On Wed, 16 May 2018 21:19:58 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

On 16/05/18 20:55, bert wrote:
End of an era
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ot7sw7v9nd...orton.jpg?dl=0

I'm old but alas ICL means nothing to me - I was a DEC fan and sadly HP
grabbed them yonks ago....

I worked in an ICL/Elliott 4130 for some years, and then an ICL 2960.

ICL was an amalgamation (nationalisation) of several companies, and had
an excess of (not very good) middle managers - rather like BT now. We had
to deal with them, at least indirectly - not a good experience except in
rare cases.

There's an apocryphal story about one such manager, which indicates their
general reputation:

"He went to a meeting at West Gorton. At the end of the day he met a
colleague in reception, and they agreed to share a taxi back to
Piccadilly Station. On the train home, he was perplexed that he couldn't
find the return half of his ticket, and didn't have enough money to pay
the guard. He had to leave his name and address. The colleague offered
him a lift home from Watford Station, which was gratefully accepted. On
arrival, he invited the driver in for a sherry, telling his wife how
grateful he was for the lift from the station. 'Oh, whatever's
happened?', she replied. 'Where on earth is the car?'. Actually, it was
in Manchester, because he had gone there by road."



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