From: J Ahlstrom Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: Apology from Unisys] Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 10:45:07 -0700 Organization: Cisco Systems Inc. Message-ID: <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en]C-CCK-MCD (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cache-Post-Path: sj-nntpcache-5!unknown@dhcp-171-68-135-147.cisco.com X-Cache: nntpcache 2.4.0b2 (see http://www.nntpcache.org/) X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 224 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:83490 >> Unisys Apologizes for Creating Unintended Consequences of the >> Computer Age; 'We'll do better,' promises developer of leading-edge >> technology >> >> June 14, 2001 09:23:00 AM ET >> >> BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 2001--Unisys Corporation >> today issued a public apology for the many human inconveniences >> resulting from its invention of UNIVAC I, the world's first >> commercial computer, introduced on June 14, 1951. >> >> "UNIVAC was a marvel of its time," said Leo Daiuto, corporate vice >> president, and vice president and general manager, Product >> Development & Technology. "Directly or indirectly, our invention of >> UNIVAC led to a whole new industry and a new way of life for all of >> us. Today, we're still inventing bigger, faster, more cost-effective >> enterprise computers. But sadly," Daiuto continued, "the many >> benefits of the Computer Age have been accompanied by a number of >> transaction-based annoyances - all unimagined fifty years ago. As >> the company that started it all, Unisys feels it only fitting that >> it mark this historic anniversary with an apology for those >> inconveniences." >> >> Specifically, Unisys apologized for: >> >> -- Making it impossible for anyone to do more than five minutes' >> worth of work without being interrupted by an emailed joke, Top Ten >> list, or chain letter. >> >> -- Ensuring that if something goes wrong with a piece of equipment, >> intelligent, well-meaning people armed with hand tools and >> mechanical know-how will no longer be able to fix it. >> >> -- Relegating to obscurity the smell of fresh-cut flowers because >> the only flowers you ever get to smell nowadays are the ones you see >> in online pictures when you're ordering them to appease an irate >> spouse, who's feeling neglected because you're spending every spare >> minute online. >> >> -- Making trips to the mall unnecessary because anything you can get >> there is available online at a steep discount. >> >> -- Ending that great morning tradition of newspaper and coffee, >> because by the time your coffee is hot, the "news" in your newspaper >> is already two generations behind the online edition. >> >> -- Giving government, business, and the average twelve-year-old the >> means by which to find out more about you and your personal tastes >> than you yourself ever knew. >> >> -- Getting you so used to receiving responses in nanoseconds that >> you can no longer wait the ten seconds it takes for your microwave >> oven to warm up your bagel. >> >> -- Making it impossible for you to justify that trip to a training >> workshop in Cancun because all the training you'll need is now >> available on your desktop. >> >> -- Making it possible for you to vacation in Cancun without ever >> losing touch with your boss back at the office. >> >> -- Forcing you to go through a five-minute startup routine every >> time your computer crashes while you're creating a three-minute >> memo. >> >> -- Giving SPAM a bad name. >> >> -- Jeopardizing the continued influence in American presidential >> politics of the hanging chad. >> >> -- Making it easier for the IRS to spot discrepancies between your >> tax return and objective reality. >> >> -- Reducing your life and everything in it to a series of >> counterintuitive acronyms. >> >> -- Giving you a false sense of security regarding the spelling and >> grammatical accuracy of your next memo. >> >> -- Increasing your volume of in-mail to the point where you have to >> devote significant time outside of regular working hours to get >> through it all. >> >> -- Eliminating the concept of regular working hours. >> >> -- Providing you with the means to lose money in the stock market at >> an unprecedented pace. >> >> -- The half-dozen keystrokes you need to press for the privilege of >> being put on hold. >> >> -- All those Monday morning deadlines you didn't know about because >> they were emailed to your laptop at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. >> >> -- All those theater tickets you can no longer buy at the door >> because every seat has already been sold online. >> >> -- The dot.com bubble. >> >> -- The bursting of the dot.com bubble. >> >> -- The concept of multitasking. >> >> -- The avalanche of press releases that any company with a media >> directory and access to email can now generate at a moment's notice. >> >> UNIVAC, short for Universal Automatic Computer, was a large-scale, >> general-purpose commercial electronic computing system designed to >> satisfy the diverse needs of business management. Heralded by users >> as a fundamental management tool, the UNIVAC computer made possible >> a degree of management control never before realized by >> organizations in both the public and private sectors. >> >> The United States Census Bureau became the first enterprise computer >> customer on June 14, 1951, when its UNIVAC I was officially put into >> service. >> >> With other government clients such as the United States Air Force, >> the United States Army, and the Atomic Energy Commission, as well as >> public industry giants such as General Electric, Metropolitan Life, >> US Steel, and DuPont, UNIVAC quickly became the acknowledged >> standard for technological innovation at the dawn of the Computer >> Age. >> >> In 1952, UNIVAC I gained widespread public attention when it >> correctly predicted the Eisenhower landslide in the US Presidential >> election. Because most political pundits were expecting a much >> closer election, CBS chose not to air the UNIVAC prediction, >> acknowledging its accuracy only after the election had been decided. >> >> "Fifty years ago, it certainly wasn't easy to predict how radically >> our lives would be changed by the computer," Daiuto said. "UNIVAC >> was invented to help manage the complexities of our lives, but in >> many ways we now face more complexities because of what UNIVAC >> started. Over the past half-century, the world has paid a high price >> for the benefits of business computing. That's why we introduced our >> latest innovation, which makes the benefits of effectively >> processing business transactions available more widely. >> >> "Cellular MultiProcessing [CMP]," Daiuto concluded, "allows us to >> design and deliver mainframe computers and enterprise servers that >> make handling big transactions easier than ever before, yet that are >> also less expensive than competitive systems. We'll continue to >> develop new technology to advance the evolution we started with >> UNIVAC - and this time, we hope, without all those nasty, unintended >> consequences." >> >> About Unisys >> >> Unisys is an e-business solutions company whose 37,000 employees >> help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to >> seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. >> >> Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, >> platforms and network infrastructure required by business and >> government to transform their organizations for success in this new >> era. >> >> The company offers a rich portfolio of Unisys e-@ction Solutions for >> e-business based on its expertise in vertical industry solutions, >> network services, outsourcing, systems integration and multivendor >> support, coupled with enterprise-class server and related >> technologies. >> >> The primary vertical markets Unisys serves worldwide include >> financial services, transportation, communications, publishing and >> commercial sectors, as well as the public sector, including federal >> government customers. Unisys is headquartered in Blue Bell, >> Pennsylvania, in the Greater Philadelphia area. >> >> For more information on the company, access the Unisys home page on >> the World Wide Web at www.unisys.com. Investor information can be >> found at www.unisys.com/investor. RELEASE NO.: 0601/8026 >> (Facts/Comparison Sidebar >> follows)http://www.unisys.com/news/releases/2001/jun/06148026.asp >> >> Unisys is a registered trademark and e-@ction is a trademark of >> Unisys Corporation. All other brands and products referenced herein >> are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their >> respective holders. >> >> SIDEBAR: FACTS ABOUT UNIVAC I, COMPARISONS TO TODAY'S STATE-OF-THE >> ART TECHNOLOGY UNIVAC I Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 >> Ratio Add 120 microseconds 0.556 nanoseconds 216,000:1 Multiply 1800 >> microseconds 20 nanoseconds 90,000:1 Divide 3600 microseconds 78 >> nanoseconds 46,000:1 Memory 9,000 bytes 64 gigabytes 1:7.6 million >> Dimensions 952 cubic feet 52 cubic feet 18.4:1 Weight 29,000 lbs >> 1,200 lbs 24:1 Power 125 kilowatts 6.76 kilowatts 18.5:1 Processors >> 1 @ 0.008 MHz 32 @ 900 MHz 1:3,600,000 >> >> A microsecond is one millionth of a second; a nanosecond is one >> billionth of a second. >> >> A gigabyte is one billion bytes >> >> -- The UNIVAC I was so large that it was built in a cube with a >> hollow core and had doors to walk inside. Customer engineers >> frequently put a desk and chair inside and used it as an >> air-conditioned office. >> >> -- UNIVAC I was water-cooled and required a constant source of >> chilled water flowing through its pipes to keep the vacuum tubes >> from overheating. One UNIVAC was cooled with water from the local >> river and failed from overheating. The cause was traced to a fish >> blocking one of the pipes. The screen on the intake pipe had come >> loose creating the first computer-fish failure (rather than a bug). >> >> Note: Photos are available at: >> >> http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.061401/bb3 >> >> http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.061401/bb3a >> >> © 2001 BusinessWire > -- Extractio ad absurdum: Taking a sentence out of context and then attacking it for not making sense without the context. L Elmore ###### From: hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu (Prof. Richard E. Hawkins) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: [Fwd: Fwd: Apology from Unisys] Date: 15 Jun 2001 18:37:43 GMT Organization: House of Hawkins Lines: 16 Message-ID: <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> References: <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: fac13.ds.psu.edu X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test75 (Feb 13, 2001) Originator: hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu (Prof. Richard E. Hawkins) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!news.ems.psu.edu!news3.cac.psu.edu!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:83650 In article <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com>, J Ahlstrom wrote: >>> Dimensions 952 cubic feet 52 cubic feet 18.4:1 Weight 29,000 lbs ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ and there was room for a desk inside? Is this missing a digit, perhaps??? hawk -- Prof. Richard E. Hawkins, Esq. /"\ ASCII ribbon campaign dochawk@psu.edu Smeal 178 (814) 375-4700 \ / against HTML mail These opinions will not be those of X and postings Penn State until it pays my retainer. / \ ###### From: bhk@dsl.co.uk (Brian {Hamilton Kelly}) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: [Fwd: Fwd: Apology from Unisys] Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 00:27:54 GMT Organization: Dragonhill Systems Ltd Message-ID: <992651274snz@dsl.co.uk> References: <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com> <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 992722263 mail2news:27626 mail2news mail2news.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Mail2News-Path: news.demon.net!dsl.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.31 Lines: 27 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.tesion.net!news.belwue.de!news-stu1.dfn.de!news-koe1.dfn.de!news-fra1.dfn.de!news.tele.dk!195.54.122.107!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!diablo.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:83890 In article <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu "Prof. Richard E. Hawkins" writes: > In article <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com>, > J Ahlstrom wrote: > > > >>> Dimensions 952 cubic feet 52 cubic feet 18.4:1 Weight 29,000 lbs > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > and there was room for a desk inside? Is this missing a digit, > perhaps??? Given that the typical cab height was probably OOTO 6 ft (I'm totally guessing, never having seen any Uni{vac|sys} system), then we're talking of a floor area of approx. 160 ft^2. 10ft by 16ft ought to be ample to place a desk inside, no? FWIW, the CDC 6600 (6700?) that was installed at Imperial College in the mid-late 1960s was about a 10 ft cube, IIRC, and that had room for a desk and a teleprinter "inside". -- Brian {Hamilton Kelly} bhk@dsl.co.uk "We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of distributed ignorance. And we know and understand less while being incr- easingly capable." Prof. Peter Cochrane, formerly of BT Labs ###### Message-ID: <3B2B985E.A7A737C2@earthlink.net> From: Jim Esler X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: [Fwd: Fwd: Apology from Unisys] References: <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com> <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> <992651274snz@dsl.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 27 Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 21:43:32 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 38.27.198.215 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net 992727812 38.27.198.215 (Sat, 16 Jun 2001 14:43:32 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 14:43:32 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net X-Received-Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2001 14:41:27 PDT (newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.tesion.net!news.belwue.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.stealth.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!netnews.com!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net!newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:83907 Brian {Hamilton Kelly} wrote: > > In article <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> > hawk@fac13.ds.psu.edu "Prof. Richard E. Hawkins" writes: > > > In article <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com>, > > J Ahlstrom wrote: > > > > > > >>> Dimensions 952 cubic feet 52 cubic feet 18.4:1 Weight 29,000 lbs > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > and there was room for a desk inside? Is this missing a digit, > > perhaps??? > > Given that the typical cab height was probably OOTO 6 ft (I'm totally > guessing, never having seen any Uni{vac|sys} system), then we're talking > of a floor area of approx. 160 ft^2. 10ft by 16ft ought to be ample to > place a desk inside, no? > > FWIW, the CDC 6600 (6700?) that was installed at Imperial College in the > mid-late 1960s was about a 10 ft cube, IIRC, and that had room for a desk > and a teleprinter "inside". The 6600 mainframe formed an X. You are describing a 7600. I have heard that the CEs would put a desk inside. -- Jim Esler ###### From: "Rob Peglar" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: <3B28F822.A49FF5DB@cisco.com> <9gdkln$1nsg@r02n01.cac.psu.edu> <992651274snz@dsl.co.uk> <3B2B985E.A7A737C2@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [Fwd: Fwd: Apology from Unisys] Lines: 21 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Message-ID: Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 12:13:01 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.217.194.167 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net 992779981 24.217.194.167 (Sun, 17 Jun 2001 05:13:01 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 05:13:01 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net X-Received-Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 05:10:55 PDT (newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsmaster1.prod.itd.earthlink.net!newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:83913 "Jim Esler" wrote in message news:3B2B985E.A7A737C2@earthlink.net... > Brian {Hamilton Kelly} wrote: [snip] > > > > FWIW, the CDC 6600 (6700?) that was installed at Imperial College in the > > mid-late 1960s was about a 10 ft cube, IIRC, and that had room for a desk > > and a teleprinter "inside". > > The 6600 mainframe formed an X. You are describing a 7600. I have > heard that the CEs would put a desk inside. You are correct. The CE desk was a mainstay of many 7600 installations. Rob