October 2020 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

More records: oldest hardware and software in production use
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

Hello SIGCIS, Continuing with the Guinness Records theme, I'd like to nominate records for the systems and code that lasted longest if these can be determined with sufficient confidence. Electronic computer system in longest continual operation: Voyager 2 This has to be a space probe, as they get launched into space and aren't serviced or upgraded for decades. Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 and is still going, having left the solar system back in 2012. Their computers are still sending back data. Oddly, Voyager 2 was launched 16 days BEFORE Voyager 1, so even though it hasn't gone as far it has presumably been in operation slightly longer. Pioneer 11, launched in 1973 also had a long run but has not been heard from since 1995. Pioneer 10 sent back data from 1972 to 2003. So the Voyagers have already lasted far longer. "Continual" is there to distinguish this from old computers that have been restored to operation in museums. Are there other systems I might have overlooked? Computer code with longest lifespan: IRS Individual Master File??? This would be a harder record, perhaps too hard to pin down with confidence. You might, for example, say "FORTRAN" but none of the original code from FORTRAN 1 is present in modern versions. So what is the oldest snippet of code that actually still runs on a production basis? It clearly has to be in an organization that computerized early and hasn't been great at updating. That almost certainly puts it in the US government, and there are many reports of ancient code underpinning the US Tax system so the IRS is a likely candidate. One might also suspect the SSA. Code from the early 1960s is claimed to still lurk at the heart of Individual Master File application, in a mix of Cobol and assembly language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Master_File sources the retention of 1960s code to https://fcw.com/articles/2016/04/08/taxman-tech-troubles.aspx. The age of this system got publicity when the it crashed on tax day in 2018. But is that THE oldest code running in production? And can we get a more specific date on when the IMF entered operation. According to material from the second edition of Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing (mostly retained for the forthcoming New History) the IRS was an early and very large scale adopter of computers. In 1964 it was running IBM 7070s in a new "national center", and by 1965 the inclusion of an SSN on all tax returns was required. (Obviously SSNs themselves are much older). I'd guess that this shift went along with the introduction of the master file, though if any assembly is still in operation it is surely from the slightly later System/360 rather than the 7070. System/360 machines had replaced the 7070s by 1967. Does anyone have information that might let us pin this down more precisely? Or other ideas on the oldest code still in production use? Best wishes, Tom

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computing history at the approaching SHOT converence
by dave walden 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

Hi, If some of you are planning to participate in the coming SHOT conference, I will welcome receiving brief notes regarding computing history reports or computing historian activities at the conference that I might draw on for the Annals Events and Sightings department in the first Annals issue of 2021 -- also thoughts about the SHOT conference without a SIGCIS session -- just an off list email to be would be great. If you have a less brief report on this or any other current events in computing history activities anywhere, keep me in mind for those also. Thanks, Dave

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WEBCAST TODAY: ‘Building Cyber Norms’ at the 10th International Cybersecurity Symposium
by Joly MacFie 06 Oct '20

06 Oct '20

Moderated by Internet Hall of Famer Dave Farber. ISOC Live posted: "This week the 10th International Cybersecurity Symposium, hosted by Keio University & The MITRE Corporation, takes place with the overall theme. 'Building Global Trust for Cyber-Deterrence During an Uncontrolled Pandemic'. Today, Tuesday October 6 20" <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/cybernorms2> <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/cybernorms2>This week the *10th International Cybersecurity Symposium <https://10thcysecsymposium.peatix.com/>*, hosted by Keio University & The MITRE Corporation, takes place with the overall theme. ‘*Building Global Trust for Cyber-Deterrence During an Uncontrolled Pandemic*‘. Today,* Tuesday October 6 2020*, at *11:20 UTC* (07:20 EDT | 20:20 JST) the #1 Plenary Panel '*Building Cyber Norms*' will be webcast live via *ISOC.LIVE <https://isoc.live>*. *Panelists*: *Greg Rattray* (Senior Research Professor, Columbia University) *Joshua W. Walker* (President & CEO, Japan Society) *Ken Katayama* (Director of Digital Policy Corporate, External, Legal Affairs (CELA) Microsoft Japan) *Barbara Grewe* (Portfolio Manager International Strategy and Policy, MITRE) *Kazuo Noguchi* (Senior Researcher, Keio University) *Moderator*: *David Farber* (Distinguished Professor, Co-Director, Cyber Civilization Research Center, Keio University) *LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety/cybernorms2 <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/cybernorms2>* *TWITTER #cybernorms <https://bit.ly/34svPbV> * *SIMULCASTS* *https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/ <https://www.pscp.tv/ISOC_Live/>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive>* *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/cybernorms <https://archive.org/details/cybernorms>* *Permalink* https://isoc.live/12805/ -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +2185659365 -------------------------------------- - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +2185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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book announcement: Artificial Whiteness
by Yarden Katz 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

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Peter Landin Semantics Seminar. Tim Denvir - Algol 60 @ 60: its place in formal semantics
by Troy Astarte 05 Oct '20

05 Oct '20

Dear SIG-CIS, The following seminar may be of interest to some of you. The British Computer Society’s Formal Aspects of Computer Science will have its AGM on 3rd December 2020. Following the AGM, at 18:00 (GMT) the Peter Landin Semantics seminar will be delivered, this year by Tim Denvir. The title and abstract follow. To register for the event, which will be delivered online, please go to: https://www.bcs.org/events/2020/december/webinar-bcs-facs-2020-agm/. Registration is free. Algol 60 at 60: its place in formal semantics. Algol 60, an inspiration for many languages which followed it, Pascal, C, Simula, Java and others, was very carefully defined. Its syntax was defined in BNF, itself a formal language, in the “Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60”, generally known as the Algol 60 Report. From the report it is clear that the whole project was guided by formal considerations, even if there was no specific formal semantics in the definition. Peter Landin published a formal semantics for Algol 60 in two parts in 1965 in CACM Volume 8. This was possibly the first formal semantics of a programming language in general use. The talk will describe some of the history of the language’s definition and the background of its authors, and will comment upon Peter Landin’s semantics and Algol’s relation to Church's λ-calculus. Best, Troy Astarte School of Computing Newcastle University http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/ http://pronoun.is/they

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