Posts by Rabster

New research aims to analyze how widespread COBOL is

Re: PICs rule

Having gone from a PL/I (and PL/X) shop to one with COBOL, I absolutely hate the restrictions the Linkage Section imposes on MVS/zOS. An address is an address.

Re: Java is future COBOL

Having worked with big teams and small expert teams I enthusiastically recommend this and feeding to managers repeatedly

https://blog.acolyer.org/2015/11/11/the-o-ring-theory-of-devops/

Re: it lives!

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/lisp.jpg

Remember the big IBM 360 mainframe rescue job? For now, Brexit has ballsed it up – big iron restorers

Re: Disposal cost

Assuming things haven't changed, IBM Hursley Lab used to be a single cost centre and controlled its own budget in a way most of IBM couldn't. Tell them to try contacting the lab, not whatever they call the marketing or service people these days.

Two years ago, 123-Reg and NamesCo decided to register millions of .uk domains for customers without asking them. They just got the renewal reminders...

Re: Maybe it is past time to call Trading Standards.

Are you in Sheffield Hallam?

Be still, our drinking hearts: Help Reg name whisky beast conjured by Swedish distillers and AI blendbot

Re: Blended?

There's a Breton whisky called Armork that's well worth a go.

Glen Turing?

NHS England claims it will be all-digital within the decade

Re: creating joined-up systems

Cock-eyed.

I didn't realise at the time but apparently Bojo's "£350 million for the NHS" was an opening bid.

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

Re: @Dr. Syntax ...

One of my best managers at Big Blue left line management for a senior PM type job because he was "tired of inventing feeble reasons to mark down good people".

Doom: The FPS that wowed players, gummed up servers, and enraged admins

I still play sometimes today with https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/GZDoom There are a few other good ports around.

Open plan offices flop – you talk less, IM more, if forced to flee a cubicle

DeMarco & Lister coding wars

DeMarco & Lister ran "coding war" challenges for a few years and got very consistent results. Turns out the key predictor of programmer productivity in the study wasn't what language they user, or IDE or framework,it was the environment and specifically if they were able to focus on their work, especially a quiet office. Decent write up at https://bradpierce.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/the-best-performing-coders-have-larger-quieter-more-private-workspaces/

Their book "Peopleware" should be required reading. Tagline: most technical projects fail for sociological rather than technical reasons.

TSB's middleware nightmare: Execs grilled on Total Sh*tshow at Bank

Re: Talk to the techies

To paraphrase Yes Minister "On the rare occasions when the techies understood the questions, the MPs didn't understand the answers"

IBM: Remote working is great! ... For everyone except us

When I worked for an IBM software lab in the '90s we were offered a change of contract - no fixed hours, no overtime, work where you liked except for scheduled meetings, You agreed what data you'd have something delivered and it was up to you to manage your time. We were told productivity increased and the overtime bill fell off a cliff.

If I was stuck, I could just logoff, chill, and if inspiration struck in the evening I'd work then. Sometimes I triggered security alerts as I'd work until the wee hours with US labs and then start early again next day to bring the rest of the team up to date. Nearly all my time I was working at my peak,

And it's been proven over and over how to make programmers efficient. Read Peopleware or get a starter here https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/04/19/how-office-space-affects-company-productivity

Autocomplete a novel phishing hole for Chrome, Safari crims

Re: Is this story from the guardian?

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

And taking no responsibility for the malware delivered from ad servers.

https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/malvertising-is-cybercriminals-latest-sweet-spot/

Let's play: 'IT values or hipster folk band?'

Tech, titillate and trolling.

How one developer just broke Node, Babel and thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript

Re: Left padding

You kids get off my len()! Feeling old.

Assange™ is 'upset' that he WON'T be prosecuted for rape, giggles lawyer

And again ....

David Allen Green in the New Statesman on the legal facts

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/09/legal-mythology-extradition-julian-assange

Budget UHD TVs arrive – but were the 4Kasts worth listening to?

http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers

Some quotes I like :

Quote:

I have had enough of good enough.

If you ever use your tablet or phone while in front of your desktop PC, you have experienced the failure of modern computing.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bog-standard boxty

Re: Boys and Girls

Joke doing the rounds: "I don't trust my daughter's new boyfriend. He wouldn't meet my eyes when I asked him about his plans for the evening.

He just kept staring at the axe in my hands"

Anti-gay Indiana starts backtracking on hated law after tech pressure

Re: @Rabster: Is it about religion?

You may need an FB account to see this. I can't find it on his website

https://www.facebook.com/kevinfrankcartoons/photos/a.717813978269108.1073741828.717276188322887/917471291636708/?type=1

Re: Religious Discrimination

I quoted from both the Old and New testaments - Paul's letters to the Corinthians are NT btw. So are you saying that christians (of your sort) are no longer intolerant of lifestyles choices such as eating shellfish (OT) or being greedy (NT) but are still intolerant of biologically determined factors such as sexual orientation?

I suppose I am pretty much an atheist these days but far from being intolerant I send my daughter to a religious school - it fits with my wife's beliefs and she's happy there. The staff are nice people and I help them raise funds for their food bank etc. It's a shame that the RC still regards homosexuality as "disordered" but they do still say "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. "

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mysticpolitics/6648973809/

Re: @Rabster: Is it about religion?

"You also seem to be having trouble understanding the relationship between the old and new testaments... but that's a discussion for another time."

Do I? Are there other parts of either that are anti-homosexual?

And I did notice you move the goalposts - there is a difference between providing the service you normally do as a business and actively promoting a pride rally. One is business as usual (or should be), the other is going beyond normal service.

Is it about religion?

If so why are those people also not against all the other things condemned in the same books of the Bible as the ostensibly anti-homosexual ones? Leviticus? Are they refusing to serve people with tattoos, or who eat shellfish or wear mixed fibers? Paul's I Corinthians 6:9-10? Are they also refusing service to the greedy? Good luck with that. So if not, why not?

This is what happens when a judge in New York orders an e-hit on a Chinese software biz

If only

If these big media and tech companies had put 10% of the investment they've poured into DRM and lobbying for protectionist laws into enhancing the media experience for paying customers I wonder where we would be now.

Assange™ makes fresh bid for FREEDOM from Scotland Yard's 'physical encirclement'

It's amazing (or should be) how many people shoot their gobs off about this case without reading up on it. Start here : http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition

In particular ; he is required by Sweden for an interview as an immediate precursor to being charged - guess what Sweden is, like, a whole other country and has its own laws.

The charges were already debated in an appeals court and have been shown to be worth going to trial.

The UK supreme court established that what he is charged with would be a crime under UK law. Read the link, follow the links therein, then post.

He may not be guilty but it is damned clear there is a case to answer.

Speaking in Tech: When will I buy a 4K TV? When they make one that LOOKS COOL

You might enjoy this http://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers

Julian Assange: I'm quite happy to sleep on Ecuador's sofa FOREVER

Legal myths

Not surprising to see so many of the myths appearing here again.

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2012/09/legal-mythology-extradition-julian-assange

RBS Mainframe Meltdown: A year on, the fallout is still coming

Re: Lessons learned from the meltdown?

Exactly. Most mainframe shops have large teams doing the ITIL Capacity Management process.

so old that parts of its code had been written in Assembler

Wow - spectacular ignorance. A lot of user exits can only be written in Assembler. I'm primarily a java coder now developing web-based tools on WAS/unix but I spent May rewriting the TWS logon submission exit and a Rexx functional extension package to allow rexx execs to talk to MQ.

Tied in with the "apps" quote well........

Want to know what CIA spooks really think of spy movies and books?

Huh?

"Except for intelligence professionals and le Carré aficionados, the film version is almost incomprehensible,"

I'm neither and thought the film was perfectly comprehensible. And damned good.

WikiLeaker Assange, Google's Schmidt and a secret 5-hour chinwag

Re: A$$ange hasn't a clue.

Oh those pesky facts http://www.newstatesman.com/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition

Still pitching to CIOs? You're living in the PAST

CIO reports to CFO?

I thought that largely disappeared decades back. It's certainly one of the first things you check in ITIL cases. If the CIO isn't on the board then the company will probably be fucked by the first big IT problem that comes their way because IT hasn't been involved in so many necessary things like business continuity etc.