Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!border2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 21:29:10 -0500 Subject: Re: Fwd: Linux on a small memory PC Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers References: <871quvs7m8.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <87sfn8pr5t.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <87zghai2dh.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <16ydncnktcv0sE__nZ2dnUU7-Q3NnZ2d@earthlink.com> From: "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 22:29:09 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Lines: 58 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 98.77.165.113 X-Trace: sv3-RAvmmC5UlR4aOBmArOnTyDTEy/ogtM8oeRmjS6p3oSAlPbXQt8VimloyMd1Es8w+7umVWdOAkH7vs0K!ayYq/VL98Zl39C/1rc49veotPOCTqrUloFKRmDHmWXFSzqg3yXlagVYzn+pJe0nEKg9tFsxTvb5j!XvE6ZzMBt+W3Z7fFzAI+ X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 4188 Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:35086 alt.folklore.computers:221089 On 7/18/22 9:48 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote: > On 2022-07-19, 25B.Z959 <25B.Z959@nada.net> wrote: > >> On 7/17/22 4:59 PM, Charlie Gibbs wrote: >> >>> We used two cards for customer name data, but they didn't have dates >>> in them, just long names. You're right, having more than one card >>> for a logical record is a pain in the ass. I use the present tense >>> because I'm still faced with such files today. >> >> Yep - the past IS present ... old records never die, they >> just become more inconvenient. :-) > > Actually, I'm working with brand-new records. But there are still > many cases where for one reason or another, it takes several physical > records to represent one logical record. Hmmm ... that big ? ... including photographs/video or the like ? The traditional solution is to just point to an external file in yer db record. That has plusses and minuses though. >> Amazing how many institutions STILL run COBOL apps writ >> during the 60s by the guys with skinny ties. They work >> very well, they're too expensive to re-do, so .... >> >> There's probably a COBOL->C++ or JAVA translator out >> there somewhere ... but money's so tight these days >> and so many of those legacy apps are so super-critical >> that they just can't/won't. > > We must be careful not to sell those guys with the skinny ties short. > Some of them were pretty smart. Newer is not necessarily better - > and wise people won't break a working system for fashion's sake. They were VERY smart ... built the foundations of what we all use today. Well-organized too. Sometimes lacking in 'innovation'/'imagination' however ... there are niches for people like Jobs and I think we gained more on the hardware level from mere GAMERS than anybody else - their numbers funded hardware that's proven to be very useful now for "AI", physical sims and such. But yes, wise people won't break a working system. I've seen what happens when un-wise people, eager to follow the latest fads and buzzwords, get involved. If you want to see how it all goes bad - just read "Dilbert". A lot of that old institutional software though, it's REALLY a case of "We can't afford"/"We don't DARE" - accounting/scheduling stuff - where "broken" means You're Dead. That's why "Wally" keeps his job :-) Oooh ! "Robot Apocalypse" on the tube ! One of my new favorite "B" flix :-)