- Members - lists.sigcis.org

on the nature of analog computing
by Paul Fishwick 08 Nov '14

08 Nov '14

I recently had a discussion about analog computing with someone who works actively on hybrid analog-digital systems at the integrated circuit level. My proposal was that there seems to be, based on historical accounts and reflection, two differing views on “analog”: 1) analog reflecting the continuous or discrete character of magnitude of a variable, and 2) isomorphism indicated by construing analog to be associated closely with analogy. To take one example which can serve for discussion: Are Minecraft circuits analog, digital, or both? It depends on how we define “analog” and where we focus (on the issue of representation or magnitude). For example, redstone circuits could be viewed as analog computing in the sense that the circuits are analogous to electronic circuits containing gates such as and, or, xor, etc. And yet, at the bottom of the vast hierarchy of translation, we have Minecraft servers and clients working on top of a digital substrate. In the mid 90s, I bought a Nord Lead for my synthesizer collection, and Nord uses “virtual analog” to characterize their lineup (an analog front end and a digital back end): http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-lead-2x My view is that the issue of magnitude is a side-effect of “analog as analogy and, thus, isomorphism", and thus not primary. Tangible objects when juxtaposed and configured together to form physical analogies happen to be continuous simply because reality and our physiology is continuous, and we employ real objects (at least in the mind) when forming analogies. This view may need tweaking, but it seems as though the knowledge of such things is present in this forum. What are the thoughts on this? Is this an ongoing point of debate among historians? -paul Paul Fishwick, PhD Chair, ACM SIGSIM Distinguished University Chair of Arts & Technology and Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick Blog: creative-automata.com

4 4

Origin of 'language'?
by Marie Gevers 07 Nov '14

07 Nov '14

I wonder by whom and when the word 'language' was used for the first time in the framework of computer sciences. Can anybody enlighten me? Thanks in advance. Marie -- Prof. Marie d'UDEKEM-GEVERS Chargée de cours Conseillère à la formation Professeure invitée au Collège Belgique Faculté d'Informatique et Centre d'Etudes Sciences et PHIlosophie à Namur (ESPHIN) Centre de Recherche Information, Droit & Société (CRIDS) T. +32 (0)81 724 973 F. +32 (0)81 724 967 marie.gevers(a)unamur.be <mailto:marie.gevers@unamur.be> http://www.unamur.be/universite/personnes/page_view/01001574/ http://www.academieroyale.be/cgi?usr=bb58g68qxq&lg=fr&pag=919&tab=111&rec=5… Université de Namur ASBL Rue de Bruxelles 61 - 5000 Namur Belgique Lets respect the environment together. Only print this message if necessary!

22 30

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Origin of 'language'?
by Paul Fishwick 07 Nov '14

07 Nov '14

@DavidNofre: > "If I am allowed to speculate, I wonder if we shouldn't look at the developments of the early 19th-century, and specially the interest on mechanical agency and language, as Mark has put in, rather as part of the longer tradition of automata construction, and particularly late 18th- century fascination with speaking automata (see, most recently: Kang's Sublime Dreams of Living Machines and Adelheid Voskuhl's Androids in the Enlightenment)." Yes. This also brings in a discussion of analog computing which is reflected by these mechanical automata (e.g., principles of program, memory, iteration, and conditional branching in the form of a geometric discontinuity are intrinsic to these machines): http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2601391 . As to when 20th century computing theoreticians used the word “automata,” I wish I knew. -p Paul Fishwick, PhD Chair, ACM SIGSIM Distinguished University Chair of Arts & Technology and Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick Blog: creative-automata.com

1 0

Charles Babbage Institute --> Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology
by Thomas J. Misa 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

Please note the deadline of 15 January 2015 for the CBI-Tomash fellowship. ===TJM ============================= The Charles Babbage Institute is accepting applications for the 2015-2016 Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship will be awarded to a graduate student for doctoral dissertation research in the history of computing. The fellowship may be held at the recipient's home academic institution, the Charles Babbage Institute, or any other location with appropriate research facilities. The stipend is $14,000. It is intended for students who have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the research and writing of the dissertation. Tomash Fellowship recipients must remain students in good standing throughout the term of their fellowship, but there is no restriction on holding other fellowships, scholarships, or awards concurrent to the Tomash Fellowship. Preference will be given to applicants indicating a need to use CBI materials, planning research in residence at CBI, and willing to make a brief presentation of their research findings to CBI staff. On-line finding guides to CBI archival collections . . . <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html> For directions on applying (and list of past recipients) . . . . <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/tfellowship.html> =============================

1 0

Charles Babbage Institute --> Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund
by Thomas J. Misa 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

Please note the deadline of 15 January 2015 as well as our aim to award a slightly larger number of modestly larger travel grants. ===TJM =========================== The Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund provides short-term grants-in-aid to help scholars with travel expenses to use archival collections at the Charles Babbage Institute. Each year we plan to award up to five $1,000 travel grants. The Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) is an internationally recognized research center and archives focused on the history of information technology. CBI conducts major research projects; publishes books and articles; and collects, processes, and provides open public access to the most diverse and extensive collection of archival materials on computing, software, and networking in the world. CBI collections include the records of corporations, technical and trade associations, personal papers, industry publications, oral histories, photographs, film/video, and an extensive reference library. The Norberg Travel Fund is named for CBI’s founding director, Arthur L. Norberg, and is funded by generous gifts from his friends and colleagues. On-line finding guides to CBI archival collections . . . <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html> For directions on applying . . . . <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntravelfund.html> List of past recipients . . . <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntfrecipients.html> =============================

1 0

Hacking Europe book out now! With special offer for SHOT
by Alberts, Gerard 06 Nov '14

06 Nov '14

Dear collaegues, I am proud to announce that the Hacking Europe, From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes book is really out now. It was announced earlier, but I have a material copy in my hands now. I will bring this very copy for Tom's Friday auction. Ruth Oldenziel and I were lucky to harvest a spin-off from the Software for Europe project, bringing together fascinating stories of hacker scenes in various European countries, East, Central, and West. Not only is it a fresh subject, the authors represent a new generation of historians of computing. They are good, and it has been an honor to work with them in the creation of this book. Hacking Europe is also my "first" in the Springer History of Computing Series http://www.springer.com/series/8442?detailsPage=titleshttp://www.springer.c… For the book itself and the chapter http://www.springer.com/computer/general+issues/book/978-1-4471-5492-1http:… As the book comes out today there is a special offer on the occasion of SHOT for those who want to purchase the hardcover or the e-book version: Get 20% o? the printed book or eBook! Use the following token on springer.com ? tCmCBtT43NBdmWr (Valid 06/11/14 - 06/12/14) For the e-book version we have made sure that the downloadable chapters are selfcontained, i.e. bring their own bibliogrpahy. Springer books are also available for us mortals: if your library has the appropriate Springer package, you can order a print on demand copy for yourself at the price of 25 Euro's or Dollars. In my experience the pod copies ordered through Springer are better than the Amazon ones. Hope to see you all on Friday and Sunday, Gerard Alberts

1 0

Coming to SHOT? Bring us your spare books!
by Thomas Haigh 04 Nov '14

04 Nov '14

Hello everyone, If you are coming to SHOT this year then please look around your office shelves before you depart and grab any history of computing books you can part with - desk or review copies, copies of your own books, etc. We will then auction them off at our annual lunch meeting on Friday to raise money for the graduate student travel grants. This is particularly important this year, as we do not expect to receive anything like as many MIT Press books as has been the case in recent years. We're anticipating fewer than a dozen books from this source. So we need our members to help to fill the gap so that we can maintain our travel grant program for SIGCIS workshop presenters (we committed a record $2,900 for ten awards this year). The awards rely entirely on the generosity of our members. Also, please bring plenty of cash or a check book to the meeting to bid on books with or to stuff into our money bowl as it circulates. BTW: any books you contribute are a donation to SHOT, and thus whatever they sell for should be tax deductible if you are a US tax payer who itemizes deductions. Usual disclaimer of "consult your tax professional" applies. Best wishes, Tom

1 0

Fwd: Digital Material Culture Course
by Andrew Russell 03 Nov '14

03 Nov '14

Hi everyone - please see the email below from Allison Marsh, from the SHOT TEMSIG list. I’m guessing there will be interest here too, Cheers, Andy Begin forwarded message: > From: "MARSH, ALLISON" <MARSHA(a)mailbox.sc.edu> > Subject: [temsig] Digital Material Culture Course > Date: November 3, 2014 at 2:26:28 PM EST > To: "temsig(a)lists.rit.edu" <temsig(a)lists.rit.edu> > Reply-To: "Technology Museums Special Interest Group (TEMSIG) mailing list" <temsig(a)lists.rit.edu> > > Hello Temsig! > > I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Dearborn this week. > > Something that may interest many of you: I am in the process of developing an online course on digital material culture. This was sparked through discussions with several Smithsonian colleagues as well as with the SHOT pre-conference workshop held last year at the MIT Museum. For my course, I am interviewing museum professionals on a variety of topics. The course is somewhat in flux as I find people & topics, and I am totally open to suggestions. If anyone wants to be a part of this, just let me know. > > -Allison > > Allison C. Marsh, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor > Department of History > University of South Carolina > Columbia, SC 29208 > 803-777-0041 > _______________________________________________ > TEMSIG mailing list > TEMSIG(a)lists.rit.edu > https://lists.rit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/temsig

1 0

Virtuality versus transprency -- trying to locate a quote about the difference
by Thomas Haigh 01 Nov '14

01 Nov '14

Hello SIGCIS, I am trying to locate a quote I remember reading circa 1998. It is something along the lines of "Something virtual isn't really there but looks as if it is. Something transparent is really there but looks as if it isn't." That is of course the computer science sense of transparency as making the work of software invisible a user or process - for example how the network stack shields applications from whatever network media the data is travelling over to present the illusion of a connection. Google is not helping me. Does anybody know the source and correct wording? Thanks, Tom

14 14

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Virtuality versus transprency -- trying to locate a quote about the difference
by Allan Olley 31 Oct '14

31 Oct '14

Hello, [I'm sending this for a second time, I have trouble when I respond directly to e-mails from the list, hopefully two of these don't show up on the list, apologies to Thomas and Andrew who already go this] I'm struck that transparency as making the inner workings of something apparent is a very old and I thought very common metaphor in various phrases. For example the phrase "I saw right through him" to indicate you saw through deception and divined someone's true motives and plans. So when you see right through him you actually see him better than when you see him in the normal mode, just as when you understand a political process better when it is transparent. This goes back to at least 1856 (and presumably far earlier but this was the earliest use I found on google books). Although arguably it suggests that we see right through someone's dissembling, lies etc. rather than through him, but it seems like a natural metaphor. http://books.google.ca/books?id=OjEZAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22I%20saw%20right%20throug… ight%20through%20him%22&f=false Looking at some old usages I think the metaphor using the exact word "transparent" to mean "obvious" is pretty old also. So "my patriotic American ears burned with shame as I heard how an American had been gulled by such a simple and transparent operation." The transparency of the operation indicates that it is an obvious scam not a indiscernable one. http://books.google.ca/books?id=5GNEAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22transparent%20operation%… ion%22&f=false Perhaps, the word "clear" provides a case of the metaphor going the other way, since (according to etymological dictionary I checked http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=clear ) it starts by meaning something obvious ("bright"), keeps that meaning, but also means not blocking/encumbering light/vision and so means transparent (a clear day, clear water etc.). Not sure I can justify it exactly, but I would have said transparency as a metaphor for divining inner workings is the inutive metaphor and that the CS metaphor making it synonymous with invisible or seamless is actually the less intuitive one (although it is still intelligible as a metaphor). To me transparency connotes something you can see through but that still makes its presence known, the opposite of transparency is opaqueness or obscurity, whereas the opposite of invisibility is simply visibility. -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley, PhD http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/

1 0