IBM (help settle an argument)

[DontEatCrisps]

Without looking it up, do you know what IBM stands for?

Yabu- I know
Yanbu- I don’t know.

OK hands up who knows what ASCII means?

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

I'll raise you ODBC and DDE

Yes but don’t know why I know! I do have a brain that retains random facts!

I have found my people.

Seriously crap sofas?

I knew IBM was International Business Machines, not sure why, but I'm now thinking of the original 'computers' like the women portrayed in Hidden Figures, doing calculations manually for NASA, who then bought a giant machine to do them for them - IBM might have had a mention in the film.

Now for a tricky one, can anyone say without Googling, the origin behind the name IKEA?

The joke round here was IBM stood for 'I've Been Moved' due to them relocating people so much.

Yes, I do. In one of my first jobs, in the late 1970s, I used to process requisitions and orders for a government department that used very large high-end computer systems. IBM was the major supplier of such machines in those days.

I know it's something to do with computers, that is the extent of my knowledge though

Yes I worked for them for over 20 years!

Alternative acronyms… 🤣

I’ve Been Moved
I’ve Been Married
I Blown Monkeys

YABU.

Read it in a book once as part of a story once where someone's relative had olds shares in a start up called"..." which turned into IBM.

International business machines

Yes, but only because I worked for them for 15 years.

International business machines (corporation)

Yup. But both DH and I worked for them about 100 years ago and DH receives a very nice pension payment from them every month

Yes as my dad worked for them for many years

Yes because DH worked for them.

I went there for the second round of interviews (milk round anyone?) for their graduate intake in 1984. Didn't like the look of them at all, but that was obviously reciprocated because they didn't offer me a job

However, years later the company I did join got taken over by them so I ended up with them anyway. Not for long though. I found I disliked working for them even less than I thought I would so left and got another job.

DH always uses to say IBM should stand for I've been married as there was a high divorce rate. Mainly due to all the travel.