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updated texts for course on cultural history of programming, etc
by Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan 13 Jul '12

13 Jul '12

Hi SIGCISers, I got some great tips for my course that I mentioned on the list yesterday. Thanks to the SIGCISers who responded. The results are below. On a random note, a few people couldn't load my website, ie, they time out. For awhile I've had this problem that folks at certain locations (usually from home) can't get my webpage to load. As far as I can tell, it does not correlate to OS, browser, platform, etc, because if these folks change locations then they can load it. If anyone out there is tech savvy and has a tip on what the problem might be, I'd welcome your input. Again, my new address is geoghegb(a)cms.hu-berlin.de. Thanks again for the great tips! -bernie More texts on Software etc: Good References Course on software by Michael Mahoney: http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/h598/h598s03.html Course on software and networks by Chris Kelty: http://kelty.org/or/classes/189v/doku.php Useful Turing Lectures -The Humble Programmer by Dijkstra -Iverson, Notation as a tool of thought -Bachman, The programmer as navigator -Knuth, Computer programming as an art -Newell and Simon, Completer Science as Emprical Inquiry: Symbols and Search Secondary Sources -Michael Mahoney, What Makes the History of Software Hard -Mahoney, “Finding a History for Software Engineering” -Mindell, “Programs and People” in Digital Apollo -Kelty, Logical Instruments Hagen, “The Style of Sources: Remarks on the Theory and History of Programming Languages” [“Der Stil der Sourcen: Anmerkungen zur Theorie und Geschichte der Programmiersprachen.”] -Jon Agar, The Government Machine -Bardini, Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution, and the Origins of Personal Computing -History of Programing Languages (2 vols.) Philip Kraft, Programmers and Managers: The Routinization of Computer Programming in the United States? David Noble, Forces of Production or Shoshanna Zuboff, Work in the Age of the Smart Machine Foote and Yodler, “Big Ball of Mud” http://www.laputan.org/mud/ Richard Gabriel, misc, http://www.dreamsongs.com/ -Lucy Suchman, Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and situated actions (2nd edition). http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/sociology/profiles/Lucy-Suchman/ misc, by Horst Völz Marino, “Critical Code Studies” http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics/codology/ Parikka, “Archive Dynamics: Software Culture and Digital Heritage” in What is Media Archaeology Naur, Pluralism in Software Engineering (critique of McCarthy, Dijkstra-style programming) Regarding gender, see work by performance artist Micha Cardenas Regarding code and politics, see Transborder Immigrant Tool, written by Robert Dominguez and a reading thereof by Marino (Reading the Transborder Immigrant Tool)

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tips for a course on the cultural history and theory of programming?
by Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

Dear Sigcis folks, I'm teaching a course in Berlin this fall on the cultural history and theory of programming. I'm drawing heavily on recent work in software studies, platform studies, literary theory, and German media theory (Kittler, etc.). Some of our friends and family -- Ensmenger, Kelty, etc -- will also feature prominently. As a tendency, however, the approach is little more cultural studies and poststructural than some of what often takes place in our group. The course also features a heavy programming component (that is, we're writing programs in Perl). I've posted a very early, rough draft of the syllabus here http://bernardg.com/node/67 . Does anyone have suggestions for other texts I should consider? If so, I would welcome your emails at my new address, geoghegb(a)cms.hu-berlin.de or via the list. I will collate responses, in the event I get more than a few comments. Thanks for your thoughts. Best, Bernie Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan Institut für Kulturwissenschaft Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin www.bernardg.com

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New ACM Turing Award Winners website
by Thomas Haigh 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

Hello everyone, Just though I'd share with you the new and much improved ACM website for the Turing Award. There had been discussion for many years about improving the old site, which just gave names and citations. The new was shepherded into existence by Mike Williams, whose been involved with computer history for decades now including work as Annals Editor in Chief and curator at the Computer History Museum. http://amturing.acm.org/ It features biographical profiles with an explanation of the work for which they won the award, lists of key publications, links to ACM digital library materials, text and/or video of their lectures, photos, etc. I provided the entries for Bachman, Wirth and Kahan and many others were contributed by SIGCIS members such as Edgar Daylight, Dave Walden, and Martin Campbell-Kelly. So, if there are any Turing awardees for whom you've never been quite sure what they did or who they were then now you have an easy way to answer these questions and verify basic biographical details. There are still a few unpopulated entries, but as it's featured prominently and publicly on the ACM website and was intended to complement the recent ACM Turing Centennial meeting (http://turing100.acm.org/ - lots of award winners and no historians) I don't think I'm letting anything slip prematurely here. Tom

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] First photo on the web?
by Janet Abbate 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

More computer trivia: If you watch the "Collider" video included in the article, you can see a retro girl group from CERN singing around a Cray "loveseat" computer.

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Agrippa Challenge
by Matthew Kirschenbaum 11 Jul '12

11 Jul '12

This may bring back memories for some-- http://www.crackingagrippa.net/ (Note: although it builds on some of my earlier work, I am not affiliated with the contest.) -- Matthew Kirschenbaum Associate Professor of English Associate Director, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) University of Maryland 301-405-8505 or 301-314-7111 (fax) http://mkirschenbaum.net and @mkirschenbaum on Twitter The Track Changes project: http://trackchangesbook.tumblr.com/ I am on leave, Aug. 2011-12; please refer to my personal leave policies: http://mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/during-my-fellowship/

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First photo on the web?
by William McMillan 11 Jul '12

11 Jul '12

http://tinyurl.com/6qxku3c

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New donation: Early Ethernet diagram
by Dag Spicer 09 Jul '12

09 Jul '12

Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor with Dave Boggs, of the Ethernet local area networking protocol, comments on last weeks' donation to CHM of a unique drawing made by Metcalfe at the start of the project. https://twitter.com/BobMetcalfe/status/219187738375749632/photo/1 Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Technology married with the humanities makes our hearts sing. -- Steve Jobs

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CBI website "under (re)construction" . . .
by Thomas J. Misa 01 Jul '12

01 Jul '12

Hi all, 1. CBI's website is being reconstructed. The short version is that the University Libraries is shifting us to a Drupal-style site, which works for our "information" --- but not so well for our voluminous "content." Unusually, our website is down this entire weekend. Meantime . . . . 2. We have made a back-up copy of the existing CBI website <www.cbi.umn.edu> at: <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/>. So in theory, you should still be able to access the content ---> mapping the "old" URL to the "temporary" Netfiles URL. 3. Specifically . . . the **content** for oral histories, collections, research, etc. can be located as follows: • Oral Histories <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/oh> • Collections <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/collections/> • Research <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/research/> • Hosted Publications <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/hostedpublications/> [Price speech tool is 'out'] • Exhibits <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/exhibits/> [will need to reconstruct relative URLs] • Newsletter <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/newsletter.html> • Iterations [CBI online journal] <https://netfiles.umn.edu/cse/cbi/website/iterations/> • . . . and more • Online finding guide is the same <http://discover.lib.umn.edu/findaid/> 4. In short order, we'll have our old site on our new hosting service --- same old URL <www.cbi.umn.edu>. 5. You can also "like" us at <Facebook.com/BabbageInstitute>. Thanks for your understanding while we undergo these changes. ---Tom

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The MCS-4 Story
by Dag Spicer 01 Jul '12

01 Jul '12

The link in my previous post on the Intel MCS-4 Story didn't come through. Here it is: http://www.youtube.ng/watch?v=gPKZSuXAVMU Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Technology married with the humanities makes our hearts sing. -- Steve Jobs

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Founding documents of Silicon Valley come to CHM!
by Dag Spicer 30 Jun '12

30 Jun '12

An official press release goes out Monday but for SIGCIS people, an exclusive! Thanks to Texas Instruments, CHM has just received 1,349 engineering notebooks from Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, the seminal company in Silicon Valley from which most of the innovations in integrated circuit (IC) design and development came. Included are the personal logbooks of Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Jay Last, and Jean Hoerni among hundreds of others. These books have compared variously to the Rosetta Stone, the Magna Carta, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, &c And yet, these superlatives don't really do this remarkable collection of notebooks justice: they are more than books. As these meticulous records range in date from 1957 (the dawn of the integrated circuit) to 1987, the donation represents more of a motion picture of IC development, full of amazing plot twists, interesting actors, and hard work. The collection is now being processed by CHM archives staff, a process that should take about 2 years. You'll be happy to know that CHM has committed to place at least a portion of these notebooks online. Read the first public news story in today's San Jose Mercury News. (URL: http://www.mercurynews.com/mike-cassidy/ci_20974528/cassidy-silicon-valley-…) Enjoy! Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Technology married with the humanities makes our hearts sing. -- Steve Jobs

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