14 Aug
2001
14 Aug
'01
2:58 a.m.
I dispute
that: Computers and computing go from strength to strength.
There's more than just PCs out there; the mighty mainframe still rules the
roost in many places, there's Apple Macs, VAX minis, Crays, and probably
many others I can't even think of. And, for the soldering-iron fans,
embedded computing is probably stronger than it ever was - *everything's*
got a computer or three in it...
In many places? The mainframe rules the roost period. What do you think
serves the databases that run the neato little things your PCs do on the
internet? IBM DB2/390. That's a
bit elitist, isn't it? Besides, most of the self-taught
programmers of whom you speak are not really programmers; they're merely
users with enough knowledge to be dangerous. Besides, if it wasn't for the
microprocessor and all that it begat, this list wouldn't even be here...
I don't know if I necessarily think this anymore, but whenever I used to
see droves of mindless PC zombies getting on the 'net, I used to think,
"Hmmm. Fresh meat." It wasn't
the PC that made cutting corners easy; it was the near-universal
use of BASIC - a fundamentally unstructured language - that is responsible
for the bulk of the "bad programmers"; and I say that as a professional
programmer who uses BASIC....!
That and all the stupid ass "crackers" who learned assembler just to get
free shareware. Maybe if
PASCAL had been the language de jour, today's self-taught
programmers would be better at it...
How about something like LISP or SML? Maybe Prolog (!)... I know I'm
pushing it with that one. > >No, not only will I not celebrate it, but I
need to
> >find a black armband to wear the rest of the month.
[..snip..]
I would've loved to have seen the Atari computers
take over. I still have
a couple of Hades I use regularly.
Cool.
-dq
Well, I'm off to dabble with my CBM PET, or
maybe the MZ-80K. They're fun,
but I wouldn't like to have to use them every day, day in day out...
I'll be off tinkering with my big-iron VAX and my S/390 G5 (ot). 
14 Aug
14 Aug
5:41 a.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn s 20) [longish]
Douglas Quebbeman said:
Hmmm... probably true for the commercial sites, of which I spend
virtually zero of my personal time. Unless Google uses the OBM iron...
Nope, they use commodity PCs with FreeBSD. From http://www.google.com/technology/:
"The speed you experience can be attributed in part to the efficiency of our
search algorithm and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's we've networked
together to create a superfast search engine."
- Dan Wright
(dtwright(a)uiuc.edu)
(http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)
-] ------------------------------ [-] -------------------------------- [-
``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
I dispute that: Computers and computing go from
strength to strength.
There's more than just PCs out there; the mighty mainframe still rules the
roost in many places, there's Apple Macs, VAX minis, Crays, and probably
many others I can't even think of. And, for the soldering-iron fans,
embedded computing is probably stronger than it ever was - *everything's*
got a computer or three in it...
In many places? The mainframe rules the roost period. What do you think
serves the databases that run the neato little things your PCs do on the
internet? IBM DB2/390. 
6:56 a.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn s 20) [longish]
And I'll bet you they could do it cheaper with a single IBM mainframe than
thousands of PCs. The power savings alone would be tremendous. A 9672 G7
xSeries can run hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Linux images in
LPARs or under VM, all at speeds comparable to quick PCs.
Peace... Sridhar
On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Dan Wright wrote:
Nope, they use commodity PCs with FreeBSD. From
http://www.google.com/technology/:
"The speed you experience can be attributed in part to the efficiency of our
search algorithm and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's we've networked
together to create a superfast search engine."
8:19 a.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn
And I'll bet you they could do it cheaper with a
single IBM mainframe than
thousands of PCs. The power savings alone would be tremendous. A 9672 G7
xSeries can run hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Linux images in
LPARs or under VM, all at speeds comparable to quick PCs.
We've just got a new box in to replace an R66, and it is a Z47 (although
not a Freeway).
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
School Zones: Man's attempt to thwart natural selection.
9:02 a.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn
What do you think so far?
Peace... Sridhar
On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Eric Dittman wrote:
And I'll
bet you they could do it cheaper with a single IBM mainframe than
thousands of PCs. The power savings alone would be tremendous. A 9672 G7
xSeries can run hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Linux images in
LPARs or under VM, all at speeds comparable to quick PCs.
We've just got a new box in to replace an R66, and it is a Z47 (although
not a Freeway).
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
School Zones: Man's attempt to thwart natural selection.
11:23 a.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn
What do you think so far?
I don't do all that much on the mainframe, but my systems work
with the mainframe over SNA. The application software has come
up without a hitch so far. What funny is the mainframe CICS
support people moved the test CICS regions over from the LPAR
on the R66 to the LPAR on the Z47 without anyone noticing
(thanks to VTAM). APPLIDs sure do come in handy.
This Sunday is the big switch of the production environment. I'll
be around just in case.
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
School Zones: Man's attempt to thwart natural selection.
12:39 p.m.
New subject: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing (Was: RE: PeeCee turn
On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Eric Dittman wrote:
That's pretty neat. I really like the redirection and hardware
partitioning capabilities of mainframes. Mainframes kick a wide variety
of batch-processing ass.
What do you
think so far?
I don't do all that much on the mainframe, but my systems work
with the mainframe over SNA. The application software has come
up without a hitch so far. What funny is the mainframe CICS
support people moved the test CICS regions over from the LPAR
on the R66 to the LPAR on the Z47 without anyone noticing
(thanks to VTAM). APPLIDs sure do come in handy. This Sunday is the big switch of the production
environment. I'll
be around just in case
Cool. Let me know how it goes.
Peace... Sridhar
.
--
Eric Dittman
dittman(a)dittman.net
School Zones: Man's attempt to thwart natural selection.
8374
days inactive
8374
days old
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com -
dittman＠dittman.net -
dtwright＠uiuc.edu -
vance＠ikickass.org