my favorite guru

http://www.infoworld.com/t/it-management/the-real-secret-it-success-088

hacker in context

http://www.infoworld.com/t/misadventures/waiting-the-terry-childs-verdict-811

delaware

for Kat's kitten

Nor were losses equally spread around the country. State by state figures for 2008 - the latest available - showed the number of tech jobs actually increased in 41 states. California gained 15,800 technology jobs, while Delaware saw the largest percentage growth with a 12.8 per cent increase. - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/29/us_tech_jobs/

for my son and all those who have served in the Middle East

Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat.

"It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control," General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. "Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?src=me&ref=general

modern departure in style

AUTO: yyyyy xxxxxxx/UK/IBM is out of the office FOREVER (returning 01/01/2015)

I am out of the office until 01/01/2015.

I have taken early retirement from IBM so you won't get a reply to your e-mail. xxxxxxx@googlemail.com is my private e-mail if it's a non IBM related e-mail please get in touch...

yyyyy signing off from IBM...
　
Note: This is an automated response to your message "zzzzzzzzz" sent on 5/3/10 18:03:48.

This is the only notification you will receive while this person is away.

obviously machines have a different view of forever than we do

I'll have one to go please

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/07/ibm_data_center_containers/

company has employees add their title to all emails

and no tech support email goes out.

It seems all affected employees had the word Specialist in their title. The netnanny found the word _c_i_a_l_i_s_ embedded in that word. ( I did spacing to fool netnannies.)

source

how old am I?

I remember when these were introduced!

pome

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There's not half the files there used to be,
And there's a milestone hanging over me
The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say.

Now all my data's gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
The need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

- Bill Stebbins w/apologies to John Lennon uga2009Oct27

dear children

reality bites. be anonymous.

this error message is not pro-life

User setup member NOT updated...User aborted

As far as I know, computers cannot go back in time.

1401 + 50 = party

Congratulations! Today marks the 50th anniversary of the announcement of the 1401 on 1959Oct5!

This past year, I've witnessed your pride of successfully designing, developing and bringing to market such a significant system that introduced computing to so many people, businesses, and institutions around the world. Half of all computers in the world by the mid 1960s isn't too bad! ;-)

Quoting from our 1401 two-pager (a precursor to the 14-page booklet to be printed for the upcoming Nov 10th event at the Computer History Museum):

By mid 1959, with a 40-person engineering team working night and day,
trial educational classes underway within IBM, and a running prototype, the 1401
was poised to transform the business world with its low entry cost, outstanding
print quality, powerful magnetic tapes, and the promise of a mass-market
stored-program computer. Only IBM's skeptical forecasting department needed
persuasion to approve the product's launch.

"DAWN OF A NEW AGE": On October 5, 1959, the 1401 was announced via
closed-circuit TV to 50,000 participants in 102 cities. September the following
year the first 1401 was shipped to Time-Life in Chicago and by year end 100
systems had been delivered. By 1965, worldwide installations of 1401s peaked at
9,300 while 1400 family machines-models 1410, 1440, 1460, 7010-comprised half of
all computers (which by 1967 peaked at 15,000 systems).

Regards,

- Robert [B. Garner]

p.s. If you can make it out to California, Nov 9 & 10 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Fran Underwood, Chuck Branscomb, and Shel Jacobs will be there talking about the 1401 development history:

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/

I'll be hosting a "founders luncheon" on Monday the 9th to share stories and have some fun with the 1401 restoration team and Museum staff. I'll send an invitation to those who, according to Jud McCarthy, are able to make it out west to the Museum.
　
IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA
Office: 408-927-1739
Mobile: 408-679-0976
robgarn [a] us.ibm.com
_______________________________________________
1401_interest mailing list
http://mail.computerhistory.org/mailman/listinfo/1401_interest

how time has flown

new world order

to my son

and sergeants everywhere doing status reports

M$

The residents of Silicon Valley are more confused than usual after a billboard campaign by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of America.

One of the ads uses the slogan "MS: It's not a software company" exploiting the fame of a certain company to draw attention to an altogether worthier cause. Requests to comment on the campaign have been met by a surly silence by Microsoft which doesn't relish the association of ideas, but is painfully aware that it can't afford to appear insensitive over such an issue. Seasoned IT professionals will have no trouble telling the two MS's apart.

One is a debilitating and surprisingly widespread affliction that renders the sufferer barely able to perform the simplest task. The other is a disease.

John Habkirk
Website Manager
squiffy@msrc.co.uk
uga2008Oct6

'Oldest' computer music unveiled

'Oldest' computer music unveiled

stupid user tricks

http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/20/uk-drivers-trust-gps-more-than-their-own-eyes/

sane action by police - they're German, of course

Man throws his computer out the window, police sympathize

relevant information

At the end of this article about IBM and government contracts, the following note appears, which explains just about everything.

IBM grew up out of a company founded by former U.S. Census bureau employee Herman Hollerith, who developed punch-card tabulation machines to automate counting of the 1890 census. The Computer-Tabulating-Recording Co was renamed IBM [International Business Machines] in 1924.

a horse of a different color, as it were

IBM See Blue, Think Green Technical Conference