Brief History of IBM Mainframe Computers and Computing

When I began my working career in the IT (Information Technology) business in 1968, I first worked in IBM with the computer series S/360 (System 360). IBM named the series as 360 (a complete revolution) as, apart from being in the '60s, they regarded those as their first ever all-rounder general purpose computers. Entered the '70s, I then worked with the successor series S/370 (System 370). Came the '80s. IBM stopped short of producing System 380 series. Instead, they produced the 308x series (3081, 3083 etc) and 3090 series, and I continued to work with those. Further came the '90s, I then worked with the Enterprise System ES/9000. At the turn of the millennium into 2000, IBM came back again to the series S/390 (System 390).
All these were mainframe computers which were huge processor complex running all or most applications in a corporation. The processor complex were huge in the sense of their processing power and also they were big refrigerator-type boxes which needed to stay in large air-conditioned, humidity-controlled computer rooms with raised flooring (to hide the numerous computer cables underneath). Data were stored in numerous fast-spinning disks coupling together in a big disk farm which gave another reason why a large computer room was needed. Usually the computer rooms were behind floor-to-ceiling glass walls as companies wanted to show off to their customers the usage of high technology. The computer rooms were dubbed as 'glass houses' at that time. Processing power of the mainframe computers were measured by MIPS (million instruction per second that the processor could compute). As an indication, a S/360 model 20 in 1965 was at 0.002 MIPS and a S/390 model G6 in 1999 was at 1644 MIPS.
In the '60/70s, computing were essentially done by mainframe computers. Processing power of mainframe computers grew exponentially year after year. However, in the '80/90s, with the advent of high-speed telecommunications and personal computers, computing began to shift from centralizing all processing in one single huge mainframe to a distributed processing environment. Individual applications (e.g. accounting or email etc) would be offloaded to individual mid-range computers with medium-sized processing power like Sun Microsystem or HP (Hewlett Packard). Personal applications (e.g. word processing etc) would be offloaded to personal computers with numerous brands and models. Mainframe computers would no longer grew in power as fast as before. Instead, the mainframe computer, mid-range computers and personal computers were interconnected via advanced telecommunications links to form a computer network to collaboratively perform all necessary processing for a corporation. Computing began to be done under multi-tiered architecture environments. A typical 3-tiered architecture might have a large mainframe computer for corporate computing (running the critical applications like reservations in an airline for the entire corporation), several mid-range computers for departmental computing (running individual applications like Accounting for the Accounts department, Flight Scheduling for the Flight Control Department etc), and numerous personal computers for personal computing (running as individual staff workstations and to access the mainframe or mid-range computers depending on individual staff needs).
In addition to computing internally within a corporation, the '90s saw the evolution of business into the e-business era where corporations connected externally to other companies to perform electronic business-to-business transactions (e.g. to banks or credit card companies or to other enterprises etc). Corporations also had increasing demand for global information access and sharing via the internet (which is a global system of interconnected computer networks using a commonly accepted standard called internet protocol), and increasing demand for internal information access and sharing via the intranet (which is a corporate computer network using the internet protocol technologies for internal usage within the corporation).

Moving into the new millennium 2000, computing continues to evolve in different diversities. We are seeing continuing advancements in computing speed, functionality and accessibility at all levels enabling users to obtain information and knowledge of any sort from anywhere at any time as they desire.

Help! Degradation in System Performance

I read this story from one of my friends, and I relay here for sharing in this blog.

A woman writes to the IT Technical Support.
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0, and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as News 5.0, Money 3.0 and Golf 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.
Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.
What can I do?
SIGNED,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply

Dear Madam,
First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.
Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install Guilt 3.0 update.
If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flower3.5.
However, remember, overuse of the above applications can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Silence 2.5 or Beer 6.1.
Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.).
In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash with Husband 1.0.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend: Cooking 3.0 and Hot Look 7.7.
Good luck Madam.
IT SUPPORT DESK.

First Encounter of 3-D TV

Samsung launched the new 3-D TV in Australia in April, 2010. We went to Harvey Norman in Gordon Centre on Monday to view the demonstration. Harvey Norman is now offering a promotional package including a 46" LED High Definition 3-D TV, a 3-D Blu-Ray player and 2 pairs of 3-D glasses at the price of $3699 Australian dollars. This set was being displayed at the site, and we viewed a demonstration of a soccer match and formula car racing with these equipment.
With the 3-D glasses on, the colours on the screen were bright and beautiful. The images were sharp and clear, with objects popping out in front of the eyes as real. The feelings were similar to those as experienced with 3-D movies, but with much more comfort to view casually by yourself. It was really amazing, a bit pricey at this stage though.
After about 10 minutes of viewing, I felt dizzy and had to leave the demonstration. I walked wobbly down the escalator and had to sit on a bench in front of Woolworths to rest for a while to recover. We subsequently canceled our plan for afternoon tea in Chatswood as result.

That was my first experience (and impression) of the 3-D TV. Gosh!

How I started in IT

In the not-too-distant past (as it appeared to me), I finished my matriculation level (Form 7) study. As the result of my Advanced Level Examination was not good enough to earn me a place in the local universities, nor could I afford for an overseas tertiary education, I had but to look for jobs to start my working career. At that time, I thought Accounting was the best profession for me. I sent out mountains of application letters to all the major firms in Hong Kong for suitable accounting posts.
One day, I was asked to go for an interview in China Light and Power. I went to see the Head of the Accounts Department, Mr Nedderman. During the interview, Mr Nedderman didn't ask me anything about Accounting. Nor did he tell me anything about the accounting post I was applying for. He only asked me, "John, are you interested in working with computers?" I didn't have the faintest idea what computers were at that time, let alone I liked to work with them or not. So I hesitated, and said, "I don't know. But I'd like to know more." Mr Nedderman then took me for a tour to the computer room in China Light. It was a hugh farm of machineries. I was totally fascinated by the flickering lights of consoles and the fast rolling reels of magnetic tapes. Mr Nedderman introduced me to the manager of the computing department, and I ended up having an interview with him that day. I never saw Mr Nedderman again since then. A week later, I received a reply from China Light saying my application was not successful.
I felt very disappointed. But the meeting with Mr Nedderman had sparked my interest in computing. So I quickly re-focused. I did a bit of research of what computers were, and what were the major computing firms in Hong Kong. I applied to the two then giants: IBM (International Business Machines) and NCR (National Cash Register), and finally I got an offer from IBM for a post of Computer Operator. Thence, I started my 36-year career in the IT (Information Technology) industry: 2 in IBM, 28 in Cathay Pacific and 6 in Qantas.

Expect the unexpected. Sometimes things may turn out not as we wanted, but they may turn out even better. Prepare to re-focus and react. We can start from nothing, provided we learn and work hard.

Artificial Intelligence

Search engine is an internet tool built with artificial intelligence which searches the world wide web to find relevant information basing on user's input, sometimes guessing what the user wants.
I was in Hong Kong last November. It was 9 pm on a Tuesday night. I heard from the TV news there was a superjackpot of over $30 millions for Mark VI, the betting of which would close by 9:30. (Mark VI is a lottery in Hong Kong which is similar to Lotto in Australia.)
So I hastened. I scrambled through my phone books to look for the telephone number for the Telebet Centre. Things were usually not there at the time you needed them most.
At 9:15, I began to panic. I was nowhere but to resort to the internet for help. I keyed in 'Mark VI' to a search engine, hoping that it would return some relevant websites which I might find the phone number to place my bets. I forgot whether it was Google or Yahoo. Anyway I did, and guess what came back!
It returned:

'St. Mark's Gospel, Chapter Six'

"Oh no. Not at this time." I sighed. It was 9:25.

The search engine was so smart to try to stop me from plunging all my fortune in that go at the very last moments. Thank you.

Voice Recognition System

I was working on my tax return two months ago. I needed the total payment for my internet connection for claiming the Education Tax Refund. My connection was with Optus broadband cable. As all payments were made via direct debit, I had to ask Optus for hardcopies of the bills for the last 12 months to substantiate my claim. So I called the Optus Customer Services Hotline.
After the general greetings, the Voice System asked, "In a few words, please tell me what you'd like to do today."
I said, : "Account enquiry"
The Voice System said, " Thank you. To assist me to go further, please tell me your mobile number if you have an Optus mobile, otherwise, just say I don't have one."
As I didn't have an Optus mobile, I followed the instruction and said, " I don't have one."
But the Voice System replied, " Sorry, I have difficulty to understand you.", and repeated, "Please tell me your mobile number if you have an Optus mobile, otherwise, just say I don't have one."
I then said gently and slowly, " I ----- don't ----- have ------ one." I thought a kindie kid would be able to understand me this time.
But the Voice System replied again, "Sorry, I have difficulty to understand you.", and repeated, " Please tell me ------------ don't have one."
I began to lose myself. I raised my voice and shouted to the phone, " I DON'T HAVE ONE. DAMN IT."
And the Voice System replied, " Transferring you to an operator.", and there went the music.
15 minutes later, all my queries and requests were fully answered by a human behind. That was Voice Recognition System.

Perhaps this VRS only recognises English with Aussie accents.