2008 A2 Back To The Future - a presentation looking back at where we came from (computer-wise that...
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Transcript of 2008 A2 Back To The Future - a presentation looking back at where we came from (computer-wise that...
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Back From the Future
A look back at an issue of today from 1973
A presentation
by Rande Robinson
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
The Opinions (no matter how well thought out they are) expressed in this presentation are my own and do not represent the views or policies of the North Carolina Department of Transportation, HEEP or any other government agency, foreign, domestic or extraterrestrial.
(the fine print - Although they should)
THE LEGAL STUFF(The stuff my “bosses” make me add.)
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
35 years ago almost to the day a paper was presented at the 14th
Annual Area 2 meeting in Charleston, South Carolina
Does anyone here remember it?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Engineer In Data Processing
By Randall A. Estes, P.E.
Alabama DOT
Before we get to it
It was
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Where were you in 1973?
Put picture here
I had just turned 13
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Some things that happen in 73
Miami Dolphins win the super bowl VII for a perfect season
Richard Nixon begins 2nd term
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is released
Paramount’s Carowinds opens
LexisNexis computered legal research service begins
World Trade Center is opened
Federal Express begins operations
Secretariat wins the triple crown
Watergate Begins
Yom Kippur war
Arab oil embargo and the Energy Crisis
Endangered Species Act is passed
Bosporus Bridge open connecting Europe & Asia for the first time
O.J. Simpson rushes for 2000 yards
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
It was not unlike Today
War
Political “unrest”
Oil issues
And a interconnected world
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Back to Mr. Estes Paper
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Data Processing in 1973
Mainframes and the high priesthood
FORTRAN, COBAL dominate
PC is still a dream
Slide rule is dying
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Robert Metcalfe devised the Ethernet method of network connection at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. He wrote: "On May 22, 1973, using my Selectric typewriter ... I wrote ... "Ether Acquisition" ... heavy with handwritten annotations — one of which was "ETHER!" — and with hand-drawn diagrams — one of which showed `boosters´ interconnecting branched cable, telephone, and ratio ethers in what we now call an internet.... If Ethernet was invented in any one memo, by any one person, or on any one day, this was it."
Robert M. Metcalfe, "How Ethernet Was Invented", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 16, No. 4, Winter 1994, p. 84.
IMSAI is founded. In 1973, Bill Millard left his regular job in management to found the consulting firm Information Management Services or IMS. The following year, while he was working on a client’s project, he developed a small computing system using the then-new Intel 8080 microprocessor. He realized this computer might attract other buyers and so placed an advertisement in the hobbyist magazine “Popular Electronics,” offering it in kit form. The IMSAI 8080, as it was known, sold briskly and eventually about 20,000 units were shipped. The company was eventually purchased by one of its dealers and is today a division of the Fischer-Freitas Company, which still offers reproductions of the original for sale to hobbyists.
The Micral was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer based on a micro-processor, the Intel 8008. Thi Truong developed the computer and Philippe Kahn the software. Truong, founder and president of the French company R2E, created the Micral as a replacement for minicomputers in situations that didn´t require high performance. Selling for $1,750, the Micral never penetrated the U.S. market. In 1979, Truong sold Micral to Bull.
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
No. Some people consider the HP 65, introduced in 1973, a mere calculator, but it was fully programmable; you could even play games on it. HP even called it a personal computer in their introductory article in the HP Journal, but it wasn't the first.
Slide rule is quickly becoming extinct.
PONG is state of the art
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
The Paper had Three main parts
1. Overview of Engineering
2. ALDOT’s EETP
3. Engineer, Computer DP Manager Relationship
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Funny how the names change but the problem remains
(it’s IT now, not DP)
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Mr. Estes points out
That the engineer through education and experience approaches problems by some systematic approach. That he works closely with others and is constantly under a deadline. Constrained by his management, legislature, FHWA, AASHTO to name a few.
Some thing never change
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
“When the engineer has encountered the same problem enough times he develops a standard drawing to fit a limited number of situations. And when he has the available the resources and understands a recurring mathematical or statistical problem well enough his standard drawing becomes a computer program.”
Isn’t that a security risk?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
“Unlike the engineers working shoulder to shoulder, in one large semi-public office, his request and problem statement is turned over to a coder or programmer hidden away for months at a time in an isolated cubby-hole in some lyabyrth of hallways, with humming, snorting, blinking and card chewing machinery. At best his request is handled by someone whose knowledge of engineering is summed up in what uncle Albert once told him about the Panama Canal or cousin Bills trip through the Lincoln tunnel.
Now comes the part I love
Panama Canal didn’t we own that once?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
“This ought not to be the case and in fact should be made illegal by legislative action. But since data processing shops seem to become in some states political footballs, they have not yet reached their peak of organization and efficiency.”
He goes on
Politics in Transportation give me break
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
He suggests two…
So what’s Mr. Estes solution?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Engineering Liaison
Employed by and responsible to the engineering section but with organizational and physical access to the facilities of the data processing shop.
Solution #1
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Direct organizational of official line of communication between DP and Engineering
And accomplish this by having engineering classifications of either or both operation and management included in the DP Shop
Solution #2
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
…to compensate a good and deserving employee for years of faithful service in engineering or technical position he must be moved to into a supervisor or manager slot in order to get a higher salary. This usually happens in total disregard to his ability or inability to handle or deal with his co-workers on a supervisory basis.
But the biggest problem is
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
2. Data Processing is an indispensable tool in today's world of engineering, science and finance.
The conclusions in 1973 where
1. Engineers & DP Professionals are necessary, important and integral parts of our and all other highly advanced societies.
3. In highway departments and similarly related fields, engineer-data processing teams are essential in extending the usefulness and economy of the department and of adding to the welfare of the public we serve.
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
I left the engineering to solve these problems (although at the time I had higher ideals) but we haven’t.
It is funny
It is the 21st century maybe it’s time we leave the 19th century and re-evalutate the way we do business.
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Where does Engineering begin and Computer End?
And can we continue to have this Engineering vs. Information Technology debate?
To update this paper to the 21st Century
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
•Politics
•Education
•Organizations
•Professions
•The fabric of society
Think about it It is effecting everything from
Can let it go on for another 35 years?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Difference in Supervisors & Managers
One last Point
•A Supervisor is more worker than supervisor.
•Should think like a worker, have interest and concerns of a worker and associate with his workers more than with management
•A Supervisor who operate as management is probably the most inefficient worker in the organizaton
•He gets paid more and produces less than the employees under him (on a unit cost basis a very expensive employee)
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Their interest should lie in
• Time management & organization
• Delegation & Decision making
• People skills
And must have a personal attribute of
Motivation and Action
While
Managers are not supervisors
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Thank You for Your Attention.
• Any Questions, Comments or Derogatory Statements?
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
Feel free to contact me via email at either
2008 HEEP Area II Meeting Atlanta, Georgia June 8-11
If you enjoyed this presentation and would like to download it or see what other
random thoughts, I come up with check out my blog at:
http://rjrcubed.blogspot.com