Posts by cschneid

LinkedIn realizes its users have been bathing in AI slop, offers a shower

too little, too late

People have been walking away from LinkedIn for some time, once they're gone, they're gone.

It's do or die for Apple AI

yet again

Here is yet another Apple event regarding which I can only barely contain my indifference. So long as I can continue to keep Siri and Apple Intelligence turned off, I guess it's okay. I do wish Apple would quit making the UI wriggle and instead concentrate on fixing the bugs and security holes in their apps and OSs. It would be nice to return to the days of "it just works."

Netflix wiz creates app to slash AI bills, then open sources it

chasing chargeback algorithms

As a customer, you are not in control of the chargeback algorithm. Actions you take to reduce your bill will be met with counter-actions to restore the status quo.

I have witnessed organizations chasing their chargeback algorithm, attempting to cut costs by dancing around the edges of the rules. This works until those in charge of the algorithm notice your dance moves and put a stop to them. They can do that, it's their algorithm.

Locked, stocked, and losing budget: AI vendor lock-in bites back

Vendor lock-in...

...is a feature, from the vendor's point of view.

Microsoft's GitHub grounds Copilot account sign-ups amid capacity crunch

I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

Not sure what happens to all those companies that made so many of their programmers redundant in favor of drowning the remaining staff in work with Copilot as their floatation device. I _am_ sure I don't care.

World's blandest man steps down from CEO job to spend more time in tastefully appointed home

Apple's approach to AI

I think Apple has the perfect approach to AI, they let me turn it off. I hope this continues.

AI for software developers is in a 'dangerous state'

the evolution of "AI"

...from Attractive Irritation to Aggressive Infiltrator.

GitHub infuriates students by removing some models from free Copilot plan

it's free until...

...it isn't. Now that you've taught yourself that you can't live without it, you get to pay and pay and pay.

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

COBOL is easy...

...JCL isn't. CICS isn't that hard, it's got an API that is well documented and pseudo-conversational programming style isn't that far off from server-side web applications. DB2 is just another RDBMS if you're an applications developer. ISPF contains concepts foreign to most people under 50, but ZOWE exists. IMS is so far out there it isn't even visible from here.

People have begun pointing out that it isn't COBOL that's the roadblock, it's all that other mainframe *stuff* that doesn't have a Linux or Windows analogue. A file system without directories, required disk space allocation, dataset types.

That's just the applications side of things, the systems (admin) side is *completely* different.

Rewriting COBOL as some other language? I mean, if you want to, I guess, go ahead; I don't see the ROI. If the goal is to be free of the mainframe because of cost, be sure your cloud (because of course that's the target environment) costs are cheap enough to make it worth your while.

Microsoft 365 outage drags on for nearly 10 hours during bad night for North American infra

No one ever got fired for buying Microsoft.

The future of long-term data storage is clear and will last 14 billion years

follow-up tasks

We now merely need to document every extant file format, publish a reference implementation (not on this medium), instructions on how to construct a computer and how to build a read/write device for the medium starting with only hydrogen and helium.

Older developers are down with the vibe coding vibe

Older developers?

I'm startled that > 10 years experience is the definition of an older developer. I think of that as just entering middle aged developer territory.

Here's something no one tells developers in school: it takes _years_ of experience to become good at software development. This isn't one of those 10,000 hour exhortations, this is about the fact that experience is acquired over time and that experience is valuable.

It takes _years_ to learn your own common mistakes, the stuff you should go looking for when your code doesn't work.

It takes _years_ to really learn some software tools. Not to gain the superficial knowledge of how to get common tasks done, I'm talking about how to _really_ use the tools to prevent flaws from creeping into your code. This also points to a hidden cost of switching tool sets.

It takes _years_ to learn how to write code that doesn't just work, but works well and is also maintainable.

It takes _years_ to learn when to walk away, take a break, take a stroll, to stop pounding the keyboard because you're not making any progress. This is in direct opposition to that 100 hour a week work ethic, but it's a necessary skill - knowing when to walk away and still not give up.

It takes _years_ to learn how to test properly. Too often the agile "test early, test often" maxim demonstrates [Goodhardt's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law), with a large number of tests all covering the same section of the code base. There are also cases of developers simply coding unit tests to `return true`.

It takes _years_ to learn not to reinvent the wheel. If there's an existing function or subroutine to do what you need, use it. If it doesn't do quite what you need, maybe it needs maintenance, or enhancement, or maybe what you need can be implemented as a wrapper around it.

It takes _years_ to learn about the trade-offs that play into the decisions of how write a piece of code that reliably and securely does what it's supposed to do, performs well, and can be understood and maintained by people who aren't you.

Original: https://github.com/cschneid-the-elder/rants/blob/master/why-software-sucks-000.md

Empire of office workers strikes back against RTO mandates

previously...

Study finds a quarter of bosses hoped RTO would make employees quit https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/09/rto_quit_study/

Google, AWS say it's too hard for customers to use Linux to swerve Azure

lock-in

I wonder if any of those Azure applications were rewrites of IBM mainframe applications, freeing the organization from one vendor's lock in only to lock themselves into another.

DOGE dilettantes 'didn't test' Social Security fraud detection tool at appropriate scale

IBM Mainframes, COBOL, 1979, and all that

>> "SSA website went down because of atypical high volume and it’s a 1979 platform,"

I don't believe a 1979 mainframe would still be running today. Support, spare parts, etc. Possibly the speaker refers to when the software was originally written.

I do believe IBM mainframes got a TCP/IP stack in the early/mid 1990s via the Open Systems Adapter, I think.

I know for certain that current IBM mainframe resources can be accessed via REST or SOAP web services because I've written the CICS/COBOL code to make it happen.

I would really like to find out what the actual problems are, the actual technology stack in use, because I used to be part of a team that solved these sorts of problems and thus it's a point of interest

Home Office haunted by 25-year-old asylum system

The solution, obviously, is...

AI-augmented private sector consultants vibe-coding a cloud-native solution.

Credible nerd says stop using atop, doesn't say why, everyone panics

Re: My response

I believe _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ had an anecdote about manuals, albeit not for software. The TLDR being that the assignment for writing the manual usually went to the most useless worker in the plant because everyone else was making widgets.

Data is very valuable, just don't ask us to measure it, leaders say

assets and liabilities

I would think it difficult for the data to have value if the systems that produce it have none. As I understand it, at least where I reside, software development is allocated to the expense side of the ledger. I am not an accountant, nor am I a lawyer.

Also, everyone should start managing their "AI" prompts with git.

Time to make C the COBOL of this century

Ironically...

...you have to try pretty hard to overflow a buffer in COBOL.

Democrats demand to know WTF is up with that DOGE server on OPM's network

Re: Aren't Government employees neutral.

>> Can you register for both/all parties to take part in all primaries?

It depends. There are open primaries, closed primaries, semi-closed primaries, and top two primaries.

IT job market is still shrinking but not as quickly as last year

"Help" AI chatbots are the new phone menu.

Are you better value for money than AI?

management is the only essential task

Everything else can be done by AI or gig workers.

Google's memory safety plan includes rehab for unsafe languages

I see several problems

First, good enough programming. We were all taught in the 1990s that good enough was good enough when Windows 3.x took over the world. It was okay that it crashed, sometimes multiple times per day. Crashes are okay so long as they don't reach a certain threshold, which is spongy and subjective and the subject of whim. Oh, look - flying toasters!

Second, Deadline Driven Development. Of course the software has bugs, but it's good enough (see above) and we've got a deadline! A meaningless deadline! A meaningless, arbitrary deadline!

Third, management engagement. As covered elsewhere in this comments section, software reliability is just one of management's many concerns and it may very well not be at the top of the list. The top of the list of course is the current deadline (see above).

Fourth, testing and code reviews. This requires a time investment that, given deadlines (see above), is one many organizations believe they cannot afford. This is a management and cultural issue.

Also, let us not forget that use-after-free and wild pointers are not the only categories of bugs in the world.

CISA boss: Makers of insecure software must stop enabling today's cyber villains

flawless code

I did not attend the conference in question, so I don't know the entirety of what Ms. Easterly said. But the phrase "flawless code" does not appear in any of the article's quotes of her.

Drop the straw man of "flawless, perfectly secure code" and start with "more reliable, more secure code." Close the holes, fix the bugs, one by one. It takes years, and it's generally thankless. Welcome to your tech job future.

Indonesian government didn't have backups of ransomwared data, because DR was only an option

I was approached by a budget person...

...who told me he had a user area pushing back against paying for database image copies. I explained these were to be used in case of a disaster. He replied, "I'll tell them it's like an insurance policy, something you pay for but hope never to need." No more pushback. Sometimes, people are sensible.

IMF boss warns of AI 'tsunami' coming for world's jobs

Outsourcing

This seems like the outsourcing trend all over again.

Management has been saying "Who will rid me of these turbulent programmers" at least since the 1982 publication of _Application Development Without Programmers_.

I have no doubt that many unfortunate IT staff will lose their jobs, and those that remain will be told they have no excuse for not taking up the slack because they have been provided with Copilot or some other such tool. Time will pass, there will be turnover, and eventually there will be another hiring wave.

Kind of like insourcing after the outsourcing.

Google thinks AI can Google better than you can

I don't care

> Google thinks AI can Google better than you can

I'm certain Google thinks that, but Google is wrong.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be coders, Jensen Huang warns

Application Development Without Programmers

A book by James Martin. ISBN-13 9780130389435. Copyright 1982.

This is a repeat of the wishful thinking behind end-user computing, 4GLs, I-CASE, etc. That someone in the C-suite wants to reduce headcount is not a surprise.

If you use AI to teach you how to code, remember you still need to think for yourself

'twas ever thus

>>

I once worked on a project in which a software product originally written for UNIX was being redesigned and implemented on Windows NT. Most of the programming team consisted of programmers who had great facility with Windows, Microsoft Visual C++ and the Foundation Classes. In no time at all, it seemed, they had generated many screenfuls of windows and toolbars and dialogs, all with connections to networks and data sources, thousands and thousands of lines of code. But when the inevitable difficulties of debugging came, they seemed at sea. In the face of the usual weird and unexplainable outcomes, they stood a bit agog. It was left to the UNIX-trained programmers to fix things. The UNIX team members were accustomed to having to know. Their view of programming as language-as-text gave them the patience to look slowly through the code. In the end, the overall "productivity" of the system, the fact that it came into being at all, was the handiwork not of tools that sought to make programming seem easy, but the work of engineers who had no fear of "hard."

<<

- Ellen Ullman

https://www.salon.com/1998/05/12/feature_321/

https://www.salon.com/1998/05/13/feature_320/

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

the mainframe returns

The mainframe makes a comeback as people realize that JCL is easier than an unsteady stack of cloud configuration tools. A PCM (Plug Compatible Mainframe) industry re-emerges, with Microsoft and Apple vying for dominance. IBM Z versions of the commonly used office suites are produced by their respective vendors as IBM reveals AI powered transliteration tools to convert C, C++, C#, and most other semicolons-and-curly-braces languages to COBOL. Amazon reveals their cloud was really several geographically dispersed Sysplexes of mainframes all along.

Governments resent their dependence on Big Tech

I sense a theme

Elsewhere, buyer's remorse haunts 3 in 5 business software purchases.

Excel Hell II: If the sickness can't be fixed, it must be contained

one day early

one day early

Local governments aren't businesses – so why are they force-fed business software?

Your experience with government and commercial enterprises is the polar opposite of mine.

IBM sues Micro Focus, claims it copied Big Blue mainframe software

Update?

According to a blog entry by Mark J. Barrenechea, OpenText's CEO & CTO, regarding IBM's complaint the "Southern District of New York has just issued an Order, dismissing the breach of contract claim altogether."

I cannot find any reference to the order or indeed the case itself on the court's website but that may just be my lack of navigational skills or familiarity with legal terminology.

There remains Count I, the copyright infringment.

Oh dear, AWS. Cloud growth slowing as customers get a dose of cost reality

Re: Quelle Surprise

> We are still paying for a non-functioning solution because?

Institutional inertia. In physics, it's called "the irresistible force."

Apple's M2 MacBook Pros, Mac Mini boast more cores, higher clocks and bigger GPUs

Decide for yourself. https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/specs/

Study finds AI assistants help developers produce code that's more likely to be buggy

Re: "but the work of engineers who had no fear of “hard.”"

I don't think so either, and I don't think the quoted text says that, but you do you.

Congratulations, you've reinvented wizards

Productivity has always been the justification for the prepackaging of programming knowledge. But it is worth asking about the sort of productivity gains that come from the simplifications of click-and-drag. I once worked on a project in which a software product originally written for Unix was being redesigned and implemented on Windows NT. Most of the programming team consisted of programmers who had great facility with Windows, Microsoft Visual C++ and the Foundation Classes. In no time at all, it seemed, they had generated many screenfuls of windows and toolbars and dialogs, all with connections to networks and data sources, thousands and thousands of lines of code. But when the inevitable difficulties of debugging came, they seemed at sea. In the face of the usual weird and unexplainable outcomes, they stood a bit agog. It was left to the Unix-trained programmers to fix things. The Unix team members were accustomed to having to know. Their view of programming as language-as-text gave them the patience to look slowly through the code. In the end, the overall “productivity” of the system, the fact that it came into being at all, was the handiwork not of tools that sought to make programming seem easy, but the work of engineers who had no fear of “hard.”

- Ellen Ullman “The Dumbing Down of Programming”, Salon, 1998

Google wants to copy-paste your mainframe applications into its cloud

Move on from proprietary mainframes and innovate with Google's Proprietary Cloud

Maybe you're fine with tightly binding yourself to Google (or Amazon) instead of IBM. But do it with your eyes open. Vendor lock-in, from the vendor's point of view, is a feature.

The parallel test scenario seems like a good idea.

Excel's comedy of errors needs a new script, not new scripting

Re: Who is to blame?

"If you want to do everything with process-heavy waterfall, then fine. Just be aware that it almost never works."

Neither does shadow IT, that's kind of the point.

Open source databases: What are they and why do they matter?

stack overflow survey participants as a representative sample

Perhaps taking the results of the Stack Overflow developer survey as representative of whatever point you would like to make isn't as persuasive as you might imagine.

Just as an example, you won't see much DB2 or IMS or VSAM because mainframe developers mostly don't ask their questions on SO. They usually have a support structure built into their organization.

Jeffrey Snover claims Microsoft demoted him for inventing PowerShell

Re: At the risk of being downvoted to hell

JES3 is now supported and enhanced by Phoenix Software.

Departing Space Force chief architect likens Pentagon's tech acquisition to a BSoD

the humor of repeated assertions

I do find it amusing that any government activity is met with cries of "privatize it all, fire all the bureaucrats" and any government privatization effort is met with cries of "outsourcing firms are all crooks" accompanied by stories of their incompetence, contract overruns, nepotism, etc.

Exasol pledges to help customers avoid cloud bill shock with new DBaaS

chasing chargeback algorithms

If you're going to reduce costs by chasing the chargeback algorithm, you must commit to chasing the chargeback algorithm. Whatever dance you do around the edges of the rules, you must be prepared to alter your steps as the rules are altered. And you are in control of neither the nature nor the rate of change.

There's more here but it's primarily mainframe-focused, which tells you how long this issue has been extant.

DORA explorers see pandemic boost in numbers of 'elite' DevOps performers

Lake Wobegon DevOps

That's the news from DevOps, where all the code is strong, all the systems are good-looking, and all the practitioners are above average.

Google plays catch-up with JSON support for distributed RDBMS Spanner

greatly simplified data modeling

One table, two columns: a UUID column and a JSON column. This will save quite a lot of time in the development phase.

Everyone cites that 'bugs are 100x more expensive to fix in production' research, but the study might not even exist

Re: Equally unattributed, but different...

> [...] how many shops are really that organised?

Aren't all IT shops CMMI Level 5 self-certified these days?

Security warning deluge from 'npm audit' is driving developers to distraction

configuration options

By all means, add flexible configuration options to ignore categories of warnings, sub-categories, individual warnings, or any of the preceding in various contexts. Then add the only option anyone in serious need of these warnings will use - ignore all warnings. Kind of like those unit tests that just return true.

'Set it and forget it' attitude to open-source software has become a major security problem, says Veracode

diagnosis

When something bad happens software-wise, the first question asked is often "What changed?" This has been going on long enough for "Changes break things" to become an aphorism (it doesn't follow logically, but that's folklore for you). Which led to, "If we make no changes, nothing bad will happen."

Except of course, "What changed?" is only one of the questions to ask; another is, "What didn't change that should have?" The latter has not yet entered the zeitgeist.

And here we are.

The sad truth is, changes too often result in something bad happening. Not making changes also too often results in something bad happening. Things are broken, and no one with the power to fix them has any interest in doing so as they make a tidy living off the current state.

The classic hits keep coming from IBM: z/OS set for big update in September

Re: Interesting

JES3 is now supported by Phoenix Software, see here.