If you would like to see some of the other things that interest me, check out my photography web site. My photography includes both traditional film camera techniques and digital imaging technology.
My manuals and how-to-program books introduced several of the early
personal computer systems, including the first Microsoft
BASIC with Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and Bally Basic for the Bally computer.
The Computer Learning Lab was an interactive book/software combination for the Sinclair Z-80 and the Radio Shack Color Computer that included software programs on audio tape cassettes. I also developed a wide variety of software from personal productivity and time management systems to game simulations.
When I created the original Typing Tutor, sold by both Microsoft and IBM, I developed the interval timing
techniques that monitor individual response times for the keys. This allowed me to detect fast and slow keys, and
to vary the program lessons as a person learns. My Typing Tutor was the first educational product to apply user
modeling and to actually create individualized lessons based on a person's typing skill. This first typing program
was the most popular educational software available for many years.
Since today's computers are much larger and more powerful than those
early machines, I am now able to create software that's a great deal more complex than the first interval timing
model. It is now possible for my current typing software, the Ainsworth Keyboard Trainer, to focus on helping people create text instead of just developing
copy typing skills. I do this by combining several cognitive modeling techniques from artificial intelligence programming
with my original response time monitoring concepts. This results in a program that helps people type as fast and
as well as they think. If you don't type, this program will teach you the basics faster than any other method.
And if you already type, this program can improve your ability to communicate easily and well with any email or
word processor software.
If you now enter numbers in your computer or calculator by poking
at the keypad with your index finger, it's a sure bet that you will be amazed at how the Ainsworth Keypad Trainer will make your life easier. Your checkbook will balance without effort and your spreadsheets will
sing and dance. Training yourself to enter numbers without looking at the number keypad makes all the difference.
Each number will have a distinct "feel," giving you a cross-check that speeds your work and eliminates
keying errors.
The Ainsworth Computer Seminar is my first major experiment with hypertext. This is exciting because I see hypertext and the Internet combining to form an entirely new vehicle for authors to explore. I have chosen to use this hypertext medium to share with you some of the things I have learned about computers, software, and creative thinking in general. You can get a free copy of the seminar from www.qwerty.com at this link.
If you are a curious
and creative person, take a look at my seminar. You get to decide how much technical stuff you want to deal with as I show you several programs and explain
how computers do THAT. I will also show you flow charts and diagrams to illustrate what is going on inside. And
if you are interested in learning about programming, I will share with you a tool kit of ideas and techniques.
Educational
Software - How to tell the good stuff
- Introduction to Keyboarding - Behind the software
- Conversation with Bud Foote - Meet a great teacher
- Ainsworth Computer Seminar - See how how it works
- Happy Hackers Page - Insider stuff for programmers
- Hypertext - What Hypertext is and how it works
- Computer Simulations - And digital realities
- Artificial Intelligence - AInsworth on AI - making computers smart
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - My solution to a major problem
- Censorship - A personal slant on the Communications Decency Act
- Cars and Computers - A story about the way it was
www.qwerty.com
© 2009 Ainsworth & Partners, Inc.ainsworth@qwerty.com
