Hello all. This is probably a great opportunity for me to reintroduce
myself to FRIAM group.
I am soon-to-be former IBMer and a former employee of BiosGroup. I’ve
been in Santa Fe since I moved here in 2000 to join BiosGroup. Since
then, I worked at the Naval Postgraduate School and done a ton of
consulting in [Decision
Management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_management) and
Business Process Management. I used to do optimization consulting when
I lived in Japan in the 90s. My professional interests have most
recently been at the intersection of decision modeling and analytics.
IBM is a century old technology company that has survived that long by
reinventing itself several times. I took part in the 100th anniversary
party here in NM in 2011 and there were some fabulous stories by the
old-timers who came to NM to work for the government labs. IBM is
trying to reinvent itself again by trippling down on design and they are
reaching back to [golden years of IBM design for some
inspiration](http://i.imgur.com/onguz5C.jpg). The [Selectric
Typewritter](http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/selectric/)
is a heroic story within IBM’s design labs in Austin, TX. My product
never had much uptake in the legacy computing space but when we were
acquired we did all the work required to support mainframe workloads.
It still represents a huge market segment even as the rest of the
company is trying to launch into the cloud. My suspicion is that many
of these legacy systems that Tom is researching will migrate to the
cloud as the few remaining gurus who know how to maintain them age out
of the workforce.
One area I would like to discuss with this group is best practices for
validating agent based models and visualizing event interactions.
I’ve got to admit that I am somewhat skeptical of simulations when it
comes to production systems and I know that you FRIAM folks are just the
people to help me understand how to do it.
Looking forward to meeting all of you.
David Williams
On 26 May 2016, at 10:28, Tom Johnson wrote:
More on the history of computing.
TJ
===================================
Tom Johnson - Inst. for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, NM
SPJ Region 9 Director
[email protected] 505-473-9646
===================================
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Allan at MuckRock" <[email protected]>
Date: May 26, 2016 6:00 AM
Subject: 💻 📊 Old Computers at the U.S. Census Bureau
To: <[email protected]>
Cc:
<https://www.muckrock.com>
MuckRock
Oldest Computer Project
The oldest computer at the U.S. Census Bureau
A few weeks ago the U.S. Census Bureau completed my request. Believe
it or
not, simply requesting “the oldest computer in active use by this
agency”
actually gets real results from agencies. It worked with MassPort
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=9012254df9&e=c8356bc8ae>
and it worked again with the U.S. Census Bureau
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=7cce74535e&e=c8356bc8ae>.
I’m surprised that such a generic request can get results, but at
the same
time it’s very encouraging that some agencies are willing to meet me
more
than halfway (we’ll see if this request language works with more
uptight
agencies…).
Unfortunately, there were no earth-shattering discoveries in the
Census’
response. A simple enterprise server from 2000. Frankly, the most
interesting part of their response was the way that they redacted it
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=80a6a7c4fb&e=c8356bc8ae>.
Instead, I used this as an opportunity to learn about the *much more
interesting* history of computing at the Census from the late 19th
century
and into the 20th.
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=14ed5bfe10&e=c8356bc8ae>
Did you know that the Census purchased the *first* commercial
computer, the
UNIVAC I, in 1951? Or that a Census employee founded the company that
would
go on to become IBM? You can read the history of computing at the
census
here.
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=63458f12f7&e=c8356bc8ae>
GAO releases report on “aging legacy systems”
Just yesterday the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a
report
commissioned by Congress that I’ve been waiting to read, “Federal
Agencies
Need to Address Aging Legacy Systems”
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=d04793a31f&e=c8356bc8ae>
(check the second and third pages for highlights):
Federal legacy IT investments are becoming increasingly obsolete: many
use
outdated software languages and hardware parts that are unsupported.
Agencies reported using several systems that have components that are,
in
some cases, at least 50 years old. For example, the Department of
Defense
uses 8-inch floppy disks in a legacy system that coordinates the
operational functions of the nation’s nuclear forces. In addition,
the
Department of the Treasury uses assembly language code—a computer
language
initially used in the 1950s and typically tied to the hardware for
which it
was developed.
I’m planning on sitting down with the full report soon, as well as
filing
FOIA requests regarding its creation and any correspondence between
the GAO
and Congress. In the meantime, if you find anything interesting or
file any
requests, please let me know and I can add them to the project.
Historic computers, restored and retouched
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=118982ba06&e=c8356bc8ae>
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=51886d3c83&e=c8356bc8ae>
A really cool and beautiful collaboration between Docubyte
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=2ede5676d4&e=c8356bc8ae>
and INK
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=ffda68b43d&e=c8356bc8ae>
has produced high-quality photos of vintage computers as they would
have
appeared when new. From INK:
The ageing historical objects as photographed by Docubyte have been
‘digitally restored’ and returned to their original form. As a
number of
these computers pre-date modern colour photography, Guide to Computing
therefore showcases them in a never before seen context.
For more information on the project and specific identification of
each
machine, check out Eliza Williams’ article in Creative Review
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=c88d827f08&e=c8356bc8ae>.
For a deeper dive on the industrial design of older computers, I
strongly
suggest checking out The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of
Corporate
Design, 1945–1976
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=8ad7f91756&e=c8356bc8ae>
from your local library.
------------------------------
It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? At least I have a good reason
for
that, and some exciting news to boot. I needed to take time off my own
project to push our projects feature
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=65835d140e&e=c8356bc8ae>
open to *everyone*. If you have an idea for a FOIA-based project, I
really
encourage you to try creating it with us
<http://muckrock.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=74862d74361490eca930f4384&id=358a26252b&e=c8356bc8ae>.
And when you do create your project, I’d love to hear about it. 🙂
If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please forward it
to
them. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please send
them to
me—just reply to this email.
Thanks for reading!
Copyright (C) 2016 MuckRock All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you were interested in following
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
