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Knuth
by Ceruzzi, Paul 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

I hope I did not give the impression that I thought Knuth had neglected the series in the past 4 decades. Rather than prolong this argument I will quote from Knuth, vol.. 1, p. 463, who in turn quotes Sherlock Holmes: "You will, I am sure, agree with me that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first must have been really intolerable." One other thing: In my blog post I said that exercise 4, p. xix of Volume One--Fermat's last Theorem--has since been solved. I believe I misspoke, perhaps confusing it with the four-color problem. Have any members of SIGCIS worked through exercise 4? Paul E. Ceruzzi

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Knuth vol 4A
by dave.walden.family＠gmail.com 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

Between then and now Knuth also did multiple revisions of his first three volumes of TAOCP, put out a volume in the series updating the hypothetical machine he uses for algorithm analysis, has put out eight or so volumes of his collected papers, wrote his volume on Concrete Math, and wrote his bible study books. I have read the opinion of some people that his typesetting work has had more impact on the world than his TAOCP, i.e., algorithm, work. Sent from my iPad

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Smiley / ENIAC
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jan '11

26 Jan '11

Jane Smiley is speaking @ CHM this week. Bill Mauchly says he's flying out there to ask her questions in person. Wish I could be there to witness this. Bill also launched a web site: http://www.the-eniac.com. The bottom half is a blog. As you'd imagine it sometimes gets emotional and personal, especially re: Smiley. The top half of the page (six orange links of explanatory pages) is written for lay readers. Disclosure on behalf of myself and Peter Eckstein: we were both involved in writing this content.

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PS re Knuth and computer typesetting
by dave.walden.family＠gmail.com 25 Jan '11

25 Jan '11

Regarding computing history, I cannot resist directing you to http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb31-2/tb98panel.pdf Which is from http://tug.org/tug2010

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History of Computing at the Business History Conference
by Thomas Haigh 24 Jan '11

24 Jan '11

Hello everyone, I was just looking at the recently announced program for the Business History Conference meeting in St. Louis, 31 March-April 2. http://www.thebhc.org/annmeet/general11.html Were organized panels for previous meetings, though not for this years. However there are still a few presentations by SIGCIS members scattered through the program. Computing and IT are not always as visible at the conference as we might hope, but it is an interesting conference with a diverse range of perspectives so perhaps we can organize something for the next meeting (Philadelphia, March 2012) when the announcement goes out later this year. Knowledge seems to be a hot topic there, so this might be a good frame. The papers that caught my eye are Jeffrey R. Yost, University of Minnesota Diebold and Associates, Information Technology Consulting, and the Diffusion of Knowledge in Digital Computers and Applications Programming in the 1950s Hyungsub Choi, Chemical Heritage Foundation Circulation of Knowledge in the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions Olga Pantelidou, National Technical University of Athens The Citi Never Sleeps: ATMs and Corporate Social Policy in New York City during the 1970s Also an interesting panel on methodology featuring several SIGCIS members: E.1 Method or Madness: Does Business History Have a Methodology? Regency C Chair: R. Daniel Wadhwani, University of the Pacific Discussant: The Audience David Kirsch, University of Maryland Between the Humanities and Management Science: The Epistemology of Business History JoAnne Yates, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Historical and Qualitative Methods for Studying Organizations Matthias Kipping, York University, and H. Daniel Wadhwani, University of the Pacific The Holy Trinity of the Historical Method: Source Critique, Triangulation, and the Hermeneutic Circle Roy Suddaby, University of Alberta The Use of Historical Methods in Organizational and Institutional Theory Finally this year's president, Richard R. John, is well known as a historian of communications, treating the early US postal system as a kind of information infrastructure. His new book is a history of American Telecommunications, apparently dealing with AT&T and Western Union (didn't read it yet...). http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/47-richard-r-john/10 Tom

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FW: CFP -- Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) 2011 -- Cleveland Ohio
by Thomas Haigh 24 Jan '11

24 Jan '11

See CFP below. This year 4S is collocated with SHOT. I don’t think the SHOT call is out yet, but it might be interesting to think of putting in something for the 4S side of the joint meeting. We’ve organized panels for previous 4S meetings in Vancouver and Rotterdam. Traditionally 4S has a high acceptance rate and is a large and diverse conference, with people doing science policy, communications, science and technology studies, etc. as well as history. Presentations are usually rather short to squeeze everyone onto the program – maybe only 12 or 15 minutes. It’s a fun and lively event. The conference format is fairly typical for a humanities conference. Papers are grouped into thematic panels, and can be submitted individually and grouped together by the organizers or submitted as a preassembled panel. Abstracts are reviewed (250 words) but full papers are neither reviewed nor published in a proceedings volume. Most panels have commentators, I can’t remember whether this is required though. Tom From: webmaster(a)4sonline.org [mailto:webmaster@4sonline.org] Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 12:42 PM To: thaigh(a)computer.org Subject: CFP -- Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) 2011 -- Cleveland Ohio <https://netforum.avectra.com/public/EmailTrack.aspx?cli=SSSS&img=a77364fe-e…> Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) 2011: Cleveland, Ohio November 2-5, 2011 Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Center Hotel Co-located with the History of Science Society and the Society for the History of Technology. <http://www.4sonline.org/meeting> http://www.4sonline.org/meeting Call for Papers March 15, 2011: Deadline for Submissions of Individual Papers and Session Proposals The 2011 4S conference will be held in Cleveland, Ohio. There is no predetermined theme for the 4S conference. Individual paper abstracts and proposals for sessions should emphasize how they will make original and timely contributions to any theme relevant to science and technology studies (STS). The 4S conference welcomes papers, session proposals, and events that are innovative in their delivery, organization, range of topics, type of public, and which bring new resources to the STS community to explore these new relations and themes. Apart from traditional research papers, the 4S conference also welcomes proposals for sessions and papers using ‘new media’ or other forms of new presentation. Given the growing size of the 4S conferences and the desire to be as inclusive as possible, the program chair will need to make full use of the available time slots. Therefore, individuals may be listed for a paper presentation and one other role (such as session chair or discussant but not a second paper) for a maximum of two appearances. Paper abstracts should be up to 250 words. They should include the main arguments, methodology, and their contribution to the STS literature. The title of papers should be up to 10 words. Please list five key words to assist the program chair to group individual papers into a session. In addition, identify the most suitable categories for the paper (e.g. environment, information communication technologies, gender studies, science policy, etc.). Session proposals should be up to 250 words. They should contain a summary and rationale for the session, as well as a brief discussion of its contribution to STS. Session proposals should be organized around one-and-half-hour time slots. A typical session will contain five papers or four papers with a discussant. A minimum of three complete paper abstracts are required in order to submit a session proposal. The program chair may assign additional papers to proposed sessions with three papers. Each paper abstract in the proposed session should be up to 250 words. The title of papers should be up to 10 words. Since 2008, the 4S has run a ‘workshop’ format. This is an opportunity for informal presentations, with presenters and other attendees seated around tables. Session organizers should indicate if they would like to be part of a workshop table. Submissions for ‘workshop’ presentations are included under the one first-authored submission limit, stated earlier. Submission Process Paper and session proposals are accepted through an online system. This is a separate database from the 4S membership/registration system. All presenters, including those included in session proposals, must have a user account with this system that includes name, affiliation, and contact information. Submitters can create user accounts on behalf of their co-authors and session presenters, if necessary. Anyone who has participated in a 4S meeting in the last three years should already have a user account. Submit abstracts and session proposals now! <http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/ssss/4s11/> Calls for Session Participants 4S supports session organizers seeking participants. However, it is not practical to run all such calls in our newsletter. 4S has created a special web page for calls for session participants <https://netforum.avectra.com/session_calls?msm=2b6b8bc7-fcbb-4306-9d3f-7a4c…> . Here you can submit a call and browse for suitable sessions for your paper. Contact Info For general meeting information and any questions about the program, contact the 4S Program Chair, Roli Varma, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque [Email: meeting(a)4sonline.org ] | Telephone: 1-505-2777756]. More Information Find information about exhibiting, student travel grants, the mentorship program, and more on the meeting home page, <http://www.4sonline.org/meeting> http://www.4sonline.org/meeting. This e-mail was sent from Society For Social Studies Of Science (webmaster(a)4sonline.org) to thaigh(a)computer.org. To unsubscribe, please click on this link and follow the instructions: Unsubscribe <https://netforum.avectra.com/public/EmailUnsubscribe.aspx?msm=2b6b8bc7-fcbb…> <https://netforum.avectra.com/public/EmailTrack.aspx?msm=2b6b8bc7-fcbb-4306-…>

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CIE 2011
by elizabeth.demol＠ugent.be 24 Jan '11

24 Jan '11

Dear Colleagues, may I draw your attention to Computability in Europe 2011 (http://cie2011.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/) This is an annual conference organized by the Association for Computability in Europe (http://www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/cie/) with special sessions on the history of computing every two years. Even though the main focus of this conference is not the history of computing historical papers will be highly welcomed. I think that this conference offers a good opportunity for intereactions between historians of computing, computer scientists, logicians and mathematicians, very best regards, Liesbeth. _____________________________________________________________________ CiE 2011: Computability in Europe Models of Computation in Context Sofia, Bulgaria 27 June 2011 - 2 July 2011 Second Call for Papers Submission Deadline: 14 January 2011 http://cie2011.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/ _____________________________________________________________________ TUTORIALS: Jack Lutz (Ames IA, U.S.A.), Geoffrey Pullum (Edinburgh, U.K.) PLENARY TALKS: Scott Aaronson (Cambridge MA, U.S.A.), Christel Baier (Dresden, Germany), Michiel van Lambalgen (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Antonio Montalban (Chicago IL, U.S.A.), Alexandra Shlapentokh (Greenville NC, U.S.A.), Theodore Slaman (Berkeley CA, U.S.A.), Janet Thornton (Cambridge, U.K.), Alasdair Urquhart (Toronto ON, Canada). SPECIAL SESSIONS: * Computability in Analysis, Algebra, and Geometry (Organizers: Alexandra Shlapentokh, Dieter Spreen) : Ulrich Berger (Swansea), Vasco Brattka (Cape Town): Valentina Harizanov (Washington, DC), Russel Miller (New York, NY). * Classical Computability Theory (Organizers: Doug Cenzer, Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen): Mingzhong Cai (Cornell), Rachel Epstein (Harvard), Charles Harris (Leeds), Guohua Wu (NTU, Singapore) * Natural Computing (Organizers: Erzsébet Csuhaj-Varjú, Ion Petre): Natalio Krasnogor (University of Nottingham), Martin Kutrib (University of Giessen), Victor Mitrana (University of Bucharest), Agustín Riscos-Núnez (University of Seville) * Relations between the physical world and formal models of computability (Organizers: Viv Kendon, Sonja Smets): Pablo Arrighi (University of Grenoble), Časlav Brukner (University of Vienna), Elham Kashefi (University of Edinburgh),Prakash Panangaden (McGill University) * Theory of transfinite computations (Organizers: Peter Koepke, C.T. Chong): Noam Greenberg (Victoria University of Wellington), Sy D. Friedman (University of Vienna), Wei Wang (Sun Yat-sen University), Merlin Carl (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) * Computational Linguistics (Organizers: Tejaswini Deoskar, Tinko Tinchev): Klaus U. Schulz (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)& Stoyan Mihov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Ian Pratt-Hartmann (University of Manchester). CiE serves as an interdisciplinary forum for research in all aspects of computability and foundations of computer science, as well as the interplay of these theoretical areas with practical issues in computer science and with other disciplines such as biology, mathematics, philosophy, or physics. The Programme Committee (Dag Normann and Ivan Soskov co-chairs) cordially invites all researchers in the area of the conference to submit their papers (in PDF-format, at most 10 pages) for presentation at CiE 2011 to http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cie2011. The best of the accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings within the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series of Springer, which will be available at the conference. Other accepted contributed papers together with abstracts of informal presentations will appear in our local pre-conference proceedings volume. We particularly invite papers that build bridges between different parts of the research community. Since women are underrepresented in mathematics and computer science, we emphatically encourage submissions by female authors (see below for the 'Women in Computability' grants). IMPORTANT DATES: Submission Deadline: January 14, 2011 Notification of Authors: March 12, 2011 Final Version: April 2, 2011 Authors of accepted papers are expected to present their work at the conference. Submitted papers must describe work not previously published, and they must neither be accepted nor under review at a journal or at another conference with refereed proceedings. All papers need to be prepared in LNCS-style LaTeX. Papers should not exceed 10 pages; full proofs may appear in a technical appendix which will be read at the reviewers' discretion. Submissions authored or co-authored by a Programme Committee member are not allowed. GRANTS: Women in Computability: In 2011, we continue the programme "Women in Computability" (funded from 2008 to 2010 by the Elsevier Foundation) now supported by the journal "Annals of Pure and Applied Logic" (Elsevier). As part of this programme, we can offer four modest "Elsevier Women in Computability grants" for female graduate students or junior researchers. These grants will be paid as a reimbursement of up to 200 EUR of travel and accommodation expenses. More information about deadlines and the application procedure will become available from the CiE 2011 website in March 2011. ASL Student Travel Grants: CiE 2011 is sponsored by the Association for Symbolic Logic. All student members of the ASL can apply for travel funding. To be considered for a Travel Award, please (1) send a letter of application, and (2) ask your thesis supervisor to send a brief recommendation letter. The application letter should be brief (preferably one page) and should include: (1) your name; (2) your home institution; (3) your thesis supervisor's name; (4) a one-paragraph description of your studies and work in logic, and a paragraph explaining why it is important to attend the meeting; (5) your estimate of the travel expenses you will incur; (6) (for citizens or residents of the USA) citizenship or visa status; and (7) (voluntary) indication of your gender and minority status. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications should be sent to asl(a)vassar.edu before March 27 2011. EMS grants for Young East European Researches: Thanks to the generous support from European Mathematical Society, CiE 2011 is glad to be able to offer partial or total fee waivers for a small number of Eastern European researchers and researchers from the former Soviet Union member states, whose work has been accepted for presentation at CiE2011. Preference will be given to young researchers and researchers with papers accepted for publication in the LNCS proceedings. To apply, please send an application to cie2011(a)fmi.uni-sofia.bg before March 27 2011. The application should include the applicant's name, affiliation and the title of the submission for CiE 2011. Best student paper award: Papers that have only student authors are eligible for the "CiE 2011 Best Student Paper Award”. The Programme Committee will select the best submission among these after acceptance. Springer will sponsor the Best student paper award - a Springer book voucher for the winner. All questions about the conference could be send at cie2011(a)fmi.uni-sofia.bg. Best wishes Barry Cooper for Association CiE __________________________________________________________________________ ASSOCIATION COMPUTABILITY IN EUROPE http://www.computability.org.uk CiE Conference Series http://www.illc.uva.nl/CiE CiE 2011 http://cie2011.fmi.uni-sofia.bg CiE 2012 http://www.cie2012.eu CiE Membership Application Form http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/acie CiE on Twitter http://twitter.com/AssociationCiE __________________________________________________________________________ -- "Les adultes, ca n'existe pas. C'est une attitude" -- Jacques Brel

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pre-announcement of 2011 ACM History Fellowship
by Thomas J. Misa 20 Jan '11

20 Jan '11

Hi all, This announcement will shortly be made public --- once the “ACM Research Materials” are updated and some internal house-keeping is done. The ACM History Committee awarded three grants last year -- to Lars Heide, Ken Lipartito, and Andrew McGee -- and two the year before -- to Bernard Geoghegan and Irina  Nikiforova . Successful proposals deal with some aspect of ACM's history; you can easily relate a larger ongoing research project to a specific instance of ACM activity (membership, conference, awardee, organizational activity). Deadline will be 15 April 2011. Best, Tom Misa ====================================================== ACM History Committee 2011 Fellowships in ACM History The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has members in more than 100 countries. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to make two awards. One, a travel grant of $2,500 to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM-related activities, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners. Second, a fellowship grant of $5,000 focusing on ACM’s rich institutional history, including consideration of its organization, publications, SIG activities, and sponsored conferences. Successful candidates for either award may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. To Apply: Applicants for either award should send a 2-page CV as well as a 750-word project description that [a] describes the proposed research project; [b] identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); [c] discusses the project’s planned outcome (e.g. conference paper, journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit); and [d] outlines a timeline for completing the project, generally within one calendar year of the award, including a final project report sent to the ACM History Committee chair. In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the extensive list of “ACM Research Materials” posted at <history.acm.org/content.php?do=links> as well as “Sources for ACM History,” CACM 50 #5 (May 2007): 36-41 <doi.acm.org/10.1145/1230819.1230836>. Other research materials relating to ACM history may also be used. Applicants should include a letter of endorsement from their home institution or an external scholarly reference. Proposals are due by 15 April 2011. Proposals should be submitted as a single pdf-format document to <history-webmaster(a)acm.org>. Notification of awards will be made within six weeks.

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Panelists Sought for ICOHTEC 2011
by John Paul Laprise 18 Jan '11

18 Jan '11

I am trying to assemble a panel on computers/internet in government for the August 2011 meeting of ICOHTEC in Glasgow, Scotland. The conference's general theme is Consumer Choice and Technology. Please contact me with your ideas. Best regards, John Laprise Visiting Assistant Professor in the Communication Program Northwestern University in Qatar

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second announcement International conference on the history and philosophy of computing
by elizabeth.demol＠ugent.be 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Dear all, please find enclosed the second announcement of the International conference on the history and philosophy of computing. With the conference we want to encourage interactions between historians and philosophers of computing. This is one of the reasons why there will be no parallel sessions. I would like to take this announcement as an opportunity to encourage members of this list to make a submission for the conference once the call for papers is open. More details will follow later, best regards, Liesbeth De Mol ------------------------------------------------------ APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTINGS ------------------------------------------------------ Second announcement International Conference /History and Philosophy of Computing / Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the famous 1936 Papers by A. Church, E.L. Post and A.M. Turing November 7 - 10, 2011 Gent University, Belgium http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be From 7-10 November 2011 the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science organizes an International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing. Topics of the conference include: * The birth, evolution and future of computation * Philosophical, foundational and practical issues of computability in logic, mathematics and computer science * Computation in the sciences INVITED SPEAKERS: Bill Aspray (University of Texas) Martin Davis (New York University) Fairouz Kamareddine (Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh) Sybille Krämer (Freie Universität Berlin) Giovanni Sambin (Universita' di Padova) Raymond Turner (University of Essex) Stephen Wolfram (Wolfram Research) SUBMISSIONS We plan to have up to 30 contributed papers to be presented at the conference. We welcome contributions from logicians and philosophers or historians of science as well as from philosophically aware computer scientists and mathematicians. Authors should submit an electronic version of an extended abstract (approximately 1000 words) through EasyChair. Submission will be open on when the Call for Papers is launched on 15th March 2011. CONFERENCE CHAIRS: Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: G. Alberts (Amsterdam) S. Artemov (New York) M. Campbell-Kelly (Warwick) L. Corry (Tel Aviv) M. Denecker (Leuven) A. Eden (Essex) L. Floridi (Oxford & Hertfordshire) R. Kahle (Lisbon) B. Loewe (Amsterdam) J. Meheus (Ghent) E. Myin (Antwerp) S. Negri (Helsinki) V. de Paiva (Palo Alto) S. Smets (Groningen) G. Sundholm (Leiden) C. Toffalori (Camerino) J.P. van Bendegem (Brussels) M. van Dyck (Ghent) B. van Kerkhove (Brussels & Hasselt) E. Weber (Ghent) SUPPORT The International Association for Computing and Philosophy <http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/index.php?id=4&type=weblink> will fund a $500 travel grant for an IACAP graduate student to attend. IACAP graduate students who would like to apply for this grant need to send a copy of their submission to Tony Beavers (executivedirector(a)ia-cap.org) executive director of IACAP. More details for applications will be added later. The Association also offers a 10% discount on the conference fee for IACAP members. Student members of the Association for Symbolic Logic <http://www.aslonline.org/index.htm> also may apply for travel grants. To be considered for a Travel Award, please (1) send a letter of application, and (2) ask your thesis supervisor to send a brief recommendation letter. The application letter should be brief (preferably one page) and should include: (1) your name; (2) your home institution; (3) your thesis supervisor's name; (4) a one-paragraph description of your studies and work in logic, and a paragraph indicating why it is important to attend the meeting; (5) your estimate of the travel expenses you will incur; (6) (for citizens or residents of the USA) citizenship or visa status; and (7) (voluntary) indication of your gender and minority status. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply. In addition to funds provided by the ASL, the program of travel grants is supported by a grant from the US National Science Foundation; NSF funds may be awarded only to students at USA universities and to citizens and permanent residents of the USA. Air travel paid for using NSF funds must be on a US flag carrier. Application by email is encouraged; put "ASL travel application'' in the subject line of your message. Applications should be received at least three months prior to the meeting at the ASL Business Office: ASL, Box 742, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, New York 12604, USA; Fax: 1-845-437-7830; email: asl(a)vassar.edu. Decisions will be communicated at least two months prior to the meeting. PROCEEDINGS A selection of papers will be published as a Special Issue of the Journal/ Philosophy & Technology <http://www.springer.com/philosophy/epistemology+and+philosophy+of+science/j…> /(Springer) More details on deadlines and submissions can be found at: http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be For requests and infos computing.conference(a)ugent.be <mailto:computing.conference@ugent.be> -- "Les adultes, ca n'existe pas. C'est une attitude" -- Jacques Brel

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