steveanderson.digital

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.

(Revised and republished March 30th, 2025)

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 (Wayback Machine link)

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… (video no longer available)

Also from IBM, System 360: From Computers to Computer Systems (Wayback Machine link):

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.”

(Revised and republished April 1st, 2025)

The Queen of Code at FiveThirtyEight (Wayback Machine link)

(YouTube video 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 (Wayback Machine link).

(Revised and republished April 1st, 2025)

BBC gives children mini-computers in Make it Digital scheme, by Jane Wakefield at BBC News, 2015:

The initiative is part of a wider push to increase digital skills among young people and help to fill the digital skills gap. The UK is facing a significant skills shortage, with 1.4 million "digital professionals" estimated to be needed over the next five years.

Interesting controversy too:

The BBC Micro, launched in the 1980s, played a big role in making computing mainstream but it was not without controversy. The broadcaster's decision to link up with Acorn Computers angered Sir Clive Sinclair as he prepared to launch a rival machine, the ZX Spectrum.

Below, a 1983 advertisement in Interface Age magazine, "The BBC Microcomputer is here!" (via Wikipedia)

(Revised and republished April 23rd, 2025)

xkcd comic on Douglas Engelbart and the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968

http://xkcd.com/1234/

The video below is the “Mother of All Demos” at the Internet Archive

1968 Demo - FJCC Conference Presentation Reel #1 by SRI International

(Revised and republished April 2nd, 2025)

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.

twitter.com/hpdiscover/status/453556126043615232 (Twitter links no longer available)

The comments are funny too:

@HPDiscover

this is SO not true. Shame on you HP.

#bigdata

— Camila Caldas (@camilaclbcaldas)

April 8, 2014

@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

(Revised and republished April 2nd, 2025)

“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 (sadly, no longer available) 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.

(Revised and republished April 2nd, 2025)

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-style 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 (Wayback Machine link)

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.

The original video isn’t available on the Wayback Machine, but the YouTube version is embedded below.

(Revised and republished April 2nd, 2025)