Post ASMfoqENdiQQfKBs3c by 14mission@sfba.social
(DIR) More posts by 14mission@sfba.social
(DIR) Post #ASMfopmNJq1XGT5VPE by jwz@mastodon.social
2023-02-05T05:08:44Z
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MUNI Floppy.SF's Market Street Subway Is Running on Reagan-Era Technology: "Our train control system in the Market Street subway is loaded off of five-and-a-quarter inch floppy drives," SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin told KQED's...https://jwz.org/b/yj9j
(DIR) Post #ASMfoqENdiQQfKBs3c by 14mission@sfba.social
2023-02-05T06:40:36Z
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@jwz Still true? There was a big overhaul of Muni metro control systems in the late '90s. Did not go smoothly to say the least! But, at least, I would expect that was the end of the original floppy based programming.
(DIR) Post #ASMfoqgNxapK4BIEi0 by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T08:36:02Z
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@14mission @jwz At Big #Software Company™️, we bend over backwards to support customers that simply can't, for reasons either political or organizational, upgrade to meet modern standards. For example we kept supporting our stuff on (pre-open-standards) Solaris until like 6 months ago.
(DIR) Post #ASMforGtlq29tQNOca by jwz@mastodon.social
2023-02-05T08:39:42Z
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@andthisismrspeacock @14mission "Don't fix what ain't broke" is a very good policy.A significant exception is "the machine I am using to connect to the internet that hosts my personal secrets". Yes, install your patches and stop using Windows.But MUNI using clicky relays? I am 100% down with that forever.
(DIR) Post #ASMforspUoNJn47gkC by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T08:43:04Z
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@jwz @14mission But also, yes, click-and-bang relays were so beautifully elegant I would feel bad about telling any customer they had to abandon them 🥺
(DIR) Post #ASMfosRZPeAFWoNQtU by jwz@mastodon.social
2023-02-05T08:53:49Z
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@andthisismrspeacock @14mission Just yesterday I had a piece of my critical infrastructure malfunction as a result of a power failure and my only diagnostic sidechannel is the clicking of relays. One burst of the motor at startup. Two bursts of the motor after a DHCP response has been received. It's not great. But it's also not running fsck or slashing its own throat because it can't verify a certificate chain.
(DIR) Post #ASMfosuHgt8IxroMeO by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T08:57:38Z
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@jwz @14mission I'm old enough to miss the clean universal logic of the Bell system, but I have to be real and tell customers, look, I'm so glad that Solaris or AIX or HP-UX has worked well for you for 25 years but even Big Software Company™️ can't find anyone to develop on a platform that went end of life in the Clinton administration, BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL RETIRED OR DEAD, so,
(DIR) Post #ASMfotMI0lXCMiujIm by jwz@mastodon.social
2023-02-05T09:02:44Z
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@andthisismrspeacock @14mission Thank you for reminding me of another of the times when a single line of code got a CEO to personally yell at me and that line was:# define rename hpux_sucks_wet_farts_from_dead_pigeonshttps://www.jwz.org/doc/censorzilla.html
(DIR) Post #ASMfotrU8mUJvTVdvU by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T09:03:19Z
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@jwz @14mission I don't see anything wrong with that
(DIR) Post #ASMfou0haVrQO3p0IC by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T08:39:15Z
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@14mission @jwz Until you've had to do it you'll never know: some companies are so paralyzed by their own bullshit that asking them to upgrade to anything remotely modern is literally impossible for them. Talking about a company I won't name but it these with Beneral Pholectric.
(DIR) Post #ASMfouOo8t8vap6Frk by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T09:07:31Z
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@jwz @14mission I'm in a place where:HR: Now hiring, people who can program the flight control on the Space Shuttle computersMe: Uh, you can't, that isn't, there aren't any, uh, this doesn't exis--HR: THIS IS WHAT THE CUSTOMER NEEDSMe: I am very sure that the customer is doing it wrong, because there hasn't been one of those in production sinc--HR: ARE YOU NOT A TEAM PLAYER?
(DIR) Post #ASMfowFJHAjZJwfhL6 by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T08:58:50Z
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@jwz @14mission Don't even get me started on DB2
(DIR) Post #ASMfoxyMr8N0fylCD2 by andthisismrspeacock@mastodon.lol
2023-02-05T09:11:31Z
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@jwz @14mission Me: the only surviving one of these is hanging from the ceiling of the Air and Space museum. But you go ahead and put that in the job description. See how many applications you get. (spoiler alert, it's zero)