Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers

Newsgroups	talk.politics.misc, comp.os.linux.misc, alt.politics.usa
From	"186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net>
Subject	Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers
Organization	vector apex
Date	2024-08-17 22:01 -0400
Message-ID	<kcOcnV96BcJ0yFz7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/taxes/article-13688929/IRS-worker-reveals-reasons-call-hold-tax-delays.html

Decades-old computer systems 'paid for by the Kennedy
administration' and terrible management are the reasons
for poor customer service at the IRS, an insider has claimed.

An IRS employee, who has worked at the agency for more than
a decade, has spoken exclusively to DailyMail.com about
its failings, as it comes under fire for long call wait
times.

The staffer, who has worked on the customer service and IT
teams, said that managers pursued 'vanity projects' instead
of making changes which would benefit workers and taxpayers.

. . .

Doesn't surprise me.

Hmm ... what was good in the very early 60s ?
IBM had a number of offerings, esp it's new
and great System/360. The article did not
specify WHAT 'ancient' computers.

Of interest here is that such old tech DOES
still WORK. Most of this stuff was still
discrete transistors in BIG boxes.

Yea, yea, the modern stuff is 1000s of times
faster and more compact. I think a Raspberry Pi
credit-card computer is a lot faster and more
capable. Modern stuff may not AS reliable however.

However there's ANOTHER issue ... one guys I knew
in the biz even yet come across. It's the SOFTWARE.

A lot of it was written in COBOL by those arrow-tie
Dilberts LONG ago. It's GREAT software - those square-
lookin' nerd guys were REALLY GOOD.

But good software requires good MONEY ... and a lot
of biz/govt entities can't afford having the good
old standards re-created for modern hardware. Can
barely afford (or find) people who can do little
patches on what is.

So, they can't afford to, don't DARE to, replace that
60 year old hardware and software. It works, so
LEAVE IT ALONE.

Heh ... I remember visiting a county facility when
I was still pretty young. The computer room was
freezing and the floor was laser-leveled for the
benefit of the old-style disk drive units (and
I mean "units", you could physically remove a
big spool of about 12" wide disks - DO wait until
they stop spinning !). There were also the boxes
with the spinning tapes and the obligatory card
and paper-tape readers.

The "cpu chip" was about a cubic METER in size in
the middle of the room - DEC I think, PDP-4 or
maybe PDP-7 - full of a bunch of circuit boards with
zillions of individual transistors and perhaps a
few early "chips". Workers/programmers had serial
terminals at their desks.

Even then the machine was technically obsolete,
early PCs were already starting to come out, but
again they could not afford/dare to replace it.
50s/60s easy money had RUN OUT.

BTW, if you're a COBOL guru you can make GOOD
money these days maintaining all that old
software ... it's in Big Govt all the way down
to medium local biz.

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Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-17 22:01 -0400
  Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers vallor <vallor@cultnix.org> - 2024-08-18 02:24 +0000
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-17 23:07 -0400
      Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Louis Krupp <lkrupp@invalid.pssw.com.invalid> - 2024-08-26 13:29 -0600
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> - 2024-08-21 19:25 +0800
      Ancient Linux (was: Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers) vallor <vallor@cultnix.org> - 2024-08-21 12:37 +0000
  Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-18 03:45 +0000
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-18 00:52 -0400
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> - 2024-08-18 08:27 -0700
      Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-19 23:59 -0400
        Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-20 04:39 +0000
          Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> - 2024-08-20 07:47 -0700
            Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2024-08-20 18:28 +0000
              Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-20 19:27 +0000
                Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-08-21 07:35 +0000
            Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-20 19:16 +0000
            Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-08-21 07:34 +0000
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-08-19 02:01 +0000
      Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-19 20:59 +0000
        Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-19 21:34 -0400
          Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-08-21 07:32 +0000
  Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2024-08-18 17:26 +0000
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2024-08-19 11:25 -0400
  Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers John McCue <jmccue@magnetar.jmcunx.com> - 2024-08-18 19:54 +0000
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-08-19 02:02 +0000
      Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers John McCue <jmccue@reddwf.jmcunx.com> - 2024-08-19 14:45 +0000
  Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2024-08-19 09:39 +0100
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers jgd@cix.co.uk (John Dallman) - 2024-08-19 20:09 +0100
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2024-08-19 20:56 +0000
      Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-19 21:43 -0400
    Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net> - 2024-08-19 21:36 -0400

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