January 2019 - 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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Book on programming systems
by Maarten Bullynck 04 Feb '19

04 Feb '19

Dear All, I have the pleasure to announce the publication of a volume on the history and philosophy of programming systems, edited by Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319972251 The volume collects contributions to the third HaPoP symposium in Paris (http://hapoc.org/events/hapop3/schedule) Freely accessible drafts of the introduction and of the chapter I authored can be found on HAL (see links in the table of contents.) Table of contents ----------------- Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero: Programming Systems: in Search of Historical and Philosophical Foundations, p. 1-12 (see also: https://hal.univ-lille3.fr/hal-01674676) Rabia Arif et al.: Validity and Correctness Before the OS: the Case of LEO I and LEO II, p. 15-47 Maarten Bullynck: What Is an Operating System? A Historical Investigation (1954–1964), p. 49-79 (see https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602) Troy K. Astarte et al.: Formal Semantics of ALGOL 60: Four Descriptions in their Historical Context, p. 83-152 Julian Rohrhuber: Sans-Papiers as First-Class Citizens, p. 153-185 Stephen Kell: Unix, Plan 9 and the Lurking Smalltalk, p. 189-213 Warren Toomey: Unix: Building a Development Environment from Scratch, p. 215-231 Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu et al.: Ethical Operating Systems, p. 235-260 Gaël Duval: From Sovereign Operating Systems to the Sovereign Digital Chain, p. 261-271 Robin K. Hill: Elegance in Software, p. 273-286 best wishes, Maarten Bullynck Département de mathématiques & histoire des sciences Université Paris 8

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SHOT panel on gender and software/programming
by Elizabeth Petrick 31 Jan '19

31 Jan '19

Hello SIGCIS, I'm looking to put together a session for this year's SHOT on Gender and Software/Programming. I'm taking a wide view of the topic and would love a panel that considers very diverse aspects of both gender and software. To give you an idea of where I'd like to go with this, I potentially have two papers so far: 1. I'm going to discuss Adele Goldberg's role at PARC and her work on the intersection of education and programming languages with Smalltalk. 2. I have a proposal from a colleague on the role of gender in the Leisure Suit Larry video game series. If anyone is interested in giving a paper as part of the panel or, alternatively, might like to be commentator, please let me know. Best, Liz ________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Petrick Assistant Professor Federated History Department New Jersey Institute of Technology Cullimore Hall 324 elizabethpetrick.com

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Book on programming systems
by Troy Astarte (PGR) 29 Jan '19

29 Jan '19

Dear list, You can find the draft of the paper from Cliff and I which was published as a Newcastle University TR at Cliff’s website: http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/cliff.jones/publications/NU-TRs/CS-TR-1498.pdf Best, Troy Astarte On 28 Jan 2019, at 12:47, Maarten Bullynck <maarten.bullynck(a)kuttaka.org<mailto:maarten.bullynck@kuttaka.org>> wrote: Dear All, I have the pleasure to announce the publication of a volume on the history and philosophy of programming systems, edited by Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319972251 The volume collects contributions to the third HaPoP symposium in Paris (http://hapoc.org/events/hapop3/schedule) Freely accessible drafts of the introduction and of the chapter I authored can be found on HAL (see links in the table of contents.) Table of contents ----------------- Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero: Programming Systems: in Search of Historical and Philosophical Foundations, p. 1-12 (see also: https://hal.univ-lille3.fr/hal-01674676) Rabia Arif et al.: Validity and Correctness Before the OS: the Case of LEO I and LEO II, p. 15-47 Maarten Bullynck: What Is an Operating System? A Historical Investigation (1954–1964), p. 49-79 (see https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01541602) Troy K. Astarte et al.: Formal Semantics of ALGOL 60: Four Descriptions in their Historical Context, p. 83-152 Julian Rohrhuber: Sans-Papiers as First-Class Citizens, p. 153-185 Stephen Kell: Unix, Plan 9 and the Lurking Smalltalk, p. 189-213 Warren Toomey: Unix: Building a Development Environment from Scratch, p. 215-231 Naveen Sundar Govindarajulu et al.: Ethical Operating Systems, p. 235-260 Gaël Duval: From Sovereign Operating Systems to the Sovereign Digital Chain, p. 261-271 Robin K. Hill: Elegance in Software, p. 273-286 best wishes, Maarten Bullynck Département de mathématiques & histoire des sciences Université Paris 8 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at 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

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AJN Science Communication Awards
by Chuck House 25 Jan '19

25 Jan '19

Many of you know that I’ve been involved for a couple of years with the Novim Group based at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics at University of California Santa Barbara, as director of their AJN Science Communication awards. Last year we honored John Ioannidis and Byron Reeves at Stanford, Maria Klawe of Harvey Mudd College, and Alan Alda. Nominations are now open for the 2019 Awards which will be presented at Stanford on April 24. Nominations are open until March 1. Description of the several awards, pictures and bios of last year’s awardees, and a nomination form are available at https://www.novim.org I’d really appreciate your consideration of possible nominees. Best regards, Chuck House 805-570-6706

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ACM History Fellowship Competition--Deadline April 1, 2019
by Jeffrey Yost 22 Jan '19

22 Jan '19

Dear Colleagues, The link below provides an announcement to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2019 fellowship competition for research projects on or centrally related to ACM history. The ACM History Committee runs this program, which has resulted in 28 fellowships awarded since the start of this fellowship program in 2009. Many of these awards have gone to scholars (graduate students to senior scholars) in the SHOT and SIGCIS communities. The submission deadline for applications is April 1, 2019. http://history.acm.org/public/public_documents/acm_history_fellowship_annou… Best, Jeff Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D. Director, Charles Babbage Institute Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine 222 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 612 624 5050 Phone 612 625 8054 Fax

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Book announcement: GAMING THE IRON CURTAIN out Dec 18 on MIT Press
by Jaroslav Švelch 17 Jan '19

17 Jan '19

Dear colleagues, I have mostly been just a lurker on this list, mainly because I have never been to a SHOT conference and don’t know most members in person. This might change next year, as I’m planning to come to Milan. However, I would like to announce the release of my book Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games. The book tells a social history of computer games in 1980s Czechoslovakia in seven chapters, starting with technology policies and hardware manufacturing, and ending with activist games about the 1988-89 demonstrations that led up to the Velvet Revolution. Along the way, I peek into paramilitary youth clubs, arcades on wheels, and bedrooms and kitchens of computer enthusiasts. I also dicuss informal software distribution, gaming fanzines, DIY joysticks, illegal arcade machine manufacturing, ports and conversions, and some very local computer game genres. I’m hoping the book will be of interest not only to game scholars, but also to historians of computing and technology in general. Also, it has cool photos! The book is coming out December 18 with MIT Press in the Game Histories series: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain If you’d like to ask for a review copy, please contact David Ryman at MIT Press: dryman(a)mit.edu Best, Jaroslav An official summary follows: ================================================ GAMING THE IRON CURTAIN How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games Jaroslav Švelch https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain ================================================ Summary ------------------ Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard. ------------------ Jaroslav Švelch, Ph.D. New media and digital games scholar (http://svelch.com) Postdoctoral fellow, University of Bergen Games and Transgressive Aesthetics project: http://gta.b.uib.no/ Assistant professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague (on leave) ________________________________________________________ My book GAMING THE IRON CURTAIN: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games Coming out December 2018 with MIT Press, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain Phone: +420 773 988 425 --- Tato zpráva byla zkontrolována na viry programem Avast Antivirus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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SHOT Milan panel
by Jonathan Coopersmith 17 Jan '19

17 Jan '19

Any interest in a panel on ICT (broadly defined) pushing lawmakers to create policy? The goal would be to give some historical context to the ongoing efforts to create government regulation/oversight of AI, digital data, &c. This recent presentation by Edward Felten, the director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, was his call for action. https://media.neurips.cc/Conferences/NIPS2018/Slides/Felten_NeurIPS_2018.pdf Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Visiting Professor School for the Future of Innovation in Society Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) 979.862.4314 (fax) Latest article: https://theconversation.com/what-fax-machines-can-teach-us-about-electric-c… *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press) is the co-recipient of the 2016 Business History Conference Hagley Prize for best book in business history.

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IBM History
by James Cortada 16 Jan '19

16 Jan '19

I am delighted to inform you that my book IBM: The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon will be published by MIT Press in early March. As many of you already know, this history goes from the 1880s to the present and represents decades of research on the managerial, technological, economic, and business issues you and I study. MIT Press is offering a 30% discount on orders received before March 10th. To take advantage of that use Code IBM30 and order from Mitpress.mit.edu. I want to publicly thank the many dozens of you who have either helped, encouraged, or cajoled me into writing this large book. Regards, Jim [image: 0-1.jpg] -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada(a)umn.edu 608-274-6382

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CFP: History of Formal Methods 2019
by Troy Astarte (PGR) 16 Jan '19

16 Jan '19

Call for papers: History of Formal Methods 2019 Workshop, 11th October 2019, Porto, Portugal (co-located with FM’19) We invite submissions to the HFM2019 workshop<https://sites.google.com/view/hfm2019/home>. See the website (https://sites.google.com/view/hfm2019) for complete details and instructions on how to submit. Submission is via EasyChair<https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hfm2019> (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hfm2019) This is a workshop on the history of formal methods in computing. The aim is to bring together historians of computing, technology, and science with practitioners in the field of formal methods to reflect on the discipline’s history. There will be a round of abstract submission prior to the workshop which will determine who is invited to give a presentation at the workshop. Afterwards, presenters may submit papers based on their presentations for inclusion in the workshop’s proceedings. Scope The theme of the workshop is the history of formal methods in computing. By 'formal methods' we mean mathematical or logical techniques for modelling, specifying, and reasoning about aspects of computing. This could include programming language description, concurrency modelling, theorem proving, program specification and verification, or mathematical foundations of computing. Theoretical aspects of computing have been present almost since the beginning of electronic computers, and in various ways these techniques have evolved and changed, including into what are now called “Formal Methods”. Such aspects have been instrumental in developing fundamental understanding of computation and providing techniques for rigorous development of software, but have not always had the desired impact on practical and industrial computing. This makes the field ripe for historical research and we invite submissions to our workshop which take a historical view of the topic. This may include discussion of developments of various formal methods, evolving agendas within the field, consideration of the effect of social and cultural factors, and evaluation of the way in which formal methods have impacted computing more broadly. The workshop is intended to be of interest to current researchers in formal methods and to be accessible to people without any historical background. It should also be a venue for historians of science whose work covers formal aspects of computing as we believe understanding the the history of the field brings greater clarity to current technical research. We encourage early stage researchers to try their hand at historical reflection and gain an idea of the field’s grounding; we invite historians to contribute to the history of formal methods; and we invite researchers who have worked in formal methods for whom an historical talk provides the opportunity to reflect on their field. Submission information Submissions prior to the workshop will take the form of abstracts no longer than 500 words. If references are required, these can be added as an optional PDF file (and do not count towards the word count). All abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee whose details can be found on the website; based on these reviews, a decision will be made on who to invite to present at the workshop. Following to the workshop, proceedings will be published (details of publisher to be finalised later). Please indicate during your submission if you wish for a paper to be considered for inclusion in the proceedings—select “Yes” even if you are not totally certain. All papers submitted for the proceedings will be subject to peer review. Important Dates * Call for papers: January 2019 * Submissions: 30 April 2019 * Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2019 * Presentations ready: 1 September 2019 * Workshop: 11th October 2019 * Papers for proceedings: 31 December 2019 Chairs Troy Astarte Brian Randell (Newcastle University) sent by Troy Astarte on behalf of the HFM2019 Program Committee

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