Posts by ps2os2

IBM gives z/OS an AI infusion in major upgrade aimed in part at easing admin chores

50+ years of working as a systems Programmer on IBM MF's

I could go into a litany of sins IBM has foisted on the community, but I will keep it to a few of the more agaregarious things IBM has done to the community and some good things IBM has done over the years.

Great things IBM has done: IBM was probably the first manufacturer to stand up and say enough is enough to egregious holes in their operating systems by standing up and issuing a statement of System integrity. The statement enabled IBM to clean up its act and forced vendors to clean up their act—more than a few vendors at the time flouted system integrity. Thus causing systems to fail (crash) or create incorrect output. This statement was a godsend to systems people and their managers to enforce system reliability. When MVS first came to our data center, I had to give the programming managers repeated classes on what that meant to them and what will happen as a result. After implementing MVS across our four mainframes, it was clear that IBM promises had been kept, and out outages were dramatically reduced by 85 percent. It took a while to get there as we were fighting a vendor that was politically connected to the company. Every time we would get a stand-alone dump, we would go through it and find the culprit that caused the system to crash. We would promptly take the dump to the vendor and show the person what their software did to crash the system. The dumps were stacked 10 feet high. Once we showed senior management what was happening because of the politically connected vendor, they were given six months to clean up their act, or they would be shown the door.

Another good thing from MVS was the mind-numbing manual effort of applying fixes to the operating system. IBM came out with SMP (Systems Management Program). The first iteration was slow as anyone could imagine. The second version was much faster and also easy to use.

The side issue was that there were quite a few fixes to the operating system, a lot of System Programmer time, and other facets of the Operating system that kept our department busy and several new disks (real and virtual). We had a small lean group, and many a time, I would spend a 100-hour work week. Along the timeline, there were many improvements to the operating system (like support for multi-processor): new disk/tape drives, and too many things to mention here. We had many battles with Vendors and, yes, IBM. We learned early on that the Guide/Share user groups were an excellent way for you to communicate with IBM issues that systems programmers had to face daily and for improvements IBM could make to their software/hardware. One item that we fought and lost with IBM was IBM manuals.IBM was always outstanding with its documentation. IBM decided to go Object Code Only ( no more (or little)) source would be made available to customers. We fought long and hard, but IBM was vehement that we lost that major battle, and I think that is what turned the tide (for the worse) for IBM. IBM promised to keep manuals up to date, but it was not enough. IBM broke their promise for some of it (not all). IBM is still fighting battles with PSF (to name one of them), and I was proud to be a First Customer Ship, and I have the scars to prove it.

I was on the phone several times a day with the PSF people attempting to fix code that wasn't (IMO) tested properly before shipping the product. I was also in the FCS (First Customer Ship) program with their "new" way of shipping and applying maintenance to their new CBPDO. Of course, I found a minor bug that put me behind in the schedule for our acceptance of new disk drives and Printers from IBM. If I hadn't been going to SHARE then, I would not have known who to call at Gaithersburg. I called the person and was immediately put in touch with the right person at the CBPDO time. The person agreed with me (long story and difficult to explain), and he was able to fix the issue 3 days later. A tape showed up, and everything went smoothly after that. I got to system up, but I missed a week for my deadlines.

Over the years since then, there have been one or two attempts from IBM to simplify the systems programmer's job. The latest (is, in my opinion, not a good step for IBM). I have found that the new way of applying maintenance is, at best slow and cumbersome. The people from IBM think they can teach any desk jockey can install a new operating system in one or two days. Sorry IBM, it takes much knowledge to do this, and there is much more than IBM is willing to admit to install and maintain an operating system. IMO, IBM is trying to satisfy management to reduce system programmer costs. The long OT is just one function of the system programmer's job. We have to hold hands with many different people in the IT department. And we analyze memory dumps, talk to vendors in a technical role, and watch out for fly-by-night vendors.

China bans export of drones some countries have already banned anyway

Middle Kingdom?

Now let's see, China has declared war on the shire?

But what if it ...

Up to 40 lbs... and if it is over that?

Hey, add on a grenade launcher.. then it's OK to ship...

Or add some sort of aerosol (oh my COVID-19 or other nasty gas). Then it's OK to ship?

Either there was a misprint, or someone is not thinking this through.

Return of the Mac (mechanical): Vissles keyboard for fans of keeping a low profile

Well at least Apple did not try ..

To get rid of the QWERTY keyboard like it did on the IPAD. I tried one and gave up after fighting it too much. QWERTY forever!

I like Apple but this has to be the stupidest Apple attempt in this lifetime.

Red Hat's open source rot took root when IBM walked in

Re: "Big Blue doesn't get it and doesn't care"

I am from the other side; that is, I worked on the IBM software side. I am retired now and no longer have to put up with IBM. Sometime in the 1990's IBM did a 180 in customer relationships. IBM charged for what used to be free. I would ask a question about hardware/software from my friendly local IBM person, and he would get back to me usually within 24 hours (longer if it entailed talking with someone else at IBM). All of a sudden, those IBM people disappeared. When I approached IBM for a question on their hardware/software, I was told to call a 1-800 number. When I did so, I was informed it would now cost a thousand dollars for what was once a free question. We were interested in buying a larger mainframe, and yes, they charged us to order a large mainframe. I am happy I retired and do not have to work with IBM.

About ducking time: Apple fixes up autocorrect in iOS 17

I stopped buying the IPAD (early buyer)

The early IPAD did not have a qwerty keyboard. My typing went to hell. I stopped buying IPADS just because of that. Apple's dictates lost them a customer. Just like Apple dropped a feature in CALENDAR where it used to allow playing an MP3 when an event occurred. Now I have to use another APP and that cost me money. I love Apple but I am slowly going back to the dark side.

Apple stomped all over NYC store workers' union rights, judge rules

Re: Land of the free

Imagine this: When Amazon employees did the same, nobody got up in arms against Amazon. It is good to see that Apple now bears the brunt for its actions. While I admit that the merchandise at Apple is more expensive than that of, say, Amazon. It would seem that the employees of what used to be "typical" stores are under the microscope. Starbucks (and others) are finally starting to gain a foothold in the rabidly anti-union companies. Companies finally realize that reasonably paid employees are as honest as salaried employees. Companies must treat all their employees the same. Mcdonald's and the others will sooner or later have to come up with things like health insurance that really is health insurance, not some warmed-over cr** That is not health insurance but a sticker put on a package of garbage. I was talking with an executive from one of the mega stores and was surprised that even the executives are not getting what a typical worker gets from even an under-500 employer gets. If they don't, expect nationalized medicine will become forthwith.

Working from home could kill career advancement, says IBM CEO

IBM is growing old

I am an OLD timer (age 75).I have had IBMers around the office since I started in IT almost 50 years ago. I also knew them on a first name basis. One or two have been invited to Christmas parties and other family events. Somewhere in the 1990's IBM changed and not for the good, either. I used to be able to go up to one of the many IBM SE (sales engineers) and ask him a question (and depending on the question) he would get back to me with an answer that fit in the company's ethic. That stopped and you were expected to call a 1-800 number, Then they would tell you it would cost say a thousand dollars for an answer (yes even for IBM software). Want a real question, say what would it cost to upgrade one system from one model to another. Oops I had to call a 1800 number. Even then they wanted to charge me for an answer. IBM is dying it is just a slow and will be a painful death for the customer. Even now there has been an exodus of people from IBM to other companies. I will be dead when there are no more 1-800 numbers to call, as the people may not be there to answer.

How fiends abuse an out-of-date Microsoft Windows driver to infect victims

Re: I still blame MS for the problem

Yes, that is the case all the time with MS, they still have the idea that PCs are playthings, and that may be right in some other world, but here on earth, we consider life. death, money (and a few other items) are real, and in a production environment, it is important to know the basics. and security is one of THE basics.

Try looking at IBM and how they implement security. They take it to the next level. When someone finds a flaw, IBM puts out a fix and alerts people about it, and they make sure the customer knows about it. IBM really is a serious company when it comes to security. Their RACF product security is world-class and, as far as I know, second to none. IBM does security like no other company in the world because they know that their systems are the best.MS's answer to issues like this is "reboot" and forget. If an IBM system is hung or crashes, they have items like system dumps and have the ability 90+ percent of the time to find out why the system crashed/hung and can create a fix for the issue. IBM has been doing this for 40+ years, AFAIK MS has no capability to do this. The real world sees MS as a laugh when it comes to creating a stable system.

I still blame MS for the problem

I would argue that it is still an MS issue because any code that accepts or disables any or all security without first checking whether the caller is authorized to do so violates basic security protocol. In other words, trust but verify. This is tantamount to leaving the key to the door underneath the mat (or flower pot etc.). Verification of the code that calls a subroutine that essentially lets the caller run naked and can essentially destroy the system and the data it is being protected points directly at the carefree attitude of MS, and it also tells the public that you are a fool in believing that MS cares anything about security and reliability of any MS operating system.

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

AMEX cash stations have worse records

About 6 months ago, I needed some cash suddenly (it was more than my daily ATM limit), so I looked up online and found an AMEX cash station about 2 blocks from my house, and it was at a bank that has been around for t least 30 years. I walked down there and went inside the bank and looked around for several minutes, I approached the security guard and asked him to point out the machine and he looked puzzled and suggested I the bank people. I approached one, and she told me to sit down, and someone would be with me. After a few more minutes, I again explained that AMEX claimed they had an ATM here. He told me that he had worked there for 20+ years and had never seen one. I call AMEX, and they assured me that there was one there. I gave up and walked home and called AMEX to see if there were any other real stations around. I went to 4 out 5 five, and not one of them existed. I did find one, but it had a 100.00 limit.I went back home upset and was able to track down the person for the cash stations in the Chicago area, and I started to ask if any really existed. This was the first time in my life that AMEX fell down on the butts. One thing I did learn from this was not to trust AMEX.

FYI: BMW puts heated seats, other features behind paywall

Now, all BMW (and most car manufacturers have to do is to produce a car that will be able to charge for these "add-ons"

Twitter sues Musk: He can't just 'change his mind, trash the company, walk away'

Re: I'm saving my popcorn for the third act...

Yawn, one less billionaire and that will hurt the world in what way?

IBM Cloud to offer Z-series mainframes for first time – albeit for test and dev

IBM discriminates?

Approximately 25 years ago, I was in an IBM class for a new offering IBM was about to introduce. The class was a mixture of younger System Programmers. One of the instructors commented that IBM had received many complaints from their customers that they did not like paying extra for system programmers. IBM said OK, we would create a way to install and maintain the operating system so that any programmer can install the operating system. I was (at the time approximately 45 years old and was surprised that anyone could master the installation of an MVS (before zos) system as it truly needs a good understanding of the architecture of IBM hardware and a solid understanding of the software and installation and maintenance of the OS and not to mention debugging of it.

As the class went on, I could see IBM couldn't come close to saying it had delivered what it said it could. Over the next 20 years, IBM has attempted to offer another "any" programmer who can install and maintain a Zos system. The latest delivery is another attempt to try and dumb down the highly complex duties of a systems programmer. This time IBM has upped the hidden cost" of doing this to several MIPS product that, at best, when you hit enter, you go out for lunch, and the keyboard might be unlocked.

IBM, IMO, has failed again and will not admit that it takes more than an off-the-street programmer to replace a systems programmer. IBM has set its sights on eliminating Systems Programmers that can only be replaced by education and training. For years IBM has at best a poor record of coming up with education for people who want to be better at I&M and interfacing with management. I am happy I will retire before the so-called new people come in as I have trained many a new Systems Programmer over my 45+ years.

IBM confirms new mainframe to arrive 'late in first half of 2022'

Re: odd wording

We worked 24X7X365 as well as all our mainframes. If we were down for anything more than 30 minutes we were fined by the Fed at 10,000.00 a minute in my 8 years at the company we were fined once and heads rolled. One time a program malfunctioned (Not written in-house) and we were hit big time. Needless to say, the OEM software program was eliminated in a week.

Dallas cops lost 8TB of criminal case data during bungled migration, says the DA... four months later

How about Firing the network Administrator?

One question.

Where was the backup?

End Question, now fire the network Administrator.

Class-action sueball flung at Capital One and GitHub over theft of 106 million folks' details

Git Hub Data Breach

If I had data that resided outside of the enterprise, I would have secured it by encryption. Anything else is stupidity and everyone should get thrashed.

Somebody is working on a $600m data center in Lincoln, Nebraska, could rhyme with schmoogle

The USDA is forcing 500 of its people to move there

The USDA is forcing 500 of its people to move there. Actually, it is a ploy to make them quit as no one wants to live in Lincoln, Ne.

This way the Trump administration can get rid of the scientists who know global warming.

Sigh...

Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours

Re: "...need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours"

So, let me get this straight. How many software engineers are going to be needed to accomplish this? 10? 500? This sound like a great job place a software engineer in every first-class cabin and let the soak up the alcohol till they are snookered. So then they can reboot while under the control of alcohol.

Parliament IT bods' fail sees server's naked OS exposed to world+dog

Shhhh... Don't tell the IRA (Russian hackers of the GRU) they might find some gasp emails and then the house of lords may have to do a tell all.

Please be aliens, please be aliens, please be aliens... Boffins discover mystery mass beneath Moon's biggest crater

Re: Heavy Metal on the moon?

But Dave can't hear you.

Simple it is cheese that has been frozen.

IT pro screwed out of unused vacation pay, bonus by HPE after judge rules: The law is a mess but it's still the law

Re: Beware spinoffs; they allow HR policy changes

Forty years ago, I started work at a company that (at the time) only sold magazines. I was given 4 weeks vacation time a year plus a liberal time off for hours worked policy I couldn't figure out in the beginning what to do with 4 weeks off. Pretty soon, I was spending a fair amount of time on sandy beaches and fell back in love with reading. The last 9th year, some heavy duty politics was occurring in the Corporate HQ. This started a domino effect of the company buying a lot of other companies. This also led to a fight over IT and where it should be centered. I was invited at the time to help the HQ migrate from one OS to another.

I started to hear about the shenanigans that were being done. One of the funnier ones was that the HQ wanted to send over to another state their IT. They hired the most inept experts I have ever heard of, the gist of one suggestion was to find a city in a neighboring state to put everything. The idiots chose a town that did not allow working on a Sunday, imagine an IT department not working on Sunday. Someone in the IT department spoke up at the last moment, and the place was discarded as an option. The next squirmy thing they did was to sign a lease for a place that they did not measure first to figure out if the MF could get in the doors. Of course, when the MF arrived, they could not get it in the building going through doors. So, they popped out some windows and hired a crane (at $50K US for a day) to put it in the Data Center. I shortly went back to my DC, and then the corporate stuff started in. They fired the IT manager and brought in someone that had no IT management experience. In fact, he was a person that delivered listings between buildings. This guy was unbelievable, he started to fire people because of their sexual orientation and other things like where they lived. In this day and age, it would never be allowed to happen, but at the time they knew they could get any with murder as all the judges were corporate friendly. I decided to leave. Shortly after I left, they moved everybody to Florida where wages are low, and politicians can be bought off. I miss my 4 weeks but not enough to go back ever into a rats nest.

Still sniggering at that $999 monitor stand? Apple just got serious about the enterprise

Re: Shiny, shiny

I am an Apple user but by no means a fanboi. I have plenty of gripes about APPLES OS's, I won't list him here as it would be a bore, but some of my crucial points should be listed.

Starting around OSX, I have had to do sometimes 4 or so updates a *WEEK*. None of the updates were especially troublesome I should add, but they were point release and to have that many in a week were a PITA. The last point upgrade caused me significant issues (Mojave), and I had to re-install the OS twice if memory serves me. Frankly, I was scared of the upgrade to Mojave that I decided to take my system to the APPLE STORE and let them do it. There were several screwups, and I lost data as a result. I still am suffering 6 months later.

Apple used to be miles and miles ahead of MS, but they are falling behind as most (if not all) of the items they add are mostly worthless to me. Apple support seems uneven as they switch you around to different people; you get increasingly different answers to the problem. Once in a great, while you find a reasonably knowledgeable Apple support person, you spin the wheel on the quality of support.

US government internet and spectrum overseer resigns, along with legislative director

Trump's craziness

You just have to read the headlines about the turmoil at the Whitehouse as it is in the news everyday. Things like these resignations will impact the Internet when Trump puts in his people. Trump thrives on craziness and until he gets out of the WH we will hope that the other people that are doing their jobs stay.

Mainframe brains-slurper sues IBM for 'age discrim', calls Ginny and biz 'morally bankrupt'

Re: @Dr. Syntax ...

One of the worst managers I have ever had was when our out of state offices, was subjected to an outside hire of the VP of IT. When I first heard his name I thought no, it can't be. So, on the first day, he comes walking through the department with a gaggle of people behind him, feeding him information on what this and that department did. I took one look at him and confirmed my worst suspicions, he was a delivery boy for listing from compiles. Basically, he was in charge of being an RJE station between the programmers and the computer. In one year he somehow got himself promoted from errand boy to a VP in charge of several hundred people.

He did not surprise me he started having people fired left and right and for no reasons other than he/she was gay or they were, and you will love this for being too good at their job. He even hired detectives to follow people around and gathered data on them so he could justify firing. I saw the handwriting on the wall and found a different job. Approximately 1.5 years later the company closed down the office and moved it to Florida.

Fast forward 30 years the company closed down the Florida office and outsourced it to a large outsourcer. Was I happy to be out of the hostile working environment!. Everyone who left had the same opinion. They were happy as clams.

'This is insane!' FCC commissioner tears into colleagues over failure to stop robocalls

The question then is did you talk to yourself?

What's Big and Blue – and makes its veteran staff sue? Yep, it's IBM

Agism at IBM

Yes, 9 edge face down.

Re: "systematically targeted"

Yes, 9 edge face down.

Boss regrets pointing finger at chilled out techie who finished upgrade early

Data Center relocate

The company was always looking for cheaper rents, so our NY office after 40 years got elected to be moved. I was brought in to make sure everything (software/hardware) was working. This process took me about an hour, and I signaled everything was OK, The boss said to me are you sure? I said well I could get to every IO device and the software is working as it should be, He said how about testing out some production jobs? I said well if you want to, my tests although did not execute user code but standard OS interfaces. We got production control to try jobs out and of course no issue. I asked if I could go home and the boss said not until tomorrow as that is when the tickets were good for (typical cheap company). Somebody said lets order pizza. I said no thanks I wouldn't say I like NY pizza. I got razzed on by the group. I asked for a menu and chose a salad. Everybody was gorging themselves on PIZZA. I suggested the network people made sure all the network connections worked; they looked at me like I was asking them to work. The network people came back in 3 hours and assured us that everything was OK. I said fine let's start the lines up between Chicago (HQ) and New York, and we stressed them, and everything was OK. I said well there is nothing left for me to do, I am taking the next flight out, anyone, want to join me? I got a silent stare from the boss. So I took the next plane out and charged the fare difference to the company.

Fast forward two days. There were some strange issues with the lines between NY and Chicago. The hardware said it was a software issue. I started to run traces trying to figure out what was going on. I got IBM involved as we were doing some network stuff that IBM said should not cause any issues. My boss said to up the severity to 1, I looked at him and said I don't think so, he insisted, so I did. When you up a problem to severity 1 with IBM, things happen like people are dispatched from where ever they work to your place. I have seen 10 IBMers show up for severity one issues. IBM took its time, but at least I had a live IBMer on the phone for a solid 8 hours. IBM could not figure it out, but they were leaning towards it being a hardware problem. The biggest issue is that it seemed to happen at random times. One of the NY network people asked if it could have anything to do with the elevator?

That is what is called a bingo moment. We set up a test to see if that was the case (elevator door opening). Sure enough, NY AT&T did not use shielded wiring (although they were supposed to). Once they put shielded cabling in the elevator door did not cause the line to go berserk. I was happy they found it, but it was an exhausting 16 hours for me, and I needed a drink. I went down to the bar in the building and had two drinks and came back up to get my winter coat to go home. I looked in on my boss and told him I would be late coming in the next day. He said sure, and I went back. The following day at 8 AM I got a call from my boss saying I had to get into work as there was going to be a finger pointing meeting and I had to be there to keep any fingers pointed at the software group. I was pretty tired but went in any way. The meeting was held in the boardroom, and people were fidgeting as they didn't want to be blamed. The meeting started, and everybody froze, so the CEO of the company launched the finger-pointing. Some of the people that were in attendance were on the phone. After 3 hours I was finally in the spotlight, and they started in on me. I asked if everybody had their say about the software. They said yes, so I launched into what I did and the results I had gotten, all were positive and no error. Then someone asked why we haven't seen this error before but if we had why wasn't IBM able to fix it months ago? I looked t them and said watch the problem was NOT on my side it was a hardware/network issue that occurred because of a wire not being shielded properly, and that was not a software issue, but a wiring issue and I suggested they blame AT&T. That sort of shut down the meeting and I asked to be excused and left and went home for some much-needed sleep.

Sysadmin trained his offshore replacements, sat back, watched ex-employer's world burn

Not exactly offshore (but we were). In the early 70's I was in the Army and was doing technical support for 7 days (12 hours) 7 days off. I was coming to the end of my tour (Army promised 6 months early out). I took it. The Army did not have a replacement for me in Europe. The army tried to have the 6 months early out revoked. Unknown to the Army I was aware of the shenanigans and I got a new set of orders cut with the previous dates. The Army stuck me with a mail clerk to train in 7 days. He did not know a computer if he saw one. I was used to having pressure on me to resolve issues so production could get out. I tried to tell the major that the guy couldn't do a mail clerks job let alone debug a dump. The day before I left they took another swing at me to stay. I looked the recruiter in the face and told him I would be making 7 times what I was making in the Army and I didn't have to salute people I didn't respect. The next morning a friend drove me to Frankfurt. I kept in touch with some friends to hear what happened. The place was in havoc, they had to fly a person in from the states to take my place. I laughed at all the money I was making and not saluting people anymore.

Sysadmin sank IBM mainframe by going one VM too deep

This has been around since VM has been in existence

I believe I heard the story here in the US in the 1980's. I don't follow VM so it might have been earlier. If memory serves me the limiting factor is real storage (I could be wrong). I also heard that someone at IBM got several hundred, again I don't follow VM.

You know that silly fear about Alexa recording everything and leaking it online? It just happened

Re: And that....

Exactly, I asked Alexa one time to play music by Bread. Alexa came up with nothing close to "Bread". last night I asked her to play music from 2001 a Space Odyssey and nothing close to it came out. Do not believe it will understand 50 percent of what you ask. I have a nothing accent, I am from the Midwest so nothing unusual. I pity anyone that has an accent.

Re: And that....

As I said earlier I have Alexa. After weeks of yelling at it trying to figure out how to do something I needed to be done, I somehow came up with a 1-800 number for Washinton. I was up at 4 AM so I called it and I was surprised to actually talk with a technician. I started to ask questions and questions that lead to other questions. He was taking copious notes. He verified my configuration (he didn't say so but he implied he was looking at my set up in real time). Every time I asked him a question how do you do this? I would not get back a direct answer. After an hour and a half, I essentially got nothing back in terms of solutions. A month later I noticed that the changed on Amazon the wording on a lot of Alexa descriptions. They basically took every question I asked into a bullet saying Alexa can't do this! (with some extra verbiage to CYA). Was I mad. Everything I need Alexa to do was negated. One thing to warn everyone is that they don't give instruction manuals. The 4.95 book is considered an add-on and even that doesn't give you a hint on a lot of items. Apparently, you have to be an expert to hook two of them up together. I gave up as I am technically savvy but not Alexa savvy.

Re: Unplugged most of the time.

I bought an Alexa as I have a disability and need it to remind of things I had to do and remembering medical items.

It has totally failed me I just use it to get the temperature outside and the weather. Otherwise, it is a rock on a table because It can't do things I need it to do, despite asking many times at Amazon and was assured it could. Do not believe anything you hear about it on Amazon. After my many complaints, they updated the descriptions, but I am stuck with it.

US border cops told not to search seized devices just for the hell of it

Re: The obvious solution

Your place(s) of visit must have been Democratic type places. Republicans will rob you and shoot you and then find you guilty because you stepped across a yellow line. They will probably sentence you to 30 years in a jail you have to pay for as well. America is becoming a banana republic before that happens I hope to be dead in a cemetery.

Re: An important decision for all US citizens

You could always buy an iPhone and watch while they try opening it. Of course, you could always encrypt your entire drive on the MAC.

Re: Hiding gun parts on/in person?

Kind of expensive, because guns going off inside an MRI would probably ruin it. I don't think they could make enough MRI's to handle the volume (and replacements). Or are we going to charge the person for each MRI ruined?

Facebook confesses: Buckle up, there's plenty more privacy lapses where that came from

Re: We got the joke already

Notice the almost unconscious assumption that Trump must be blamed on someone? That's not how his supporters see it, but the American media these days (and sadly, El Reg it seems) generally ignore popular attitudes that don't fit their world view.

Try waiting until Mueller has submitted his report and after you read it, you decide.

Intel outside: Apple 'prepping' non-Chipzilla Macs by 2020 (stop us if you're having deja vu)

Apple screws the consumer

Apple for the umpteenth time has decided that everybody must be uniform. Apple wants everybody to be exactly like everybody else, so they do not have to expend any energy on new products. Hey, as one Apple boy said, we all are the same under the covers, so Apple is doing us the favor of enforcing the idea that we are all equal. Said a second Apple boy wouldn't it be great to be the same as we will have all interchangeable parts and have only one OS. The consumer is damned! We will dictate to the world that every person is equal. The universe is one all hail APPLE!

Hey, Apple I do not want this uniformity. I do not like your phone why ruin a perfectly good OS interface by dumbing down everyone?

You buggy OSX has already got me thinking to go back to windows, your system crashing is now on par with Windows. You are on the verge of losing a lot of customers. Fix what you have and become a stable OS first.

What the @#$%&!? Microsoft bans nudity, swearing in Skype, emails, Office 365 docs

Re: No Cussing Allowed?

Which is why it will be thrown out of court.

'I knew the company was doomed after managers brawled in a biker bar'

Floors collapsing in DC

About 30 years ago we were brought in to update the operating system and to update the companies telecommunication system. The third day I was there I got a call about something that wasn't quite right going on the operating system, I asked the operator to step aside while I issued some operator commands to try and determine what was going on. After I looked at the output of the operator commands. I stood up and gave the operator in charge of the console. I was trying to think what would cause the situation and I was slowly moving back inches at a time because I wanted to stay out of the way of the operators. I was thinking and not paying attention to anything other than the operator's movement. The operator got up from his console and I stepped back. Suddenly I heard a crack and I went flying down and backward. The raised flooring in the computer room had started to fall apart (nobody told me until afterward). I was wearing a suit and my pants leg was split open and a little blood was coming out. I got up to see if there was any other damage and there wasn't but the blood turned into a trickle. The company was thankfully located downtown and there were 1 or 2 hospitals nearby, so I chose the one I had been there before and took a taxi there to the emergency room. Luckily there were only 1 or 2 people in the emergency room, so I was seen as soon as the registration was done. To make the story a little short, they cut off one leg of my pants and put a bandage on my leg, They discharged me, but I could go back to work with only one pant leg covered, so I decided to go home and change. AÏter changing I went back to work. I brought with me the receipt for my suit (I had just purchased it 5 days before). After I got settled into my desk, I filled out an expense report for the suit and the taxi cabs I took. I took the paperwork to my bosses boss and handed it to him and he said what is this for and I explained to him what had happened in the computer room and how I fell through the floor. All was in order as far as I was concerned but then he started in why didn't I look where I was going and I explained again I was moving backward to keep out of the way from an operator. He said "no it's your fault", I said you have got to be kidding, he said no go away I have work to do. I was mad by that time, so I took the elevator up 5 floors to the executive floor and looked to see if VP of IT was there and luckily he was. I walked up to his secretary and asked if I could see him for 3-4 minutes. She looked at his calendar and said let me see. I sat down (now I was starting to get sore from the leg). She said he will see me now. I limped into his office and explained the incident and how the boss would not authorize payment for the suit and the taxi cab rides. He asked me if I was alright and I said yes except for a stiff leg. He got on the phone to the legal department and after explaining to a lawyer what had happened, he got off the phone and signed the expense report and asked me to stop by the lawyer's office and sign some paperwork, which I did. Next day my bosses boss was no longer employed and the operators were told to be careful around the raised flooring and that new tiles have been ordered.

Disk drive fired 'Frisbees of death' across data centre after storage admin crossed his wires

Flying tiles of death

Back in the 1970's our computer room became a dangerous place. People (including myself) were tripping on the tiles that covered the raised floor. Nothing like this has ever happened before, and we didn't have any idea why. New/old it didn't matter. One Sunday morning a fellow sysprog was called by the VP of the data center to get his camera down to the DC and take pictures. When the sysprog got down to the data center, he found a couple of tiles ripped off of the floor and thrown all over the place. One, unfortunately, hit a few switch's for disk drives. It's been a long time, so I don't remember the brand, but it was a plug compatible switch for IBM's 2914. He took the pictures (back then the data center was closed on Sunday's). The next day IBM showed up in the VP's office and pleaded guilty to doing the damages. His apology included the fact that he kept tripping on the floor because of the tiles. There was not any major damage done, but I think I heard the number of 750. USD. The VP went through the roof when he heard this has been going on for weeks. He got the head of the Data Center up in his office and demanded why this wasn't this brought to his attention and what was causing the problem? The DC manager didn't know either. That afternoon one of the operators noticed that the cleaning clue was using a dry mop to clean the computer room floor and he had the idea that might be the cause of the issue. The VP called the VP that was responsible for the cleaning of the computer room floor. The people who manufactured the cleaner were brought into the fray, and they denied responsibility saying it was used nationwide and no one else has had the issue. The DC manager was not taking no for an answer as he didn't want to get into any more trouble, so he asked the provider to run tests as it was the only possible candidate. Meanwhile, the cleaning people were ordered to change to the previous cleaner. AÏter 2 weeks the manufacturer came back and said "oops" it was the cleaner. The VP said to replace all the flooring or else you will have a lawsuit. The manufacturer didn't have much choice and if I remember the cost turned to be a lot of money if memory serves me it was 100,000 USD (I could be wrong). We got all new flooring (not that it was old, to begin with). The manufacturer also paid for cleaning supplies for two years. I don't know if there was a recall or not and if it happened at any other DC but we were happy, IBM was happy.

Night before Xmas and all through American Airlines, not a pilot was flying, thanks to this bug

Re: Time and a half or a holiday over christmas

When I first started programming, I was the only single guy on the team, so I was told to come in on Thanksgiving and play operator to get a report out, for our VP. I was young and had not been in computer operations in the bank I worked at. I won't go into the whole story, but to make it short, I was surrounded by security guards as no one told Computer operations I was supposed to be there. I was taken to a holding cell while they called the police. I finally got to talk with the senior guard and showed him my ID. I got them to hold the call and asked them to call my boss. The boss (whom I had talked to earlier) phone was not functioning at this time. I asked them to call the VP, and they did, and I was eventually let go, and I went back to the computer room and ran the job that produced the 1-page report for my VP and shut down the computer and placed the report on his desk.

The following Monday as I was sitting down, my boss grabbed me and escorted me to the VP's office. I asked my boss was I in some trouble as I was doing this under the boss's supervision. He said we both might be in trouble and not to say anything just follow his lead. The VP said he was happy he got his report and looked at my boss and said you better not have any more phone troubles. He got up and left with the one-page report and looked at me and said thank you for working on Thanksgiving and left the room. That afternoon my boss took me over to the computer room and introduced me to everyone and made sure I knew where everything was kept.

As Apple fixes macOS root password hole, here's what went wrong

Re: Mistakes happen

I have been a MAC user for about 18 years. I pretty much start at OS9. After converting to OS X, I have been reluctant to say this, but the code quality has *REALLY* gone downhill.The last decent os X was 10.4.11. I have been noticing so many bugs it seems that Apple has finally caught up with Windows as far as bugs. I am on 10.12.6, and it is somewhat stable although there are still many software bugs. The one that costs me four extra hours a day is by MAIL.APP. It does not show emails that have attachments. My conversation with Apple was at first they were interested in it until High Sierra came out and they dropped the bug report and insisted I upgrade to HS before they talk to me. Now, here comes the fun part, since Apple has had *SO MANY* bugs that people are reluctant (except a few Apple fanboys) to upgrade as Apple in their infinite wisdom has made the upgrade dangerous as they force you to upgrade the internal drive to be their new "thing" and makes it very hard to go back without jumping through hoops for an average MAC user. Since I am not an advanced Mac user I will wait six months to a year to upgrade because I do not want to have a chance of losing data, the cure according to Apple is making a few copies of every HD. I have news for Apple we all do not have an empty pocket and simply cannot make all the copies to be safe.

Color me an Apple person thas jaded eyes after all the bugs that Apple has come up with, Example: in 3 weeks Apple came up with an update each week.

Bah Humbug.

IBM's pension fund sells most of its IBM shares

Re: IBM

We bought a CPU from one of these outsourcers. Support was zippo if there was a question you wanted to ask it was an automatic $1000 extra billing and some VP had to sign a contract to authorize it. We weren't even allowed to talk to the salesman. It was the first time we ever ran into this. Needless to say, after that we went with IBM, even though it cost more. Now it sounds like all of IBM is going that way. Needless to say, now everybody is looking to convert off the mainframe, way to go IBM, you bit the hands that feed you.

The axeman strikes again: Microsoft has real commitment issues

Re: Some would say...

Maybe they could trim down to the bone. Then there wouldn't be any more cloud cr** that never works when you need it, but by MS's account the availability is ta 95 percent and hey 95 percent is good enough, right? Hey, there Mr. Robot car would mind taking me home, please? Mr. Robot car: SIr the clouds are wet and it will be iffy if I can get you close, how about Scotland? Apple and a few others are about to put another major chink in MS's armor. Frankly, even if MS ever did get a car on the road I would refuse to ride in it, their attitude towards the customer frankly su***. And I am sure the customer would like to pay extra to use the cloud that doesn't work 5 percent of the time, would they put a meter in the car and every time the car accesses the cloud the costs would go up while driving you to your destination and gets lost.

The award for worst ISP goes to... it starts with Talk and ends with Talk

COMCAST is the WORST ISP PERIOD

I called up support people about people were sending me emails, and they were bouncing as according to COMCAST email servers I didn't exist.

I talked to one support person who passed me off to another. I finally put my foot down and told the person I want to talk to a manager.

The manager gets on the line and tells me he will have it fixed by next day.

Next day I get a call from a telephone person saying that the birds are causing the problem and he has some magical spray that will put an end to that. I rolled my eyes and told him to go for it.

I saw him spraying. Next day I called up and informed them the issue was not resolved. I told them I want a server person that could explain the issue. I was told I couldn't talk to them. I said OK, how about canceling my service.

Next day the problem was fixed.

WORST ISP ... Not even close it is COMCAST

I called up support people about people were sending me emails, and they were bouncing as according to COMCAST email servers I didn't exist.

I talked to one support person who passed me off to another. I finally put my foot down and told the person I want to talk to a manager.

The manager gets on the line and tells me he will have it fixed by next day.

Next day I get a call from a telephone person saying that the birds are causing the problem and he has some magical spray that will put an end to that. I rolled my eyes and told him to go for it.

I saw him spraying. Next day I called up and informed them the issue was not resolved. I told them I want a server person that could explain the issue. I was told I couldn't talk to them. I said OK, how about canceling my service.

Next day the problem was fixed.

That is the worst ISP.

What's that, Equifax? Most people expect to be notified of a breach within hours?

Why is it the none of the "reporters" and none of the "Government agencies" have engaged their brain cells on this..............

One Answer: Trump

Follow on the answer: Trump has put billionaires and other people entirely unqualified people in charge of the government. He is making the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) into a political hack that you will no longer be able to trust any medication that is sold in the US. The others range from a person who is supposed to be in charge of education to one that wants to outsource education to other companies who want to run the system for profit. Another wants to close down our National Park system, like The Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone etc. Another one that has been put in charge of our Nuclear system to a person who wants to shut it down. This country will poison itself before the communist take over.