Mainframe Techies Are A Dying Breed

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Mainframe Techies Are A Dying Breed

Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @05:53AM from the why-in-my-day dept.

dipfan writes "Great piece in today's Financial Times on the surprising survival of mainframes - but the problem in the US is finding experienced techies to run them: "55 per cent were over 50, compared with fewer than 10 per cent of those with Unix or Windows NT server skills." Cobol programers, still needed for legacy applications, are mostly in their 40s. Help is on the way, though, thanks to IBM's use of Linux, which "freshens the labor pool" according to the article." (See also this earlier post on the mainframe-operator labor pool.)

9 of 483 comments (clear)

A question... by zutroy · 2003-05-21 05:57 · Score: 3, Funny

What the hell is a "mainframe"?
1. Re:A question... by phorm · 2003-05-21 06:03 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Joke or serious question?
  
  A very large "computer" (some are more comparable nowadays to an advanced calculator) to which remote terminals connect in order to function. In short, big ugly was-once-super-powerful computer that is the master of a network or portion thereof.
  
  Look for something like a big box with lots of wires, maybe some tapes attached, a little rust on the side, and a weeping IT admin beside it.
2. Re:A question... by number6x · 2003-05-21 06:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  According to the Devil's IT Dictionary:
  mainframe n. An obsolete device still used by thousands of obsolete companies serving billions of obsolete customers and making huge obsolete profits for their obsolete shareholders. And this year's run twice as fast as last year's.
  pretty accurate.
Let me get this right... by tamnir · 2003-05-21 06:02 · Score: 3, Funny

I have learnt Basic, Turbo Pascal, C, C++, Perl, Java, Python, Ruby and what not... But noooooo! Today, you must know Cobol to get a job!

Darn, I was just starting to get working on my Fortran...

--
I code, therefore I am.
Help Wanted by American+AC+in+Paris · 2003-05-21 06:12 · Score: 5, Funny
Mainframe? Pah!
Mainframe Techies are a dime a dozen--the real challenge is finding competent PDP8/E techies these days!
Plunk your modern so-called "computer whiz" in front of one, and their first reaction is invariably one of the following:
1. "Why are there so many power switches?"
2. "Where's the keyboard?"
3. "Where's the monitor?"
4. "Where's the mouse?"
5. "Why does it sound like it's about to generate lift?"
6. "Does it support themes?"
7. "Let's see...'HCF' instruction? Hwa? Oh, I get it--Hardware ConFiguration!" *click* AIEEEEEEEEE!
8. "'Switch Register'? Sorry, I never register anything. It's a government ploy to learn my phone number and address!"
--
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Ugh: T-Rex? by Ted+Stoner · 2003-05-21 06:46 · Score: 3, Funny

I am constantly being ribbed by a younger guy here about being an old ex-mainframe guy. He is always going on about how there were dinosaurs crawling about when I was programming on them. Now IBM comes out with a new model called "T-Rex". I can feel a new verbal assault coming on ...

Couldn't IBM have call it something like Mainframe Extreme or something a bit more trendy?
Re:How to Tell a Mainframe Techie by Rick.C · 2003-05-21 07:28 · Score: 3, Funny

10) They view a PC/MAC as a dumb terminal "with this neat copy/paste thingie."

9) They know EBCDIC and are totally annoyed that numbers sort before letters in ASCII.

8) They are also annoyed that PC keyboards use the new-line key as ENTER.

7) "Fiber optic cable" means a 36-pair trunk. Anything less is just a device jumper.

6) They think that less than eight fiber paths to any device constitutes an I/O bottleneck.

5) They laugh at COBOL programmers. To their faces.

4) The largest program they ever wrote was 12K. The coolest was 160 bytes.

3) They know what the "National" character set is.

2) They wince at a 1.2-million line core dump, but they're glad they don't have to print it like they did in the old days.

1) They can read that core dump like it was source code.

--
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Re:Employers' fault... by LePrince · 2003-05-21 07:59 · Score: 5, Funny

Hire me ! I have plenty of experience with RPG. I finished Final Fantasy 1 to 3, 7 to 10, and I promise I'll do my best while working for you to finish the new releases on time. I also have good experience with Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, 7th Saga, Zelda, and many others...
Oh, not THAT kind of RPG... ;-)
Re:Employers' fault... by BrokenHalo · 2003-05-21 16:36 · Score: 3, Funny

Mainframe Techies Are A Dying Breed
I'm not quite dead, you insensitive clod :-)