Well, IANAMC ( I Am Not A Mainframe Coder ) but you could very well be right.
Getting information from the mainframe types is a major effort ( get a project manager, get them to assign a coder, define the specifications, develop code, review output, request rework, lather rinse repeat).
Getting information from relational systems (Oracle, SQL Server, et. al. ) is much faster. Usually the end-user just opens Crystal Reports, either on the web-based enterprise site or a local copy. OLAP is even faster, of course, with ( for now ) excel pivot table / pivot chart front ends.
A large part of the problem could be local policies ( read: too many PHB's ) however none of the mainframe coders / managers seem to want to do anything about that.
Thus our clients demand newer, relational systems. As our clients also control our budget, the mainframe systems here are targeted for replacement.
Sometimes the older languages and platforms in use really *are* a good fit.
True enough, as far as it goes. There are times, I think you'll agree, where an upgrade to a modern system isn't just prudent but necessary.
As an example, I've eliminated a mainframe system from a client. I don't recall the specifics of the hardware; only that the sole source of parts for the hardware involved ebay and paying a 2am visit to someone's garage for a disk controller. Moving them to an Oracle DB with a web front end does preserve a mainframe like paradigm, but also alows the use of supported hardware.
In another example, we're looking to replace our mainframe payroll system with something modern. Our customers are screaming for better integration with other applications; the time it takes to get data out of a mainframe system makes the data irrelevant by the time it's deleivered ( 1 - 2 weeks ).
Mainframes have their place, and will likely continue to do so. However, that place seems to be shrinking.
My guess is that at some point, Oracle will probably try to migrate all of the DB2, Sybase and SQL server customers to Oracle databases.
That's one thought. Another thought is Oracle might try to migrate PeopleSoft customers to their Oracle Applications, in addition to migrating them to the Oracle Database.
From what I've seen of Oracle Applications, this would be a disaster. We attempted to migrate to Oracle Applications ( ver. 11.5.9 ) and ended up regressing to exisiting systems.
PeopleSoft might not be best of breed, but they do seem more functional than Oracle Applications.
Years ago I had a coworker who, along with her local ham radio club, rigged a ham radio up to land line. She swore it was better than a cell phone, although she did find it annoying when someone else was using the line.
where the FBI's claim that a keylogger was not a wiretap was upheld
IIRC, the FBI case against John Gotti Jr. involved a keylogger. The judge in the case agreed with the governments assertion that a wiretap warrant was not required because the keylogger looked for an active modem connection; if the modem was on, the keylogger turned itself off.
The idea was to get Gotti Jr.'s PGP passphrase. They already had his private key from a search conducted under a "sneak and peak" warrant.
Anything Pivot tables do that isn't possible in SQL?
I've created Excel pivot tables and pivot charts as front ends to OLAP cubes stored in a MS SQL Server[1].
The main advantage is end-users can drag and drop predefined data elements to change the representation of data quickly. They can also choose which members of a data element to include / exclude.
So sure, lots of this can be done with SQL where clauses and group by/order by clauses. However, its a LOT faster with a pivot table / pivot chart.
As other posters have mentioned, this is one case where the GUI beats CLI.[2]
[1] All those Microsoft products... Karma, we hardly knew ya.
[2] This from a guy who's favorite IDE is still VIM.
Electronic surveillance. Television monitors and two-way voice-communication systems will be placed in each station to survey the platform, stairways and cars. To insure that the screens will be watched when necessary, infrared sensors will be placed in the stations to alert the monitoring personnel of activity in each station. The most recent few minutes of activity in the station will be recorded in computer memory via video camera, so that in cases of either vandalism or assault the images can be rolled back to identify the assailant. To protect people's privacy, such images will be erased after an agreed interval. To discourage potential assailants, the existence of these features will be made known to the public.
So cameras in the cars? Uh huh. All eyes on the blonde in the short skirt in car 54 while all other cars are unmonitored.
And as for the sending cars to police stations, now it feels more Minority Report.
Where I'm at now is trying to centralize SysAdmin work to Ohio to save on salaries, and layoff SA's in the data centers around the country.
Speaking as someone in Ohio, I look forward to being welcomed as your new Overlord. [badum-ching]
Seriously though, this seems to indicate that stories of H1B's getting significantly less pay are just that. Migrating operations to a place of lower cost of living ( Midwest, parts of the South )wouldn't be necessary if a pool of cheap labor was there for the importing.
What is unique about this system is that individual 3-passenger cars travel independently between stations, which are located on side-tracks so cars only need to stop at the final destination.
Seems like it's out of Logans Run. Nice idea, bringing the convenience of personal transportation with the benefits of mass transit.
Ofcourse, one could argue that _people_ breed fear and intolerance, by their own prejudice and merely use religion as a tool (or an excuse) -- but that would become a kinda sorta cyclical argument.
It does seem to become rather cyclical, but I do see your point.
In the sense of one speaker attempting to control the masses, anything which can be used to prevent questioning the speakers statements ( religion, claims of unconsious racism in a questioner, et. al. ) would serve that purpose.
Ignorance ( the speaker is always right, and any evidence to the contrary must be lies ) and fear ( non-believers are heathens / rednecks / liberals ) would almost be side effects. The true effect would be to keep the speaker in power over the masses.
Perhaps the exit polling sucked balls? Perhaps the numbers they were showing were not correct and they updated them with the correct data? Perhaps the early voters were Democrats and the later voters were Republican.
It looks like most of the areas who voted for Kerry were in urban areas. Now, if the exit polls were conducted in mostly urban areas you can see how the results would be biased in favor of Kerry.
Let me preface this comment by saying I'm a fan of the 1911A1.45 as well. Great pistol.
However, I do find that firearms of a simpler design are easier for the beginer to average shooter to use. Revolvers were favored by police for years because of their simple manual of arms and some make a similar argument in advocacy of Glock, et. al. these days.
I agree that with more training and practice differences between firarm designs aren't as much of a problem for operators. However, perhaps you'd also agree that it's not practical to give every operator SPECOPS levels of training.
For the average operator it seems that a simple manual of arms leads to better utilization given the same ammount of training on more complex designs.
Economic policy between the Democrats and Republicans is largely the same. Sure, Kerry wanted to change a few tax code loopholes, but it wasn't as if he wanted to repeal NAFTA ( which was signed by Clinton, FYI ).
Military / Foriegn policy is about the same between the two parties as well. Kerry voted for the Iraq war, and would not have immediately pulled troops if he would have won.
That leaves social issues to define the diferences between the two parties. On that front, the Republicans have been going to great lengths to court religious / social conservatives:
It's not that a majority of people don't understand the Democratic message, it's that they disagree with it at least on the high profile social issues.
I'd also love to have areas walled off from screaming kids, focing the parents to actually keep their kids under control, rather then let them run around in a ritallin deficient state.
Or, on another thought, it seems possible to read the RFID tag from a legitimate passport then code a new tag with that information.
Might even be better to snag the RFID tag of a diplomatic passport, thus perhaps avoiding searches. If that works, I'd expect to see the technology widely exploited since there is a market for searchless airline travel ( smugglers ).
Even pre-9/11 DoD security clearances were notoriously hard to get at the TS level. 10 years of background information collected and verified, criminal records of people you went to school with could hold up your clearance, etc.
Most of the types I knew who got clearances were former military types who already had a lower clearance ( Such as Confidential or Secret ) and qualified for an interim clearance. Of course that policy could have changed.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, IANAMC ( I Am Not A Mainframe Coder ) but you could very well be right.
Getting information from the mainframe types is a major effort ( get a project manager, get them to assign a coder, define the specifications, develop code, review output, request rework, lather rinse repeat).
Getting information from relational systems (Oracle, SQL Server, et. al. ) is much faster. Usually the end-user just opens Crystal Reports, either on the web-based enterprise site or a local copy. OLAP is even faster, of course, with ( for now ) excel pivot table / pivot chart front ends.
A large part of the problem could be local policies ( read: too many PHB's ) however none of the mainframe coders / managers seem to want to do anything about that.
Thus our clients demand newer, relational systems. As our clients also control our budget, the mainframe systems here are targeted for replacement.
Sometimes the older languages and platforms in use really *are* a good fit.
True enough, as far as it goes. There are times, I think you'll agree, where an upgrade to a modern system isn't just prudent but necessary.
As an example, I've eliminated a mainframe system from a client. I don't recall the specifics of the hardware; only that the sole source of parts for the hardware involved ebay and paying a 2am visit to someone's garage for a disk controller. Moving them to an Oracle DB with a web front end does preserve a mainframe like paradigm, but also alows the use of supported hardware.
In another example, we're looking to replace our mainframe payroll system with something modern. Our customers are screaming for better integration with other applications; the time it takes to get data out of a mainframe system makes the data irrelevant by the time it's deleivered ( 1 - 2 weeks ).
Mainframes have their place, and will likely continue to do so. However, that place seems to be shrinking.
My guess is that at some point, Oracle will probably try to migrate all of the DB2, Sybase and SQL server customers to Oracle databases.
That's one thought. Another thought is Oracle might try to migrate PeopleSoft customers to their Oracle Applications, in addition to migrating them to the Oracle Database.
From what I've seen of Oracle Applications, this would be a disaster. We attempted to migrate to Oracle Applications ( ver. 11.5.9 ) and ended up regressing to exisiting systems.
PeopleSoft might not be best of breed, but they do seem more functional than Oracle Applications.
But, a "home version" would be interesting.
Years ago I had a coworker who, along with her local ham radio club, rigged a ham radio up to land line. She swore it was better than a cell phone, although she did find it annoying when someone else was using the line.
I have mod points, but decided to post since I can't decide if you're being funny or insightful.
Either way, great point.
where the FBI's claim that a keylogger was not a wiretap was upheld
IIRC, the FBI case against John Gotti Jr. involved a keylogger. The judge in the case agreed with the governments assertion that a wiretap warrant was not required because the keylogger looked for an active modem connection; if the modem was on, the keylogger turned itself off.
The idea was to get Gotti Jr.'s PGP passphrase. They already had his private key from a search conducted under a "sneak and peak" warrant.
Anything Pivot tables do that isn't possible in SQL?
I've created Excel pivot tables and pivot charts as front ends to OLAP cubes stored in a MS SQL Server[1].
The main advantage is end-users can drag and drop predefined data elements to change the representation of data quickly. They can also choose which members of a data element to include / exclude.
So sure, lots of this can be done with SQL where clauses and group by/order by clauses. However, its a LOT faster with a pivot table / pivot chart.
As other posters have mentioned, this is one case where the GUI beats CLI.[2]
[1] All those Microsoft products... Karma, we hardly knew ya.
[2] This from a guy who's favorite IDE is still VIM.
From the "Security Features" article:
Electronic surveillance. Television monitors and two-way voice-communication systems will be placed in each station to survey the platform, stairways and cars. To insure that the screens will be watched when necessary, infrared sensors will be placed in the stations to alert the monitoring personnel of activity in each station. The most recent few minutes of activity in the station will be recorded in computer memory via video camera, so that in cases of either vandalism or assault the images can be rolled back to identify the assailant. To protect people's privacy, such images will be erased after an agreed interval. To discourage potential assailants, the existence of these features will be made known to the public.
So cameras in the cars? Uh huh. All eyes on the blonde in the short skirt in car 54 while all other cars are unmonitored.
And as for the sending cars to police stations, now it feels more Minority Report.
Where I'm at now is trying to centralize SysAdmin work to Ohio to save on salaries, and layoff SA's in the data centers around the country.
Speaking as someone in Ohio, I look forward to being welcomed as your new Overlord. [badum-ching]
Seriously though, this seems to indicate that stories of H1B's getting significantly less pay are just that. Migrating operations to a place of lower cost of living ( Midwest, parts of the South )wouldn't be necessary if a pool of cheap labor was there for the importing.
What is unique about this system is that individual 3-passenger cars travel independently between stations, which are located on side-tracks so cars only need to stop at the final destination.
Seems like it's out of Logans Run. Nice idea, bringing the convenience of personal transportation with the benefits of mass transit.
Ofcourse, one could argue that _people_ breed fear and intolerance, by their own prejudice and merely use religion as a tool (or an excuse) -- but that would become a kinda sorta cyclical argument.
It does seem to become rather cyclical, but I do see your point.
In the sense of one speaker attempting to control the masses, anything which can be used to prevent questioning the speakers statements ( religion, claims of unconsious racism in a questioner, et. al. ) would serve that purpose.
Ignorance ( the speaker is always right, and any evidence to the contrary must be lies ) and fear ( non-believers are heathens / rednecks / liberals ) would almost be side effects. The true effect would be to keep the speaker in power over the masses.
The Soviets outlawed religion, but effectively placed the State at the head of their secular pantheon.
After all, ignorance breeds fear and intolerance.
I think you misspelled religion there...
[badum-ching]
However that is a well known effect and about the first thing they have ALWAYS controled for.
This implies a level of journalistic integrity and knowledge of statistical methodology which may or may not be present.
Perhaps the exit polling sucked balls? Perhaps the numbers they were showing were not correct and they updated them with the correct data? Perhaps the early voters were Democrats and the later voters were Republican.
/ results2004_lg.jpg
Well, from the 3d election results:
http://www.esri.com/industries/elections/graphics
It looks like most of the areas who voted for Kerry were in urban areas. Now, if the exit polls were conducted in mostly urban areas you can see how the results would be biased in favor of Kerry.
Let me preface this comment by saying I'm a fan of the 1911A1 .45 as well. Great pistol.
However, I do find that firearms of a simpler design are easier for the beginer to average shooter to use. Revolvers were favored by police for years because of their simple manual of arms and some make a similar argument in advocacy of Glock, et. al. these days.
I agree that with more training and practice differences between firarm designs aren't as much of a problem for operators. However, perhaps you'd also agree that it's not practical to give every operator SPECOPS levels of training.
For the average operator it seems that a simple manual of arms leads to better utilization given the same ammount of training on more complex designs.
True, training can overcome any inherant problems an operator would have with any particular safety system.
.45:
s &file=article&sid=374
OTOH, a simpler safety system makes training easier and therefore can make better operators ( all things being equal ).
Note, for instance, what USMC SPECOPS types like in a
http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=New
Considering that news reports are saying that "moral values" were the deciding factor in the Presidential Election:
2 21-2004Nov3.html
o id:86467
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22
It might bear considering why that is.
Economic policy between the Democrats and Republicans is largely the same. Sure, Kerry wanted to change a few tax code loopholes, but it wasn't as if he wanted to repeal NAFTA ( which was signed by Clinton, FYI ).
Military / Foriegn policy is about the same between the two parties as well. Kerry voted for the Iraq war, and would not have immediately pulled troops if he would have won.
That leaves social issues to define the diferences between the two parties. On that front, the Republicans have been going to great lengths to court religious / social conservatives:
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=
Looks like it worked.
It's not that a majority of people don't understand the Democratic message, it's that they disagree with it at least on the high profile social issues.
Mandatory comment:
"EMACS would be a wonderful operating system if only it had a decent text editor"
[badum-ching]
Great idea!
I'd also love to have areas walled off from screaming kids, focing the parents to actually keep their kids under control, rather then let them run around in a ritallin deficient state.
You do alot more than piss off the non-smokers, you kill them. Please stop.
Not killing them fast enough, apparently.
Note: This post not responsible for the reactions of the humor impaired.
Just got back from voting myself. Crowds died down a bit, about a 40 min wait. Saw no challengers.
As another poster said, however, it does look like the after work crowd is getting ready to hit the polls.
The girlfriend finally voted after a two and a half hour wait.
While the recent appeals court decision does allow democratic and republican challangers, she didn't see any at our polling place.
So turnout around here is HUGE; perhaps even higher than the 70% expected.
I'm waiting to see if everyone votes early, thus reducing the crowding at the polls. Unless there is a crowd from the "vote often" set =p
Or, on another thought, it seems possible to read the RFID tag from a legitimate passport then code a new tag with that information.
Might even be better to snag the RFID tag of a diplomatic passport, thus perhaps avoiding searches. If that works, I'd expect to see the technology widely exploited since there is a market for searchless airline travel ( smugglers ).
Most of the types I knew who got clearances were former military types who already had a lower clearance ( Such as Confidential or Secret ) and qualified for an interim clearance. Of course that policy could have changed.