{"id":237,"date":"2003-07-26T03:25:19","date_gmt":"2003-07-26T10:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=237"},"modified":"2003-07-26T03:25:19","modified_gmt":"2003-07-26T10:25:19","slug":"2003-eserver-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2003\/07\/2003-eserver-odyssey\/","title":{"rendered":"2003: eServer Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

What would an advertisement for the HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a> look like? Perhaps the copy would read something like<\/span>: <\/p>\n

Triggers routine analysis to help prevent component failure. … Designed to sense when any of up to six system components exceeds a safe threshold. The server will inform the system administrator who can calmly replace the component up to 48 hours before the projected point of failure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that’s actually IBM’s new advertising campaign<\/a>, for their eServer xSeries, found in today’s Economist<\/em>. Calmly? Like this? —<\/p>\n

HAL:<\/span> Just a moment. Just a moment. I’ve just picked up a fault in the AE 35 unit. It’s going to go 100 percent failure in 72 hours.<\/p>\n

BOWMAN:<\/span> It’s still within operational limits right now?<\/p>\n

HAL:<\/span> yes, and it will stay that way until it fails.<\/p>\n

BOWMAN:<\/span> Would you say that we have a reliable 72 hours until failure?<\/p>\n

HAL:<\/span> Yes, that’s a completely reliable figure.<\/p>\n

BOWMAN:<\/span> Well, I suppose we’ll have to bring it in…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All system administrators know how this eventually ends:<\/p>\n

\n

BOWMAN:<\/span> Open the pod bay doors HAL.<\/p>\n

HAL:<\/span> I’m sorry Dave, Im afraid I can’t do that.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

HAL:<\/span> Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose any more. Good bye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Would sys admins really steer their CTO towards the purchase of such a machine? Of course<\/em> they would. And notice the shape and color of the machine shown on the ad. How… monolith-like. There is no doubt IBM is finally recognizing HAL as its prodigal son, some 25 years after the company withdrew permission for the use of its logo<\/a> in the film when it became clear the computer in question was a paranoid schizophrenic. IBM thus joins the ranks of Mercedes, which co-opted the Janis Joplin song Mercedes Benz<\/em><\/a> for a car commercial a few years back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What would an advertisement for the HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey look like? Perhaps the copy would read something like: Triggers routine analysis to help prevent component failure. … Designed to sense when any of up … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7eNhC-3P","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}