<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Brian,<div><br></div><div>The memo is definitely authentic (see copy of it--attached, courtesy of IBM Archives).</div><div><br></div><div>As to Seymour's 'reply,' I fear it is from the book "A Few Good Men From Univac, David Lundstrom, viz. p. 135 on which Lundstrom says:</div><div><br></div><div>"One of the funniest documents in my collection of computer</div>memorabilia is an internal IBM memo, which surfaced during the discovery<br>phase of the various IBM lawsuits (figure 12). T. J. Watson, Jr., questions<br>with acerbity just why such a small low-budget operation as the Chippewa<br>Lab developed the fastest computer in the world, while IBM's vast research<br>establishment cannot. I believe that Seymour would say that Mr. Watson<br>answered his own question."<div><br></div><div> </div><div>(Thanks to my colleague curator Alex Bochannek for locating this reference)</div><div><br></div><div>Mea culpa! I have attributed this quote to Seymour myself (<a href="http://drdobbs.com/184404102">http://drdobbs.com/184404102</a>).</div><div><br></div><div>I stand corrected!</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks Brian,</div><div><br></div><div>Best</div><div><br></div><div>Dag</div><div><br></div><div><img height="1642" width="1259" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" id="58952ecd-99ac-48f0-a3cb-cb2d55e5242b" src="cid:95153107-BAD2-402E-A263-EA8446D388B4@dcb"></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On May 19, 2011, at 9:00 AM, <a href="mailto:members-request@sigcis.org">members-request@sigcis.org</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Send Members mailing list submissions to<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><a href="mailto:members@sigcis.org">members@sigcis.org</a><br><br>To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members<br>or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>members-request@sigcis.org<br><br>You can reach the person managing the list at<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>members-owner@sigcis.org<br><br>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific<br>than "Re: Contents of Members digest..."<br><br><br>Today's Topics:<br><br> 1. New CBI Newsletter (Spring 2011, Vol. 33:1)<br> (Charles Babbage Institute)<br> 2. Tom Watson and Seymour Cray quotes (Brian Randell)<br><br><br>----------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Message: 1<br>Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 14:47:11 -0500<br>From: Charles Babbage Institute <cbi@umn.edu><br>To: katie <cbi@umn.edu><br>Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] New CBI Newsletter (Spring 2011, Vol. 33:1)<br>Message-ID: <4DC9963F.4020204@umn.edu><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br><br>An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br>URL: <http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20110510/e6bac2d8/attachment-0002.html><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>Message: 2<br>Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 11:06:54 +0100<br>From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk><br>To: sigcis <members@sigcis.org><br>Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Tom Watson and Seymour Cray quotes<br>Message-ID: <DC4F042D-3DA8-4AEE-B79D-D0C2188E7519@ncl.ac.uk><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii<br><br>Hi:<br><br>I've been trying to trace the origins of the oft-repeated pair of<br>quotations:<br><br>"Last week, Control Data ... announced the 6600 system. I understand<br>that in the laboratory developing the system there are only 34 people<br>including the janitor. Of these, 14 are engineers and 4 are<br>programmers... Contrasting this modest effort with our vast development<br>activities, I fail to understand why we have lost our industry<br>leadership position by letting someone else offer the world's most<br>powerful computer."<br>- Thomas J Watson Jr<br><br>"It seems like Mr. Watson has answered his own question." -- Seymour<br>Cray's response to Thomas Watson.<br><br>which I'd assumed were both apocryphal. In fact I find that Watson gives<br>the first quotation himself in his book "Father, Son and Co: My Life at<br>IBM and Beyond", saying that it was in a memo that he wrote to his "top<br>men" on August 28, 1963.<br><br>However, I've not been able to authenticate alleged Seymour Cray's<br>alleged response - which I fear is too good to be true.<br><br>Can anyone in fact validate it?<br><br>Cheers<br><br>Brian Randell<br><br><br>--<br>School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,<br>NE1 7RU, UK<br>EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923<br>FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>------------------------------<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Members mailing list<br>Members@sigcis.org<br>http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members<br><br><br>End of Members Digest, Vol 11, Issue 8<br>**************************************<br></div></blockquote></div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">--<br>Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum<br>Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing<br>1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043<br>Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055<br><br>Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing<br>Visit in person or online! <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/">http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/</a><br><br>“We shape our tools and they, in turn, shape us.” -- Marshall McLuhan <br><br><br><br><br><br></div></span>
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