August 2020 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Data on Bitnet
by Wernsdorf Kathrin 30 Sep '20

30 Sep '20

Hello everyone, My coauthors and I are currently working on a project measuring the impact of Bitnet on academic patenting. After the adoption of Bitnet by a university between 1981 and 1990, we find a substantial increase in patenting by university-affiliated researchers. We are now wondering why this is the case. Reading about Bitnet, we came across the fact that email lists were an especially popular item. We think it would be fascinating to know the content of these email lists. Do you happen to know whether data on these email lists exists and is available somewhere? Also, do you know whether some archives of listserves or discussion groups exist where users discussed for what they used Bitnet and what challenges they faced? Any thoughts and hints are highly appreciated. Many thanks in advance. Kathrin _________________________________ Kathrin Wernsdorf Doctoral Student and Junior Research Fellow Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Marstallplatz 1 80539 München kathrin.wernsdorf(a)ip.mpg.de<mailto:kathrin.wernsdorf@ip.mpg.de> www.ip.mpg.de<http://www.ip.mpg.de/>

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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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Let's not forget, Bill Gates hasn't always been the good guy…
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 30 Aug '20

30 Aug '20

Might be of interest... A quick note on the birth of Internet and the role of Gates https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/29/lets-not-forget-bill-… Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse my brevity.

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Smart phones vs. classic computers
by PETER ECKSTEIN 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

After many years, I am completing work on the manuscript of book on the early lives of America’s computer hardware pioneers. To put things in a bit of historical perspective, I have included in the conclusions a reference to today’s smart phones as having a “processing capacity that dwarfs that of ENIAC or even the fastest of Seymour Cray’s supercomputers.” (Mauchly, Eckert, and Cray are three of my subjects) Before I try to pass that along as fact, I would appreciate some expert opinion. Is it true? Is “processing capacity” the best measure of the contrast? Wouldn’t it also be true of storage capacity? Peter Eckstein Ann Arbor Michigan

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Yngvar Lundh died on August 25th
by dave walden 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

See https://no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yngvar_Lundh and maybe use Google translate. Yngvar's story is told in greater detail at https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2018/02 The department editor's note at the beginning of the a2018 Annals anecdote says: Yngvar Lundh was instrumental in the development of some of Norway’s earliest digital computers, having started his investigation of digital electronics in the 1950s. He continued his involvement with digital computers and digital communications for the next 40 years. A 10 April 2017 article about Lundh in the Norwegian online information and telecommunications newspaper digi.no quotes another pioneer of Norwegian computing, saying, “Yngvar Lundh is the most important person in Norwegian IT ever.”

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Job opportunity: Assistant/Associate Professor, cyber and innovation policy
by Smith, Frank L., CIV, NAVWARCOL 25 Aug '20

25 Aug '20

Job announcement number: VA#NWC-20-11 Department: Cyber & Innovation Policy Institute, Strategic and Operational Research Department, Center for Naval War Studies Location: U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI PP-Series-GR: AD-1701-03/05 Open Period: Friday, 14 August 2020 through Wednesday, 14 October 2020 Position: Assistant/Associate Professor Security Clearance: Position requires eligibility for a Top Secret/SCI clearance Who May Apply: This position is open only to U.S. Citizens The U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island invites applications for an Assistant/Associate Professor in the Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute, in the Strategic and Operational Research Department, at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies. Applications will be accepted through 14 October 2020. Applications must be submitted by e-mail to: NWC-20-11(a)usnwc.edu and must reference VA#NWC-20-11. Applicants must submit: (1) cover letter, (2) curriculum vitae, and (3) names and contact information for three references. Please see attachment for more information about this position. Frank L. Smith III Director and Professor, Cyber & Innovation Policy Institute Strategic and Operational Research Department U.S. Naval War College https://franksmithiii.com<https://franksmithiii.com/>

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2 Post-Doctoral Fellowships in Coastal Management and Socio-Environmental Conflicts in Santos, Brazil
by renzotaddei＠gmail.com 24 Aug '20

24 Aug '20

Apologies for cross posting. Please forward to potentially interested parties. Thank you. 2 Post-Doctoral Fellowships in Coastal Management and Socio-Environmental Conflicts Two post-doctoral positions for young researchers are available within the scope of a project on participatory processes for the resolution of conflicts in fishing communities and the use of scientific communication to strengthen the interface between science and public policies in promoting the blue economy. The team is formed by multidisciplinary researchers, civil society organizations and managers of Environmental Protection Areas and is part of an <http://www.fapesp.br/en/14356#tros> international consortium in which scientists from Brazil, USA, Norway, Sweden, India and South Africa team together. Scholarship holders will be based at Instituto do Mar, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Santos, Brazil, contributing to the exchange of knowledge in the consortium International. Field activities will take place on the coast of the state of São Paulo and south of the state of Rio de Janeiro. In addition to the <http://www.fapesp.br/en/5427> requirements by FAPESP, the following are desirable, but not excluding: - Skills for working in multidisciplinary, multisectoral and multinational groups; - Leadership in knowledge production in coastal management and sustainable development; - Fluency in English (mandatory) and Portuguese (desirable); - Experience with traditional or indigenous communities. Interested candidates should send the <http://www.fapesp.br/en/6351> FAPESP Curriculum Summary, motivation letter and two reference letters. After the initial selection based on the documents, there will be an interview. This opportunity is open to candidates of any nationalities. The selected candidate will receive a FAPESPs Post-Doctoral fellowship in the amount of R$ 7,373.10 monthly and a research contingency fund, equivalent to 15% of the annual value of the fellowship which should be spent in items directly related to the research activity. Nº: 3827 Field of knowledge: interdisciplinary FAPESP process: <http://bv.fapesp.br/en/metapesquisa/?q=2019/24416-8> 2019/24416-8 Project title: OCEAN Sustainability Pathways for Achieving Conflict Transformation (OCEAN PACT) Working area: Coastal Management and Socio-Environmental Conflicts Number of places: 2 Principal investigator: Ronaldo Christofoletti Unit/Institution: Institute for Oceanic Studies (Instituto do Mar), Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) Deadline for submissions: 2020-09-25 Publishing date: 2020-08-21 Address: Rua Doutor Carvalho de Mendonça, 144 Edifício Acadêmico II, Santos, Brazil E-mail for proposal submission: christofoletti(a)unifesp.br <mailto:christofoletti@unifesp.br>

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New book on semiconductor history: The Microchip Revolution: A brief history
by Dag Spicer 24 Aug '20

24 Aug '20

A new book from a semiconductor pioneer Dr Luc-Olivier Bauer… Synopsis: Numerous books have been written about the key founders of the semiconductor industry, about the early companies, the reasons for their success and failures, on the star products, and the men behind them. In conversations with the Computer History Museum (CHM) of Mountain View, California, the two authors, veterans of semiconductor manufacturing organizations, found that the history of semiconductor process development has been treated as an ancillary issue in top down discussions of what drove the extraordinary growth of this industry. We tell the story from a bottom-up point of view of wafer fab operation managers, which we were for many years. We narrate the extraordinary contributions from all team members of these wafer fab organizations: hourly operators, supervisors, maintenance technicians, as well as the creative scientists and engineers that created and managed the companies we profile. We concentrate on the dramatic improvements in manufacturing productivity in the main MOS technologies, which eventually all merged into very similar CMOS processes. We concentrate on the time period from 1957 (Fairchild founding) to the end of the last century, when much of the technology development migrated to foundry operations overseas. We tried to exercise great care to be fair in assessing the contributions of the various companies to the overall progress of the industry. In this spirit, we also recognize the huge contributions made by the semiconductor equipment companies, and their key engineers to the success of process development and production organizations. While basing the story of process developments on historical facts, with the help of the large document and library resources available, including those of the CHM, we also tell the extraordinary human experience of working with the early wafer fab teams, with the process architecture breakthroughs pioneers, and all other wafer fab workers. To this end we also interviewed many key contributors to these process and equipment breakthroughs that made the rapid advancements in the semiconductor technologies possible. +++++ Dag [cid:37DA9F70-22BF-4CE3-8817-E5AF13D99DD8@hsd1.ca.comcast.net.] Dear Friends, The book Marshall Wilder and I have been talking about with you, for some time, and to which many of you offered valuable contributions, is out! Its title is The Microchip Revolution, A Brief History. It is available from KDP-Amazon, the link to it is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GCYX4LF<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazo…>. Or you can go to the website Books at Amazon.com<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.com…>, there will be a window at the top off the page, and you type the book title and you get it. Many of you at CHM were instrumental in getting this project done, both in offering access to your numerous library ressources and introducing us to people we did not know and with your constant encouragements. You encouraged us to write a book about the history of semiconductor technology, more than two and half years ago. It starts in the late 1950s and goes through the remainder of the century, with an epilogue that takes us to the present day. We cover the amazing technical issues that had to be solved to allow the state of the art to progress from one transistor to 10 Billion that is the norm for modern integrated circuits like the Apple 12X processor. We tell the stories of the people and companies that were involved, by focusing on nine companies that we were involved with or were most significant in the Microchip Revolution: Fairchild, Hughes, Intersil, Eurosil, Intel, AMD, IDT, Cypress and Micron. We hope you are going to enjoy the stories we relate, and if so, please tell your friends, and give us a favorable review on Amazon. Thank you again for your contributions and your heart warming help! Luc-Olivier Bauer + 1 949 547 9174 PS: here is a 3D rendition of our book [cid:F110DF81-D866-4C8B-A647-3DBD58C60364@home]

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Is it a myth that David Letterman had a Top Ten List about the Pentium bug?
by Paul Ivanov 23 Aug '20

23 Aug '20

Ellen Spertus, on 2020-08-14 15:00, wrote: > I remain skeptical, because of the information (and absence of > information) that I cite, but I think I should drop it if David > Patterson is adamant that it happened.It's not a matter of > great historic importance, just a minor curiosity. I think your scepticism is well placed, Ellen, and the Royal Society motto "Nullius in verba" ("Take nobody's word for it") certainly comes to mind. I took the liberty of contacting Don Giller, an authoritative Letterman archivist (see <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/fashion/mens-style/david-letterman-late-…> or <https://donzblog.home.blog/2019/09/26/my-letterman-databases/> ) and he categorically rejects the existence of a Pentium bug Top Ten list from the show. As nice of a story as it would have been to have floating point humour in the late night show cannon, it seems that this one isn't true. Don Giller, on 2020-08-15 00:27, wrote: > Hi, Paul, > > First, thanks for the twitter follow. Appreciated! > > Second, nope, no Top Ten List, ever. > > The only mention of the Pentium issue was during his monologue > on December 15, 1994: > > "You know, you know what you can do if you have any of those > defective Pentium computer chips? You know what I’m talking > about? If you have any of those defective Pentium computer > chips, get yourself some defective Pentium salsa, uhmm! I’m > telling you, unbelievable! Knock yourself out." > > Don > > > > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Fri, Aug 14, 2020 7:46 pm > Subject: Letterman Top 10 list about Pentium bug? > > Hi Don, > > There's a email thread on the SIGCIS list (Special Interest Group > for Computing, Information, and Society) that piqued my interest > that you might be in a position to shed some light on. > > To the best of your knowledge and databases, did David Letterman > ever have a top 10 list about the pentium bug? See the original > email attached, it seems like if it happened it was in late 1994 > or early 1995. > > > If you're curious about what other people have said - see the > "Is it a myth that David Letterman had a Top Ten List about the > Pentium bug?" thread on the list archives here: > http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/2020-August/thread.html > > best, > pi best, -- _ / \ A* \^ - ,./ _.`\\ / \ / ,--.S \/ \ / `"~,_ \ \ __o ? _ \<,_ /:\ --(_)/-(_)----.../ | \ --------------.......J Paul Ivanov https://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7

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History of 3D laser scanning articles
by Dr Adam P. Spring PhD 21 Aug '20

21 Aug '20

Hello Everyone, My history of laser scanning articles are now available at both my website and the ASPRS website. https://laserarchaeology.com I made the articles open access, so that anyone can access them. They were published in *Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing* - the leading journal of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). It was a long term research project. Friendly Regards, Adam P. Spring IEEE Senior Member

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