Xref: utzoo rec.humor:18646 rec.humor.d:1579 comp.misc:4986
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!utkcs2!bass
From: bass@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Vance Bass)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,rec.humor.d,comp.misc
Subject: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: people want computers to have lights
Message-ID: <744@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 89 02:06:50 GMT
Reply-To: bass@utkcs2.cs.utk.edu (Vance Bass)
Organization: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Lines: 23

Heard recently from an IBM field service manager:

A huge travel agency in Florida (a major booker of Caribbean cruises for
blue-haired retired ladies) recently bought an IBM 3090 to handle the
reservation database.  When the deal was consummated, the proud new
owner asked IBM to install it in a big glass room right behind the
receptionist's area so all the customers could see the flashing lights
and spinning tape reels as they walked in -- a testimony to the
modernity of the agency.
Good idea, except there are no blinking lights on a 3090.  So the
service manager offered to build some.  They hired a theatrical designer
to come up with a suitably futuristic "set", got curved glass walls to
minimize reflections, and installed the mainframe behind the
"real-looking" facade.  The customer declared that it was exactly what
he had in mind, regardless of what the actual computer looks like.

Moral: the customer is always right.

-- 

Vance Bass			The opinions expressed here are strictly
IBM M&SG			my own, and do not necessarily
Knoxville, TN			represent IBM's views on the subject.