Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers

From	vallor <vallor@cultnix.org>
Newsgroups	talk.politics.misc, comp.os.linux.misc, alt.politics.usa
Subject	Re: Still Going - IRS Still Using JFK-Era Computers
Date	2024-08-18 02:24 +0000
Message-ID	<lid4aqFpdv6U2@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<kcOcnV96BcJ0yFz7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@earthlink.com>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On Sat, 17 Aug 2024 22:01:12 -0400, "186282@ud0s4.net" <186283@ud0s4.net>
wrote in <kcOcnV96BcJ0yFz7nZ2dnZfqn_WdnZ2d@earthlink.com>:

> 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.

If you're so inclined to learn on your own...GNU has COBOL.

COBC(1)                  User Commands                  COBC(1)

NAME
       cobc - manual page for cobc 3.1.2.0

SYNOPSIS
       cobc [options]... file...

DESCRIPTION
       GnuCOBOL  compiler  for most COBOL dialects with lots of
       extensions
 _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Our local community college used to have a COBOL class, as it led
a software consortium that ran COBOL software on mainframes.  Looks
like they retired those old systems in 2009.

-- 
-v

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Thread

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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