February 2021 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Apple II DOS question
by Laine Nooney 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Hi all, Some of you may know, I've been spending my pandemic days chipping away at a software history of the Apple II (under contract with U of Chicago, hopefully forthcoming… 2023?). Anyway, I finally had a question that neither I nor my extended network of retro computing enthusiasts seems to be able to answer--and was wondering if anyone at SIGCIS might have some insight here. I'm looking for any information available on when Apple began permitting publishers/developers to put DOS on the floppy disks of their own products, thus allowing programs to boot without need for a System Master. My understanding is that this development happened either with DOS 3.2 or DOS 3.3, but I can't actually verify when this occurred at all. The reason this is coming up is because I'm currently working on a chapter focused on the disk copy program *Locksmith* and copy protection. Allowing developers to put DOS on their commercial disks would seem to be an extremely important development for creating increasingly sophisticated copy protection schemes. Since DOS controlled how data on a disk was read, all devs/publishers had to do to create an uncopyable disk was store the data to the disk in an unconventional format, and then ensure they modified the DOS on their disk to be able to read it. While the disk would run just fine, it couldn't be copied by the System Master COPY/COPYA subroutines, which assumed a standard organization for data on the disk. So while not intended to allow developers to enhance their copy protection schemes, that was certainly one of the knock on effects of allowing DOS on disk. Cheers to anyone who followed any of that. If anyone has a sense of how this industry level transition came about, or is even just certain of which DOS version it can be attributed to, I'd be incredibly grateful. -Laine Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/> Assistant Professor | MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/> | she/they -Need to make an appt? Click, don't email: https://bit.ly/2GIHuK0 -Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos

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Origin of "vector" in vector graphics
by Bernard Geoghegan 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Hi SIGCISers, Can anyone advise on the origin of the term “vector graphics.” Clearly, it literally describes a production of “vectors” on the screen by a concrete line-drawing technology. However, I’m wondering if there were multiple senses in that term initially. Specifically, looking through SAGE documentation from the 1950s and 1960s, esp, accounts of if operator displays, “vector” describes the physical trajectory of planes on the display. As SAGE was also a key source for early graphical interfaces, I’m wondering of the term “vector graphics” had a double connotation, as an analogy between the flight paths and the manner of illustrating graphics. It’s not earth shaking, but it’s etymologically neat-o if one can trace “vector graphics” to multiple connotations at its coinage. Best, b

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Graphics Gathering
by David C. Brock 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

For people interested in the history of computer graphics, my colleagues and I at CHM just learned about a recent online reunion meeting of the community around an annual Valentine’s Day computer “Graphics Gathering” in the Bay Area that started in 1981. It appears to have been quite a heterogeneous group: Attendees at the recent reunion included Ted Nelson, Dan Kotkke, Liza Loop, and many others. The reunion was a multi-hour Google Meet that was recorded. More on the Graphics Gathering here: http://ecocre8.com/ <http://ecocre8.com/> I thought that someone interested in the history of computer graphics might want to dig into this, get a copy of the recording from the reunion organizers, etc. All the best, David +++++++++++++++ David C. Brock dcb(a)dcbrock.net 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 Mobile: 413-522-3578 Skype: dcbrock Twitter: @dcbrock Pronouns: he, him, his

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Fwd: Origin of "vector" in vector graphics
by Guy Fedorkow 21 Feb '21

21 Feb '21

[oops, I meant to send this to the list, not just Bernard!] hi Bernard, The term was used in the Whirlwind computer, SAGE's predecessor. See the programming manual 2M-0277 from 1958 at http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/whirlwind/M-series/2M-0277_Whirlwind_Progr…. Page 63 gives this entry Vector Displays (a) The Vector Generator To aid in displaying alphanumerical data, drawing curves, plotting axes, etc., on the scopes, an automatic method of displaying vectors on the scopes is available. The coordinates of one end of the vector are determined by the contents ... etc ... Of course the Whirlwind guys were deep into air defense and aircraft from the start, but they were also ace applied mathematicians, so I'm guessing that calling a directed line a "vector" was the obvious thing at the time. The word "vector" seems to appear almost a thousand times in the corpus of Whirlwind documents available on the MIT DOME site, with usages that seem both mathematical and aeronautical. /guy On 2/20/2021 3:27 AM, Bernard Geoghegan wrote: > > Hi SIGCISers, > > Can anyone advise on the origin of the term “vector graphics.” > > Clearly, it literally describes a production of “vectors” on the > screen by a concrete line-drawing technology. However, I’m wondering > if there were multiple senses in that term initially. Specifically, > looking through SAGE documentation from the 1950s and 1960s, esp, > accounts of if operator displays, “vector” describes the physical > trajectory of planes on the display. As SAGE was also a key source for > early graphical interfaces, I’m wondering of the term “vector > graphics” had a double connotation, as an analogy between the flight > paths and the manner of illustrating graphics. > > It’s not earth shaking, but it’s etymologically neat-o if one can > trace “vector graphics” to multiple connotations at its coinage. > > Best, b > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 athttp://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options athttp://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Origin of "vector" in vector graphics
by Larry Masinter 20 Feb '21

20 Feb '21

I remember at the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL/DC Power Lab) around 1971 https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/sail/ there were two kinds of displays one could use for interacting with the system: There were III terminals in a main room (Mordor?) that were vector displays. There were more bitmapped displays (green on black) which were “paged”. There was an editor called “TVEDIT”. The vector displays were terrible for text, but they could change the display fast enough to animate (wire frames). LARRY.PLT[1,LMM] - www.SailDart.org <https://www.saildart.org/LARRY.PLT%5b1,LMM%5d> The Xerox Alto & D-machines spent a lot of time updating the display from the mapped raster (We’d run benchmarks with the display off). The key idea invented for Smalltalk but used by Mesa and Interlisp was called “bitblt” used for drawing everything (characters, mainly). An example of user code to do graphic: medley/HANOI at master · Interlisp/medley (github.com) <https://github.com/Interlisp/medley/blob/master/lispusers/HANOI> Some SAIL images for vector display M5.PLT[1,LMM] - www.SailDart.org <http://M5.PLT[1,LMM]%20-%20www.SailDart.org> LARRY.PLT[1,LMM] - www.SailDart.org <https://www.saildart.org/LARRY.PLT%5b1,LMM%5d> LMM.PLT[1,LMM] - www.SailDart.org <https://www.saildart.org/LMM.PLT%5b1,LMM%5d> Larry -- <https://LarryMasinter.net> https://LarryMasinter.net <https://interlisp.org> https://interlisp.org

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SHOT's Ferguson Prize: Nomination deadline April 15th
by David C. Brock 19 Feb '21

19 Feb '21

Dear All: There is a new description for SHOT’s Eugene Ferguson Prize now available: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-f… <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-f…> The new description seeks to make clear that the Prize is open to both print publications as well as online resources that “support research and teaching in the history of technology.” The Prize will be awarded this year (it is biennial), and nominations are open to works and resources published in the last four years. The nomination deadline is April 15th. Please do consider nominating a publication or resource! Have a question? Please email me directly at dbrock(a)computerhistory.org <mailto:dbrock@computerhistory.org> Best wishes, David +++++++++++++++ David C. Brock dcb(a)dcbrock.net 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 Mobile: 413-522-3578 Skype: dcbrock Twitter: @dcbrock Pronouns: he, him, his

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Fw: New CBI Website/Pandemic times research w/ CBI materials (born digital/digitized collections online, oral histories, scanning services...)
by Ceruzzi, Paul 12 Feb '21

12 Feb '21

________________________________ From: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 6:23 PM To: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] New CBI Website/Pandemic times research w/ CBI materials (born digital/digitized collections online, oral histories, scanning services...) Hello Jeff: Thanks for the update. The Bureau of Standards material was gathered by an employee named W. W. Youden, who published an extensive bibliography based on the collection: https://books.google.com/books?id=F1vRE-zp0LEC&printsec=frontcover&source=g… An interesting wrinkle about the pub. is that it uses what I believe was an IBM program called "Key word in context" (KWIC) -- a proto-search engine program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Word_in_Context#:~:text=Key%20Word%20In%2…. [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/KWAC.png]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Word_in_Context#:~:text=Key%20Word%20In%2….> Key Word in Context - Wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_Word_in_Context#:~:text=Key%20Word%20In%2….> Key Word In Context (KWIC) is the most common format for concordance lines. The term KWIC was first coined by Hans Peter Luhn. The system was based on a concept called keyword in titles which was first proposed for Manchester libraries in 1864 by Andrea Crestadoro.. A KWIC index is formed by sorting and aligning the words within an article title to allow each word (except the stop words) in ... en.wikipedia.org I have some other stories to tell about how we got the material to the Air & Space Museum, then transferred to CBI. But that is for another day. Best, Paul Ceruzzi ________________________________ From: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 6:09 PM To: Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> Subject: Fw: [SIGCIS-Members] New CBI Website/Pandemic times research w/ CBI materials (born digital/digitized collections online, oral histories, scanning services...) ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces(a)lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Jeffrey Yost <yostx003(a)umn.edu> Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2021 11:26 AM To: sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] New CBI Website/Pandemic times research w/ CBI materials (born digital/digitized collections online, oral histories, scanning services...) External Email - Exercise Caution Dear Colleagues, This morning I reread my msg from last evening and saw a typo with regard to my discussion of CBI's Social Issues in Computing Collection. I of course meant to type LGBTQIA. I apologize for this typo/error, not catching it before sending. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share about some resources at CBI, our new website, and our latest essay in Interfaces. I hope you will consider sending us a short essay for this journal (2K to 3.5K words). Please do let us know if Amanda or I can assist in any way--w/ collections or the journal. Despite the difficulties with this devastating pandemic, we are committed to do our very best at CBI to try to help with opportunities for primary and secondary research (and resources to aid education) on the history and social study of information technology (and advising regarding our collections). Deep thanks to the many scholars who submitted to our modified (remote use/scanning) Norberg Grants Program in January. We will send notifications next week. Best, Jeff "Injustice wears the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."-Ralph Ellison 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 On Wed, Feb 3, 2021 at 6:14 PM Jeffrey Yost <yostx003(a)umn.edu<mailto:yostx003@umn.edu>> wrote: Dear Colleagues, Wanted to share that we at the Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information & Culture (CBI) did a complete redesign of the CBI Website (a major half year undertaking as we had 8,800 web pages!). CBI Archivist/Curator Amanda Wick and I helped, but the lion's share was done by CBI Admin. Melissa Dargay, who did a tremendous job! CBI's new website <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.e…> (Note the old URL has redirects to this, as do core areas such as Interfaces, collections, oral histories, etc). In these pandemic times, I wanted to highlight that CBI has considerable material for primary research online. I was recently asked by a UMN HSTM faculty colleague to teach a graduate seminar session on CBI oral history methods/resources and other history of tech and science digital primary resources at CBI (and beyond). So thought I'd share a few things on our materials available remotely in case it might be helpful to you or your students. * Before jumping to the digital resources, I will start with the readily digitizable/scannable. We have over 320 collections of print/manuscript materials--7,000 plus feet. Given detailed CBI Finding Aids, and the nature of particular collections, some are especially conducive to ascertaining smaller discrete portions where modest sized scanning orders can be placed (scanning is done at relatively low rates, basically at cost, by Univ. Libraries, we are a partnership of HSTM/CSE and UL). Plan well in advance as scanning orders done by limited staff in the library building to maintain safety, please check with Amanda. A few examples of such materials.... the wide ranging gray literature of the National Bureau of Standards Computer Lit. Collection (NBS collected all reports it could on computing from gov., industry, white papers, etc. for 30 years and NBS/NIST gave them to us) consists of 10,000s of reports on virtually all areas of computing from the 1950 to 1970s, every title is in the FA. Another example is the Social Issues in Computing Collection of ephemera, pamphlets, booklets, books, and manuscripts on computing and race, gender, labor, GBLTQIA... materials highly conducive to research in the social history and sociology of computing. * CBI has some exciting born-digital collections on such topics as Internet history and standards, Seymour Cray/Cray Research, graphics, etc. * About 500 oral histories available in full text online, most done by CBI historians on NSF, NEH, DARPA, and Sloan sponsored projects--we have special concentrations of oral histories in some of the core following areas, and are continually adding to our collection (I am currently doing two oral history projects, including one for ACM on HCI): * gender/women''s history of computing/software * computer security; computer networking * AI, ML * HCI * Graphics * Time-Sharing * CDC, IBM, IT industries * scientific computing, etc. * We have more than 275 shorter interviews with different categories of users of NSF's cyberinfrastructure FastLane (faculty, staff, program officers, developers designers, NSF top managers), all done by Tom Misa and me. Interviews rich for rhetorical analysis on IT and the history of science or other topics and framings wholly different from what Tom and I used them for in our FastLane: Managing Science in the Internet World book. * Of CBI's 150,000 plus photographs many thousands of selected photographs have been scanned, especially in Burroughs and Control Data Collections but other people, firms, tech, settings, as well. To get started Search the CBI collections<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.e…> Amanda and I are always delighted to advise and assist with our collections and their use. Also, if you haven't read the Smithsonian's Paul Ceruzzi's recent essay on the infrastructure and materiality of the cloud in Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture, Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.e…> please check it. And please consider writing an essay for Interfaces. We have some very exciting material in the works. Please add to it!!! Best, Jeff "Injustice wears the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."-Ralph Ellison 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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ENIAC 75th events on Feb 15
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 12 Feb '21

12 Feb '21

Hello SIGCIS, The 75th anniversary of the ENIAC press launch is coming up on the 15th. There will be at least two online events to mark what is now being marketed as ENIAC Day. A message from Brian Berg reminded me that Penn is having an online event: Mon, Feb. 15, 10:30am-3:30pm Eastern; ENIAC Day Mini-Symposium at Univ. of Pennsylvania, for the 75th anniversary of the ENIAC: Details: https://events.seas.upenn.edu/event/eniacday/ Zoom Webinar Link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/99310106643?pwd=VVFaT0V6N0kyWXpFZE93eGNYUXhGUT09 10:30 ENIAC History and Legacy * Dean Vijay Kumar <https://www.kumarrobotics.org/> (Penn SEAS), Introduction * Prof. David Patterson <https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Faculty/Homepages/patterson.html> (UCB), Legacy and Computer Architecture Today * Prof. Mitch Marcus <https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~mitch/> (Penn), History of ENIAC * Ms. Gini [Mauchly] Calcerano <https://www.chc.edu/staff/gini-calcerano> (Chestnut Hill College), Women of ENIACThe First Programmers 1:30pm ENIAC Impact and Future * Prof. Zach Ives <https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~zives/> (Penn), General Impact of ENIAC * Prof. André DeHon <https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~andre/> (Penn), FPGAs: Carrying ENIAC Architectural Legacy into Silicon * Prof. Stephanie Weirich <https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~sweirich/> (Penn), Programming Language Design: From Grace Hopper to Today * Prof. Camillo J. Taylor <https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~cjtaylor/home.html> (Penn), Vision for Autonomous Vehicles * Prof. Sebastian Angel <https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~sga001/> (Penn), Programming and Building Large-Scale Distributed Systems Also, the Philadelphia group behind the Compuseum project to build a local museum is running its own event with Unisys as well as promoting ENIAC Day as an occasion to commemorate. Details at https://eniacday.org/. Their event will be a pre-recorded two hour show, for which I recorded a four minute segment. You can catch it at 3:30 Eastern on Feb 15, at https://unisys.zoom.us/j/95905368428?pwd=TktzR3lJb1dITnNMSE4wV1QyeGp3dz09. So if you really love ENIAC, your could watch this and the Penn events as it follows right on from them. Of course the real ENIAC aficionados already celebrated the 75th anniversary of the little-known initial demo, conducted under embargo for journalists on Feb 1, 1946 and want nothing to do with the crass commercialism of this holiday. Best wishes, Tom

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Registration + Program updates for ACM FAccT 2021
by FAccT Publicity 11 Feb '21

11 Feb '21

Dear Colleagues, Registration is now open for ACM FAccT 2021! The conference will be held March 3-10. Early bird pricing is available through February 18. Conference organizers have been hard at work putting together an exciting online conference experience. This year, we have an amazing set of papers being presented, as well as fascinating Tutorials and CRAFT sessions. We are also excited to announce our three keynote speakers: Yeshimabeit Milner, Katrina Ligett, and Julia Angwin. The full schedule is available on our website. We will be regularly posting updates so please follow @facctconference on Twitter or check the FAccT website for the latest information. Registration pricing The FAccT conference organizers seek to foster an accessible and inclusive conference. We recognize that ACM FAccT 2021 attendees have differing abilities to pay, and have instituted a tiered pricing program to accommodate different financial needs. Information on pricing can be found on our website. In striving for a conference cost that is affordable for all, we also have deeply discounted rates available for those registering in countries designated by ACM as "economically developing." To receive the discount code for registration, please be sure to select your country during the CVENT registration process. If you have questions about price or eligibility, please email facctregistration(a)executivevents.com. Attendee support As part of our diversity and inclusion efforts, FAccT 2021 is happy to provide grants meant to lower barriers of access to the conference. Grants available this year are: (1) Internet bandwidth grants: Intended to cover extra costs of internet access if your current internet bandwidth is a barrier to your participation in the conference. (2) Carer grants: In regions and countries where it is safe and feasible, we can offer caregiving support during the conference. The grants are intended to cover extra costs for caring for dependents if your caretaker responsibilities are a barrier to your participation in the conference. To apply for this support, please complete this form by February 22nd. Call for volunteers Volunteers are an essential part of the FAccT conference. They help the conference run smoothly and help the conference be a welcoming and inclusive space -- including in virtual space! To apply to be a volunteer, please complete this form as soon as possible. In exchange for volunteer service, we are able to subsidize registration fees. Thank you and we hope to see you at this year’s conference! William, Madeleine, and Rich [FAccT General Co-chairs]

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Innovative Lives: Jessica O. Matthews (February 10)
by Hintz, Eric 08 Feb '21

08 Feb '21

**Hi SIGCIS subscribers - join us for an upcoming Zoom program featuring inventor-entrepreneur Jessica O. Matthews. Her company, Uncharted Power, has developed IoT-enabled street and sidewalk pavers, power lines, and water pipes, demonstrating what the Maintainers might call "innovation in infrastructure maintenance." Hope you can join us! Eric Hintz On Wednesday February 10, we invite you to join the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation<https://invention.si.edu/> online for Innovative Lives: Jessica O. Matthews, featuring Nigerian-American inventor and CEO Jessica O. Matthews. Innovative Lives: Jessica O. Matthews Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 Time: 4:00-5:30 pm ET Registration Link: https://unchartedpower.eventbrite.com/ Jessica O. Matthews is the Founder & CEO of Uncharted Power<https://www.u-pwr.co/>, an award-winning, sustainable infrastructure company that transforms the ground beneath us into an industrial IoT platform for streamlining the integration, deployment, and management of critical infrastructure such as power lines, broadband, sidewalks, and water pipes. Jessica's career started at the age of 19 with her invention of the SOCCKET, an energy-generating soccer ball. At the age of 22, Jessica founded Uncharted Power as a power solutions company before expanding to integrated infrastructure solutions. In 2016, she raised the largest (at the time) Series A funding round ever secured by a Black female founder. During the live program, Matthews will share stories about her background, inspirations, and inventions leading to 12 patents. The program will be moderated by Monica M. Smith, Head of Exhibitions and Interpretation at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. About Innovative Lives: Now in its 25th year, the Lemelson Center's Innovative Lives program series<https://invention.si.edu/tags/innovative-lives-program> gives participants the opportunity to engage in a public conversation with diverse inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs about their pioneering work and careers. Accessibility: The National Museum of American History welcomes visitors of all ages and abilities. CART captioning will be available for this program. Additional accommodations are available upon request; please email nmahprograms(a)si.edu<mailto:nmahprograms@si.edu>. P.S. Our online guests may also be interested in the Lemelson Center's recent webinar series, Black Inventors and Innovators: New Perspectives<https://invention.si.edu/black-inventors-and-innovators-new-perspectives>. Click the link for details and videos of all five sessions! _________________ Eric S. Hintz, PhD (he/him), Historian, Lemelson Center Office +1 202-633-3734 | Mobile +1 610-717-7134 |Fax +1 202-633-4593 Email hintze(a)si.edu<mailto:hintze@si.edu> | americanhistory.si.edu<http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/> | invention.si.edu<http://www.invention.si.edu/> Author, American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/american-independent-inventors-era-corporate…> (MIT Press, 2021) Co-editor, Does America Need More Innovators?<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/does-america-need-more-innovators> (MIT Press, 2019)

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