When Computers Went to Sea

When Computers Went to Sea
Author: David L. Boslaugh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2003-04-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780471472209

When Computers Went to Sea explores the history of the United States Navy's secret development of code-breaking computers and their adaptation to solve a critical fleet radar data handling problem in the Navy's first seaborne digital computer system - that went to sea in 1962. This is the only book written on the United States Navy's initial application of shipboard digital computers to naval warfare. Considered one of the most successful projects ever undertaken by the US Navy, the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was the subject of numerous studies attempting to pinpoint the reason for the systems inordinate success in the face of seemingly impossible technical challenges and stiff resistance from some in the military. The system's success precipitated a digital revolution in naval warfare systems. Dave Boslaugh details the innovations developed by the NTDS project managers including: project management techniques, modular digital hardware for ship systems, top-down modular computer programming techniques, innovative computer program documentation, and other novel real-time computer system concepts. Automated military systems users and developers, real-time process control systems designers, automated system project managers, and digital technology history students will find this account of a United States military organization's initial foray into computerization interesting and thought provoking.

When Computers Went to Sea

When Computers Went to Sea
Author: David L. Boslaugh
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2003-04-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0471472204

When Computers Went to Sea explores the history of the United States Navy's secret development of code-breaking computers and their adaptation to solve a critical fleet radar data handling problem in the Navy's first seaborne digital computer system - that went to sea in 1962. This is the only book written on the United States Navy's initial application of shipboard digital computers to naval warfare. Considered one of the most successful projects ever undertaken by the US Navy, the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) was the subject of numerous studies attempting to pinpoint the reason for the systems inordinate success in the face of seemingly impossible technical challenges and stiff resistance from some in the military. The system's success precipitated a digital revolution in naval warfare systems. Dave Boslaugh details the innovations developed by the NTDS project managers including: project management techniques, modular digital hardware for ship systems, top-down modular computer programming techniques, innovative computer program documentation, and other novel real-time computer system concepts. Automated military systems users and developers, real-time process control systems designers, automated system project managers, and digital technology history students will find this account of a United States military organization's initial foray into computerization interesting and thought provoking.

Hard Charger!

Hard Charger!
Author: James A Treadway
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2005-07
Genre: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
ISBN: 0595360092

Hard Charger is the story of a Cold War cruiser, the USS Biddle (DLG-34), the last Navy cruiser powered by conventional steam, the last of the single-ended guided missile frigates, the last ship of her class, but the first on the front lines. Biddle's story is traced from when her combat systems were conceived soon after the end of World War II and then designed and built during the 50's and 60's, to her construction, commission, shakedown, combat assignments in Vietnam, her battle at PIRAZ, overhauls, upgrades, training exercises and cruises to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, and finally her decommissioning. The story is told by the officers and men who served aboard her - captains and deckhands, technicians and engineering officers, chiefs petty officers, plankowners and her decommissioning crew. Though Biddle is gone, her remarkable story remains, as does the freedom she helped protect. Historians, those currently involved with Navy combat systems, and those who served aboard a similar ship or during the Cold War will find Biddle's story interesting and thought provoking. Hard Charger is the only book written about Biddle or any Belknap class cruiser.

The Origins of Aegis

The Origins of Aegis
Author: Thomas Wildenberg
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2024-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1682479242

This book provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the professional development of two notable and highly accomplished naval officers and their contributions to the development of the Aegis Weapons System. The main argument is that there was no single career path or set of formal qualifications for achieving excellence in the naval profession as characterized by selection for Flag rank. One of the major points is the revelation that a combination of essential personal traits and qualities and important operational and technical experiences fundamental to the nature of naval warfare are critical to developing highly competent and confident officers. Such officers are needed to lead major acquisition programs capable of delivering innovative weapons systems for a twenty-first t century Navy facing new age threats.

Rearming for the Cold War, 1945-1960

Rearming for the Cold War, 1945-1960
Author: Elliott Vanveltner Converse
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2012
Genre: Cold War
ISBN:

Book Description: The first publication in a multivolume series on the history of the acquisition of major weapon systems by the Department of Defense, author Elliott Converse presents a meticulously researched overview of changes in acquisition policies, organizations, and processes within the United States military establishment during the decade and a half following World War II. Many of the changes that shaped the nature and course of weapons research and development, production, and contracting through the end of the century were instituted between 1945 and 1960; many of the problems that have repeatedly challenged defense policymakers and acquisition professionals also first surfaced during these years. This study is the first to combine the histories of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the military services into one account. The volume is organized chronologically, with individual chapters addressing the roles of OSD, the Army, Navy and Air Force in two distinct periods.

Computers and Commerce

Computers and Commerce
Author: Arthur Lawrence Norberg
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262140904

"Both ERA and EMCC had their roots in World War II, and in postwar years both firms received major funding from the United States government. Norberg analyzes the interaction between the two companies and the government and examines the impact of this institutional context on technological innovation. He looks at the two firms' operations after 1951 as independent subsidiaries of Remington Rand, and documents the management problems that began after Remington Rand merged with Sperry Gyroscope to form Sperry Rand in 1955"--Jacket.

AN/FSQ-7: the computer that shaped the Cold War

AN/FSQ-7: the computer that shaped the Cold War
Author: Bernd Ulmann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-08-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3486856707

Das Buch widmet sich AN/FSQ-7, einem der aussergewöhnlichsten und einflussreichsten Digitalrechner aller Zeiten, über den erst in den letzten Jahren (aufgrund von Geheimhaltungsvorschriften) detaillierte Informationen zugänglich wurden. Über einen Zeitraum von über 30 Jahren wurden in den USA 23 Rechenzentren auf Basis von jeweils zwei AN/FSQ-7 betrieben, die das Herz von SAGE, dem Semi Automatic Ground Environment bildeten, das für die Luftraumüberwachung der USA und (in Teilen) Kanada zuständig war.

Military Communications

Military Communications
Author: Christopher H. Sterling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2007-10-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1851097376

An alphabetically organized encyclopedia that provides both a history of military communications and an assessment of current methods and applications. Military Communications: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century is the first comprehensive reference work on the applications of communications technology to military tactics and strategy—a field that is just now coming into its own as a focus of historical study. Ranging from ancient times to the war in Iraq, it offers over 300 alphabetically organized entries covering many methods and modes of transmitting communication through the centuries, as well as key personalities, organizations, strategic applications, and more. Military Communications includes examples from armed forces around the world, with a focus on the United States, where many of the most dramatic advances in communications technology and techniques were realized. A number of entries focus on specific battles where communications superiority helped turn the tide, including Tsushima (1905), Tannenberg and the Marne (both 1914), Jutland (1916), and Midway (1942). The book also addresses a range of related topics such as codebreaking, propaganda, and the development of civilian telecommunications.

Warship 2016

Warship 2016
Author: Stephen Dent
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2016-05-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1844864375

Warship 2016 is devoted to the design, development and service history of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery and much more to maintain the impressive standards of scholarship and research from the field of warship history. This 38th edition features the usual range of diverse articles spanning the subject by an international array of expert authors.

HCI Remixed

HCI Remixed
Author: Thomas Erickson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2007-12-21
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262292645

Personal and reflective essays that describe how particular works—whether papers, books, or demos, from classics to forgotten gems—have influenced each writer's approach to HCI. Over almost three decades, the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) has produced a rich and varied literature. Although the focus of attention today is naturally on new work, older contributions that played a role in shaping the trajectory and character of the field have much to tell us. The contributors to HCI Remixed were asked to reflect on a single work at least ten years old that influenced their approach to HCI. The result is this collection of fifty-one short, engaging, and idiosyncratic essays, reflections on a range of works in a variety of forms that chart the emergence of a new field. An article, a demo, a book: any of these can solve a problem, demonstrate the usefulness of a new method, or prompt a shift in perspective. HCI Remixed offers us glimpses of how this comes about. The contributors consider such HCI classics as Sutherland's Sketchpad, Englebart's demo of NLS, and Fitts on Fitts' Law—and such forgotten gems as Pulfer's NRC Music Machine, and Galloway and Rabinowitz's Hole in Space. Others reflect on works somewhere in between classic and forgotten—Kidd's “The Marks Are on the Knowledge Worker,” King Beach's “Becoming a Bartender,” and others. Some contributors turn to works in neighboring disciplines—Henry Dreyfuss's book on industrial design, for example—and some range farther afield, to Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis and Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Taken together, the essays offer an accessible, lively, and engaging introduction to HCI research that reflects the diversity of the field's beginnings.