talk is a continually evolving "State of Information Security" talk, one talk is an update to the main talk of the previous year, and one talk is a generally-accessible new talk. Thus, I create one new talk each year, intended for a general computing/science audience, and update two others.
With many of my talks being in seminars at various universities, or before small community groups, I can basically use the same talk several times each year without worrying about audience members seeing it twice. If it is a special case appearance at a conference or similar I prepare a special talk.
This year, I am working on a talk about unexpected uses, results, and failures of computing. I am hoping to get some "crowd-sourcing" for some examples. That's where you come in!
I would very much appreciate if you would email to me any stories, videos, pictures, links, etc. that made you go "Wow!" when you saw them because you didn't realize that computers could do something like what was illustrated. Good visual examples are especially welcome, such as links to YouTube videos, but press accounts, personal anecdotes, and so on are all also welcome. Impressinve computer-generated art is also welcomed, but scientific/engineering uses, other entertainment, robotics, ...all are welcomed.
Of course, examples of spectacular failures are also welcomed!
I know many of us are on mailing lists (and Twitter and Facebook and...) where we see things that make us say "Wow!" and then we feel compelled to pass them on to others to see. Those are the things I'd like you to send to me.
Send...
... your suggestions to "suggestions@spaf.us". When? Well, whenever you think about them, but sooner is better than later.
Anyone who sends me some items that I use will be acknowledged in the presentation I create. I may even acknowledge everyone who submits some things that I don't use! I may also provide some other "thank you" item, depending on responses.
Again, I am looking for things with "Wow!" factor. Computer-generated movie scenes are sort of ho-hum now, even though they have really advanced over the years (compare TRON and Last Starfighter to Avatar and Predators, for example).
Oh, and thanks in advance!