Cyril Remembers IBM at 3:50 AM MT, 11/26 (Thanksgiving for the less alert)

Cyril Remembers Some Old IBM sayings:

"Business is like sex - even when it's bad it's good."
"Any word can be verbed."
"A rose by any other name does not have to follow the standards for roses."
"It is the job of management to make decisions right."
"If you can't fix it, feature it."
"IBM needs wild ducks - but not too many."
"A good business plan is built around mid-life kickers."
"Thou shalt not over-engineer."

Cyril Provides an IBM Sidelight

Somebody (Auden?) once said that man was the naming animal. IBM was the naming corporation, though naming was a distant second to making money, re-organizing, and task-forcing. I have many IBM naming stories but will include only a few.

I grew up in the South and was accustomed to calling white people five years older than myself by their last name, preceded by Mr. or Ms. It was a shock to join IBM and have to learn to call everyone by their first name, or, more IBMish, by their nickname. The nickname custom died out (the first-name custom did not). For the first few years after I joined IBM, when attending an internal function, you were always asked for your "nickname" for lapel cards. In my first couple of years with IBM, people looked genuinely surprised when I said that I did not have a nickname. (Later the IBM La Gaude Lab awarded me a sobriquet, “The Abominable Snowman”.)

But, even in IBM, this went only so far. In the late 1960s, Dick S, head of Personnel, was acting RTP Lab Director in the interregnum between Kuehler and Fairclough. A. K. (Dick) Watson visited the lab during Dick S’s temporary tenure. In the meeting at the lab, Watson said something or other, and the acting lab director began his response by saying, "Aw, shit, Dick". Before he could continue, Watson responded, "Don't be formal, just call me Dick".

Real IBMers had nicknames. If your last name was Finn, you were called "Huck", if Winslow, "Don", if Rogers, "Buck", if Gates, "Rusty", if Rhodes, "Dusty", and so on. If all else failed, you were called something like "BOE" (Bob O. Evans).

A chosen few had sobriquets. The two architects on the 1410, Ron S and Dick C, were known as "The Gold Dust Twins" (Dick C, a hardcore engineer, later became IBM Director of Programming before taking gas over FS; Ron S, also a hardcore engineer, made significant contributions to The Big Oz but did not move up, possibly because he rode a bicycle to work). Glenn H was known as "The Lone Ranger" (as in "Who was that masked man?”). Ed Sussenguth was known as "Dr. Ed". Don Gavis was known as "The Grey Fox" (also as “The Wizard of Os”). Joe LaSarge was known as “The Chief”. Bernie W (was from FSD and fathered most of the bad shit and some of the good in OS/360 -- when it was realized how bad, he was shipped back to FSD) was known as "The Velvet Fog".

Cyril’s List of Some Books on IBM:

The two best books on IBM are

The Maverick and His Machine – Maney
Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology -- Emerson W. Pugh

The book with the most flavor is

Inside IBM: The Watson Years -- William W. Simmons

The oddest book is

And Tomorrow…the World -- Rex Malik

The following are pretty much mandatory

IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems -- Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer
IBM’s Early Computers -- Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, Emerson W. Pugh
Father, Son & Co. – Watson and Petre
A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM – Watson (Jr.)

Cyril liked

The Computer Establishment – Katherine Fishman
The Sun Never Sets on IBM -- Foy
The Romance Division…a Different Side of IBM -- Deloca and Kalow

Cyril edited

IBM System/38 Technical Developments (1978 IBM General Systems Division) – ISBN – 0-933186-00-2

Indirectly about IBM

Design & Memory: Computer Programming in the 20th Century / Peter H. Huyck and Nellie W. Kremenak