December 2012 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

another book by Knuth which is not another volume of TAOCP
by Dave Walden 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

See my review at <http://www.tug.org/books/reviews/tb103reviews-knuth9-walden.html>http://www.tug.org/books/reviews/tb103reviews-knuth9-walden.html It will be published in the upcoming issue of the TeX User Group's journal. As the review says, I think this will be a useful volume for computing historians whose research brings them toward Knuth's life and publications.

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History at "Computing Conversations"
by William McMillan 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

Greetings, SIGCIS members. I'm not sure how many on this list are aware of the historical content presented by the University of Michigan's Charles Severance in his "Computing Conversations" for IEEE's *Computer* magazine and web site: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/computing-conversations Severance frequently includes historical content, even for relatively modern technologies. At the above site you'll find a link to a very well done video on Bletchley Park and some other topics that might be of interest. His column in the November *Computer* on the origins of PHP seems not to be linked yet on the site above, but can be read or heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqMW78GVcs http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=6353438&punumber=2 Nothing Earth-shaking about these presentations, but I find it interesting to see how history is presented to practicing computing professionals and what they seem to be interested in. - Bill

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Publications by Adriano Olivetti again available
by Federico Gobbo 25 Dec '12

25 Dec '12

Dear Colleagues, as a Christmas gift I have good news from Italy. The grandson of Adriano Olivetti, Beniamino de' Liguori Carino, has re-opened the historically important publishing house opened by Adriano, i.e., Edizioni di Comunità, some days ago. You can find them at the following link: http://www.edizionidicomunita.it/ Notably, e-books are available, at least through Amazon. By the moment, I didn't find translations in English, but perhaps Beniamino will do it, if there are signs of interests. My country is in trouble, and such a initiative merits all the support by our community. Merry Christmas to everyone, Federico Gobbo -- Federico Gobbo http://federicogobbo.name skype://federicogobbo

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Erwin Tomash (1921 - 2012)
by Thomas J. Misa 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Dear colleagues, At CBI we wish to recognize the passing of Erwin Tomash, who died last week at his home. A funeral home announcement is at <http://pacificgardenschapel.com/obituary_view/2012-12-erwin-tomash/10040007>. It's not easy to give a short version of Erwin's impact on computer history. First and foremost, he was the founder of the Charles Babbage Institute and for years its guiding spirit. In the 1970s, even before he retired from Dataproducts, he consulted with leaders in the academic, museum, and business worlds about creating an institution to support and foster computer history. Initially located in California, CBI's first task was finding a permanent home. It turned out that the University of Minnesota put in the winning bid in a national competition; see <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/newsletter/article2.html> with a permanent link <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/nsl/v34n2.pdf>. CBI moved to Minnesota in 1980, Arthur Norberg arrived the next year as director, and the field of computer history would never be the same. Arthur took up Erwin's plans to have CBI engage in collecting archival materials on computer history, conducting oral histories, and engaging in research projects. In practice, these three activities have been complementary ones. A significant number of CBI's 200+ archival collections have roots in an oral history and/or CBI research project. A special issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2001) provides additional details and perspectives, as does the CBI Newsletter (Fall 2003) on CBI's 25-year anniversary <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/nsl/v26n1graphics.pdf> Since 1978 CBI has awarded the Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology, to a Ph.D. student completing their dissertation. The 32 recipients, beginning with the first awardee Bill Aspray and continuing to the most-recent Ksenia Tatarchenko, now include many leaders in our field <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/tfellowship.html>. At the University of Minnesota an additional Tomash fund supports our Ph.D. students. Erwin was also a book person. In the 1980s the CBI-Tomash Reprint Series published notable editions with expert commentaries. Some of these volumes are still available <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/reprints.html>. Then, notably, there was Erwin's personal efforts in rare-book collecting. A glimpse of his efforts is The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalog <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/hostedpublications/Tomash/index.htm>, a significant scholarly effort itself done in collaboration with Mike Williams. We are planning our spring CBI Newsletter to deal more fully with Erwin's long life and remarkable career. If you would like to write a personal note to Adelle Tomash, please contact CBI at <cbi(a)umn.edu> for her address. With best wishes, Tom Misa

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from the IEEE Computer Society History Committee
by Dave Walden 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

Hello, The History Committee of the IEEE Computer Society has posted some new items to its website at <http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc>http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc in particular, a monograph by committee member V. Rajaraman on the "History of Computing in India, 1955-2010" Dave Walden (2012 committee chair)

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Older computers (1940-1950)
by Evan Koblentz 14 Dec '12

14 Dec '12

>> I am not sure why this discussion thread seems to be going out of its way to degrade the importance of the ABC machine. Speaking only for myself, there are two reasons why the AB machine should not be included on the original poster's list. 1. It's a calculator, not a computer. A calculator requires human intervention various steps of a problem. A computer runs a program runs until it's finished. The AB machine did the former. 2. AB never finished it. I do not view this as degrading the importance of the machine. But I would also point out an earlier example of separating memory from processing (Babbage), an earlier example of using vacuum tubes for digital logic (cosmic ray counters); and a long appeal about why Judge Larsen and Remington's attorneys both may have been tragically wrong.

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CBI's Tomash and Norberg fellowships ---> DEADLINE 15 January 2013
by Thomas J. Misa 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

Please circulate to potential applicants ! ---TJM Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology The Charles Babbage Institute is accepting applications for the 2013-2014 Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student for doctoral dissertation research in the history of computing. The fellowship may be held at the recipient's home academic institution, the Charles Babbage Institute, or any other location with appropriate research facilities. The stipend is $14,000. It is intended for students who have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the research and writing of the dissertation. <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/tfellowship.html> ============================== Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund The Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund provides short-term grants-in-aid to help scholars with travel expenses to use archival collections at the Charles Babbage Institute. Each year we plan to award two or more $750 grants. <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntravelfund.html> ========================================= For each, please read the website materials -- including instructions about applications -- carefully.

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Wikipedia --> Computer: History of Information Machine
by Thomas J. Misa 06 Dec '12

06 Dec '12

Hi all, A student pointed out this interesting Wikipedia page (we're using Martin and Bill's splendid book this semester): <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer:_A_History_of_the_Information_Machine> A section there lists some "corrections" on a future edition . . . which (I understand) our colleagues are busy working on. That will be great to see! ----TJM

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ACM History Committee ---> 2013 research support
by Thomas J. Misa 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Hi all, This announcement will be posted soon at <http://history.acm.org/>. ACM's History Committee is planning a 2-day workshop for spring/summer of 2014, and directing its support of research in 2013 toward that end. ANY TOPIC in ACM history is perfectly fine to propose. Note also that there may be four awards, each up to $4,000. Normally, these should be for "research" projects. To get some forward thinking about ACM's history writ large, there may be support also for a wider "synthetic" project that examines the literature and suggests themes. Key point: the 2013 awards are coupled with the expectation that awardees also attend the ACM history workshop (in 2014). Please indicate your willingness to do so -- explicitly in your proposal. Expenses for the 2014 workshop will be paid by the ACM History Committee. ---TJM ================= ACM History Committee 2013 Program for Research in ACM History The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has more than 100,000 members around the world. The ACM History Committee is preparing groundwork for a special history workshop in 2014. Aiming at the workshop, we will support research projects related to ACM’s professional and educational activities and/or to ACM’s rich institutional history including its organization, publications, SIG activities, and conferences. We may also consider support for wider synthetic projects, analyzing existing research on ACM and outlining themes to illuminate ACM’s nearly seven-decade history. We will support up to four projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. All awardees must be willing to present their work to a two-day ACM History Committee-sponsored workshop, to be held during the spring or early summer of 2014. Workshop travel, lodging, and meals will be paid by ACM History Committee, in addition to this project award. To Apply: Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 750-word project description that [a] describes the proposed research or synthetic project; [b] identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); [c] discusses any additional project outcome besides the ACM history workshop (e.g. journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit, website); and [d] outlines a timeline for completing the project—including, specifically, your willingness to contribute a 10-page (2500-word) paper to the 2014 ACM history workshop. Workshop papers will be pre-circulated to workshop attendees; revised versions may be published afterwards. In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the document “ACM Research Materials” posted at <history.acm.org/content.php?do=links> as well as “Sources for ACM History,” CACM 50 #5 (May 2007): 36-41 <doi.acm.org/10.1145/1230819.1230836>. Other research materials relating to ACM history may also be used. Applicants should include a letter of endorsement from their home institution or an external scholarly reference. Proposals are due by 15 February 2013. Proposals should be submitted as a single pdf-format document to <history-webmaster(a)acm.org>. Notification of awards will be made within four weeks. ============================================================

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