Posts by Slant Four

AI-powered mainframe exits are a bubble set to pop

yeah..nah

"Gartner’s opinion will go down very well at IBM, which saw its stock price slide sharply after Anthropic touted the COBOL-conversion powers of its Claude Code tool, sparking yet another round of speculation that the mainframe might be on its last legs."

These AI knee jerk reactions in the stock market to any AI "new shiny" are crazy.

And in this case, any techie in the industry knows that if these mainframe applications could have been moved they would have already and we have discussed this in other articles: Cobol conversions are the easy bit and are a small part of the pie. It's all the MF stuff around the cobol code that is the sticking point plus what other platform provides the same uptime?. The cloud sure doesn't. The only logical choice would be IBM P-Series running AIX if you wanted to get close to mainframe uptime.

And yet the great unwashed want to "believe" there is a there there... but there isn't.

Like all those ERP migrations that go south, never to be finished (with significant budget overruns), that would be the project profile for any company using AI to get them off the mainframe. There are so many dark arts/nooks and crannies in a mainframe application stack that AI won't have any training data to resolve these.

In my past (as a 15 year ex-IBM'er), I have done lots of migration assessments for MF customers and in the end the risks were always too high (irrespective of the cost) and I have been called into numerous non-IBM staffed conversion projects that had gone south... and that's where they stayed.

Bluck

Apple's chips are the core of a new landscape, but its biggest win is Windows

regarding linux

Been using Linux since 1997 and while Linux now owns the backend it will never become a force in the desktop simply because:

- Windows apps own the corporate space

- Windows and Mac own the consumer space as you can't go into a big box retailer and buy a Linux PC the way you can with windows or mac

This is despite W11 being a crock of shit... the inertia to move off it is just too ingrained in the corporate and consumer space.

And lets say you can get a Linux PC in a big box retailer... which desktop... the options are far flung and would bamboozle 99% of consumers so someone need to champion say two different desktops to keep the options sane.

Who is that someone?.... Intel... Dell... Best Buy (or the local equiv).. cause it has to be someone with skin in the game.

Bluck

Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field

this is what I don't get

So Linux stores the DOB in systemd, IOS elsewhere, Android elsewhere, WIndows elsewhere etc etc.

How does that DOB get to the end point internet based services, there is no standardized API like HTML within these laws.

So yeah, so every OS has it saved in a different location and now every application that needs it now needs to add in a IF THEN ELSE ELSE ELSE ELSE ... clause depending on the OS of the device. And what happens when it comes across Devuan...can you then no longer use that remote service to download stuff.

On top of this, someone needs to tag every app or using the exception rule, every app that is considered child inappropriate...who does this work...is their some government censor that does this?.

Sure some of the standard apps stores (apple/android) might be some of the way to this tagging but what of the LInux app stores. What of all the Linux apps that aren't in what is considered a "store" where you download the source and compile or off the beaten track OS'es like OpenIndiana?

Logic would say (not that politicians have logic) that kids run IOS or Android cause that's what runs on phones and that's where all the apps are. Maybe some kids run Windows on a tablet but sure as hell, kids are not running Linux on a phone (cause no apps) nor running Linux on a tablet or a PC (no apps).

So target the OS'es that 99.9% of the kids use and leave Linux, BSD etc alone.

Bluck

GNOME 50 debuts with X11 axed, Wayland front and center

not true

" GNOME 50 itself still contains the XWayland X server, so you can still start and use X11 apps, the same as ever."

Wonderful and useful X utilities like "devilspie" don't work under XWayland X server.

fluxbox and tint2 don't work under XWayland X server..

I could go on and these are X11 apps so wayland is crap, the quoted comment is not truthful and like systemd, Wayland won't find a home on any system I utilize.

Bluck

Ig Nobel Prize flees US for Switzerland after 35 years over safety concerns

WASP rules?

White Arsehole Slimey Pricks?

UK Treasury not sure about ditching Oracle to join £1.7 billion shared services program it is funding

why not just wait...

until the latest, never used at scale/untested, vibe coded, AI infused ERP and HR SAAS application is released by a recently created AI startup.

Think of all of the money that can be saved, think of all of the people that can be fired as AI agents autonomously execute the required business work flows.

The ultimate "inverted pyramid" organization (manager heavy, worker light)...no need for pesky employee institutional knowledge when AI can look up some stackflow post from 12 years ago and find untold, never before known efficiencies.

Bluck

Microsoft to auto-launch Copilot in Edge whenever you click a link from Outlook

VM it!!!

I worked for my last employer for 15 years (before retirement), a shop with ~400,000 employees and a global presence....so not a Mom and Pop.

I was a Unix/Linux dev so windows wasn't a good fit so whenever they gave me a new laptop,I would:

1- clone the windows image with the vmware cloner

2- install centos and vmware player

3- copy back vmware clone

4- happily worked inside LInux with windows minimized in the background

5- this config passed all the employers security audits

This also meant I could throttle the resources windows sucked out of my PC cpu/ram

Bluck

All your bots are belong to US if you don't play ball, DoD tells Anthropic

mass surveillance

whats interesting in the statement about what they won't use it for, they mention "mass surveillance".

Why would an organization not charted with mass surveillance point out they won't us AI for mass surveillance unless they secretly will use it for mass surveillance?

Bluck

KDE Plasma 6.6 isn't forcing systemd but the arguments rage on

Re: The Linux Desktop needs a Sugar Daddy

But Mark didn't create a massive retail sales channel in stores so average customers could see Linux along side Windows and Mac.

If 90% of retail consumers buy a Windows PC is because that's all they see when they walk into a store. The other 10% buy a Mac.

Bluck

to the down voters: I have been using Linux since the mid 90's

I switch my career from Unix to Linux and have tried them all.

I love Linux!!!.

My point about ugly interfaces is that retail consumers are conditioned to either a Mac or Windows interface and something based on say Gnome 2 won't cut it.

Yes we can say Win 8/10/11 had/have issues but they do look modern, with nice icons etc so if some mythical sugar daddy with deep pockets got big box retailers to stock Linux PC's, trained the sales staff and created a marketing campaign then the desktop presented needs to look modern.

Now if you downvoted me cause you don't think Linux needs a sugar daddy to displace Windows or Mac's desktops in the enterprise or consumer space then tell me why I am wrong.

In the consumer space, Joe Blogs has no clue Linux even exists and until Linux supports all the windows eco system 100% enterprises won't replace windows desktops with it.

Bluck

missed my point

Joe Blogs goes into big box retailer and what does he see: Windows PC's and Apple Mac's

It's not that you can't get a PC running Linux, it's that they arent visible to the average Joe.

Hence the need for a sugar daddy (which doesn''t exist) to place product in retail stores, train the staff and do advertising.

Bluck

The Linux Desktop needs a Sugar Daddy

I think we can essentially say at no point ever has anyone who isn't a geek installed their own OS (which is obviously distinct from doing a windows/ios update on the device you brought that came pre-installed with said OS)

There are two corporate/channel sponsored desktop platforms: Wintel and Apple (sure Warm... windows/arm is also an option and Intel also includes AMD).

So you buy your Apple device or your Windows Intel/amd/Arm device and it comes with the OS installed and you get OS updates and then you rinse and repeat when you need to get a new faster device.

Now we could imagine a past/future where IBM didn't sell it's PC division to Lenovo and after buying Redhat they made a push to sell a hardware/OS combo that included Linux.

But that didn't happen so unless some company with market/reseller/channel influence and marketing muscle/dollars champions a Linux Desktop (1) on at least intel/AMD/Arm PC's then even if the One True Linux Desktop (that ran Windows apps/ecosystems 100%) was to magically appear tomorrow unless aforementioned Sugar Daddy made these PC's available for corporate and home users (with Windows apps/ecosystems pre-installed) then the Year of the Linux Desktop will always be a wet dream.

Linux eat Unix's lunch and powers the Internet so lets be thankful that we own this space...we ain't ever going to own the Desktop space. If people really get pissed off with WIndows they will move to Apple.

Bluck

(1) Many Linux desktops that people like are ugly...so The One True Desktop would have to be based on something pretty, say KDE, Zorin etc

Discord drama delays age verification debut until the second half of 2026

burner image

So I may (due to having kids in the US) need to visit under the ESTA program which has now been expanded to know lots of stuff about you (with no social media footprint that doesn't matter to me).

But they also have/will stop having a web based application and you now must/will have to install an app on your phone (with I am sure lots of perms to suck up data).

Now I just use my (hand-me-down Apple) phone as a phone (all apps that can be deleted are) which means I don't have access to any apps store and I never will.

So if needed, I would either buy a cheap used burner android phone just for the ESTA process or install a Linux based android emulator.

I have jokingly told the wife that I will start a business (small shop) with a set of PC's running Linux based android emulators available which get reflashed after each client uses them.

Anyways, while I have nothing to hide given there is nothing to see on my phone I am not willing to have it sign into any apps store even with a burner email address.

With relation to age verification, in my case to paraphrase Bob Marley "No Social Media, No cry"

Bluck

IBM stock dives after Anthropic points out AI can rewrite COBOL fast

What's the target platform the investors imagined?

Was the share price drop predicated on IBM investors thinking IBM's mainframe business is moving to say Linux based hardware thus mainframe sales would plunge?

This is even more irrational than thinking these COBOL applications will move to say Java running on a mainframe. At least in this scenario the Java code (or whatever the target is) has access to all the related mainframe subsystems.

There is no way you are doing a code conversion AND moving it off a mainframe. No hardware platform (outside of Tandem) has the same RAS levels (Reliability, availability, and serviceability) as a mainframe which is also why many customers utilize mainframes.

So IBM's mainframe business is not at risk and it appears your average Tech investor is clueless.

Bluck

so how does it/would it work?

COBOL convertors of yore were deterministic - which is to say during the tool development they got persons with deep knowledge of COBOL (working with target language experts if they weren't themselves) to create the syntax and logic convertor rules. And they then tested this with real production code and iterated/updated the tool from project to project as edge cases came up (i.e. the companies providing these tools were always "connected" in a meaningful way with client project teams)

Being deterministic, give convertors of yore the same COBOL program over 1000 iterations and you get the same target code.

Now AI is non-deterministic, you train it on something but over 1000 iterations you won't get the same target code.

On top of this, what specifically are you going to train the AI on, what text books, that explain 100% how to convert say COBOL to say Java? (1)

I have no clue if such text books exist but any such book, no matter how good, cant cover off every syntactical variation (given experience tells us people "abuse" programming languages with weird/obtuse code). So unless you have a tool vendor engaged to update AI "logic" (as vendor convertors of yore did) then the AI will keep tripping up.

Summary: What input documents will AI be trained on that allows it to do the conversion?

This obviously puts aside the elephants in the room that I and others have discussed around all the ecosystem "stuff" that supports the running of the COBOL code.

Bluck

(1) a quick google search shows lots of books teaching COBOL programmers Java (and visa verse) but not any lengthy tomb on converting code.

this is crazy talk

So yet again (like the SAAS vendors losing share price recently) something that AI might be able to do (in this case cobol conversions) but which it doesn't have a track record in causes investors to panic.

What COBOL code that is running is because it is mission critical, is running on mainframes, has hooks into mainframe sub-systems like CICS and JCL and if it was able to be moved it would have happened already (I have done several POC's back in the day for this and my conclusions were always the risks are too high).

Thus (given the workloads COBOL supports) it would be even more critical for AI to be 110% perfect in the conversion process (typically to Java!!!!).

There is nothing new under the sun with COBOL conversions, the toolkits have been around for decades but it's the other mainframe ecosystem stuff around it that makes it hard (outside of CICS and JCL)... like assembler modules that are called (who's gonna convert that and what do you convert it to)... operational workflows/interconnections to other systems etc.

I know the share market is forward looking but this panic like behaviour is illogical.

It seems to be a pre-cursor to how they will react when it is found (at least by investors) that AI (in it's current form) is a dead end.

Bluck

PS. look like I as ninja'ed by another poster on this..great minds think alike

O say, can you see: FCC pushes patriotic programming for US 250th

what you list reflects many Americans today

Yes Trump is the most empty of humans but many of the traits you list are shared by a solid core of Amercans.

But I don't blame any individual American as I feel they are victims of a political and ultra capitalist system working together over many decades to consolidate the available power and money.

Why do 50% of adult Americans have a reading level no greater than a 6th grader (a 12 yo). Is it because they were all born stupid (no) or because the political and ultra capitalist system sees/knows that keeping people under-educated is an advantage.

As Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 60's: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you"

So for this to work, you need to keep people uneducated which then begats a lack of interest in many Americans in the things you list that make us a well rounded human. The political and ultra capitalist system then also eliminates critical thinking so that they can convince their base to do "stuff" that is not in their best interests.

Classic example would be for the US to have a universal health care system such as exists in the EU, Canada, UK, OZ, NZ etc..but many Americans are convinced thats nasty socialism/communism when in fact it is the most important function a government can provide to it's citizens. Instead you have a Health Industrial Complex that maximizes profits/minimizes outcomes and unless you have a job you are screwed.

Circling back to patriotism, the quote "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross" comes to mind. The push for Patriotism is being used to again dupe/distract the low-information voter while the fascists continue to steal the country.

Buck

little people

The overarching thing about American patriotism (IMHO) is that it shows a country that lacks self confidence.

This is a strange psychosis given it's relatively RECENT historical strengths (economic, military) but to me there is a scared little country hiding inside it's outward bulk.

Thus it must at all times (this pre-dates Trump but he is totally emblematic of this) assert it's strengths BUT it only does so by picking on small countries/groups that it believes it can win against (again either economically or more especially militarily). And even then it most times fails to win.

It can be seen in the chants of "USA!!! USA!!! USA!!" at any number of events. It can be seen in it's overly dramatic/overly produced political theatre.

It can be seen in it's repeated telling that it is "the greatest country in the world"

It can be seen in it's re-writing of history, especially it's WWII narrative that it single-handedly saved the world (i.e. beating it's chest saying "look at me!!!, look at me!!!) when in fact it sat on the sidelines and had the Japs not bombed Pearl Habour, on the sidelines it would have sat. Yes, it contributed to the overthrow eventually but it was a shared sacrifice.

It can be seen in it's insistence that it makes the best of everything when in fact it's cars are crap, it's appliances are crap, it's food is crap etc etc.

As noted, Trump ramps this "scared little boy" psychosis up to 11 and in a sense is America's greatest president by virtue of the fact that he exemplifies/Codifies all of the countries bad attributes into one vile package. He is America and America is him... the ultimate Ugly American.

Buck

Poland bans camera-packing cars made in China from military bases

related but unrelated

Took my car in for a service and got a new fangled MG as a loaner.

Driving along getting used to the controls and I notice an icon that represents a speed sign on the driver display..

This has me baffled.... are speed limits at various parts of my journey living in some Cloud database and GPS is referencing this?

Nope... it's camera(s) is/are scanning the horizon for posted road signs and then posting these on the info display.

The tell was that at several points on my journey, we hit roadworks with 30k signs that didn't have a contra sign at the end of the road works (or it didn't see them) so when I am traveling on a 100km motorway, the display showed 30k.

So basically a next to useless feature that someone in product development thought was a good idea and wasted time/money on it.

Also the driver assist features were a bit "sensitive/paranoid" and would warn me of non-existent issues regularly and in some cases would actually apply the brakes and/or nudge the steering wheel in a direction it felt was needed. Not to the point of being dangerous but after the 10th time it was annoying.

Bluck