Posted by John Patrick on Jun 29, 2003 in
IBM 
There have been many books written about IBM. I own and have read eight of them. The first one on the list is A Business and its Beliefs, by Thomas J. Watson, Jr. It was published forty years ago, in 1963. I read it in 1967, the year I joined IBM. The annual report for 1967 showed revenue of $5.3 billion — a 26% increase of $1.1 billion over 1966. Profit before tax was $1.3 Billion. There were many successes for IBM in 1967. NASA completed its first qualification flight for the Saturn V rocket. Inside of the Saturn was an instrumentation unit three-feet high and 68 feet in circumference which was assembled and programmed by IBM at Huntsville, Alabama. The IBM annual report said that “The Saturn V eventually will be used to propel American astronauts to the moon..”. The System/360 computer was being produced at a rate exceeding 1,000 systems per month and the annual report highlighted the fact that the computer industry had grown to the point where there were “thousands of computer installations throughout the world”. I was one of 23,000 new employees to join IBM in 1967 and I was convinced it was the best possible place anyone could work. I still am. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 27, 2003 in
Internet Technology I continue to believe that the only way to beat the spam problem is through the use of technology, as I have written before. I don’t think the proposed “Do Not Spam” registry has any chance of working. This is partly because of the complexity of the management and security issues that would have to be addressed and partly because of the “exceptions” that would get baked into the legislation. As a proof point of that concern, take a look at the new National Do Not Call Registry that was launched today. The site says that “Most telemarketers cannot call your telephone number if it is in the Do Not Call Registry”. When you click on “most telemarketers” you quickly see the problem — exceptions. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 25, 2003 in
Internet Technology We all wanted the sun to come out and the potential for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) to go away. We got what we asked for. Instead of what we thought was unbearable chill and drizzle, we now have something that truly is unbearable — a heat index of 100 degrees. All things considered, we are very lucky. The authentication working group met at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday. I wish I could report that all is well and that we made great progress in moving the ball forward in the quest for digital id’s, authentication, PKI (public key authentication) and all the attendant benefits. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 22, 2003 in
Internet Technology Some people suffer from symptoms of depression during the winter months, with symptoms subsiding during the spring and summer months. This may be a sign of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is a mood disorder associated with depression episodes and related to seasonal variations of light. I think the 40+ rainy days out of the last 50 days may be inflicting off-season SAD. According to the National Mental Health Association, SAD was first noted before 1845. There are many symptoms ascribed to SAD and likewise many drugs prescribed for treatment. In my case, I admit to being affected by the lack of sunshine but am hoping that my trip to Washington, D.C. tomorrow will coincide with a return to more sunny days. I will be attending a meeting of the authentication working group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We really need digital id’s and I am hopeful that tomorrow’s meeting will move the ball forward.
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 20, 2003 in
Blogging During the past week, I had the pleasure of meeting with quite a few senior executives — mostly CIO’s — of major corporations. They were all familiar to varying degrees with WiFi but not one had even heard of blogging. One said, “blobbing?”. This is not surprising. CIO’s have a lot on their plate. Cut IT spending. Get systems integrated. Support wireless. Improve security. Do more with less. Although I strongly believe enterprises do need blogging (see Site Redesign), it is understandable that CIO’s think they need blogging like they need a hole in the head. Once I explain what blogging is all about, the typical response from people is that they are already in “information overload” to how could they possibly take on reading or writing a blog? (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 16, 2003 in
Blogging Wherever I go, CIO’s and other business leaders tell me they are in the process of a “Web site redesign.” Site redesign is a good thing but it may obfuscate more important issues. The motivation behind site redesign is typically a desire to increase traffic, make things easier to find, provide better organization of information, or improve the visual attractiveness of the site. These are all good things to do but my experience has been that the reason the traffic is less than desired is not because of the design of the site. It is not the look and feel, nor is it the lack of sophisticated information retrieval. I believe that the most important drivers of traffic are the availability of on demand, integrated, useful transactions and, secondly, the availability of access to expertise. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 15, 2003 in
Healthcare I received three pages of information about the procedure
which the doctor ordered. The first and third (which very easily could have
been one page) pages were about pre and post activities. The second page was
clearly most important, at least to someone. I have reproduced it here including
the exact punctuation and font styles. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 15, 2003 in
Travels Yesterday resulted in a new entry in the hiking log. We got in two short hikes before the rain starting pouring — both were in Promised Land State Park, Greentown, Pennsylvania. It was a flat mile around Conservation Island and then a very interesting hike on Little Falls Trail along the Wallenpaupack Creek.
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 12, 2003 in
e-Business I have written several times in the gadgets section about the virtues of ExxonMobil’s Speedpass. I was one of the earliest users and continue to find it a time-saver. Unfortunately, today I saw the dark side of SpeedPass. The last few times I have attempted to use it, both with my car and motorcycles, it has not worked and I had to either pay cash or use a credit card the old way. Normally, the gas station attendant is not aware of what the problem is, but this morning the owner of the local Mobil station happened to be in and he knew the problem — the credit card affiliated with my Speedpass had expired. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jun 10, 2003 in
Internet Technology WiFi is such a clean and user-friendly name. WiFi stands for “wireless fidelity” and it is based on a standard called 802.11 — but who cares? It is becoming a household name, more and more available, and extremely useful. The information technology and telecommunications industries often get enamored with the technical name or the name of a standard and then these “tech-names” take on a life of their own — even though they may be next to impossible to remember, spell, or understand. An example is the technology used in the Sprint PCS wireless service which I use with my ThinkPad. It is referred to as 1xRTT. Somewhat like R2D2 except that I think most people know what R2D2 is. (read more)
