Wells Fargo and Wachovia: The technology integration of two giants
Excerpts:
We had a mantra inside the business organization that we think of as a best practice, which is, select [a Wells Fargo or Wachovia system] A or B, but never [create a new] C. The reason you do that is because you want to make sure you move into a stable platform. If you build a new model in the middle of integration, you’ll run into some burn and bumps, and we didn’t want to impact our customers.
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Out of 4,000 bundles of applications, we ended up with less than five Cs. Those were things that just couldn’t scale or had functionality problems. When you start changing out the architecture, or building new application code, that’s when you put your customers at risk.
In the 1950s, storage hardware was measured in feet—and in tons. Back then, the era's state-of-the-art computer drive was found in IBM's RAMAC 305; it consisted of two refrigerator-size boxes that weighed about a ton each. One box held 40 24-inch dual-sided magnetic disk platters; a carriage with two recording heads suspended by compressed air moved up and down the stack to access the disks. The other cabinet contained the data processing unit, the magnetic process drum, magnetic core register and electronic logical and arithmetic circuits.
Space exploration: The computers that power man's conquest of the stars
Excerpts:
To this day, Nasa still uses elements of technology that powered the moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s, while the International Space Station (ISS) - the manned station circling the Earth 250 miles above our heads - relies on processors dating back more than two decades.
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When it comes to spacecraft, design reliability - and not bleeding edge technology - is the watchword, with onboard chips having to undergo extensive testing to prove their robustness and compatibility with the spacecraft's onboard software.
Each of its computer chips has to be "hardened" to protect it from the high-energy radiation that permeates outer space, a complex process that means the newest processors are almost never used onboard spacecraft.
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Just speccing out and procuring the three Pentium chips for the upgrade has taken years, due to budgetary constraints and the need to design the hardware to minimise conflicts with the onboard system software.
"The challenge is trying to build new technology that looks like the old technology - you don't want to impact the software so it has to look as much like the old hardware as possible," said David Pruett, a former software and computer system manager for the space station who now works for Nasa contractor GeoControl Systems.
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According to Dr Norman Kluksdahl, systems engineer with the mission operations facilities division at Nasa mission control, upgrades must be performed in parallel with the normal station operation.
"Then we have to seamlessly hand over [from the old software to the new software]," he told silicon.com. "I would equate it to driving your car down the road at 80km an hour and changing the tyre while you're moving."
To avoid any unwanted surprises, every new software revision goes through two and a half years of development, planning and testing before being uploaded to the station.
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Due to the complex and costly nature of upgrading ground control systems in ESOC, ESA will sometimes run an entire satellite mission - which can last several years - without performing an upgrade to the original hardware, OS or applications.
Consequently ESOC runs computers of varying ages, with the oldest machines dating back at least 15 years, with ESOC staff having to support these legacy machines alongside the modern HP workstations used to control the newer satellite missions.
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Maintaining such aged hardware unsurprisingly brings challenges such as getting hold of spares to repair computers that are no longer being made or finding staff with the skills needed to maintain software written in old languages.
"You have a problem with the availability of expertise: to find a good Fortran programmer or someone that can work on the VMS [Virtual Memory System] OS is not easy today - you don't find many young people who want to do that," Merri said.
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Today Mission Control Center has 550 workstations linked to 150 servers running 23 different sub-systems.
Since 1996, Nasa has used standardised Unix workstations in both the shuttle and space station flight control rooms, which system engineer Kluksdahl said has greatly simplified their running.
Before the 1996 revamp the flight control rooms relied upon a patchwork of incompatible computer hardware of varying ages, which needed custom-built interfaces to get them to work together.
"If you replaced one piece of it, you either had to redevelop the old interface [between the machines in the flight control room] for the new hardware or you had to replace the whole building at once.
"Because the machines were obsolete, procuring spare parts was difficult and it became almost impossible," Kluksdahl said, adding that Nasa staff had to hunt out spare parts on the second-hand computer market.
From 1890: The First Text Messages
Excerpt:
In their conversations telegraphers use a system of abbreviations which enables them to say considerably more in a certain period of time then they otherwise could. Their morning greeting to a friend in a distant city is usually “g. m.,” and the farewell for the evening, “g. n.,” the letters of course standing for good morning and good night. The salutation may be accompanied by an inquiry by one as to the health of the other, which would be expressed thus: “Hw r u ts mng?” And the answer would be: “I’m pty wl; hw r u?” or “I’m nt flg vy wl; fraid I’ve gt t mlaria.”
By the time these courtesies have taken place some early messages have come from the receiving department or from some other wire, and the man before whom they are placed says to his friend many miles away: “Wl hrs a fu; Gol hang ts everlastin grind. I wish I ws rich.” And the other man says: “No rest fo t wickd, min pen,” the last two words indicating that he wants the sender to wait a minute while he adjusts and tests his pen. Presently he clicks out “g a,” meaning “go ahead,” and the day’s work has begun.
Scientists from the RAND corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve those problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.
Comment: Click for full sized image. You've got to wonder what the double ship-style steering wheels would be for!
A short video history of negative tech ads
It all goes back to the very first Macintosh TV ad — the legendary "1984." True, the commercial didn't mention Microsoft by name. But it did compare people who used IBM PCs — powered by Bill Gates and Paul Allen's MS-DOS — to a zombie army under the control of an evil overlord. That can't be considered a compliment.
Technology Predictions Are Mostly Bunk
Excerpt:
- "Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments," said Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus in 10 A.D.
Charles Duell, commissioner for the U.S. Patent Office, who in 1899 said, "Everything that can be invented has already been invented." - "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys," Sir William Preece, chief engineer at the British Post Office, 1878.
- "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" H.M. Warner, Warner Bros., 1927.
- "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers," Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
- "Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night," Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
- "The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most," IBM executives to the eventual founders of Xerox, 1959.
- "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home," Ken Olsen, founder of mainframe-producer Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
- "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer—640K ought to be enough for anybody," Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981.
- "Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput," Sir Alan Sugar, British entrepreneur, 2005.
50 things that changed our lives in the aughts
10 obsolete technologies to kill in 2010
Comments:
Bob Greene: About that Saturday mail ...
Excerpts:
n a digital age, the U.S. mail is a throwback to a time when the only way to receive information was to have human beings -- paperboys, mail carriers -- bring it to you by hand. You're reading these words on a screen; chances are, whatever written communication you have with friends and family members in the next 24 hours will be via e-mail and text message, not by dropping an envelope into a mailbox.
The problems the Postal Service faces are real, and they're enormous. Postmaster General Potter says that getting rid of Saturday delivery would save more than $3 billion a year. My guess is that not only are they going to have to do away with Saturday mail -- the time is probably coming when delivery on other days of the week will disappear, too.
So the question is not whether the days of mail delivery will be curtailed. It's whether we will be happy about it.
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[A Netflix impact]
If enough people don't receive their Netflix envelopes on that first Saturday the mail doesn't arrive, and there is thus a hole in their Saturday nights -- well, President Obama might have to step in to cool the outrage, the same way President Dwight D. Eisenhower did in April of 1957, the only other time a permanent cessation of Saturday mail delivery was attempted. It lasted just one weekend. Americans wouldn't put up with it.
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[On Technology Change]
Things change. Telephone landlines are abandoned for cell phones; typewriters are tossed out in favor of computer keyboards. In doing the research for last Sunday's column about mail service, one of the sources I consulted was the February 12, 1951, issue of Time magazine. (Eisenhower, not yet president, was on the cover).
Sprinkled throughout the magazine were big, splashy advertisements extolling the glories of companies and products that no longer exist: Kaiser automobiles, Trans World Airlines, the Milwaukee Road passenger railroad, Moore-McCormack oceanliner cruises.
Tech Terms to Avoid
Excerpt:
There are two industries that refer to their customers as "users" –technology and illegal drugs.
Trying to Put New Zip Into Moore’s Law
Excerpt:
The remarkable progression of Moore’s Law, meanwhile, involves continually shrinking almost everything to do with the chips. Today, the transistors in a high-end chip are no wider than the nucleus of a smallish bacterium — that’s far smaller than the smallest light wave.
Until now, as chips became smaller, they also became faster in about the same proportion. It’s still true for transistors, but it’s no longer true for the wires used to connect transistors — and that slows performance gains. Daniel Edelstein, a program manager and fellow at I.B.M. Research, says, “We’re running out of steam.”
Comment: Moore’s Law
Yes, There Can Be Life After Word
Excerpts:
The advantage to Google Docs is that you can work on a document at home on one computer, store it and then grab the same document on another computer, even at the office. You could work on the document with any computer that has an Internet connection. (There’s the hitch: you can’t work on it while on a plane.)
Actually, there is another hitch. You store the documents on Google servers. That might make someone dealing with important documents nervous, if you think Google might be looking at them or that someone might hack in.
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You can also get good free office applications that reside on your PC the old-fashioned way from Abiword.com or OpenOffice.org
Comment: I'm a little spoiled because I have all the tools provided by my employer. We can even buy Office at a substantial discount for personal use. I love computing "in the cloud" ... having everything on the Net instead of on my MacBook, or Dell, or Vista HP, or Lenovo Thinkpad. Work stuff ... is on a shared drive. Personal stuff is "in the cloud". I've used Open Office on a Linux workstation for work processing and for spreadsheets ... it does everything that I would do in Word of Excel. The Office product that I love is Access. I've used AbiWord as well. It is capable!
Commodore 64 still loved after all these years
Excerpt:
On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, will celebrate the C64's 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will reflect on the C64's achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.
"It was the right machine for the time," said McCracken. "The Commodore 64 did a lot to popularize computers." Sold in shopping malls and discount stores and not just small computer stores -- the norm for the time -- the C64 became many people's gateway into the world of computers, said Brian Bagnall, author of "On the edge: The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore."
"It was so new," Bagnall said. Users could play many games and also learn the programming language of computers -- BASIC.
Jim Park, 39, a software developer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, got his start on a C64 in 1984 when he was 16. Park learned to program motion-graphics synchronized to dance music and ran a BBS, an electronic bulletin board system, the precursor to the Internet. "I really lucked out that something so obscure and nerdy has turned into the modern business and pop-culture phenomenon that it has," he said.
Wallstrom said it was the simplicity of the C64 that made it so great. "You switched it on and it was there, ready for input in a second. Programming on the C64 was straightforward because you got to command the processor directly. You had full control of the whole computer...that is something you don't have with any modern PC."
Comment: I had a C64 back then and used it for Flight Simulator and miscellaneous (non-productive but educational) Basic programming. For serious stuff (that would be word processing / sermon preparation) I had a TRS-80 and used "Allwrite" as a word processor.
For more on the C64: www.c64.com
Today was my 2nd use of Automailer. For my earlier usage see Automailer - 1st Try.
I'm working with a project manager who had a need to send an email to 850 desktop users. He did not know how to easily do this so I volunteered to do the mailing for him (knowing that I have the Automailer in my toolbox). I had to get my manager's approval to help him. I send it as it if was sent from the project manager with him as the contact person.
Sifting through the 850 rows (Microsoft Access), I eliminated rows where the email was NULL and also several duplicates. Then I exported to a [TAB] delimited *.txt file. I did a sample email to just the project manager and myself earlier this week. So today all I had to do was use the larger set of emails (744 with the NULLs and duplicates eliminated). Automailer sent the 744 emails out in less than 2 minutes.
It was one of the highlights of my day! (That and the resolution to the SQL Server Management Studio issue!).
What I am looking forward to ... trying this out with 3,000 addresses. Hopefully soon I will have a project need to try this!
Corel will close Eden Prairie office
Excerpt:
Software company Corel Corp. will close its Eden Prairie operations, the company said Wednesday, putting an end to the Twin Cities digital-media business once known as Jasc Software Inc.
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Corel entered the Twin Cities in 2004 when it bought the former Jasc Software. Jasc, founded in 1991 by a former pilot (the name stands for "Jets and Software Co.," developed the Paint Shop line of photo management and editing software, which established a loyal following despite competing with the much larger Adobe Systems' PhotoShop. Those titles will still be sold by Corel.
Comment: What a great company JASC was. One used to be able to download Paint Shop Pro for free, and use it for 30 days of so. The local support was so capable. Need help? Just call those folk up and they helped you. I still have an old copy of Paint Shop Pro (I think version 7) that I use at work. Sorry to see these folk lose their jobs!
I'm almost completed migrating my work website (Intranet) from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005.
The hardest so far:
I am working on a SQL Server 2005 conversion of a website (from 2000) and today was frustrating.
I have two environments: basically test and production. We can have three: dev, preview, and production. I use our preview enviroment as my development (test) environment.
What's working:
I took a one day class on Microsoft Access 2007 at Hennepin Technical College today. Hennepin Technical College has a Customized Training Center in Plymouth.
Today was a fairly easy day. I left for training at 8:10 am and was home at 3:15. Kathee packed a lunch for me and I drove to Parker's Lake and ate in my truck.
Back to work tomorrow.
