December 2010 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Book collection for sale
by Evan Koblentz 18 Dec '10

18 Dec '10

I'm selling a large portion of my books collection This portion is mostly lay history about science/technology (but not computers.) The list of titles is here: http://www.snarc.net/books.htm .... asking price is $350. Please reply directly to evan(a)snarc.net. Location is northern New Jersey. Given the heft, local pick-up/delivery is preferred, but I will ship if you'll pay.

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SIGCIS Mahoney Fund
by Thomas Haigh 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

Hello SIGCIS members, Once or twice a year I like to update everyone on the progress of the Mahoney fund, in which SIGCIS is accumulating capital to support graduate student travel awards and other future projects. The fund was founded two years ago in honor of historian Michael S. Mahoney. Full details, including the procedure for donating, at http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney. So far this year we have received donations totaling $2,850 bringing the total to just over eight thousand dollars. These contributions included pledged annual giving from Jonathan Coopersmith, Ann Johnson, and Wendy Vogenitz. Angela Creager and Brent Jesiek made new donations. $1,500 of the total was the honorarium I received from Harvard University Press as editor of the forthcoming "Histories of Computing," a collection of Mahoney's work. (Available for preorder at Amazon, which is very trusting of HUP as I didn't send back the galleys yet. http://www.amazon.com/Histories-Computing-Michael-Sean-Mahoney/dp/0674055683 ). The fund is managed by SHOT along with its own endowment. We earned more than $800 of investment income from its performance in 2009. So far the proceeds are being reinvested in their entirety to speed capital accumulation. When the balance reaches $10,000 we plan to begin spending at least 5% of the total each year to support an additional graduate student travel award for the SIGCIS workshop. Contributions large and small are always welcome. Donations to the fund count as charitable contributions for US taxpayers, and so are tax deductible in the normal way for those who itemize. SHOT has asked that donations, where possible, be made by check rather than online. It would be great to reach the initial $10,000 target before the 2011 annual meeting next autumn. Happy holidays to you all, as the semester and the year draw to their conclusions. Tom Haigh

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Fwd: FW: Byrne Marconi fellowship
by "Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo (shī fu)" 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

Might be of interest to list members. It seems they havent had many applications for 2011. Season's greetings Bernardo Bangor University (Wales) *Call for Douglas Byrne Marconi Fellowship Applications * *10 November 2010* The Bodleian Libraries are calling for applicants interested in researching the history of science and technology. Thanks to a grant from the Wireless Preservation Society, the Bodleian Libraries offer an annual fellowship to support a scholar in residence. The value of the award in 2011 will be £4000. Applications are encouraged from those wishing to consult the Marconi Archive at the Bodleian Library and the collection of objects held at the Museum of Science, Oxford. The vast archive, occupying some 400 linear metres of shelving, includes personal papers of Guglielmo Marconi and business records relating to the radio industry up to the late twentieth century. Objects in the collection include devices from early experiments in transmission. The first fellowship was awarded this year to Professor Peter Scott, of the Henley Business School, University of Reading, for research into competitive advantage and innovation in the interwar British radio industry. Professor Scott will deliver the first Douglas Byrne Marconi Lecture on March 1, 2011. “The Marconi fellowship has provided me with the resources to undertake in-depth research using Britain’s most extensive and important archive for the radio and related industries”, says Professor Scott. “The Marconi collection sheds important light on all aspects of the early radio industry and constitutes a key historical resource for anyone undertaking research in this area.” The Marconi Collection was donated to the University of Oxford by Marconi plc in December 2004. A catalogue of the archive, funded by the Wireless Preservation Society, is available online from the Bodleian Library. A catalogue of the objects can be found on the website of the Museum of the History of Science. One of the most interesting sections of the archive relates to the Titanic disaster in 1912. The role played by wireless telegraphy in saving lives during this tragic event is well documented in the archive, which features the logs of ships’ radio operators recording the first and last distress signals from the Titanic as well as thousands of other messages exchanged before, during and after the emergency. As well as documents relating to Marconi and his Wireless Telegraph Company, there are records of numerous other electronic and electrical engineering companies, all of which were ultimately absorbed into the General Electric Company (GEC) which in 1999 changed its own name to Marconi. The fellowship is named in memory of its founder, Douglas Byrne. For details of funding and how to apply for the Douglas Byrne Marconi Fellowship at the Bodleian Library, visit the library website at www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/ <http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/>, or write to: Fellowships, Centre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Library, Oxford OX1 3BG. Applications for the 2011 fellowship must be submitted by December 31, 2010.

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Wow! Lego Antikythera device -- and it works
by Evan Koblentz 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

http://therawfeed.com/apple-engineer-re-creates-2000-year-old-greek

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Mathematical Tables Page
by David Alan Grier 09 Dec '10

09 Dec '10

All, I just received a note via a long chain that ended with Mary Croarken about a new web page by Denis Roegel that presents a very complete analysis of most of the major mathematical table projects prior to the 20th century, including both Vlacq and Prony. While the subject predates the interests of many on this list, it remains an important part of computing history and deserves to be better known. The link is http://www.loria.fr/~roegel/locomat.html David ---------------------------------------- David Alan Grier FIrst Vice President IEEE Computer Society 2011 Vice President of Publications, Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy Elliott School Of International Affairs George Washington University grier(a)computer.org "The Known World" IEEE Computer www.computer.org/theknownworld

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Bärwolff dissertation: "End-to-end arguments in the Internet"
by Thomas Haigh 09 Dec '10

09 Dec '10

[Forwarded from Dave Walden, who is one of several members having difficulty sending to the list in recent months. If you get messages sent to the list unaccountably bounced, please forward me a copy of the transmission failed message. Tom] To the SIGCIS list: Below is a message from Matthias Bärwolff about the availability of his recently finished thesis. While it may not be a traditional history-of-technology PhD thesis, there is a ton of material in it about the history of how and why the Internet's end-to-end mechanisms evolved. To help you understand "is this relevant to me", Matthias provides an outline in the PS to his message below (a message to the Internet History list), and the whole thesis is freely available on the net as a PDF. (I recommend sampling various parts of it to get a feel for the whole thing.) Yours truly, Dave Walden >Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:16:04 +0100 >From: Matthias Bärwolff <mbaer(a)cs.tu-berlin.de> >To: internet history <internet-history(a)postel.org> > >Dear all, > >it is my pleasure to announce the release of my PhD thesis on >"End-to-end arguments in the Internet" as a self-published book on >CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3498028) Of course there >is a perfectly fine free PDF version on my website, too >(http://www.bärwolff.de/publications/2010-10-PhD-thesis.html) > >This is also an apt opportunity to thank all you folks for the feedback >on many of my questions here on this list over the last two years. So >without further ado, I'll let you go. If you have any feedback or >questions about the book, just send me an email. > >Matthias > >P.S.: Some further asides for the not-too-hurried reader. The thesis is >basically split into three big parts: > >- Part 1 reviews the genesis of the end-to-end arguments as a design >principle of sorts, going back to early 1960s contributions by Paul >Baran and running all the way to more timely elaborations of the merit >of minimality of common shared spanning layers. I have not given too >prominent a consideration to the notion of net neutrality; some >footnotes go into that (tracing the notion to a 1999 Saltzer note, and, >slightly more adventurously, to early 1970s Pouzin papers), but I have >not given it a section of its own. > >- Part 2 then discusses the evolution the end-to-end arguments as a >functions of actual networking (as opposed to theoretical reasoning) >from the Arpanet to the Internet, along with aside notes about Alohanet, >Ethernet, etc. The contribution of this part is somewhat less tractable >than that of Part 1. At the very least, it brings a whole lot of >instructive and somewhat novel data points to the table -- e.g. >elaborating the inner structure of the Arpanet; the eventual "frazzling" >of the Arpanet edges (VDH interface, TIPs, etc.); and the history of >Arpanet raw messages as a somewhat direct predecessor to the later IP >protocol. > >- Part 3 wraps up the thesis by adding some looser discussion about the >merit, useful scope, limitations, and proper articulation of the >end-to-end arguments. It somewhat defeats a two-sentence summary (and is >also strictly speaking off-topic for this list) so go and read it for >yourself. > >In all, the core of the thesis runs 160 pages; plus 277 pages of >endnotes; plus 89 pages of literature; plus prelims and tables (toc, >tof); plus, last but not least, a really cool index of interesting >asides. While all of this jazz makes the most sense in the PDF version >which features all conceivable hyperlinks forth and back; the links may >also easily be followed manually (even from the endnotes and literature >back to the main text). > >While the PDF is free, the book is $25, has a neat cover, and is >available on CreateSpace as of now; it will also hit Amazon.com at >around new year's eve, and eventually it will be on the international >Amazon sites some time next January. Being the author, I can order >copies of the book for some $12 and have them shipped to any US address >of my choosing; so if you think that there is a good reason for you to >have me get the book to you in some sort of out-of-band mutual deal, >drop me an email. >-- >Matthias Bärwolff >www.bärwolff.de

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IT History Blog
by Ceruzzi, Paul 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

As many of you know, I, along with a few others, contribute occasionally to the IT History Society blog. For me it is very low-key and a nice way to stay connected with the field. Here is a sample: <http://ithistory.org/blog/>. If anyone is interested in joining me and contributing, let me know. Cheers, Paul Ceruzzi

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Thank you!
by Kidwell, Peggy 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

With the help of members of SIGCIS and other kind people, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has just launched a web site relating to the early history of the programming language COBOL. The occasion for this small project is the fiftieth anniversary of the first successful compatibility test of COBOL programs. In December of 1960 the same COBOL procedures ran on computers at Remington Rand Univac and at RCA. You are cordially invited to browse the web site at: http://americanhistory.si.edu/cobol/. A small exhibit case showing some of the materials included on the web site will open on the first floor of the museum in the spring of 2011. Peggy A. Kidwell Curator of Mathematics Division of Science & Medicine MRC671, NMAH Smithsonian Institution P.O. Box 37012 Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 address for FedEx and UPS: NMAH, Smithsonian Institution 12th St. & Constitution Washington, D.C. 20560 telephone: 202-633-3828 fax: 202-633-9273 email: kidwellp(a)si.edu<mailto:kidwellp@si.edu>

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The Obituary of Maurice Wilkes, Among Many Others
by Chris McDonald 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Dear SIGCISers, In light of the recent passing of Maurice Wilkes, I've posted a new blog entry (http://www.sigcis.org/node/120) on the SIGCIS site. Please contribute your thoughts; we welcome your comments and hope to stimulate conversation among historians of computing. Sincerely, Chris McDonald

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Wilkes obit by Martin Campbell-Kelly
by Thomas Haigh 01 Dec '10

01 Dec '10

Further to the initial announcement, I notice that the Independent (a British newspaper) has now posted Martin Campbell-Kelly's obituary notice for Wilkes at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/maurice-wilkes-visionary-and-pi oneering-doyen-of-british-computing-2147811.html. Also, thanks to Paul McJones for pointing out that at least one computer project leader from the 1940s is, as far as we know, still alive: Harry Huskey. Huskey worked on ENIAC and led development of SWAC a few years later. Bill Aspray did an oral history interview with him in 2006. http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Huskey_Harry/ Huskey.oral_history.2006.102657983.pdf Tom Haigh

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