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MIDAC Project
by Salem Elzway 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

Greetings everyone! This is my first communication to the SIGCIS listserv, so I thought I'd introduce myself quickly before getting to the topic at hand. I'm a first year PhD student in the history department at the University of Michigan studying the history and political economy of technological development (particularly in the US). Generally speaking, I'm interested in how "the State" has played a pivotal role in the development of technology and, more specifically, how the "national security state" affected the computer's development in the early Cold War and after. Canned introductions aside, I'm currently working on a history of the Michigan Digital Automatic Computer (or MIDAC) that was built and in-use at the Willow Run Laboratories between 1951-1958. MIDAC was originally commissioned to process air-guidance data for the BOMARC missile as part of the Air Defense Integrated System (ADIS) and later the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system. Unfortunately, there seems to be a paucity of documentation about MIDAC as my initial foray into the archives here at Michigan have not uncovered much. Is anyone familiar with MIDAC and/or aware of where I may find more documentation about it? I greatly appreciate any help you can provide and I look forward to interacting with the SIGCIS community in the future! Best, Salem -- *Salem Elzway* PhD Student Department of History University of Michigan (402)730-4775 salem.elzway(a)gmail.com

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From the ex-BBN email list...
by Dave Walden 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

...Ray Tomlinson died this morning. RIP

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CHM Update: Rare Norbert Winer recording now available
by Dag Spicer 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Hello everyone, We are delighted to let you all know that the Museum has acquired a very rare 1948 recording of MIT professor Norbert Wiener. We have digitized it and you may listen to it here: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102706617 Best wishes, Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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Reminder PhD Studentship in the History and Philosophy of Computing
by Liesbeth De Mol 02 Mar '16

02 Mar '16

Dear all, this is a reminder for the PhD position to study the Leo I, II and III computers at Middlesex University, best wishes, Liesbeth. -------- Doorgestuurd bericht -------- Onderwerp: PhD Studentship in the History and Philosophy of Computing Datum: Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:32:27 +0000 Van: Giuseppe Primiero <g.primiero(a)mdx.ac.uk> Aan: Giuseppe Primiero <g.primiero(a)mdx.ac.uk> The Department of Computer Science at Middlesex University, together with the LEO Computers Society are looking for a PhD Candidate for a research project in the area of History and Philosophy of Computing. This will incorporate research into the objectives, design, construction and market penetration of the LEO I, II and III computers, developed by the catering firm J. Lyons and Co., and its subsidiary LEO Computers Limited – subsequently incorporated in different companies (English Electric LEO, English Electric Leo Marconi, ICL, Standard Telephones and Cables and finally Fujitsu). Further details and instructions on how to apply available at http://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-research-degrees/research-student… -- --- Giuseppe Primiero Department of Computer Science Middlesex University /--------------------------------------------------------------------------- / /Please note that Middlesex University's preferred way of receiving all correspondence is via email in line with our Environmental Policy. All incoming post to Middlesex University is opened and scanned by our digital document handler, CDS, and then emailed to the recipient. / /If you do not want your correspondence to Middlesex University processed in this way please email the recipient directly. Parcels, couriered items and recorded delivery items will not be opened or scanned by CDS. There are items which are "exceptions" which will be opened by CDS but will not be scanned a full list of these can be obtained by contacting the University. /

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Reminder PhD Studentship in the History and Philosophy of Computing
by Liesbeth De Mol 02 Mar '16

02 Mar '16

Dear all, this is a reminder for the PhD position to study the Leo I, II and III computers at Middlesex University, best wishes, Liesbeth. -------- Doorgestuurd bericht -------- Onderwerp: PhD Studentship in the History and Philosophy of Computing Datum: Fri, 12 Feb 2016 09:32:27 +0000 Van: Giuseppe Primiero <g.primiero(a)mdx.ac.uk> Aan: Giuseppe Primiero <g.primiero(a)mdx.ac.uk> The Department of Computer Science at Middlesex University, together with the LEO Computers Society are looking for a PhD Candidate for a research project in the area of History and Philosophy of Computing. This will incorporate research into the objectives, design, construction and market penetration of the LEO I, II and III computers, developed by the catering firm J. Lyons and Co., and its subsidiary LEO Computers Limited – subsequently incorporated in different companies (English Electric LEO, English Electric Leo Marconi, ICL, Standard Telephones and Cables and finally Fujitsu). Further details and instructions on how to apply available at http://www.mdx.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-research-degrees/research-student… -- --- Giuseppe Primiero Department of Computer Science Middlesex University /--------------------------------------------------------------------------- / /Please note that Middlesex University's preferred way of receiving all correspondence is via email in line with our Environmental Policy. All incoming post to Middlesex University is opened and scanned by our digital document handler, CDS, and then emailed to the recipient. / /If you do not want your correspondence to Middlesex University processed in this way please email the recipient directly. Parcels, couriered items and recorded delivery items will not be opened or scanned by CDS. There are items which are "exceptions" which will be opened by CDS but will not be scanned a full list of these can be obtained by contacting the University. /

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Registration now open - The Maintainers: A Conference
by Andrew Russell 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

Colleagues - Lee Vinsel and I are organizing a conference on maintenance, repair, and other things non-innovative. We’ve got several SIGCIS people joining us, with papers on digital archives, software, PCs, and the Internet, but we also have a range of papers on other topics, including a great opening panel and an opening keynote from Ruth Schwartz Cowan. The draft program is up, and registration is open. See below for the blurb I am sending around to various mailing lists… We hope to see you in Hoboken in April! Andy & Lee ------------- Stevens Institute of Technology is hosting a conference titled "The Maintainers" on April 7-9, 2016. The conference will feature over 40 presentations from scholars in a variety of fields, including academic historians and social scientists, as well as artists, activists, and engineers. All share an interest in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world. Presentations will cover a wide variety of technologies and practices, including software, spaceflight, trolleys, meteorology, digital archives, and the politics of funding for infrastructure. The conference keynote speaker will be Ruth Schwartz Cowan<https://hss.sas.upenn.edu/people/cowan>, Professor Emerita in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of several books, including the pathbreaking More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technologies from the Hearth to the Microwave<http://www.amazon.com/More-Work-Mother-Household-Technology/dp/0465047327>. The conference is sponsored by the College of Arts & Letters at Stevens Institute of Technology. More information, including a draft program and registration information, is available from http://themaintainers.org/ or from Prof. Lee Vinsel (lee.vinsel(a)gmail.com<mailto:lee.vinsel@gmail.com>).

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Video, transcript, and storify of "Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age" at MITH
by Thomas Haigh 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

Hello SIGCIS, I'm trying not to spam you, but did want to let everyone know what a great job the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities <http://mith.umd.edu/> (MITH) did with preserving the talk I gave there with Mark Priestley last month. Thanks to Matthew Kirschenbaum and his colleagues at Maryland for inviting us. As well as a video of the talk "Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age (https://vimeo.com/156284034) there is also a transcript of the whole thing, including discussion (http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/working-on-eniac-lost-labors-informat ion-age/) and a storify to capture the tweeting (https://storify.com/digdialog/thomas-haigh-mark-priestley-digital-dialogue- at-mi). One of the aspects of the book that we try to bring out in this talk is the variety of kinds of work that went into the ENIAC project. At the end of the talk we challenge the tendency to remember the first six ENIAC operators, hired in mid-1945, only as "programmers" which seems to implicitly dismiss most of their work as not worth remembering. We also remember the dozens of women who actually built ENIAC in 1944 and 1945, whose names are preserved only in the project's accounting and personnel records. There's also some bashing of Walter Isaacson and his "hackers, geeks and geniuses" view of history, which ties in with the new "Maintainers" project that Lee Vinsel and Andy Russell have been advancing. I'm not claiming that this focus on computing as work breaks any new ground in the history of computing as a whole, but (with the notable exceptions of Jen Light's "When Computers were Women," Atsushi Akera's Calculating a Natural World, and the opening chapter of Janet Abbate's _Recoding Gender_) work on ENIAC and the other early machines of the 1940s was mostly conducted early in the development of our field and is concerned with firsts and inventions rather than labor and use. The era seems to loom ever larger in popular awareness (Isaacson, Dyson, and millions of inspirational tweets) even as our community has largely moved on to later time periods. We're also excited to learn that a Japanese translation is well underway, and will be published soon with Kyoritsu Shuppan. Also, while Amazon is not currently discounting the English edition, Barnes and Nobel will sell you a copy for just $29.22 with free shipping. Full details on the book at www.eniacinaction.com <http://www.eniacinaction.com> . Best wishes, Tom

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Wes Clark's arrangements
by Evan Koblentz 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

Wes' daughter said it is okay to share this: A memorial service is being planned for Friday, March 4, 2016 at 1:00pm Eastern time (10 AM Pacific time) at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, 131 Remsen Street, Brooklyn. The service will be live-streamed from the sanctuary at: http://www.bhsbrooklyn.org/livestream/ It will be recorded and available for watching for some time after the actual event. After the service, there will be a reception at the synagogue. In lieu of flowers, the families suggest donations to Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, Box 1202, St. Louis, MO 63130

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SIGCIS Introduction
by J. Michael Wahlen 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

Hello Everyone, I’m new to the SIGCIS community and wanted to introduce myself. I’m a PhD student at MIT Sloan and am really interested in the history of technology, particularly in the history of the U.S. home video games industry. I really appreciate your adding me to the list - I’m already enjoying getting updates from the community on what others are doing in this area. And, if anyone has any suggestions, I am looking for archival sources on the U.S. home video game industry during its early years and would love to hear your ideas. I know there are a number of sources available online, but I would like supplement these wherever possible with original records, if anyone has any thoughts on the best places to look? Thanks again for having me. Michael Michael Wahlen PhD Student jmwahlen(a)mit.edu MIT Sloan School of Management

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fyi - an oral history interview with Wes Clark from May 1990
by andy patros 28 Feb '16

28 Feb '16

Clark describes his research at Lincoln Laboratory and interaction with the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Topics include: various custom computers built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; timesharing and network research; artificial intelligence research; ARPA contracting; interaction with IPTO directors; the work of Larry Roberts at IPTO. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107217/oh195wc.pdf?seque… <https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107217/oh195wc.pdf?seque…> Andy Patros www.digitalmonalisa.com <http://www.digitalmonalisa.com/>

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