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Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?)

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On 9/5/2016 19:36, Larry Sheldon wrote:
> On 9/5/2016 19:00, RS Wood wrote:
>> On 2016-09-04 03:12:34 +0000, Larry Sheldon said:
>>>>
>>>> The old one was wrong.
>>> So it was ordained that EVERY mechanically produced directory would be
>>> read against the hot lead book-on-the-street.  It was decided that we
>>> would use the Information Directory Reprints (and the Supplements)
>>> would be used since the Reprints came out monthly (and the Supplements
>>> daily) so several cycles could be be checked.
>>>
>>> The Daily Supplements were abandoned quickly because the new system
>>> was quicker than the old and the differences were huge.
>>>
>>> But the Reprint effort persisted and every "Error" was greeted with
>>> great delight until it became apparent that with few exceptions the
>>> lead book was wrong.  And where the lead was "right" there was an
>>> Error Notice in awaiting resolution by Error Control in the automated
>>> system.
>>
>>
>> This sounds like an exercise in insanity, using modern systems to
>> emulate old ones rather than replace them.
>
> Couple of things to consider, for whatever they might be worth.
>
> This was in the early 1970s (late 1960's?  I forget and my "first
> editions" apparently did not survive the Great Down Sizing.)
>
> The content and format of the books was, like everything else in the
> telephone business that might have made money and reduced rates, was
> rigidly controlled in California by the California Public Utilities
> Commission and any changes to content, appearance, or schedule was right
> off the table.
>
> The goal and motivation was to reduce labor expense.

The "Yellow Pages" portion of the project (which portion was abandoned 
in failure so as not to jeopardize the White Pages effort) had the 
additional motivation of eliminating the high-rent-district (San 
Francisco and Los Angeles) warehouses full of file cabinets full of 
paper contracts (which never seemed to contain the one desperately 
needed for yet another CPUC or court case).

>
>  The transition to newer
>> paradigms often takes a long time.
>
> The computers we used were already in place, used for the Billing and
> Collecting Job (and paid for by it and the source of the Service Order
> data that we used).  It it had just under 10,000 ten-decimal-digit
> words, 7-track tape in, 7 track tape out.  Selectric typewriter for a
> console, modified card punch for parameter card (and program patch)
> reading.
>
> Newer start-ups these days typically
>> eschew what was considered "classic" for the better part of a decade
>> (Microsoft Server, with Outlook serving mail, a set of shared drives,
>> and the usual Word/Excel/Powerpoint for everything including, sadly
>> Excel for databases) and go with a fleet of web apps and software as a
>> service.  I was somewhat surprised when my latest employer used exactly
>> that set up - it's starting to look old, and Sharepoint as an Intranet
>> sucks donkeyballs.  There are lots of innovative new services to choose
>> from (though you wind up paying monthly for each and every one of
>> them).   Some day we'll look back on this "classic" formula with the
>> same disdain as we do the era where we tried to use paper systems to
>> manage digital ones.
>
> The computers (one to three to a city) where attended by a number of
> 1401s for card-to-magnetic-tape and
> 5-channel-paper-tape-to-magnetic-tape* (inputs to the big machines) and
> magnetic-tape-to-paper and magnetic-tape-to-cards (outputs from the big
> machines that did not go out by wide-band-truck).
>
> *The 21 channel (or thereabouts) toll records paper tapes had their own
> to-magnetic-tape convertors.
>
>


-- 
quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
-- Juvenal

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How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 12:04 +1000
  Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 02:27 +0000
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-09-01 02:47 +0000
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 14:10 +1000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:12 +0000
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-01 21:48 +0200
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2016-09-01 14:14 +1000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:22 +0000
  Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-08-31 22:23 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 06:44 +0000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:09 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-09-01 08:15 +0000
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2016-09-01 10:27 +0000
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:16 -0500
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:43 +0200
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? polygonum <rmoudndgers@vrod.co.uk> - 2016-09-06 07:28 +0100
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-01 21:18 +0200
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-01 21:23 +0000
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2016-09-03 08:17 +0100
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-03 12:17 +0000
              New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-03 22:12 -0500
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-09-05 20:00 -0400
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-05 19:36 -0500
                Re: New systems for old (was Re: How difficult is a payroll system?) Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-05 19:42 -0500
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:13 +0200
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:46 +0200
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-04 21:26 +0000
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? "Kerr Mudd-John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2016-09-18 08:56 +0100
            Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-18 10:18 +0200
        Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:20 -0500
          Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 21:41 +0200
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Larry Sheldon <lfsheldon@gmail.com> - 2016-09-01 21:11 -0500
    Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2016-09-04 22:30 +0200
      Re: How difficult is a payroll system? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-09-04 21:25 +0000

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