162 research outputs found
Book Review: William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. By A. J. Angulo
No full textBook Review of William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. By A. J. Angulo. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. Pp. xviii, 220. $55.00.
America’s Coming of Age: Daniel Walker Howe’s What Hath God Wrought
No full textAccording to Daniel Walker Howe, the three decades between the end of the War of 1812 and the end of the Mexican War (1848) witnessed “the transformation of America.”1 Of what did this transformation consist? What drove it? What were its larger implications? These questions lie at the very center of historical writing about the early and middle decades of nineteenth- century America. Howe’s monumental effort goes far in answering them. In the process, he upends several well-known interpretations of the so-called Jacksonian period
Comparing Bananas with Grapes: Ebook Use Data from a Bunch of Vendors
No full textThe Penrose Library at the University of Denver has access to hundreds of thousands of electronic books (ebooks) from a wide variety of aggregators and publishers. While many librarians have a great deal of experience in the analysis of journal use data, the analysis and publication of ebook use data is behind the curve. Many journal publishers provide "Counter Compliant" statistics to their subscribing institutions, but this is not the case for most ebook publishers. Thus, comparing ebook use from one vendor to the next can be difficult. Even though many ebook publishers do not provide "Counter Compliant" use statistics, several common data elements were used in this comparison. In order to keep the study focused, the presenter extracted use data from several vendors to analyze use in the subject areas of engineering and computer science. Ebook use data were also compared to print book use data in those two subject areas
3D modeling and the seduction of the real
No full textThesis: Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2014.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 260-266).Evidence from history, archaeology, and the social sciences suggests that making models of the world has anchored our understanding of it since the earliest days. From models of deities, dwellings and weapons to molecules and planetary systems, models have been tools for thinking and imagining, as well as planning and building. Though there are many possible definitions, a digital model is understood here essentially as a miniature virtual world-a distillation that captures the essence of some aspect of the larger physical or imagined world-which provides a vehicle for virtual exploration or manipulation of that world, and a focal point for debates about its nature. This dissertation explores the communities engaged in making 3D digital models used in computer animation-globally dispersed communities linked by their professional tools and practices and their shared use of algorithms to sculpt geometry in the spaces of the machine. My research builds on the work of historians of computing and computer-aided design as well as insights on objects and their meanings by scholars such as Sherry Turkle, Peter Galison and Loraine Daston. To this conversation I contribute a view of digital models as meaningful objects, both tactile and evocative, around which conversations on expertise, craft, nature and representation coalesce. I draw on the work of Merritt Roe Smith on the contributions of government funding to innovation, and David Kaiser's work on the role of representations in circulating professional identities and shaping professional communities. Finally I draw on the work of those who have thought deeply about creativity and digital design tools and practices, including Rudolph Arnheim and Malcolm McCullough. I have also benefitted from Lev Manovich's work on software in the evolving field of digital humanities and software studies. I base my understanding of 3D modeling practices on a series of interviews conducted with a widely-dispersed community of artists, programmers and technical specialists who collaborate, sometimes over great distances, in creating 3D models for the entertainment industry. I argue that the idea of 3D modeling was shaped by the intersections of contrasting styles of abstraction practiced by artists and engineers. The interactions of present-day modelers with their models are part of an emerging discourse with the world, opening new possibilities for human interaction with the world's objects. As an example of the complex, global flow of people, objects and ideas I contrast two animation studios on opposite sides of the world, located in Connecticut and New Zealand. Though each of these is far from Hollywood-traditionally regarded as the heart of the film and animation industries-3D modeling practices, shared software and migrating workers link them to each other and to a global community of 3D thinkers and makers. Digital 3D modeling-sculpting characters, objects and environments, and even 3D printing the objects-emerges as a powerful way of connecting the self to the world. Finally, I examine the use of models as archives of real world objects and their attributes, with a case study a natural history museum's 3D modeling of a dinosaur.by Rebecca Ann Perry.Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS
Two centuries of industrial enterprise, 1635-1861
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, February 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. [312]-323).This dissertation uses the Ames Family of Easton, Massachusetts as a case study on development of business and industry in early nineteenth century America. From English iron-working roots transplanted to America in 1635 the artisan tradition of blacksmithing dominated the Ames family for generations. Oliver Ames was trained as a smith, but when he came to Easton in 1803 to focus on the manufacture of shovels, he made an important step in the evolution from artisan and craftsman to industrialist, a common transition well exemplified by Oliver Ames's life. The Ames story demonstrates that the "Industrial Revolution" was no revolution at all. It was a gradual and fluid evolution from one way of doing business to another, an evolution in which many older methods and beliefs (the importance of farming, the dependence on kin, devotion to the community, conservative capital investments...) served men like Oliver Ames well. Common mischaracterizations of industrial development as revolutionary slights the importance of early nineteenth century industry; encourages an inaccurate focus on the romantic nature of small, rural mills; and discourages any impulse to examine in detail the ways in which early industry operated and played a part in industrial development. In fact, the management and operation of many of these facilities was far more complex than is typically recognized. Many of the earliest industrialists struggled to understand and manage complicated issues such as labor, raw materials, shipping, sales, international trade, economics, technological and scientific understanding, and the impact of business on family and community.(cont.) We can learn much about later business practice by exploring these earlier industries. The thesis discusses Oliver Ames's operations in Easton, West Bridgewater, and Canton, Massachusetts including joint waterpower development. Later management by Oliver's sons Oakes and Oliver is also studied as are merchant houses in New York and blast furnaces in Franklin and Wawayanda, New Jersey managed by Old Oliver's son William and the puddling and heavy forging shop run by his son Horatio in Falls Village, Connecticut. Later family investments are briefly discussed including Oakes's involvement with the Credit Mobilier Construction Company which built the Union Pacific Railroad.by Gregory J. Galer.Ph.D
Science and the Military,
No full textWeingart P, Mendelsohn E, Smith MR, eds. Science and the Military,. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook. Vol XXII. Dordrecht: Kluwer; 1989
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