IBM Turns 100 189
adeelarshad82 writes "On this day in 1911, IBM started as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R). It wasn't until 1924 that the company changed their name to IBM. Needless to say that a 100-year milestone is quite the feat. While some of us might know IBM for its recent "Jeopardy"-playing Watson computer, a look back shows that IBM has a long history of innovation, from cheese slicers (yes, really) and the tech behind Social Security to the UPC bar code and the floppy disk. One of the most notable leaps of faith IBM took was in 1964 with the introduction of System/360, a family of computers that started the era of computer compatibility. To date the company has invested nearly $30 billion in technology."
The things IBM made... (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for a large organization in Chicago that had the "gold" IBM support contract back in the early 90s; they would show up at 2 am Sunday morning to replace a keyboard if necessary. Our main contact was a guy who had been with the company for 30+ years and he would mention some of the things he'd had to fix, in addition to the standard computer stuff: scales for weighing meat in the meat packing district and the thing that was most surprising: the clock on the Wrigley Building. Apparently IBM didn't actually out-and-out make the clock mechanism but had bought some company that had and they inherited the support contract. He mentioned having to get some gears specially made when it broke down.
The thing I thought was so ahead of its time was the wireless device he had that was essentially a large, two-line blackberry that he'd carry on his shoulder with a strap; it would beep and he'd flip the cover open, read the message, then type some sort of response. I remember he'd use it to order parts and within an hour(!) another guy would show up with them, a new ps/2 mouse, a monitor, or a reel-to-reel tape drive for the as/400. I was surprised IBM never thought to market that device; much like Apple is reluctant to talk about their ipod touch-based POS terminals, he wasn't too keen about showing it off or even talking about it.
I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 years (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, we're using Rational and Eclipse to manage Websphere projects.
Go figure.
Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology (Score:5, Interesting)
You must have missed the part where the Nazi regime decided to stuff people they didn't like into camps while starving them, beating them, working them to the bone, then executing them.
Personally, I believe if you're going to hold IBM (or Ford or Bayer or any other trendy 'you helped the holocaust' company) responsible, then you should also hold trees responsible. Trees provided the wood that built the guard towers, that held the barbed wire fences in place, and built the barracks. Bricks, fire, lead, and rope should also be investigated.
Pretty impressive all things considered! (Score:4, Interesting)
So far, the comments are the predictable ones I'd expect -- the recent love of offshoring, sell-off of products, etc. But it's pretty amazing to see what they did after almost dying in the late 80s after they missed the client/server and PC boat. I don't agree with a lot of their short sighted moves, but changing from a hardware to a consulting company without people realizing it is an interesting feat.
Stories I've been told describe the IBM prior to this period as a pretty amazing place to work in terms of benefits and the tech you were able to work on. Don't forget that all of that was possible because back in the day, margins on hardware were orders of magnitude higher than they were now. Plus, IBM had a total lock on the mainframe market (still does pretty much, but less work needs to be done in this space now.) When they could get a much higher margin for selling boxes, they could lavish R&D money on the people who designed those boxes, training and salaries on the people who supported them, AND still have plenty left over for the execs and shareholders. You know, the "golden age of computing".... Now, most hardware is in the single-digit percent margin category (except for Apple stuff) and there's no money to be made in it. "Consulting" and managed services will bring in millions more than a hardware purchase; they can throw half the population of India at a customer and still make billions even if it takes longer to get results...which is where we US techies are stuck right now. In particular, the stories of older IBM techies being told to move to India or Brazil or leave paint a pretty sad state of affairs. (Side note, this trend will never reverse until we can kick everyone's hyperfocus on the stock market and corporate earnings. No public company is able to do anything that isn't guaranteed to instantly pay off anymore.)
That said, the hardware they do still make (or at least OEM) is pretty good. And, if you're willing to pay the premium for this gear, System x and BladeCenter support is still done in the US. Documentation is horrible because of the huge decentralized nature of the company, but I've been able to call these guys up and get an answer in 5 minutes. Still, it's kind of ironic that IBM hires teams of customers to come in and basically rewrite the documentation for some of their products (see Redbooks.)
Also, don't forget that IBM is one of the only companies big enough to put serious money into research anymore. In my mind, that's really important. Where are all the CS, physics and EE Ph. D's going to work now that Bell Labs is gone and HP only does product research?