The Government’s Computing Experts Say They Are Terrified

Comments

• Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Well, at least the terror in the U.S. is confined to the government’s computing experts.

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  • OpenStars@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Precious few others seem even to be aware of what is going on.

    Except ofc for those cheering it along. 😢

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    • Powderhorn@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The ones cheering it on are even less aware that it’s eventually coming for them.

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• bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  We really need a protest movement in itself to get rid of Elmo. Say what you will about Trump, but that dingus is far more dangerous than trump ever could be.

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  • themurphy@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The most fucked up part is that I disagree, but not because I think Elon is any better than you do.

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    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      How do you mean?

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• jdeath@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  ok this article was a hilarious shit show. full of gems like

  The former Treasury official told us that mainframes—and COBOL, the ancient programming language they often run—are really good for what they do,

  ffs

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  • melp@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I’ve had conversations with people who work in various gov sectors and you’d be very amused. Social security and the IRS aren’t that much better.

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    • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I worked at a large import export firm based out of Seattle a decade ago. All of their internal and external accounting ultimately relied on COBOL as well.

      A single guy maintained it all… he also wrote it all, originally. Got back from the Vietnam war, learned COBOL with his GI Bill, went to work for this company, stayed for his whole life.

      He kept telling the board that they needed to find a replacement, or three, for him, when he retired.

      They did not, at least not before he retired, and I left several months later due to every system I relied on to do my work breaking down after he left.

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    • jdeath@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      yeah i work in tech (at a bank rn) and the mainframes are hilarious. a constant source of downtime, and insanely overpriced hardware to boot.

      literally i can’t think of any downtime our services have had in the last six months that wasn’t caused by the mainframe’s downtime. this is dozens of cases.

      but they will basically never be replaced. maybe in 100 years? ha

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