May 2011 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Tom Watson and Seymour Cray quotes
by Brian Randell 19 May '11

19 May '11

Hi: I've been trying to trace the origins of the oft-repeated pair of quotations: "Last week, Control Data ... announced the 6600 system. I understand that in the laboratory developing the system there are only 34 people including the janitor. Of these, 14 are engineers and 4 are programmers... Contrasting this modest effort with our vast development activities, I fail to understand why we have lost our industry leadership position by letting someone else offer the world's most powerful computer." - Thomas J Watson Jr "It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question." -- Seymour Cray's response to Thomas Watson. which I'd assumed were both apocryphal. In fact I find that Watson gives the first quotation himself in his book "Father, Son and Co: My Life at IBM and Beyond", saying that it was in a memo that he wrote to his "top men" on August 28, 1963. However, I've not been able to authenticate alleged Seymour Cray's alleged response - which I fear is too good to be true. Can anyone in fact validate it? Cheers Brian Randell -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

1 0

Photos of SIGCIS events (posted and needed)
by Thomas Haigh 17 May '11

17 May '11

Hello everyone, As you may know Chris McDonald and a few other SIGCIS members have been experimenting with frequent updates to keep our web page active and exciting. We're still figuring out how to balance and integrate web vs. email to keep our members informed, but you can see the latest at http://www.sigcis.org/blog. Chris has gone beyond the original idea of posting reminders and announcements to make an actual blog with opinions, links and provocative musings. He and the other contributors love to get a few comments, which any registered SIGCIS member can post after logging into the site. If you would like to add a blog to your own account let me know. Supporting a real blog required adding a few new features to our Drupal content management system, including (and you may think this would be standard) the ability to include images. So I've finally been able to begin a task that's been on my to do list for some years now: adding image galleries to complement our written event reports (http://www.sigcis.org/node/13) So far we've added a few photos from the 2007 and 2008 SHOT meetings. The 2009 and 2010 meetings will follow. See them at http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid. Once logged in you can also comment on images. Do you have any pictures from SIGCIS events (panels, dinners, lunches, etc) at SHOT or other conferences that you would be willing to share with us? Best wishes, Tom Haigh

1 0

Paul Baran papers coming to Stanford
by Thomas Haigh 14 May '11

14 May '11

Good news from the interwebs: Facebook has presented me with a message from Henry Lowood, who is responsible for the computing archival collections at Stanford, that he "Transferred Paul Baran's papers to Stanford today. Paul was one of the greats in Silicon Valley. Don't know who he is? Shame on you and run don't walk to http://bit.ly/1DcNvF. And very worthwhile if you have a little time (Paul, not the interlocutor): http://bit.ly/hOBskH" In case you don't want to click the links, Baran is best known for devising the concept of a packet switching network, the fundamental approach on which the Internet is build. (As with pretty much every other invention worth claiming there are other inventors). In a followup post, Lowood notes that "We will need to re-house the papers and convert the existing listing to our finding aid format. Can't say how long it will take, but there is reason for optimism that this collection will be available relatively soon. It came to us in excellent shape and well-organized" So great to see that this material is being preserved. Stanford already holds some other important collections, including the Apple archives. Tom

2 1

Entreprises-et-histoire special issue on IT history
by Petri Paju 13 May '11

13 May '11

All, Here’s a recent special issue in a French journal (articles in French and some in English), including articles from well-known authors who are also in our list and from others. (I found this thanks to the latest CBI Newsletter (1/2011), in its page recent publications.) Entreprises et Histoire, De l’informatique aux systèmes d’information dans les grandes entreprises See: http://www.cairn.info/revue-entreprises-et-histoire-2010-3.htm Best, Petri -- Petri Paju, tutkijatohtori, Turun yliopisto -- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/ (new article: Computing Close to Iron Curtain: Czechoslovakia and Finland) http://www.ths.fi/bibliography.htm (new)

1 0

Mahoney's "Histories of Computing" now available
by Thomas Haigh 11 May '11

11 May '11

Hello everyone, Earlier this week I received a full set of authors copies of "Histories of Computing," the edited works of Michael S. Mahoney on the history of computing. These were shipped from the Trilateral warehouse, which handles Harvard distribution, so I assume the book can now be ordered. It's priced at $50, which is a little high for an impulse buy but still much more reasonable than the library only pricing you tend to see from Springer or Routledge. I'll also be sure to set aside one or two copies for the SIGCIS book auction in Cleveland later this year. Book details at: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=31145 Buy discounted at: http://www.amazon.com/Histories-Computing-Michael-Sean-Mahoney/dp/product-de scription/0674055683 Flier: http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Mahoney/MahoneyFlier.pdf If you didn't know Mahoney, who died in 2008, you can learn more about him on his website http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/Mahoney/ and on his Princeton University tribute page. https://blogs.princeton.edu/mahoney/. An Eloge from two of his students is reprinted in the book but is also online: http://www.princeton.edu/hos/people/faculty/MahoneyElogeIsis.pdf. Fate moves in mysterious ways - when I first met Mike as a graduate student at Penn in the mid-1990s his book on the history of theoretical computer science was expected to appear soon, following his earlier "The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601-1665." I little suspected that fifteen years later I would find myself charged with pulling together his second book for publication (or indeed that it would be my own first book.) I'm particularly grateful to Bill Aspray, who was the initial editor, for bringing me on board the project. While not the groundbreaking monograph we all hoped Mike would eventually finish, "Histories of Computing" is a nicely produced hardcover volume, including thirteen of Mahoney's papers on the topic from his widely cited 1988 "The History of Computing in the History of Technology" all the way through to his 2010 paper "The Structures of Computation and the Mathematical Structure of Nature." The book is named after my personal favorite, his "The Histories of Computing(s)" which should be required reading any graduate student developing an interest in the field. I grouped the papers into three sections focused on historiography, software engineering, and theoretical computer science. As Mahoney tended to rework material from older papers into new ones it took some editing to strike and appropriate balance between redundancy and completeness, and several papers are represented by extracts. There's also a reasonably hefty historiographic introduction, where I try to summarize the main strands of Mahoney's work, tie together themes that unite those three areas, and put his work in context. During the project I developed a new appreciation for the coherence of his thought across what had initially struck me as a rather eclectic set of topics, and as some of his best papers were published in journals and volumes outside the regular orbit of historians of computing there is real value in seeing the full scope of his work in one place. (Especially as the papers have now been removed from his personal website). His work will remain relevant for a long time to come. We're also hoping to pass the word on to any of his colleagues who knew him from Princeton, history of mathematics, or history of early modern science who might be interested in learning about his other work. My editorial honorarium has been donated directly to the SIGCIS Mahoney Fund, http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney. We now have more than $9,000 in the fund, which will be used primarily to provide ongoing funding in Mike's name for graduate student presenters at the SIGCIS workshop. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

1 0

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] CFP, UK workshop on Information Concepts, Deadline June 17
by Thomas Haigh 11 May '11

11 May '11

Good point. I've never visited Bletchley Park, but had vaguely imagined it to be somewhere in rolling countryside rather than associating it with an urban area. There is now a computing museum there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Museum_of_Computing. Lest I be accused of being too hard on Milton Keynes, I should point out that (according to Wikipedia) it is also home to the National Bowl, a theatre, several music venues, multiple choirs, several professional sports teams, and "In 1981, the main shopping area in the town centre was used as the filming location for the music video to Cliff Richard's hit Wired for Sound." Also "the only unaltered building by the architect and physicist Robert Hooke." Tom -----Original Message----- From: Brian Randell [mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk] Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 3:40 PM To: Thomas Haigh Cc: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] CFP, UK workshop on Information Concepts, Deadline June 17 On 9 May 2011, at 20:51, Thomas Haigh wrote: > Hello everyone, > > Came across this thanks to the wonders of social networking technology: "The > Difference that Makes a Difference: an interdisciplinary workshop on > information and technology" at the Open University (the UK's pioneer in > distance education). > > Description: http://www.dtmd2011.info/home > CFP: http://www.dtmd2011.info/call-for-papers > > From the program committee there appears to be decent representation of STS > expertise (although the word "impact" has somehow crept into the name of the > final session) but nothing historical there or in the keynote speakers list. > They promise in session 1 to explore the "philosophical underpinnings" of > information, whereas my hunch is that the historical roots would be much > more informative. So perhaps someone can fix that with a submission on the > history of information and its use within particular disciplines. > > The conference is in the Milton Keynes, England from September 7 to > September 9, and the deadline for abstracts is June 17. (Milton Keynes holds > a special place for devotes of post-War urban planning, and though otherwise > largely devoid of interest is not that far from London or Birmingham by > train). Registration is free, which doesn't hurt either and could make this > a cheap outing for those in the region. > > Tom Hi Tom: I must point out that Bletchley Park is within Milton Keyes - and is worth a special journey, not merely a detour (to use a Michelin Guide characterization) to anyone interested in computer history; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park Cheers Brian -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

2 1

Fw: [inforoots] AT&T and tape recording
by Evan Koblentz 11 May '11

11 May '11

SIGCISers, See the message below. ======================================= Posts to inforoots(a)computerhistory.org is information known to or the opinions of the poster. All posts to inforoots(a)computerhistory.org are archived. By posting to this list you grant a license for use of this material to the Computer History Museum located in Mountain View, California, USA. ======================================= In the May issue of Communications of the ACM is a MUST READ article. It tells how a Bell Labs researcher invented magnetic recording tape and had a six-foot tall answering machine in his office, and how and why AT&T suppressed this invention. As a result, we did not have magnetic recording until after WW II, when we got it from the Germans. -- Herbert Kanner kanner(a)acm.org 650-326-8204 Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will pee on your computer! _______________________________________________ inforoots mailing list inforoots(a)computerhistory.org http:mail.computerhistory.orgmailmanlistinfoinforoots

1 0

New CBI Newsletter (Spring 2011, Vol. 33:1)
by Charles Babbage Institute 10 May '11

10 May '11

1 0

Computer history library in New Jersey
by Evan Koblentz 10 May '11

10 May '11

As part of the Vintage Computer Festival East 7.0 (this weekend - May 14-15), MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists) will debut part of its computer history library. The collection includes full (well, mostly full) runs of the first few years of Byte, Compute, Creative Computing, Dr. Dobb's Journal, SCCS Interface, Interface Age, Kilobaud, and more. We also have the early years of the People's Computer Company newsletter, anthologies of the early years of the West Coast Computer Faire, a large number of machine-specific publications, and early issues of various user group newsletters (some on CD). We also have hundreds of computer books (and related topics) from the 1940s-1980s and a vast assortment of technical manuals and user guides. Our full library will be organized later this year. It will be a reading / research library, not a lending library, except by special permission.

1 0

CFP, UK workshop on Information Concepts, Deadline June 17
by Thomas Haigh 09 May '11

09 May '11

Hello everyone, Came across this thanks to the wonders of social networking technology: "The Difference that Makes a Difference: an interdisciplinary workshop on information and technology" at the Open University (the UK's pioneer in distance education). Description: http://www.dtmd2011.info/home CFP: http://www.dtmd2011.info/call-for-papers >From the program committee there appears to be decent representation of STS expertise (although the word "impact" has somehow crept into the name of the final session) but nothing historical there or in the keynote speakers list. They promise in session 1 to explore the "philosophical underpinnings" of information, whereas my hunch is that the historical roots would be much more informative. So perhaps someone can fix that with a submission on the history of information and its use within particular disciplines. The conference is in the Milton Keynes, England from September 7 to September 9, and the deadline for abstracts is June 17. (Milton Keynes holds a special place for devotes of post-War urban planning, and though otherwise largely devoid of interest is not that far from London or Birmingham by train). Registration is free, which doesn't hurt either and could make this a cheap outing for those in the region. Tom

1 0