April 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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"Stored Program" -- origins in IBM circa 1949?
by Thomas Haigh 19 Oct '12

19 Oct '12

Thanks to Peggy Kidwell (below) we have a confirmed sighting of "stored program" in the wild in 1949. In fact two, in internal IBM documents. This is very suggestive when taken in conjunction with something I noticed in searching the ACM DL yesterday, which is that 6 of the 11 uses it located through the end of 1960 were in papers written by IBM staff. So, an attractive hypothesis is that the term was coined within IBM Poughkeepsie in 1949 during early work on IBM's first experimental stored program computer, the Test Assembly. As the 604 calculator being cannibalized for its electronic arithmetic unit already had a plugboard programming mechanism it makes sense that the team would want a clear name for the separate capability they were building to execute a program stored in Williams Tubes backed by a drum. Tom From: Kidwell, Peggy [mailto:kidwellp@si.edu] Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:43 AM To: 'David Alan Grier'; Thomas Haigh Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE The term "stored program" was used in internal IBM documents discussing the development of special circuits for the IBM 604 electronic calculating punch by 1949. See, for example, Nathaniel Rochester, "Plans for the Data Processing Test Assembly," Document 05.14.24. See also H. A. Mussell & C. E. Frizzell, "Stored Program," December 27, 1949, which refers to Rochester's paper. This had internal code 05.015.37. The reference is to programs stored on the drum of the machine or electrostatically, as opposed to on a plugboard. Peggy From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of David Alan Grier Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 5:25 PM To: Thomas Haigh Cc: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE Tom Two bounds for your search. "Stored Program" is not in the 1950 IRE Standard on Computer Terms: <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnu mber=1701474&contentType=Journals+%26+Magazines&ranges%3D1951_1956_p_Publica tion_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26searchField%3DSearch_All%26queryText%3D%28 p_Title%3Acomputer+terms%29> Standards on Electronic Computers: Definitions ofTerms, 1950 <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10 933> Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 39 , <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=3584 4> Issue: 3 Digital Object Identifier: <http://dx.doi.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1951.231840> 10.1109/JRPROC.1951.231840 Publication Year: 1951 , Page(s): 271 - 277 But it is used in the 1953 IRE article on programming. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnu mber=4051188&contentType=Journals+%26+Magazines&sortType%3Dasc_p_Publication _Year%26ranges%3D1953_1958_p_Publication_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26search Field%3DSearch_All%26queryText%3D%28.QT.stored+program.QT.%29> Fundamentals of Digital Computer Programming Thomas, W.H. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10 933> Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 41 , <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=4051 180> Issue: 10 Digital Object Identifier: <http://dx.doi.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1953.274275> 10.1109/JRPROC.1953.274275 Publication Year: 1953 , Page(s): 1245 - 1249 I SHOULD NOTE THAT IT IS NOT USED IN THE COMPANION 1953 article on the IBM 701. David -------------------------------- David Alan Grier Fellow, IEEE President Elect, IEEE Computer Society Assoc. Prof., International Science & Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy grier(a)gwu.edu On Apr 2, 2012, at 4:34 PM, Thomas Haigh wrote: Hello everyone, I have a query related to a project I am working on concerning the conversion of ENIAC to stored program control in 1948, initially to run the first computerized Monte Carlo calculations. All this took place prior to the first operation of the Manchester Baby. That makes the question of what one means by "stored program" a very interesting one. This question was much discussed in the early days of the history of computing (1970s, early 1980s). I am starting to dig back into primary sources for early use of the phrases "stored program" and "stored program concept" to get a better idea of how these terms were used in the 1940s/early 1950s and what people thought they meant at the time. To clarify, almost everyone who has written about this cites the 1945 "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" as the initial dissemination of the stored program concept although there has been considerable debate as to the source of the ideas contained therein. However that document does not contain the phase "stored program." Or indeed use the word "program" in the body of the text. Or, remarkably, "EDVAC." "Stored" shows up a few times, though less frequently than "remembered." So, ignoring for the moment the relationship of the report to later definitions of the concept, we can agree that it was not the source of the phrase. The most obvious summary of the idea using the report's own terminology would be "remembered instruction device" rather than "stored program computer." I had thought about the 1946 Moore School lectures as a possible vector for the phase "stored program" as well as the concept. The phrase shows up many times in the Moore School lectures book but so far I have spotted it only in the 1980s editorial material rather than in the original lecture summaries. By 1954 "stored program computer" is showing up without explanation or citation required in the description of the IBM 650 published in the inaugural issue of Journal of the ACM. It is not particularly common in the ACM DL material for the rest of the decade ("automatic computer" and "digital computer" are more prevalent) but continues to pop up occasionally. The best the OED can do is 1957, which is even later. So, any thoughts on who came up with this phrase and when? I'm planning to dig deeper in search of early usage, for example into the 1950 "High-Speed Computing Devices" ERA book and some of the other CBI reprints from the 1940s, but it occurred to me that someone on the list might already know the answer to the question. Tom _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)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

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New book about Turing Award winner Peter Naur
by Edgar Daylight 20 Jun '12

20 Jun '12

************ Book announcement *********** `Pluralism in Software Engineering: Turing Award Winner Peter Naur Explains' --- by Edgar G. Daylight As a software engineer and aspiring historian of computing, I have had the honor of meeting the computing pioneer Peter Naur at his home in Copenhagen in the spring of 2011. My lengthy discussion with Naur is documented in my new book and is published by Lonely Scholar. I invite historians of science to have a look at the book's summary at: http://www.lonelyscholar.com/node/7 Naur discusses varying topics, ranging from astronomy to programming and from philosophy to psychology. An underlying theme is Naur's rejection of Western philosophy. best wishes, Edgar G. Daylight www.dijkstrascry.com

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FW: [Sighfis-l] Deadline Extended: ASIS&T History Fund Awards 2012
by Thomas Haigh 27 Apr '12

27 Apr '12

The deadline is now rather less looming for anyone interested in the two awards I forwarded recently. Tom -----Original Message----- From: sighfis-l-bounces(a)asis.org [mailto:sighfis-l-bounces@asis.org] On Behalf Of Lai Ma Sent: Friday, April 27, 2012 12:23 PM To: asis-l(a)asis.org; sighfis-l(a)asis.org Subject: [Sighfis-l] Deadline Extended: ASIS&T History Fund Awards 2012 [Note the deadline has been extended to May 19, 2012] The ASIS&T History Fund Advisory Board announces the following two competitive awards for 2012: 1) The ASIS&T History Fund Research Award This award will be for a maximum of $1,000 and will be awarded for the best research support proposal submitted by May 19, 2012. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology may be proposed. The proposal should state: the central topic or question to be researched, qualifications of the researcher (brief vita should be included), a budget, and how the funds will be expended. All funds must be expended by June 30, 2013. Submit proposal to http://www.softconf.com/asist/History_Fund/ (choose the "Research Award" category) by May 19, 2012. If an award is made for 2012, the winner will be notified by June 1, 2012. 2) The ASIS&T History Fund Best Paper Award This award will be for a maximum of $500 and will be awarded for the best paper submitted by May 19, 2012. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology will be considered. The paper should not have been previously published or submitted to a journal. The paper should not exceed 30 pages double-spaced, including notes/references, using APA style manual. The ASIS&T History Advisory Board will review all submissions and decide if an award is to be made by June 1, 2012. If an award is made the winner will be expected to present the paper at the 2012 ASIS&T Annual Meeting pre-conference and give first rights of refusal for publication to the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Submit papers to http://www.softconf.com/asist/History_Fund/ (choose the "Research Award" category). The ASIS&T History Fund was established by the ASIS&T Board of Directors in June, 2000 for the purposes of supporting and encouraging research and publication in the history of information science and technology. The Fund is supported by donations (including book royalties) from ASIS&T members and others with interest in the history of information science and technology. The Fund Advisory Board encourages further donations from anyone interested in supporting historical study of information science and technology. Members of the ASIS&T History Fund Advisory Board for 2012 are: Kathryn La Barre, Chair Sarah Buchanan, Chair-Elect Julian Warner, Past Chair Michael Buckland Samantha Hastings For further information on submitting a proposal for the grant award or the best paper award for 2012 please contact Lai Ma at lama(a)indiana.edu. _______________________________________________ Sighfis-l mailing list Sighfis-l(a)asis.org http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sighfis-l

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FW: REMINDER : ASIS&T History Fund Awards 2012
by Thomas Haigh 25 Apr '12

25 Apr '12

Hello SIGCIS members, You might consider submitting for these small awards. Our members have had some success in the past -- Andrew Russell won the "research grant" in 2010. (http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGHFIS/about_sighfis.htm) The deadline is looming. The best unpublished paper award is attractive primarily if you hope to attend the ASIS&T meeting anyway, as the $500 prize for the best paper award would be largely consumed by conference registration costs. Tom -----Original Message----- From: sighfis-l-bounces(a)asis.org [mailto:sighfis-l-bounces@asis.org] On Behalf Of Lai Ma Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 7:54 AM To: asis-l(a)asis.org; sighfis-l(a)asis.org Subject: [Sighfis-l] REMINDER : ASIS&T History Fund Awards 2012 The ASIS&T History Fund Advisory Board announces the following two competitive awards for 2012: 1) The ASIS&T History Fund Research Award This award will be for a maximum of $1,000 and will be awarded for the best research support proposal submitted by May 1, 2012. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology may be proposed. The proposal should state: the central topic or question to be researched, qualifications of the researcher (brief vita should be included), a budget, and how the funds will be expended. All funds must be expended by June 30, 2013. Submit proposal to http://www.softconf.com/asist/History_Fund/ (choose the "Research Award" category) by May 1, 2012. If an award is made for 2012, the winner will be notified by June 1, 2012. 2) The ASIS&T History Fund Best Paper Award This award will be for a maximum of $500 and will be awarded for the best paper submitted by May 1, 2012. All topics relevant to the history of information science and technology will be considered. The paper should not have been previously published or submitted to a journal. The paper should not exceed 30 pages double-spaced, including notes/references, using APA style manual. The ASIS&T History Advisory Board will review all submissions and decide if an award is to be made by June 1, 2012. If an award is made the winner will be expected to present the paper at the 2012 ASIS&T Annual Meeting pre-conference and give first rights of refusal for publication to the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Submit papers to http://www.softconf.com/asist/History_Fund/ (choose the "Research Award" category). The ASIS&T History Fund was established by the ASIS&T Board of Directors in June, 2000 for the purposes of supporting and encouraging research and publication in the history of information science and technology. The Fund is supported by donations (including book royalties) from ASIS&T members and others with interest in the history of information science and technology. The Fund Advisory Board encourages further donations from anyone interested in supporting historical study of information science and technology. Members of the ASIS&T History Fund Advisory Board for 2012 are: Kathryn La Barre, Chair Sarah Buchanan, Chair-Elect Julian Warner, Past Chair Michael Buckland Samantha Hastings For further information on submitting a proposal for the grant award or the best paper award for 2012 please contact Lai Ma at lama(a)indiana.edu. _______________________________________________ Sighfis-l mailing list Sighfis-l(a)asis.org http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sighfis-l

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One last VCF reminder ...
by Evan Koblentz 25 Apr '12

25 Apr '12

Historians, ... A final reminder that the Vintage Computer Festival East 8.0 is less than two weeks ago: May 5-6, at the InfoAge Science Center, in Wall, New Jersey. We've got 24 exhibits, eight technical workshops, and four lectures, and two keynotes. All the details are posted at http://www.vintage.org/2012/east/ and there are also updates at http://www.facebook.com/vcfeast8. A pair of intriguing testimonials from veteran VCF attendees: Steve Wozniak: “Seeing the early equipment at VCF is an amazing experience. For many of us, it's better than a museum. It touches on all the hopes and dreams of the time and the many efforts to achieve what others thought would never happen. It brings back memories of a revolution in the making. And we see the humble devices that we could actually understand and hold each piece in our hands and even construct ourselves. Every new device back then signaled a change in life forever. A lot of young people look in awe upon those days too, the way they might look upon the founding music of rock and roll. The people you meet at the VCF are amazing. Most are older and more accomplished but every single story of those days that they tell is the type you hinge on and feel inside what they were doing, often against the grain of our culture and against what was supposedly possible. It was a time of few rules and little conformity, all because there weren't billions of dollars visible yet for this new industry. How much we were up against is one thing you take home after this event,” Wozniak continue. Lee Felsenstein: "In 35 years the personal computer has grown from nothing into the most important device shaping everyday life. It should be part of everyone's education to see how it grew and to learn from the people who grew it. VCF is the place to be where not only the equipment can be seen and tried out but, perhaps more importantly, where the people who rose to the challenge offered by these machines can be met and heard from." Me again: consider putting down your journal articles :) and coming to VCF where you see and touch computer history.

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Turing's 100th Birthday Party at King's College, Cambridge
by Jack Copeland 25 Apr '12

25 Apr '12

Turing's 100th Birthday Party at King's College, Cambridge 15th & 16th June 2012 King's College, Cambridge <http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/>http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/ Turing's 100th Birthday Party, celebrating his life and work, will be held at King's College, Cambridge--Turing's beloved intellectual home. All welcome! The speakers include a team of experts on Turing and leading scientists and science broadcasters such as Daniel Dennett, Simon Singh and Stephen Wolfram. Four members of Turing's immediate family and others who knew him personally will share their recollections of him. Pioneers of computing who worked alongside him, building and programming the first computers, as well as investigating his mathematical theory of how living matter grows, will explain his ideas and achievements. Codebreaker Jerry Roberts, one of Turing's last surviving wartime colleagues from Station X, will give the King's College Turing Centenary Lecture. There will be lectures on Turing's contributions to: the Second World War, the development of our technological society, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, the theory and practice of computing, and the understanding of the human mind. Music: the premier performance of A Piano Suite for Turing. For more information about the event, please go to: <http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/>http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/ Speakers Sir John Dermot Turing Turing's three nieces Inagh, Janet and Shuna Jon Agar Margaret Boden, OBE Martin Campbell-Kelly Brian Carpenter Jack Copeland Daniel Dennett Robert Doran William Newman Teresa Numerico Brian Oakley Brian Randell Bernard Richards Jerry Roberts Simon Singh Doron Swade Stephen Wolfram Michael Woodger Registration Please register early, places are limited. To register, visit: <http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/registration>http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/registration Transport and accommodation For information about how to arrive in King's College, and places to stay, visit: <http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/hotels>http://sites.google.com/site/turingace2012/hotels Organizers Turing's 100th Birthday Party is being organized by Jack Copeland (<mailto:j.copeland@phil.canterbury.ac.nz>jack.copeland(a)canterbury.ac.nz) and Mark Sprevak (<mailto:mark.sprevak@ed.ac.uk>mark.sprevak(a)ed.ac.uk)

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New CBI Newsletter (Spring 2012, Vol. 34:1)
by Charles Babbage Institute 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

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New book on the Amiga
by Ian Bogost 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

Hi everyone, The latest book in the Platform Studies series I co-edit at MIT Press has been published. It's called "The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga," by Jimmy Maher. The book is just terrific. Here's the publisher's page and the Amazon page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12832 http://www.amazon.com/The-Future-Was-Here-Commodore/dp/0262017202 And here's the blurb: > Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in The Future Was Here, the world’s first true multimedia personal computer. > > Maher argues that the Amiga’s capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga’s technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing. As before, I'd invite anyone on this list to consider writing a book for the series! Best wishes, Ian Ian Bogost, Ph.D. Professor Director, Graduate Program in Digital Media Georgia Institute of Technology Digital Media/TSRB 320B 85 Fifth Street NW Atlanta, GA 30308-1030 ibogost(a)gatech.edu +1 (404) 894-1160 (tel) +1 (404) 894-2833 (fax)

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30th anniversary coverage of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
by James Sumner 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

Interesting to see so much of this in the British press today, given that the Spectrum doesn't fit the "revolutionary technological breakthrough" trope. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17776666 Interviews with Rick Dickinson and Richard Altwasser, the latter of whom unsurprisingly invokes the Raspberry Pi manifesto. First time I've seen the Spectrum described as "Bauhaus-inspired". And "Sir Clive declined to take part in the conversation." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-doodle… on today's Google Doodle, which commemorates St George's Day in an image with authentic Spectrum attribute-clash (was the choice of 23 April as release date a deliberate bit of marketing? Doesn't seem quite to fit with the general approach). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/23/zx-spectrum-comp… Positions the Spectrum as a "computer for the masses" which "typified the British approach to industrial design – utilitarian but also idiosyncratic and characterful". Well, up to a point... Cheers James

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The History of File-Sharing
by Brian Randell 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

Hi: I've just come across what seemed to me to be an interesting account of the history of file-sharing, at: http://torrentfreak.com/the-history-of-filesharing-120422/ Out of curiosity, I'd be interested if someone with more knowledge of file-sharing than I have could comment on the accuracy and completeness of this account. 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

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1979 Xerox commercial for the Alto
by Thomas Haigh 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

Hello everyone, Dag Spicer of the Computer History Museum has been kind enough to process and upload to YouTube for us a short 1979 Xerox commercial showcasing the experimental Alto technology as an embodiment for its vision of the office of the future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0zgj2p7Ww4 This was something I'd seen years ago (an extract is featured in Triumph of the Nerds) but had been unable to track down anywhere online. I've added a link to my invention of email piece http://www.sigcis.org/Ayyadurai as this video by itself does a pretty good job of disproving the claim that nobody had ever built a system to harness email for office communication before 1980. Best wishes, Tom

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2013 International Congress of HSTM again
by James Sumner 21 Apr '12

21 Apr '12

Dear all Final push for this one: the proposal needs to be submitted by next Monday (30 April). Details as per my previous message, copied below. Interest so far has led to two fairly concrete subtheme ideas which should work well as 90-minute sessions within a wider symposium: banking and the cashless society, co-ordinated by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, and information systems in biology/biomedical computing, co-ordinated by Miguel Garcia Sancho. I think we can build a good case for an overarching theme titled something like "Data at work", with some focus on typical SIGCIS interests but an appeal to some of the Congress's other constituencies. Ideally, I'd like to include at least one more full session (three or four papers) for breadth. We don't need to include precise details or firm commitments in the symposium proposal, but it would be good to have as concrete a definition as possible. Interested? Drop me a line by the middle of next week, and we'll discuss further. All best James --- Dear SIGCIS members I'm writing to draw your attention to the current call for themed sessions for ICHSTM, the International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, to be held in July 2013 here in Manchester. Full details are on the Congress website at http://www.ichstm2013.com/ ICHSTM happens every four years and is the largest meeting in the field, drawing around a thousand delegates and lasting a full week. Its constituency is more global than most, with strong participation from China, South America, India and Eastern Europe. The organisation behind it (for details of which, see http://sites.google.com/a/dhstweb.org/www/ ) is structured around international commissions for a variety of sub-disciplines, each of which contributes a "symposium" -- basically, a substantial themed speaker session or group of sessions, covering half a day or more. However, any organisation or (if they represent more than one country) group of people can propose a symposium -- and that, I hope, is where we come in. There is, at least at present, no formal commission representing history of computing and allied interests, whereas SIGCIS is the most active international community in the field. Putting together a SIGCIS session for Manchester would help to raise our profile among the wide range of subject communities present. It would also tie in nicely with Helena Durnova and Slawomir Lotysz's planned session on COMECON computing, which you may recall was announced on this list earlier this month. Their session has been submitted to ICOHTEC (the International Committee for the History of Technology), whose 2013 meeting will be very closely integrated with the Congress, sharing a venue, a single registration, and much of the central organisation. If we can pull together a SIGCIS session, I'll try to persuade the programme planners to run it consecutively with the COMECON session for the benefit of anyone planning a shorter trip. And, of course, I would be very pleased to see as many of you as possible in Manchester, and can promise a friendly environment and a fun programme -- we'll be making the most of the region's industrial culture with plenty of excursions, and we're currently in discussions towards special sessions debating the relationship between historians and science/technology policy and showcasing work to bring history to wider public audiences. The theme of the Congress is 'Knowledge at work'. Conveniently, it so happens that I'm the local committee representative who ended up with the job of explaining what on earth this means: I've put a list of suggested approaches on the site at <http://www.ichstm2013.com/call/>, but notice the customary "may include, but are not limited to" -- all suggestions are welcome. Possible SIGCISsy ideas might include: cultures of working (formal or informal) in IT production and use; the relevance of the fieldwork concept to our research; pure/applied boundary work and its relation to the shape of the computer science discipline; the history of debates over computer literacy in education; computing and craftsmanship. The deadline for symposium submissions is Monday 30 April. We don't, in fact, need detailed abstracts for all papers (there's a later call for these), but would need a schedule of committed participants with titles, and an overview of the session's theme and aims. If you're interested, please drop me a line soon with an indication of what you'd like to present on, and we'll take it from there. All best James

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Software Crisis redux
by Janet Abbate 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Did anyone see the piece in the latest issue of IEEE Computer on "Software Crisis 2.0"? (April 2012, 89-91). While historians of computing have been moving away from the idea that the "software crisis" was a real phenomenon (see, e.g., Tom Haigh's essays on this), the computer scientist who wrote this article refers to the crisis as "well-documented" and "confirmed." Not only that, he claims there is a new software crisis upon us, fueled by information overload and demands for ubiquitous computing. Am I right that there is a gap in perception here between practitioners and historians? Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech

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cyber jedis
by Taylor-Smith, Ella 18 Apr '12

18 Apr '12

Hi This is perhaps a little present-tense for this list, but I the guardian is running an interesting series of articles: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet In particular, I thought that you'd be interested in the term "cyber jedi" -seemingly used withou comment in this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/militarisation-of-cyberspa… (It seems to me that the term cyberspace was out of fashion after the turn of the century and has recently become current again -just an impression though) -Ella Ella Taylor-Smith Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation Edinburgh Napier University 10 Colinton Road Edinburgh, EH10 5DT Telephone: +44 (0) 131 455 2392 Email: e.taylor-smith(a)napier.ac.uk http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/e.taylor-smith @EllaTasm http://www.facebook.com/OnlineAmbition @OnlineAmbition Edinburgh Napier University is one of Scotland's top universities for graduate employability. 93.2% of graduates are in work or further study within six months of leaving. The university is also proud winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2009, awarded for innovative housing construction for environmental benefit and quality of life. This message is intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be read, copied or disclosed to anyone else outwith the University without the permission of the sender. It is your responsibility to ensure that this message and any attachments are scanned for viruses or other defects. Edinburgh Napier University does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may result from this email or any attachment, or for errors or omissions arising after it was sent. Email is not a secure medium. Email entering the University's system is subject to routine monitoring and filtering by the University. Edinburgh Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Registration number SC018373

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Latest on Email Invention incl. my article
by Thomas Haigh 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

Hello SIGCIS members, You may remember some flurries of interest a while ago in the "Inventor of Email" saga. The happy outcome was that the Washington Post had asked me to write an article outlining the actual history of email and putting the claims of V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai in context. That never took place, but the article is now published in the blog section of the SIGCIS website as www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai. Thanks to all those who contributed, and I'm sorry if this won't have the visibility and impact we'd anticipated with the promised Post website publication. For myself I am glad to be done with this and hope the article can still help to put the record straight. A number of people have asked me what happened to the article. There's an outline of the whole confusing saga in a letter I wrote to the Washington Post ombudsman, www.sigcis.org/node/330. Basically I don't know. The article was accepted, but just before publication something killed the planned series of four articles on the episode (including one by Noam Chomsky!!) The only one of the four to be published, by Dave Crocker, is a useful capsule history of Internet email but was published without reference to Ayyadurai and attracted just two comments. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/a-history-of-e-mail-co llaboration-innovation-and-the-birth-of-a-system/2012/03/19/gIQAOeFEPS_story .html Ayyadurai's public relations firm is, at least as of a couple of weeks ago, still trying to interest journalists in his story so perhaps we can anticipate more press coverage to come. Personally I am glad to be done with this. Other news from the world of email invention: . Another journalist featured Ayyadurai as inventor of email, even after the Post's retraction. Callie Crossley on WGBH ran a full interview segment: http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Callie-Crossley-Show-855/episodes/Mon-31212 Innovation-Hour-USPS-Goes-Electric-36918. . Gizmodo ran a lengthy debunking. The quoting of one word insults from anonymous sources is not really fair, and you could argue that putting "crazy" and "man" a few words apart in the title is prejudicial. But overall it does a good job of investigating. http://gizmodo.com/5888702/corruption-lies-and-death-threats-the-crazy-story -of-the-man-who-pretended-to-invent-email . Dave Crocker has set up a website and associated discussion list to try to preserve the actual history of email. www.emailhistory.org. . Ayyadurai's book "The EMAIL Revolution: How to Build Brands and Create Real Connections," is available for preorder on Amazon for just $16.47. Publisher is Allworth (rather than Norton as suggested by Gizmodo). Interesting subtitle there. http://www.amazon.com/The-EMAIL-Revolution-Brands-Connections/dp/1581159803 Best wishes, Tom Haigh SIGCIS Chair, www.sigcis.org www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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IT History Society Appoints New Board Member - Dr. Randy Katz
by Info ＠ IT History Society 16 Apr '12

16 Apr '12

Randy Howard Katz, UC Berkeley Professor of Computer Sciences and Noted Information Technology Scientist, Joins the IT History Society Board San Francisco, CA (PrBuzz) April 11, 2012 - Randy H. Katz, University of California, Berkeley United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and a noted information technology scientist, joins the <http://www.ithistory.org/> IT History Society's (www.IThistory.org) board of directors. "Randy Katz is a well known computer scientist and professor. His contributions as a Board member and Trustee of the IT History Society will expand our reach", said Jeffery Stein, Chairman; "Randy's experience bringing the White House onto the Internet, his developing RAID technology for file systems, his many courses and teachings at one of America's top universities, and his many other accomplishments will strengthen ITHS even more". "I am honored to be associated with the Society dedicated as it is to saving the history of this crucial field of technology, largely created within our own lifetimes," said Randy Katz, UMC Distinguished Professor of EECS at UC Berkeley. The IT History Society with its many new databases is becoming the 'table of contents' of where the history of information technology is located. In addition, the Society wants to encourage information technology companies to preserve their histories and show companies the return on investment derived by keeping their histories alive. The Society's membership includes nearly 700 historians and archivists, as well as institutions such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, INTEL, The Internet Archive, Center for Technology Innovation, Charles Babbage Institute, Computer History Museum, IEEE History Center, Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists, McKesson, U.K. National Archive for the History of Computing, ACM History Committee, FedEx, Agilent, British Library, Applied Materials, Caltech, Computer Conservation Society, Deutsches Museum, Deltek, Microsoft, MIT, the Smithsonian Institution, and Symantec. Membership in the Society is complimentary due to the generous donations from the computer industry. The IT History Society supports the collaboration of like-minded institutions and individuals in expanding the reach of historical and archival activities. At the same time ITHS focuses on communicating to the private sector the value of preserving their history and heritage for future generations. The IT History Society continually promotes the value of preservation of information technology corporate history with its many databases and acting as a gateway for the location of historical information as a teaching and research aid for colleges, universities and researchers in both the public and private sectors. Another key resource is the IT Honor Roll Database <http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php> http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php The Honor Roll includes individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry. The IT History Society Historical Resource Sites comprises over 1,600 historical information technology sites that are indexed by the Society for use by educators, students, and researchers. <http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php> http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php An added database is the hardware database of all information technology hardware ever manufactured. The library consists of over 2,000 entries growing by over 100 per day. The database is located on the web at <http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php> http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php About ITHS The IT History Society exists to enhance and expand works concerning the history of Information Technology and to demonstrate the value of IT history for the understanding and improvement of our present and future world. IT History Society One Blackfield Drive - Suite 331 Tiburon, CA 94920 (415) 435-2263 <mailto:info@ITHistory.org> info(a)ITHistory.org <http://www.ithistory.org/> www.ITHistory.org Sm logo dropEnsuring the Future by Preserving the Past <http://www.twitter.com/ithistoryorg> twitter <http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/It-History-Society/143799552346273> find-us-on-facebook <https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=RRE7C2 JV47KKJ> btn_donate_LG

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CfP Turing in Context II
by Liesbeth De Mol 12 Apr '12

12 Apr '12

Dear all, as some of you might have noticed I am actively involved with the organization of a number of meetings and conferences which, I hope, are interesting to you. In October I co-organize another such meeting called Turing in context II (the first Turing in context I was held at King's college in Cambridge and was an event for a general academic public with invited speakers only). The idea of this meeting is to consider Turing's work in context. We aim at gaining a deeper understanding of Turing's legacy by bringing together historians, philosophers, logicians, mathematicians and computer scientists who work on topics that are relevant to one of the many fields Turing has contributed to. The focus of this meeting is not Turing's work per se, but rather the work of others before, during and after Turing's life up to today. Below you can find the call for papers and I hope that you will be interested to submit an abstract for this meeting. very best wishes, Liesbeth. CALL FOR PAPERS "Turing in context II" Historical and Contemporary Research in Logic, Computing Machinery and AI www.computing-conference.ugent.be/tic2 10-12 October, 2012 Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brussels, Belgium In the spirit of Alan Turing's interdisciplinary research, an international meeting will be held at the Royal Flemish Academy for the Sciences and Arts, exploring recent research into the many directions brought together in his work. This meeting is the second Turing in Context event during the 2012 Turing centennial. The first was held at King's College, Cambridge, 18-19 February 2012. It was an outreach event for the general academic public with invited speakers only. Turing in Context II is a research meeting meant for experts in the fields touched by Turing's contributions to science. TOPICS of the meeting include but are not restricted to: * history and theory of symbolic and physical machines * human and artificial intelligence * logic, computability and complexity We cordially invite contributions in all fields relating to the work and legacy of Alan Turing, both current research continuing Turing's ideas, and historical and philosophical reflections on them. Researchers from areas that Turing worked in but are not listed above, such as pattern formation and cryptography are explicitly encouraged to submit as well. Submissions should be 200-500 words abstracts and should be submitted to EasyChair via the following link: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tic2 Authors of accepted papers will later be invited to send an extended abstract (max. 6 pages) to be reviewed by the programme committee for publication in a volume of the Academy Proceedings Series. A volume of full papers might follow after the conference. TIMETABLE: Deadline Submission of Abstracts: July 20, 2012 Notification of Acceptance: August 20, 2012 Conference: October 10-12, 2012 KEYNOTES: S. Barry Cooper, "Turing Machines, Embodied Information, and Higher Type Computability" Leo Corry, Turing and the Computational Tradition in Pure Mathematics: The Case of the Riemann Zeta-Function Daniel Dennett, "Turing's gradualist vision: making minds from proto-minds" Marie Hicks, The Imitation Game Writ Large: Thinking about gender, labor, and sexuality in making machines useful. Maurice Margenstern, Universality everywhere and beyond, an epic of computer science Elvira Mayordomo, From Computability to Information Theory Alexandra Shlapentokh, Definability and decidability over function fields of positive characteristic Rineke Verbrugge, Cognitive systems in interaction PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Bill Aspray (University of Texas) Tony Beavers (University of Evansville) Liesbeth De Mol (Ghent University) Luc De Raedt (Leuven University) Pablo Gervas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) Antonina Kolokolova (University of Toronto) Benedikt Loewe (University of Amsterdam) David McCarty (Indiana University Bloomington) Erik Myin (Antwerp University) Giuseppe Primiero (Ghent University) Wilfried Sieg (Carnegie Mellon University) Mariya Soskova (Sofia University) Jean-Paul van Bendegem (Free University of Brussels) Bart van Kerkhove (Hasselt University) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Liesbeth De Mol, Benedikt Loewe, Giuseppe Primiero, Jean-Paul van Bendegem, Dagmar Provijn The meeting is sponsored by the Royal Flemish Academy of the Sciences and the Arts and the Belgian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science

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CFP Grad Stud conference "InfoSocial" - Northwestern, Deadline April 15
by Thomas Haigh 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Hello SIGCIS members, I just came across this during an assault on the material I've allowed to pile up in my inbox over the past few weeks. We're getting close to the APRIL 15 deadline, but note that "History and Information," "Networks and the Information Society" and "Open source and innovation" are included as bullet items for topics. The Comms school at Northwestern includes several scholars with STS and history backgrounds. Could be fun. Northwestern is in the Chicago suburbs, accessible by train. Details at http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/programs/phd_media_technology_soci ety/infosocial/ Tom

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Wedgewood Museum and Archives
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Colleagues Together with some colleagues, I am drafting a letter to The Guardian concerning the imminent threat to the Wedgwood collections. If anyone would like to consider signing the letter, please let Peter Scott know (p.m.scott(a)reading.ac.uk) Cheers, Bernardo OPEN LETTER We the undersigned wish to express our concern regarding the threat to the preservation of the Wedgwood Museum and Archive ? as an integrated collection maintained within the UK. The threatened sale could result in the collection being broken up, passing into private hands, or going overseas. Each of these outcomes would be a disaster for Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. The Wedgwood Museum & Archive preserves the design, production, organisational, and social histories of one of the world?s leading ceramics manufacturers. It represents a flagship collection for the history of British consumer goods industries; a testimony to one of the most brilliant designers, technologists, and industrial artists of the eighteenth century; and a key part of Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. Yet, in contrast to the high priority and profile given to campaigns to save various paintings for the nation, this important collection appears to be relatively neglected by a national art establishment which seems more interested in individual high priced works by overseas painters than in saving the artistic legacy of both Josiah Wedgwood and the numerous individual artists and craftsmen who worked for Wedgewood from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. For a country which prides itself as leading the world in creative industries and in producing high quality art for a broad market, this seems to be an unfortunate set of priorities. -- Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, FRHistS Athro Hanes Busnes ac Rheolaeth Bancio / Professor of Business History and Bank Management Ysgol Busnes Bangor Business School Prifysgol Bangor University Gwynedd LL57 2DG (Cymru / Wales) b.batiz-lazo [at] bangor.ac.uk Twitter @BatizLazo ffon / phone : +44 (0) 1248 388349 Home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php Working papers: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html Blog: http://www.nephis.org

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New CHM video: Bell Labs
by Dag Spicer 10 Apr '12

10 Apr '12

Friends, CHM has posted a lecture video from our recent program: The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and Great Age of American Innovation with New York Times Magazine writer John Gertner. Watch the program here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e90sw6-qxmE&feature=digest_sat Info on the lecture: [Recorded: March 28, 2012] Bell Laboratories, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, was the most innovative and productive institution of the twentieth century. Long before America's brightest scientific minds began migrating west to Silicon Valley, they flocked to this sylvan campus in the New Jersey suburbs built and funded by AT&T. At its peak, Bell Labs employed nearly fifteen thousand people, twelve hundred of whom had PhDs. Thirteen would go on to win Nobel prizes. It was a citadel of science and scholarship as well as a hotbed of creative thinking. It was, in effect, a factory of ideas whose workings have remained largely hidden until now. New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner unveils the unique magic of Bell Labs through the eyes and actions of its scientists. These ingenious, often eccentric men would become revolutionaries, and sometimes legends, whether for inventing radio astronomy in their spare time (and on the company's dime), riding unicycles through the corridors, or pioneering the principles that propel today's technology. In these pages, we learn how radar came to be, and lasers, transistors, satellites, mobile phones, and much more. Even more important, Gertner reveals the forces that set off this explosion of creativity. Bell Labs combined the best aspects of the academic and corporate worlds, hiring the brightest and usually the youngest minds, creating a culture and even an architecture that forced employees in different fields to work together, in virtually complete intellectual freedom, with little pressure to create moneymaking innovations. In Gertner's portrait, we come to understand why both researchers and business leaders look to Bell Labs as a model and long to incorporate its magic into their own work. Join author Jon Gertner for a fascinating conversation with KQED's Dave Iverson about the people and history of Bell Labs, and the ways it fostered a culture of innovation and ideas. Best wishes, Dag

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Message from Atsushi Akera re Stored Program
by Thomas Haigh 06 Apr '12

06 Apr '12

[Looks like the list is having a bad week - there's some kind of issue with our Go Daddy domain registration that sometimes interacts with certain ISPs to bounce mail with a message from "mailstore1.secureserver.net" that the address is rejected. If anyone has expertise in this area and can help us solve the problem that would be appreciated. In that case the messages never make it to our listserv manager. Anyway, Atsushi asked me to forward this - see below for my reply]. From: Atsushi Akera [mailto:akeraa@rpi.edu] Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 5:47 AM To: 'David Alan Grier'; 'Thomas Haigh' Cc: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE Hi David, Hi Tom, Just in this context, the term "program" is used extensively in the context of ENIAC. It's been a while since I've gone through the records, and I didn't go back to check it. But as I recall, Mauchly was among those who brought the terminology of 'program' based on his amateur radio experience. I assume this was referring in general terms to a sequence of activities, similar to a conference program or a program for an organized luncheon. You would know this part better, but I think the other conventional term from the period would have been "plan of calculation," based on the work of human computers. The reference to "instruction tables" (in considering Paul's post) strikes me as something that could come out of the fact that there was contemplation of using the ENIAC function tables to store instructions. (This would require tracking the dates & influence, however. It's just a guess for now) Meanwhile the term "storage" would have of course gone back to Babbage (mill and store), but gained significant currency once everyone developed an interest in mercury delay lines as a possible storage device. What's perhaps interesting in all this is that technological and material artifacts, as manifestations of both human and machine computation practices, were heavily influencing the terminology people used to understand the early process of computation. New language of course has to be assembled in order to sort through and understand new technological phenomena (electronic computing), and we see during this period various efforts to combine past terminology into a workable description of the new technology-followed by some process whereby consensus emerges around those terms. I think it's useful to think of "stored program" in that context-and when that particular articulation became important for the practitioners. As I recall, stored programs weren't all that important in the early years. Von Neumann's single bit used to designate instruction from data was more from the point of view of efficient storage of the two types of information, not from any notions about stored programs related to computabilitiy. Even when the term came into existence, it may not have had this kind of reference either. perhaps worth keeping in mind. Best wishes! - Atsushi From: Thomas Haigh [mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Thomas Haigh Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 6:39 PM To: 'Atsushi Akera' Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE Thanks Atsushi, I think von Neumann might have felt the need to flag data vs. code as he planned delay line storage at this point and was concerned with interleaving them for efficient access. Possibly he recognized the danger of accidentally overwriting code, and saw this as a kind of memory protection feature as later implemented on multitasking systems to protect programs from each other. Although the general organization of the 1945 EDVAC instruction set does not betray a concern with the convenience of programming. The point about Babbage and the "store" is something I'd been wondering about myself, and it's interesting to see that you have the same idea. As I look more at the 1945-48 documents, it does seem that the idea of storing programs and data in the same memory was quickly recognized as one of the key advantages of EDVAC-type machines but mostly on the grounds of efficiency, simplicity and flexibility rather than the potential for self modification. E.g. Eckert in the Moore School lectures volume says the big advantage is that storage can be allocated as needed for a particular application. After all, ENIAC has already shown that you could do things like conditional branching and indexing through an array without needing to modify stored program code. I agree with the bigger point about the importance of categories and terminology. It's interesting that with all the endless discussion of "stored program" nobody ever seems to have tried to find out where the term comes from. Tom From: Atsushi Akera [mailto:akeraa@rpi.edu] Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 12:35 PM To: 'Thomas Haigh' Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE Agreed. By the way, I tried to send the message to the group, but it bounced. Not sure why. Please feel free to forward if you can. Also keep in mind that with circulating storage, there's no way to slow down what's coming out of the memory. So the instruction/data bit can be used as an efficient way to implement (in engineering) where information goes in a machine. - Atsushi (p.s. if you encounter problems with RPI's spam filter, please send the message to my alternate email account: <mailto:atsushi_akera@hotmail.com> atsushi_akera(a)hotmail.com, preferably with a quick note to this account indicating that you sent a message there since otherwise I don't check that account regularly. - Thanks!) _________________________________________________________ Atsushi Akera Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies Director, First Year Studies Program--Sage 5206 Rensselaer Polytechnic institute 110 8th Street Troy, NY 12180 USA ph: 518.279.9708/fx:518.276-2659/e:akeraa@rpi.edu /w: http://www.rpi.edu/~akeraa

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Message from Len Shustek re Stored Program
by Thomas Haigh 04 Apr '12

04 Apr '12

[Len is also having posting problems with the list. While I'm here, to address his final point, self modification of code goes much earlier than Wilkes, Wheeler & Gill. The instruction set described original 1945 EDVAC Report would have relied on code modification during execution for looping, conditional branching, or indexing through a matrix. However this capability was confined to address modification rather than unrestricted instruction modification. This restriction was relaxed in subsequent work by von Neumann's group and, as mentioned earlier, in Turing's 1946 description of the ACE design. Designers of early stored program computers added conditional branch instructions and indirect addressing capabilities such as Manchester's famous index register to sharply reduce the need for self modifying code. There's a clear description of this in Priestley's Science of Operations, particularly pages 164- 172.] Tom, I'm not sure why the first appearance of the precise bigram "stored program" is so significant. There were certainly very early near-misses, such as this from the 1947 Burks, Goldstine, and von Neumann "Preliminary Discussion" paper: "It is evident that the machine must be capable of storing in some manner not only the digital information needed... but also the instructions which govern the actual routine to be performed. ... Hence there must be some organ capable of storing these program orders." Even earlier is this from the 1945 "Description of the ENIAC and Comments on Electronic Digital Computing Machines". It is farther from the precise linguistic target, but exactly on point conceptually: "This requirement as to instruction speed can be met in a direct and simple fashion by storing instructions (in numerical code, so to speak) in memory elements or registers of the same type as those used to store the numerical data." If your focus is on the ability of programs to modify themselves, I don't know whether there is a reference earlier than the one in Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill that Allan Olley pointed out. The significance of that ability is interesting to ponder. Doron Swade has done some research in this area, and in his article in the December 2009 "EDSAC at 60" issue of The Computer Journal he says of the expert opinions he received, "whether the primary benefit was one of principle or practice was frustratingly blurred." -- Len Shustek

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Turing at Princeton
by Drucker, Thomas L. 03 Apr '12

03 Apr '12

The current (4 April 2012) issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly includes two brief articles of interest. W. Barksdale Maynard has an article 'Daybreak of the Digital Age' on Turing at Princeton and Jon R. Edwards (an undergraduate classmate of mine) has a note entitled 'Before Turing, There Was Veblen'. In addition, there's an advertisement for three events: (a) an exhibition at the University Library featuring Turing's dissertation and graduate file, (b) Andrew Hodges' upcoming lecture on St. George's Day, and (c) the conference on Turing's contributions to take place May 10-12. Further information is promised at http://www.princeton.edu/turing/. Thomas Drucker University of Wisconsin-Whitewater druckert(a)uww.edu

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Reply from Paul McJones re Turing's ACE proposal
by Thomas Haigh 03 Apr '12

03 Apr '12

(Forwarded, as the list bounced his message.) From: Paul McJones [mailto:paul@mcjones.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:21 AM To: Brian Randell; Thomas Haigh Cc: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE This is to confirm that Turing's 1945/6 ACE proposal describes the ideas of stored programs (starting on the very first page) but does not use that terminology. Turing does use the word "storage" extensively, but he refers to "instruction tables" rather than "programs". He demonstrates the use of stored programs with an instruction table called INDEXIN that simulates what we would call an indexed load. He also mentions that various aspects of program preparation (e.g., relocating subroutines) could be done within the machine itself, but for pragmatic reasons suggest it be done externally using punched card machines. For those interested, a scan of the 1972 NPL reprint is available here: http://www.npl.co.uk/turing/pilot-ace-proposal and a scan of the original 1946 report is here: http://www.turingarchive.org/browse.php/C/32 For anyone interested in studying Turing's report I recommend this paper: The other Turing machine B. E. Carpenter and R. W. Doran Computer Journal, Volume 20, Issue 3, Pp. 269-279. http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/20/3/269.abstract (I learned of the paper by Carpenter and Doran in Brian Randell's The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers.) Paul On Apr 2, 2012, at 1:44 PM, Brian Randell wrote: Hi Tom: Not directly responding to your query, and commenting from memory, rather than having rechecked my sources, my recollection is that the 1945 First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC did not allow operations on stored instructions, but Turing's 1945 proposal for ACE did - to my mind a necessary final step towards the generality that I associate with the stored program computer concept. Cheers Brian On 2 Apr 2012, at 21:34, Thomas Haigh wrote: Hello everyone, I have a query related to a project I am working on concerning the conversion of ENIAC to stored program control in 1948, initially to run the first computerized Monte Carlo calculations. All this took place prior to the first operation of the Manchester Baby. That makes the question of what one means by "stored program" a very interesting one. This question was much discussed in the early days of the history of computing (1970s, early 1980s). I am starting to dig back into primary sources for early use of the phrases "stored program" and "stored program concept" to get a better idea of how these terms were used in the 1940s/early 1950s and what people thought they meant at the time. To clarify, almost everyone who has written about this cites the 1945 "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" as the initial dissemination of the stored program concept although there has been considerable debate as to the source of the ideas contained therein. However that document does not contain the phase "stored program." Or indeed use the word "program" in the body of the text. Or, remarkably, "EDVAC." "Stored" shows up a few times, though less frequently than "remembered." So, ignoring for the moment the relationship of the report to later definitions of the concept, we can agree that it was not the source of the phrase. The most obvious summary of the idea using the report's own terminology would be "remembered instruction device" rather than "stored program computer." I had thought about the 1946 Moore School lectures as a possible vector for the phase "stored program" as well as the concept. The phrase shows up many times in the Moore School lectures book but so far I have spotted it only in the 1980s editorial material rather than in the original lecture summaries. By 1954 "stored program computer" is showing up without explanation or citation required in the description of the IBM 650 published in the inaugural issue of Journal of the ACM. It is not particularly common in the ACM DL material for the rest of the decade ("automatic computer" and "digital computer" are more prevalent) but continues to pop up occasionally. The best the OED can do is 1957, which is even later. So, any thoughts on who came up with this phrase and when? I'm planning to dig deeper in search of early usage, for example into the 1950 "High-Speed Computing Devices" ERA book and some of the other CBI reprints from the 1940s, but it occurred to me that someone on the list might already know the answer to the question. Tom _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)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 -- 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 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)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

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