Free Republic

The explanation for apparent 150-year-olds receiving checks could relate to arcane coding practices, experts said.In a closely watched Oval Office event, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shared some of the findings and rationale behind his Department of Government Efficiency, which President Donald Trump has tasked with cutting spending across the government. As an example of his work so far, Musk cited some “crazy things” that had emerged in just the “cursory examination of Social Security” his team was undertaking. “ We’ve got people in there that are 150 years old,” Musk said Feb. 11. “Now, do you know anyone who’s...

... The problem with that starts with the fact that it's not in a database. It's a wildly heterogeneous collection of different databases, ISAM files, and card images, and I would bet money that a lot of it is on old 7-track tapes. Some of these are probably stored in Iron Mountain or a similar installation. Also, some of the data may still be just on paper, as, apparently, government retirement records are. So what Big Balls and the other wizards are going to need to do to start with is find the data. I'm willing to bet there's no...

That’s what the State’s Governor, Phil Murphy, apparently meant today, when he said at a press conference that the State needed volunteers who with “Cobalt” computer skills to help fix 40-year-old-plus unemployment insurance systems that are currently overwhelmed as a result of COVID-19-related job losses.

COBOL is celebrating 60 years since its specifications were signed off. Darling of Y2K consultants, the language is rapidly approaching pensionable age, but many a greybeard owes their career to it. It arose from a desire to create a language that could straddle the computers of the era. Each manufacturer had its own way of working, which, while OK if a company always stuck with one maker, made portability of programs or skills a tad tricky. If only there was, say, a COmmon Business-Oriented Language? Wouldn't that be splendid? Mary Hawes, a programmer of Burroughs machines, put forward a proposal...

Bill Hinshaw is not a typical 75-year-old. He divides his time between his family – he has 32 grandchildren and great-grandchildren – and helping U.S. companies avert crippling computer meltdowns. Hinshaw, who got into programming in the 1960s when computers took up entire rooms and programmers used punch cards, is a member of a dwindling community of IT veterans who specialize in a vintage programming language called COBOL.[snip] Experienced COBOL programmers can earn more than $100 an hour when they get called in to patch up glitches, rewrite coding manuals or make new systems work with old. For their customers...

Mainframe systems are still the backbone of much of today's IT infrastructure. Yet, finding IT talent to maintain these systems, and the COBOL and Fortran languages that support them, is becoming increasingly difficult. The trouble is that all of the people who know how to maintain these systems -- while preparing to bolt on next-gen apps -- are aging out of the workforce, and there are no Millennials eagerly lining up to take their spots. Mainframes require knowledge of COBOL and Fortran, languages that are not considered particularly sexy these days. It's not hard to see why no one wants...

"Software is eating the world," venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously declared. Someone has to write that software. Why not you? There are thousands of programming languages, but some are far more popular than others. When a company goes out to find new programming talent, they're looking for people familiar with the languages and systems they already use — and they don't always want to experiment with newcomers like Google Go or Apple Swift. Here are the programming languages you should learn if you always want to have a job, as suggested by the popular TIOBE Index and Redmonk Programming Language...

Without two key information technology workers who retired last fall, the state Department of Labor might not be able to adapt its computer system to new unemployment benefit extension requirements in time to get checks out to state residents, an agency official said Thursday. The department wants to hire back the two retirees, but can't legally do so, according to an advisory opinion adopted by the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board Thursday. The board's move also affects the state Department of Social Services, which has already hired back three IT retirees who Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby said are critical to maintaining...

Many federal agencies are using machines that are running software developed 25 to 35 years ago, and they're still going strong. These machines are using the COmmon Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) to get things done. Invented in 1959 by Naval officer Grace Hopper, COBOL is still a prevalent force throughout the federal government. There are still about 200 billion lines of the code in live operation, and 75 percent of business-critical applications and 90 percent of financial transactions use it.

I'm starting a new contract converting a system into CICS. (Yep, you heard right). I have not used CICS in over 5 years, and I am trying to find any resources (online hopefully). Anyone have any suggestions?