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IBM Turns 100

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."

189 comments

  1. Zero to Godwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Let's not forget helping the Nazi's round up undesirables!

    1. Re:Zero to Godwin by creat3d · · Score: 2

      I'd mod you up if I could, this should've been in TFA.

      --
      Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
    2. Re:Zero to Godwin by Hyppy · · Score: 0

      IBM: Let's build a smarter oven.

    3. Re:Zero to Godwin by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      IBM: Let's build a smarter oven.

      International Burning Machines?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    4. Re:Zero to Godwin by MemoryDragon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually they sold the machines which helped to track the jews their death numbers etc.. the ovens probably were built by Krupp.
      The gas btw. was manufactured by IG Farben.
      All of these companies still exist, although IG Farben now has a different name.

    5. Re:Zero to Godwin by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      Actually also dont forget about the Bush family, they earned a shitload of money with their Nazi ties as well. Without Hitler there never would have been George Bush and George W Bush have been president of the US.

    6. Re:Zero to Godwin by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      Prescott Bush.

      Convicted war profiteer, indicted for trading with the enemy.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    7. Re:Zero to Godwin by careysub · · Score: 1

      Actually they sold the machines which helped to track the jews their death numbers etc.. the ovens probably were built by Krupp. The gas btw. was manufactured by IG Farben. All of these companies still exist, although IG Farben now has a different name.

      IG Farben helped operate Auschwitz so that it could use its slave labor in its chemical plants, but the Zylon B gas was manufactured by the Degussa AG subsidiary Degesch. Degussa AG still exists under the same name.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    8. Re:Zero to Godwin by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 1

      Let's not forget helping the Nazi's round up undesirables!

      The slideshow kinda skips from 1924 to 1956, doesn't it?

      --
      I am not a crackpot.
    9. Re:Zero to Godwin by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 1

      IG farben was spited in several of it's components. the four largest ones were bayer, BASF, agfa and hoechst. they bought the smaller ones during the years, and agfa is now part of aventis.

      --
      What ? Me, worry ?
    10. Re:Zero to Godwin by TehDuffman · · Score: 1

      Prescott Bush.

      Convicted war profiteer, indicted for trading with the enemy.

      So it doesn't look like that is true at all. He was never convicted and the funds frozen during the war were given back. Get your facts straight

      http://www.adl.org/Internet_Rumors/prescott.htm.

    11. Re:Zero to Godwin by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      Right. This is from the same ADL that spawned Adam Gadahn.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    12. Re:Zero to Godwin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh oh don't forget Coca Cola also created fanta and sold it to those thirsty Nazis. And don't forget IG Farben, a Jew owned chemical company that sold Zyclon B that was used to gas people in CCs. So, whats your point?

      Apple have the patents to be the only supplier of iTELESCREENS in your future police state, and I don't see anybody giving a fuck.

  2. Happy Birthday IBM by xednieht · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A fantastic achievement, Here's to the next 100 years.

    --

    Hope is the currency of fools
    1. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Penguinisto · · Score: 3

      I wonder if they'll make it another 100 years?

      I mean, they got this far by spotting tech trends and successfully parlaying them into products. They don't seem to be doing much of that anymore.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Happy birthday, glad I got out of there before I could get laid off!

    3. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are more likely to go the next 100 years than any of us.

    4. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Happy birthday, glad I got out of there before I could get laid!

      There, FTFY.

    5. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by yarnosh · · Score: 1

      That's not really saying a whole lot, is it?

    6. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by FriendlyPrimate · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Agreed. IBM hasn't been doing much innovation over the past 10 years. It's all been about increasing the stock price through cost cuts (layoffs, no travel, no perks, not even COFFEE!).

      IBM's new business model is cannibalizing other innovative companies, gutting them (through layoffs and offshoring), and then using the ensuing short-term profits to continue the cycle. It's evil and demoralizing for employees of IBM who always have a Damocles sword of "resource actions" hanging over their head regardless of profitability. But it seems to be working well as a formula for shareholders. And IBM really only cares about shareholders nowadays anyway.

    7. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Khue · · Score: 1

      IBM's innovation is occurring in non advertised or non consumer level markets. Currently they are a huge threat to EMC and NetApp in the storage sector with some of their products. Also aren't they leading the development charge in that new racetrack tech?

    8. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Aeros · · Score: 1

      Well seeing as they recently past Microsoft in value I ($207B +) would say they are doing pretty well.

    9. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by jonwil · · Score: 2

      Its not just IBM, far too many companies have abandoned everything except short-term shareholder gains.

      I think the root cause of this (and other problems plaguing the western world and its companies) comes from the changes in the mid-late 20th century where the typical shareholder mix of public companies changed away from businessmen and rich people who cared about the companies they bought to investment funds, managed funds, brokerages, day traders and others who see shares as a short term investment to be bought and sold on a daily basis and the companies they are buying and selling as nothing more than names on a computer screen.

    10. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IBM's innovation is occurring in non advertised or non consumer level markets. Currently they are a huge threat to EMC and NetApp in the storage sector with some of their products. Also aren't they leading the development charge in that new racetrack tech?

      Could you give some examples? Aside from the SVC, I'm not entirely sure I see what innovation IBM itself is responsible for in the storage space in the last few years. I do think that XIV is an innovative product, but they purchased it from somebody else. At this point, in fact, a lot of their storage products are either OEM'd from somebody else (DS3000, DS5000 and N series) or purchased along with the company that developed it (XIV, ProtecTier).

    11. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Nemyst · · Score: 0

      IBM? This is a worldwide trend that all companies are going through. Sack the human part of your corporation, bask in the short term profit and quickly run before the ship sinks. Customer support is getting offshored, reduced, quality control is down the drain, designs are as cheap as can be, customers are a herd to be exploited...

      I just hope that trend ends sooner rather than later because it's becoming entirely ridiculous and, unlike what all the suits say, it does not help the company in the long run.

    12. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by AlecC · · Score: 2

      IBM has converted itself from a company based on selling boxes, and providing services as a side effect, to a company selling services who may sell you some boxes to run the services. That means that IBM's innovations will no longer (or at least far less) be in the field of hardware and software, which is of interest to Slashdot readers, and much more in the field of packaging and delivering services. It doesn't mean they have stopped innovating at all, it means that they are innovating in an area that is much less visible and interesting to Slashdot.

      Of course, the services industry, being much softer, is much much more difficult to get a lock-in. It took twenty years for the world to break the lock-in that IBM had with its mainframe business. But the world did it, eventually, and it nearly killed IBM. Whereas it would only take three or four years of not having their eye on the ball for other companies to steal IBM's services business,

      --
      Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
    13. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't seem to be doing much of that anymore.

      They're sure generating patents though.....last year IBM was ranked highest in the number of U.S. patents issued with 5,866.
      http://www.ipo.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Top_300_Patent_Owners&ContentID=29856&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

    14. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by hedwards · · Score: 2

      The federal government in the US was a large part of the problem. If they graduated the capital gains tax phase in such that you needed to hold stocks for a couple years to get the full benefit of the capital gains rate, increased the short term holding substantially and limited people to only having one round trip trade per day, a lot of these problems would go away.

      Enron, as big a mess as that was, resulted in far more people making money than losing money, due to the way in which is collapsed. A relatively small number of people were left holding the bag as everybody made a run for the door.

    15. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by hoytak · · Score: 2

      I'd disagree, It seems there's a steady stream of articles in IEEE or other magazines about cool research that IBM is doing (e.g. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-ibm-graphene-based-circuit.html). I think the issue is that the current problems driving innovation in companies as big as IBM are much more technical and thus more difficult to explain to a general audience, except as "20% faster" or other forgettable phrases. I suspect there's a lot of cool stuff going on.

      --
      Does having a witty signature really indicate normality?
    16. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It did not last long (less than a day I think.)

      Current values : IBM 197.26B / MS 202.56B

      That said, MS used to be worth a lot more than IBM, but their stock price has been quite stagnant lately.

    17. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by careysub · · Score: 2

      A fantastic achievement, Here's to the next 100 years.

      I tend to think of IBM as being older than 100 years because the punch-card tabulating equipment, invented by Herman Hollerith, that was the mainstay of its dates to 1889, and I have viewed his Tabulating Machine Company (formed in 1896) as the true origin of the business that is IBM today. Anyone who remembers the days of punch cards remembers those Hollerith codes -- a coding scheme in use for nearly a century. It has always seemed to me the "senior member" of the four-way merger, the only one that was truly essential.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    18. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by careysub · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed. IBM hasn't been doing much innovation over the past 10 years

      It is one of the few American businesses today that still vigorously conducts basic research. It is also constantly churning out new technological innovations that invigorate the entire field of computing (copper-on-silicon, silicon-on-insulator, etc.).

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    19. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by careysub · · Score: 2

      . That means that IBM's innovations will no longer (or at least far less) be in the field of hardware and software...

      IBM is still a world-leader in solid-state research, and develops and releases fundamental hardware advances on a regular basis. Its software innovation includes the remarkable AI demonstration of Watson with Jeopardy this year.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    20. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Arterion · · Score: 1

      Is anyone really surprised banks and bankers are the problem? They're middlemen to the extreme. Not only do they not create any wealth, they actually get in the way of honest wealth creation.

      --
      "That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild
    21. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lets hope the mankind thinks little more during the next 100 years than during the last 100 years, in the spirit of Thomas Watson.

    22. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by kevinNCSU · · Score: 1

      Is anyone really surprised banks and bankers are the problem? They're middlemen to the extreme. Not only do they not create any wealth, they actually get in the way of honest wealth creation.

      Really? Banks provide loans that allow MANY small businesses to get off the ground. Without pooling the wealth of of the local community you won't have enough resources for individuals to make those loans because it will be too risky and they don't have the time, skills or knowledge in order to properly evaluate those risks and make those loans. Banks are about as much as a useless middleman as a butcher is the middleman in your food consumption.

    23. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IBM a leader in storage? Except for this year, where they are stepping out of a hole, don't they have 4 years of declining storage revenues? If you remove IBMs OEMed disk products and storage products they bought they have 3 products. DS8000, which has had zero innovation for 8 years except for Easy tier. SVC which I can sort of see the value of sometimes but can't figure out how to justify the price, and the V7000 which is SVC jr with disk. The V7000 might be one of the best basic block only disk subsystems, but that's yesterday's tech. IBMs OEMed DS3000 product is cheaper, just as easy to manage, and is *FASTER*. In benchmarks V7000 puts more virtualized disk then manged disk because it's ability mange disk is horrible. The SVC is kind of cool except its a bug machine. I worked at a shop that had one and it was either crashing or we were reconfiguring the back end disk because the new workloads weren't optimized for the SVC. The only benefit I can see is that it's cheaper to license advanced features on the SVC then systems like the VMAX or even the DS8000 because those boxes require you to license for the entire box even if you don't need that much and they give you a free device driver. The problem is SDD as a multi-path drive provides no value add, it's a basic as you can get and it's still super buggy, it should be free. SVC mirroring is limited. It's Point in time copy is performance intensive, it's billed as an environment simplifier, but you still have to mange everything you had to before, plus now you also have SVC. If EMC or Hitachi would match SVC pricing for advanced features, or at least lower their premiums The SVC would probably die in a year.

    24. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by NoOneInParticular · · Score: 2
      Yes, that's the theory. The practice turned out to be that once the banks lost an incredible amount of money in reckless ponzi schemes, they blackmailed the world into submission by stopping doing exactly what you deem to be their primary function: give loans to businesses and individuals. At that point, the government needed to bail them out as, like a petulant child, they were pulling the rug underneath the entire economy. And even now, even after the bail out, and even after the ponzi schemes have been started up again, the bonus train is running again, they still refuse to loan out the money. It's more profitable to borrow money at ridicolously low interest rates from the government, and then lending it back to the government in the form of T-bonds.

      The Glass-Steagull act was there for a reason. It split the buccaneers of high finance from the low margin, risk averse retail bankers. Now the pirates reign the bureaucrats. Small banks are dead, killed by the pirates. The pirates are now funded by the tax payer. Be very afraid.

    25. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Kilrah_il · · Score: 1

      Here's a nice movie IBM made to commemorate the last 100 years. It appeared in my submission from January that didn't get picked up. Oh well.

      --
      Whenever in an argument, remember this.
    26. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by yuhong · · Score: 1

      Yea, I know! Friedman, Welch, the "corporate raiders" etc. certainly don't help, and the worst thing is that it created a gen of MBAs who were taught the horrible stuff.

    27. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by yurtinus · · Score: 1

      Customers are only a herd to be exploited because we only make purchase decisions based on cost anymore. Buy the cheapest crap and throw it away when you're done. So no, it isn't just a problem with the company, it's a problem with the entire market at both the producer and consumer ends.

      Sure, there are tons of companies out there who are in it for the long haul (for themselves *and* their employees) with great quality and support, but few people are willing to pay the premium for it. On top of that, we need to go way out of our way to find them - lord knows they won't have anything on the shelf at the big box stores.

      --
      +1 Disagree
    28. Re:Happy Birthday IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many years more!

  3. Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    1. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by lennier1 · · Score: 1

      Yes, somehow they conveniently skipped that part.

    2. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hitler used IBM punchcard systems purchased in the 30's to facilitate the Holocaust. Of course, if IBM hadn't sold them the punchcard machines, the Holocaust would never have happened.

      Next up, we'll tackle Boeing's complicity in 9/11.

    3. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Hyppy · · Score: 2

      You must have missed the part where IBM's wholly owned subsidiaries in Germany and Poland operated closely with the Nazi regime to design, create, and maintain the various census and camp-tracking systems.

    4. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Of course, if IBM hadn't sold them the punchcard machines, the Holocaust would never have happened."

      So then that makes it okay?

      Your post misses the point completely.

    5. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poor logic is poor. No one is saying IBM was fundamental to the Holocaust happening. But IBM did help to make their killing camps more efficient.

    6. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 4, Informative

      In 1933. And the Hollerith machines were not "designed" in Germany. In fact, we'd been using such machines since 1890 for OUR census. IBM's entire revenue revolved around selling tabulating machines.

      Also, Hollerith machines were not designed for "camp-tracking." Census machines were re-purposed for that task.

    7. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have missed the part where those were subsidiaries is a fascist state, it's not like they had much choice.

    8. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Darth_brooks · · 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.

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
    9. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Of course, if IBM hadn't sold them the punchcard machines, the Holocaust would never have happened."

      Of course that's not the argument.

      Rather the argument is that without IBM punchcard systems the nazis would not have been able to process the number of people that they did. In other words: without IBM's help not nearly as many people would have died in the Holocaust.
      Someone else would have helped? No, because at the time IBM was the only corporation that had this technology.

    10. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 1

      And is that complicity?

    11. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Himring · · Score: 2

      Godwin's! No Quirk's Exception!

      --Bentsen

      --
      "All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
    12. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by mcmonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Computers in the 1930s weren't the general purpose machines we have today. You didn't just buy a computer, bring it home, and plug it in. There was no off-the-shelf software. Computers came with a team of IBM engineers in white lab coats.

      If Boeing's engineers had been in the cockpit on 9/11 and had been paid to fly in to buildings, then Boeing would be as complicit in 9/11 as IBM is in the Holocaust.

      And no one is saying it would not have happened without IBM. But that does not diminish IBM's role.

    13. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 1

      Then let us arrest all technological development, lest it facilitate some future evil.

    14. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Congratulations, you have won an award for your keen ability to detect sarcasm. Please click the X button at the top of the window to claim your fabulous prize!

    15. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what about Hugo Boss? or VW?

    16. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by guruevi · · Score: 5, Informative

      You also must have missed the first few years of the World War where the US knew about the atrocities but decided to do nothing about it or Ford-Werke, the division of Ford in Germany or the 'neutral' Swiss supplying weapons and bankrolling the operations with Jewish deposits.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    17. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 2

      Ford's a different story from the others. Henry Ford was known as a Nazi sympathizer and anti-semite who received senior Nazi officials to his home.

    18. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm in the AC you replied to. No, I didn't miss any of that. I believe all companies and nations who aided the Nazis should be held accountable. I mentioned IBM only because that is the only one relevant to this particular story. Just because other companies aiding in murdering people does not mean it was okay for IBM to do likewise.

    19. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by dcollins · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, that's actually the thesis of that (national award-winning) book. "[W]ithout IBM's machinery, continuing upkeep and service, as well as the supply of punch cards, whether located on-site or off-site, Hitler's camps could have never managed the numbers they did." (p. 352) Germany had plans for a long-delayed census of ethnicity, which was not feasible until IBM came to the rescue in 1933, which was followed soon afterward by laws barring Jews from citizenship or marrying Aryans. Early predictions of ~500K Jews in Germany were revised upwards, identifying 2M afterwards.

      "This activity was not only countenanced by Thomas Watson and IBM in America, Black argues, but was actively encouraged and financially supported, with Watson himself traveling to Germany in October 1933 and the company ramping up its investment in its German subsidiary from 400,000 to 7,000,000 reichsmarks — about $1 million.[17] This injection of American capital allowed Dehomag to purchase land in Berlin and to construct IBM's first factory in Germany, Black charges, thereby "tooling up for what it correctly saw as a massive financial relationship with the Hitler regime."[17]" (from Wikipedia, etc.)

      More generally, if we're going to gush about IBM's history, intellectual honesty demands that we include the well-known black marks, too.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    20. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Jewish people, homosexuals and handicapped need tabulating like everything does."
      a napkin from the business plan development units archive, German section, 7th shelve, third box.

    21. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 1

      Okay, let's say someone wants to gun down students in a school. You know they want to gun down students in the school. Instead of calling the police, you meet the guy who is going to gun down the students and see what his plans are. You laugh at his idea to go in with an old, rusty M-1 and blaze away. You instead help him pick out a good sniper rifle with a scope. You teach him the finer points of camouflage.

      Yes, you did not actually cause the school massacre and some sort of school massacre would have happened anyway. But, did you really need to make it that much easier for him?

    22. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      You missed this one M1 carbine. Personally I just find it humorous since it seems out of their area of expertise, but I guess they did have precision manufacturing capabilities.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    23. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 2

      You leaving out relevant details. Did Watson travel to Nazi Germany to push for the purchase of Hollerith machine for the the oppression and eventual genocide of minorities?

      Or did Watson travel to Nazi Germany to push for the purchase of Hollerith machines for the purposes of Germany's seemingly innocent upcoming general census (remember that this is 5 years before Kristallnacht, and 3 years before Berlin would host a very-much-not-boycotted Olympics)?

      Other pertinent facts: Dehomag's upper management was in no way loyal to IBM, and was considering divestiture at the moment war broke out. At issue was Thomas's insult to the Third Reich by returning a commerce award it had given him.

    24. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      First of all do you really think IBM in the US has much control over what happened at IBM Germany and Poland after the war started? Poland was occupied by Germany very quickly and I am pretty sure they didn't let money or information flow from Poland to the US really easily.
      I am sure any communication was completely halted by December 7th.
      Also These where Census tracking systems do you really think they where any different than the off the self ones in use for the Census and other systems like the ones used in the military to track who was where?
      As people like to point out you better line up every farmer that sold fold to the camps that used to feed the guards, the companies that made the trucks and the tires they rolled on. The companies that made the trains and the rails, and the trees that where used to make the buildings.
      And of course vast majority of the people living in Europe except the for the people in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, and some of the Swiss. The didn't raise much of a fight to stop the Nazis from taking the Jews.
      Of course that would be really harsh and unfair since few of use have ever had to take such risks or make such choices.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    25. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      IBM built really nice carbines; they were considered one of the better manufacturers.

      I own one (though it was arsenal rebuilt at some time in its life and no longer wears an IBM barrel) and it is a sweet, accurate little gun. I hope it served the soldier(s) who carried it well.

      And its no more humorous than Guide Lamp Division of GM, Saginaw, Smith-Corona, even Singer (though briefly) manufacturing arms during World War II. And International Harvester built M1 rifles afterwards (they had troubles too, but got through them witht he assistance of Springfield Armory and H&R). Car builders made tanks and planes. Other manufacturers big and small stretched their skills and made darn near anything that was needed to the best of their abilities. Not funny at all... in fact its awesome. Part of the reason why the U.S. kicked ass and helped it allies do the same.

    26. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 1

      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.

      "Your honor, I don't deny I killed him. But if I hadn't, he'd of died of something or other eventually anyway."

      --
      I am not a crackpot.
    27. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, by the very definition of "complicity":

      association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act

      They had an association (through selling machines to the Nazis, helping to maintain them, etc to run their death camps) in a wrongful act (slaughtering jews in death camps).

    28. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      So according to you the German government forced IBM to create those subsidiary companies and then to do business with them? Otherwise, how did they not have a choice?

    29. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Misagon · · Score: 1

      The Germans used Hollerith machines also in occupied Norway to organize drafting people into German service.
      Norwegian resistance fighters blew up the machines. Twice.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    30. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      I think it was a wonderful thing, but I just found it humors because at first thought it doesn't seem like something they would make during the war, but with a little more thought it seemed reasonable since they did do precision manufacturing. I have been looking for an IBM made M1 carbine ever since I found out they made them. Also I have been looking for a Remington made Russian M91 for much the same reason.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    31. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by dotgain · · Score: 1

      Quite a fine analogy, I must say.

    32. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      You might have a point if IBM didn't wasn't sending people from their company routinely to the death camps to maintain the equipment, etc. Only an idiot would think that these people didn't realize what was going on. This wasn't just IBM shipping products to the Nazis and then having no further ties.

    33. Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology by halivar · · Score: 1

      Citation needed.

  4. Here's to the Big Iron! by Grindalf · · Score: 1, Funny

    Here's to the Big Iron! Happy Birthday IBM!

    --
    The purpose of existence is to make money.
  5. Outsourced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And won't make another 100. This company has sold out the American worker and America the country that made it what it was. Get lost IBM and take the last American sell out corporate greed company with you. What do they even make anymore?

    1. Re:Outsourced by dingen · · Score: 4, Funny

      What do they even make anymore?

      About a $100 billion a year.

      --
      Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
    2. Re:Outsourced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
      The current so called leadership of IBM has become so short sighted that another 100 years is just impossible. In GTS it has moved more and more from keeping an outsourcing contract going and more about signing new outsourcing contracts. Just the other day I got a legal notification to keep all documents related to one account because it looks like the customer is going to breach the contract due to IBM's failure to perform. Second account I know of going this way.

      Then add Indian support that can't understand English for most service desks. I'm still amazed anything ever gets routed correctly.

  6. Grats! by Tickety-boo · · Score: 0

    IBM, UBM we all BM for IBM!

    Couldn't resist.....

    --
    Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.
  7. The things IBM made... by wandazulu · · 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.

    1. Re:The things IBM made... by silas_moeckel · · Score: 2

      Having had one of those devices back in the early 90's it was just a 2 way pager, They never got really popular, the prices made early text messages seem cheap, water cooler talk placed it at 25 cents for each outbound message but no idea what they really cost. You can still get the modern versions have a client that thinks pagers make more sense for on-call so they are still passing around a clamshell 2 way pager. They looked at me funny when I told them the monitoring software could take care of dispatching based on a schedule and send text messages/emails to peoples phones.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    2. Re:The things IBM made... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember those; they were frequently referred to as "The Brick" by the techs. You could also use them to IM other techs. Very unique, at the time.

    3. Re:The things IBM made... by motherjoe · · Score: 1

      The two way device you mentioned is what an IBM CE (Customer Engineer), would refer to as a, "Brick". It kept them in touch with NSS dispatch and the parts distribution application and warehouse out of Mechanicsburg, PA. Before they carried Bricks it was all done with Motorola hand radios. :)

      Take care,
      Joe

      --
      "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy - Benjamin Franklin"
    4. Re:The things IBM made... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      much like Apple is reluctant to talk about their ipod touch-based POS terminals

      Supposedly Apple is doing very quiet testing with third parties for that system (Old Navy/Gap is apparently testing them), which Apple calls EasyPay. It's quite sketchy, but it appears Apple has been inundated with requests for more information about them so they could be deployed elsewhere.

    5. Re:The things IBM made... by jarlsberg71 · · Score: 1

      My Dad carried one. I was in awe when he brought it home. The charging dock, spare batteries, it kept me as a kid in constant amazement. I remember him writing the passwords on the bezel in pencil since it flashed for like 30 seconds and then disappeared, and he couldn't memorize it in that amount of time.He had it the last few years before he retired in '95 after a 35 year stint. He was a CE for the Fed Reserve in NYC.

      --
      E8B8B
  8. Only 30 billion? by softWare3ngineer · · Score: 1

    Does 30 billion seem small to anyone else? I assume that number is not normalized for inflation for each investment.

    1. Re:Only 30 billion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      From TFA:
      The company invested $5 billion in [system/360], about $30 billion today, but the gamble paid off.

      Summary is wrong.

  9. 30 Billion on Research? by wren337 · · Score: 1

    That's my new yardstick for insane figures. When someone says we spent 700 billion bailing out the financial companies, I'm going to picture 20 IBM sized companies funding 100 years of research.

    1. Re:30 Billion on Research? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Next time don't base your world view on slashdot summaries, because this one, like most, is completely wrong. IBM has spent a shitton more than $30 billion on research over the last 100 years, even if you don't normalize.

    2. Re:30 Billion on Research? by HeckRuler · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except that the $30 billion is just what they invested in researching and developing the system/360. Summary is wrong.
      Also, most of the $700 Billion of that bailout were loans that have been paid back. There's still a ludicrous about of wasted money, like the $200 million that a bankers wife took, and then deposited in a bank, and reaped the interest! But in general, it was a short term loan to keep the economy moving. And it worked. Get over it.

    3. Re:30 Billion on Research? by gangien · · Score: 1

      it worked? really? Boy that unemployment is sure going down real fast!

      You really need to understand how capitalism works, and how important it is that failures.. FAIL and that there is no such as too big to fail.

    4. Re:30 Billion on Research? by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Boy, sure is nice not starving out in the street facing soul crushing deflation as every but a select few become instantly broke.

      Employment isn't 20%. Yeah, it worked.
      Yes, capitalism kinda sucks. But not as hard as everything else that has been tried. Is America too big to fail?

      Or another question, would you like all manufacturing to leave our shores? Do you want a foreigner to buy out what remains of our auto industry? You know how we have the rust belt? Do you want that to be complete?

      Because if we let all this tumble to the ground it wouldn't be Americans picking up the pieces.

    5. Re:30 Billion on Research? by gangien · · Score: 1

      Employment isn't 20%. Yeah, it worked.

      Not sure if you're trolling, or you think that's a legitimate number. What about Lehmen(sp?) brothers? They collapsed.. people recovered just fine.

      Yes, capitalism kinda sucks. But not as hard as everything else that has been tried.
      What you're advocating is not capitalism, it's government picking winners and loser.

      Is America too big to fail?
      No.

      Because if we let all this tumble to the ground it wouldn't be Americans picking up the pieces.

      Some of it would. there are plenty of US companies that have done quite well for themselves. And personally, i'm not bigoted, I don't care if my check or purchase comes from some other nation.

    6. Re:30 Billion on Research? by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      heh, whoops. "Unemployment". Yeah, it hit 20% in the great depression. Unemployment is around 9% right now. So it's not as bad as the great depression. A better metric might be inflation-adjusted median income, but regardless, the econopocalypse was averted. YAY!

      And it's good to hear you're not rallying against capitalism and that we both understand that it's a good thing. And it's nice to know other people out there aren't bigoted either. I'm fine with buying from China, but it would be nice if my country was economically competitive rather then just pissing away money sending profits offshore.

      But the scary part is where you're advocating that America, the USA, we the people, including YOU AND ME, need to suffer through a economic shitstorm and another great depression. I'm not too clear on why, but I think you're justifying this with an idealistic view of capitalism or something.

      No, the bailouts were arbitrary, unfair, and very wasteful. A lot of people need to be tarred and feathered. But it DOES appear to have done it's intended purpose and helped more then it hurt.

  10. I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 years by filesiteguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is amazing to me that - back when I graduated university in '92 - people were foretelling the death knoll for IBM. Next thing I know, I'm working on programming ASP.NET using JCL on zSeries machines fifteen years later.

    Now, we're using Rational and Eclipse to manage Websphere projects.

    Go figure.

  11. Nazi coding system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They also gave us that.

    And Thinkpads.

    I think the latter makes up for the former.

    1. Re:Nazi coding system by creat3d · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure if you're modded down because you're a coward or because a lot of people STILL don't know about their collaboration with the Nazis, but if the spergin' IBM defenders really find that little-known fact so hard to swallow... just look up "Prescott Bush".

      --
      Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
    2. Re:Nazi coding system by MemoryDragon · · Score: 0

      Ah yes Georgie Ws father... the Bush family made a shitload of money with the Nazis as well.

    3. Re:Nazi coding system by toddles666 · · Score: 1

      George **HW**s father, George Ws grandfather...

  12. IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 0

    IBM as an innovator? Didn't see that coming.

    When I was growing up, it was the Personal Computer revolution, led by Microsoft, Apple and (for a while) Commodore. IBM missed the boat on what PCs meant to corporate computing and let something called a "server" into the datacenter as a result. In response, IBM retreated and launched its insanely profitable services division built around...wait for it...selling other people's innovations ("best of breed" solutions). And then there was the world wide web.

    Anyway, while there have been some gimmicks (the chess-playing computer, the Jeopardy-playing computer), as long as I've been around (thirty-some years), IBM is not what I think when someone says "innovation".

  13. From all that to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Indian Business Machine in only the last 20. RIP IBM.

  14. IBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do they do? Other than being another greedy American outsourcing company what do they do? I don't think they will make another 100 and if they do they won't be in America. Get lost IBM and take the last corporate greedy American company with you you dirty outsourcing sell outs to the country that made you what you are. IBM always did play dirty.

  15. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by dcollins · · Score: 1

    *knell

    --
    We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
  16. Lying about their age by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 1

    I seem to recall they were in business in the nineteenth century, not as IBM of course. I was working for one of their large customers in 1980, and they said something about being 100 then. I guess they will say they became 'IBM' 100 years ago in 2024. too. Any excuse for a marketing campaign.

    1. Re:Lying about their age by careysub · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall they were in business in the nineteenth century, not as IBM of course...

      Correct. Herman Hollerith invented the mainstay of the IBM product line in 1989, sold his punch card tabulating machines to the U.S. Census Bureau in 1890, and incorporated the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896. IBM was the result of a 4-way merger, but any one of the other 3 businesses could have been left out and we would still have an IBM - not so the Tabulating Machine Company, it is the predecessor of IBM.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    2. Re:Lying about their age by careysub · · Score: 1

      Herman Hollerith invented the mainstay of the IBM product line in 1889... (obviously)

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    3. Re:Lying about their age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was an IBMer until a few months ago... IBM is picking it's date of incorporation (June 16, 1911) as the official "centennial" date. As you and others have noted, pieces of the company predated the actual incorporation by a few decades... back into the 19th century. If you go to IBM's somers office you can see some of the old pre-20th century technology in the main lobby... including a meat slicer.

  17. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by tnk1 · · Score: 2

    The colossal size and huge brand reputation of IBM is enough to keep a company going for a very long time. Long enough, in fact, to change its business model significantly before having to actually face real danger of going under.

    We see companies disappearing all the time, but a lot of the time, it's actually due to a merger or acquisition. As long as you can avoid being acquired and having your assets sold at a fire sale by some short term raider or a competitor, businesses have a good chance of weathering bad times if their long term fundamentals are good. Additionally, having sound business practices can also provide you the money and tools to resist being bought out by people who are not in it for the long term.

    Of course, today we are used to companies that are built on vapor and return to vapor soon after. Those are basically money pinatas for Wall Street types.

  18. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Relayman · · Score: 1

    Check out the Power Systems platform, you know, the one that Watson runs on. Single level storage (every byte on disk has a main memory address), programs that can be upgraded from one architecture to the next (32-bit to 64-bit, CISC to RISC) without recompiling and the ability to change partition parameters without rebooting and you will see some serious innovation that others just fantasize about. This was innovative when it came out in 1980 as the System/38 and remains so to this day.

    --
    If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
  19. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by Artifakt · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's easy to get confused when it's all three letter acronyms: IBM death knell - JFK death knoll (yes I went there) - D&D death gnoll, it just goes on and on and on.

    --
    Who is John Cabal?
  20. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I was growing up, it was the Personal Computer revolution, led by Microsoft, Apple and (for a while) Commodore. IBM missed the boat on what PCs meant to corporate computing

    What are you smoking? IBM invented the term PC. When I was growing up (also 30ish), computers were either "IBM compatible", or an Apple. Floppy disks were "IBM format". Hell, I still know people that refer to a non-Mac PC as "an IBM". IBM is synonymous with the PC revolution where I'm from (the US), but maybe it's different where you're from.

  21. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by AlecC · · Score: 1

    And IBM damned near did die then. But they saw what was happening before they actually stopped breathing, and pulled out with a huge change of direction - and a very large number of layoffs.

    --
    Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
  22. Was wondering... by lurking · · Score: 1

    WTF the balloon with "100" on it meant when I walked into the office this arvo. /contractor /for just 3 more weeks. /Was fun till the outsource crap.

  23. and other as well ... by sourcerror · · Score: 1
    1. Re:and other as well ... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      Also, don't forget Hugo Boss designing the SS uniforms. Many companies in existence today did business with the Nazis. It's nor surprising.

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    2. Re:and other as well ... by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      My examples are a bit more serious than Hugo Boss or IBM. Bell and Ford ideologically supported the Nazis. (Spreading antisemic books, pushing eugenics laws in California.) Check out my links above. It's worth it.

  24. Anybody have an IBM Clock? by PinchDuck · · Score: 1

    They used to be in the old terminal at Detroit Metro (since remodeled) and in a few GM plants.

  25. Influence by nkovacs · · Score: 1

    Has there been another company that has driven more change over the last 100 years other than IBM? I think largely because IBM stays out of the consumer markets these days many people in the public don't realize how many back end systems in the world are driven by IBM technologies. Congratulations IBM on 100 years! I wish more companies were able to spend $30 billion on R&D.

    1. Re:Influence by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 2

      Possibly Bell Labs (transistors, lasers, sound movies,...), including numerous Nobel prizes in physics.

    2. Re:Influence by technomom · · Score: 1

      Alas, where is Bell Labs today? They're a shadow of their former selves at Alcatel-Lucent. But in their day, they were the US' premier research lab.

    3. Re:Influence by yurtinus · · Score: 1

      Or Veridian Dynamics

      --
      +1 Disagree
  26. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Pop69 · · Score: 1

    You grew up during the "Personal Computer revolution" and managed to entirely miss that corporate desktop computing is based on the IBM PC ?

  27. Re:100 years by elsurexiste · · Score: 1

    In fact, quite a few of them are in China.

    --
    I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
  28. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My first job was way back in 1990. I was a "tape monkey" in a data storage and processing centre, working on IBM mainframes, the graveyard shift finishing at 1am. When I was finished for the night I would sneak round to the centre's R&D area and stay there until around 5am reading the manuals and books on the newly emerging PC market and learning about stuff like Oracle and and Ingres. Playing with the PCs and the software ( and making offsite backups of course! ). Learned such a huge range of bits and pieces on all that IBM kit, means I don't mind having a go at anything handed to me these days. Great days and set me up for a career in IT which I still enjoy.

  29. pff by Jeek+Elemental · · Score: 1

    Big deal, Id do it in half the time.

  30. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by bws111 · · Score: 4, Informative

    You seem to be confusing 'hype' with 'innovation' if you think it was led by Microsoft and Apple. There is a reason that there were basically 2 PC architectures - Apple, and (wait for it) 'IBM PC Compatible'. One of those completely swamped the other.

    You might want to check out whose systems are behind almost any financial transaction you process. At the other end of the scale, you might want to check out whose processors are in every XBox/360, PS/3, and Wii.

    Maybe you have a GPS - want to take a guess on whose semiconductor (SiGe) technology is in there?

  31. you missed the other part by decora · · Score: 3, Informative

    where IBM kept in contact with its Switzerland headquarters, was in trouble several times with the government for dealing with 'blacklisted' countries, the strings it pulled to get around those limitations, and one of whose officials was denied entry into the US after the war.

    and then there are the ways that the subsidiaries, after the war, were brought back into the fold of IBM, along with all the profits they had reaped from their wartime experiences, which were meticulously recorded.

    1. Re:you missed the other part by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and then there are the ways that the subsidiaries, after the war, were brought back into the fold of IBM, along with all the profits they had reaped from their wartime experiences, which were meticulously recorded

      You're right - IBM should have forced those subsidiaries out of business for their complicity in the German war machine. In fact, all companies in Germany that helped out the Nazi regime should have been closed down. All those horrible people should have been forced into bread lines for their crimes.

      I mean, that's basically what they did after WWI, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  32. please i invite you to read Mr Black's book by decora · · Score: 2

    it is not propaganda. almost every line in the entire book is well cited and documented.

    we are not talking about Ford here. a truck can be used for anything.

    the punch card systems had to be specifically designed, and then an IBM technician had to specifically go and maintain them, they were massively maintenance-intensive pieces of equipment. and punch cards were at the center of a lot of SS operations, including the holocaust (there were machines in the death camps), but also stuff like the Night and Fog decree (there was a hole punch coding for non-existant prisoner or something like that).

    Also please remember the first concentration camp was built in 1934, at Dachau. IBM did not stop dealing with Dehomag right up until the US got into the war. It also dealt with subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Hungary, and several other Nazi occupied countries, sometimes surreptitiously through its headquarters in Switzerland.

    in France, there a guy, Renee Carmille, who sabotaged the punchcard system, thus saving tens of thousands of Jews from certain death.

    we are talking about misconduct, during the war, on a large scale.

    All IBM has to do to clear this up is to open it's archives, like every other company has done.

    IBM refused to do this.

    1. Re:please i invite you to read Mr Black's book by Darth_brooks · · Score: 1

      "we are not talking about Ford here. a truck can be used for anything."

      "the punch card systems had to be specifically designed, and then an IBM technician had to specifically go and maintain them, "

      Because punch cards are specifically designed to kill people......

      Trucks are trucks, data is data. The world as a whole didn't have much trouble with the Nazi's up through 1936, and even then it was another three years before the war broke out.

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
    2. Re:please i invite you to read Mr Black's book by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      Ford's help isn't about the trucks. It's about Ford's anti-Semitic actions. He published "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and "The International Jew", translated them to various languages, and 91 essays in "The Dearborn Independent" promoting the idea of a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world that must be stopped by their extermination. Hitler kept a large framed portrait of Ford near his desk.
      "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration." -- Adolph Hitler
      The Ford of today may have no relation to Henry Ford, but the brand name is tainted by the association.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    3. Re:please i invite you to read Mr Black's book by Darth_brooks · · Score: 1

      Ford also built the Bombers that dropped the majority of America's bombs (B-24's dropped more bombs by tonnage than B-17's. They flew higher, farther, and faster than the B-17. Ford broke ground on the Willow Run bomber plant in late 1941 and revolutionized Consolidated aircraft's borderline archaic production techniques) on the Nazi empire. Had the Nazi's won the war we'd be reading about those "war crimes."

      Of course Ford was as senile as a brick by the end of the 30's. His anti-semitism did not make him unique for the era, nor did it mean his company's business in Germany was a direct means of wiping out the evils of Judaism. Ford's goal, in anything, was making money. Government contracts in Germany were the best way to make money. Dollar first, principle second. See; any business dealing....ever.

      --
      There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  33. they have tried to cover it up by decora · · Score: 2

    that is IBM's main problem. Companies like Ford and IG Farben have opened archives and they have even participated in restitution programs.

    IBM has not.

  34. contrarian by decora · · Score: 1

    the 'bailout' was a lot more than the 700 billion TARP money.

    fannie and freddie, for example.

  35. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by Nerdfest · · Score: 1

    Having worked on their z series machines and put up with the living hell that is z/OS and most of its related products, I think a big part of the reason they're still around is that PHBs will buy from IBM because they trust the name, even if what they're buying is overpriced and nowhere close to the 'best of breed' product. In many cases, the support is not even particularly good. I dread working at a place where you still hear the phrase "we''re an IBM stop". It still amazes me that people actually pay them (large) fees for using their processors. The cost/performance ratio is awful ... I assume that because the money came from operating budgets rather than capital it made some sort of sense to someone.

  36. the original guy didn't incorporate at first by decora · · Score: 1

    he was just a dude selling stuff. and fighting patent lawsuits (some things dont change)

  37. Just wanted to thank Slashdot by equex · · Score: 1

    I don't see a thread about this, so I will take the opportunity to say: We bitch when they mess with the site but now they got back the comment counts and tags on the front page. That's a good thing. Also cheers to IBM!

    --
    Can I light a sig ?
    1. Re:Just wanted to thank Slashdot by equex · · Score: 1

      WTF, when I went back to the front page, it was all gone again. Either I had hallucinations about former glory of slashdot design or they are about to try it out again...I swear the comment counts and tags were back.

      --
      Can I light a sig ?
  38. Great Work! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Awesome! It's great to see something that deserves to survive actually make it!

  39. Welcome to the United States. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But you forgot the other reason - change is scary.

  40. Fine, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many jobs have they shipped off-shore in the last 10 of those 100 years?

    1. Re:Fine, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly 2 :)

  41. International Genocide Machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IGM has such a better ring to it then IBM. Screw a company who makes money off of innocent people being killed.

    1. Re:International Genocide Machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have been trolling this story with the nazi stuff, care to elaborate why the sore?

  42. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by careysub · · Score: 1

    What are you smoking? IBM invented the term PC. When I was growing up (also 30ish), computers were either "IBM compatible", or an Apple. Floppy disks were "IBM format". Hell, I still know people that refer to a non-Mac PC as "an IBM". IBM is synonymous with the PC revolution where I'm from (the US), but maybe it's different where you're from.

    I have posted on this thread several times defending IBMs still admirable record of genuine innovation, but the "IBM compatible" desktop (now known as the Wintel platform) isn't it. The name "Wintel" tells the story - somebody else's OS and somebody else's processor in a decent-but-not-ground-breaking systems package. The dominance of the IBM compatible was simply a case of the power of market dominance - it was IBM so businesses bought it. Microsoft went on to replicate this model in the 1990s - the market success of so many Microsoft "me too" products being due to its desktop market dominance.

    --
    Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  43. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by filesiteguy · · Score: 1

    Valid point!

    My aunt was one of those layoffs. She spent 25 years with IBM (in finance) and "retired" early at 55. They gave her the choice of take some early retirement package or be laid off outright.

    Of course, she's happy living in northern Washington, well away from San Jose.

  44. Maximo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I can say is Maximo. Fuck You IBM.

  45. And during the 1930s by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 0

    "Uh...nothing happened. We certainly didn't sell our tech to a certain German chancellor! We, um.. took a nap. Until 1941."

  46. How is this possible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The resident Space Nutters on this site have assured me many times that we only have computers because we went to the Moon. So we were already on the Moon in 1911?

  47. Pretty impressive all things considered! by ErichTheRed · · Score: 3, 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?

    1. Re:Pretty impressive all things considered! by Animats · · Score: 1

      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?

      IBM Research is a shadow of what it once was. I happened to be up at IBM's Almaden Research Center the day IBM exited the disk drive business. It was not a happy day.

  48. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IBM Power Systems are, for the most part marketing hype. I'm an architect at large finance shop and we purchase some IBM hardware. During the refresh of out TSM system, yet another company IBM purchased, we had Power and and IBM System X, their x86 server line, doing sizing. As always Power Systems comes in and put's up these per core performance charts and does a bunch of chest thumping and talk about how they can do 40% more per core and with more cores per chips you can do it with fewer chips. But, when we get configs for a Power System and an IBM System X, power always requires 2-8x more computer power, at least by IBMs PVU, processor value unit, metric. Once you get out of math ops I think Power falls flat on it's face. As far as upgrading goes an app written for one system will typically run on the next system, but often really poorly. At best we'll get similar performance on the newer hardware. Going from power5 to power6 because of the out of order to in order execution switch was horrible, We saw degraded performance across the board and had to re-write/recompile everything. I don't reboot my power boxes as much as my windows boxes, but when I do it takes at least 5 times longer to reboot and bring everything back up. Almost any AIX parameter change we do on AIX requires a reboot and getting a proper answer from IBM is like pulling teeth. I'm just glad we got rid of our IBM cash shredder, I mean mainframe. System Z is the biggest money pit. Is it cool tech, yup, but man it beats up your wallet. After 6 years we finally got all the pieces in place to move our departments remaining mainframe apps to x86, wow what a price difference. We can run the system for 30 years off of the System Z software licensing savings alone.

  49. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm guessing you haven't done much in your lifetime worth recording. But, I would look into educating yourself.

  50. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ClearCase, ClearQuest, Rose...
    Can't we just let them die? :'(

  51. Leaders in innovation,yet again, for the 18th time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    With over 3000 researchers, a record 5896 patents filed in 2010 - marking the 18th consecutive year IBM has won the patent filing race it amazes me that there so many ignorant people unaware of the innovation performed by IBM. I guess if it doesn't involve Kinect, prevent you from recording movies with your iPhone or not reported by Engadget then it just isn't relevant. Such is the nature of the current generation of self proclaimed technology savvy idiots.

  52. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by cavreader · · Score: 1

    When the PC first came out it was an IBM. IBM was the sole supplier of "PC's" until commodity hardware companies started getting in the act. This was also when MS slipped through a hole in their agreement with IBM and took over exclusive distributing rights for the OS deployed on commodity hardware. IBM did make the mistake of not taking the PC platform seriously at the beginning and placed their bets on the mid-range and large scale mainframes.

  53. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by IICV · · Score: 1

    There is a reason that there were basically 2 PC architectures - Apple, and (wait for it) 'IBM PC Compatible'. One of those completely swamped the other.

    It's even better now that even Apple has switched over to the 'IBM PC Compatible' architecture.

  54. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As opposed to the IBM PowerPC that they were using.

  55. 21 years old Industrial IBM Model M by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This post typed on a 21 years old Industrial IBM Model M that is still working flawlessly. Made in an era where quality products could still be assembled (in the U.S. moreover). Not your average $3 chinese keyboard.

    IBM: I love you and at the same the time I hate you for giving that MS-DOS contract to M$ back in the days. How hard did Billy screw you over that one uh and how far would science and technology be if the IT industry had been more reliable instead of constantly coming up with these bluescreens and armies of zombie'd boxen?

     

    1. Re:21 years old Industrial IBM Model M by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember those ! :-) .. Sadly, my first computer was a RadioShack TRS-80/II but even that was
      amazing for its time. But I could afford that one, not the industrial ;-)

    2. Re:21 years old Industrial IBM Model M by Jeehannes · · Score: 1

      Proud owner of 16 of these monsters here. They epitomize the word "industry strength" to me. I once gave a couple of them to my coworkers and the clicking was like music:)

  56. Re:Leaders in innovation,yet again, for the 18th t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Patents do not always equal innovation. Innovation ships to customers.

  57. "tech behind social security" by drb226 · · Score: 1

    So IBM invented the increment operator?

  58. IBM, AMD and WII U by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH MY!

  59. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by Relayman · · Score: 2

    Of course, there for a while, Apple was running on the same Power PC architecture as IBM was using for midrange servers. I believe my Centris 610 has an IBM processor in it.

    --
    If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
  60. Dr. Watson would be proud by CLaRGe · · Score: 1

    From cash registers to first the computer to win Jeopardy. Amazing.

    --
    http://10CentMail.com - the Amazon SES app.
  61. CTR started with a felon at its head! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    From wikipedia page on CTR:

    In 1914, having been fired from NCR Corporation and with a prison sentence threatening his future, Thomas J. Watson approached Flint, as a leading financier, for assistance in finding a similar job. Despite his apparently perilous situation he was still very clear as to the type of job he wanted. He had already turned down a number of offers. He wanted control of the business for himself, and be able to earn a share of the profits. Flint offered him CTR. Flint was, as described earlier, a great promoter of trusts and was presumably less worried about Watson's impending jail sentence. The other members of the CTR board were less sanguine, asking who was to run the company while he was in prison. As a result, they only gave him the title of general manager.

    Thomas J. Watson Sr., became general manager of CTR in 1914, at a time when he was a convicted criminal:[26] he had been convicted in 1913 of corporate and monopolistic conspiracy for his role in a widespread National Cash Register scheme to blackmail used cash register retailers and run them out of business. (See John Henry Patterson (NCR owner).) Watson's own extortionate writings were used as evidence against him. That lesson taught Watson to thereafter keep very little in writing. After Watson had been at CTR for 11 months the Appeals Court ordered a retrial. Although he refused to sign a Consent Decree, a new trial never took place, and he was duly promoted by the board of CTR to the position of president.

    So the die was cast and CTR was joined with Thomas J. Watson, the final paradox being that the true founder of the modern IBM, a moralistic company, was at that time a felon convicted of business practices unacceptable even in a time that was notable for its lack of standards.

    1. Re:CTR started with a felon at its head! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Only because he was caught. Others were not. Apparently there was quite a lot
      unethical and dubious business practices going on as I seem to remember from
      the early IBM/Watson history book I'd read a loooong time ago. It was a wicked
      and unregulated wild west of marketing. He's no better or worse than other people
      at the time.

  62. not saying outsourcing doesn't hurt Americans... by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, can you please remind me what the I stands for in IBM?

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  63. GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN. by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    When the PC first came out it was an IBM.

    I'm pretty sure I recall other companies selling Personal Computers before IBM even go into the market.
    Lots of them named for fruit (really, WTF?...) for some reason, Pineapple, Apricot, Kumquat, Orange....
    And I'm sure that Tandy, Texas Instruments, Commodore, Atari, Franklin, among a myriad of others would dispute your ill-informed claim.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:GET THE FUCK OFF MY LAWN. by cavreader · · Score: 1

      When I said PC I should have said "personal computer".

  64. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by ediron2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    'There is a reason...' is something of a historical mess of a sentence. At the release of 8088-based IBM computers, one could still buy Apples (6502, not macs), trs-80's, commodore systems, atari, several 8080 and z80 systems/OS's (mostly CP/M), international alternatives (Acorns, Sinclairs), and niche business systems (wasn't OS-9 out by this time?). Apologies to fellow oldsters for not digging up a comprehensive list or missing your pet system -- many more existed when the IBM PC was released.

    Skip ahead a few years, and there were newer commodores, apples, ataris, other brands and various Radio Shack schlockery. There'd also been all sorts of changes on OS's, all sorts of changes under the hood. By then, there was a burgeoning PC-compatible market... and it was beginning to be clear that 'PC-compatible' was going to dominate the future. But the category didn't exist initially, and pretending that it was ever an apple/ibm/microsoft triumvirate is just silly.

    Having said that, around this time (1977-1985) nobody seriously considered IBM innovative. Their dominant strength was in delivering stodgy b-side computational function that companies could rationalize buying. Any innovation seen pc-side sprang to life as a 3rd-party product. After a few years, IBM might deign to make their own version.

    During their existence, Apple deservedly gets credit for innovation, even if part of their genius has been recognizing underappreciated good ideas and pushing them (xerox parc, etc.).

    Through all of this, many other companies should get credit for innovation in networks, printing, software (visicalc, sidekick, turbo * compilers), modems, displays, input, storage, etc.

  65. Re:IBM = Innovator? Not in my lifetime. by ediron2 · · Score: 1

    Architecture != chip. Neither OS9 nor OSX are pc-compatible in any way, shape, size or form. Architecture by definition cannot be exclusive of OS, libraries, kernel.

  66. Re:Leaders in innovation,yet again, for the 18th t by That+Guy+From+Mrktng · · Score: 1

    Woa, lets redefine innovation. TODAY iNnovation is not making a control center for traffic the size of a small fridge that uses 1/100th the power the old system used or creating ICs from graphene or Creating an AI that can beat players in a game or Doctors in diagnosis. No no no! iNnovation TODAY is magic, the possibility to access Facebook from you iDevice and use your penis to swipe the photos of that hot marketing girl in the bathroom of your workplace, iNnovation is allowing anyone to control what you should and not photograph, iNnovation is dumbing down the consumers so they can pay and forget about the thinking and deciding. Get the memo and embrace the new IT paradigm.

    Yours The Steve

  67. Thanks Mostly to Its Employees! by Greyfox · · Score: 1

    Remember! There's no 'I' in IBM!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  68. back then, data was not data by decora · · Score: 1

    if you had a technician from Dehomag walking into a camp every couple of weeks to make adjustments, fix broken parts, do routine maintenance, etc, it is kind of hard to argue that 'data was just data'.

    if you had to have Dehomag technicians design the hole punch cards, with holes for Jew, and then how much Jew (1/8, 1/4, etc) and so forth and so on

  69. im talking about the SS, not the army by decora · · Score: 1

    Dehomag was intimately involved with the SS, from the Eugenics program to the holocaust. Im not talking about the Army.

    Dehomag was successfull after the war, and many of the same people just worked for IBM, they re-integrated the performance metrics so that employees who had done well during the war kept their special bonus point style things.

    IBM could have at least taken a page from Volkswagen and several other manufacturing companies and participated in the reconciliation process in the 1990s.

  70. Re:I'll wager $723.42 that IBM goes another 100 ye by dcollins · · Score: 1

    *flind

    --
    We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
  71. Speak for yourself. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    I have abandoned business deals when the ethics of the deal were questionable.

    Sorry to break this to you, but lack of morals is not an imperative to make business.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  72. I have a deal for you. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    IBM can remain in the US with only US workers as long as it only sells stuff to US clients and nobody else.

    What do you say?

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  73. Filing patents is not innovating. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    It is gaming the broken patent registration system.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  74. Poor working conditions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I can vouch for the poor working conditions.

    Here's a blog outlining how IBM fires one of their own after he sends an uncomfortable email, putting everyone in cc, about them having to drink filtered tap water in a lab in Krakow, Poland. I know the guy and the people that fired him.

    I don't recommend anybody to work for IBM, for sure in Krakow. From other friends it doesn't sound much better in other countries.

    Excerpt taken from the blog: http://lirene.blox.pl/html Sorry for the crappy english... blame google. :)
    -----
    Exemption
    Dismissal is one of the most difficult moments, both for which duty-free and for the same employer. Any reputable company should therefore try to make this solution was collaboration with dignity on the other. And it's not just about leaving behind a good impression. Way out of a staff member may in fact go far beyond the boundaries of the company, and do so in bad style, automatically instil fear and insecurity among others in the company, instilling in them a quiet resentment and rebellion.

    Here is what form of parting with his staff chose a widely respected and global IT corporation:

    A day like every day in the lab software: telephones, meetings, emails, conversations. Nothing, however, announces what is to happen at the end of the day. I receive from my supervisor invited to a meeting at the 17th hour A little bit me it does not fit, work on the now finally finished and planned to leave on time. A few days before I transformed corporate classics, or work for a night on the presentation for my master, and then the next day to 23, so I felt quite tired. But hey, if it is a call, you must be present. Get out so the elevator a few floors below and go to the room where we meet. Along the way, I meet the head of the IT department. I call him "hello", it also suits me the same, but it was his "honor" is other than usual, such a heavily muted.

    Prior to the entry appears in my supervisor and head of human resources. What do they want? We go in and exchange the usual pleasantries. Unfortunately, the moment after everything he says. Without further ado I learn that I was fired. I like the verdict is read rationale, which I listen with disbelief and amazement. Events are presented in support of me in the most familiar, but initially I can not comprehend that a man can come out of work, but that he acted in good faith and in accordance with the rules of the company.

    I will be given two alternatives: either to terminate the contract by mutual agreement with the additional checks in the amount of 3-month's salary, or termination by the employer without any clearance. I quickly make a decision, or the first offer will be out of date. I am very annoyed with this, I guess the first option that hides a catch and I do not like this approach to the problem. "Then you do not sign anything" - I say heading for the exit. "Do not go out thence until one of them do not sign, we will sit here until the effect of" I hear, then suddenly the head of personnel prevents a clever maneuver my escape to the outside.

    I have the discretion to admit that she did it in a very professional manner, quickly putting a chair by the door and sitting down on it. But it did not raise with her. If only I stood blocking the way, it could theoretically switch it and try to escape. This number, however, with the chair was completely unnecessary, yet not I would use force against women. In addition, the back of me has grown guy. Anyway, when my health to anyone wrestling might not going great finish. And by the way is interesting where I learned this trick, you're not on some training of human resources management?

    So I sit at the wobbly table and I start to wonder what's next. I see through the glass door security guard wandering back and forth. At first I did not pay attention to him. I remember rumors of Romek, who was released from day to day and not even allowed to bring your own cup. Maybe I'll have more luck. After a while I hear that before deciding w

  75. 100x100 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The 100x100 video is a must see for anyone that wants a beautifully presented overview of what IBM has given the world.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jtNUGgmd4