March 2017 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Konrad Zuse's 1936 patent - German text?
by Brian Randell 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

Hi Mark: I have a copy of the original 1936 Zuse patent application that I had translated into English for my Origins book. (It took some finding - some of my Zemanek documents had strayed into the middle of the Zuse documents, and so had obscured them! :-) It is a type-written document, on the letterhead of Zuse’s patent attorney Dr.-Ing. Bruno Wolf, Berlin Charlottenberg 5, Kantstrasse 85, dated 9.4.36 (i.e. 9 April 1936). It is some twenty or so pages in length. However I should warn you that some of the pages are barely legible (though could probably be deciphered by someone who knows German - which I don’t). I could scan this document for you if you wish. (I have about two inches thick of documents about Zuse’s work, including a number of patents and patent applications, some pre-war, immediately some post-war, together with several typescripts from him. My plan is that this material will be added to the archive of my files held in the Special Collections section of Newcastle University Library. This already holds all the extensive correspondence that I was involved in while compiling Origins.) Cheers Brian On 24 Jan 2017, at 10:58, Mark Priestley <m.priestley(a)gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@gmail.com>> wrote: Dear list, Zuse's 1936 patent "Method for Automatic Execution of Calculations with the Aid of Computers" is reprinted in Brian Randell's "Origins of Digital Computers" collections. Does anyone know if/where I can get hold of the German original? Thanks in advance. Mark _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 FAX = +44 191 208 8232 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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IBM 610
by John Impagliazzo 25 Apr '18

25 Apr '18

Hi All, Allegedly, some consider the IBM 610 Auto-Point computer (1959) the ‘first personal computer’. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html Is this true – even slightly true?? John John Impagliazzo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University IEEE Life Fellow ACM Distinguished Educator

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Email "inventor" claimant to run for U.S. Senate -- alternative facts about technology and democracy collide
by Andrew Meade McGee 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

Continuing with the ongoing saga of V. A. Shiva and his claims regarding the invention of e-mail, that gentleman has just announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. https://twitter.com/va_shiva/status/835420061993218048 As several SIGCIS contributors noted earlier this month, this nicely parallels the upcoming SHOT themes of technology and democracy. "Alternate facts" about the history of technology will play a major public element of this campaign next year. --Andrew

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Opportunities at Swansea University, UK
by Tucker J.V. 25 Mar '17

25 Mar '17

I thought this development would be worth drawing to the attention of members of SIGCIS, as there are opportunities for people active in the history of computing to apply for an academic post in a UK Computer Science Department. Note the April deadlines. Some history of computing is taught to students, and the University has a fledgling History of Computing Collection: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/archive-and-research-collections/hocc https://www.flickr.com/photos/hocc_swansea/albums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn00nU-ndo9tDMY4AezF_uQ You are also welcome to contact me, and/or the Head of the Department (see below), for further information and to take soundings. John Tucker ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Swansea University is intensifying its investments in Computer Science. It wishes to expand the scale, relevance and intellectual diversity of the subject. To this end the University has available 9 permanent academic posts at the rank of lecturer, senior lecturer and associate professor. Some of these posts are directed at particular areas (see below) but for five positions the research focus can be in any area of Computer Science. The posts can enhance existing areas, or bring in new areas that resonate with the Department. Currently, the Department’s expertise is in Theoretical Computer Science, Graphics and Visualization, and Human-Computer Interaction. In recent years, we have developed research and scholarship in Data Science, Security, High Performance Computing, and History of Computing. The Department would welcome applications from early career academics with a developing portfolio of research interests that that they believe have the potential to play a significant role in the future development of the discipline. Exceptional applicants with a more developed academic portfolio may be appointed to a higher grade. More information on these positions can be found following the links to the University's web site: 4 Lecturers in Computer Science (Research) - http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingId=4537&nPostin…<http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=4537&nPostin…> 1 Senior Lecturer (Teaching) - http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=4526&nPostin… The University is also creating a new 7500m^2 building to house Computer Science and Mathematics under a programme called the Computational Foundry: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/campus-development/phase2-current/keyprojects/comp… The new building is on Swansea University's recently opened £450M Bay Campus: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/campus-development/baycampus The websites invite informal contact with the Head of Department, Arnold Beckmann: a.beckmann(a)swansea.ac.uk Some Background on Swansea Computer Science UK Computer Science is very strong in global terms and is a magnet for outstanding staff and students. The Computer Science Department at Swansea University is highly ranked for both teaching and research: The Times Good University Guide 2017 placed it 12th in the UK and 1st in Wales; the National Student Survey 2016 ranked it as 7th in the UK with 95% overall satisfaction, and 1st in Wales; and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 it was ranked 18th in the UK and 1st in Wales. Based on these successes, Computer Science at Swansea University has embarked on a £31M programme of work – the Computational Foundry – to make Swansea a beacon for Computer Science, that attracts and retains excellent researchers, and builds up a large base of scientific, technological and scholarly talent. This call for 9 permanent academic positions is part of this expansion programme. The Department will be moving into the Computational Foundry building on Bay Campus in August 2018. This building comprises nearly 7,500 m2 of purpose built Computer Science facilities and includes extensive up to date research and teaching laboratories and spaces. The Department has longstanding major projects in engaging with business, education and civic society. Currently, our Technocamps Unit is a driving force for educational reform in computing in Wales. The Department is the driving force behind the University's History of Computing Collection. We provide industrial education. The Department has recently been selected as the home for one of the UK’s Digital Economy Centres. The other four directed posts are: 2 Lecturers HCI (Research) - https://tinyurl.com/swansea-cs-lecturer-hci<http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=4534&nPostin…> 1 Associate Professor (Cyber Security) – Research - https://tinyurl.com/swansea-cs-ap-cyber-security<http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=4531&nPostin…> 1 Lecturer (Dependable Systems) – Research - https://tinyurl.com/swansea-cs-lecturer-dependable<http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=4525&nPostin…>

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The latest inventor of the computer
by Len Shustek 25 Mar '17

25 Mar '17

We're fully engaged in the invention of email, but we haven't had any new inventors of the computer in a while. The Atlantic is helping with that: "How Aristotle Created the Computer". https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/aristotle-computer/5… The article is rather better than its title.

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BBC Archive - Scotland's Silicon Glen 1982
by Joly MacFie 25 Mar '17

25 Mar '17

#OTD <https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/otd?source=feed_text&story_id=382799695426…> 1982: Nationwide visited Central Scotland's answer to Silicon Valley, Silicon Glen. Technically it isn't a glen... https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/382799695426400/ -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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Funded Ph.D. @ Liverpool for digital archives project with Barclays Bank
by Thomas Haigh 24 Mar '17

24 Mar '17

[Been requested to forward this announcement of a Ph.D. project with Andrew Smith at the University of Liverpool. Tom] AS: Are you interested in doing a PhD that lies at the intersection of history, management, and computer science? Interested in being embedded in a huge bank where you will access to first-class data you can use for your PhD research? Do you think that digital humanities can help banks and other big corporations to achieve their goals? Want to have an academic career in a hot field? Then this opportunity is for you! I cant guarantee that doing a PhD with us will result in a top-flight academic career. Doing a PhD at the University of Liverpool isnt the same as doing a PhD at Stanford or the Harvard Business School. What I can promise you is that if you exert yourself, I will work jolly hard to launch you into a career as a researcher. My colleagues will provide you with first-rate training in the skills you need to do well in this field. We will also help you to get your papers into the top global conferences in this field and will teach you how to give a presentation that will blow the socks off of an international audience of academics. Lastly, we will teach you how to write articles that will get published in good journals via co-authorship and intensive one-on-one mentorship. Anyway, here are the details of the project you will be working on if you accept this funded PhD offer. Accounts with Interest Networking Historical Customer Records Closing date for applications: 21 April 2017 The University of Liverpool and Barclays Group Archives (BGA) invite invitations from suitably qualified candidates for a fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship investigating the accessibility of Barclays historical customer records. The successful candidate will enjoy privileged opportunities to work as a member of the professional team responsible for Barclays Group Archives <https://www.archive.barclays.com/> in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester exploring the possibilities for exploiting customer and other nominal banking data within the information technology environment available to BGA and investigating how such a local development might be exploited in the context of the wider banking archive sector. Accounts with Interest is conceived as a genuinely interdisciplinary project within the digital humanities; we are keen to attract suitably-qualified candidates from any area who can demonstrate their potential to carry out a research project designed to enable digital access to the nominal and related information held in archival records. You can download further details of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Studentship 2017 <https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/history/news/CDA2017_further_deta ils.pdf> (pdf). Alternatively email Dr Margaret Procter <mailto:mprocter@liv.ac.uk> , senior lecturer, Record and Archive Studies or Dr Andrew Smith <mailto:adasmith@liv.ac.uk> , senior lecturer in International Business. Interviews will be held in Liverpool in May 2017. Tuition fees + £14,553 (RCUK rates) + £1,000 p.a. (towards research costs) from Barclays.

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / - vintage e.mail
by Ceruzzi, Paul 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

Peggy: I have a copy of a approx. 20-page message from Marvin Minsky to Ben Gurley of the Digital Equipment Corporation, dated 12/29/60. He is proposing a system he called "SNATCH: SNATCH is a high-speed digital computational system based on a number of new ideas about computer organization programming methods and multiuser accommodation..." As far as I know the system was never built, but Minsky's description is very forward-thinking regarding multi-users, memory management, etc. Minsky sent it from Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge (near Fresh Pond, same place where Ray Tomlinson later worked). It looks like it was typed on a Teletype--upper-case only, with mistakes x-ed out (no backspace). BBN was only about 15 miles from DEC in Maynard, Mass., and he could have typed it on an ordinary typewriter, gotten in a cab, and brought it over. Does this count as an early electronic message? If so I can bring it over (on foot!) at your convenience. Paul Ceruzzi ceruzzip(a)si.edu 202-633-2414

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail
by Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

I happen to be on the way to a meeting on Software Preservation, at Conservatoire des Arts & Metiers… Hope for an answer tonight! Best, Pierre ----- Mail original ----- De: "Peggy Kidwell" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> Envoyé: Jeudi 23 Mars 2017 13:07:46 Objet: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail How splendid! Do you know what will happen to the original? Best - Peggy Kidwell Curator of Mathematics Address for US Mail: MRC 671, National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012 Address for UPS or FedEx: MRC 671, National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution 12th St. and Constitution Ave. Washington, DC 20560 Email: kidwellp(a)si.edu Telephone: 202-633-3828 -----Original Message----- From: Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN [mailto:mounier@msh-paris.fr] Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 8:04 AM To: Kidwell, Peggy <kidwellp(a)si.edu> Cc: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail [with attachment…] Hi Peggy, Please find attached a "vintage" electronic mail, exchanged in Dec. 1973 between Len Kleinrock, Vint Cerf and Gerard Le Lann. Hope it adds a few grams of evidence in the therapy against "post-truth"… The words "Message for LeLann" were circled to his attention by his secretary – a division of labor which soon disappeared in R&D network practices, but survived in other professional spheres until the end of the century. The message includes a warning of service interruption (TENEX will go down ...), as Le Lann stresses in his comment (enclosed). Best, Pierre Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn http://koyre.ehess.fr/docannexe/file/2183/mounier_kuhn_cv_anglais_2016.comp… ----- Mail transféré ----- > De: "Gerard Le_Lann" <gerard.le_lann(a)inria.fr> > À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> > Cc: "Claude Ducarouge" <claude.ducarouge(a)wanadoo.fr>, "Daniel Poirson" > <danielgpoirson(a)gmail.com> > Envoyé: Lundi 27 Février 2017 10:48:27 > Objet: Re: Messageries > > Bonjour, > > J'ai retrouvé un exemplaire de print de email Arpanet de 1973, encore > lisible (on utilisait des télétypes à papier thermique, qui se voile > petit à petit à la lumière), cf. pj. Les quelques autres sont devenus > quasi-indéchiffrables lorsqu'on les scanne. > J'ai eu le feu vert de V. Cerf et L. Kleinrock pour distribution. > Pour info, l'assistante de Vint a cerclé mon nom quand elle m'a remis > ce print (avec la plaquette que je devais remettre à Len de la part de Vint). > Notez l'existence, à cette époque, de notifications d'interruption de > service (TENEX will go down ...) à l'avance. > Bien cordialement. > > Gérard Le Lann ---------- De: "Kidwell, Peggy" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Envoyé: Vendredi 17 Février 2017 14:41:13 Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts I’m intrigued by recent messages concerning early electronic messages. Should anyone have examples of such messages and related software, I’d be delighted to consider them for the Smithsonian collections (complementing the materials elsewhere that Janet and others have used). Also, on the book and movie Hidden Figures, two recent blogs might be of interest: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/hidden-figures-and-human-compu… http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/hidden-figures. Best - Peggy Kidwell

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Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail
by Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

Hi Peggy, Please find attached a "vintage" electronic mail, exchanged in Dec. 1973 between Len Kleinrock, Vint Cerf and Gerard Le Lann. Hope it adds a few grams of evidence in the therapy against "post-truth"… The words "Message for LeLann" were circled to his attention by his secretary – a division of labor which soon disappeared in R&D network practices, but survived in other professional spheres until the end of the century. The message includes a warning of service interruption (TENEX will go down ...), as Le Lann stresses in his comment (enclosed). Best, Pierre Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn http://koyre.ehess.fr/docannexe/file/2183/mounier_kuhn_cv_anglais_2016.comp… ----- Mail transféré ----- > De: "Gerard Le_Lann" <gerard.le_lann(a)inria.fr> > À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> > Cc: "Claude Ducarouge" <claude.ducarouge(a)wanadoo.fr>, "Daniel Poirson" <danielgpoirson(a)gmail.com> > Envoyé: Lundi 27 Février 2017 10:48:27 > Objet: Re: Messageries > > Bonjour, > > J'ai retrouvé un exemplaire de print de email Arpanet de 1973, encore lisible > (on utilisait des télétypes à papier thermique, qui se voile petit à petit à > la lumière), cf. pj. Les quelques autres sont devenus quasi-indéchiffrables > lorsqu'on les scanne. > J'ai eu le feu vert de V. Cerf et L. Kleinrock pour distribution. > Pour info, l'assistante de Vint a cerclé mon nom quand elle m'a remis ce > print (avec la plaquette que je devais remettre à Len de la part de Vint). > Notez l'existence, à cette époque, de notifications d'interruption de service > (TENEX will go down ...) à l'avance. > Bien cordialement. > > Gérard Le Lann ---------- De: "Kidwell, Peggy" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Envoyé: Vendredi 17 Février 2017 14:41:13 Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts I’m intrigued by recent messages concerning early electronic messages. Should anyone have examples of such messages and related software, I’d be delighted to consider them for the Smithsonian collections (complementing the materials elsewhere that Janet and others have used). Also, on the book and movie Hidden Figures, two recent blogs might be of interest: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/hidden-figures-and-human-compu… http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/hidden-figures. Best - Peggy Kidwell

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