IBM's 18-month company-wide email system migration has been a disaster, sources say IBM's planned company-wide email migration has gone off the rails, leaving many employees unable to use email or schedule calendar events. And this has been going on for several days. Current and former IBMers have confirmed to The Register that the migration, 18 months in the making, has been a disaster. "I feel bad for …
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The Unicomp is probably the best feeling keyboard available now, but ... I'm going to admit I'm disappointed in what I got vs. what it could be if they did a little more development, rather than just continuing to make what was.
I have a lot of old Model M keyboards, and love 'em. I got a new Unicomp. It is "better" than the original ONLY in that it is native USB. The old tooling and molds, I suspect, have aged. Tapping on the case under the space bar produces a definite "poor fit and finish" rattle, my 30 year old Model M sounds solid.
I got the trackball keyboard -- love the keyboard, the trackball was a total waste of money. There are four buttons on the top, four buttons on the back of the keyboard, handy for however you hold it. EXCEPT -- of those four buttons, only two are usable, the other two are literally not connected to anything, produce no scan code, and are not usable in any way. The four on the back are just duplicates of the four on the top -- again, right and left, and two just going along for the ride. I even shot them an e-mail asking how to use the other four buttons -- "you can't" was the answer. :-/ I really don't find a two button mouse useful in the 21st century. Cost is modest, but benefit is near zero.
The Unicomp is a good basic keyboard, not quite as good as the Model M, but better (by far) than anything else that I've seen currently made. As a feature keyboard, totally disappointing. If you have and can use a real Model M, you will be happier. Would love it if they would provide some kind of macro feature in the Unicomp. Price is very reasonable for a good keyboard (which may well last many computers), I'd rather pay $100 for a Unicomp than the $50 "gamer" keyboard I'm typing this on.
Possible observation: cats may not like to walk on the Model M (/ Unicomp) keyboards. Or maybe it's just "my" cat vs. my GF's cat.
As for the IBM clicky-clicky keyboards being the best made? Not in my opinion. Before the PC came out, there were a lot of very good keyboards out there...and the IBM PC keyboard was in the better half, but I remember one reviewer of the original PC saying, "How could the company that invented the IBM Selectric typewriter produce this horrible keyboard?" And that's the truth. It wasn't the worst keyboard ever, but it was far from the best. Try an IBM 3270 terminal if you ever get a chance, or my favorite, the Zenith Z-100 (not the PC compatible Zenith). The only reason it's so good now is our standards are much lower. And I'm dubious about the clicky keyboards being office appropriate.
There was Burroughs and Sperry, RCA, GE, DEC, NCR, Control Data and Honeywell to name a few. They were all the great mainframe makers of the time (late 60's through 80's). Green phosphorous displays for graphics, the works. The ironic thing, except for the addition of the windows key, all of the old keyboards continue to work just fine -- if you can find an old spark-plug sized keyboard connector gender-blender to USB...
For sure there has been issues brought up by employees related to this move but it is far from being a disaster. For those who think about IBM being a Company that belongs to the past, please go ahead and check what has been delivered by IBM to Society around the world recently. It is indeed worth reading.
"Do you choose all your employers based on their email systems?"
Not necessarily. Imagine this: you walk into work and none if the work vehicles are ready for use. They all require work. No big deal. Oh no, wait, i work for a lawn & garden care +landscaping company. Confidence soon drops hard.
What is it that IBM works with?
The "no email or calendar" bit does sounds like workplace bliss.
And it is a great pity that a company once famed for employing the right people at a time when every other 1930's company was men-only now has a reputation for ageism.
No Email, Permanently
The BBC had a piece some years ago about a few companies that had a no-internal-email rule. If the person you were emailing was on the same site, you had to walk there or pick up the phone. The report indicated that these companies were thriving.
And it's easy to see why; actually dealing with email is a huge f*****g waste of time, mostly. Get rid of it across the board (internally), and the firm has got itself a ton of productivity back at a stroke.
I know what you're getting at, and have experienced being in those interminable "I'd better cc EVERYONE" email chains, but there is little more annoying than being in the middle of a complex task that requires concentration and having someone rock up or phone with something completely unrelated that they expect you to deal with there and then. Make an appointment and I'll clear the decks for you and you'll have my complete attention. Rock up out of the blue, and I'll be less forthcoming.
"Email is the worst method of communication"
I find that the orange plastic "dead-blow" mallets that come with industrial grade, self-assembly steel racking/shelving makes a very effective communication tool.
Especially at short range.
@nichomat, if you can post a sign on your office door or raise a red flag that says "danger, do not interrupt" you will do everyone a service. Sliding a post-it note into you inbox requesting an appointment does not count as interruption. Deal?
Sounds idyllic, except that it's easy to pass blame onto someone else by simply saying "I never said that".
In some company environments people will do nothing without having a trail of instructions or authorisations in writing.
The implication of the article is that IBM is yet another company which has allowed operational decisions to be made by bean counters. From flogging off a product they needed to use themselves* to trying to replace it on the cheap.
Nail, meet coffin.
*I kind of wonder if those migration costs were included in the calculations that lead to the sell-off. Or indeed the saved costs/subsidy of having an in-house system that was also a product.
Curiously, a variant of the Betamax system became standard in broadcasting - with the addition of track-following heads driven by piezo-electric actuators to improve the tracking.
But the (no doubt patented) Philips track following on the V2000 was simpler and I think better. Turning the cassette over half way through, though, that was just silly.
(I was a broadcast engineer for over thirty years).
> Thing is Betamax was/is way better than VHS
A beloved tech myth. Actually there was very little difference. Both improved with time, but VHS obviously had more time to improve. "Late" VHS was certainly better than early Betamax was.
I used to have also a S-VHS deck, a backward-compatible extension that required slightly different tape (it could also play back and record regular VHS). THAT was a clearly visible improvement, almost DVD-quality. The fact it did not take off shows VHS was good enough for most people.
> Thing is Betamax was/is way better than VHS
Perhaps in your personal opinion (warning, youtube video) Why Sony's Beta Videotape System Failed--and failed hard (Part 1)
So often when I see a so called innovative new decision from management I think.."Hmm that looks familiar".
So I walk over to my old management text books from when I was foolish enough to try and do an MBA.. and what do you know.. there is that "Innovative new idea " in a 20+ year old text book ...
Notes is horrible, I've been scarred.
Having said that, the ability to mail out structured forms and get data back direct into a database seems like such a core feature.
Both Notes and Outlook forms are horrible, are there any alternatives?
Youd want anything that follows standards or, like IBM, you will be locked in forever.
Perhaps the world needs a standard for html form validation that is safe/sane in a email client.
"Perhaps the world needs a standard for html form validation that is safe/sane in a email client."
Needs, yes, but will they use it? Never.
The perceived need to maintain compatibility with hot garbage is more important to the big four of enterprise email (Gmail, Outlook, Notes). All of which now suffer from crippling platform fragmentation, a screw the customer business plan, and terminal bitrot in their code bases.
No one will risk fully breaking compatibility with one of them. They will never agree on substantive change between themselves, and seldom clean up their own messes.
Might as well re-invent the wheel for all the good it will do. So sadly, I recommend you go back to text and stick to the parts email that work. Links and small attachments. It gets the job done.
[i]... the ability to mail out structured forms and get data back direct into a database seems like such a core feature.[/i]
Be careful what you wish for...increase the complexity and dependencies, and you increase the chance of really big problems.
I prefer the Unix philosophy -- email should take messages and files from one user to another. Don't ask it to do too much and you won't be disappointed*
*[e.g.: MS Word]
I used Notes in the 90s, it was so horrible then that it was easier to use via its API (through Perl, at that) than use the UI.
(SAP is horrible too; one team I was in hired a non-technical "group assistant" to operate it for us because it was so counter-intuitive to anyone technical, but relatively easy to use for someone who knew less about software.)
Okay, I am well aware that large companies do have the despicable habit of being run by the beancounters, but in this case shouldn't it be the CTO getting the flack ?
IBM does have a CTO, right ? If he can't stand up for what is needed, isn't it his fault in the first place ?
I think many CTOs have learned the adage of "the nail sticking out". If they try to use logic and reason to stop a "cost-savings" they tend to get hammered flush with the floor - much like a nail sticking up.
That makes it hard to stay on the merry-go-round that is corporate executive hiring. It is much better to say nothing, be a pleasant personality and parachute out of the ball of fail only to land in another cushy post.
"That makes it hard to stay on the merry-go-round that is corporate executive hiring. It is much better to say nothing, be a pleasant personality and parachute out of the ball of fail only to land in another cushy post."
This is what is wrong with the Public Sector ( local govt./civil service) - constant merry-go-round of decision makers who bail out to their next gig before the sh*t hits the fan
There's a lot in that to unpack. For starters where the CTO is in the pecking order, compared to the CFO. (Any guesses?). How much they get paid to be there to make remaining the preferred option or which hill they would choose to die on. And ultimately what the CEO and the board/major shareholders are after. Bearing in mind most of those will themselves probably be run by beancounters.
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This is where it gets funny. Kyndryl is going to use Office 365 and Outlook, IBMers who are moving to Kyndryl have already been given their Kyndryl.com email addresses, but they are forbidden to use them until September 1st. So not only does IBM have a borked email system, but they are moving their spin off company to another email system which also has a great history of borking! (and all the future Kyndryl employees are sitting on working email, which they can't use because Kyndryl doesn't exist yet!).
Was a top BB player back in the day!! Best single use was "chocolate wardrobe" in a Uniplex presentation to the MoD. It was chosen by the MoD PM 1 minute before the presentation started. Best multiple use case was "Reference as many Flintstones characters as possible" which we used on the Microsoft OCS release roadshow.
So they have 3 concurrent email systems - Notes, Outlook, and something else I've never heard of.
I've been subjected to torture by both Notes (at IBM) and Outlook (elsewhere). I found myself longing for the other one in both cases. A mix can't possibly be workable, IMHO.
As a former IBMer, I can confirm. They've been trying to get Notes/Smartcloud to play nice with Outlook/Exchange for at least the last 3 or so years. When it didn't work as expected (or should that be "didn't work, as expected"?) the team running the trial went silent. Those of us in the Outlook/Exchange trial went years with unreliable calendar, and the only "support" offered was a poorly-staffed slack channel.
Or dogfooding, call it they way you want. Now IBM employees can enjoy the level of support and care they give to their own customers and watch with their own eyes the fine art: of deflecting blame away to the customer (IBM), the level of ignorance about their legacy systems (cost cutting took away the veterans because they could be replaced by young and inexperienced people from cheap labor countries) and the jarring level of ignorance on basic computing concepts from the aforementioned young people.
The servers might be stable. I give you that. It's the configuration nightmare oft stabilizing them, and the convoluted way implied to access the databases living in them what makes us mere mortals hate them so much.
They're ugly kids only a mother (or a Domino admin) would love.
I worked for IBM supporting Notes about 15 years ago.
Everyone hated it, 99.9% of the staff wanted to use Outlook because that's what they knew from their previous jobs, but technically Notes was better and had better features. There was so many features in Notes not in Outlook that I remember thinking, god help whoever has to migrate this in the future.
I would have just thrown my hands up in the air and said, we are not migrating this. Here's your new system, we will keep the old system as an archive read only for the next few years.
I used Notes when I worked at IBM from its introduction to my departure in 2008. In my new job I had to use Outlook and I found it significantly worse. I suffered a little from the reverse of what you describe - I liked what I was used to - but I did find that Outlook wasted my time more even when I became accustomed to it.
And Notes was probably a big step up in many ways over the previous mainframe-based email, although I didn't hate that either, it was just a tool of its time.
I agree with you, I loved Notes. Outlook annoys me to this day that it can't do the basics.
But the problem was familiarity, everyone knows Outlook, Notes was different, very different. If you had a technical inquisitive mind you'd learn to love it, but that was the very small minority of staff. Notes was a nuisance that got in the way from doing their job, another thing to learn...
IBM is a once great company and former industry trailblazer who failed to anticipate and adapt to changing markets, lost its edge, lost its way, and whose continued existence is hard to justify. The 1990 book Barbarians to Bureaucrats by Lawrence M. Miller features this now ironic quote from IBM founder Thomas Watson, Sr: “Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.”
IBM failed to adapt – now we have this thing called “cloud” where two big companies have enormous computers running your stuff remotely on virtual machines – hmmm – what did we used to call those? Oh yes – mainframes. The IBM mainframe has simply been replaced with infinitely less efficient and less reliable MS and Google mainframes.
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This is too much exaggeration .. The mail migration did not happen properly due to the short timeframe, and trust me its not easy to have mails migrated for lakhs of users globally. There are other alternate communication channels as well, and we are using it. Let others learn on how to implement such projects. Till then, Peace..
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I joined IBM in 1984 and one of the radical things it did then was that everyone had email, very simple and only between people who worked in IBM but, hey, that was radical to me. And I interacted daily with colleagues in the USA and mainland Europe to do my job. This was before NOSS/PROFS but they built on the infrastructure over time. So for me, email was one of the first "wow" things about working for IBM when I started.
Being the guy who built the original Notes servers for EYE BEE EM, I can tell you I warned them and saw this coming for years. The goal was to eliminate all the North American talent that was running all the IT for the company. It was outsourced to the cheapest geography du jour. They dug this grave through extreme cost cutting for many years. There was nothing left in North America but Salesmen and Executives. We used to work gladly 24/7 for the greater good of that company but they weeded everyone out systematically. Lawyers and Accountants systematically eliminated the cost intensive (read elder) 'resources'. The only survivors were the ones who were willing to back stab with a smile on their face.
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I can't stop but wonder what the future will bring for IBM. One of the main strengths for that company was it's high quality of technical people, but for some years now IBM has been laying off - and now the Kyndryl so called "spinoff". They are throwing away talent and sub-contracting low budget employees - what did they expect ?!? And this is just a relatively simple mail migration. Cloud ? Who knows what the future brings ... I guess they'll fool stockholders for some years but at some point the "spinoff" of the talented professionals will start to show. I don't know, maybe it turns out ok for them, i mean, theoretically IBM bough Red Hat .... but we all know who's really in charge now. Arvind is just a puppet for the Red Hat puppet master. It will be interesting to see ...
Heard English is not an international language anymore used in IBM, if it is a Chinese project you will have to learn Chinese. French, German? Could this be another main issue, along with the loss of technical people? You never know what documentation the migration guys have/don't have of the old outdated Lotus Notes. And being paid with "buy yourself a bagel" money, might be another issue?
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