Posts by QuiteEvilGraham

Re: Modern platforms?

Of course it's about the money. I was running (perfectly functional) MVS/ESA under VM/ESA on a x86 Dell machine 20 years ago using the thing that LzLabs built their thing on, but TBF, that was and is no threat to IBM's mainframe revenue.

I deal with big z/OS shops all the time, and I seriously doubt that LzLabs offering could compete with a real IBM Z for sheer throughput, but there's a load of dozy legacy stuff that might make the difference in deciding to drop IBM Z for a cheaper alternative of there is cash at stake.

The Z emulation community have been largely left in peace for years, and are not enamoured with this development.

Re: My admiration

Erm, network byte order and the entire IBM mainframe estate? Hardly non-existent.

You do want your bank account updated correctly, don't you?

Re: The way in which this turd is being pushed “top down” makes me want to puke

Wow! R3 as a program base register? I suppose that back in the day, it was the first one that didn't get changed by any machine instructions. Too lazy to hunt through zArch POPS to find out if that's changed since.

Anyway, you can easily get a clean "compile" by telling the assembler which base register(s) you are using without actually setting it properly; done that more than once.

Re: Previously on The Register:

Upvote for reference to Ignition! Being an ex-Chemist myself, reminds me why I prefer programming computers. Many, many nasty things, and the pay ain't so great.

Re: [Aside] Storage media

Ha - my first job included looking after the payroll code (and weekly backups) on such a dinosaur.

It had a line editor, so we used to make any program changes in CMS (which had, and still has, a very decent editor) and write the code to 8" floppies on our 4381 (which IIRC were for microcode updates, amongst other things, but conveniently accessible), walk downstairs and shove them into the system-34 for compilation. Allegedly it was an "office machine" but it could fairly heat up a non air conditioned room.

Re: I've tried to like these over the years ...

Upvote for the Model M preference.

I have the Unicomp version, the compact one. Love it.

Re: Enter Assembler

Sure is, although in old age much prefer the HLASM descendant & not having to keep one finger on the shift key as I type (so long as you remember that operands passed to macros *are* case-sensitive).

Re: Full time job lying to get pip he is si

For fucks's sake! This is Twitter level bollocks. There is no way a cunt such as you present could possibly use a computer. Get to fuck you trolling bastard.

Re: Batteries in the pocket, eh?

Hard to tell with a phrase like "jumped out of the car and attempted to remove the batteries from his pocket and extinguish the flames, resulting in burns to his hands.", No?

Sounds like he is one of these arses who pays no attention whatsoever to basic battery safety. It's not as if there isn't TONS of information out there about this.

Me, vaping on a device with coils I built myself (but not before paying lots of attention to the safety considerations).

When I was young, about November, there used to be public information films about the dangers of putting bangers in your pockets. We seem to have embraced Darwinism a bit since then. Oh, that and an unapologetically sensationalist media.

Re: Eclipsed?

It might also be pointed out that running your mainframes at 100% (or as near to) capacity 24/7 is exactly what customers want to do, otherwise your are just taking up space and generating heat that you have to pay to remove again.

And no, if you had 10,000 mainframes, you would not also see dozens of failures every day. They are not built like your bloody laptop. Now go away and stop talking shite.

Re: National scandal

Have had the flu this last week, and was horrified to discover that someone my son had smuggled into the house whilst I was incapacitated had left an empty bottle thereof in the house. He is now banished to his mum's in Glasgow.

Re: I almost feel like crying

"making colleagues feel uncomfortable"? Fuck that shit. Is he capable of mind control?

Regardless of the other arguements pro and cons in this issue, I really, really hate the idea that somehow reading something you don't agree with somehow denies you the agency to decide to either ignore it or dispute it and move on. Are words really violence now, or are there just a bunch of narcissistic fuckwits who expect tummy rubs from everything they encounter?

Is Google really full of children who go running to daddy expecting him to fix the problem if they have hurt feelz?

Christ on a bike, grow the fuck up and behave like adults for once.

Re: Any chance of a solution?

Given that it uses an ancient COBOL idiom, it really is kinda like Shakespeare (COBOL originally only had do something until ... loops, where the test is made at the bottom before looping back). Applying that idiom in 'C' or similar is a fine cause of malarkey when you use it with do something while ... loops, where the test is at the top of the loop. Full marks for 1TB though.

Keep at it though - simple things usually only appear that way because you've kept your wits about you.

Re: Surely it's the general-purpose computer itself

Gets my vote. I'll buy the argument that the stored-program computer has changed the world more than anything else over the last 50 years (and kept me gainfully employed for 30 of 'em) and will continue to do so.

Re: You take the high ground and I'll take the low

Because, at the risk of getting immediately downvoted, that's precisely the fuck what stops us being like them. Does this really have to be spelled out for you keyboard warriors?

Re: In my 50 years' experience...

I think you might have a point there - I started in the biz in the early '80s and the mix was pretty equal to begin with; possibly for the reasons you mention - companies would take bright people on and train them, regardless of qualifications. We had women managing, programming and working shifts as operations staff. Chromosomal arrangements did not appear to stop anyone progressing within that ecosystem according to their interests and talents. Plenty of casual workplace "sexism", but misogyny? No SJWs back then, but I (and everyone else I knew) would have considered anyone who indulged in that a complete bastard. If anything, since then, we have become even less tolerant of such things, so I'm not entirely sure that argument stands up, except in the minds of those who thing that everthing is "becoz, the Patriarchy".

What I have noticed, is that when I took the techier path and got into the world of operating systems and low-level languages, the proportion of women fell off a cliff; they seemed to prefer the Systems Analyst, Business Analyst route instead. Nothing wrong with that, it's all important, but there does seem to be a point at which women, in general, lose interest in computers. So it may just be that your observation that Computing degrees as an entry point for the industry puts women off by making the first hurdle somewhat boring and abstract, rather then practical. Of course, this is all anecdotal,

So, I think that the article's thesis that the problem is "teh menz" rather than a choice made by women is horseshit; how to make IT attractive when these choices are made is the real problem.

Yes, it was arse. Very hard to see how someone could think that using IMS was more advanced than using DB2 in the modern world. Disclaimer - both IMS and DB2 are rock-solid, industrial strength database management systems, very well supported by IBM. Most likely RBS simply went with what they knew best. BTW, if you think it is hard to get experienced CICS/DB2 people these days, try getting good IMS people. It is extremely beloved by American insurance companies though.

Their problems mainly stem from getting rid of people who knew and understood their core systems IMHO.

Especially the one written in Assembler which has comments dating back to the late 60's. Good luck getting someone who can hack that for what RBS expect to be the going rate.

Re: There's your problem right there.

Sigh! I guess the "code monkey" paradigm is still alive and well then. If the central craft and art (I believe Mr Knuth referred to it as such in his series of textbooks) of the software business is held in such low esteem, then I guess that we've answered the question. Programming, how quaint. You wonder how anyone ever managed make a living and/or get a sense of satisfaction out of the simple expedient of sitting on one's arse and figuring out a way of making a computer do something other than just consume electricity and then actually making it happen. Perhaps if we'd all spent the last 30-odd years or so doing things properly before we let the vulgar code monkeys loose, we might be on course to create a multi trillion dollar industry. Oh, wait...