6.0453 Computers: Application Q; Political Impact; MTAS (3/80)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 26 Jan 1993 15:36:58 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0453. Tuesday, 26 Jan 1993.


(1) Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 16:15:36 CST (25 lines)
From: "Paul R. Falzer" <mfprf@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu>
Subject: Computer Applications: A Request for Replies

(2) Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 13:15:14 PST (26 lines)
From: William Winder <winder@unixg.ubc.ca>
Subject: Soviet block: political impact of computers

(3) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:45:30 -0500 (29 lines)
From: ian@epas.utoronto.ca (Ian Lancashire)
Subject: MTAS by FTP

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 16:15:36 CST
From: "Paul R. Falzer" <mfprf@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu>
Subject: Computer Applications: A Request for Replies

In a recent posting on the subject of humanities computing, I posed a
question and solicited replies via email. To date, I have received only a
few responses; consequently, I would like to repeat the question and solicit
more replies:

Here's a test: besides your word processor, what is the single
application that is most important to your work? I am asking
about an application, not a system, disk, or file management
utility. I am excluding communication software, unless it does
something besides hooking you into a mainframe, uploading and
downloading your files. I am asking you to restrict your answer
to stand alone programs, and thus to exclude what essentially are
appendages to your word processor.

If you wish to respond, I would appreciate your identifying one (only one)
application that meets the conditions noted above. I also would appreciate
a description of the application and a brief account of how you use it.

Paul R. Falzer
Internet: mfprf@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
Bitnet: mfprf@ecnuxa.bitnet
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------58----
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 13:15:14 PST
From: William Winder <winder@unixg.ubc.ca>
Subject: Soviet block: political impact of computers


I am trying to track down a discussion about the role of computers in the
recent disintegration of the Soviet block. If I remember correctly, the
argument that was presented had two parts: 1) the West did not fall to
communism because computers changed the structure of the proletariat --
computers are a new exploitable "workforce" that will progressively replace
the proletariat, or at least allow the capitalist to maintain control of the
workforce; 2) the Soviet block could not develop computer technology quickly
enough because there was no freedom of information, and the computer
revolution in the West depended more on the grassroots innovations of
personal/academic computing than on a more elitist industrial computing. (As
an example: UNIX)

I'm afraid I might have read this in something like NewsWeek, while
waiting in the dentist's office! However, I would greatly appreciate
any leads to where I might find a discussion of this case, or more
generally the impact of the computer on important political or
social trends. I will summarize for the List.


Bill Winder, Dept. of French, U.of British Columbia, Winder@unixg.ubc.ca

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------46----
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 23:45:30 -0500
From: ian@epas.utoronto.ca (Ian Lancashire)
Subject: MTAS by FTP

Micro Text-Analysis System (MTAS), both executables and Turbo
Pascal 4 source, is now accessible by FTP from the Centre for
Computing in the Humanities at Toronto. The host is

epas.utoronto.ca

and the usual conventions apply

name: anonymous
password: [your Internet/Bitnet address]

Look in the directory

/pub/cch/mtas

MTAS is a batch MS-DOS program that does basic frequency lists,
generates distribution and density graphs, and produces type-token
statistics for western European languages, including Greek. It
comes with modifiable help files and has proved useful both in
individual research and in the teaching of elementary text analysis.