Deep LA Conference at The Huntington
I’ll be presenting a paper at the “Deep L.A.” graduate history conference taking place at The Huntington on October 3rd.
The conference is sponsored by UCLA and USC, with a focus on Los Angeles and Southern California regional history: http://lahistoryconference.tumblr.com
I’m presenting a portion of a chapter in my dissertation, which focuses on mainframes, paperwork, and the electrical utility company Southern California Edison during the postwar era.
(Originally published on my old site, "The Digital Imaginary" [imaginary.digital], on September 20th, 2015 -- revised and republished March 28th, 2025.)
The Census Has Always Been "Big Data"
The Census has always been “Big Data,” with or without computers and the automation of information.
Census and Sensibility: A Little History of Big Data at IEEE (broken link)
Consider just one use of today’s big data with a deep history and a major impact on computational technology: keeping track of a country’s citizenry. This has often been accomplished through a periodic counting, or census. Many references to censuses exist in the ancient world, from Egyptian tomb inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible to, perhaps, most famously, the “worldwide” Roman census described in the Book of Luke in the New Testament.
The Virgin and Saint Joseph register for the census before Governor Quirinius. Byzantine mosaic at the Chora Church, Constantinople 1315–1320 – via Wikipedia
(Originally published on my old site, “The Digital Imaginary” [imaginary.digital], on September 19th, 2015 – revised and republished March 28th, 2025.)
Digital Imaginaries at AoIR
Something tells me I should have applied to the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference this year – the theme is “Digital Imaginaries.” The CFP has already passed, but the conference itself is coming up in late October, 21-24th, in Phoenix, Arizona. http://aoir.org/ir16/
The 16th annual Internet Research conference will provide an opportunity to question the ways that networked technologies are imagined and enter into collective imaginaries. In what ways do we culturally apprehend and make sense of digital media? These imaginaries influence our actual and potential uses of technology, as well as how we constrain, encourage, and dream about those uses.
(Originally published on my old site, "The Digital Imaginary" [imaginary.digital], on September 18th, 2015 -- revised and republished March 29th, 2025.)
People Working in Computer Room
As part of my dissertation I’m working with the Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives collection at the Huntington Library. The photographic collection is now available online at the Huntington Digital Library. A few years ago, when I first came across this collection, it was only available in-person on a single computer.
I stitched the two photos below into an animated gif, showing the transition within computerized space. The images are from “People working in computer room with 1” tape drives" in the SCE collection at the Huntington. These before and after photos taken in 1966 at SCE appear to show how people would fit alongside and interact with the mainframe computer.
Photographs such as these often show many people in the room, mostly trying to look busy, with a few of them staring at equipment or pretending to use the machine. These staged photographs for internal use are similar to those used for marketing. In both cases the images are designed to show how people and computers would work together.
The mainframe in these photographs is a Control Data Corporation mainframe, and it appears to be a CDC 3200 system.
The Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley has a brochure for the CDC 3200 mainframe (PDF) available online as well.
(Originally published on my old site, “The Digital Imaginary” [imaginary.digital], on August 11th, 2015 – revised and republished March 29th, 2025.)
Univac 494 marketing photographs
I came across this Univac photograph online, showing three people working in a computer room. Using a reverse Google Image Search, it appears that this image and a few others like it were posted online around 2006. From there it looks like the pictures were blogged here and there, recently posted to Pinterest, then making their way to Instagram. I can’t seem to find the original image online, but this one looks like a scan of a partially damaged photo most likely used for marketing. It’s possible that this image could be printed in a brochure other other advertisement.
The image above is a little fuzzy, but the mainframe appears to be a Univac 494. This would date the photograph to 1965 or 1966 or so. The additional photographs below offer a closer view of the mainframe console and its peripherals. There’s also more information on the Univac 494 at Ed Thelen’s website (photos linked below).
(Originally published on my old site, “The Digital Imaginary” [imaginary.digital], on August 8th, 2015 – revised and republished March 30th, 2025.)
Finding the Death of the Mainframe
I came across a blog post (link no longer functions) discussing the 50th anniversary of the IBM System/360, and it mentioned a prediction about the so-called “death of the mainframe.”
I had seen the photo before, of Stewart Alsop literally eating his words “Death to the Mainframe” with a knife and fork, but I had not seen the original quote in print, and I couldn’t find a citation.
Alsop’s Wikipedia page is in disrepair (in 2025, apparently it no longer exists), and the quotation listed on Wikipedia didn’t have a proper citation – neither did the image at the Computer History Museum.
Back issues of InfoWorld magazine are online at Google Books, but searches there were not helpful. I kept finding references to the prediction, but not the original statement itself.
Then I happened across this forum discussion about the “Death of the Mainframe” on Google Groups, and one of the members noted that the original statement did not happen in the InfoWorld magazine, but at a conference.
The first reference in print to the death of the mainframe by Alsop is in the February 22, 1993 issue of InfoWorld magazine on page 4. The article reads:
Last week, we held the second InfoWorld Editorial EXPOsure, where 35 vendors from the Northwest showed hot new products to 26 of our editors and reporters and more than 70 of our readers (plus an odd assortment of other insiders and cognoscenti).
We also had a fun panel featuring columnists Cheryl Currid and Brian Livingston, along with four of our staff. The panel gave a lively discussion about the role of the mainframe in future information systems. I predicted that the last mainframe will be unplugged on March 15, 1996. Cheryl Currid was a little kinder and predicted that all remaining mainframes will blow up on December 31, 1999, when their clocks cannot figure out how to make the change to the year 2000.
Reference for the magazine article:
Alsop, Stewart. “Microsoft’s Hermes: key network management system or myth?” Distributed Thinking, InfoWorld magazine. February 22, 1993. page 4.
(article available on Google Books)
(Originally published on my old site, “The Digital Imaginary” [imaginary.digital], on March 28th, 2015 – revised and republished March 30th, 2025.)
We Don't See Mainframes as Legacy Technology
Half-century milestone for IBM mainframes, by Mark Ward at BBC News (April 7th, 2014)
Most interesting about the passage below, is that they’re referring to mainframes right now, not 50 years ago.
"I don't think people realise how often during the day they interact with a mainframe," he said.
Mr Heptonstall said mainframes were behind many of the big information systems that keep the modern world humming and handled such things as airline reservations, cash machine withdrawals and credit card payments.
The machines were very good at doing small-scale transactions, such as adding or taking figures away from bank balances, over and over again, he said.
"We don't see mainframes as legacy technology," said Charlie Ewen, chief information officer at the Met Office, which has been using mainframes for 40 years.
(Originally published on my old site, “The Digital Imaginary” [imaginary.digital], on March 27th, 2015 – revised and republished March 30th, 2025.)
IBM System/360 - 50th anniversary
IBM recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the System/360 mainframe, which was announced on April 7, 1964.
IBM press announcement text for the System/360, 1964
IBM System/360 at the Computer History Museum
The System/360, or S/360 is discussed in this IBM video, “IBM Centennial Film: They Were There.” youtu.be/XrhDaAmn5…
Also from IBM, System 360: From Computers to Computer Systems:
Most significantly, the S/360 ushered in an era of computer compatibility—for the first time, allowing machines across a product line to work with each other. In fact, it marked a turning point in the emerging field of information science and the understanding of complex systems. After the S/360, we no longer talked about automating particular tasks with “computers.” Now, we talked about managing complex processes through “computer systems.”
(Originally published on my old site, "The Digital Imaginary" [imaginary.digital], on March 27th, 2015 -- revised and republished April 1st, 2025. Sadly most links are broken now.)
Grace Hopper documentary - "The Queen of Code"
The Queen of Code at FiveThirtyEight
https://youtu.be/Qwwf866Cfdg (no longer available)
Also, an interview with the director of the short film at NPR, on All Tech Considered: Grace Hopper, ‘The Queen Of Code,’ Would Have Hated That Title
The moth, or first computer “bug” mentioned in the video and audio above.
There’s also a Grace Hopper GitHub sticker (shown below) called the “Gracehoptocat.” The sticker was given out at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
[sidenote: The video clip on FiveThirtyEight has a Javascript embed code, which won’t work on WordPress without some tinkering. Thankfully, “The Queen of Code” video is also hosted on YouTube as shown in this post.]
[sidenote to the sidenote: Now in 2025, most links are broken, the videos are not viewable and 538 or fivethirtyeight.com is being shut-down.]
(Originally published on my old site, "The Digital Imaginary" [imaginary.digital], on March 26th, 2015 -- revised and republished April 1st, 2025.)
Just a Little Acronym We Thought Up
xkcd comic on Douglas Engelbart and the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968
The video below is the "Mother of All Demos" at the Internet Archive
1968 Demo - FJCC Conference Presentation Reel #1 by SRI International
5 MB of Data on 62,500 Punched Cards
[caption id=“attachment_64” align=“alignright” width=“532”]
“Programmer standing beside punched cards” “This stack of 62,500 punched cards — 5 MB worth — held the control program for the giant SAGE military computer network.” ca. 1955 (via the Computer History Museum)[/caption]
Explaining data storage in a visual way has always been difficult, but especially so with the transition to magnetic tape in the 1950s and 1960s.
Photographs of punched cards help show the enormity of the task at hand, and also the materiality of the information.
5 megabytes of data seems pretty insignificant nowadays, when terabyte hard drives are a common feature in personal computers.
1 TB = 1,000,000 MB (now that would be a lot of punched cards!)
From the Computer History Museum’s online exhibit on Memory and Storage
Punch Card Jam Needs Some Force
In 2010, representatives from the Computer History Museum visited a company in Texas still using an IBM 402 mainframe for everyday accounting jobs.
[caption id=“attachment_61” align=“aligncenter” width=“933”]
“Jam needs SOME force” (image caption at http://ibm-1401.info/402.html)[/caption]
[caption id=“attachment_62” align=“aligncenter” width=“525”]
“Card Jam Front View” (image caption at http://ibm-1401.info/402.html)[/caption]
The photographs on for the CHM trip are pretty interesting, especially the punch card jams: http://ibm-1401.info/402.html
The article below mentions the CHM trip to Texas, and a few other old computers still in use:
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today, by Benj Edwards at PCWorld
The biggest problem with maintaining such ancient computer systems is that the original technicians who knew how to configure and maintain them have long since retired or passed away, so no one is left with the knowledge required to fix them if they break.
Mainframes are so 50 years ago
I came across this tweet as an advertisement in my own Twitter feed. It’s meant to be ironic, mainframes are still around, it’s more so the way they’re perceived that’s changed.
The comments are funny too:
@HPDiscover this is SO not true. Shame on you HP. #bigdata
— Camila Caldas (@camilaclbcaldas) April 8, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
@HPDiscover Another one who will eat his words about the death of the Mainframe. Here we go again !!! Have u even watched Matrix ? LOL!!
— DD (@Cojinua77) April 9, 2014
Computers Never Lie About Love
“Comput-Her Baby” - a short film by Dave Goldson and Neal Chastain, 1968
A satire on computer dating and matchmaking. The song “Strangers in the Night” plays while punched cards are sorted by mainframe computers.
The color in the Vimeo embed below is a bit off, toward a faded, pinkish hue. The video is available at UC Berkely and UC San Diego, but I’m not sure of the condition of those reels. It’s also listed at the UCLA Film and Television archive in faded condition, although this listing doesn’t show in Melvyl or WorldCat.
The Machine That Changed the World - video series
Thanks to Andy Baio, all five parts of The Machine That Changed the World are available online: http://waxy.org/2008/06/the_machine_that_changed_the_world/
The Machine That Changed the World is the longest, most comprehensive documentary about the history of computing ever produced, but since its release in 1992, it's become virtually extinct. Out of print and never released online, the only remaining copies are VHS tapes floating around school libraries or in the homes of fans who dubbed the original shows when they aired.
All 5 episodes are available on YouTube
Part 1: Great Brains
http://youtu.be/M78elH-8tQo?list=PLI6R9qwXherYpxb9xLHTblrq_bIbKAJBE
(post updated to include YouTube embed and link to playlist)
The Holmdel Computer Center - Part 2
The Holmdel Computer Center, Part 2 – AT&T Archives
http://techchannel.att.com/embed/index.cfm?mediaID=11201&w=768&h=432
This rare look inside a Bell Labs computer center, specifically the one at the Holmdel location, which was referred to internally as the "HOCC" or the "HO CC". This film was made as orientation for new employees who would need to use the computer center, and this, part 2 of 2 (see part 1), is about the programming center within the HOCC. One thing that's notable about this film — different from Part 1 — is the preponderance of women working in the Programmer Services area. Around 1966, 7 years before this film was made, there were over 500 women working in "technical work" at Bell Labs, rather than administrative work, and many were in computing. A book and blog by Nathan Ensmenger examines the sociological history of computing, and why during the 1980s the computing field became more and more the province of men. Stories about women in the early decades of computing still reside in the world of the personal anecdote; it's hard to assess the exact data on how many women worked in the field in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Holmdel Computer Center - AT&T archives
There’s some interesting artwork on the timeshare computer…reminds me of the “nose art” on military aircraft. In my archival research I’ve come across a few instances of pinup-type material, especially ASCII art printouts.
The video below is from 1973, slightly after the timeframe of my research, but certainly interesting.
The Holmdel Computer Center, Part 1 – AT&T Archives
http://techchannel.att.com/embed/index.cfm?mediaID=11200&w=768&h=432
The year was 1973, and the computer operating system UNIX, invented at Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, had just morphed into its third iteration or improvement, and had just been rewritten in the C programming language. This film, made as an orientation for the computer center at the Bell Labs Holmdel location, is a rare glimpse into the operations and procedures of an early 1970s research-oriented computing center. And as the 1973 Holmdel Computer Center only had IBM computers, it wasn't running a UNIX installation: the system was only ported to IBM computers in the years to come. In 1973, UNIX as a system was limited to installations on DEC computers, and there were UNIX installations at other locations of Bell Laboratories such as Indian Hill, Whippany, and, of course, Murray Hill (where UNIX and C were developed). Computers in the Bell System weren't just relegated to computer science or the development of computer language. They were employed for all kinds of complex engineering calculations, telecommunications applications, and, very occasionally, for making art and music.
Control Data Cyber 170 mainframes
Two Control Data Cyber 170 mainframe computers, side by side – one online, and one as a spare. (Photograph via Library of Congress)
SITE BUILDING 002 - SCANNER BUILDING - LOOKING AT DISC STORAGE SYSTEMS A AND B
The year on the photo is listed as 1999, which seems too recent given the feel of the picture. In the high-resolution TIFF, however, the date can be seen on the bulletin board, “21 Oct 99”. The Cyber 170 was produced in the late 1970s, so this unit is at least 20 years old.
The photograph is part of this collection at LOC: Cape Cod Air Station, Technical Facility-Scanner Building & Power Plant, Massachusetts Military Reservation, Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA
Careers and digital lifespans
Campus digital workhorse running final laps after 35 years, by Barbara Palmer, Stanford Report, 2003
The remarkable thing is not that the mainframe will be retired -- the 35-year-old system is "like a jet slowly losing its engines," said Dick Guertin, a software developer who has worked at Stanford since 1970. What is amazing, say those whose work lives have spanned much of the computer revolution, is that the mainframe system and the ground-breaking applications designed here to run on it have held up so well for so long.At its peak, there were 30,000 accounts, including noncampus users, on the mainframe. Some of what McWilliam is doing requires real detective work, since many of the people who opened the accounts have long ago left Stanford or retired.
Also – Forsythe Mainframe Retirement
The mainframe era officially ended on December 15, 2003 when the last of the mainframe accounts was closed down.