List of Archived Posts

2007 Newsgroup Postings (12/16 - 12/31)

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

folklore indeed

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IPv6 vs Y2K and GOSIP

Ironkey

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

Virtualization still hot, death of antivirus software imminent

What do YOU call the # sign?

About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India - so what ?

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

What do YOU call the # sign?

Ageing data centers limiting benefits of new technologies

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

folklore indeed

Education ranking

Amazon's "Simple" Database

Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians

Education ranking

Education ranking

It keeps getting uglier

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

folklore indeed

segmentation or lack thereof

Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers

2007 Year in Review on Mainframes - Interesting

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

MTS memories

Hitachi, Silver Lake in talks about hard drives, sources say

What do YOU call the # sign?

Inside a Modern Malware Distribution System

folklore indeed

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

Education ranking

Education ranking

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

Newbie question about db normalization theory: redundant keys OK?

distributed lock manager

Education ranking

Education ranking

folklore indeed

MTS memories

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

Education ranking

vm folklore, new, 40+ yr old technology

folklore indeed

An old fashioned Christmas

An old fashioned Christmas

An old fashioned Christmas

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

Researcher: Info overload costs economy

Credit Card Details

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

folklore indeed

An old fashioned Christmas

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

Public Computers

Alexander Graham Bell - Patent Thief?

It keeps getting uglier

Controlling COBOL DDs named SYSOUT

folklore indeed

Education ranking

whats the world going to do when all the baby boomers retire

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

virtual appliance

Why Didn't Digital Catch the Wave?

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

software preservation volunteers ( was Re: LINC-8 Front Panel Questions)

Tap and faucet and spellcheckers

folklore indeed

Alexander Graham Bell - Patent Thief?

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

Data Breaches Soar In 2007

Data Breaches Soar In 2007

2007 Roundup: The march of the botnets

folklore indeed

Tap and faucet and spellcheckers

Tap and faucet and spellcheckers

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

folklore indeed

source for VAX programmers

folklore indeed

It keeps getting uglier

It keeps getting uglier

source for VAX programmers

It keeps getting uglier

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:34:20 -0500

haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) writes:

Yes, seems to me a simple base-and-limit register pair as they had
already done as an RPQ in the 7090 at MIT for CTSS, and as was
standard on the GE-635, would have done wonders for them.  And then
the memory protection scheme they did implement, with the 4-bit
protection keys, seems baroque beyond words.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#81 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#83 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#86 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

there was something like that done (base&bound) in the microcode as part
of oldtime emulation support.

one of the engineers on the boeing account used it to port cp67 to 370
before virtual memory was announced (using base&bound to limit virtual
machine address space). the problem was that it required one contiguous
region ... and because of the still somewhat limited real storage
... the whole area needed to be swapped.

for real storage system ... the 4bit protection keys allowed storage
protection on 2k increments for up to 15 concurrent (different) tasks to
coexist simultaneously (in the relatively small real storage of the
period, 360/30s regularly operated with 32kbyte real storage, i started
out on 360/30 with 64kbyte real storage).

this paper from apr64 by amdahl, blaauw, and brooks discusses
some of the trade-off decisions in 360 design
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/082/ibmrd0802C.pdf

there were some number of "interactive" subsystems that evolved under
traditional os/360 batch platform that used logical base&bound ...  for
instance apl\360 and associated workspaces. this contiguous limitation
wasn't so bad as long as the workspace size was typically 16kbytes to
32kbytes ... and required swapping the whole workspace to switch between
users.  however, the small size of the contiguous workspace probably
contributed to its storage management and garbage collection
implementation ... which had to be completely reworked when the science
center
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

ported apl\360 to cms for cms\apl (and operating in potentially 16mbyte
paged virtual address space). some past posts mentioning apl &/or some
large apl applications
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone

later in the early 80s, hardware/microcode subset of virtual machine
support (hypervisor) used something similar ... with dedicated real
storage. Early implementations had two dedicated logical machine areas
... one typically would run a MVS batch system and the other would run
virtual machine (software) hypervisor ... and the hardware/microcode
would partition the resources for the two "machines".

The maximum number of supported LPARs on mainframe have undergone
increases since them. z990 supports up to 30 LPARs
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246863.pdf
Z9 Enterprise class supports up to 60 LPARs
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/z9ec/

LPARs have also been adopted to other products lines. This is
description of LPARs on 801/RISC power/pc derivative used by AS/400 now
supporting up to 254 LPARs
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/lpar/

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:41:15 -0500

Stephen Fuld <S.Fuld@PleaseRemove.att.net> writes:

Yes, certainly.  The multi-track search problems are well known.  But
the lack of a standard block size led to a whole bunch of problems
that people used to today's disks can't imagine.  The CKD addressing
scheme requires that disk blocks be addressed by their cylinder
number, head number and record number within the track i.e. *not* just
a relative block number.  So even if all of the blocks in "your"
application were a fixed size, you had to calculate, via IBM supplied
formula or look up in an IBM supplied table how many records of
whatever size you used would fit on a track of whatever disk you were
using.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#86 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

made all sorts of claims about infrastruction lifetime cost & complexity
savings in moving from CKD to FBA as ROI justification for the $26m
conversion costs (documentation, training, education, etc) ... but they
just wanted to see increased disk sales attributed to CKD to FBA change,
as ROI justification.

in mainframe forums there have been references to IBM statements about
not introducing any new DASD models with changed geometry/configuration
... the underlaying fixed-block disk technology may go thru all sorts of
transitions ... but they will hold the CKD emulation static.

for other topic drift, i had done q&d conversion of gcard ios3270 to html
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/gcard.html

including oldtime DASD Capacity Formulae
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/gcard.html#26.3

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:14:59 -0500

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:

there have been challenge/response dongles if you are doing direct
communication with financial institutions ... say online or telephone
banking operation ... but not doing retail transaction at a merchant
that operates in single round-trip (of existing authorization business
process) ... this was somewhat referenced in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#65 folklore indeed

referencing: is net/internet banking safe?

in the previous thread we mentioned visiting the company that produced
the devices and then driving with the owner down to brussels for EU
finread meeting ... also referenced in these posts:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#57 Q: Internet banking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#60 PKI/Digital signature doesn't work
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#61 PKI/Digital signature doesn't work
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#55 I-net banking security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002f.html#55 Security Issues of using Internet Banking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#43 Windows Monitor or CUSP?

one of the perspectives is that the challenge/response is a session
oriented protocol with the challenge/response appearing as part of
setting up the session ... and then individual (unprotected)
transactions appearing within the session protections. this works much
better if the two processing/responsible parties are doing the direct
session (i.e. the online banking scenario, directly between the customer
and the customer's financial institution).

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#67 folklore indeed

from today:

Barclays' PINSentry roll-out marred by technical problems
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/17/pinsentry/

from above:

Barclays' online customers (both consumers and small business) are
required to use the handheld device to generate a one-time passcode that
will have to be entered at login and to run some online banking
functions, such as setting up payments to new third party accounts. The
device will only generate a passcode once the user's bank card has been
read, and the PIN code entered. The approach is a refinement of
two-factor authentication approaches already in use by some UK banks,
such at Lloyds TSB, and more widely by banks in Scandinavia and
elsewhere in Europe for some time

... snip ...

in the challenge/response scenario .. the device looks like a small
calculator, the person enters the numeric challenge code on the
calculator keys and reads out the response from the calculator display
... which is then entered.

part of the issue has always been the integrity of the session
environment ... and/or is it necessary to move to transaction
level armoring.

as referenced in these posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#71 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#76 folklore indeed

the visual keyboard & captcha countermeasures basically assume that the
PC has been compromised ... however, nowhere did they get a promise from
the attackers ...  that the only (compromised PC) attack would be
limited to logging (for later replay as part of fraudulent
transactions).

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:04:33 -0500

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#86 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#1 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

long ago and far way, a multi-track search folktale that appears
several times in past ckd (multi-track search) postings
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#dasd

datacenter for large national retailer was having severe performance
problems and large number of experts had trooped thru the
installation.  the had dozen or more regional districts partitioned
across several processor complexes in a large (shared) 3330 dasd
loosely-coupled complex. they provided a lot of real-time applications
down to individual store level.  this was all running the commercial,
favorite-son operating system.

the performance characteristics as load increased during the day,
thruput appeared to almost come to a halt.

they finally got around to bringing me in ... to a class-room with
dozen or so tables ... covered with foot high stacks of printed output
from various performance & thruput reports. after maybe 45 minutes
of leafing thru the reports there seemed to be somewhat anomolous
correlation of about six disk i/os/sec (aggregate when manually sumed
across all the individual processor complex reports) for a specific
disk ... during periods of "bad" thruput. It didn't seem to be
extremely out of the ordinary activity rate ... but seem to be highly
consistent.

after a little investigation, this particular 3330 contained the main
application program library for all stores ... organized in a PDS
file-format ... sort of like a sub-file system, with its own PDS
directory for all members in the file. It was rather large PDS file
with a 3cylinder PDS directory.

When a application program is loaded from a PDS file, first there is a
multi-track search of the directory for the specific member ... in this
particular case the search took avg of 1.5 cylinders. 3330s have 19
tracks and spin at 3600 rpm ... a single (full cylinder) multi-track
search I/O operation was taking 19/60 (.31) seconds. It turns out in
this scenario, six I/Os per second represented 100 precent device
utilization and was able to perform only 2-3 application program loads
per second across all processors in the loosely-coupled configuration
(serving a large number of stores for this large national retailer).

This was long after advances in technology (and significant increases
in real-storage sizes) would have allowed building/caching the PDS
directory in real-storage as well as a large number of the individual
application programs.

the previously mentioned CKD complexity ... of dealing with
application setup and track size calculation ... tended to be a
development issue ... but once done for a specific application ... it
was established.  The (performance) effects of multi-track search
could cascade into affecting system operation of every second of every
day.

the operational characteristics of mainframe i/o and channels further
aggravated the enormous performance degradation of multi-track
searches.  because of various (early 60s) design trade-offs ... the
search argument was resident in mainframe memory ... and the search
operation refetched it for every compare operation for every field
encountered as the disk was spinning. that met that the channel path
to processor was held busy (as well as the disk controller) for the
duration of the operation.  typical configuration might have
half-dozen (or more) disks shared on a the same controller. The full
cylinder multi-track search not only met the device was busy for 19/60
seconds for each operation ... but also the associated controller and
channel (locking out any other devices on the same controller and/or
channel).

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:36:48 -0500

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#86 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#1 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#3 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

another multi-track folklore tale from long ago and far away ... was for
a period SJR was running MVS on 168 and VM on 158 in (physically) shared
3330 dasd loosely-coupled configuration (168 has about 3 times
processing power of the 158) ... although there were strict guidelines
that the drives and controllers were strictly partitioned/allocated for
the two systems (i.e. 3330 packs for MVS were never to be mounted on VM
"drive").

one morning the computing center started getting angry calls from users
that the vm/cms response and thruput had all of a sudden significantly
degraded. after a little investigation, it turns out that an operator
had recently mounted an "MVS" 3330 pack on a "VM" 3330 drive. The
multi-track MVS searches to the "MVS" pack was resulting in significant
busy for the associated "VM" controller (resulting in performance
service disruption for VM to the VM 3330s on the same controller).

There was a demand that the "MVS" 3330 pack be immediately "moved".  The
"MVS" operations people refused to do it until end-of-day. So we mounted
a "VM" 3330 pack on one of the "MVS" drives and with some specially
crafted VM initiated multi-track searches (on a heavily loaded VM 158)
managed to severely degrade the MVS (168) service ... and prompting the
"MVS" operations people to immediately move all packs.

One of the sporadic claims about generally relatively horrible "TSO"
response and thruput ... is that TSO doesn't know to operate w/o the
underlying MVS system i.e. some of the inability of TSO to give
reasonable service is inherited from characteristics of the underlying
MVS system, not necessarily all TSO itself .... aka, as in this
particular tale ... it was even possible for MVS to cause CMS service to
look bad.

past posts mentioning ckd, multi-track search, dasd, etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#dasd

IPv6 vs Y2K and GOSIP

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IPv6 vs Y2K and GOSIP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:41:14 -0500

IPv6 vs. Y2K and GOSIP; IPv6 upgrade has more in common with old GOSIP
program than Year 2000 efforts
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121707-how-the-feds-are-dropping-the-ball-side-2.html

from above:

Y2K spawned congressional hearings, increased federal IT budgets and was
well-known among non-techies.  The federal government's IPv6 upgrade, on
the other hand, is happening quietly behind the scenes with little
additional funding or fanfare. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
has directed all federal agencies to be capable of supporting IPv6 on
their network backbones by June 30, 2008.

...

Some long-time industry observers are comparing the federal government's
IPv6 mandate to an earlier federal mandate for a now-defunct network
technology called GOSIP, or Government Open Systems Interconnection
Profile.

... snip ..

and

Top IPv6 guru predicts last-minute switch to protocol; Asks: Do you have
enough public IPv4 addresses to sustain you?
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121707-how-feds-are-dropping-the-ball-side-1.html

misc posts mentioning GOSIP:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#114 What is the use of OSI Reference Model?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#115 What is the use of OSI Reference Model?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#0 "Mainframe" Usage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#79 "Database" term ok for plain files?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#16 The author Ronda Hauben fights for our freedom.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#43 Al Gore: Inventing the Internet...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#63 Is Al Gore The Father of the Internet?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#70 When the Internet went private
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001e.html#32 Blame it all on Microsoft
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#5 YKYGOW...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#6 YKYGOW...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#21 Why did OSI fail compared with TCP-IP?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#30 Why did OSI fail compared with TCP-IP?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#15 Al Gore and the Internet
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002m.html#59 The next big things that weren't
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002n.html#42 Help! Good protocol for national ID card?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#71 GOSIP
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#72 GOSIP
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003o.html#68 History of Computer Network Industry
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#52 Detecting when FIN has arrived
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#13 were dumb terminals actually so dumb???
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#29 Network databases
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#11 Cerf and Kahn receive Turing award
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#39 xml-security vs. native security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#53 OSI model and an interview
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006j.html#34 Arpa address
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#6 Hey! Keep Your Hands Out Of My Abstraction Layer!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#45 Hey! Keep Your Hands Out Of My Abstraction Layer!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#47 Hey! Keep Your Hands Out Of My Abstraction Layer!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#43 SSH protocol analyzer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007c.html#29 Being "Open" (Was: Mainframe vs. "Server")
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#31 old tapes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#44 Why Ping Requires RAW Sockets?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#38 OSI abandoned!

and some posts mentioning Y2K
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#21 Roads as Runways Was: Re: BA Solves Y2K (Was: Re: Chinese Solve Y2K)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#22 Roads as Runways Was: Re: BA Solves Y2K (Was: Re: Chinese Solve Y2K)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#23 Roads as Runways Was: Re: BA Solves Y2K (Was: Re: Chinese Solve    Y2K)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#24 BA Solves Y2K (Was: Re: Chinese Solve Y2K)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#27 Roads as Runways Was: Re: BA Solves Y2K (Was: Re: Chinese
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#44 Internet and/or ARPANET?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#78 Mainframes Relevant?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#214 Ask about Certification-less Public Key
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000.html#0 2000 = millennium?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001.html#68 California DMV
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#74 The demise of compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#30 Younger recruits versus experienced veterans  ( was Re: The demise  of compa
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#45 VM and/or Linux under OS/390?????
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#20 MVS on Power (was Re: McKinley Cometh...)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#14 NASA MOC (mainframe mission operations computer) being powere d
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#49 Do any architectures use instruction count instead of timer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#28 TPF
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#21 Sun researchers: Computers do bad math ;)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#33 [IBM-MAIN] NY Times editorial on white collar jobs going
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#2 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#22 Pre-relational, post-relational, 1968 CODASYL "Survey of Data  Base Systems"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#48 Data Display & Modeling
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#39 Who said "The Mainframe is dead"?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#51 stop worrying about it offshoring - it's doing fine
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#11 XML: The good, the bad, and the ugly
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#66 Integer types for 128-bit addressing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#8 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#13 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#20 I told you ... everybody is going to Dalian,China
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#6 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#16 Is a Hurricane about to hit IBM ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#29 IBM 610 workstation computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#33 Military Time?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#21 Taxes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#49 Mainframe vs. xSeries
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#50 TSO and more was: PDP-1
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#9 Pa Tpk spends $30 million for "Duet" system; but benefits are unknown
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#54 Was FORTRAN buggy?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006r.html#16 Was FORTRAN buggy?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#40 Ranking of non-IBM mainframe builders?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#13 Year-end computer bug could ground Shuttle
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#35 Friday fun - Discovery on the pad and the software's not done
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#26 How many 36-bit Unix ports in the old days?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#7 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#39 Wylbur and Paging
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#10 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#18 Non-Standard Mainframe Language?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#38 Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#31 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#39 India is outsourcing jobs as well
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#26 The new urgency to fix online privacy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#36 Students mostly not ready for math, science college courses
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#19 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?

Ironkey

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Ironkey
Newsgroups: alt.computer.security
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:02:21 -0500

comphelp@toddh.net (Todd H.) writes:

At the end of the day, it's a usb key.   It'll be no more secure than
any ole usb key used with a strong encryption program (such as PGP or
GPG).    Whether it's in an easier to use form becomes the question.

But before that can be considered, describe your needs for a usb key.
Are you having to use one among several different operating systems?

What I'm curious  about them... is the hardware encryption implemented
in such a way to make it work cross-platform.  If so, it'd be
something I'd consider.

part of the issue these days is how to deal with compromised PCs (some
numbers are possibly one out of five) ... like trying to eliminate any
possibility things like a password would ever be typed at a keyboard
... and picked up by a logger. keeping the file encrypting containing
all the passwords helps in the case of stolen laptop ... but that
appears to be a radically smaller number than the total number of
compromised PCs. encrypted password file doesn't help with loggers that
work when the password is actually being used ... and therefor decrypted
... it would be nice to have a single solution that addresses both
problems (especially the significantly larger problem).

this has somewhat given rise to the visual keyboards operated by mouse
clicks. some discussion in this thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#76

however, almost immediately after the appearance of such approach, the
crooks had loggers that could capture screens and mouse operations.
there was then some iterations attempting to obscure the screens
... which is ongoing (loosing) battle. There has been some recent
comments that not being able to keep up with the crooks regarding
obscuring the screen ... is the doom of secure online sessions.

however, the crooks had never promised that they would only
limit what a compromised PC might do to just logging ... long
winded discussion here
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#76

with some other ways a compromised PC might react.

Part of the issue is knowing whether or not any human interaction was
actually involved in specific operations (or being simulated by some
virus/trojan in a compromised PC). This was studied in the 90s in
conjunction with formulating the EU finread terminal standard as
countermeasure to numerous possible things that a compromised PC might
do.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#finread

another such approach is  the device referenced in
this posting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#2

which basically air-gaps the device from the PC and operates with
challenge/response, the challenge value is read off the screen, typed
into the device which produces the response ... which is then typed at
the keyboard.

there is still the issue of secure session-oriented operations running
in a possibly compromised PC ... as opposed to changing to
challenge/response for transaction-oriented operations.

for other topic drift ... misc. posts mentioning 40+ yr old technology
attempting to address problems with PCs becoming infected and
compromised.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#20 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#64 Virtual Browsers: Disposable Security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#47 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:40:46 -0500

on going theme that is being repeated many times:

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/07/12/17/1635200.shtml

from above:

Engineers and computer scientists acknowledge that despite advances in
recent decades, the computer industry is still lagging in its ability to
write parallel programs. It mirrors what C++ guru and now Microsoft
architect Herb Sutter has been saying in articles such as his "The Free
Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software."

... snip ...

referenced in the above

The Free Lunch Is Over; A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in
Software
http://gotw.ca/publications/concurrency-ddj.htm

more lengthy discussion ... from above Conclusion:

If you haven't done so already, now is the time to take a hard look at
the design of your application, determine what operations are
CPU-sensitive now or are likely to become so soon, and identify how
those places could benefit from concurrency. Now is also the time for
you and your team to grok concurrent programming's requirements,
pitfalls, styles, and idioms.

... snip ...

as before, a basic primitive for over 35yrs has been compare&swap
instruction ... misc. posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

invented by Charlie (compare&swap was chosen because CAS are charlie's
initials) at the science center
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

working on fine-grain locking for cp67. The initial attempt to get
compare&swap into 370 architecture was rebuffed ... with
statements about the favorite son operating system felt that the
test&set instruction was perfectly fine for multiprocessor
operation.  The challenge then was to come up with a
non-multiprocessor specific use of compare&swap. Thus was born the
example uses for multithreaded applications (not necessarily running
on real multiprocessors) to serialize operations (adopted big time by
large multi-threaded applications like database systems ... to avoid
some of the enormous overhead of performing kernel calls for every
such use).

from appendix of current z/architecture principles of operation
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/DZ9ZR003/A.6?SHELF=DZ9ZBK03&DT=20040504121320

multiprogramming is mainframe lingo for multithreaded operation.

Virtualization still hot, death of antivirus software imminent

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Virtualization still hot, death of antivirus software imminent
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:27:59 -0500

as before the following article talks about the new 40+ yr old
technology, but also mentions an old approach to eliminating major
mechanism for network originated compromises

Virtualization still hot, death of antivirus software imminent, VC
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/121707-crystal-ball-virtualization.html

from above:

Another trend Maeder predicts for 2008 is, at long last, the death of
antivirus software and other security products that allow employees to
install and download any programs they'd like onto their PCs, and then
attempt to weed out the malicious code. Instead, products that protect
endpoints by only allowing IT-approved code to be installed will become
the norm.

... snip ...

A recent post mentioning a two-decade version of this:

http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#87 CompUSA to Close after Jan. 1st 2008

one of the references in the above:
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/browse?fn=CHRISTMA&ft=PROB

another recent post mentioning problems related to compromised PCs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#6 Ironkey

and other recent posts mentioning compromised PCs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#15 Public Computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#68 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#76 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#2 folklore indeed

What do YOU call the # sign?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What do YOU call the # sign?
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:07:33 -0500

Nick Atty <1-nospam@temporary-address.org.uk> writes:

Speaking as the owner of a narrow boat on the UK canals (for which most
of the original post rang true) that is certainly the case here, and
rising way above inflation year on year.   Partly, of course, because as
people discover it is a cheap way of living they increase the demand,
and can usually afford to pay more than those of us who are funding it
as a leisure activity.

long ago and far away we had a friend who was angling for an assignment
to HK, they had worked out that the difference between living on a boat
in HK and the cost of living allowance was larger than their salary.

About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India - so what ?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India - so what ?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:25:39 -0500

howard.brazee writes:

Nothing wrong with India - but selfishly, I want jobs where I am, even
though I have it better off than those who need jobs there.

Of course, in a global economy, you have a lot better chance to sell
your wares in countries that you spend money in.

there is also issue that knowledge work is pretty distance insensitve in
a global economy ... and knowledge work frequently is one of the highest
valued work.

posts on recently published study on educational ranking of
different countries
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#78 Educational ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#80 Educational ranking

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:20:25 -0500

Stephen Fuld <S.Fuld@PleaseRemove.att.net> writes:

Using base and bound has nothing to do with virtual memory.  What it
does allow is easy relocation of programs when they are swapped out
and later swapped in.  i.e. the OS simply changes the value in the
base register when the program is swapped in. This is important for
things like time sharing which was implemented before virtual memory.
As mentioned, other systems designed at the same time used base and
bound and thus had an easier time implementing time sharing in the
late 1960s-early 1970s.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#81 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#83 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#86 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#0 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#1 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#3 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#4 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

there were the 360 batch systems which were real memory and the
storage protect keys were to separate different applications running
in the same real memory (as well as the kernel). some of the
underlying hardware had base&bound but wasn't part of 360
architecture ... was used for some of the emulation support.

the flagship timesharing system was to be tss/360 running on 360/67
which had hardware virtual memory in the mid-60s ... although tss/360
ran into implementation and scheduling problems ... which then saw the
rise of other virtual memory implementations on the 360/67, like MTS
at UofMich and cp67 (which also implemented virtual machines)
from the science center
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

there were also early cp67 spin-offs that offered commercial
service bureau timesharing starting in the late 60s
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#timeshare

boeing huntsville did do a custom modification of os360 mvt release 13
that made use of the virtual memory on 360/67 ... not for paging
... but purely for storage management. os360 mvt had problem with
storage fragmentation with long running applications (and applications
needing contiguous range of storage) ... and boeing huntsville machine
was supporting a large number of (long running) 2250 graphics
application ... and experiencing significant problems with MVT storage
fragmentation. the boeing huntsville modifications were purely for
rearranging the real storage locations into contiguous ranges (w/o any
support for paging operations).

i've commented before that in some cases that there were more cp67
& vm370 timesharing installs than some other companies total
customer installations .... however, in the publics minds, these are
possible overshadow by the significantly large number of batch machine
installs. I've also commented that not only were there significantly
larger number of customer batch installations than the customer
timesharing installations ... but also the customer timesharing
installations were much larger than the number of internal
(cp67&vm370) timesharing instllations. One of my hobbies was
building, distributed and supporting highly modified cp67 & vm370
for (small percentage of) internal installations.

Partially since the science center was on 4th flr of 545 tech and
Multics was on the 5th flr ... i've commented that at one point the
small percentage of internal installations that I was distributing to
and supporting was as large as the total number of Multics systems in
its whole lifetime.

some number of customer installations having large batch operation ...
would sometimes attempt to adapt a portion of the computing power for
interactive (psuedo timesharing) operation ... even tho the underlying
hardware and software had never been intended for that purpose.

What do YOU call the # sign?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What do YOU call the # sign?
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,alt.folklore.computers,uk.rec.sheds
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:40:35 -0500

Oleg Lego <rat@atatatat.com> writes:

A few years back, a film called (I think) _War Games_ showed a fellow
(the hero, I think) making a telephone call without using a coin, by
grounding the metal microphone to some part of the phone (lock, dial
finger stop.. not sure). Anyway, a friend was talking about the film,
and complained that this was the only thing that was not in accordance
with reality. I mentioned that it was one of the few things that was,
indeed, real.

past mention of  war game trivia
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#39 Future hacks [was Re: RS/6000 ]
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#52 Author seeks help - net in 1981
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002b.html#38 "war-dialing" etymology?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004p.html#40 Computers in movies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#7 The Pankian Metaphor

the ferry shots were actually the old steilicom ferry that ran between
mainland, mcneil island and anderson island. ferry was later converted
to tourist boat that makes the rounds on lake washington ... out of
kirkland. one of the "highlights" of the tour is compound of the founder
of m'soft.

Ageing data centers limiting benefits of new technologies

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Ageing data centers limiting benefits of new technologies
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:06:15 -0500

Ageing data centers limiting benefits of new technologies
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=34872230-5F73-4B11-A4F5-EC4F1967A7DC

an "aging" data center is one that is over four yrs old?

from above:

They were battling to cope with the power and cooling needs of newer
technologies such as blade servers and vitualization, but slow to
respond to these extra demands on their infrastructure.

... snip ...

besides missing an "r" in virtualization ... within the context of
datacenters and blade servers, virtualization is more typically
associated with server consolication onto a much smaller number and more
compactly packaged (blade) servers (reducing overall power and cooling
needs).

also from the article:

More than half those firms building or planning to build data centers
expected to consume between one and five megawatts, and almost a quarter
thought they would use double that.

... snip ...

maybe the server consolidation activity isn't so much increasing
overall power consumption but compacting a large number of servers in
geographically diverse locations into single location (and thereby
drawing attention to the actual aggregate power demands).

Recent virtualization server consolidation references/posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#0 Marines look for a few less servers, via virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#35 Oracle Introduces Oracle VM As It Leaps Into Virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#40 ongoing rush to the new, 40+ yr old virtual machine technology
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#53 ongoing rush to the new, 40+ yr old virtual machine technology
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#55 new 40+ yr old, disruptive technology

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:34:19 -0500

Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:

I might also note, of course, that the article was mistitled. It is
the inability of chipmakers to make chips that are simply faster, but
architecturally the same, by making the transistors faster that is
leaving programmers in the dust, because the chipmakers now have to
resort to the inferior wretched expedient of multiple cores.

Because it is so difficult to use multiple cores effectively, my
architectural conceit dealt with how one could copy ideas from older
architectures known for their ability to deal with "heavy lifting" to
at least (somewhat) usefully employ additional transistors within a
single core.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#7 Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

there are some additional complexities.

lots of the circuit size shrinkage has resulted in increasing
transistors per chip. more transistors per chip can mean enormous
increase in chip design complexity, as well as signal latency going
through a large number of circuits.

Higher processor rates also exacerbates the relative latency to other
parts of system (i.e. as measured in increased processor cycles for
some signal ... like to memory).

The latency issue pushes towards some sort of asynchronous/parallel
operation. While multiple core represents increased programming
complexity ... lots of the other possible asynchronous/parallel paradigms
can represent even greater overall complexity.

One of my oft-repeated old-time example is that disk relative system
thruput declined by an order of magnitude over a 10-15 yr period
starting with the mid-60s ... i.e. disks got maybe five times faster
but processors got fifty times faster. The onward march of
faster&faster processor speeds resulted in enormous increases in
various component relative system latencies (as measured in number of
processor cycles) ... first seen with disks ... and then with main
storage ... and then even between different circuits on the same
chip. All of these required paradigm shifts along with increasing
levels of asynchronous behavior and/or other kinds of
parallel/overlapped operation.

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:21:17 -0500

Lon Stowell <lon.stowell@comcast.net> writes:

What were the early Unix boxen?

In 1983 at the VMware data center on Hoes Lane in Piscataway, we had
some CCI front ends that were hooked to VM mainframes, and the AT&T
folks were running 56K links from them to some huge monstrosities
running Unix.  Thought those were the big Western Electric 3B series
boxen, but we weren't encouraged to snoop around them much at the
time.

those (VM) systems were possibly some version of the highly modified
CSC version of vm that leaked nearly a decade earlier to AT&T longlines.

old email referencing many of the modifications
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102

recent post in another thread about my hobby of producing and
supporting highly modified, custom operating systems
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#11 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

it was around 83 when the at&t national marketing rep tracked
me down ... asking about helping trying to move the customer
off that old vm version ... misc. old post references:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#14 characters
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/96.html#35 Mainframes & Unix (and TPF)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/97.html#15 OSes commerical, history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000.html#5 IBM XT/370 and AT/370 (was Re: Computer of the century)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#60 360 Architecture, Multics, ... was (Re: X86 ultimate CISC? No.)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#3 Oldest program you've written, and still in use?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#4 Buffer overflow
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#11 The demise of compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002c.html#11 OS Workloads : Interactive etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#32 IBM was: CDC6600 - just how powerful a machine was it?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#66 OT (sort-of) - Does it take math skills to do data processing ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002p.html#23 Cost of computing in 1958?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003.html#17 vax6k.openecs.org rebirth
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003d.html#46 unix
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#4 1950s AT&T/IBM lack of collaboration?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#32 The attack of the killer mainframes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#58 Shipwrecks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#31 z/VM performance
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#21 IBM 3090/VM Humor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#54 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#56 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#6 Open z/Architecture or Not

Education ranking

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Education ranking
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:52:27 -0500

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:

as to separate issue of career and graduate-level programs, there may
be some chicken & egg here ... this (education) trend has been going
on for at least three decades; so the question then has the jobs moved
because of the poor quality education or is the poor quality education
because the jobs have moved. the poor education results dating back
three decades seems to have predated a lot of the jobs going other
places.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#78 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#80 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#82 Education ranking

a little more topic drift ... from another thread
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#10 About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India - so what?

About 1 in 5 IBM Employees Now in India
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1183162/about_1_in_5_ibm_employees_now_in_india/index.html
About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ibm_employees
About 1 in 5 IBM Employees Now in India
http://www.physorg.com/news116875153.html
About 1 in 5 IBM employees now in India
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14576360
India home to 1 in 5 IBM employees
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22935653-5013040,00.html

Amazon's "Simple" Database

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Amazon's "Simple" Database
Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:55:31 -0500

Sampo Syreeni <decoy@iki.fi> writes:

I'd divide the answer into two. For the original use SGML/XML and
related markup languages (like HTML) were meant for, i.e. markup of
running text compatible with plain text editors, they still hold quite
a lot of value.

i.e. SGML was originally GML before becoming "standard gml" with
ISO standard.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#sgml

GML was invented at the science center in '69
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

(G, M, and L, are the inventors initials, and motivated requirement
for acronym with those letters) ... at the time, somewhat targeted at
need for use in legal documents.
http://xml.coverpages.org/sgmlhist0.html

science center was also responsible for virtual machine
implementation and a lot of timesharing and interactive related
applications.

the original documentation formater developed at the science center was
called script, used "dot" formating commands ... somewhat similar
to earlier implementation done for ctss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUNOFF
and
http://mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html

aka some of the ctss people went to the science center on 4th flr of 545
tech sq and some went to multics on 5th flr.

the initial "gml" implementation was done by adding gml tag support
to script document formater.

cern was also a large virtual machine installation ... using
various applications ... including a script clone written by univ. of
waterloo.  this talks about evolution from sgml into html:
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early

the first webserver outside of europe was on the virtual
machine system at slac (slac and cern shared a lot of software)
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml

the science center's virtual machine technology was also
used at sjr for the original relational/sql implementation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr

Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:37:13 -0500

and now for something a little bit different

Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219103102.htm

from above:

The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact of unexpected
events such as a lorry (tractor trailer) pulling out of its lane on a
dual carriageway (divided highway with median between traffic going in
opposite directions). Their model revealed that slowing down below a
critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the
car behind to slow down further and the next car back to reduce its
speed further still.

... snip ...

this is what i've referred to in the past as the accordian
effect from brake taping and/or rapid lane changes:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#17 If there had been no MS-DOS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#4 What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#7 What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#5 sorting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#12 sorting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#34 Is computer history taught now?

as i've commented before ... at certain traffic loading ... even one
percent or fewer drivers responsible for such activity
(poor/irresponsible driving behavior) ...  can dramatic change effective
traffic thruput.

Education ranking

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Education ranking
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:42:47 -0500

jmfbahciv writes:

Furthermore, they also have to learn that what appears on the
screen is not reality.  I've run into more than a few people
who believed that a widget had been built and worked because
they saw it work in an emulation.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#78 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#80 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#82 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#16 Education ranking

one might also claim that contributed to the large billions spent in
the 90s attempting to implement straight through processing ... as a
solution to the overnight batch window bottleneck ... using
distributed object oriented technology in an attempt to power large
number of processors in parallel. frequently the toy demos were also
accompanied with object oriented gui interfaces.

then the world would fall apart when attempting industrial scaleup
... and finding that the additional added overhead was on the order of
100 times (or more ... greater than two orders of magnitude); totally
wiping out any anticipated increased throughput of using large numbers
of processors in parallel.

misc. past posts mentioning billions of dollars in write-offs attempting
to use (object oriented) distributed computing for straight through
processing as a means of eliminating much of the overnight batch
window bottlenecks.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#31 Quote from comp.object
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#15 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#20 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#36 Future of System/360 architecture?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#19 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#21 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#37 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#44 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#61 folklore indeed

Education ranking

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Education ranking
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:07:50 -0500

House and Senate Slash Science Budget Increases
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/12/19/1632207.shtml

from above:

This comes in spite of the earlier announced presidential initiative to
increase funding for basic research to improve the future economic
competitiveness of the United States.

... snip ...

the above references:

A Budget Too Small
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1218/1

from above:

"In exchange for an arbitrary cap on domestic spending and thousands of
earmarks, the Administration and Congress have sacrificed investments in
research and education that would help assure our nation's long-term
national and economic security,"

... snip ..

there was a comment on the radio yesterday that this year's
congressional session has had the lowest attendance of any congress in
history ... which may be related to a reference a couple months ago that
while the president's public approval rate was low ... the congressional
public approval rate was 1/3rd that of the president's.

It keeps getting uglier

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: It keeps getting uglier
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:36:10 -0500

phil@ISHAM-RESEARCH.FREESERVE.CO.UK (Phil Payne) writes:

Has anyone from the Hercules team read IBM's rather stunning admission
(on the above page - paragraph 176) that there is a "confidential
version" of the PoP?  Their words, not mine.

there has been the (confidential) architecture redbook (distributed in
red 3ring binders) ... implemented in (cp67/)CMS script file ... with
conditional formating to produce either the "princples of operation"
subset ... or the full (confidential) architecture redbook.

for other topic drift ... recent post mentioning cms script, gml,
sgml, html, system/r, rdbms ... etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#17 Amazon's "Simple" Database

misc. past postings mentioning architecture redbook
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003f.html#52 ECPS:VM DISPx instructions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#57 PLO instruction
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#6 If the x86 ISA could be redone
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004k.html#45 August 23, 1957
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005b.html#25 360POO
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#40 Friday question: How far back is PLO instruction supported?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#39 A second look at memory access alignment
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#43 A second look at memory access alignment
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#1 More on garbage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005n.html#48 Good System Architecture Sites?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#45 HASP/ASP JES/JES2/JES3
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#53 Is the teaching of non-reentrant HLASM coding practices ever defensible?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#7 IBM S/360 series operating systems history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#31 Latest Principles of Operation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#56 CSA 'above the bar'
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#30 folklore indeed

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:49:49 -0500

Computing in a Parallel Universe; Multicore chips could bring about the
biggest change in computing since the microprocessor
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/56218

from above:

The next computer you bring home, a few years from now, could have
hundreds or even thousands of processors. If all goes according to plan,
you may notice nothing different about the new machines apart from
another boost in performance. Inside, though, coordinating all those
separate computational cores is going to require profound changes in the
way programs are designed.

... snip ...

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:56:38 -0500

kkt <kkt@zipcon.net> writes:

Are you speaking of card catalogs?  Wow.  My library system ceased
filing cards around 1990, and I thought we were a bit slow at the
time.

late 60s, univ. got an ONR grant to do library automation project.  part
of the money went to buy a 2321 datacell. ibm was also in the process of
morphing cics from something developed at a customer shop into a product
and the library automation project got selected to be one of the
betatest sites for the product. i got tasked to help support and debug
this cics deployment

wiki cics entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CICS

cics history page
http://www.yelavich.com/history/toc.htm

cics as program product
http://www.yelavich.com/history/ev196901.htm

above also mentions 23jun69 unbundling announcement
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#unbundle

2321 picture
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/datacell.html

misc. past posts mentioning cics (&/or bdam)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#cics

segmentation or lack thereof

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: segmentation or lack thereof
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.os.development,comp.sys.unisys
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:59:35 -0500

Stephen Fuld <S.Fuld@PleaseRemove.att.net> writes:

When I was taught IBM S/360 assembler, that was the way I was taught
to do things like setting a print line to all blanks prior to putting
real data into it.  You would use the MVC (Move Characters)
instruction which would copy a variable length (up to 255 bytes) from
source to destination.  So doing  MVC  addr, addr+1, x would copy the
first character at addr to the next x characters.  We were even told
that if we were going to use that a lot on a particular variable,
buffer, etc. to precede he variable in storage with a single byte
initialized to the "clearing value" to facilitate the operation.

I suspect that this was such a common idiom that IBM probably
optimized the microcode for such situations.  Can anyone in the know
confirm that?

cp67 delivered to the university had a special page of all zeros as
part of formating boot volume. when initializing a virtual address
space, the tables were set so that all pages pointed to the "zero
page". i changed that so that the backing store table indicated "no
page" for each page.  page fault processing for "no page" then was
changed to fill the virtual page location allocated in real memory
with zeros by instructions.

As you point out that it was common coding practice on 360 to using
overlapping move to clear space. However, studying the 360/67
functional specs. document indicated that it would be faster to fill a
whole page with zeros with storing registers ... aka save all
registers ... initialize ten or so registers to zero, setup the other
registers for BXLE loop and do STM of ten registers of zero at a time.

Old 360 functional characteristic manuals ... giving detailed
instruction timing forumulas
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/funcChar/

some of the coding performance trade-offs could be different in
different models. 360/67 functional characteristic manuals (including
detailed description of virtual memory and segment hardware)
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/funcChar/A27-2719-0_360-67_funcChar.pdf
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/funcChar/GA27-2719-2_360-67_funcChar.pdf

I have some vague recollection that at some stage, some processor
implementations looked at overlapping moves for special case
processing involving doubleword operation at a time (even tho it was
nominally a byte at a time instruction).

For 370, "long instructions" were introduced that had field length in
register (instead of encoded in the instruction) ... and could be used
for several mbytes. the MVCL instruction also allowed for different
source and destination lengths and specifying a "PAD" byte when the
source was shorter than destination (source length zero byte and
target length was 4k).  However, it took some machine generations
before there was optimized MVCL microcode for this case that beat the
STM loop.

current MVCL long instruction description (given operation in 24-bit,
31-bit, and 64-bit addressing modes):
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/DZ9ZR003/7.5.90?SHELF=DZ9ZBK03&DT=20040504121320

Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:57:49 -0500

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:

aka ... 2nd time in recent history that mortgages threaten to take down
citibank. long-winded old post mentioning last time
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

some GIGO(?) computer modeling related in all this ... below includes
comment (and somewhat assuming valid model) that modeling can consume
millions in computer power ...

there were some bonds that were supposedly insured and therefor had a
higher ranking ... however current round:

Bond insurer defaults threaten big banks
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/20/news/companies/benner_ACA.fortune/?postversion=2007122011

from above:

These CDOs were not included in previous write downs because, though
sullied by bad mortgage debt, they were supposedly insured or hedged by
entities like ACA. Now that ACA can't backstop the losses, the credit
ratings on those bonds will fall, and result in losses.

... snip ...

computer (modeling) and related to the earlier "new" (computer) risk
analysis perspective that prompted citibank to get out of mortgages

How Conventional CDO Analytics Missed the Mark
http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Dec/20/Kamakura_Releases_Study:_How_Conventional_CDO_Analytics_Missed_the_Mark.html

from above:

"Two years ago the Wall Street Journal in a page 1 story pointed out the
dangers in relying on the copula approach for CDO valuation, but
investors were slow to realize the magnitude of their model risk"

... snip ...

U.S. Mortgage Crisis Rivals S&L Meltdown
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119724657737318810.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

from above:

Indeed, coming up with a value for a CDO entails analyzing more than 100
separate securities, each of which contains several thousand individual
loans -- a feat that, if done on any scale, can require millions of
dollars in computing power alone.

... snip ...

Legal battle over complex CDOs
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22939223-36375,00.html

from above

JP Morgan projects that by the second quarter, $US40 billion to $US50
billion in sub-prime mortgage bonds could be sold by distressed CDOs
that decide to liquidate.

... snip ...

A Capital Idea
http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2007/12/17/a-capital-idea.aspx

from above:

The 8% of American's portfolio invested in commercial mortgage-backed
securities (CMBS), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), and other
structured finance investments also deserves extra scrutiny. These
assets are the same types making headlines every day; no buyers can be
found for them, and their market values are dropping precipitously.

... snip ...

Subprime mortgage crisis far from over, "survivors' conference" hears
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/20/bloomberg/bxprime.php

from above:

The so-called Super SIV, a fund set up by banks at the urging of the
U.S. Treasury to buy the highest-rated securities, will seek to prevent
a meltdown of the 30 investment vehicles globally holding $320 billion
as of Oct. 5.

...

Wall Street profits are also plunging in the fourth quarter. Citigroup,
the second-largest CDO issuer in the first half of 2007, may post a loss
in the final period, according to the average estimate of 23 analysts
compiled by Bloomberg News. That is after the bank reported a write-down
of as much as $11 billion, which cost Citigroup's chief executive,
Charles Prince 3rd, his job.

... snip ...

Citigroup Downgraded to 'Sell' at Goldman Sachs
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601213&sid=aQ3tdmOhB_kk

from above:

... the biggest U.S. bank, was lowered to "sell" by a Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. analyst who said the lender's writedowns of collateralized
debt obligations may total $15 billion over the next two quarters.

... snip ...

other recent posts mentioning old Risk Management post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#30 How many 36-bit Unix ports in the old days?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#33 security engineering versus information security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007c.html#11 Decoding the encryption puzzle
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#24 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#64 sizeof() was: The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#66 sizeof() was: The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#12 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#0 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#46 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#75 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#51 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#53 Windows Monitor or CUSP? [was ReJohn W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies]
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#0 The Unexpected Fact about the First Computer Programmer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#50 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#7 what does xp do when system is copying
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#60 Fixing our fraying Internet infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#1 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#25 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#28 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#12 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#15 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#27 'Man in the browser' is new threat to online banking

2007 Year in Review on Mainframes - Interesting

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: 2007 Year in Review on Mainframes - Interesting
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:51:14 -0500

Mike.Conmackie@COMPUWARE.COM (Conmackie, Mike) writes:

And the money I've paid into Social Security all my life will be
returned in my retirement with interest !!!!!

ss is pay as you go system ... not a fully funded retirement plan.  it
is one of the reasons why they are concerned about the ratio of people
paying-in to the number supported on retirement. SS historical "ratio"
table 1940-2006:
http://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html

This can drastically tip with baby boomers moving from paying to
collecting. The first baby boomer collects social security
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/LifeStages/story?id=3732745&page=1

there is also some gimmick on how much is paid, it is currently 15.3% ...
but for standard salary workers ... the company has to pay half of it
over and above the salary ... and then there is the other half deducted
from the salary. This is readily seen in tax returns for self-employed
workers where they have to pay the full 15.3%. for most purposes,
eliminate the facade and have it restructured so the employers paid the
full 15.3% before paying salary (theoritically reducing salaries paid
correspondingly) ... with it never showing up for individual employees
at all.

in past 10-15 yrs there have been some number of companies going under
(and/or declared bankruptcy) because their "pay as you go" retirement
systems sometimes reached their largest single expense
http://www.skeptically.org/curpol/id7.html
... and federal gov. having to assume the payment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pension_Benefit_Guaranty_Corporation

some number of posts related to "unfunded" liabilities growing to
largest part of the budget and swamping the federal gov ... even if
everything else in the budget is eliminated.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#91 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#93 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#1 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#13 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#18 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers

(federal) comptroller general (appointed in the mid-90s for 15yr term)
has been making references that congress for at least the past 50 yrs
has been incapable of simple middleschool arithmatic; recent reference:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#7 what does xp do when system is copying

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:45:48 -0500

Lon Stowell <lon.stowell@comcast.net> writes:

Yeah, but the IBM systems evolved from different requirements.  If you
had to run a network that spanned the continent and buy your expensive
not overly high speed leased lines from AT&T, then further multidrop
them across multiple sites, even a bean counter would quickly realize
that a local editing block mode terminal setting behind a local
controller was far cheaper and more user efficient than sending each
and every keystroke from Los Angeles to New York and back to display
the character was the wrong answer to the wrong question.  Then you
add in the typical 60 millisecond delay it took to get from Los
Angeles to New York..... then another 60 to get back, you could really
quickly slow down a high speed typist grade user to an unworkable
molasses swamp.
Until really good and inexpensive high speed transcontinental networks
evolved, it was a true cultural issue to explain to the unix style
folks why they would have so much difficulty displacing the mainframes
until they rethought the process...

then add in that there are 30,000 to 60,000 terminals ... and two
interrupts per char (for full duplex) ... one for incoming character and
one for outgoing char ... the required processor cycles for just
char. interrupt handling more than swamp the processing.

when i was an undergraduate in the 60s, i got on the wrong side of the
communication division with building a clone communication controller
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm

later in the mid-80s, i crossed them again several times ... with
hsdt project and "high-speed"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
... recent mention about their idea of "high-speed" and our
idea
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#64 Damn
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#45 Are there tasks that don't play by WLM's rules

however, in that same time-frame we attempted to deploy a replacement
for communication division flagship 37x5 communication controller with
some advanced software running in series/1 ... moving to a 801/risc
system ... reference to that activity
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#63 System/1 ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#66 System/1 ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#69 System/1 ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#70 Series/1 as NCP (was: Re: System/1 ?)

this post has reference to standard customer terminal
activity profile from the period
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#67 System/1 ?

I then ran the standard customer terminal activity profile thru a
"HONE" configurator to obtain 37x5 controller configuration info
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone

The infrastructure avg. 2700 terminal "messages" a second ...  had avg
message size of 500 bytes (although highly bi-model; input message
size much shorter than output message size) ... aka 500x2700 =
1,350,000 chars/sec. the flag ship operating system interrupt handler
can run 5k instructions ... so nearly 7billion instructions/sec
... versus 13.5mips Also, frequently have to configure for peak
... with peak being possibly 2-4 times avg ... say around 30,000mips
just for (full-duplex, char) interrupt processing.

this is on par with recent mention of some of the scaling problems
encountered in the 90s attempting to address the overnight batch
window bottleneck with distributed object oriented implementation:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#31 Quote from comp.object
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#15 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#36 Future of System/360 architecture?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#3 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#5 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#19 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#21 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#37 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#44 Distributed Computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#61 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#19 Education ranking

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:59:56 -0500

jmfbahciv writes:

I wouldn't have called it multi-processing either but apparently
people have changed the meaning of the term.

standard terminology, multiprocessing in the past has referred to
multiple processors. multiprogramming and multitasking has referred to
multiple programs and multiple tasks.

there may have been some more recent corruption using the term "process"
to refer to programs, applications, and/or tasks ... resulting in
multiprocessing referring to multiple processes rather than multiple
processors. this may have been much more associated with an environment
that has no familiarity with multiple processors and therefor didn't
need to differentiate.

misc. past posts mentioning smp (symmetric multiprocessing and/or shared
memory multiprocessing) and/or compare&swap instruction
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

back to the 60s we had differentiation between tightly-coupled
multiprocessing and loosely-coupled multiprocessing.  tightly-coupled
multiprocessing was SMP ... and loosely-coupled multiprocessing ... is
cluster type stuff. past posts mentioning my wife being con'ed into
going to POK (center of high-end mainframes) to be responsible for
loosely-coupled multiprocessing architecture
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#shareddata

which we later followed up with a high-availability cluster
multiprocessing product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

and work on cluster scaleup
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa

also referenced in these posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/96.html#15

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:43:00 -0500

stanb45@dial.pipex.com (Stan Barr) writes:

Noy just in computing.  The other day I was in our local bus station
and they'd moved all the bus stops round.  There were loads of people
going round asking anyone and everyone "Where does <such-and-such> bus
stop now?" and there were notices stuck up every 15 feet or so with
them all listed.

there was some report after the 1990 census that half of all highschool
graduate aged (18yr olds) were functionally illiterate (and things
appear to have gone downhill since then).

how 'bout airlines going to "sections" clearly printed on the boarding
pass (in large block characters) since quite a few people couldn't
figure out what range their seat number was in when the announcement was
boarding for all seats greater than some value.

recent posts mentioning functionally illiterate
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#7 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#24 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#79 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#31 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#51 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#80 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#85 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#10 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#30 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#34 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#42 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#68 Poll: oldest computer thing you still use
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#21 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#22 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:17:17 -0500

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9053978

from above:

Patent application 20070288886, titled "Run-Time Code Injection To
Perform Checks" and dated Dec. 13, spells out a "digital rights
management system" that would "restrict execution of that application to
specific hardware platforms."

... snip ...

old email referencing apparent anti-piracy in LISA
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#email830213

with machine serial number ... in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#56 old lisa info

current genre is trusted computing module ... couple past posts:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007c.html#44 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#20 Patents, Copyrights, Profits, Flex and Hercules

Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:29:52 -0500

Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:

The ideal thing to do, from the programmer's viewpoint, of course, is
to have a machine that completes one instruction before going on to
the next one, but which does it very quickly.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#7 Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#14 Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#22 Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

take all the chips (in addition to the processor proper) for computer

Single-Chip x86 Chipsets Around the Corner?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/07/12/21/2111234.shtml

from above:

Kontron, a giant among industrial single-board computer vendors,
yesterday revealed a credit-card sized board apparently based on a
single-chip x86 chipset that clocks to 1.5GHz and supports a gig of RAM.

... snip ...

MTS memories

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: MTS memories
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:42:01 -0500

"Dave Wade" <g8mqw@yahoo.com> writes:

It was used at Newcastle, and I think latterly at Durham in the UK.
Originally it ran on a 1 meg 360/67 at newcastle and it got slow with 40
users. We had a remote line in from Newcastle Poly using an IBM 1130.

cp67 was similar with 768kbyte 360/67 when it was first installed at the
university ... that was before i redesigned and rewrote a lot of the
code ... however, cp67 on 1mbyte 360/67 at grenoble science center
typically would do 35-40 users. recent reference (with their
changes)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#79 IBM Floating-point myths

newcastle pictures of 360/67:
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/events/anniversaries/40th/images/ibm360_672/index.html

and 370/168 pictures:
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/events/anniversaries/40th/images/ibm370_1682/index.html

followed by amdahl 5860 (mislabled as "c. 1957?")
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/events/anniversaries/40th/images/amdahl2/index.html

Hitachi, Silver Lake in talks about hard drives, sources say

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Hitachi, Silver Lake in talks about hard drives, sources say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:49:11 -0500

san jose plant site:

Hitachi, Silver Lake in talks about hard drives, sources say
http://www.news.com/Hitachi%2C-Silver-Lake-in-talks-about-hard-drives%2C-sources-say/2100-1015_3-6223853.html?tag=nefd.top

from above:

Hitachi has not posted a profit in its hard-drive business since buying
it from IBM for $2 billion in 2002, as disk drive prices have crumbled.

... snip ...

references older article about the purchase

Hitachi sharpens hard drive efforts
http://www.news.com/Hitachi-sharpens-hard-drive-efforts/2100-1040_3-979196.html?tag=st.nl

from above:

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was formed at the end of 2002 and is
70 percent owned by Hitachi and 30 percent owned by IBM. The San Jose,
Calif.-based company is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Hitachi, which will
pay for the remaining 30 percent over the next three years. IBM had lost
more than $500 million over the last two years in the hard drive
business, which is notoriously competitive and yields thin margins

... snip ...

old posts about getting to play disk engineer in bldgs. 14&15
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk

What do YOU call the # sign?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What do YOU call the # sign?
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:27:55 -0500

"Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj" <urjlew@bellsouth.net> writes:

Is that  cost of living allowance + salary  <  cost of living on a boat
in HK?

"cost of living allowance for living in HK" minus "the cost of living on
a boat in HK" was greater than their salary

aka
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#9 What do YOU call the # sing?

long ago and far away we had a friend who was angling for an assignment
to HK, they had worked out that the difference between living on a boat
in HK and the cost of living allowance was larger than their salary.

....

i.e. difference as in the amount that the two values differed ... not as
in explicit order of which value was subtracted.

later (in the states), bought a tugboat and converted to house boat
(most everything is thick metal plates ... so remodeling frequently
involves a lot of time with blow/cutting toarch).

Inside a Modern Malware Distribution System

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Inside a Modern Malware Distribution System
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:39:22 -0500

another application of the new 40+ yr old technlogy:

Inside a Modern Malware Distribution System
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2239276,00.asp

from above:

Stewart was baffled by the need to track the hard drive serial number but
suggests this is being done to provide a unique ID for the infected
system and to figure out if a VM (virtual machine) is being used to
analyze the malware. This is significant, Stewart said, because
anti-virus providers use VM to pick apart malware files in controlled
environments.

... snip ...

reference from above:

Pushdo - Analysis of a Modern Malware Distribution System
http://www.secureworks.com/research/threats/pushdo/

from above:

The use of the physical hard drive serial number as a identifier is
interesting - it not only provides a unique ID for the infected system,
but can also reveal information such as whether the code is running in a
virtual machine or not. For instance, a VMware system might return a
serial number of "00000000000000000001" or simply "00", which is very
easily spotted in a list of serial numbers of major hard drive
vendors. This could be a way for the malware author to spy on anti-virus
companies using automated tools to monitor the malware download points.

... snip ...

somewhat related reference:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#6 Ironkey

folklore indeed

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: folklore indeed
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:40:51 -0500

Lon Stowell <lon.stowell@comcast.net> writes:

Until really good and inexpensive high speed transcontinental networks
evolved, it was a true cultural issue to explain to the unix style
folks why they would have so much difficulty displacing the mainframes
until they rethought the process...

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#27 folklore indeed

note also that by the time inexpensive high speed transcontinental
networks evolved ... things were moving from "dumb" terminals to
terminal emulation on PCs ... some past posts on terminal emulation

some of the early commercial timesharing service bureau offerings
were cp67 and/or vm370 spin-offs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#timeshare

one such commerical timesharing service bureau was Tymshare ... with its
vm370-based offering.  Tymshare also had Tymnet ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymnet

from above:

It soon became apparent that the SDS 940 could not keep up with the
rapid growth of the network. In 1972, Joseph Rinde joined the Tymnet
group and began porting the Supervisor code to the 32-bit Interdata
7/32, as the 8/32 was not yet ready. In 1973, the 8/32 became available,
but the performance was disappointing and a crash-effort was made to
develop a machine that could run Rinde's Supervisor.

... snip ...

for other topic drift ... i had run into some issues/problems with the
standard mainframe telecommunication controller ... which was somewhat
behind the univ deciding to build our own (clone) communication
controller
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm

which was initially done on Interdata/3 ... which evolved into a
combination of Interdata/4 with one or more Interdata/3s (as dedicated
line-scanners).

note that the wiki article seems to confuse some of the tymshare/tymnet
details and some of the dates ... a tymshare ref:
http://www.cap-lore.com/Tymshare/

from above:

We had installed several machines in Palo Alto when we opened an office
in Ingelwood, just north of Los Angeles, where we installed another
940. Customers had to place a phone call to our computer to use it and
the long distance charges were significant for some. We developed Tymnet
initially to extend our geographic reach.

... snip ...

with this reference:

The Origins of Tymnet
http://www.cap-lore.com/Tymnet/ETH.html

from above:

At that time the phone company (AT&T) was considered a natural
monopoly. They held that modems were the sole province of the
telco. Tymshare had already produced acoustic couplers that competed
with the telco's 103A data sets (data set = modem), but AT&T's lawyers
were busy fighting what they considered to be more serious encroachments
on their turf.

... snip ...

with this reference
http://www.cap-lore.com/books/Temin.html

The above Tymnet article also references Varian Data Machines.

For other topic drift, Varian was early cp67 installation used
internally by engineers. Some of those engineers then moved onto other
enterprises in the valley ... propagating virtual machine (by then
vm370) use.

back to Tymshare ... Tymshare 2000 Reunion web site
http://www.greentreesystems.com/Tymshare/

Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:46:43 -0500

Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:

I'm surprised that a decent dongle wasn't simply built into
Macintoshes since the change to the x86. Although I see by the article
that the patent claims that even dongles can be circumvented, which I
suppose is true enough.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#30 Apple files patent for WGA-style anti-piracy tech

just get a machine with TPM (trusted platform module)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module

from trusted computing group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing_Group

trusted computing group home page
https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/home

i've mentioned before in the days leading up to PC announce ... did
some looking at including some sort of cryptographic, tamper-evident
module on the motherboard ... but the technology was significantly
more expensive in those days.

there has also been investigation into integrating TPM-like function
into standard processor chips.

i've also mentioned in the past giving aads chip strawman
talk
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#aads

in the trusted computing track at intel developer's forum ... and
needling the trusted computing group (guy running it was in the front
row) that over the previous couple yrs that TPM had started to look
more like my strawman chip. The quip back from the audience was it was
because I didn't have a committee of 200 helping design the chip.

more recent comments about TPM has been that it would be (just)
deployed on server machines ... leveraging it to scaffold a secure
computing environment.

however here is section for securing mobile devices:
https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/groups/mobile

somewhat similar to old aads chip strawman proposal to include chip
(and/or build function into processor chip) for PDAs and cellphones.

The drive to use mobile devices for payment transactions would
presumably also motivate additional security measures.

recent posts related to the pda/cellphone for secure transactions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#12 One Time Identification, a request for comments/testing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#11 Public Computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#47 folklore indeed

Education ranking

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Education ranking
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 18:45:54 -0500

Justa Lurker <JustaLurker@att.net> writes:

Kind of close but no cigar.....for example, using Register 2......

         BALR    2,0     Load R2 with current address
         USING   *,2     Tell assembler to use R2 as base register
when generating code

i have done q&d conversion of gcard ios3270 to html
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/gcard.html

see calling & savearea convention
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/gcard.html#50

the example assumes that R15 is already set to entry point ... allowing
moving it to standard base register R12 and setting up using.

BALR/branch and link register ... normal calling convention loads
entry address into R15 and does a

         BALR  R14,R15

branching to address in R15 .. while setting R14 to the (return) address
following the BALR instruction. Special case is specifying register zero
for branch-to address ...  doesn't take the branch. current
description of branch and link instruction:
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/DZ9ZR003/7.5.8?SHELF=DZ9ZBK03&DT=20040504121320

current hlasm manual
http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/download/asmp1010.pdf

for USING (pg. 80) mentions that the assembler has an implicit
using of

         USING 0,0

i.e. register zero is used for addresses within 4k of absolute location
zero. It also mentions that message ASMA302W is issued when R0 is
specified as a base register with a non-zero base address, and message
ASMA306W is issued when any register other than R0 is specified as base
register with an absolute base address whose range overlaps the
assembler's default (0,4095).

Education ranking

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Education ranking
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:26:37 -0500

krw <krw@att.bizzzzz> writes:

Atlanta seems to be a hub for call-centers.  I would have thought
they'd at least go to Indiana. ;-)

at least for large call-center operations, there is actually quite a bit
of science ... detailed profile of type of workers ... which then grew
into detailed studies of area demographics .... for selecting where to
put (new) call-centers.

seems to be little difficult to find lots of (free) details on the web
(there are some more pointers to studies that cost) ... somewhat
random sample:
http://michiana.marketingpower.com/content25334.php
http://www.bpoindia.org/research/human-issues-in-call-centers.shtml
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globalcallcenter/research/india.html
http://www.venturekamloops.com/callcentre/general.htm

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:59:41 -0500

Stephen Fuld <S.Fuld@PleaseRemove.att.net> writes:

What OS/360 did was to to start a batch program, called TSO (Time
Sharing Option).  The program was loaded into memory for the
duration. The data area of the TSO program was divided into several
areas which could be used for loading "user" work into.  If I remember
correctly, we had space for three users in memory simultaneously.  TSO
itself managed its own memory totally independent of OS and swapped
users in and out to its data areas as it saw fit.  So the interactive
users competed for memory only with other interactive users but that
TSO itself, and thus all interactive users competed for CPU time with
whatever other batch jobs were running at the time.  Once we got
beyond a handful of users the interactive response time could often be
measured in minutes!

discussion that excessive use of multi-track search contributed
significantly to extremely poor TSO response ... i.e. CMS response was
significantly better in all sorts of way ... but the effects of
multi-track search can lockup a disk control unit in a shared disk
environment. this references a situation where there is vm/cms service
on 370/158 and mvs/tso service on 370/168 in shared disk environment
... where control units were "dedicated" by operational convention
... when a "MVS" pack was mounted on a drive associated with a "VM"
control unit ... the multi-track search lockout immediately started to
impact the vm/cms service response:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#4 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

of course ... even if that was corrected ... TSO would still have
other significant response issues.

i had done a lot of things as an undergraduate for cp67 dynamic adaptive
resource management ... including being able to handle lots of different
kinds of mixed-mode operation ... guest virtual machines running batch,
cms virtual machines doing various kinds of file & processor intensive
operation ... as well as purely interactive ... overall processor
operating at 100% utilization and still providing small subsecont
trivial interactive response.

a lot of that was dropped in the simplification morph from cp67 to vm370
... but re-introduced when i shipped my "resource manager".
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare

IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:45:30 -0500

"Del Cecchi" <delcecchiofthenorth@gmail.com> writes:

And that be why Rochester IBM ran MTMT (Multiple Terminal Monitor Task, a
long running batch job).  It lived on after we were migrated to ts-slow
as stst.  I don't know if stst was generally available.  I presume MTMT
wasn't.  It was a Rochester internal developement that doesn't appear to
have gotten much press.  Wonder why?

there were lots of such things. when i was an undergraudate ... in
addition to getting to redo much of cp67 ... including addition
tty/ascii terminal support ... the terminal support work included trying
to get the mainframe telecommunication controller to do some things it
wouldn't do. this somewhat prompted the univ. to start a clone
controller project ... four of us got written up as being instrumental
in starting clone controller business
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm

i also did a lot of os360 and hasp work. one of the things I did in hasp
was writing support for interactive terminals and CRJE type environment
... also implementing an interactive editor with CMS edit syntax
(however cms editor was not re-entrant ... so i effectively had to rewrite
from scratch because hasp implementation required re-entrant coding
conventions). all sorts of posts mentioning hasp and/or later
jes2, including jes2 networking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hasp

for something a little bit different ... here is description of
somebody converting rochester from mvs/tso environment to vm/cms
environment (i.e. software development tools, 1978-1981):
http://www.hps.com/~tpg/resume/index.php?file=IBM

the above also mentions working on IBM backbone (1983-1987) which
overlaps some of the time of our HSDT project and doing high-speed
backbone
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hsdt

and we shared some code and strategies ... although they were working
with 56kbit links (and came up with a gimmick to make mainframes drive
full-duplex operation) and we were doing 1.5mbit (and higher speed)
full-duplex ... both terrestrial links and also dealing with (synchronous
orbit) satellite links.

Newbie question about db normalization theory: redundant keys OK?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Newbie question about db normalization theory: redundant keys OK?
Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:31:29 -0500

paul c <toledobythesea@ooyah.ac> writes:

In those days, most Cics and some IMS programmmers knew the four
necessary conditions for deadlock and avoided at least one of them in
their apps.  Nowadays that's considered high science.   Jim Gray was a
smart guy and I hope he's still alive but the fact remains that it
seems that he and other concurrency experts chose to ignore the IP.  I
think Bob B said something quite profound recently, something like
"you can't manage data without data".  A corollary might be that only
mystics can manage without data.  Normalization theory started with
the IP and caught a following, no coincidence if you ask me.  The
concurrency theorists carried on with the IMS and other physical ways
of thinking and never seemed to get the idea that there might be a
logical concurrency model based on the IP (at least as far as I know).

i had worked with jim back in system/r days
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr

when he left for tandem ... he tried to pawn off some of
the stuff on me ... a couple old email references
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801006
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801016

in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#1 "The Elements of Programming Style"

and
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#email800920

in this post:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#17 Jim Gray Is Missing

later when we were doing ha/cmp
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

and i was working on distributed lock manager and cluster scaleup ...
we were working with some of the independent RDBMS vendors that also had
implementations running on vax/cluster. they wanted a lock manager api
that looked and felt similar to what they had been using in vax/cluster,
but they also had a list of several things that they felt could be done
a lot better. starting from a (almost) completely clean slate ...  i had
a lot less baggage to worry about.

distributed lock manager

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: distributed lock manager
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 09:25:19 -0500

x-post mentioning some archeological locking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#42 Newbie question about db normalization theory: redundant keys OK?

paul c <toledobythesea@ooyah.ac> writes:

In those days, most Cics and some IMS programmmers knew the four
necessary conditions for deadlock and avoided at least one of them in
their apps.  Nowadays that's considered high science.  Jim Gray was a
smart guy and I hope he's still alive but the fact remains that it seems
that he and other concurrency experts chose to ignore the IP.  I think
Bob B said something quite profound recently, something like "you can't
manage data without data".  A corollary might be that only mystics can
manage without data.  Normalization theory started with the IP and
caught a following, no coincidence if you ask me.  The concurrency
theorists carried on with the IMS and other physical ways of thinking
and never seemed to get the idea that there might be a logical
concurrency model based on the IP (at least as far as I know).

i had worked with jim back in system/r days
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr

when he left for tandem ... he tried to pawn off some of
the stuff on me ... a couple old email references
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801006
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801016

in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#1 "The Elements of Programming Style"

and
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#email800920

in this post:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#17 Jim Gray Is Missing

later when we were doing ha/cmp
http://ww