The "future of computing" at IBM: trivial or schizophrenic?

One IPBiz reader at an IBM outpost in Asia (IBM Singapore Pte Ltd, linked through Colombo, Sri Lanka (Ceylon)) was studying the works of Laura Wynter, co-inventor of Method and structure for automated crediting to customers for waiting to IBM (published application 20080046385, application 11/492043), discussed on IPBiz.

On a page sub-titled Innovation Matters, one can find a discussion of related work at IBM (including a picture of Wynter) with a related publication:

Parameter Inference of Queueing Models for IT Systems using End-to-End Measurements, Zhen Liu, Laura Wynter, Cathy H. Xia and Fan Zhang, Performance Evaluation.

See also Analysis of a Yield Management Model for On Demand Computing Centers, the abstract for which includes: IT On Demand is a business model touted recently by IBM and other large IT companies as the future of computing.

For those that don't remember, the "future of computing" manifested in the first claim of the above-noted application (11/492043 ) was:

A system for reducing customer dissatisfaction for waiting, said system comprising: a queue monitoring subsystem that detects an entry of a customer into a waiting queue;a reward computing subsystem that calculates a reward for the customer for being in the waiting queue; anda communication subsystem to communicate the reward to the customer,wherein at least one of said queue monitoring subsystem, said reward computing subsystem, and said communication subsystem is automated.

See also
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/10/ibms-apparent-schizophrenia-on-patent.html