2011 marks IBM’s Centennial, and coincidentally marks the ten-year anniversary of my first internship with the company. Watching the video above, it’s easy to see that the company has had a significant impact on our lives as citizens of a digital era. This is why I work here.

• 

  2003. The walls and ceiling of this acoustics lab are made up of meter-long wedges to absorb sound.

  In 2001 and 2002, IBM holds a contract with the US Postal Service for the point-of-sale system used in twenty-five of the fifty US states, totaling around 20,000 terminals. I had the opportunity to work on tiny pieces of it.

• In 2003, IBM is developing POWER4+, the follow-on to the world’s first dual-core processor. I join the team responsible for testing the acoustics, power, and cooling of the largest, refrigerator-sized configurations.
• In 2004, I complete my undergraduate degree and join IBM’s Extreme Blue business innovation program for an internship focused on mobile speech technologies (see the video — “This computer speaks English.”). My team, “Outspoken,” resurrects a node from Deep Blue, which in 1997 beat Gary Kasparov in Chess. We write a voice-enabled app allowing players to compete against Deep Blue with simple voice instructions like “Knight to C4.” Our team eventually files seven patent applications protecting this and other demo apps we create.
• In 2005, IBM’s Systems and Technology Group receives its first silicon for what would become the world’s fastest processor several years later. I complete my Masters degree, and join the team responsible for turning a ~$10 lump of sand, copper, and gold into a $10,000 microprocessor. My first day in the lab coincides with the arrival of our first few processor modules.
• 

  In 2009, China grants my first patent, protecting work from my 2004 internship.

  In 2006, my area spins off a small, temporary team to prototype energy-saving technologies for POWER processors. I present technologies from my previous job to IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano.

• In 2007, IBM officially-funds our “temporary” team and we create what would eventually become IBM EnergyScale Technology, a part of the company’s broader “Project Big Green” initiative. I earn an Outstanding Innovation Award for the development of EnergyScale.
• In 2008, IBM reveals the Power 575 and Power 595, the world’s fastest UNIX servers. My team receives an internal award for innovations incorporated into these machines, and EnergyScale becomes a must-have base feature for our next generation of servers. The Register publishes an article about POWER6 titled, “IBM smacks rivals with 5.0GHz Power6 beast (Then pours water on them).“
• 

  "Watson, powered by IBM POWER7, is a work-load optimized system that can answer questions posed in natural language over a nearly unlimited range of knowledge."

  In 2009, IBM continues to lead in patents granted in the United States. I’ve filed fifteen patent disclosures. My first patent is granted — in China. I lead a small part of the team responsible for POWER7′s first platform, the Power 750 / Power 755. It eventually is the first IBM system to ship with POWER7 in 2010.

• In 2010, IBM releases the complete POWER7 product family. I file my 28th patent application, and join my current team, working to make current constraints on computer hardware designs irrelevant.
• In 2011, as we celebrate our centennial, IBM’s Watson will compete in a multi-day televised match of Jeopardy, running on POWER 750 systems that I helped (in a tiny way) to create. In 2011, we’ll continue to change the world.

That’s what I’m working on. This is why I’m an IBMer.

Despondent, I hopped on The Domain’s free wifi and started looking through the Restaurant Week menus for some of the other places within walking distance, and noticed that the ARW website offers reservations online. Since ARW hooks in to OpenTable, which (appears) to be some sort of cloud-based offering for reservation management, I was able to bypass the smarminess and find out the truth. After a few taps on my phone, I had a confirmed dinner reservation later that evening at the supposedly 100% booked restaurant.

Twenty minutes later we stepped back into the restaurant, and asked the same woman for our reserved table. I think she mis-heard me, since she reaffirmed that they were completely booked, and that I once again couldn’t make a reservation. I asked her to check her list for my name, and five minutes later, we were seated at our supposedly impossible-to-get table.

I guess this is the equivalent to penciling in your name on a reservation book when no one’s looking.

I love technology.

NoRTH, by the way, was excellent. I’ve been here once before just after they opened, and was completely turned off by the pretentiousness of the staff, and the deconstructed chicken lasagna that I ordered. I realize now that this place is absolutely stellar. Check out their Bruschetta, which is served with creamy crescenza cheese, lightly-caramelized grilled asparagus, super-thin prosciutto, and a drizzle of truffle oil. It’s decadence on a plate.

Since I recently had the option to buy another car, and now live only 3 hours from Dallas, I decided to try them again. I found the perfect car on their lot, ~185 miles away: a 2008 G35, with black interior, premium, nav, and sport wheels. After speaking with a sales consultant, reviewing the service docs, and closely reviewing the pictures on their website, I set up an appointment Saturday to see the specific car. I drove up that afternoon and was greeted promptly by my sales contact. I did a walk-around of the car, and found some of the “usual” wear in the paint around the door handles, which I’ve seen before on loaners from Austin Infiniti. When I opened the door and sat down, though, I was immediately struck by how dirty and unkept the car was:

• Someone’s CDs were clipped to the driver-side sun visor. The sales consultant politely removed them.
• The steering wheel’s leather looked like it was worn through, and was grey in parts. We’ll come back to this…
• Something was splashed on and had dried onto the navigation screen. It looked like it wasn’t properly cleaned.
• While asking about the iPod integration, I opened the arm rest and found someone’s spare change, and a child’s watergun stashed away.
• We went out on our test drive. The brand-new tires (as of three weeks ago) weren’t quite balanced; the steering wheel vibrated slightly at highway speed.
• After returning to the lot I switched to the back seats, pulled down the center arm rest, and immediately was greeted with the smell of drying, stale cola. Someone had spilled some sort of soda on the arm rest.
• I flipped open the cupholder, and found even more soda.
• I asked about the trunk, opened it, and found a fedex box.
• After a walk-around, I found several touchups in the paint that were done poorly. My salesman agreed, and stated that they probably weren’t done by “his guy.”
• I also found a small crack in the driver’s side headlight lens.

The car, according to service records, had 23,274 miles on 8/06/10. Less than 22 days later, it had 25,536 miles. While we were going over the car, I started to rub / pick at the steering wheel (which appeared to be completely worn). The wear marks turned out to be grey dirt, evenly-caked onto the wheel!

It’s obvious that someone has been using this as a daily-driver, driving over 100 miles per day. Like any used car, this one had some touch-ups done in the paint. Unfortunately they were done poorly, with mis-matched paint. I also found a crack in the headlight, which is easily a $1,000 repair. When I offered less, the salesman stated that the car would no longer be “Certified” if they sold it for that amount. I also wouldn’t qualify for super-low interest rates on a car loan.

As we sat in his office, the sales rep and I discussed each of these items, and the net of his message to me was the condition of the car was typical for used cars on their lot, AND the price couldn’t come down to what I believe was a fair price.

I’m genuinely disappointed. I wasted six hours of my time, a tank of gas, and 375 miles on my car to drive up and view someone’s toy. I even canceled plans to fly home for my Dad’s birthday! The sales team had the audacity to tell me that the light was a $1,000 repair, and then print out a sales offer with a ~$1,000 discount and “NOT fixing head lamp!” written out on it, completely ignoring every other problem with the car.

This was a complete waste of my time, and I’m embarrassed for Infiniti, the sales team, and the dealership.

I walked away from Grubbs wondering just what else they’d show me, if that was “average” for their lot. As I settled back into my 5.5-yr-old car, with 66,000 miles, I took note of the quality of the paint, the richness of the leather, and the cleanliness of the cabin, and realized I still enjoy driving my car, each and every day that goes by. I guess this wasn’t a total waste.

UPDATE: The car has been a “salesman demo.” This means (based on emails) that staff at the dealership may “demo” the car around DFW, and drive it to / from work. My salesman also owned up to being the salesman driving the car! I genuinely wish he’d had the car detailed before showing it to me, and wasting my time.

I’m still waiting on my sales contact to call me. We last exchanged emails Monday afternoon.

In the next segment, the hosts tried to pick the perfect “first car” for a teenager. Mine was a gray 1983 Pontiac Bonneville. This was in-line with the cars the hosts picked. The Pontiac had a V6, AC that worked in the Spring and Fall, wipers that quit (at least twice) in rainstorms, and was that dull gray that disappeared in fog. Unfortunately, my parents did not spring for the optional 8-track player when they bought it new in 1982.

It made it through high school, but gave up the ghost only a month later, the night before a trip to Thailand. We had to have it towed, get home, pack, and get up at 3AM to catch our flight. Wonderful way to start a vacation abroad!

I liked my car, for all its foibles and quirks, however. It was free, it worked, and it was big enough to fit me plus several friends.

It was, however, a pretty remarkable contrast to my first “new” car, after college.

I catch up on Top Gear via the excellent FinalGear.com (not affiliated in any way with the “real” shows). Grab a torrent for any episode of Top Gear from FinalGear’s torrent archive. Usually I can have a torrent downloaded to my PC, and streaming to my Xbox 360 by 9PM Central Time the same day the show aired.

Go listen to the full show here. Be sure to play the “Who’s Carl This Time,” and “Not My Job” segments!

Thanks NPR for providing a slick Media Player on your site!

For more detailed information on how to implement Active Energy Manager on POWER6-based systems, take a look at our whitepaper on IBM.com.

The Geely GE is a Chinese “interpretation” of the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

The car has a super-long wheel base, and sports a single seat in the back for the passenger / head-of-state / megalomaniac who owns it.

Really?

My car’s just shy of 4 years old (purchased April 30, 2005 w/ 6 miles on it!). I still have a year left on the loan, and assuming all goes well, I’ll keep it about a year or two after that. So in 2011 or 2012, I might be in the market for such a fine knock-off as the one above. Or maybe I’ll just stick with Japanese cars…

I got there a little late, but made it just in time to see the “singing tesla coils” from Arc Attack, and see Nick’s interview with the BBC! Check out the article on the BBC’s dot.life blog.

– BBC’s Interview with Nick P.