IBM, nee a merger of the Computer Scale Company of America and the International Time Recording Company with the Tabulating Machine Company, started with weighing devices and propelled into the realm of computer science by Herman Hollerith’s (not a man of blue suits and white shirts, for sure) tabulating machine and the US Census Bureau (behind every successful company stands a good government project).

As Casey Stengel once said of pitcher and Durham native, Roger Craig, who completed 27 games amidst a record of 15 wins and 46 loses in two seasons with the beloved and famously inept New York Mets of the early 1960s, “ya gotta be pretty good to lose that many games.”

Maybe the same could be said of this company that can be such a large and benign target – I think of Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000- add a letter to HAL, i.e. H + 1 letter = I. Although, I observe that Microsoft years ago became the outfit that everyone loved to hate.

We have to admire CTCR/IBM’s sturdy capacity to survive amidst the torrent of technology changes and sometimes immobile management. As well, we should be thankful for what IBM achieved for our country and the world. You can look it up – above.

My long time and good friend, Gary Rancourt, is the lead dude in this commercial. If you live long enough, you see it all.

The Eames’ “A Communications Primer” from FI$H 2000 on Vimeo.

Vimeo took down the file. Here is the same clip in the publc domain. http://www.archive.org/details.php?identifier=communications_primer

Incredible video before there were videos even. IBM sponsored the Eames couple, famous for all things instructional design. Music by Elmer Bernstein who also scored Magnificent 7 and The Great Escape . If this is not enough talent, John von Neuman, father of too many brilliant technical concepts, and Claude Shannon, Mr. Information Theory, among several other notables, were acknowledged as production contributors.

On a a day when the US stock market is likely to find an historic and panic-induced low, buoying to be reminded of the caliber of people who inspired many of the marvelous achievements of our modern lifestyles. We’re really not all about greed and selfishness and foolishness.

BTW, the clip uses many references to art, love, music to inform and information.

Thanks to Adam Christensen for site referral.