February 2014 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

My column on Turing and the Invention of the Computer
by Thomas Haigh 12 May '14

12 May '14

Hello everyone, You may be interested in my newly published Communications of the ACM Column "Actually, Turing Did Not Invent the Computer." (It was supposed to be "didn't'" but I think that was an informality too far for the ACM). You can read it at http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2014/1/170862-actually-turing-did-not-invent-t he-computer/abstract. Or if you do not have an ACM subscription, http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInventTheComp uter.pdf. This had its origins in my presentation of some of my ongoing work on ENIAC over the summer, where I was discussing the different clusters of ideas found in von Neumann's 1945 "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC." I'd expected that any questions about the attribution of these ideas to von Neumann would come from partisans shouting that he had merely stolen the ideas of Eckert and Mauchly and had preemptively noted that while the credit for these ideas had been disputed the impact of the report hadn't. Instead, all anyone wanted to talk about was how von Neumann had taken the ideas from. Turing! Further investigation revealed that a series of increasingly tenuous claims about the similarity between Turing's famous paper and the "First Draft" had been spreading in recent years, reaching a peak with Turing's recent centenary. Professionally trained historians of computing largely moved on from the events of the 1940s a generation ago, leaving the history of early computing to computer scientists, philosophers, logicians, and the partisans of various famous machines and their inventors. (This is beginning to change again, fortunately). I think also that the public really has room in its collective memory for just one famous person per technology, usually its inventor. Thus if someone has heard of Turing doing something famous with computers then they are likely to assume he invented the computer. Hence the need for a concise and balanced assessment of the actual situation. The paper is indebted to discussions with many of you on this topic, including Paul Ceruzzi, David Hemmendinger, Edgar G. Daylight, Pierre Mounier Kuhn, and my collaborator on the ENIAC project Mark Priestley. Best wishes, Tom

5 5

Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize
by Bernard Geoghegan 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Dear SIGCIS, I'm chairing the committee for the Society for the History of Technology's IEEE Prize this year (see below). A great award for history of computing, history of electrical engineering, etc. Please spread the word. B Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize announcement The Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize (formerly the IEEE Life Members' Prize in Electrical History) is supported by the IEEE Life Members' Fund and administered by the Society for the History of Technology. The prize is awarded annually to the best paper in the history of electrotechnology—power, electronics, telecommunications, and computer science—published during the preceding year (pictured is 2011 winner Jon R. Lindsay, at right, with then-SHOT president Ron Kline at left). Any article published in a learned periodical is eligible if it treats the art or engineering aspects of electrotechnology and its practitioners. The article must be written in English, although the journal or periodical in which it appears may be a foreign language publication. The prize consists of a cash award of $500 and a certificate. To nominate an article, please send a copy of the paper to each member of the prize committee. Deadline is 15 April. Information online at http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/ieee.html. Please send submissions/nominations to 최형섭 <hchoi1(a)snu.ac.kr>, Bernard Geoghegan <betweenfloors(a)gmail.com>, and Maja Fjaestad <maja.fjaestad(a)abe.kth.se>.

1 0

about macros
by Dave Walden 20 Feb '14

20 Feb '14

Hello, I have written a paper about macros that is somewhat computing history and somewhat anecdote (with quite a few bibliographic references). The paper's introduction explains the paper's purpose in more detail. A preprint is on the web at http://walden-family.com/texland/tb109walden-preprint.pdf This version will be replaced in a few weeks, or a little longer, with a version that contains the proper page numbers for the printed journal issue. The *permanent* URL of this paper as printed eventually will be http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb35-1/tb109walden.pdf however access will only be allowed for group members until one year after print publication. After a year after print publication, the paper will be freely, publicly, and permanently available at this URL. Dave -- home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537 home ph=508-888-7655; cell ph = 503-757-3137 email address: dave(a)walden-family.com; website: <http://www.walden-family.com/bbn/>http://www.walden-family.com/bbn/

1 0

Families, hackers, and a pre-history of the Maker Movement
by Meryl Alper 18 Feb '14

18 Feb '14

Maybe of interest to this group: An article I just published in the (open access) International Journal of Communication, entitled: "Can Our Kids Hack It With Computers?" Constructing Youth Hackers in Family Computing Magazines (1983-1987). Presented the material at this past year's SHOT conference. Abstract: Building upon existing scholarship on media representation of hackers and the social history of personal computing, this essay positions U.S. families making sense of microcomputers in the mid-1980s as central to the history of hacking. Archival material for this project consists of 74 issues of youth- and family-focused computing magazines of this era, within which discussions of hacking were frequent. This essay maps an array of discourses about young hackers constructed in relation to hopes and anxieties about networked technologies. Besides connecting microcomputers to particular family ideals, these magazines also put forth a family-friendly notion of youth hackers. While microcomputers entered the home with notions of hacking attached, I argue that family computing in turn shaped contemporary conceptions of hacking. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2402/1092 Best, Meryl -- Meryl Alper Ph.D. Candidate in Communication Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California malper(a)usc.edu merylalper.com

1 0

The Bletchley Park Dispute - Page Links
by Brian Randell 18 Feb '14

18 Feb '14

Hi: I've had several requests for detailed page links related to the very unfortunate dispute at Bletchley Park, a subject which has given rise to a large amount of traffic on the Web and in social media since the BBC News broadcasts of 24 Jan. Here, for those wishing to gain a better understanding of this dispute, is my attempt to identify and provide links to the most significant web pages that have been produced as a result of the BBC News broadcasts, as of 1 Feb 2014. (In many cases the pages I've identified have already had an extensive set comments added to them.) I have no plans to take on a role of unofficial chronicler of this dispute, which I fear is going to run and run unless the senior staff at the Bletchley Park Trust can be persuaded to reverse some of their recent policy decisions promptly, but would nevertheless appreciate being informed of any other/further really significant web pages related to the dispute. Meanwhile I note a very significant spike in the rate of contributions to The National Museum of Computing, so have included a link to their donations page. Cheers Brian Randell ------ THE BBC NEWS ITEMS OF 24 JAN 2014 BBC TV News - a 2.4 min video clip http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25916048 BBC Radio 4 - a 5 min audio clip http://www.vmars.org.uk/sitedata/files/BBC_Bletchley.mp3 OFFICIAL STATEMENTS FROM THE BLETCHLEY PARK TRUST Progress in Perspective http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Progress_in_Perspective-755840.… Crossed Wires at Bletchley Park http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Crossed_Wires_at_Bletchley_Park… OFFICIAL STATEMENTS FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMPUTING Deciphering dissent at Bletchley Park http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/deciphering-discontent-statement-tn… The bigger picture: fragmenting a heritage site http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/bigger-picture-fragmenting-heritage… THE BEST (IN MY OPINION) INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTS OF THE DISPUTE Disharmony at Bletchley Park http://freelance.halfacree.co.uk/2014/01/disharmony-at-bletchley-park/ UK National Computer Museum Off-Limits At Bletchley Park http://i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/6888-uk-national-computer-museum-… ACCOUNTS BY (ANONYMOUS) VOLUNTEERS The history behind the Bletchley Park dispute: https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z13wgplxnmfgdzibw04cdvehbvqqsrsztk… Bletchley Park plan to “cull old and infirm” http://maturetimes.co.uk/leisure-and-lifestyle/readers-write/8079-bletchley… THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMPUTING Donations Page http://www.tnmoc.org/support/make-donation -- 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

3 2

Data Management Dossier at EABFHev Bulletin
by Juan Carlos Maixé Altés 17 Feb '14

17 Feb '14

Latest issue of The European Association for Banking and Financial History Bulletin includes a dossier on "Data Management" by Maixé-Altés, Gray, Harwey and Lemieux. http://www.eabh.info/fileadmin/pdf/publications/bulletin2_2013.pdf ---------------------------------- You can access my papers on EconPapers- RePEc Author Service (NEP: New Economics Papers): http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/pma887.htm and the Social Science Research Network (SSRN): http://ssrn.com/author=385784 ---------------------------------- NEW BOOK: now available on-line and paperback J. Carles Maixé-Altés (2012): Innovación y compromiso social. 60 años de informatización y crecimiento, "la Caixa" 1950-2011. Barcelona, "la Caixa" - Edicions 62 Spanish edition: http://hdl.handle.net/2183/10101 Catalan edition: http://hdl.handle.net/2183/10102 Innovació i compromís social. 60 anys d'informatització i creixement, "la Caixa" 1950-2011 ---------------------------------- Technological Innovation in Retail Finance - International Historical Perspectives Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maixé-Altés, Paul Thomes Imprint: Routledge, New York - London, 2011 http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/ ---------------------------------- Personal Web Site: ecoapli1.udc.es/maixe

1 0

Fwd: [Edith.sig] Fwd: 1 yr fixed term position(s) at Michigan State for 14-15
by Marie Hicks 16 Feb '14

16 Feb '14

Cross post from HSS_Women and the EDITH SIG list. 1 year visiting teaching positions available at Michigan State (see below). Best, Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net <http://www.mariehicks.net> | @histoftech<http://twitter.com/histoftech> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Nina Lerman <lermanne(a)whitman.edu> Date: Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 5:43 AM Subject: [Edith.sig] Fwd: 1 yr fixed term position(s) at Michigan State for 14-15 To: "EDITH.SIG" <edith.sig(a)mit.edu> Cc: Georgina Montgomery <montg165(a)msu.edu> cross-post from HSS Women's Caucus Begin forwarded message: *From: *Georgina Montgomery <montg165(a)MSU.EDU> *Date: *February 15, 2014 7:25:19 PM EST *To: *HSS_WOMEN-L(a)LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU *Subject: **1 yr fixed term position(s) at Michigan State for 14-15* *Reply-To: *Georgina Montgomery <montg165(a)MSU.EDU> Dear HSS Women's Caucus Members, Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University just started a search for one (or more) fixed term faculty for 14-15. The full text from the ad is below. Please circulate in your departments and/or forward to colleagues who may be interested. My Best Wishes, Georgina Lyman Briggs College (LBC), an undergraduate, residential, liberal arts, science program at Michigan State University, invites applications for visiting instructors for 2014-2015. We anticipate one to three full-time openings. Founded in 1967, LBC is a vibrant college at MSU focusing on the study of science and its impact on society. Bridging the two cultures, the LBC curriculum integrates natural sciences and mathematics courses with courses in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, and faculty work closely with students in small classes. Faculty, staff, and students in LBC promote inclusion through a range of initiatives. The college, for example, hosts student groups like the Briggs Multi-Cultural Alliance and Women in Science. Briggs faculty, staff, and students have also won university awards for diversity and inclusion for their instruction and research. Candidates must be committed to undergraduate teaching and should hold a MA/MS with a specialization in the history, philosophy, and/or sociology of science, technology, environment, or medicine. Interests in literature, public policy, the environment, history of science, and/or philosophy of technology would be especially welcomed. A Ph.D. is strongly preferred. The successful candidate will teach five courses over the course of the academic year: two or three sections of our first-year introduction to history, philosophy and sociology of science (HPS) course and two or three upper-level HPS courses. Salary is commensurate with experience. This position is listed on the MSU Applicant Page, Posting #9077. Applications must be uploaded to MSU's online job application site ( https://jobs.msu.edu) and should include a cover letter outlining the candidate's expertise as it pertains to their ability to teach within one or more of the specializations listed above and the pedagogical approaches the candidate applies in the classroom as well as a c.v. and teaching portfolio. For details on teaching portfolios see www.lymanbriggs.msu.edu/faculty/openPositions.cfm. In addition, three letters of recommendation addressing the candidate's teaching experience and expertise must be sent electronically by the recommenders through the application system. Deadline to ensure consideration of application is March 15, 2014, and review of applications will continue until the positions are filled. Questions regarding these positions may be directed to Dr. Georgina M. Montgomery, at montg165(a)msu.edu <Shelton(a)msu.edu> or at Lyman Briggs College; 919 E. Shaw Lane; Room E-35; Michigan State University; East Lansing, MI 48825-1107. MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. MSU is committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The university actively encourages applications and/or nominations of women, persons of color, veterans and persons with disabilities. Dr. Georgina Montgomery Assistant Professor Lyman Briggs College and the Department of History 35 East Holmes Hall Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48825 517-432-1655 montg165(a)msu.edu http://womeninscience.history.msu.edu/ _______________________________________________ Edith.sig mailing list Edith.sig(a)mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/edith.sig

1 0

Celebrating Colossus at 70
by B. Randell 11 Feb '14

11 Feb '14

Hi: Last week I was at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park for a splendid event celebrating the fact that 70 years ago to the day the Colossus had broken its first German teleprinter message. The whole process was re-enacted, using the rebuilds of Colossus and Tunny, in front of an invited audience that included a number of people who worked on Colossus during WW2. From the TNMOC news release: > On 5 February 1944 Colossus Mk I attacked its first Lorenz-encrypted message, the highly sophisticated cipher used in communications between Hitler and his generals during World War II. > > Designed by brilliant British telephone engineer Tommy Flowers, Colossus was built to speed up code-breaking of the complex Lorenz cipher. By the end of the war there were ten functioning Colossi and they had a decisive impact in shortening the war and saving countless lives. > > Colossus was the first electronic computer, but news of its existence was kept top secret for 30 years because of the sophistication and sensitivity surrounding the encryption it had helped to break. . . . > The statistics of Colossus are astounding. It occupied the size of a living room (7 ft high by 17 ft wide and 11 ft deep), weighed five tonnes, and used 8kW of power. It incorporated 2,500 valves, 501 of which are thyraton switches, about 100 logic gates and 10,000 resistors connected by 7 km of wiring. Reading 5000 characters per second (faster than anything ever produced commercially), Colossus found the start wheel positions of Lorenz-encrypted messages to enable the decryption of 63 million characters. > > Typically, it took Colossus up to four hours to establish the start wheel positions of messages. It is often surmised that the Allies might have been reading some of the decrypted messages even before they reached German High Command. By the end of the war, 63 million characters of high-grade German messages had been decrypted by the 550 people working on the ten functioning Colossi at Bletchley Park. <snip> The event received a lot of coverage in the UK press and elsewhere - see: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/notes-museum/picture-colossus-70 I particularly recommend the BBC's video of the re-enactment, which is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26015436 Cheers Brian Randell School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

1 0

VCF East 9.1 - official announcement
by Evan Koblentz 09 Feb '14

09 Feb '14

SIGCIS, Back in November I announced preliminary details for the Vintage Computer Festival East "9.1". The agenda is now complete: http://www.vintage.org/2014/east/ The official announcement is pasted below. Please share it with anyone you think might be interested. I hope some of you choose to attend. If so, then please keep in mind: anyone wearing a tie is deemed suspicious. :) VCF is a celebration inspired by historic shows such as Atlantic City PC'76 and the West Coast Computer Faire. ---------------------------------- The ninth “annualish” Vintage Computer Festival East will be held April 4-6, 2014, at the InfoAge Science Center, in Wall, New Jersey. VCF East is a celebration of computer history from the 1940s-1980s. The schedule includes a hands-on exhibit hall, technical workshops, lectures, a marketplace, tours of the InfoAge museum complex, a dollar-per-pound book sale, prizes, more. This year's show will be bigger than ever. New attractions include Friday's “VCF East University” which is a full day of technical classes. Friday attendees can win an oscilloscope courtesy of Tektronix! The main show on Saturday-Sunday will have lectures/workshops and dozens of exhibits. Keynotes include former IBM archivist Paul Lasewicz and IEEE 802 LAN/MAN committee founder Maris Graube. Other lectures topics include software preservation, the history of Franklin Computer Corp., and many more, all scheduled for the morning. In the workshops you can learn hands-on vintage computer repair skills or even build a working replica of something exotic. This year there will be two exhibit halls instead of one. Exhibits open in the afternoon – imagine an antique car show, but instead of “no touching” signs, everyone has to take you for a ride! Registered exhibits so far cover everything from a real Apple 1 to the M.I.T.S. Altair to DEC minicomputers. In addition, the event's main sponsor MARCH (Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists) will debut its UNIVAC 1219-B military mainframe computer, circa 1965. Tickets for VCF East University are just $20 and include a pizza lunch. Tickets for the main show are $15/day and $25/both days. Saturday/Sunday tickets are free for ages 17 and younger. A three-day adult admission is $40. Proceeds benefit MARCH. Official sponsors include the InfoAge Science Center, VintageTech, Tektronix, the Trenton Computer Festival, Eli's Software Encyclopedia, and Vintage-computer.com. Archive.org, IBM, and the IEEE History Center are providing informal assistance. • Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple: "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. ... The people you meet at the VCF are amazing." • Lee Felsenstein, moderator of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club and creator of the Osborne 1 portable computer: "In 35 years the personal computer grew 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 in ways they wanted to see it grow. 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." • Gordon Bell, top DEC engineer and co-founder of the Computer History Museum: "As a speaker at the first September 1998 VCF, I have been delighted to see it grow and flourish. The Vintage Computer Festival is an important institution for computing history simply by getting everyone together for collecting, sharing, and trading all form of bits. Having a forum, gathering, and market for old stuff a.k.a. vintage computers and the software that made them live is an essential way to preserve and expand the history of computing -- for some of us, the greatest invention." • Dave Ahl, founder/editor, Creative Computing magazine: "Vintage Computer Festival East celebrates the hard work and vision of all the volunteers who have made the InfoAge Science Center –- now a National Historic Landmark -- a place where one can learn from the past to live for the future. Oh, and it's great fun too!" Full details are online at http://www.vintage.org/2014/east/ and http://www.facebook.com/vcfeast. Contact: Evan Koblentz (President, MARCH; VCF East Producer): evan(a)snarc.net / (646) 546.9999 .... thank you and happy computing!

1 0

Computers on Law & Order
by Andrew Russell 07 Feb '14

07 Feb '14

Folks - Here’s a nice article, from Rebecca Rosen of The Atlantic, about a project by the artist (and my Stevens colleague) Jeff Thompson. What You Learn About Tech From Watching All 456 Law & Order Episodes http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/what-you-learn-about-… I thought of SIGCIS when I read these paragraphs in the article: --------- Law & Order, Thompson says, is in some ways a perfect artifact for exploring the history of our relationship to computers. For one, the show's run covers what is perhaps the significant period for this relationship, the two decades during which computers arrived at and gradually became central features of our lives. But Thompson says that the show's value is more than that. It's "also the format of the show: It's ripped from the headlines. It's meant to mirror things that are happening right now, to be really reflective of culture." Additionally, unlike other crime procedurals, Law & Order, in contrast with CSI, tends to give a pretty realistic portrayal of our technological capabilities. Thompson said there are really only two exceptions to this: the classic "zoom and enhance" trick, which works way better on TV than in reality, and the elegance of software such as facial-recognition programs. "The real thing often is really boring looking, or really technical," Thompson says. For the show, they hire a designer who makes software that looks like what your "mom might think facial-recognition software would look like." But beyond those little efforts, most of the technology on the show seems to have come as an afterthought. "No one was probably thinking about, you know, what kind of mouse should we use, or where should it go in the room," says Thompson. They just represented whatever was the norm of the time, and, in doing so, documented details of computer history that perhaps no one at the time could have articulated—details that were so commonplace they went totally unnoticed. --------- Cheers, Andy

1 0