*********** BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** On 6/14/2001 at 8:05 AM RBL <[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The Univac Turns 50 Look at what a half-century has wrought. It was 50 years ago today that the famed Univac, widely considered the first commercial computer, made its public debut during a dedication at the U.S. Census Bureau. At the time, proponents assured the world that computers would give us shorter workweeks and paperless offices. But there's no disputing the impact the subsequent computer revolution has had on business and, more recently, life away from work. The first implications of the widespread influence Univac and its offspring would have came in the fall of 1952, when the fifth Univac machine correctly predicted Dwight Eisenhower's landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson. CBS News chose not to reveal that prediction until it had been verified by a hand count, but the implications were clear. Computers were on the verge of transforming the way we accessed information. After delivering the first seven Univacs to government agencies, Remington Rand (now Unisys Corp.) made its first private-industry sale to General Electric Co. in 1954. Shortly thereafter, GE revealed that by using its Univac to automate payroll, it was able to reassign a large number of payroll clerks to other positions within the company. In all, Remington Rand sold 46 Univacs, which, given the then-enormous price tag of $1 million to $1.5 million, was considered mass production at the time. "It was really the beginning of the computer industry," says computer historian George Gray, a systems programmer for the State of Georgia who writes the Unisys History Newsletter. The contrast between the Univac and today's mainframe equivalents is astounding. Unisys' ES7000 server, for instance, offers 216,000 times the speed and 7.6 million times the memory of the Univac while consuming one-eighteenth as much power and just 1/24th of the Univac's weight. But even with such advances, computers remain both a blessing and a curse, a fact that led Unisys to mark Univac's 50th birthday by issuing an apology for the resulting inconveniences that sometimes outweigh the benefits. "For all the data, for all the analysis, for all the processing, they still don't help us understand," Unisys VP Guy Esnouf says of modern computers. "It's still just as difficult to make a decision." - Tony Kontzer Is this story closer to memory than history for you? Do you remember using punch cards? Join us in an old-fogey discussion at the Listening Post http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eDu50BdTlA0V20Nmm0Ae ---------------------------------------- This e-mail is copyright � 2001 Richard B. Levin & Levin Communications All rights reserved worldwide *********** END FORWARDED MESSAGE *********** ===========================================================Imagine-Your-Name-Here.com Wouldn�t it be great to have your own personalized Domain Name? New Domains & Transfers $8.95/yr & lower. GoDaddy.com is an ICANN ACCREDITED registrar. ACT NOW! http://click.topica.com/caaab3Kb1dh6Ob1xTSPf/GoDaddy =========================================================== *have anything good to share? Send it to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * for interactive tech help http://theMezz.com/tech ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1dh6O.b1xTSP Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
