[SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

mike at willegal.net mike at willegal.net
Tue Jul 21 11:43:16 PDT 2020 

 I can relate to some of these comments.

Cisco, where I have employed since 1997, used to have coolers with a large variety of free beverages available to all employees.  I had one friend that said that when the free drinks went away, so would he, and he did leave not so long after the free drinks disappeared.

I also used to fill my cup directly from the outflow from the old style brewing machines.

At one point Encore Computer, charged employees a quarter a cup for coffee on the honor system.  Eventually the coffee became free to employees, but management didn’t tell us and they used the funds to sponsor a year end holiday party.

Here is a story. More than 15 years ago, I fairly frequently travelled back and forth between Boston and San Jose on the “Nerd Bird."  Over time, I had established the habit of staying on east coast time, even when out in California.  Visiting San Jose, during the intense effort of a new hardware bring up, the team stayed and worked through a weekend.  Sunday morning, I woke up, as usual, about 4 or 5 AM local time.  Not having anything to do in the hotel room, I decided to go into the office and get a head start on the days efforts.  I arrived in the large, dark and apparently empty, office building at something like 5 AM that Sunday morning.  With the lights out, no one in sight,  I found that the coffee machine was in the middle of brewing a fresh pot of coffee.  It was a very eerie thing.  Eventually, I ran across a guy from another team that had come into the office early that morning and needed his cup of “Joe.”

Eventually I had to give up on all caffeinated beverages, as I often didn’t drink them during weekends and would then end up with a splitting headache on Sunday.


-Mike Willegal




> On Jul 21, 2020, at 1:08 PM, Marc Weber <marc at webhistory.org> wrote:
> 
> Mugs are also well represented in our collection at the Computer History Museum… you’ll get 470 hits when you search on “mug” in our online catalog <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=mug&f=physicalobject>. In fact we have essentially stopped collecting them as a result.
> We also have a Peet’s Dash Button <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102777941>. 
> Best, Marc
> 
> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |   marc at webhistory.org <mailto:marc at webhistory.org>  |   +1 415 282 6868 
> Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
> Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
> computerhistory.org/nethistory <http://computerhistory.org/nethistory>  |  Co-founder, Web History Center and Project
> 
>> On Jul 21, 2020, at 09:44, Henry E Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Jim,
>> You might want to browse through the Doug Menuez photography collection at Stanford.  About 10,000 of the images are online (out of about 200-250,000).  He captures quite a bit of the culture in companies like Apple, NeXT, Adobe, etc., mostly 1980s.  I am sure you will find many coffee mugs there!
>> Here is a link to the online exhibit created from the images in this collection:
>> https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez <https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez>
>> Hit “browse” to see a selection of companies represented.
>> Henry
>>  
>> Henry Lowood, PhD
>> Harold C. Hohbach Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections; Curator, Film & Media Collections
>> HASG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
>> Stanford University Libraries
>> Stanford CA 94305-6066
>> PH: 650-723-4602
>> EM: lowood at stanford.edu <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>
>>  
>> From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>> On Behalf Of Kidwell, Peggy
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:09 AM
>> To: Staiti, Alana <StaitiA at si.edu <mailto:StaitiA at si.edu>>; James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu <mailto:jcortada at umn.edu>>; members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>
>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>  
>> I would add to Alana's fine list:
>>  
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086 <https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086> (a photograph)
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460 <https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460> (a cartoon - though not much coffee shown)
>>  
>> Best -
>>  
>> Peggy Kidwell
>> From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of Staiti, Alana <StaitiA at si.edu <mailto:StaitiA at si.edu>>
>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM
>> To: James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu <mailto:jcortada at umn.edu>>; members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org> <members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>  
>> External Email - Exercise Caution
>> Hi Jim,
>>  
>> The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever digging I can do from afar, for the time being.
>>  
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=2yjToxvJg097T7YaIu%2F3SkDRq6UBv%2BYIWinjh68PGqQ%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=LsCiXe%2FDc9dbbydoHCscFyN8iDNTLcnhL96cvFJ4QHU%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=rckja4adawNZnJdJu1f10AplLLTq4zBHSuX1lRVuMsY%3D&reserved=0>
>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=if2AKMU52J9PU8oO22NTlBtJJeIDyz%2FYkgwlWyWOtRg%3D&reserved=0>
>>  
>> Be well,
>> Alana
>>  
>> Alana Staiti (she/her/hers)
>> Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences
>> National Museum of American History
>> Smithsonian Institution
>> staitia at si.edu <mailto:staitia at si.edu>
>>  
>> From: Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of James Cortada <jcortada at umn.edu <mailto:jcortada at umn.edu>>
>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM
>> To: members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org> <members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
>> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing
>>  
>> External Email - Exercise Caution
>> 
>> The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers.  I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing.  Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing?  I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough.  Corporate culture is tough to study.  Thanks in advance for your help.  Jim 
>> -- 
>> James W. Cortada
>> Senior Research Fellow
>> Charles Babbage Institute
>> University of Minnesota
>> jcortada at umn.edu <mailto:jcortada at umn.edu>
>> 608-274-6382
>> _______________________________________________
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> 
> 
> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |   marc at webhistory.org <mailto:marc at webhistory.org>  |   +1 415 282 6868 
> Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum            
> 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory <http://computerhistory.org/nethistory>
> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org <http://webhistory.org/> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org/>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/> and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org <http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org>
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