ibm
Roadrunner - the Acme Supercomputer
Many of my former colleagues at Cray should be very proud of their achievements when they read about the latest and greatest supercomputer announced by IBM. Without their efforts in working out precisely how thousands of processors could be made to work as if they were one, we would still be struggling to get computer power much above where it was two decades ago when single-processors dominated. It's much like bureaucracy on a huge scale. Putting two bureaucrats together doesn't double the amount of work that gets done, and adding a thousand more doesn't increase it a thousand fold either.

Lead engineer Don Grice of IBM inspects Roadrunner. Copyright IBM
The Power of None: A Virtual Strike
The IBM strike of September 2007 was historic because it didn't really happen. That is to say it actually took place in virtual-reality. Real-life IBM workers in Italy were engaged in protracted negotiations that had hit an impasse, so they called for a mass picket at IBM's virtual-world campus in Second Life. An estimated 1,500 avatars from around the world assembled there for 12 hours of peaceful picketing; non-existent people picketing the non-existent premises of a non-existent business in a non-existent world. How very 21st century.

Striking avatars gather at IBM's facility in Second Life


