I was busy cleaning up after our Disaster Recovery test yesterday, but I didn’t want to let the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (later renamed International Business Machines) pass unnoticed. I owe a lot to IBM: my father worked for them starting when I was about a year old until I was 21, and my job here (and at one previous employer) has always involved lots of IBM hardware and software. On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the fact that IBM hasn’t always been a force for good or even a force for progress in the IT industry. (I noticed that the page I linked doesn’t mention that Thomas J. Watson was appealing a felony conviction for restraint of trade violations when he started at IBM. He remained a firm believer in monopolies his entire life.)

So it’s been an interesting century. If I had any hope of being around I’d say it will be interesting to see if IBM is still around in another hundred years, and what it will be like if it is.