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User: jacobsm

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Comments · 185

  1. Hollerith Cards on Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Store Data In Hard Copy? · · Score: 1

    I have an entire box of unpunched punch cards that I'm willing to sell, for the right price.

  2. Join and contribute to mailing lists on Ask Slashdot: Is an Online Identity Important When Searching For Technical Jobs? · · Score: 1

    I'm a zOS Systems Programmer and one of my most used resources is the IBM-MAIN mailing list. If you can find one in your field that you can contribute to, your name will become a searchable item.

  3. Because most users don't care on What Keeps You On (or Off) Windows in 2013? · · Score: 2

    The average non-technical user couldn't give a rats ass which OS they're using. They want their apps, they want it simple, they don't want to mess with the guts of the computer.

  4. It's all zero's and one's. on Judge Orders Child Porn Suspect To Decrypt His Hard Drives · · Score: 1

    Your Honor,

    This data isn't encrypted, these are records for my business written by a program that I do not have the source code for, and the company that wrote the program was incorporated in Outer Mongolia and is out of business. And your honor, the program that would be able to read these records was accidentally destroyed last month, and I have no backups.

    --------

    Let them prove me a liar.

  5. Queue in end of the world music... on Tests Show That Deadly New Flu Could Spread Among People · · Score: 1

    It's all a government plot, aka Captain Trips to end life on Earth as we know it.

  6. Re:What's that saying about agile? on World's Biggest 'Agile' Software Project Close To Failure · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Agile is just the latest management fad. In a year or two something else will come along, and the lemmings will follow.

  7. And in other news... on Trade Group: US Software Developer Wages Fell 2% Last Year · · Score: 2

    CEO wages only went up 3.6%.

    Of course their wage base is slightly higher than us mere mortals.

  8. Re:Disable Networking on Some Windows XP Users Can't Afford To Upgrade · · Score: 1

    Didn't you read the initial posting, or are you just being obstinate? These aren't average people. They're running a product that's required for their business, that only runs under XP. We were asked to come up with reasonable options, and the general consensus is to unplug these computers from the Internet.

    I don't see your problem with the idea.

  9. Disable Networking on Some Windows XP Users Can't Afford To Upgrade · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Prevent those few computers that are running the program from touching the Internet in anyway. No networking services, web, email, ... or anything else. Make them strictly one function standalone devices.

  10. What a great Idea on "Micro-Gig" Sites Undermining Workers Rights? · · Score: 1

    Why don't we pay managers for the time that they actually manage, or CEO's for the time they do CEO like functions? Corporate America can save a bundle.

  11. Re:IT admins are special on Most IT Admins Have Considered Quitting Due To Stress · · Score: 1

    I'm not a Sysadmin, I'm a specialist(zOS Systems Programmer) with 34 years in the business, and I make a heck of a lot more than 48K. Most of the time my manager (who's a real @#$!!**@#$) leaves me alone to do my job.

  12. Re:Respect and thank your admin. You'll make his d on Most IT Admins Have Considered Quitting Due To Stress · · Score: 1

    Really? How much? I'm a zOS Systems Programmer with over 34 years experience.

  13. This is the true story on Most IT Admins Have Considered Quitting Due To Stress · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A stranger came to visit Chelm, together with his very old, very skinny cow. The mayor of Chelm insisted the stranger stay in his home during that time and even made room in his own barn for the cow. The stranger was a little worried about being in a strange town, so, he hid his gold in the straw in the barn under his cow.
    The next morning, the mayor walked into the barn to care for his animals, and he noticed the gold in the straw. He figured out that this cow, unlike all other cows, gave gold instead of milk. He was very excited!! He called a special meeting of the Chelm Town Council and insisted that they buy the cow from the stranger. They collected money from all the citizens in town. The mayor asked the stranger if he would be willing to sell the cow, and he offered double the usual price for a good milk cow. The stranger started to protest that the cow wasn't worth that much, but the mayor misunderstood and increased his offer. The more the stranger protested, the more the mayor offered. Finally, completely confused, the stranger agreed to sell. The mayor gave the scrawny cow the best stall in his barn. He fed her the very best feed in town. The next morning, the mayor approached the cow to milk her. As he started, he was very surprised to find that the cow gave...milk! And not even very good milk!! The mayor was annoyed. The stranger had sold him a cow that gave gold, but all he had gotten was milk! He reported back to the Town Council. They were angry. When they told the townspeople, everyone was furious! They decided to track down the stranger to get their money back. They found the stranger in the next town. With everyone yelling at him all at once, he had no idea what was going on, but eventually, he figured it out. He turned to the mayor and asked, "Did you feed the cow?" The mayor answered, "Of course we fed the cow! Do you think we don't know how to care for a cow?!!" The stranger answered, "Did you ever have a cow that gave gold before? Didn't you notice how scrawny she was when I came into town? There's only one way to get her to give gold... You have to stop feeding her! But, it took me weeks to teach her to not eat. This is what you have to do. Every day, feed her a little less. At the end of three weeks, you should be able to cut her down to eating nothing. The next day, milk her, and she will give gold again." The Chelmites look at the stranger, embarrassed about their previous anger at him. They return to Chelm and start the feeding regimen that the stranger told them. The cow got skinnier and skinnier, and the mayor of Chelm was very pleased. Until, one morning, on the very first day she would have gotten no food, the cow was found dead in her stall.

    The people of Chelm were, of course, very disappointed. But they always looked back nostalgically on the day when, if only their cow hadn't died, they would have been the richest town in Poland...

  14. Mah nishtanah, ha-laylah ha-zeh, mi-kol ha-leylot? on Australian PM Targets Imported IT Workers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And how is this different from the controversy over this exact same subject here in the US, and I'm sure in other countries too?

  15. Aquafilter pumping on Florida Sinkhole Highlights State's Geologic Instability · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let's pump massive amounts of water out of the aquafilter. What could possibility go wrong? (Living in West Central Florida on the edge of a well field).

  16. Simple solution on Large Corporations Displacing Aging IT Workers With H-1B Visa Workers · · Score: 1

    Don't follow the crowd. Have skills that aren't a dime a dozen. I'm coming up on 34 years in IT, two jobs (16 years in one and 18 in another), and no HTML coder is going to be able to do the job of a zOS Systems Programmer.

  17. Too many people, and most managers, feel that once they take a piss in projects they like the smell better.

  18. Too much in pain over this. on 27 Reported Killed In Connecticut Elementary School Shooting · · Score: 1

    There are no words. So I won't be posting any for awhile.

  19. A few things to look for and to ask on Ask Slashdot: Interviewing Your Boss? · · Score: 1

    1) Does the interviewee have a good chance to win in a game of 'Buzzword Bingo'?
    2) Describe your management style?
    2a) Do you manage upwards or downwards?
    3) Describe what you did when 'shit hit the fan in a previous position.
    4) Describe what you did when your team excelled in a situation.
    5) Describe the hardest thing you have ever had to do as a manager.

  20. But can it... on New 25-GPU Monster Devours Strong Passwords In Minutes · · Score: 1

    Crack the code to open President Skroob's luggage?

  21. And the soon to be published book... on John McAfee Launches Blog, Offers $25K Reward For "Real Killers" · · Score: 1

    "If I Did It"

  22. Thank G-d I don't do much programming any longer on What's the Shelf Life of a Programmer? · · Score: 2

    I've been in IT for 33+ years, mostly as a zOS Systems Programmer. A little assembler language programming now and then though. There are several programmers in my age bracket still programming full time though, but they've had to reinvent themselves several times over the years.

  23. So when.... on Lawsuit Challenges New York Sugary Drink Ban · · Score: 1

    So when Government bans something I'm for, it's bad and must be stopped. But when Government bans something I'm against they're doing their job.

    Now I understand, you're a hypocrite.

  24. 1970's on Ask Slashdot: What Were You Taught About Computers In High School? · · Score: 1

    Francis Lewis HS, a Queens (NYC) high school had a computer lab, in my sophomore year, 1972, we used what were Basically glorified calculators with a few hundred bytes of memory available for programs. The computer used marked sense cards to read in the program.

    The next year we were given access to our RJE station which connected to a S/370 at CCNY. Fortran and PL/1 were used with punch cards. My final year, 1974-1975 we programed on a PDP-8E, fortran and assembler.

  25. Re:On a small-scale, virtualize on How Internet Data Centers Waste Power · · Score: 1

    In short, yes. IBM's virtualization environment, zVM has over 40 years of production use, with enhancements being added all the time. A zEC12 processor with 3TB of memory and 32 engines can efficiently manage several thousand zLinux virtual guests without breaking a sweat.