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IBM Turns 100

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the ai-can't-blow-out-candles dept.

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."

10 of 189 comments (clear)

  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 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.

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

    IBM and the Holocaust

    IBM and the Holocaust on Wikipedia

    1. 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.

    2. 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
    3. 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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?

  6. 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.