[Wylug-discuss] Thos. W. Ward

[Richard Ibbotson]

On Friday 28 Jun 2013 17:39:18 John wrote:
> The whole ICL / Special Branch stuff is something I have never
> experienced even slightly.  As others have said, software was
> exchanged fairly freely (if awkwardly, as mag tape was a pain but
> better than paper tape etc!).  I can recall swapping source code in
> Fortran, C, Macro-11, Basic-Plus and even 8080 ASM.  Oh, and some
> Algols (mainly 60).

It's not something that you want to go anywhere near.  I only 
experienced it because Ward's data was stolen.  I think that might 
have been one of the earliest cases of data theft.  But, thanks to 
this and other circumstances surrounding ICL at that time which was 
mostly coming from Whitehall we were told that we were not allowed to 
talk about it.  And, exchange software ?  Don't even try and mention 
it.

I made the mistake of mentioning the static charge on the building to 
someone from either ICL or Farnell or similar person in the building 
one day.  He was a Dr. of Computing Sciences.  Big fat bloke.  
Suffering with stroke and heart disease.  Drank and smoked a lot. Hired 
in to sort out the problem of the boards exploding.  When I mentioned 
that I knew it was the static charge I nearly had my teeth thumped out 
and then he started screaming and swearing and shouting about throwing 
me in prison permanently.  This was mostly average for what was going 
on with ICL at that time.  Which is why they probably had a public 
enquiry and closed down some parts of it.  Something to do with 
bullying behaviour and a lot of things going missing.  Like data for 
example.

-- 
Richard