[SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?

Thu Sep 26 16:16:07 PDT 2013

While I think this is an utterly brilliant move, I would recommend treading cautiously around the IP owned by the notoriously litigious Nolan Bushnell.

But I hope even HE would see the fundamental soundness of this theory.

As the old saw goes, 'Would you like to play a game?'

Aron Levy

I typed this with my thumbs. Please excuse my brevity.

On Sep 26, 2013, at 6:58 PM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh at computer.org> wrote:

> As this discussion has taken a rather unexpected direction I would like to alert you to a recent discovery I’ve made in my own research with Mark Priestley on ENIAC. Apologies to Andrew who undoubtedly deserves something more serious.
>  
> The correct term project is clearly:
>  
> 1)      Build an ENIAC identical in every respect to the original
> 2)      Set it up to play Pong.
>  
> We believe that, with no hardware modification, the original ENIAC could probably have played a passable game of PONG by using the lights on several accumulators to represent the ball.  Each 10 digit accumulator included a 10x10 matrix of neons representing each possible value of each possible digit, so that its contents would be read at a glance. Putting three accumulators next to each other would get you a 30x10 matrix. Each bat would be moved by turning a digit knob, and given the latency of neons we believe that we could display 2 or three light tall bats at each end if the playfield by alternating quickly between two or more numbers stored in the relevant digit. The motion of the ball would play to the machine’s strengths with differential equations.
>  
> I think the old hobby of proving various early machines Turing Complete could be replaced by a new pastime of approximating Pong. I am confident someone will soon prove the Z1, Harvard Mark 1, Babbage’s unbuilt Game Engine, and/or the ABC to be Pong Complete in order to make sure that the title of “First” remains in dispute.
>  
> Tom
>  
>  
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Ian S. King
> Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 2:04 PM
> To: Jonathan Coopersmith
> Cc: sigcis
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
>  
> > Build a historic analog computer?
> > Solder a 1977 PC?
> > Program the original ENIAC?
> > Generate the 1955 RAND A Million Random Digits"?
>  
> Solder?  No, *wire wrap*.  Cheers -- Ian 
>  
> 
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Jonathan Coopersmith <j-coopersmith at neo.tamu.edu> wrote:
> Build a historic analog computer?
> Solder a 1977 PC?
> Program the original ENIAC?
> Generate the 1955 RAND A Million Random Digits"?
> 
>  Jonathan Coopersmith
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Paul Ceruzzi <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> To: 'Andrew Meade McGee' <amm5ae at virginia.edu>, members at sigcis.org
> Sent: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 12:42:56 -0500 (CDT)
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
> 
> Not sure if many of you will agree with me, but I have long argued that the convergence of computing and communications, leading to today's inrternetworked world, all began in the fall of 1962, on a chartered train from Hot Springs, Virginia, just outside Lexington, to Washington, DC. On that train were J.C.R. Licklider and a host of other computer folks. The outcome of that train ride was Project MAC, CTSS, ARPANET, etc. etc. Because the passengers were essentially stuck with one another for hours, with no cell phones or laptops, they were forced to talk to one another, including about Licklider's notion of using the computer as a communications device.
> 
> Maybe your students could re-enact the train ride and the conversations that took place on it. The most scenic parts of the trip are best covered today by bicycle, as the tracks were torn up and replaced with a rail-trail.
> 
> Paul E. Ceruzzi
> Chair, Division of Space History
> National Air & Space Museum
> MRC 311; PO Box 37012
> Washington, DC 20013-7012
> 202-633-2414
> <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24>
> 
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Meade McGee
> Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 11:55 PM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
> 
> Dear SIG-CIS friends,
> I hope you might help me with a happy conundrum. This year I am visiting faculty in the history department of Washington and Lee University, a small but affluent liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia. One of the school's quirks is a mandatory four-week April term in which students enroll in only one class and have 8-10 hours or more of weekly face-to-face classroom interaction with the professor (and 20+ hours of readings, assignments, labs), usually on a specialized topic. In recent years the school has embraced "high-concept" classes with catchy thematic topics, deep reading lists, and creative final assignments for this mini-mester - last year, for instance, the Classics Department offered a course on the Trojan War that featured students meticulously recreating Bronze Age military formations and engaging in costumed battle on the front quad. Other classes do digital humanities projects or create documentaries, etc.
>  I have been instructed by Dean and Department Chair to develop a "computer-related" history class for Spring 2014. I essentially have carte blanche create my ideal computer history/information history/information and society class from scratch, as long as I can cram it all into four weeks and devise some clever final project. Ideally I would attract history majors and liberal arts students as well as a few stray engineering and business students intrigued by the topic.
>  So I appeal to the SIG-CIS community for ideas - what would you teach if you could design your ideal class on computer or information history? How would you structure it? Any outlandish ideas you wish you had tried? Books or topics or assignments you feel are must have? I might have school-provided funds for a day trip or two, so I could take the kids within a few hour radius (I've thought of DC and the Smithsonian, or the supercomputers at Blacksburg or Oak Ridge).
> I've gone through the excellent syllabus repository on the SIG-CIS webpage and have plundered the university faculty page-posted syllabi of some of the list's more prominent members, but would appreciate any additional ideas. I'm not sure if I'm going to go with straight "computer history" or a broader "From Gutenberg to Google" type information history class. Given my cultural and political history strengths, other options include a "Computers and Society," "Digital America," or "Global Information Age" approach, or even something focused more conceptually on "Data" or "Systems." .
>  So, again, any comments would be greatly appreciated. If you could construct your ideal (but timeframe-compressed) computer/information history class, what would you include?
>  Thank you,
>  Andrew
> -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
> Andrew Meade McGee
> Corcoran Department of History
> University of Virginia
> PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall
> Charlottesville, VA 22904
> 
> --
> Jonathan Coopersmith
> Associate Professor
> Department of History
> Texas A&M University
> College Station, TX  77843-4326
> 979.845.7151
> 979.862.4314 fax
> http://aggiegaijin.blogspot.com/
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
> 
> 
>  
> --
> Ian S. King, MSCS ('06, Washington)
> Ph.D. Student
> The Information School
> University of Washington
> 
> "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken."  - Oscar Wilde
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20130926/762dfed7/attachment-0001.htm>