Contact Information
Computer Science, CB 430
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0430
Email: Gary DOT Nutt AT colorado DOT edu
Office: ECOT 820
Phone: 303-492-7581
Fax: 303-492-2844
WWW: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~nutt
Gary Nutt
Professor
Computer Science






Office Hours
By appointment

CONTENTS
View Gary Nutt's profile on LinkedIn

EXPERIMENTING WITH OPEN TEXTBOOKS

Modern textbooks are very expensive — so much so that I find students will sometimes simply forego buying the textbook for a class even though it obviously damages their chances of learning the topic. Instead, these students scour the net for information that might be in a textbook. As we all know, there are no reviewers for the information published on the net, so learning is pretty hit-or-miss.

The open textbook experiment is a radical step toward making textbook level contents be free to students. Inspired by the success of the Linux software model, the contents can also be used as the basis of derived work based on the same principles as the GNU public license for software. In this world, content developers can earn compensation just as they might in the Linux sofware world — by providing copyrighted supplemental materials (e.g., examples, explanations, and exercises) for open textbooks. My experience is that students using other textbooks also find value in these materials.

Let me know what you think of the idea, the prototype content, and of the experiment. Thanks! GN

TEACHING

'When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, 'we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--'

'Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.

'We called him Tortoise because he taught us,' said the Mock Turtle angrily: 'really you are very dull!'

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol
















Courses Taught in Recent Years

Here is a list of all courses I have taught at CU since 1988.

Fall, 2007 and Spring, 2008

On sabbatical leave during the 2007-08 academic year.

Fall, 2008

CSCI 1300: Programming.

Spring, 2009

CSCI 3753: Operating Systems.

RESEARCH

Sollertia non stupendum, stercore tauri eludendum.
anonymous
Who needs skill when science is on your side!
Plankton
Character on SpongeBob SquarePants


I am interested in various aspects of distributed systems, including (but not limited to): Operating systems, distributed programming, soft real-time systems, and wireless and sensor networks.

Current Thesis Students

Selected Recent Publications

Here is a listing of all publications.



I ran out of gas.
I had a flat tire.
I didn't have enough money for cab fare.
My tux didn't come back from the cleaners.
An old friend came in from out of town.
Someone stole my car.
There was an earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts.
It wasn't my fault!
I swear to God!