IBM According To Bing/Copilot

What businesses does IBM pursue?

IBM operates in several key business areas:

Software: This is IBM’s largest segment, focusing on hybrid cloud and AI solutions. It includes products for data and AI, automation, cybersecurity, and transaction processing, with Red Hat being a significant part of this segment.

Consulting: IBM provides consulting services to help businesses transform and implement digital technologies, particularly hybrid cloud architectures. This includes data and technology consulting, cloud modernization, application operations, and business transformation.

Infrastructure: This segment offers hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, including high-performance servers, storage solutions, and cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). IBM’s infrastructure services support enterprise AI workloads and hybrid multi-cloud environments.

Financing: IBM facilitates the acquisition of hardware, software, and services through financing solutions, helping clients manage their technology investments more effectively.

IBM’s focus on hybrid cloud and AI, particularly through platforms like Red Hat OpenShift and Watsonx, positions it as a leader in these transformative technologies.

Is IBM likely to be purchased and if so by whom?

Currently, there are no strong indications that IBM is likely to be purchased by another company. Instead, IBM has been actively acquiring other companies to strengthen its capabilities in hybrid cloud, AI, and other strategic areas. For example, IBM recently announced its acquisition of HashiCorp, a leading multi-cloud infrastructure automation company, for $6.4 billion. This acquisition aims to enhance IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and support its AI-driven application growth.

Given IBM’s focus on expanding its own portfolio through acquisitions, it seems more likely that IBM will continue to grow and innovate independently rather than being acquired by another company.

Does the company design and/or manufacture any hardware?

Yes, IBM designs and manufactures a variety of hardware products. Here are some key areas:

Servers: IBM produces high-performance servers, including the IBM Z mainframes and IBM Power Systems, which are designed for enterprise workloads and hybrid cloud environments.

Storage Solutions: IBM offers a range of storage products, such as IBM FlashSystem, which provides high-speed data storage solutions for businesses.

Quantum Computing: IBM is a leader in quantum computing hardware with its IBM Quantum systems, which are used for research and development in various scientific and industrial fields.

Networking Hardware: IBM also provides networking hardware solutions to support data centers and enterprise networks.

Are the Z mainframes descendants of the IBM 360/370 computers?

Yes, IBM Z mainframes are indeed descendants of the IBM System/360 and System/370 computers. The IBM Z family maintains full backward compatibility with these earlier systems1. This means that many applications written for the System/360 and System/370 can still run unmodified on the latest IBM Z mainframes.

The IBM System/360, introduced in 1964, was revolutionary for its time, offering a range of compatible computers that could run the same software. The System/370, introduced in 1970, built on this foundation with improved performance and features. Over the decades, IBM has continued to evolve its mainframe architecture, leading to the current IBM Z series.

Magellan And Parsley

 Here on the Island there have pretty much always been rabbits.

A long time ago somebody brought in European hares and that variety must have liked it here because when we got here twelve years ago there were lots of them.

By then some later arriving domestic rabbits had escaped so the population had become more of a mélange.

In our time here the overall population grew at a noticeable rate - not an explosion, but a steady increase.

Then a few years back, we heard that on the next island over a hemorrhagic virus was wasting that island's rabbits.

It took a couple years, but the virus found its way to our population and frighteningly soon all our rabbit friends disappeared.

So, when after a couple of years of no rabbits a tiny pair of them appeared in early mornings in the gravel and moss adjacent to a large stand of ground hugging juniper in front of our house, we were overjoyed.

The rabbits were back.

These tiny guys were identical except one was black and one was brindle.

I could watch them for hours as they ran around, stopped to eat whatever it was that was edible where they stopped and had endless faux fights and baby rabbit boxing matches.

That was early last year.

In the interim they have both grown into adults with the black one being more rangy - like a jack rabbit - and the brindle one looking like a typical hare.

In spite of the differences, they must be siblings.

And they both still like to hang out together most of the time.

One of our neighbors named the black one Magellan because he is always travelling somewhere.

We have named the brindle one Parsley because he really likes parsley.

We don't really know if they are he or she.

Yesterday we found both of them dead and partially eaten immediately adjacent to their juniper covered home.

We will be forever sad.

 

 

Voting In North Carolina

One of my family members lives in North Carolina.

 
She recently told me in extensive detail what the republican legislature has done to deeply impede voting.

 
It sums up to "it's very difficult for most people - anyone but old white republicans - to register, and if any non-white, non-republican manages to register, voting will be close to impossible ".

(There is also a whole big farce ID card story that would be interesting to tell, but I haven't the time.)

Also, I think I heard that anyone voting not on election day and not in a voting booth looked over by republican white christian poll watchers needs to vote in the presence of a republican approved notary public.

Sounds kinda like the abortion watch brigade, doesn't it?

Probably is.

 
I mentioned in a recent post that this sort of thing was being done, but this is my first personal contact with it.

And I am sorry that it is in North Carolina, a state that I had thought to be, like Georgia, rational.

 
That condition, accompanied by the fact that (probably) Blue Asheville won't be able to vote, since it no longer exists, makes any Kamala North Carolina Miracle little more than drunken discourse from the end of the bar.

I am deeply regretful.

For North Carolina.

And for Kamala Harris.

A Short Civics Lesson

In the recent vice president's candidate debate, if I had been Tim Walz, after three or four of Vance's assertions that everything wrong in the world is the result of "Kamala Harris's failed policies" I would have said, at the outset of the next time I got the mike, "I'll answer the question on the table if I am able after taking the time necessary to give the Senator a brief civics lesson. The Vice President has no power to do anything except stay healthy and wait for the President to die, in which case the Vice President assumes the presidency and, with it, all the executive powers that the Vice President lacks, chief among them, setting policy."

J. D. Is either plug stupid or he's lying.

Since he went to Yale, he may not be stupid.