Facts You Might Not Know About Superman

Many of us know the basics after having seen at least one cartoon, movie or TV show based on Superman comic books. When the planet Krypton was about to blow up due to a chain reaction at its core, scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara sent their baby Kal-El (whose name meant “star-child”) into a rocket aimed for Earth. There, he was raised on a farm in Kansas by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark. He later became a journalist at The Daily Planet and led a double-life as the world-famous superhero called Superman.

Just about everyone has heard this story (and if you haven’t, seriously, where have you been?). And everyone knows Lois Lane is his love and Lex Luthor is his enemy. Most people know Kryptonite is bad, that Superman has a clubhouse in the Arctic Circle called the “Fortress of Solitude.” But as DC Comics gets set to celebrate 700 issues of the Superman comic book this week, here are some things you may not have known about the Last Son of Krypton.

1. It’s not just about the glasses.

Clark's disguise isn't as simple as slicked back hair and glasses. The lenses of his glasses are slightly tinted, changing the shade of his eyes. Thanks to incredible control over his muscles and vocal cords, Superman actually gives himself a different voice when he’s Clark Kent. Looser clothing and slouching over gives a different impression of his body. And thanks to studying some acting techniques, he completes the disguise by employing very different body language as Clark. There’s also the advantage of our next fact ...

2. Clark Kent and Superman HAVE been seen together.

The DC Universe has heroes with various abilities. On occasion, friends of Superman who have the ability to shape-shift have masqueraded as Clark Kent, allowing the famous reporter and the Man of Steel to be seen and photographed together at the same time. To the general public, they are friends who simply bear a great resemblance to each other.

3. The “S” isn’t just for Superman.

The famous S-shield is not just Superman's family crest. First hinted at in the 1978 feature film, in the comic book story “Superman: Birthright” and the series “52”, we learned that it's also a Kryptonian symbol that means “hope.” Interestingly, drawing the S-shield upside down changes the meaning to “resurrection.”

4. Even superheroes need safeguards.

Clark actually wasn’t thinking about secret identities when he started wearing glasses as a freshman in high school. Around this time, Clark’s full powers were finally emerging and he had a tough time learning how to control them. Martha Kent had noticed that his heat-vision didn’t burn through the rocket that had brought him to Earth, so she took glass pieces from its window and put them into frames. Now if Clark’s heat-vision ever sparked up accidentally when he got excited, the glasses would block it and no one else would be the wiser.

5. It wasn’t always the “American way.”

Originally, Superman’s catchphrases called him the “champion of the oppressed” and said he was dedicated to “truth and justice.” Folks didn’t say he also fought for “the American Way” until the 1940s during radio broadcasts of that era, and the phrase became an iconic part of Superman lore when the TV series starring George Reeves began airing in the 50s.

6. Superman’s a time traveler.

As a kid in high school, Clark was visited by the Legion of Super-Heroes, super-powered teens from the 30th century who had been inspired by his legend. Seeing he was desperate for a chance to hang out with kids who were more like him, the Legion regularly brought Clark into the far future to join them in adventures. Whenever Clark returned home, part of his memories were clouded so he couldn’t alter his own future. These trips with the LSH helped Superman learn to become a hero and are part of the reason he maintains an optimistic view of the human race. He believes we’re worth it because he’s seen what we achieve 1,000 years from now.

7. He wasn’t always able to fly.

When Superman first appeared in 1938, the comic said that he was incredibly strong, could withstand anything less than a bursting shell from a tank, and was able to leap 1/8th of a mile. And that was it! His ability to fly first showed up in the radio series and his original cartoons. In the comics, he officially gained the ability to fly in 1941, nearly two years after his first story. In the years since his creation, he's been given new abilities and had some later taken away. Nowadays, his arsenal includes heat-vision, incredible strength/stamina, enhanced senses, X-Ray vision, arctic breath, super-speed, increased healing, near-complete body/muscle control, and a skin-tight force-field that makes him invulnerable to most forms of harm.

8. He didn’t always date Lois Lane.

Reporter Lois Lane is his wife, but she wasn’t the first one to capture Superman' attention and heart. In high school, Clark had deep feelings for his best friend Lana Lang, who was also the first person outside of his foster parents to learn about his strange powers. As a teen, Clark also had a crush on Saturn Girl, a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes. In college, he seriously dated a girl named Lori Lemaris, who turned out to be a mermaid from Atlantis. During a time travel adventure to Krypton’s past, Superman became involved with Lyla Lerrol, a famous Kryptonian actress. And for a while, Superman had a crush on Wonder Woman (hey, who wouldn’t?).

9. Batman owns Superman.

Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you’d be surprised how much Bruce Wayne is a part of Clark’s life. Bruce owns the building that Clark and Lois live in and, in fact, gave them their apartment as a wedding gift. And some years ago when it needed a new financial backer, Wayne Enterprises bought the Daily Planet newspaper, where Lois and Clark both work.

10. Kryptonite isn’t his only weakness.

Superman has faced many alien and superhuman enemies whose strength rival his own and whom have been able to injure him. Since he draws his power from our yellow sun, standing in the light of a red sun (such as the one Krypton orbited) immediately robs Superman of his powers, leaving him vulnerable to fists and bullets like anyone else. Clark also lives in a world where magic is real and simply being an alien offers no special protection against most sorcery. In fact, the chaotic energies of magic disrupt his force-field, meaning demons, vampires and werewolves can draw blood if Superman lets them get close enough.

Source & Read more about Superman on newsarama.com

Outstanding mistakes of all time

After a string of newsworthy errors, a stumble through the annals of time to choose a few favourites from history.

It has been a hectic few days for news of mistakes. Well, yes, I know that to be human is to err, but we experienced connoisseurs of the bish and the blunder look out for the ones exemplifying that to be human is also often splendidly absurd. If I might quote Puck, from the Bard's timely A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

Consider, for example, the German bank clerk who fell asleep in mid transfer of 62.40 euros while his finger was on the "2" key and ended up transferring 222,222,222.222 euros instead. Or the alleged mix-up at a cemetery in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which saw a couple being buried apart instead of under a headstone reading "Together for Ever".

Could happen to anyone. Which couldn't be said for Flt Lt Ben Plank, of the Red Arrows display team, who pushed the wrong button over Shropshire and sent out blue smoke behind him, rather than red, thus rather ruining the usual meticulously colour-coded show of red, white and blue.

Flt Lt Plank's is my favourite of those, combining as it does maximum impact, least harm and the simplest of errors. Others over time have, of course, had more consequence: one thinks of Eve and that apple; the Trojans and that Greek gift; the smouldering baker's oven in Pudding Lane; the Light Brigade and the wrong valley; Neville Chamberlain and that piece of paper; the Decca Records executive who turned down The Beatles because "guitar groups are on the way out"; and the less well-known, such as the Canadian seeking to escape the danger of nuclear war who emigrated to the Falklands shortly before the Argentine invasion.

For sheer consistency, though, I would recommend Mr Homer Simpson of Springfield, USA, the Laurel, Hardy and Billy Bunter of our day. And while we are with moving pictures, let me salute Harry Warner, of Warner Bros, for this splendid quote from 1927: "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

Allow me now, then, to present my Outstanding Mistakes of All Time, not to mock but to sympathise, remembering the words of John Bradford (1510-55): "There but for the grace of God, go I."

1. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden (1594-1632), disdained the steel armour offered by his aides at the Battle of Lützen, saying: "The Lord God is my Armour!" Yes, the Battle of Lutzen was indeed in 1632.

2. Dennis Laroux, a US tattooist, angered three members of an all-girl chapter of Hell's Angels when he tattooed Stan's Slaves on their breasts rather than Satan's Slaves.

3. Sophia Hadi drove all the way from Leeds to Washington, Tyne and Wear, after a friend there reported hearing a rare song thrush, only to find it was, in fact, the noise made by a fork lift truck reversing at the local Asda.

4. Peter Crawford's self-defence in a New York court suffered slightly after he asked the key witness: "Did you get a good look at my face when I snatched your bag?"

5. Maj Gen John Sedgwick (1813-1864) was unimpressed by Confederate sniper fire at the Battle of Spotsylvania. "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"

6. Rommell decided that he could go home to celebrate his wife's birthday because Normandy was so quiet in June 1944.

7. The Liverpool Echo, in a rare error, once described Violet, the mother of the Kray twins, as "Mrs Violent Kray".

8. This was Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the General Post Office, in 1876: "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys."

9. The popularity of spinach as a health food, which resulted in Popeye the Sailor Man and generations of children staring miserably at a plate bearing the canned product, resulted from a misplaced decimal point in calculations of the amount of iron in it.

10. In Sonning Common, near Reading, in 2003, an unidentified motorist - you know who you are - collided with and knocked down the sign reading, "Sonning Common welcomes careful drivers".

Actually, to demonstrate how easy it is to err, I should mention that the story about the spinach is itself a mistake, and that there are doubts about Rev Bradford's authorship of going but for the grace of God (although it is true that he was burnt at the stake). But, as you will have noticed, human error is notoriously difficult to eliminate (as I might well have inadvertently illustrated).

What to do? There is no shortage of advice, from Sophocles to Einstein, about learning from them: Sir William Preece soon changed his mind about the telephone, for example. My favourite comment in the field, however, remains this, from the late Peter Cook: "I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly".

By Charles NevinAuthorSource: Read more on BBC News

UN: India to be world's most populous country by 2028

India looks set to overtake China as the world's most populous country from 2028, according to the United Nations.

At that point, both nations will number 1.45 billion people each. Subsequently India's population will continue to grow until the middle of the century, while China's slowly declines.

The UN also estimates that the current global population of 7.2 billion will reach 9.6 billion by 2050.

That is a faster rate of growth than previously estimated.

The population growth will be mainly in developing countries, particularly in Africa, the UN says.

The world's 49 least developed countries are projected to double in size from around 900 million people in 2013 to 1.8 billion in 2050, whereas the population of developed regions will remain largely unchanged.

The UN said the reason for the increase in its projection is largely new information on fertility levels in certain high birth rate countries.

Nigerian growth

Large developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil, have seen a rapid fall in the average number of children per woman, but in other nations, such as Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia and Uganda, fertility levels remain high.

Nigeria's population is expected to exceed that of the US by the middle of the century, and could start to rival China's by 2100.

China's population is expected to start decreasing after 2030.

"Although population growth has slowed for the world as a whole, this report reminds us that some developing countries, especially in Africa, are still growing rapidly," commented Wu Hongbo, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.

The United Nations publishes an assessment of past, current and future population trends every two years, in a recurrent series known as theWorld Population Prospects.

Researchers have used data for 233 countries and areas to produce Friday's report.

Source: BBC World News

5 Facts You Didn't Know About Chocolate

Image source: Spill

If you're like most women, you're totally smitten with chocolate. People have been obsessing over this comfort food for thousands of years (the Mayans considered cocao a cure-all and the Aztecs used it as money). And all that obsessing has yielded some pretty surprising studies--and findings. Here, five things you need to know about your favorite indulgence. 

1. It Can Boost Your Workout 

Skip the expensive sports drinks and protein shakes. Research shows chocolate milk is just as effective a recovery aid. 

A study published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolismcompared the effects of a recovery drink and chocolate milk on endurance athletes' ability to recover after a series of bike sprints followed by an endurance ride the next day. They found that chocolate milk was just as effective at relieving muscle soreness after the sprints, and preparing the athletes to perform in the endurance test the next day. Better yet, everyone preferred the taste of chocolate milk. 

2. Your Period Doesn't Make You Crave It 

Half of American women experience chocolate cravings. Of those of who do, about half crave it right around "that" time of the month. 

And while it's nice to have your menstrual cycle to blame when you find yourself noshing on half a package of chocolate chip cookies, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that menstrual hormones aren't the culprit. They compared the cravings of pre- and post-menopausal women and didn't find any change. They did, however, find a higher prevalence of cravings among women who suffer from PMS. 

Why? Annmarie Kostyk, a chocolate expert who studied at the Professional School of Chocolate Arts, Ecole Chocolat, in Canada, says this has a lot to do with the psychology behind comfort foods. "Chocolate is sociologically considered a comfort food, and people crave comfort foods when they feel terrible," she says. 

3. It Won't Wake You Up 

It's a common misconception that chocolate is packed with caffeine, says Kostyk. In reality, the amount of caffeine in chocolate is miniscule compared to what's in your other daily pick-me-ups. 

An ounce of dark chocolate contains about 20 milligrams of caffeine, while an ounce of milk chocolate contains about 5 milligrams--the same as an 8-ounce cup of decaf coffee. In comparison, a cup of coffee contains about 100 milligrams and a cup of tea contains about 50 milligrams of caffeine. 

4. It Contains Flavonoids 

Flavowhats? Flavonoids are a type of phytochemical, or plant chemical, that are found naturally in chocolate. Due to their unique chemical structures, flavonoids can exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cell-protective effects, says Giana Angelo, Ph.D., a research associate who specializes in micronutrient research at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Consuming foods rich in flavonoids has also been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. 

To reap the benefits, stick to dark chocolate. The average commercial dark chocolate contains about 60 percent cocao and has been found to contain 536 milligrams of flavonoids per 1.4-ounce serving. Research has shown that as few as 80 milligrams of flavonoids a day can lower blood pressure. 

5. It's Not All Bad for Your Teeth 

How could a food that's long been touted as a cavity-causer actually have teeth-protecting properties? It turns out that theobromine, an organic molecule that occurs naturally in cocoa, can help strengthen tooth enamel, according to research from Tulane University. 

In fact, it takes 142 times less cocao extract to have about twice the protective benefits of fluoride, according to the American Dental Association. Unfortunately, theobromine isn't too beneficial in chocolate bars, where the sugar and milk counteract the dental benefits. Enter Theodent, a fluoride-free mint toothpaste that packs a punch of theobromine ($10, theodent.com). 

--By Kristen Domonell, Women's Health

Credit Card Debt Facts You Should Know

Increasingly more and more of us has at least some credit card debt. Facts put out by the credit card industry and debt counsellors show that not only are we increasing the number of cards we have but that we're increasing the amount we owe on those cards. Those credit card debt facts can make truly frightening reading.

 And it's not just those of us in paid employment that are running up our credit card debt. Facts show that even students and the unemployed are increasing the amount they owe. 


 So what can we do about this situation? Well the first thing to recognize is that we are all responsible for our own borrowing. That being the case we can start to take steps to reduce the amount of money that we owe and also the amount we have to pay out each month.

 Think of it this way; Credit cards are not "bad", just like anything else they have plusses and minuses. Ok the minuses include horrendously high rates of interest but on the other side of the coin they can be invaluable in emergencies. Just don't use them as long term loans because they were never designed for that kind of borrowing.

 If you are finding that you have outstanding balances of two, three or more credit cards you will probably be well advised to look into taking out a debt consolidation loan. This will enable you to spread your borrowing over a fixed period of time. It will also ensure that you are paying a much, much lower rate of interest than you would be paying on your cards.

 By shopping around you can usually find some very good deals available from the major lenders. And don't forget to try and haggle down the rate you are offered. Tell them you have a better deal on the table across the street. You'll be surprised just how much things can change with a little bit of competition.

 Of course if you've got poor credit things might not be quite so simple. And if that is the case maybe the best thing would be you for you to talk to a licensed debt counsellor or visit a bill consolidation service to get some idea of how you can reduce your monthly commitments.

 The important thing is to take action and stop yourself becoming one of those credit card debt facts!

First Ever Synthetic Windpipe Transplant

Surgeons in Sweden have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant.

Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient.

Crucially, the technique does not need a donor, and there is no risk of the organ being rejected. The surgeons stress a windpipe can also be made within days.

The 36-year-old cancer patient is doing well a month after the operation.

Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery, which took place at the Karolinska University Hospital.

In an interview with the BBC, he said he now hopes to use the technique to treat a nine-month-old child in Korea who was born with a malformed windpipe or trachea.

Professor Macchiarini already has 10 other windpipe transplants under his belt - most notably the world's first tissue-engineered tracheal transplant in 2008 on 30-year-old Spanish woman Claudia Costillo - but all required a donor.

Indistinguishable

The key to the latest technique is modelling a structure or scaffold that is an exact replica of the patient's own windpipe, removing the need for a donor organ.

To do this he enlisted the help of UK experts were given 3D scans of the 36-year-old African patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene. The geology student currently lives in Iceland where he is studying for a PhD.

Using these images, the scientists at University College London were able to craft a perfect copy of Mr Beyene's trachea and two main bronchi out of glass.

They then coated this was then flown to Sweden and soaked in a solution of stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow.

After two days, the millions of holes in the porous windpipe had been seeded with the patient' own tissue.

Dr Alex Seifalian and his team used this fragile structure to create a replacement for the patient, whose own windpipe was ravaged by an inoperable tumour.

Despite aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the cancer had grown to the size of a golf ball and was blocking his breathing. Without a transplant he would have died.

During a 12-hour operation Professor Macchiarini removed all of the tumour and the diseased windpipe and replaced it with the tailor-made replica.

The bone marrow cells and lining cells taken from his nose, which were also implanted during the operation, are able to divide and grow, turning the inert windpipe scaffold into an organ indistinguishable from a normal healthy one.

And, importantly, Mr Beyene's body will accept it as its own, meaning he will not need to take the strong anti-rejection drugs that other transplant patients have to.

Professor Macchiarini said this was the real breakthrough.

"Thanks to nanotechnology, this new branch of regenerative medicine, we are now able to produce a custom-made windpipe within two days or one week.

"This is a synthetic windpipe. The beauty of this is you can have it immediately. There is no delay. This technique does not rely on a human donation."

He said many other organs could be repaired or replaced in the same way.

A month on from his operation, Mr Beyene is still looking weak, but well.

Sitting up in his hospital bed, he said: "I was very scared, very scared about the operation. But it was live or die."

He says he is looking forward to getting back to Iceland to finish his studies and then returning to his home in Eritrea where he will be reunited with his wife and young family, and meet his new three-month-old child.

He says he is eternally grateful to the medical team that has saved his life.

Source: BBC News

Interesting Facts about IBM: 100 Years of History

Interesting Facts about IBM: 100 Years of Innovation 

It’s rare to last 100 years in a business, but to last 100 years in the technology business is next to impossible. Well, IBM will officially pull off the impossible in mid-June when the company celebrates 100 years in business.

When the company was formed as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) in 1911, its founders probably never dreamed that it would last 100 years. Yet, when the company was merely 13 years old, its leadership sought a name that signaled a global presence, so C-T-R became International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.

And IBM has done more than survive—it has thrived. As IBM Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Software and Systems Steve Mills told eWEEK, IBM is still standing while former industry darlings—including Digital Equipment Corp., Wang, Prime and Data General—have vanished.

IBM has managed this seemingly impossible feat by adapting to the demands of the times and adopting new technologies and new approaches to the marketplace. Even more important, IBM has focused on its customers, Mills said.

“IBM’s great achievement from my perspective is that it has been able to morph and change based on understanding its customers and partnering with those customers,” said Judith Hurwitz, CEO of Hurwitz & Associates, who has watched IBM for decades. “When IBM had its near death experience, that was the period of time when it lost touch with customers.”

To ensure that it never again takes its eye off its customers, IBM has made them an integral part of its strategies, including its 2015 road map. That plan for the future includes four primary areas: growth markets, analytics, next-generation data centers and the cloud, and the IBM Smarter Planet strategy.

Sharon Nunes, vice president of Smarter Cities Strategy & Solutions,at IBM, said the Smarter Planet initiatives—particularly the Smarter Cities—draw buy-in because the results impact people where they live and work.

That’s certainly true of Roy Buol, mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, who told eWEEK: “In 2009, we chose IBM as our partner to develop the tools our residents need to make better decisions about how they use resources like water, electricity and natural gas. The goal of ‘Smarter Sustainable Dubuque’ is to create policies and programs that address environmental and ecological integrity, economic prosperity, and social and cultural vibrancy to create a community that is viable, livable and equitable. “The individual building blocks of this strategy relate to energy, water, mobility, air, resources, nature, green economy, eco-literacy, food and shelter.”

IBM addressed these building blocks in September 2009, when the company and Dubuque announced a new collaboration aimed at making the city of 60,000 one of the first “smarter” sustainable cities in the United States.

The partnership is already paying off. Buol said the IBM analytics and cloud computing technology his city deployed in 2010 helped reduce water utilization by 6.6 percent and increased leak detection and response eightfold. 

IBM’s formidable push into business analytics seems prescient given the recent performance of the Watson system on Jeopardy! IBM is currently looking for additional applications for the system’s DeepQA technology, and health care seems to be the next logical step. Dr. Eliot Siegel, professor and vice chairman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s diagnostic radiology department, said he hopes to see Watson-powered physician’s assistants in the near future.

Interesting Facts about  IBM: 100 Years of Innovation - Where It All Began  

Of course, IBM wouldn’t be where it is today without another Watson: Thomas J. Watson Sr.,  who joined C-T-R as general manager in 1914 and later became IBM’s first—and arguably most impactful—chairman. Watson shaped the company and established a culture and core set of values that continue to stamp IBM today.

In the new book on IBM’s 100 years in business, Making the World Better, by Kevin Many, Steve Hamm and Jeffrey M. O’Brien, Hamm wrote: “Since its early days, IBM has been operated based on a set of core beliefs. IBM would distinguish itself with its respect for the individual, its pursuit of excellence in all things and its commitment to providing the best customer service.

“These values were baked into the core DNA by Thomas Watson Sr., who built the near-failing organization of 1914 into an industrial giant with staying power. And that DNA has taken hold in millions of employees over the course of 100 years.”

Watson Sr. also adopted a one-word mantra: THINK, which—written in block letters—appeared in IBM facilities around the world. That mantra encouraged IBMers not only to think, but to think big. And, led by Watson Sr. and later by his son, Thomas Watson Jr., IBM launched a culture of thinking big and making big bets.

One of Watson’s first big bets was to remain aggressive during the Great Depression and to keep up the company’s pace of building its tabulating machines. The bet paid off when, coming out of the depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, and businesses began buying IBM machines to handle the information processing requirements of Social Security.

As these bets paid off on an ongoing basis, “The company has continued to remake itself over time,” Mills said. “The strategy is to keep shifting and adapting.” He added that over the last few decades, IBM has transformed itself from a hardware business to one that’s more focused on software and services.

A Near-Death Experience 

In the mid-1980s to early 1990s, a combination of complacency, weariness from battling antitrust claims and missing the boat on client/server, among other things, caused IBM to lose focus, market share and revenue. Marie Wieck, the company’s general manager of application integration middleware and WebSphere, said IBM’s focus on the mainframe at the expense of being late to the client/server game hurt. 

“IBM misread the client/server architecture,” added Amy Wohl, an industry analyst who has followed IBM for many years. “While Compaq was selling a server or two into mid-market and large companies and then coming back to sell some more, IBM missed this [market] until the 1990s, missing an important business opportunity.”

The company eventually ousted then-CEO John F. Akers and brought in Louis V. Gerstner Jr., a former McKinsey consultant and CEO of RJR Nabisco. Gerstner quickly slashed headcount and spending, and reset the company’s focus on the customer.

Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM’s current chairman and CEO, followed Gerstner, and quickly established three new values for the modern IBM company: “dedication to every client’s success; innovation that matters—for our company and for the world; and trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.”

Interesting Facts about  IBM: 100 Years of Innovation - Betting on System/360  

Change was certainly at work when Watson Jr. made one of IBM’s biggest bets: setting its engineers on a course to build the System/360 mainframe. That system was a risk because it would cannibalize IBM’s existing product and require greater investment from customers, while also costing $5 billion to build—$34 billion in today’s dollars.

Watson Jr. later called the System/360, which launched in 1964, “the riskiest decision I ever made.” But it paid off  handsomely, enabling IBM to dominate that space for the next two decades.

Jeff Frey, an IBM Fellow and director of System z architecture and design, said the System/360 “set the stage for large system computing.” The System/360 also saw “the introduction of virtual memory and massive virtualization and brings us to where we are today,” he added.

Moreover, the System/360 introduced OS/360, the mainframe operating system that evolved into the z/OS (the operating system for the new system z mainframes) and “has evolved over time more than any single piece of software in history,” Frey claimed. Delivering software for the System/360 led to other software advances, such as transaction processing monitors and databases: IMS and relational databases, he said.

In the late 1980s, IBM had to decide whether to continue using bipolar technology to build its processors for the mainframe or to move to CMOS. The company placed another big bet and moved to CMOS, which led to IBM restructuring its software. That enabled the company to deliver Parallel Sysplex, which, in turn, allowed a cluster of IBM mainframes to act together as a single system image with z/OS.

Like IBM, the mainframe keeps reinventing itself. Last year, IBM introduced the zEnterprise System, which can manage a virtual collection of heterogeneous hardware as if it were one system, Frey said.

Hardware has always been the foundation of IBM, pointed out Rod Adkins, senior vice president of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, adding that it will continue to be a critical building block as the company evolves—particularly for the cloud, Big Data and analytics.

Interesting Facts about  IBM: 100 Years of Innovation - Opening Up to Linux 

IBM also placed a bet on Linux when it put the open-source operating system on its mainframes in 1999. Bob Sutor, IBM’s vice president of open source and Linux, likes to tell the story of how Linux and open-source software gained a foothold at IBM. In 1999, he said, Gerstner was focused on enabling IBM to compete “in this amazingly heterogeneous world.”

Sutor added that Linux “started to get the attention of our senior execs, people like Sam Palmisano and Irving Wladawsky-Berger. It had the chance of breaking down silos, and it fit in with the general ideas of the time. We had Java for application portability, XML for data portability and then Linux for hardware portability.”

IBM also began to contribute to the open-source community, primarily by delivering software in support of open standards.

For Java developers, IBM played Santa Claus by pulling from its VisualAge product and leveraging its acquisition of Object Technology International to deliver the Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment). IBM then open-sourced the IDE in 2001 and spun out the Eclipse Foundation in 2004. Eclipse has since fostered a massive ecosystem.

Focusing on Software

In 2010, IBM earned $22.5 billion in revenue from software. According to some industry reports and an analysis of the financial statements of leading software vendors, if the IBM Software Group were an independent entity, it would be the second largest software company in the world, behind Microsoft.

It wasn’t always that way. In fact, IBM used to give software away as part of its hardware sales.

“Software was the incremental build off the deep domain knowledge,” said Mills, who has been running IBM’s software business since 1988 and heading the IBM Software Group since its establishment in 1995. In 2010, Mills was tasked with running the overall systems business as well.

Even though IBM was producing software in the 1950s, it didn’t focus heavily on it until the late 1980s and only got serious about software in the mid-1990s. Meanwhile, the company began to adopt agile methods for developing its products.

During this timeframe, IBM had struck a partnership with Microsoft to develop a new PC operating system: OS/2. They struck the deal in 1985, but by 1990, Microsoft pulled out to focus on Windows, which left OS/2 to wither.

Needing a foundation for its new software business, IBM approached Lotus with aspirations to acquire the productivity software maker. The offer was rebuffed, but, after a hostile takeover bid, IBM got Lotus for $3.5 billion in 1995. IBM then acquired Tivoli in 1996 and Rational in 2002. The IBM Software Group now consists of five primary groups or brands: Information Management software, Tivoli, Lotus, Rational and WebSphere.

“IBM bet big on software in the late 1980s and early 1990s and decided to focus on a consistent set of services across platform,” said Hurwitz of Hurwitz & Associates. “The company broke down stove pipes between organizations and started to focus on a holistic IBM that focused more on a customer-benefit view rather than technology business units. This has paid off well.

“IBM also made significant investments in big software plays in the infrastructure space, rather than in the traditional packaged applications market. This gave IBM the luxury of moving into what it calls Smarter Planet, which is focused on business best practices implemented in software. I think this was a very smart move.”

Interesting Facts about IBM: 100 Years of Innovation - The Business of E-Business 

Microsoft saw Netscape’s delivery of a browser to access the Internet as a threat to its Windows monopoly and moved to blunt it by integrating its own Internet Explorer browser into Windows. In contrast, IBM viewed the browser as an opportunity to help organizations conduct business over the Internet.

IBM then coined the term “e-business” and laid out a vision for how e-business could transform the world. “We saw the world shifting toward the browser and had to find a way to articulate that to the world, so we came up with the term ‘e-business,’” said Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM industry solutions.

The company began a massive marketing campaign: In 1998, it spent $28.5 million on Internet advertising. A year later, IBM had 10,000 e-business customers.

At the same time, IBM adopted open standards such as Java, created its WebSphere application server and adopted the Apache HTTP server.

With the success of WebSphere as a platform, IBM moved to adopt Web services as an integration technology and service-oriented architecture as an architectural model. Web services enabled it to bring together the distinct worlds of Microsoft’s .NET with enterprise Java technology.

These moves set the stage for IBM’s new Smarter Commerce strategy, a better way for companies to buy, sell and market their products by integrating operations and enhancing interactions through community, collaboration, process and analytics, Hayman said.

Serious About Services

Services has become the biggest piece of the IBM pie, followed by software and systems. Kerrie Holley, IBM’s CTO for Global Business Services, said IBM’s services unit has been advancing the use of technology in business and government for decades, citing IBM’s support of early NASA missions as proof. But it wasn’t until IBM acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2002 for $3.9 billion that the company got serious about services.

Holley believes three key differentiators make IBM’s services organization stand out: the arsenal of PwC talent, IBM’s deep research organization and the company’s deep repository of assets, which he referred to as “Lego building blocks.” Holley said IBM “can bring thousands of Lego building blocks to the table” to address all manner of engagements. He added that IBM has more than 1,000 researchers focusing on services.

“IBM’s transition to customer focus and its strategic build-up of all three major segments of the tech industry—software, services and hardware—means that it is one of the companies able to provide end-to-end solutions in a unique way,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC. “No other player has achieved the scale that IBM has across these fronts in tech today.”

What is the foundation of IBM’s success? “I think if you look back at its earliest days, this adaptation aspect of the company and its culture is perhaps the most important thing you can say about IBM,” Mills said. “There are other hundred-year-old institutions where either their industries haven’t changed or they haven’t changed very much.

“IBM is at an all-time high value as a business, and that’s a reflection of change and adaptation. You have to have a learning organization that’s open to change. You have to keep learning and building knowledge.

“I think that positions IBM very well, and we need to sustain that kind of learning culture to get through the next 100 years.”

Check out Videos of the 100 years of IBM History

Source: eWeek & engadget 

Interesting Facts about Smiling

Here are you Really Interesting Facts about Smiling, Check this Out:

Forcing yourself to smile can boost your mood: Psychologists have found that even if you’re in bad mood, you can instantly lift your spirits by forcing yourself to smile.

It boosts your immune system: Smiling really can improve your physical health, too. Your body is more relaxed when you smile, which contributes to good health and a stronger immune system.

Smiles are contagious: It’s not just a saying: smiling really is contagious, scientists say. In a study conducted in Sweden, people had difficulty frowning when they looked at other subjects who were smiling, and their muscles twitched into smiles all on their own.

Smiles Relieve Stress: Your body immediately releases endorphins when you smile, even when you force it. This sudden change in mood will help you feel better and release stress.

It’s easier to smile than to frown: Scientists have discovered that your body has to work harder and use more muscles to frown than it does to smile.

It’s a universal sign of happiness: While hand shakes, hugs, and bows all have varying meanings across cultures, smiling is known around the world and in all cultures as a sign of happiness and acceptance.

We still smile at work: While we smile less at work than we do at home, 30% of subjects in a research study smiled five to 20 times a day, and 28% smiled over 20 times per day at the office.

Smiles use from 5 to 53 facial muscles: Just smiling can require your body to use up to 53 muscles, but some smiles only use 5 muscle movements.

Babies are born with the ability to smile: Babies learn a lot of behaviors and sounds from watching the people around them, but scientists believe that all babies are born with the ability, since even blind babies smile.

Smiling helps you get promoted: Smiles make a person seem more attractive, sociable and confident, and people who smile more are more likely to get a promotion.

Smiles are the most easily recognizable facial expression: People can recognize smiles from up to 300 feet away, making it the most easily recognizable facial expression.

Women smile more than men: Generally, women smile more than men, but when they participate in similar work or social roles, they smile the same amount. This finding leads scientists to believe that gender roles are quite flexible. Boy babies, though, dosmile less than girl babies, who also make more eye contact.

Smiles are more attractive than makeup: A research study conducted by Orbit Complete discovered that 69% of people find women more attractive when they smile than when they are wearing makeup.

There are 19 different types of smiles: UC-San Francisco researcher identified 19 types of smiles and put them into two categories: polite “social” smiles which engage fewer muscles, and sincere “felt” smiles that use more muscles on both sides of the face.

Babies start smiling as newborns: Most doctors believe that real smiles occur when babies are awake at the age of four-to-six weeks, but babies start smiling in their sleep as soon as they’re born.