The History and Repercussions of Strategic Informing Technology

This chapter outlines the history of strategic informing technology as well as its implications and impacts. The chapter begins by examining major developments that occurred in the United States, including the use of punch card machines and the creation of the internet. Next, the chapter turns to Germany and documents how strategic informing technology was employed by the Nazi state to develop advanced weapons such as the V-1 and V-2 rockets and to record demographic data used in concentration and death camps. The chapter then considers major figures and developments that occurred in Britain, such as Alan Turing's development of the Turing Machine. Next is France, with an emphasis on the role played by the company Bull. Japan is then briefly examined followed by the USSR and Poland. The chapter then examines the first attempt at a national computer development program, which took place in Poland from 1971-1975. It concludes with an examination of the Polish national information system (INFOSTRADA) and a critical evaluation the Lange economic model.

Punch Card Patterns Designed with GAN

Knitting punch cards codify different stitch patterns into binary patterns, telling the machine when to change color or to generate different stitch types. This research utilizes Neural Networks (NN) and image-based Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), with an image database of knitting punch cards, to generate new punch card designs. The hypothesis is that artificial intelligence will learn the basic underlying structures of the punch cards and the pattern makeup that is inherent across patterns of different styles and cultures. Different neural networks were utilized throughout the research, such as Neural Style Transfer (NST), AdaIN Style Transfers, and StyleGAN2. The results from these explorations offer different insights into pattern design and various outcomes of the different neural networks. Ultimately physically testing these punch card designs, these patterns were knit on a domestic knitting machine, resulting in novel fabrication and design techniques that are both digital and craft-based.

Fast Privacy-Preserving Punch Cards

Loyalty programs in the form of punch cards that can be redeemed for benefits have long been a ubiquitous element of the consumer landscape. However, their increasingly popular digital equivalents, while providing more convenience and better bookkeeping, pose a considerable privacy risk. This paper introduces a privacy-preserving punch card protocol that allows firms to digitize their loyalty programs without forcing customers to submit to corporate surveillance. We also present a number of extensions that allow our scheme to provide other privacy-preserving customer loyalty features. Compared to the best prior work, we achieve a 14× reduction in the computation and a 11× reduction in the communication required to perform a “hole punch,” a 55× reduction in the communication required to redeem a punch card, and a 128× reduction in the computation time required to redeem a card. Much of our performance improvement can be attributed to removing the reliance on pairings or range proofs present in prior work, which has only addressed this problem in the context of more general loyalty systems. By tailoring our scheme to punch cards and related loyalty systems, we demonstrate that we can reduce communication and computation costs by orders of magnitude.

A smart login system using face detection and recognition by ORB algorithm

<p>We can identify human faces using a web Camera which is known as Face Detection. This is a very effective technique in computer technology. There are used different types of attendance systems such as log in with the password, punch card, fingerprint, etc. In this research, we have introduced a facial recognition type of biometric system that can identify a specific face by analyzing and comparing patterns of a digital image. This system is the latest login system based on face detection. Primarily, the device captures the face images and stores the captured images into the specific path of the computer relating the information into a database. When any body tries to enter into any room or premises through this login system, the system captures the image of that particular person and matches the image with the stored image. If this image matches with the stored image then the system allows the person to enter the room or premises, otherwise the system denies entry. This face recognition login system is very effective, reliable and secured. This research has used the Viola and Jones algorithm for face detection and ORB for image matching in face recognition and Java, MySql, OpenCV, and iReport are used for implementation.</p>

Machine Readable Race: Constructing Racial Information in the Third Reich

This paper examines how informational processing drove new structures of racial classification in the Third Reich. The Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH (Dehomag) worked closely with the government in designing and integrating punch-card informational systems. As a German subsidiary of IBM, Dehomag’s technology was deployed initially for a census in order to provide a more detailed racial analysis of the population. However the racial data was not detailed enough. The Nuremberg Race Laws provided a more precise and procedural definition of Jewishness that could be rendered machine-readable. As the volume and velocity of information in the Reich increased, Dehomag’s technology was adopted by other agencies like the Race and Settlement Office, and culminated in the vision of a single machinic number for each citizen. Through the lens of these proto-technologies, the paper demonstrates the historical interplay between race and information. Yet if the indexing and sorting of race anticipates big-data analytics, contemporary power is more sophisticated and subtle. The complexity of modern algorithmic regimes diffuses obvious racial markers, engendering a racism without race.

Automaatse infotöötluse algus: perfokaartidel põhinevad infosüsteemid [Abstract: The beginning of automatic information processing: information systems on punch cards]

The beginning of automatic information processing: information systems on punch cards Toward the end of the 19th century, several different national bureaucratic institutions and private enterprises had evolved and expanded to such an extent that new information management tools and methods were necessary. The electromechanical data-processing system developed by Hermann Hollerith in the 1880s, which operated on the basis of punch cards, can be regarded as the predecessor of modern automatic digital data-processing systems. Information storage and data processing systems were accomplished through punch cards, i.e. carton cards in a standardised form. Information was punched onto the cards by perforating in fixed positions. Hollerith invented a number of electromechanical devices that could punch information on cards and process the cards that were carrying information. The sorter machine made it possible to sort cards by the perforated marker in a column, and the tabulator enabled counting and adding up cards. This article treats the development of punch card-based systems by demonstrating the primary modifications and correlating them with the purposes of such systems. In order to do this, I will divide the punch card-based systems into five generations. The system was created in the United States in the 1880s to process large volumes of statistical data that had been recorded in population censuses. Several countries applied this system in everyday practice up until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1894, information systems capable of processing statistical data evolved out of this development. These systems were still in use even after the end of World War II. Solutions that facilitated bookkeeping were developed by 1906; such systems served until the 1960s, in some places even longer. Population registers based on punch cards were elaborated between 1935 and 1937, and were used by various countries until the 1960s. Upon the introduction of electronic computers after World War II, punch cards were used to enter data and programs into the computers. Punch card-based systems were the first automatic systems that were able to process large quantities of data. They were the most complex information systems from the end of the 19th century until the end of World War II, offering the most multifarious options. After the introduction of electronic computers, the application of such systems was consistently scaled back, but they were still widely in use until the mid-20th century. The experience and technical knowledge gained while applying punch card-based information systems laid the groundwork for further digital developments in computer systems. As both of these systems were used in parallel over a considerably long period of time, knowledge was shared between them. To represent data units on punch cards, data had to be encoded. This shared knowledge resulted in significant gains in the processing of information, specifically the division of data into discrete, distinctly specified units to mechanically process information, and the representation of data units on punch cards via encoding. The codes of the early punch card-based systems were case based, and had been elaborated according to the data to be analysed, and to the purposes of processing. Further developments made these encoding systems more universal, so that they came to be used as standards. Punch cards were the first data carriers that could be read by machines. Corresponding devices were employed to punch, read and process information on cards. The initial versions of these systems were easily read by the naked eye, but later the systems evolved to become completely number based. The constant increase in the amount of data recorded on the cards was the result of more complex tasks, as well as the growing abundance of calculation options on the tabulators themselves. Programming with changeable setups, which characterised the first generations of programming, was followed by conditional programming with punch cards themselves. Increased processing speed was one of the milestones in the development of punch card-based systems. The systems were characterised by a vast universality. Data, once recorded on the cards, was available for repeated analysis, regardless of the objective. Punch cards were the first databases that could be processed automatically. Nonetheless, operating mechanical information systems required a firmer organisation and standardisation of the working process.

The relationship between classification research and information retrieval research, 1952 to 1970

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the initial relationship between the Classification Research Group (CRG) and the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR) and how this relationship changed between 1952 and 1970. The theory of normative behavior and its concepts of worldviews, social norms, social types, and information behavior are used to characterize the relationship between the small worlds of the two groups with the intent of understanding the gap between early classification research and information retrieval (IR) research. Design/methodology/approach This is a mixed method analysis of two groups as evidenced in published artifacts by and about their work. A thorough review of historical literature about the groups as well as their own published works was employed and an author co-citation analysis was used to characterize the conceptual similarities and differences of the two groups of researchers. Findings The CRG focused on fundamental principles to aid classification and retrieval of information. The CDCR were more inclined to develop practical methods of retrieval without benefit of good theoretical foundations. The CRG began it work under the contention that the general classification schemes at the time were inadequate for the developing IR mechanisms. The CDCR rejected the classification schemes of the times and focused on developing punch card mechanisms and processes that were generously funded by both government and corporate funding. Originality/value This paper provides a unique historical analysis of two groups of influential researchers in the field of library and information science.

Why Distant Reading Isn't

Language is easy to capture, but hard to read.—John Cayley, “Terms of Reference and Vectoralist Transgressions,”Amodern 2: Network ArchaeologyIf Reading were used exclusively to designate human engagement with symbolic codes, then it would be relatively easy to dismiss distant reading as an oxymoron—unless it were referring to mystical scrying from dizzying heights or deciphering printed matter from across a room. Debates about what constitutes human reading are as varied as the many hermeneutic traditions and pedagogical or cognitive approaches on which they draw (Bruns). But reading has been used to describe many mechanical processes and sorting techniques. Punch-card rods, slotted light triggers, Jacquard looms, and many other devices were reading encoded information long before the standard MARC (machine-readable cataloguing) records became ubiquitous in library systems in the 1970s. Outmoded mechanical reading devices have a seductive, steampunk fascination. Many mimicked human actions and behaviors. In addition, these older technologies were embedded in human social systems and exchanges whose processes the machines' operators could partly read. The machines' actions were encoded and decoded by individuals' cognitive intelligence even if the machines functioned automatically.