I first visited it 1967/1968. Have been back many times since then. But, this year, visiting ‘Poughkeepsie‘ (for old times’ sake from my days at ‘IBM‘) I have formed a deep attachment. This was my second visit (for a total of 6 days) in 6 weeks.
It is now May and it is getting TOO BUSY for my liking. But, plan to go back in September. Yes, more visits to the Hudson Valley than Maine. But, NO BOOKS. They have a surfeit & it will take me a few more visits to feel like an expert. SMILE.
This picture was taken at ‘Locust Grove‘ (from THE ‘house’ looking towards the river).
Click to ENLARGE. News snippets from ‘Google News‘.
As a proud ex-IBMer, who made 90% of his income during his working career thanks to my in-depth knowledge of IBM technology — & who used to claim that “IF cut deep, I bleed ‘blue‘” — I found this headline most distressing, BUT I fully understood why it was posed.
IBM, alas, is NOT what it used to be — the computing behemoth that had 70% of the datacenter market. Those were the days. I was lucky enough to be a part of IBM in those halcyon days though I started to see — & write about — its decline in the late 1990s.
The last CEO, viz., ‘gin-and-tonic’ Rometty (who was an unmitigated disaster) and the current clueless clown have run IBM to the ground. Have no idea what IBM is all about. Shame. Well, I could wax lyrical for days. It is very distressing.
I am so GLAD that I managed to enjoy working for IBM — both as an employee and then as a consultant.
IBM is still dear to my heart. I always wish IBM well.
Have NO idea as to how they are assigned & whether there are different levels of training/competency within the ranks. Yes, in any group you will always have those that are better than others. So, not sure how it works. Is it on a purely rotational basis or does the President always get assigned the best trainer & most expert. DO NOT KNOW.
But, hearing that a Secret Agent missed with three shots is not comforting.
Yes, it was dark & they would have been moving targets. But, aren’t sharp-shooters capable of doing better.
In my youth I did a LOT of target shooting. First with the British Cadet Corp. in school (i.e., ‘Mill Hill’) then with IBM’s subsidized gun club when I worked for IBM at Hursley. There was a time that I shot 100 rounds NIGHTLY — between writing code! I found it very therapeutic and inspiring. SMILE. I used to be fairly good. But, I never had to shoot at moving objects.
I have, over the years, got a LOT of mileage from this story. In those days (& for the next 7 years) nearly all of my SEMINAR work was in Europe — 85% in the U.K. Since it was billed that I now lived in the U.S. I would always start of my U.K. seminars with this story. They loved it.
I am 100% sure that this happens even today, even MORE SO. I am convinced that less & less Americans know & appreciate their history.
In the ‘title’ I say ‘THIS TIME AROUND‘.
Yes, this is my SECOND stay in the U.S., NOT counting all the trips I made to the U.S. between these two stays.
I came to the U.S. on September 4, 1967 as a 14-year old.
We lived in Buffalo, NY.
That stay, though it was not meant to be, lasted less than a year.
We left, for Paris, late in the Summer of 1968. My father had got a job with UNESCO. I can’t remember when we left. It was before September, because I started school in Paris then.
We most likely were here for July 4, 1968, BUT I don’t remember it. Plus, as a 15-year old I did NOT used to get slightly tipsy women sidling up to me. SMILE.
In 1975, working for IBM, I started visiting the U.S. on business. I think I was here for multiple 4ths, BUT those all, obviously, were unmemorable.
When I saw the announcement of a ‘Rack Mount’ mainframe by (my ex-employer) IBM, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to laugh, cry or both.
Yes, of course, like all things computer related mainframes have been getting smaller & smaller over the last 60 years. Yes, 60-years! The S/360 (which begat the S/370 with ‘Virtual Storage’) which was the ORIGINAL IBM mainframe was introduced in 1964. I started working for IBM, on mainframes, exactly 10-years later. Then for the next 40-years mainframes were MY LIFE — how I made a living. So, I am kind of partial to mainframes — & have over the years been referred to as a ‘Big Iron guy’, the ‘big iron’ another reference to the size of mainframes.
The term ‘MAINFRAME’ means ‘main’ + ‘frame’. It referred to cabinets. Large metal cabinets. Yes, yes, yes. Racks are but tall things cabinets. I get that. I also appreciate that for the last 15 years IBM mainframes were but racks inside a fancy cabinet.
But, rack mount?
It just isn’t cricket. Doesn’t sound right. Doesn’t look right.
A rack mount mainframe lacks presence. It is not a hulking, humming, giant core of computing power.
Yes, I miss my old mainframes. Once a mainframe guy, always a mainframe guy.
If these documents are so SECRETIVE & SENSITIVE as they are said to be, why are they NOT tracked & monitored?
With computers it would be trivial to keep & MAINTAIN an accurate LOG of what documents were given to whom & whether they were returned.
Come on! This is NOT rocket science.
You wouldn’t have to do it with all documents, ONLY those of a certain level & above. Some of these, both with Biden & ‘Trump‘, are said to be ‘sensitive compartmented information facility’Â (SCIF) level documents. Come on. If they are that sensitive why aren’t they more closely TRACKED?
45-years ago I worked for IBM which used to be paranoid about security — industrial espionage (in particular), but also too much government snooping. They had a very hierarchical document security system. The highest level that (quite junior at the time) I had access to was deemed ‘Registered Confidential‘ documents. The ‘Registered’ part designated that the document was indeed registered — there was a log of it & you had to sign it out & sign it in, in presence of a document custodian. So, IBM had a track of who had the document & whether it had been RETURNED.
This was 45-years ago. Basically like a library book check-out/check-in system.
Obviously the U.S. government does NOT have such a system, even for SCIF level documents.
Think about it.
If they did, they would have known that both Trump & Biden still had checked-out documents that they had NOT returned. Come on. This is simple stuff.
Now to my next question.
So, there was NO record that Biden had these 20 (or so) confidential documents.
Can we all agree on that (& ditto for the hundreds that Trump is supposed to have taken with him).
So, what would have happened IF Biden had not disclosed it?
Had them destroyed or sent to the ‘National Archives’ in a plain envelope.
Could they have been traced back to Biden?
Basically, Biden, the ol’ Catholic guy, was being too honest, too much of a gentleman.
Think about it.
Yes, if he got caught he would have to be impeached & maybe even sent to jail. But, what were the chances of that.
IF it was his lawyers who found them he would have been protected by their client-attorney privilege. WOW.
The Museum’s Director ‘Martha Cummins’ presenting, with Development Manager ‘Wendy Stocker’ looking on.
Another enjoyable & elucidating Laconia Rotary meeting (with a more than bargained for amount of snow coming down outside). Slightly smaller group than what we had around Christmas, but it was obvious that a good time was had by all. In the absence of our President & incoming President, the meeting was adroitly handled by past President, ‘Jennifer Anderson’.
We were regaled to a compelling presentation on the ‘New Hampshire Boat Museum’ (NHBM.org) by their Executive Director, ‘Martha Cummings’ (the wife of my friend, ‘Al Sochard’ (& ex-IBMer like I) from our time together at the ‘Castle in the Clouds‘). In addition to a great overview of the museum, their myriad activates (some of which I was aware of) & programs we were privileged to be given a detailed overview of their exciting new HQ in ‘Moultonborough’ & their new, 1928-style Hacker Craft mahogany triple cockpit ‘Miss Lauren’ (which will work in tandem with the existing, near-twin, ‘Millie B‘.
Martha was accompanied by NHBM Development Manager ‘Wendy Stocker’ & Director ‘Jamie Laurent’ (& her husband).
I am NOT sentimental. While I celebrate the birthdays of my closest, closest family, I do NOT celebrate my own. {Smile} That I am NOT 100% sure as to my birthday might have something to do with it. I know I was born in September 1953, but I cannot be sure, 100% as to on what day it was. {Smile} It transpires I was a hospital mix-up. They gave my parents the wrong (bloody) baby. I am so sorry for them. They sure deserved better. Hence why I refer to them now as my ‘adoptive parents’. As far as I can tell that is the BEST I can do. There is no word or phrase, as far as I can see, for parents of mix-ups. NO. I do NOT know who my biological parents are other than that my biological father was a ‘GAMBLER’! Now, doesn’t that explain it all.
IF you know me (& to be fair a very, very, very few do) you will see that I had to be the son of a gambler. How else could you explain me, this reprobate.
Anywho. My adoptive parents were married on August 27, 1952. That was a Wednesday. Don’t ask me why. It was most likely a date set my an astrologer. The right auspices time. Well, even then they were duped. Looked what happened just 13-14 months down the road. They got me — the SON of a GAMBLER. LoL.
So, that was the initial significance of August 27. My adoptive parents’ anniversary.
My adoptive father liked grand gestures. So, when we were to leave Ceylon in 1967 (for what I now realize was a self-imposed EXILE by my adoptive father) he chose August 27.
As such, I left Ceylon on August 27, 1976 — 55-years ago.
I did NOT want to leave. I had no choice. I wish I had never left. But, you can’t change time.
August 27, 1974, was indeed a pivotal day in my (rather sorry) life. My 1st day at IBM (Hursley). My very first day of working. Prior to that I had not worked a day — for pay.
But, nearly 18-months earlier, IBM had given me, unsolicited, an unconditional job offer — open-ended (i.e., no end date). I was given a name. Mrs. McKraken. She was in H.R. I just had to contact her if & when I wanted to come & work for IBM.
I wanted to be a game warden in Africa!
I spent 9-months trying to get a job in Africa as a game warden.
Then, in the Summer of 1974, while we were in Bangkok, Thailand, my then girlfriend said that I really should get a proper job so that we could get married. She reminded me that I had an open job offer from that FILTHY, U.S. CAPITALIST COMPANY IBM. I didn’t want to work for IBM. I wanted to be a game warden. But, she convinced me. So, I sent a telegram to Mrs. McKraken. I gave her the last Monday in August 1967 as my start day. I was in Bangkok. I did not realize that it was a Bank Holiday in the U.K.
IBM was COOL. I went onto ADORE IBM. I loved working for IBM. I went onto be known as ‘Mr. IBM’. My entire professional life, for the next 40-years, revolved around IBM. I would not be here, writing this, if not for IBM.
Mrs. McKraken telegrammed me back. Said August 26, 1974 would INDEED be my official start date at IBM, BUT since it was a holiday, they will see me, in Hursley, on the next day, August 27, 1974. That was the start of my WORKING LIFE. I got paid for my 1st day of work — though I never worked it. It was a holiday.
Click to ENLARGE. From ‘MarketWatch‘. Why the belief & excitement in yesterday’s results?
We all know the time-tested adage: ‘if it looks TOO GOOD to be TRUE …’ Well that sure was the case with the numbers announced by IBM yesterday. They blew away expectations.
But, I, for one, do NOT think they are 100% kosher.
That folks are claiming that there is strong evidence that IBM has misstated past results should be seen as a red flag. Don’t get so excited about what IBM is claiming. It could still be smoke and mirrors. I have not trusted IBM’s management team for the last few years. This is NOT the IBM I worked for.
Just be careful. Very careful. I don’t think these numbers are real & will stand up. So, don’t go madly investing in IBM. There are much better companies around, for a start: AMZN, GOOG & TSLA. Smile. [I own all of those — & have for many, many years.]
IBM has been doing cloud since the 1960s, if NOT earlier!
That is IBM’s current problem. People keep on saying IBM needs to ramp up its cloud business — BUT, that is a bit hard when they have been doing cloud all along.
‘Cloud’ is a MISNOMER — & widely misunderstood. That is a problem. So many of the ‘pundits’ that prattle on daily about ‘cloud this & cloud that’ have NO IDEA what the cloud is.
This cloud ‘thing’ all goes back to the late 1990s when ‘Sun Microsystems’, then a MEGA tech company came up with the slogan: ‘the network is the computer‘.
Well that was never the case, but it was an attempt to highlight that networking was becoming increasingly important.
What ‘Cloud Computing’ means, cut to the chase, is SERVER-SIDE computing.
OK. So what does that mean. It means doing most — if not all — your computing & data storage on a server, as opposed to your desktop, laptop, mobile device (whatever).
Easy example. If you still use a PC/laptop do YOU still DOWNLOAD all your e-mails before reading them? If so, you are NOT doing CLOUD. You are reading your e-mails, previously downloaded, on your PC/laptop. CLOUD computing is if you do your e-mails, reading & composing, using a SERVER somewhere (far away) accessed via a network (i.e., the Internet).
Server side (i.e., Cloud) vs desktop (i.e., local).
IBM basically pioneered server side computing way, way, way back.
In the late 1980s & 1990s it was SEVERELY criticized & chastised that it never really succeeded in getting into local/desktop computing. That is where Apple, Microsoft & PCs came in. IBM was entrenched with Server Side computing –> i.e., cloud.
Now it is ALL cloud.
But, IBM’s major customer base was already doing cloud.
IBM can’t SWITCH these folks to the cloud. They are already doing cloud.
Now you get folks prattling on about Linux etc. Yes. Yes. That is a different story. That is NOT just cloud. That is changing the server side technology. The cloud part is still the same.
IBM’s current management has NO CLUE!
They are as clueless as the media punits.
IBM needs OLD IBMers (like I) who know what this is all about. NO, I am not looking for a job. I am happy. Thank YOU. But, there are plenty others.
I will say it again. IBM’s current management has NO CLUE!
IBM can only do so much with the cloud because so much of its base is already in the cloud.
