[SIGCIS-Members] Response on course design from James Sumner

Mon Sep 30 17:20:28 PDT 2013

And after you buy the 17000 + tubes, really step up to the challenge to get
this done in your time frame unlike normal common people taking  4 or 5
times as long.  If you get that done Annals will want to publish a lead
article by you and I'll get all 60,000 members of the IEEE to download it
and cite it in their publications so that your citations count makes you a
rock star on your campus.  I am sure Paul Ceruzzi will want to exhibit it
at the Smithsonian and since Martin Campbell-Kelly as a rightfully a proud
Brit will want another built and exhibited at his campus or at the fancy
science museum in London.

This project has the potential of making your career.

Cheers!!

On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 7:13 PM, Ian S. King <isking at uw.edu> wrote:

> There are Russian companies who would be glad to supply you with brand new
> vacuum tubes.  However, buy extras: my experience has been mixed with these
> sources!  I needed to replace a tube in the four-channel plug-in for my
> Tektronix 561A oscilloscope (late 1960s).  After trying three tubes, I
> found one that worked.  Good thing they sold them in lots of five.  Caveat
> emptor -- Ian King
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 9:34 PM, Aron Levy <aronpublic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On that note, after discussing with a friend of mine, the thought of
>> sourcing nearly 17,500 vacuum tubes, many I which are no longer available
>> seems to render the idea of rebuilding ENIAC somewhat remote.
>>
>> Unless Washington and Lee happens to have an entire warehouse full of
>> tubes! (Stranger things have been known to happen.)
>>
>> Aron Levy
>>
>> I typed this with my thumbs. Please excuse my brevity.
>>
>> On Sep 30, 2013, at 12:11 AM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh at computer.org> wrote:
>>
>> > [James is still having problems sending to the list, but has a good
>> reply
>> > below. Tom]
>> >
>> > -------- Original Message --------
>> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your
>> ideal
>> > Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
>> > Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:11:34 +0100
>> > From: James Sumner <james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk>
>> > To: members at sigcis.org
>> >
>> > Dear all
>> >
>> > What an excellent question -- and it's remarkable to see that the
>> discussion
>> > very quickly worked its way round to early hardware and games. My first
>> > thought before seeing the follow-up messages was to give the students a
>> task
>> > something like this:
>> >
>> > "It's 1951. The firm you work for has just announced an electronic
>> digital
>> > computer -- the first to be offered for commercial sale. You have no
>> > established competition, but this also means you're promoting an
>> unfamiliar
>> > idea. Many of the people you're trying to sell to are happy relying on
>> human
>> > clerical labour or existing punched-card technology, which they see as
>> cheap
>> > and reliable. And many people more generally don't have a clear sense of
>> > what 'electronic digital computer' means at all.
>> >
>> > "Your big opportunity to do something about this arrives with a major
>> public
>> > exhibition on new science and technology of the future, to be hosted at
>> > [insert name of suitable big expo venue]. Your firm has been offered a
>> prime
>> > space of [insert dimensions] for a display introducing computers to the
>> > public. Your task is to build the display. You have X weeks."
>> >
>> > This is loosely based on the situation facing the British firm Ferranti
>> when
>> > it produced the Nimrod machine (http://www.goodeveca.net/nimrod/)
>> > for the 1951 Festival of Britain. There was not enough time to
>> implement a
>> > full-scale working computer, and in any case there were questions about
>> > whether a complex machine would be either reliable enough or
>> intelligible
>> > enough for public display. The engineers instead put together some
>> > relatively straightforward electronics to play a simple interactive game
>> > (Nim -- one step up from tic-tac-toe), and housed it in an enormous,
>> > imposing case. The result worked well enough for attracting column
>> inches,
>> > but was judged a partial failure on the marketing side because it didn't
>> > lead people to find out more about fundamental computer concepts.
>> >
>> > The idea behind this kind of project, of course, is to play to the
>> strengths
>> > of a class with a mixture of study backgrounds and skills. A clear
>> > understanding of the conceptual principles of digital information
>> processing
>> > has to be present and correct, but there are avenues for taking the
>> social
>> > history seriously -- what kind of promotional technique were
>> conventional to
>> > 1950s audiences? What sections of the public would show up to this
>> > exhibition? Would it be wise to address possible labour fears? -- and
>> for
>> > thinking about the practicalities of display, the style to aim for in
>> any
>> > written materials, and the performance aspects of any demonstration
>> > involved.
>> >
>> > It might even rival "costumed battle on the front quad" if it could
>> really
>> > be built, assuming the students followed Ferranti in going for the
>> > big-and-imposing spectacle approach.
>> >
>> > The main headache would be in determining what rules to play by on the
>> > practical construction. Insisting on only "materials that could have
>> existed
>> > in 1951" would create major problems if rigorously enforced, and would
>> focus
>> > a lot of time and attention on elements which would probably be most
>> > interesting to a small minority of students. Tolerating too much
>> simulation,
>> > on the other hand, would defeat the key point that equipment was
>> inherently
>> > unreliable, and that the question of whether digital automation was
>> > worthwhile or not was still a live one. Perhaps experienced
>> replicationists
>> > might be able to advise here?
>> >
>> > All best
>> > James
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> 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
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-- 
James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
jcortada at umn.edu
608-274-6382
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