"Engineered primarily to handle business data, the 705 could analyze millions of... | Hacker News

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		jonsen on Jan 7, 2018 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: An 8-tube module from a 1954 IBM 705 mainframe: it... "Engineered primarily to handle business data, the 705 could analyze millions of bits of data to determine the optimum location for a retail store; simulate the entire operation of an oil refinery; handle a huge billing operation in minutes; furnish inventory production control reports; or make up a 50,000-employee payroll with millions of deductions.": http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainfra...

toomanybeersies on Jan 8, 2018 [–]

One of my flatmates (roommates to you Americans) works for a payroll company.

It takes them over an hour to run the payroll for 5000 people due to terribly written SQL queries. It's like we've gone backwards.

Where and when did we go wrong?

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