thaigh's blog

The Computer History Museum has top notch facilities, so giving a talk there involved a lot more in the way of lighting setup, balance checking, and preparation than I'm used to. The result is a first class recording of my talk, "Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation" which has been getting a decent number of views on the CHM You Tube channel. 

I recently made my first Internet sighting of a cover and description for the new Japanese translation of ENIAC In Action. This should be out soon from Kyoritsu Shuppan, a leading publisher of computer science books, for just 5,500 yen. According to Google translate, the page at hanmoto.com says it will be out in June 2016, which seems remarkably fast.

Title: Beyond ENIAC: Early Digital Platforms & Practices
Dates: June 10-12, 2016
Location: Ludwig Wittgenstein House, Kohlbettstr. 15, 57068 Siegen, Germany (map link)
Organizer: Thomas Haigh (thomas.haigh@gmail.com)

Shiva Ayyadurai really, really wants to look through my emails. Remember Shiva Ayyadurai? The man who has been engaged for five years on a quixotic but energetic public relations campaign to convince the world that he, and he alone, is the true "inventor of email"? Ayyadurai literally wrote the book on internet publicity. His big problem is that you can't invent something that's already in widespread use.

There is a great writeup in the current issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette (the Penn alumi magazine), profiling the talk I gave at the ENIAC 70th Anniversary event back in February. "A People's History of ENIAC," by John Prendergast, theGazette's editor, fills about two and a half pages in the print edition. Opening lines: "If you're a fan of The Imitation Game and Walter Isaacson's 2014 bestseller The Innovators, be glad you weren't on campus to hear Thomas Haigh..."

These two message are reposted from the SIGCIS.org members discussion list which has been a primary locus for discussion of the Medina/Morozov affair.