Founded in the mid-1980s, SIGCIS is the leading international group for historians with an interest in the history of information technology and its applications. Our primary activities include meetings held in connection with our parent society, the Society for the History of Technology; and a range of online resources hosted from this website.
Recent News
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Unknown Knowns
An interesting piece from Ars Technica last month described the divergence between the set of plant species that have been collected by botanists and the set of plant species that have been cataloged into the set of known species. This kind of story complicates that idea so often invoked by science journalists, of what is…
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Hardware De-constructed and Re-constructed
A group of engineers have done emulation one better. In a a fantastic piece of reverse engineering, they have re-constructed a full-on software simulation of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the heart of the Apple, Apple II, Commodore PET, and a number of other early microcomputers and video game consoles. The Javascript simulation allows you…
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The Magical Shrinking Cubicle
Just a quick one-off link this time. Given the growing interest I sense in the community in the labor history of computing (see, for example, the recent IEEE Annals issue dedicated to the subject), I thought people might be interested in a recent story from the L.A. Times. The article describes a long-term trend I…
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Useful Sites on Contemporary Computing
One of my colleagues suggested that a good use of this blog would be to inform those of our members who might not be aware of some the good places to find up-to-date information the latest goings-on in computing. Here are a few annotated suggestions (as with most of my posts, with a strong American…
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The Value (and Risks) of Emulation
Courtesy of Evan Koblentz’ recent mailing list message, behold this ancient analog computing device, Lego-style. The contrast between this device and the older reconstruction of the Babbage Difference Engine is illuminating. The latter aimed to be as faithful as possible to the original in terms of materials and design, in order to prove the viability…
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Game Internals
I recently came across a brand new blog that may be of interest to SIGCISers, Game Internals, by programmer Chad Birch. His first post describes the algorithm used to control the ghosts in Pac-Man (including an interesting bug). Along with the “Pac-Man Dossier” that he links to, it would be a great primary source for…
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Virtual Environments and Historical Contexts
I recently attended a talk given by Fred Brooks in Research Triangle Park. Best known as “the father of the IBM System/360” and for coining “Brooks Law” (the addition of more programmers to a late project will only make it later), he currently teaches at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chapel…
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The Obituary of Maurice Wilkes, Among Many Others
A major figure in the history of computing, Britain’s Maurice Wilkes, died this past Monday. Obituaries can be found at the Guardian and the Independent; the latter was written by SIGCIS’ own Martin Campbell-Kelly. Both discuss Wilkes’ microprogramming design, which led me to consider that although we have many histories of machines (of ENIAC, EDSAC,…
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Blogs
SIGCIS has created personal blogs on the request of several of its members. Content from these is sometimes promoted to our front page, but visit the blogs directly to see their full content. Currently our featured bloggers are Marie Hicks and Chris MacDonald, who have agreed to help keep the SIGCIS website supplied with new…
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Learning Who Really Invented the Computer?
Last month’s Wired magazine contained a story and interview with novelist Jane Smiley, whose recent book, The Man Who Invented the Computer, purports to finally reveal the true author of that device. Hint: The answer rhymes with Batanasoff. I have not had a chance to read the book, but based on the interview Smiley, an…