4 ms·

which means nothing, jesus, are people not able to follow a thread anymore? the whole thing was an answer to this: >>>> I told my teen children "... a company

which means nothing, jesus, are people not able to follow a thread anymore? the whole thing was an answer to this: >>>> I told my teen children "... a company like IBM". To what they said "what is IBM??" answer wouldn't have changed in the sixties, seventies, nor eighties. mayyybe in the nineties, for the short period laptop became sought after and thinkpad the peak of the form factor.

ghaff 5y ago
Now you're just being rude and I and others are telling you that you're almost certainly wrong. I'm not particularly surprised that a teen today wouldn't have heard of IBM. (It's a large, but one of many, enterprise computing suppliers. I assume they haven't heard of VMware or Oracle either.) I actually would be surprised if a typical child of the Space Age in 1970 wouldn't have heard of it given that IBM pretty much was COMPUTER in the public mind. I'm pretty sure I would have known most of the largest US companies as a teen, including IBM, because of their cultural ubiquity, not because I had a PC (which didn't exist).
jodrellblank 5y ago
> which means nothing ?? In 1997, IBM Deep Blue beat chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov and made international news. IBM sponsored the Olympic Games for 40 years, they sponsored the 1995 Wimbledon tennis tournament, the ATP Tour, the US Open, French Open, Australian Open tennis tournaments, the Masters golf tournament, baseball games, auto racing, college football. Dave Bowman wore an IBM logo on his spacesuit in 2001 A Space Odyssey while people argued that "HAL 9000" was based on "IBM" with the letters shifted. "At the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, IBM demonstrates the largest integrated information technology system ever seen by a mass audience." "The National Hockey League, in partnership with IBM, form an alliance - NHL Interactive Cyber Enterprises - that will use new and emerging technology to promote the growth of hockey worldwide. The Professional Golf Association of America teams with IBM to present a state-of-the-art cybercast of the 78th PGA Championship which takes place in August in Louisville, Kentucky" "IBM is the largest corporate contributor in 1996. Over the last decade, IBM has contributed more than $1.3 billion to nonprofit organizations, schools and universities - close to four million hours of volunteer time in the United States alone," "[1997] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes IBM for outstanding contributions in protecting the Earth's ozone layer." "[1998] U.S. Vice President Al Gore announces Blue Pacific - the world's fastest computer - which is jointly developed by the U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and IBM" "[1998] The Guiness Book of Records officially recognizes IBM for setting two world records in Internet traffic on the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games Web site: "The Most Popular Internet Event Ever Recorded"" I can imagine that there were people who had never heard of them, but they were an enormous company with fingers in hundreds of pies, in the news often, in all sorts of ways - business, finances, sports, environmental, education, charity, employment, investment in factories - in newspapers, magazines, talking head pieces, they were as household name as any massive company, nothing like the "do you know the manufacturer of the Playstation graphics chip???" that you're presenting them as. [1] https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1999.html https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1999.html
- avereveard 5y ago
  what I see is a lot of people thinking their bubble is relevant for the public at large, even discounting the rampant americentrism
  - jodrellblank 5y ago
    IBM appears on this list of most iconic logos of all time above the Nike swoosh or FedEx logo. - https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/most-iconic-brand-logos-all-time/ https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/most-iconic-brand-logos-all... IBM had adverts on ordinary TV, like a $40M campaign for adverts with the M A S H actors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbH50T9jxVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbH50T9jxVI System to help children with speech impediments - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKocB22aH4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKocB22aH4 Speech recognition system, 1986 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNGO5ppfQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNGO5ppfQ8 Olympic Fencing commercial, 1996 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJznrbLZoTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJznrbLZoTE PS/1 advert, 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aam5VgLX9ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aam5VgLX9ys Pink Panther themed 486 advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS095Os84-I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS095Os84-I Netherlands PC ad, 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VwEgRzTQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VwEgRzTQ French advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OyZWQUewfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OyZWQUewfQ etc. etc. To have not heard of them at all whatsoever in the 1990s you don't need to be outside a business, you need to be under a rock, basically never see a TV, newspaper, hear a radio news broadcast, watch a sporting event with sponsor logos, visit any city with billboards, or be tangential to any of their hundreds of thousands of employees, none of your parents or your friends parents working for them, or anything. It really isn't like "can you name the senior vice presidents of CK Prahalad's management consultancy". It's more like "yeah of course teens haven't heard of Ford or FedEx, they don't buy pickup trucks and aren't logistics specialists". > "discounting the rampant americentrism" I'm not American. But if your position is reduced to "a North Korean farmer's child wouldn't have heard of them", then it's not a very strong position.

ghaff 5y ago

Now you're just being rude and I and others are telling you that you're almost certainly wrong. I'm not particularly surprised that a teen today wouldn't have heard of IBM. (It's a large, but one of many, enterprise computing suppliers. I assume they haven't heard of VMware or Oracle either.) I actually would be surprised if a typical child of the Space Age in 1970 wouldn't have heard of it given that IBM pretty much was COMPUTER in the public mind. I'm pretty sure I would have known most of the largest US companies as a teen, including IBM, because of their cultural ubiquity, not because I had a PC (which didn't exist).

jodrellblank 5y ago

> which means nothing ?? In 1997, IBM Deep Blue beat chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov and made international news. IBM sponsored the Olympic Games for 40 years, they sponsored the 1995 Wimbledon tennis tournament, the ATP Tour, the US Open, French Open, Australian Open tennis tournaments, the Masters golf tournament, baseball games, auto racing, college football. Dave Bowman wore an IBM logo on his spacesuit in 2001 A Space Odyssey while people argued that "HAL 9000" was based on "IBM" with the letters shifted. "At the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, IBM demonstrates the largest integrated information technology system ever seen by a mass audience." "The National Hockey League, in partnership with IBM, form an alliance - NHL Interactive Cyber Enterprises - that will use new and emerging technology to promote the growth of hockey worldwide. The Professional Golf Association of America teams with IBM to present a state-of-the-art cybercast of the 78th PGA Championship which takes place in August in Louisville, Kentucky" "IBM is the largest corporate contributor in 1996. Over the last decade, IBM has contributed more than $1.3 billion to nonprofit organizations, schools and universities - close to four million hours of volunteer time in the United States alone," "[1997] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes IBM for outstanding contributions in protecting the Earth's ozone layer." "[1998] U.S. Vice President Al Gore announces Blue Pacific - the world's fastest computer - which is jointly developed by the U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and IBM" "[1998] The Guiness Book of Records officially recognizes IBM for setting two world records in Internet traffic on the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games Web site: "The Most Popular Internet Event Ever Recorded"" I can imagine that there were people who had never heard of them, but they were an enormous company with fingers in hundreds of pies, in the news often, in all sorts of ways - business, finances, sports, environmental, education, charity, employment, investment in factories - in newspapers, magazines, talking head pieces, they were as household name as any massive company, nothing like the "do you know the manufacturer of the Playstation graphics chip???" that you're presenting them as. [1] https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1999.html https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1999.html

avereveard 5y ago
what I see is a lot of people thinking their bubble is relevant for the public at large, even discounting the rampant americentrism
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  IBM appears on this list of most iconic logos of all time above the Nike swoosh or FedEx logo. - https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/most-iconic-brand-logos-all-time/ https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/most-iconic-brand-logos-all... IBM had adverts on ordinary TV, like a $40M campaign for adverts with the M A S H actors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbH50T9jxVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbH50T9jxVI System to help children with speech impediments - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKocB22aH4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKocB22aH4 Speech recognition system, 1986 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNGO5ppfQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNGO5ppfQ8 Olympic Fencing commercial, 1996 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJznrbLZoTE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJznrbLZoTE PS/1 advert, 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aam5VgLX9ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aam5VgLX9ys Pink Panther themed 486 advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS095Os84-I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS095Os84-I Netherlands PC ad, 1990 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VwEgRzTQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VwEgRzTQ French advert - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OyZWQUewfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OyZWQUewfQ etc. etc. To have not heard of them at all whatsoever in the 1990s you don't need to be outside a business, you need to be under a rock, basically never see a TV, newspaper, hear a radio news broadcast, watch a sporting event with sponsor logos, visit any city with billboards, or be tangential to any of their hundreds of thousands of employees, none of your parents or your friends parents working for them, or anything. It really isn't like "can you name the senior vice presidents of CK Prahalad's management consultancy". It's more like "yeah of course teens haven't heard of Ford or FedEx, they don't buy pickup trucks and aren't logistics specialists". > "discounting the rampant americentrism" I'm not American. But if your position is reduced to "a North Korean farmer's child wouldn't have heard of them", then it's not a very strong position.