Re: Highly technical question - how do I only get my posts?

2019-03-15 Thread g...@gabegold.com
This surely isn't what you want/mean -- but related -- long ago I had the idea for list-owner command "SET username BOZO". That would be a list option so idiots only see their posts (so they know list works) and no others (so they think list has dried up) and wander away. Similar to https://en.

Re: Query for article on testing mainframe systems, applications, networks [SEC=UNOFFICIAL]

2019-05-03 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Thanks -- that's GREAT, much appreciated. (The silence was giving me a headache!) May I quote you, with attribution? Editor likes quotes and they can't be anonymous. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instruct

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-03 Thread g...@gabegold.com
I've only had three jobs (3, 14, 6 years duration) before switching to freelance writing/editing/consulting in 1994. But I'll chime in anyway with my experience using assembler as a critical part of my work. I learned and used it at IBM doing operating system development. Second job was at Mitr

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-03 Thread g...@gabegold.com
tech support, other than the one time mentioned >above, none of my colleagues ever needed to make changes to assembler code. In >fact, making changes to delivered software can be dangerous. > > >Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone > > >On Sunday, September 3, 2023, 11:45

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-03 Thread g...@gabegold.com
around 2010, we >> needed to change IEFUSI. Three of us were able to make the necessary >> adjustments. >> >> In 40+ years in IT, 20+ in tech support, other than the one time mentioned >> above, none of my colleagues ever needed to make changes to assembler code.

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-03 Thread g...@gabegold.com
You'll rely on vendors anticipating with variables every possible requirement for every installation? What happens when management comes to IT with an urgent business case-justified request? Tell them so sad, too bad, our vendor doesn't allow that? You consider filling in variables to be system

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
That's correctly spelled z/OS. Even beginning system programmers should know that. Degrees are often most relevant to people who rely on them for credibility, vs. having actual qualifications and experience. "Unless you work for IBM, you’re likely an installer of zOS" shows profound ignorance

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
.  > > >Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone > > >On Monday, September 4, 2023, 4:11 PM, g...@gabegold.com >wrote: > >That's correctly spelled z/OS. Even beginning system programmers should know >that. > >Degrees are often most relevant to people who rely

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
who couldn’t hack college.  > > >Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone > > >On Monday, September 4, 2023, 4:11 PM, g...@gabegold.com >wrote: > >That's correctly spelled z/OS. Even beginning system programmers should know >that. > >Degrees are often most rel

Re: Is the IBM Assembler List still alive

2023-09-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Yeah, sigh. It's sometimes hard to let pass nonsense such as what he spouted about assembler language. But of course when his assertions are demolished, he resorts to distractions such as whether degrees matter and who's had the most short-term employments. Anyone here with as misguided an opini

Re: AI will surpass human intelligence!

2023-09-15 Thread g...@gabegold.com
You could also incorrectly "tell" that I didn't have a college degree. You have a talent for gratuitous insults and an obsession with starting and then arguing about wild digressions from whatever was the topic at hand. AI to assembler language to system programming demographics is quite the me

Re: Will AI free Bill Johnson? (was AI will surpass human intelligence!)

2023-09-17 Thread g...@gabegold.com
ChatGPT Isn't Coming for Your Coding Job New technologies have long promised to make human software engineers redundant. But developers have only gotten more important over time. Software engineers have joined the ranks of copy editors, translators, and others who fear that they’re about to be

Re: Kinda fun

2023-11-11 Thread g...@gabegold.com
I'm pretty sure this happened with VM, though might have been with OS/360 and HASP. User brought odd printout (1403 or 3211) to system programming, asked what happened. It showed two output streams overprinted -- like a double exposed photo. Clearly impossible, but there it was. Research event

Re: Diagram of MVS Control Blocks

2021-04-25 Thread g...@gabegold.com
I'll bet 99% of people -- even those who ran OS/360 -- didn't t know what Roll out / Roll in did. I found it included in Mitre OS/360 SYSGEN when I joined company in 1971, laughed, exercised it, removed it -- saving xxKB from resident nucleus, back when bytes were precious. It enabled JCL op

Re: Reliable source for OCO?

2022-04-15 Thread g...@gabegold.com
a 2018 post from Gabe Goldberg, who >said he had "my OCO file -- a decade or so worth of material >documenting IBM's folly removing source code ("Object Code Only" for >those who didn't live through it). " Might be worth contacting him. >I'm not sure

Re: IBM ordered to pay $1.6b to BMC

2022-06-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Bill, what's your goal in arguing about IBM? To convince people of anything or just to rant? Reflexively denying things -- mostly without credible facts or logical substance -- and insulting people with whom you disagree, isn't effective debating. You just look silly, alienate people, and certai

Re: IBM ordered to pay $1.6b to BMC

2022-06-04 Thread g...@gabegold.com
OK, got it -- you're here to rant and insult. Good that it amuses you. This is pretty far from useful discussion of mainframes -- the reason the rest of us are here. Bye. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access ins

Re: IBM ordered to pay $1.6b to BMC

2022-06-05 Thread g...@gabegold.com
I left IBM in 1971 after working there three years. It was a great first job and I left on wonderful terms, was invited to return after getting real-world (that is, customer) experience. Three years, of course, meant that IBM's pension plan/benefits weren't relevant to me. I got plenty of custom

Re: End of several eras

2022-11-21 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Fiche was fun. Up to 370/148, microcode fiche was provided, including microcode problems. Browsing, I found one problem described as, "When LM instruction specifies same register twice -- that is, to load one register -- all 16 registers are loaded". Oops. And once, working on an interesting b

Re: End of several eras

2022-11-21 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Maybe someone will earn a PhD documenting it. On Mon, 21 Nov 2022 17:25:00 -0800, Michael Stein wrote: >On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 06:06:43PM -0600, g...@gabegold.com wrote: >> Fiche was fun. > >yes, definitely. > >I remember using fiche two versions back (save that old fic

Re: Mainframe history - 12 inch floppies?

2024-07-21 Thread g...@gabegold.com
German Navy still uses 8-inch floppy disks, working on emulating a replacement Four Brandenburg-class F123 warships employ floppies for data-acquisition systems. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/german-navy-still-uses-8-inch-floppy-disks-working-on-emulating-a-replacement/ On Sun, 14 Jul

Re: Colours on screen (mainframe history question)

2021-02-25 Thread g...@gabegold.com
In 1971, Mitre (DC-area non-profit think tank for government -- had a 2250 connected to OS/360, which included native device support for it. When we installed VM circa 1972, I got to make it work under CMS (component of VM). VERY fortunately someone at University of Grenoble (France) had written

Re: Query for Destination z article -- mainframes back to the future

2013-03-16 Thread g...@gabegold.com
My first year-end retirement account statement -- for 1971! -- listed my projected retirement date as the incredibly distant, unimaginable, science-fiction-like date of February 1, 2012. So back then at least TIAA-CREF understood time windows spanning entire careers and beyond. Quoting: I was

Re: Query for Destination z article -- mainframes back to the future

2013-03-16 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Some time in early/mid-1970s, I did a competitive procurement of quarter-meg upgrade for 370/145 going from 0.5MB to 0.75MB. Evaluated several vendors, checked specs/references, etc. Spent about (as I remember) $30,000. A while later did the same for 370/148 1MB upgrade from 2MB to 3 MB, same pr

Re: Query for Destination z article -- mainframes back to the future

2013-03-16 Thread g...@gabegold.com
For some processor models -- I forget whether S/360 or later -- add-on memory vendors would install more memory than IBM designed for, expanding memory address/data buses to allow it. And of course when such processors returned to IBM they had to be de-extended, returned to IBM's limited address

Re: Interview questions

2025-05-30 Thread g...@gabegold.com
Long ago, interviewing for job at software vendor, I was asked the best question I remember being asked: "If you started work tomorrow, what product would you want to develop". I had an answer, but reserved it for when I DID start work. It went on to be quite successful. There's probably a usef