List of Archived Posts
2006 Newsgroup Postings (08/24 - 09/06)
- DASD Response Time (on antique 3390?)
- Greatest Software Ever Written?
- Overweight truckers stopped by tech checks
- processors of the future: super-computer-on-a-chip?
- Greatest Software Ever Written?
- sorting
- Admired designs / designs to study
- SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
- SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
- New airline security measures in Europe
- What part of z/OS is the OS?
- What part of z/OS is the OS?
- sorting
- What part of z/OS is the OS?
- Health Care
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- Comic Sans was Re: An alternative history
- Health Care
- 19,000 Accounts Compromised
- What part of z/OS is the OS?
- news group maintenance: SPEC CPU2006 announced
- SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
- Admired designs / designs to study
- SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
- SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
- SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
- Admired designs / designs to study
- What part of z/OS is the OS?
- Greatest Software Ever Written?
- Greatest Software Ever Written?
- Greatest Software Ever Written?
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- OT - hand-held security
- SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- Metroliner telephone article
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- chip performance ... from long ago and far away
- Hackers steal AT&T customer data
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- Device Authentication - The answer to attacks lauched using stolen passwords?
- old hypervisor email
- Slow-Going For Next-Generation Threat-Scoring System
- Materiel and graft
- what's the difference between LF(Line Fee) and NL (New line) ?
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
- Device Authentication - The answer to attacks lauched using stolen passwords?
- Materiel and graft
- what's the difference between LF(Line Fee) and NL (New line) ?
- what's the difference between LF(Line Fee) and NL (New line) ?
- what's the difference between LF(Line Fee) and NL (New line) ?
- what's the difference between LF(Line Fee) and NL (New line) ?
- Douglas Engelbart's HyperScope 1.0 Launched
- PowerPC or PARISC?
DASD Response Time (on antique 3390?)
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: DASD Response Time (on antique 3390?)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:27:17 -0600
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#68 DASD Response Time (on antique
3390?)
part of this is global cache/lru vis-a-vis local cache/lru. i had been
doing global cache management nearly 40 years ago in cp67 ... at the
time when at least some of the academic literature was focused on
local lru and effectively partitioned cache operation. numerous past
posts mentioning global LRU stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock
the detailed file i/o cache modeling mentioned in the ref. thread
posting ... basically found that (all things otherwise being equal),
for a given amount of aggregate electronic memory, a global,
non-partitioned cache was more effective than any partitioning the
same amount of electronic memory.
earlier this week, in several hotchip presentations on multi-core
designs, there were similar claims. L1 caches were effectively
partitioned/local to a specific core. the scenario here was that
latency issues negated the "condition" of all other things being
equal. however, the larger L2 caches were non-partitioned, global,
shared ... effectively the latency being equal between L2 and all
cores.
another counter example ... to "all things otherwise being equal" was
numerous previous postings about cluster 4341 configurations compared
to 3033. six clustered 4341s with 16mbytes each (96mbytes aggregate),
six i/o channels each (36 channels aggregate) had higher aggregate mip
rate than 3033 with 16 i/o channels and 16mbytes memory ... at about
the same price.
the disk i/o bottleneck and the limited real storage on the 3033 (to
use as compensation for the disk i/o bottleneck) was one of the things
that prompted the 32mbyte real storage "hack" offering for the 3033.
even though standard 370 addressing (both real and virtual) was
limited to 24bits (16mbytes). the 370 page table entry had 16bits,
12bit real (4k) page number (12bit virtual page * 12bit virtual page
number yields 24bit virtual addressing), two "flag" bits, and two
unused bits. the two unused bits were re-assigned so that they could
be concatenated with the 12bit real page number to allow specification
of up to 14bit (14bit*12bit=26bit or up to 64mbyte real addressing).
instructions (both real and virtual) couldn't address more than 24bits
... but this hack allowed being able to utilize more than 16mbytes of
real storage (for virtual pages belonging to multiple different
address spaces).
previous mentioning the clustered 4341 vis-a-vis 3033 and/or the 3033
32mbyte real storage hack:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#3 What is an IBM 137/148 ???
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#7 IBM S/360
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000c.html#83 Is a VAX a mainframe?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#7 4341 was "Is a VAX a mainframe?"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#12 4341 was "Is a VAX a mainframe?"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#82 "all-out" vs less aggressive
designs (was: Re: 36 to 32 bit transition)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000e.html#57 Why not an IBM zSeries
workstation?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#69 Z/90, S/390, 370/ESA (slightly
off topic)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001j.html#3 YKYGOW...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001l.html#32 mainframe question
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#15 departmental servers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#39 195 was: Computer Typesetting
Was: Movies with source code
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#7 IBM Mainframe at home
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#51 Hardest Mistake in Comp Arch
to Fix
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002f.html#8 Is AMD doing an Intel?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#22 CDC6600 - just how powerful a
machine was it?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#23 CDC6600 - just how powerful a
machine was it?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002n.html#58 IBM S/370-168, 195, and 3033
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002n.html#63 Help me find pics of a UNIVAC
please
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003f.html#56 ECPS:VM DISPx instructions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003g.html#22 303x, idals, dat, disk head
settle, and other rambling folklore
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004g.html#20 Infiniband - practicalities
for small clusters
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#10 Complex Instructions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#17 mainframe and microprocessor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#14 360 longevity, was RISCs too
close to hardware?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#50 Integer types for 128-bit
addressing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#57 Integer types for 128-bit
addressing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#34 increasing addressable memory
via paged memory?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#43 increasing addressable memory
via paged memory?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005f.html#4 System/360; Hardwired vs.
Microcoded
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005n.html#11 Code density and performance?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005n.html#29 Data communications over
telegraph circuits
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#1 Intel engineer discusses their
dual-core design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#19 address space
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005q.html#30 HASP/ASP JES/JES2/JES3
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005q.html#38 Intel strikes back with a
parallel x86 design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#22 MVCIN instruction
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#40 POWER6 on zSeries?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#44 POWER6 on zSeries?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#48 POWER6 on zSeries?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#28 Multiple address spaces
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#34 Multiple address spaces
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#39 another blast from the past
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006i.html#33 virtual memory
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006i.html#41 virtual memory
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#2 virtual memory
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#18 virtual memory
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#27 Old Hashing Routine
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#32 Old Hashing Routine
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#37 Curiosity
Greatest Software Ever Written?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Greatest Software Ever Written?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:00:06 -0600
Brian Inglis writes:
Can't recall writing a GOTO except in assembler since the late 1970s!
in the early 70s ... i wrote a pli program that analyzed assembler
listing ... abstracting code flow, register & variable useage
(including looking for code paths where registers were used w/o
setting as well as dead code) ... and then generating higher-level
psuedo code.
so assembler is full of conditional branches ... and with a little
analysis can be turned into higher level constructs, if/then/else,
do/while, do/until, computed/case, etc (as opposed to emulated GOTOs).
the problem for some highly optimized kernel routines (implemented in
assembler) ... the original GOTO-flavor (with conditional branches)
could be significantly more understandable than some of the abstracted
if/then/else, etc representations ... in one or two cases a relatively
straight forward routine with a couple hundred machine instructions
would translate into if/then/else infrastructure nested 20 deep. I
finally had to put in a limit that would limit nested structures to no
more than 10-15 deep.
part of the issue with GOTOs ... that i later tried to capture with
my dump analyzer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#dumprx
was reconstructing code flow leading up to a fault (sort of program
flow reconstructure or forensics). branch/goto implementations
frequently would result in a lot of ambiquity as to exact execution
flow arriving at a fault location. things like if/then/else
construction would somewhat explicitly identify dependencies involved
in particular execution paths ... and frequently helps in program
comprehension.
however, i was surprised at the number of instances involving highly
optimized assembler code ... where the if/then/else forms actually
decreased comprehension (and the branch/goto forms were actually much
easier to understand).
since then i've had a number of occasions, in non-assembler, highly
optimized code sections, to use GOTO's as the most straight-forward
implementation and ease of understanding.
Overweight truckers stopped by tech checks
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Overweight truckers stopped by tech checks
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:59:17 -0600
somewhat a followup to old thread
Overweight truckers stopped by tech checks
http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39161811,00.htm
from above:
One axle overloaded by one tonne can cause the same road wear as 18,000 Mondeos.
...
Vosa is using the Viper service to spot and stop overweight
vehicles. The system combines Automatic Number Plate Recognition
(ANPR) and Weigh-In Motion System (Wims) technologies - electronic
strips set into the road surface.
... snip ...
old thread mentioning road lifetime design predicated on heavy
truck useage:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#5 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#6 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#10 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#12 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#15 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#19 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#24 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#26 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#32 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#35 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#46 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#48 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#49 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#50 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#51 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#52 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#53 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#54 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#56 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#57 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#59 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#60 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#61 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#62 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#0 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#5 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#6 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#11 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#23 The Pankian Metaphor
processors of the future: super-computer-on-a-chip?
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: processors of the future: super-computer-on-a-chip?
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:05:25 -0600
"Gary" writes:
Well, any idiot can throw a pile of cores on a die, and many idiots
have. The difficulty comes from feeding the cores with I/O (as you
observed) and from interconnecting the cores.
But, the real real problem is figuring out what those cores are doing.
a constant theme at hotchips this year was programming paradigm for
(at least increasingly, if not massively) parallel operation. there
were presentations from large tens to thousand cores (teraops on a
chip) ... sort of easy i/o processing examples were streaming video
... since the data is just coming at you ... you don't have to do
anything.
one of the presentations said that they worked on the (parallel)
programming paradigm for a long time before starting to define massive
number of cores (on a chip) that would then fit the programming
paradigm ... rather than the other way around ... building a massive
number of cores and then trying to stumble across a programming
paradigm that fit the cores.
session one ... had chips specifically designed to handle streaming.
session four on reconfigurable computing had a chip from toshiba with
large number of cores that could be dynamically reconfigured
session five on parallel processing had a number of flavors of
large number of cores on a chip.
http://www.hotchips.org/hc18/program/conference_day_one.htm
Greatest Software Ever Written?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Greatest Software Ever Written?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 07:34:26 -0600
Andrew Swallow writes:
Sounds like your translator did not support ELSEIF and ANDIF
statements.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#1 Greatest Software Ever Written?
the abstraction had code blocks that were sequential sequence of
instructions ... a code block could be bracketed by control flow
leaving and/or code flow entering (from unconditional or conditional
branch instructions). code blocks could be sequentially aggregated if
they were connected by a single unconditional branch ... i.e. the
branched-to code block was entered by only a single unconditional
branch.
conditional execution was a pair of condition setting instruction
followed by a conditional branch. a sequence of such instruction pairs
could be collapsed into a single conditional execution statement
abstraction ... as long as the conditional "to" location for all
conditional branches was the same ... and there were no other
intervening instructions between the conditional branching operations.
the issue with some highly optimized kernel paths was that they
actually did a complex set of condition testing/branching ... with
various intervening instructions. it wasn't just a sequence of
multiple condition testing with no other intervening instructions and
all the conditional branches having the same target. some kernel paths
might be possible 1/3rd instructions condition testing/conditional
branching with a mixed of target branch locations and arbitrary
intervening instructions (both between sequences of conditional
execution instructions and between branch target
locations).
so a possible instruction sequence
test condition1
cond branch A
inst1
inst2
inst3
branch B
A test condition2
cond branch B
inst4
inst5
inst6
B ....
so w/o elseif it would be
if not condition1 then
inst1
inst2
inst3
else
if not condition2 then
inst4
inst5
inst6
end
end
so that can collapses into
if not condition1 then
inst1
inst2
inst3
elseif not condition2 then
inst4
inst5
inst6
end
however if the sequence at A was
A inst9
testing condition2
cond branch B
inst4
inst5
inst6
B ....
it really becomes nested ... the subsequent conditional testing/branch
has to be at code block boundary of the previous code block ... w/o
any other intervening instructions. the problem was that there was
some amount of highly optimized kernel pathlengths that exhibited that
characteristic ... potentially to the nested depth of 20. the
collapsing of condition boundaries like multiple conditions for a
single if statement and/or constructs like elseif ... had to have
specific semantics/boundaries for the conditional executed code
blocks.
sorting
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: sorting
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 08:26:26 -0600
krw writes:
You have such a switch. It's called the brake pedal. Just touch
it but not hard enough to brake. It tends to send the message
without the other dangerous shenanigans.
i've commented before that there are certain points of moderately
heavy traffic where flow is at or near speed limit ... and less than
one percent of the drivers can precipitate transition to stop and go
... or even accidents. it typically involves very few drivers that
exhibit brownian motion rapid lane change activity ... the driver that
they have just cut off then lightly touches their break pedal ... that
break light starts a chain-reaction of ever increasing breaking ...
resulting in an accordion like traffic flow condition ... 20-30
vehicles behind the rapid lane change activity may even come to a dead
stop ... and possibly even precipitates a read-end collision incident.
the lead-off break light in the accordion effect may not have touched
their pedel sufficient to actually change speed ... just enuf to
signal to the drivers behind.
i've been in certain traffic flows where the rapid lane change and
accordion effect happened multiple times over a 10-15 mile interval
.... i.e. the accordion clears, the traffic resumes to nearly speed
limit ... and then another rapid lane change cauases it to repeat.
Admired designs / designs to study
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Admired designs / designs to study
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 08:51:46 -0600
haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) writes:
I'm amazed by the omission of Burroughs B-5000 and its successors
from B-6500 on.
from long ago and far away:
Notes on Alan Kay's Distinguished Lecture at MIT
Dr. Alan Kay, one of the developers of Smalltalk and the Xerox Alto,
and currently a Vice President and Chief Scientist at Atari, gave a
talk at MIT (22 March 1984) titled: "Too many smart people: a personal
view of design in the computer field"
The abstract:
This talk is about the battle between Form and Content in Design and
why "being smart" ususally causes content to lose. "Insightful
laziness" is better because (1) it takes maximum advantage of others
work and (2) it encourages "rotating" the problem into its simplest
essence -- often by changing it completely. In other words: Point of
view is worth 80 IQ points!
... snip ... and ...
Homage was paid to the Burroughs B5000, a computer developed in 1961:
It's operating system was entirely written in a higher level
language (ALGOL)
It had hardware protection (which was later recognized to be
a capability protection system)
It had an object-oriented virtual memory system
It had virtual data
(any data reference could have a procedure attached to it for
fetching and storing the real data--a bit was set as to which
side of the assignment statement it went on)
It was a multiprocessor (it had two processors, and much of the
protection scheme was built in order to allow the two processors
to work together).
It had an integrated stack (which, sadly, is the only thing that
people seem to remember).
"This was twenty years ago! What happened, people?"
The B5000 had some flaws:
The virtual data wasn't done right
there were too many architectural assumptions about physical data
formats
"Char mode: which eliminated all the protections." This was
provided to let programmers used to the 1401 (I think) be
comfortable.
... snip ...
SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 09:03:49 -0600
Nelson B writes:
The single largest impediment to increased use of SSL has been increased
transaction cost (or equivalently, reduced transaction rate per system,
reduced transaction rate per dollar of system cost) as compared to cost
of non-SSL transactions. SSL server owners want maximum transaction rate
capacity for maximum cost efficiency.
SSL domain name certificates were to provide that the server domain
name in the URL you typed in matched the domain name in the digital
certificate provided by the server (i.e. the server you thot you were
talking to was actually the server you were talking to) ... basically
the browser verified the certificate and then compared the domain name
from the URL you typed/provided with the domain name in the
certificate.
original e-commerce scenario was that SSL bracketed your whole session
with the server ... from the initial connection, thru shopping and
checkout. however, most e-commerce servers quickly found out that
running SSL for the whole shopping experience dropped thru thruput by
80-90 percent ... and so most of them dropped SSL back to just being
used for the payment process. Now you typically click on a payment
button ... where the server provides the SSL URL ... and then the
browser checks the domain name in the URL provided by the server
against the URL in the certificate provided by the server (no longer
is the process verifying that the server is the server you thot it
was, but SSL is now verifying that the domain name that the server
claims to be is the domain name that the server claims to be).
the original theory of digital certificates is that domain name that
you provided matches the domain name in the provided digital
certificate as a countermeasure to things like man-in-the-middle
attacks. however, if the server is providing both the URL (and
therefor the domain name) as well as the digital certificate ... it is
no longer a countermeasure to man-in-the-middle attacks ... and
therefor becomes redundant and superfluous. the server might just as
well as be directly transmitting its public key ... with none of the
PKI and digital certificate armoring. misc. past posts mentioning
MITM-attacks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#mitm
"i claim to be some arbitrary entity" ... and then provide a digital
certificate that confirms that "i'm whoever" it is that "i claim to be".
the current browser and end-user don't typically look at whoever it is
that I claim to be ... the infrastructure is just relying on the
browser to confirm that I have any digital certificate that supports
whatever claim that i happen to be making.
misc. past posts mentioning various ssl certificate subjects
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#sslcert
past mention of being asked to consult with this small client/server
startup that wanted to do payments on their server ... and wanted to
have something that came to be called a payment gateway ... and had
this technology called ssl
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm5.htm#asrn2
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm5.htm#asrn3
so another issue related to ssl domain name certificates was that when
an entity applies to a certification authority for a ssl domain name
certificate ... the certification authority requires a lot of
identification information. they then check with the authoritative
agency responsible for domain name owners ... the domain name
infrastructure ... for identification information about the domain
name owner. they then try and determine if the identification
information on file with the domain name infrastructure appears to map
to the same entity as the identification informaton provided by the
ssl domain name certificate applicant.
there has been some concern as to possible compromises in the identity
information on file with the trust root for domain name ownership
... the domain name infrastructure. so a proposal somewhat backed by
the certification authority industry is to have domain name owners
register a public key at the same time as they register their domain
name. then the certification authority industry can request that ssl
domain name certificate applications be digitally signed. then the
certification authority can change from an expensive, time-consuming
and error-prone identification process to a much less expensive,
reliable and efficient authentication process by retrieving the public
key from the domain name infrastructure to verify the digital
signature on the ssl domain name certificate application.
the problem is that this then represents something of a catch-22 for
the certification authority industry, if they can directly retrieve
the onfile public key from the domain name trust root for
authentication purposes ... then it is possible that others could also
directly rely on the same domain name trust root (that the
certification autorities are relying on)
a radically simplified ssl setup protocol could involve DNS requests
(for domain name to ip-address translation) to piggy back (in the
response) any available public key and any crypto options. then the
client-to-server connection could have the client initially generating
a random ssl session key, encrypting the data with the session key,
and encrypting the session key with the (servers) public key. the
server demonstrates that they have the corresponding private key by a
correct encrypted response (eliminating all the ssl domain name
certificate operations and all the ssl protocol setup chatter)
recent thread in some crypto mailing list discussing radically simplified
SSL based on using onfile public keys at the domain name infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#17
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#19
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#22
w/o needing digital certificates ... misc. past posts mentioning
various public key operations w/o requiring digital certificates
... including real-time, onfile public key implementations:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#certless
SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 10:56:57 -0600
Anne & Lynn Wheeler writes:
past mention of being asked to consult with this small client/server
startup that wanted to do payments on their server ... and wanted to
have something that came to be called a payment gateway ... and had
this technology called ssl
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm5.htm#asrn2
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm5.htm#asrn3
during this period we had coined the term certificate manufacturing to
distinguish the majority of ssl domain name certificate operations
(primarily supporting e-commerce operations) ... from what was
typically defined as PKI.
shortly after the work this payment gateway and e-commerce work in the
mid-90s ... we also got involved in the x9a10 financial standard
working group. the primary purpose of the dominate use of ssl
e-commerce is hiding account numbers ... since just having knowledge
of the account number can enable fraudulent transactions.
the x9a10 financial standard working group had been given the
requirement to preserve the integrity of the financial
infrastructure for all retail payments (debit, credit,
stored-value, internet, point-of-sale, etc ... i.e. ALL). we
observed that account numbers were required in scores of business
processes and even if the planet was buried under miles of crypto
(used for hiding account numbers), it still wouldn't be enuf to
prevent account number leakage (and the resulting account fraud).
so the resulting x9.59 financial standard protocol
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#x959
specified authenticating the transaction (on end-to-end basis) along
with a business rule that account numbers used in x9.59 transactions
couldn't be used in non-authenticated transactions. this was
countermeasure to account fraud replay attacks ... where simple
knowledge of the account number could result in fraudulent
transactions. past post discussing some of the issues of protecting
account number used in scores of business processes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#61
with countermeasure to fraudulent transactions based on simply knowing
the account number ... it is no longer required to hide the account
number (in order to prevent such fraudulent transactions).
so while the previous post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#7 SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
discusses a drastically simplified SSL protocol ... while x9.59
eliminates the requirement for the dominate use of SSL protocol for
e-commerce purposes ... the hiding of account numbers as a
countermeasure to fraudulent transactions (i.e. hiding the account
number was no longer necessary as a countermeasure to account fraud).
somewhat related recent blog thread discussing issues of having
limited scope hiding paradigms as a countermeasure to account
fraud ... as opposed to strongly authenticated end-to-end transaction
authentication as a countermeasure to account fraud.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#5 New ISO standard aims to ensure the security of financial transactions on the Internet
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#7 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#9 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#10 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#12 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#14 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#22 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#25 FraudWatch - Chip&Pin
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#26 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#41 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#42 Naked Payments II - uncovering alternates, merchants v. issuers
New airline security measures in Europe
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: New airline security measures in Europe
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 16:44:23 -0600
Phil Payne wrote:
These days the threat's on the network, and the bearded nutter is
sitting safe in some cave somewhere. He doesn't necessarily have to
get to your system - he can also attack a system that your system
trusts.
i think there was the vehicle plowing into the lobby of a building ...
early 80s? someplace in maryland? .... after that you definitely saw
datacenters being moved from glass showplace next to the lobby into
some form of bunker ... and around the lobby got all those large
concrete planters.
when we were doing ibm ha/cmp ... we considered a very wide variety of
threats ...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
there have been numerous studies ... even recently ... that the
majority of fraud involve insiders ... it is just that the external
attacks are much more likely to make the press.
then there is these recent news articles:
Secret Service: Inside Attacks Generally Launched By Problem Employees
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300415
Study Highlights Insider Threats
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300421
now, probably by definition, anybody responsible for an insider attack
is likely to be labeled a problem employee.
an older post citing a study that up to seventy percent of ID thefts
involve an insider
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm17.htm#38 Study: ID theft usually an inside job
lots of collected posting about threats, fraud, vulnerabilities, and risks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#fraud
misc. past posts specifically mentioning insider attacks:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm6.htm#terror8 [FYI] Did Encryption Empower These Terrorists?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm14.htm#4 Who's afraid of Mallory Wolf?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm16.htm#20 Ousourced Trust (was Re: Difference between TCPA-Hardware and a smart card and something else before
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm17.htm#25 Single Identity. Was: PKI International Consortium
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm18.htm#18 Any TLS server key compromises?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#5 New ISO standard aims to ensure the security of financial transactions on the Internet
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#10 Naked Payments IV - let's all go naked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#18 Opinion on smartcard security requested
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#14 Symmetric-Key Credit Card Protocol on Web Site
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#40 Beginner question on Security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002m.html#46 Encryption algorithm for stored data
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#31 MITM attacks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#1 Brit banks introduce delays on interbank xfers due to phishing boom
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#1 More on garbage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005v.html#2 ABN Tape - Found
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#16 Value of an old IBM PS/2 CL57 SX Laptop
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#33 Password Complexity
What part of z/OS is the OS?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What part of z/OS is the OS?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 12:54:27 -0600
Alan Altmark writes:
It depends on your definition of of "operating system". The classical
definition is the chunk of software that manages the real system
resources, allocating them to application programs. That is, the
gatekeeper for access to the CPU, memory, and I/O devices. That would
be, again classically, just BCP: the thing that holds the SVCs.
Of course, as computing has gotten more sophisticated (has it?) the
definition has become far more complex. Is JES *really* part of the
operating system? Or is it just an application with the same
privileges as the operating system itself? Hmmmm.... What about apps
that run authorized only for performance reasons? Are they part of
the OS? There must be a PhD dissertation on this *somewhere* out
there.... ;-)
so one of the motivation for original dual-address space ... was that
lots of mvt services (like hasp/jes) ran outside the kernel ... but
used the same pointer-passing paradigm as a "real" kernel service.
in the transition to mvs ... all the different things outside of the
kernel got their own virtual address space ... this made pointer
passing paradigm somewhat problematical for services running in a
different address space. common segment was the initial solution ... but
for larger 168 mvs shops ... it wasn't unusual to find the mvs kernel
taking up 8mbytes of every virtual address space (preserving the
pointer passing paradigm between applications and real kernel
services) and csa taking five megabytes (allowing pointer passing
paradigm to work between applications and services in different
virtual address spaces). this was starting to put significant constraint
on some applications ... leaving only maximum of 3mbytes out of every
application virtual address space ... for actual application use.
access registers then generalized the dual-address space support
introduced in 3033.
a few posts this year mentioning common segment in support of
pointer passing paradigm
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#25 Multiple address spaces
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#28 Multiple address spaces
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006b.html#32 Multiple address spaces
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006i.html#33 virtual memory
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006j.html#38 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#44 virtual memory
for a somewhat different take ... the vm370 had spool file operation
embedded in the kernel. as mentioned in recent posts:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#36 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#51 other cp/cms history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#64 The Fate of VM - was: Re: Baby MVS???
i was running into severe thruput bottleneck with the vm spool file
implementation in conjunction with the internal network
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
and our high-speed backbone (part of our hsdt project)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
so my take was to take the majority of the vm kernel spool file
function, move it to a service virtual machine, re-code it in
vs/pascal and increase the thruput by an order of magnitude ...
eliminating many of its thruput constraints.
one of the long term issues with virtual machine hypervisor was the
original code (from cp67) was very small, compact, and consistent. the
early philosophy was that unless it couldn't absolutely be done any
other way ... it didn't belong in the kernel. It was a highly
efficient micro-kernel. The downside was that for people with more of
a traditional operating system background ... they found the concise,
compact implementation easy to understand and modify. The result was a
tendency to take the easy way out and add new feature/function into
the kernel code itself.
frequently w/o stringently enforced microkernel standards ... the
micro-kernel tended to become extremely bloated, starting to resemble
the kernels of more traditionally implemented operating systems ...
becoming more and more bloating and much more difficult to maintain
and modify (the ease of modification somewhat leading to its own
downfall).
What part of z/OS is the OS?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What part of z/OS is the OS?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:44:13 -0600
Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:
the result was that w/o stringently enforced microkernel standards ... the
micro-kernel tended to become extremely bloated, starting to resemble
the kernels of more traditionally implemented operating systems ...
becoming more and more bloating and much more difficult to maintain and
modify (the ease of modification somewhat leading to its own downfall).
ref:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#10 What part of z/OS is the OS?
this brings to my mind somebody's line that goes something like "it
isn't done when there is no more to add, it is done when there is no
more to take away"
applied to micro-kernel efforts ... with somebody's related observation
that maintaining a KISS implementation can actually be significantly
more difficult than doing a complex implementation.
however, there is a corollary about KISS implementation being applicable
to the situation. recent posts mentioning how simple handling of FINWAIT
processing in tcp session close ... made some implicit assumptions about
the environment that were violated with HTTP use of TCP sessions.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#17 Hamiltonian path as protecti on against DOS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#19 Hamiltonian path as protection against DOS
the mention of the spool file system rewrite in the previous posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#36 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#51 other cp/cms history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#64 The Fate of VM - was: Re: Baby MVS???
addressed a problem similar to what showed up with FINWAIT handling on
heavily loaded webservers in the mid-90s. native vm spool processing
had a linear list of all spool files ... and all spool file operations
involved searching the linear list. this had non-linear increase in
overhead as systems scaled. this is also similar to the original cp67
kernel storage management that used a single linear list ... before
subpool logic was introduced to cp67 kernel in the early 70s.
in any case, my vs/pascal spool file rewrite introduced both a hash
table and a tree structure for managing spool files.
sorting
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: sorting
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:47:41 -0600
Anne & Lynn Wheeler writes:
i've commented before that there are certain points of moderately
heavy traffic where flow is at or near speed limit ... and less than
one percent of the drivers can precipitate transition to stop and go
... or even accidents. it typically involves very few drivers that
exhibit brownian motion rapid lane change activity ... the driver that
they have just cut off then lightly touches their break pedal ... that
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#5 sorting
.... and for even more topic drift ...
Market Forces vs. Traffic Jams; New research shows that making drivers
pay higher tolls at peak times and tracking their location with RFID
or GPS technology can eliminate traffic jams.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17373&ch=infotech
What part of z/OS is the OS?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What part of z/OS is the OS?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:26:20 -0600
J R wrote:
We tend to refer to the parts we deal intimately with by name,
e.g. TSO, ISPF, HLASM, VTAM, TCP/IP, JES2, SDSF, etc., etc.
Unless we are looking at some component in particular, we tend
to refer to everything else non-specifically as "the system".
previous posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#10 What part of z/OS is the OS?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#11 What part of z/OS is the OS?
in the past, kernels tended to refer to privilege/supervisor execution
and protected storage. lots of kernels have implemented protected
storage with virtual address spaces ... i.e. cp67 on 360/67. mvt used
360 storage protection.
as technology progressed there was a direction (like for fault
isolation) to provide greater granularity for both privileges and
storage protection/isolation.
so from a structuring standpoint, system services got a lot less
distinct with much greater levels of privileges and storage isolation.
a couple months ago there was talk by one of the vendors about moving
SSL processing into the kernel. the issue was that they were going to
be supporting SSL crypto hardware accelerator devices. In order to
provide support for potentially multiple different applications
sharing a common device ... SSL processing (use of a shared device)
became a resource and protection management issue (typical requirement
for system services).
Discussion of some of the repercussions in the SSL security model that
were the result of the SSL crypto processing overhead ... as well as
some discussion as to how many of the requirements (that rely on SSL)
might be addressed in other ways:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#7 SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#8 SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
in the referenced discussion (about moving SSL support into the kernel)
there was also mention of repeated efforts trying to get tcp/ip protocol
stack out of the kernel in the secure, capability coyotos secure
operating system
http://www.coyotos.org/
coyotos heritage is eros
http://www.eros-os.org/
http://www.capros.org/
the eros/capros heritage is keyKOS
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/#keylogic
keykos is the renamed gnosis by the key logic spin-off of tymshare after
MD bought tymshare. gnosis was a secure 370-based operating system
developed by tymshare. tymshare happened to have been one of the early
cp67/vm370 commercial time-sharing offerings in the late 60s and 70s
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#timeshare
disclaimer, i was brought in to do gnosis audit and evaluation as part
of the gnosis spin-off for key logic. misc. past posts mentioning
gnosis or keykos
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#69 TSS ancient history, was X86 ultimate CISC? designs)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000g.html#22 No more innovation? Get serious
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#73 7090 vs. 7094 etc.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#33 Did AT&T offer Unix to Digital Equipment in the 70s?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#35 Did AT&T offer Unix to Digital Equipment in the 70s?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#10 TSS/360
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002f.html#59 Blade architectures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#0 Blade architectures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#4 markup vs wysiwyg (was: Re: learning how to use a computer)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#43 IBM doing anything for 50th Anniv?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#63 Hercules and System/390 - do we need it?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#75 30th b'day
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003g.html#18 Multiple layers of virtual address translation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003h.html#41 Segments, capabilities, buffer overrun attacks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#15 two pi, four phase, 370 clone
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#50 Slashdot: O'Reilly On The Importance Of The Mainframe Heritage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003l.html#19 Secure OS Thoughts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003l.html#22 Secure OS Thoughts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003l.html#26 Secure OS Thoughts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#24 Intel iAPX 432
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#54 Thoughts on Utility Computing?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#4 OS Partitioning and security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#27 NSF interest in Multics security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#29 Shipwrecks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#49 EAL5
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#41 Multi-processor timing issue
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#33 Integer types for 128-bit addressing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004p.html#23 Systems software versus applications software definitions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#7 How do you say "gnus"?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005b.html#6 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005b.html#7 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005b.html#12 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#67 intel's Vanderpool and virtualization in general
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#43 Secure design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#50 Secure design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005h.html#13 Today's mainframe--anything to new?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#30 Public disclosure of discovered vulnerabilities
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#12 Flat Query
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#37 PDP-1
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#34 PDP-1
Health Care
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Health Care
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:28:58 -0600
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#61 Health Care
the gao has projections that ss, medicare and medicaid program
spending grows to over 25percernt of GDP.
a recent news item on health care costs and medicate/medicaid
program spending
Taxpayers' hospital tab takes turn for the worse
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4234325
that medicare/medicaid programs paid for over half of colorado
hospital patient days in 2005 (and numbers may be similar in other
states).
"25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:22:18 -0600
"William J. Leary Jr." writes:
No, it was a cheaper microcontroller counterpart to the 8086.
Compare the feature set of the 80186 with the 80286. Heck, just
compare the register set.
... from long ago and far away
From: wheeler
Date: 09/18/82 11:18:07
re: ACM CAN; somebody mentioned the performance measures in the last
issue of ACM/CAN. I just got v10n5 today in the mail.
....
"In the last issue of CAN we published a performance comparison of the
Intel iAPX-432, Intel 8086, Motorola 68000, and DEC VAX-11/780. We
mentioned that Intel had announced a successor to the 8086, called the
80286. Intel is sampling parts now and will ship 8MHz and 10MHz
versions next winter. In addition to new instructions that support
32-bit data, the 286 has a spohisticated protection mechnaism
reminiscent of MULTICS. The 286 also has a compativility mode to run
existing 8086 programs."
...
"The bottom performance line as measured by these four small programs
is that the newest version of the 432 (8MHz with 4 wait states) is
almost as fast as a 5MHz 8086, while the 80286 leads the 432 by almost
an order of magnitude. Furthermore, this fast machine (in 8086
compatibility mode) outperforms a 16MHz 68000."
... snip ... top of post, old email index
From: wheeler
Date: 09/23/82 14:15:10
re: 80286; "pipelined processor" with four parallel processing units.
up to six times the performance of the 5Mhz 8086, bus interface up to
10 megabytes/second, samples of the 80286 available 3rd quarter this
year. Price for 68-pin IC will be $237 in 100-piece quantities. Also a
iAPX Evaluation package with simulator, assembler and demo programs
for $950.
... snip ... top of post, old email index
To: wheeler
Date: 29 September 1982, 10:46:37 EST
Hm, interesting article you sent....
I obtained advance information about the Intel iAPX286 .... it looks
very interesting.... also have some data on the iAPX 86/30 and 88/30
Operating system processors.... this looks extremely interesting, and
one can assume that the 286 cannot be far behind in getting an
operating system chip to go with it....
iAPX86/30 is a 2 chip processor, with 35 operating system processor
primitives as instructions... things like job and task management,
interrupt management, free memory management, intertask communication,
intertask synchronization, and environmental control... It also
supports 5 operating system data types: jobs, tasks, segments,
mailboxes, and regions. Someday we'll be able to look back at the big
RISC vs. CISC and wonder what all the fuss was about....
... snip ... top of post, old email index
Comic Sans was Re: An alternative history
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Comic Sans was Re: An alternative history...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:19:43 -0600
Brian Inglis writes:
W3C are SGML markup language weenies: HTML 1 was fairly similar to
pre-Standardized GML; they have now managed to standardize HTML in
SGML DTDs (except <BR>!); they deal with totally different issues than
the IETF protocol RFC weenies; HTML is at 4.1 and there are many other
DTDs, HTTP is still at 1.1 and there are only a few related protocols;
they try to work in a similar manner with similar processes: each to
their own strengths! Industry is in control of most standards efforts:
they see a benefit so they provide funds for work; look at IBM's
funding of IEEE decimal FP: few others have any interest, but they are
a 450kg gorilla with deep expertise and pockets.
gml/sgml
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
another invention brought to you courtesy of the science center, 4th
flr, 545 tech sq.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
current w3c offices are just around the corner from 545 tech sq.
past postings mentioning waterloo "script", clone of cms "script"
(text formating implementing gml/sgml) in use at cern
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#72 Specifying all biz rules in relational data
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#27 Network databases
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#34 Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006d.html#35 Fw: Tax chooses dead language - Austalia
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#55 The System/360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That
Health Care
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Health Care
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:26:46 -0600
jmfbahciv writes:
That sounds low, Lynn.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#61 Health Care
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#14 Health Care
the referenced comptroller general talk makes references to using
conservative numbers ... possibly assuming all "best case" scenarios
that would be difficult to argue with?
19,000 Accounts Compromised
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: 19,000 Accounts Compromised
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:52:19 -0600
allan.staller@ibm-main.lst (Staller, Allan) writes:
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hackers broke into one of AT&T Inc.'s computer
networks and stole credit card data and other personal information from
several thousand customers who shopped at the telecommunication giant's
online store.
recent posts discussing various aspects of the threat model and
countermeasures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#12a sox, auditing, finding improprieties
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#13 Sarbanes-Oxley is what you get when you don't do FC
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#20 Identity v. anonymity -- that is not the question
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#21 Identity v. anonymity -- that is not the question
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#8 SSL, Apache 2 and RSA key sizes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#9 New airline security measures in Europe
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#13 What part of z/OS is the OS?
and of course the old standby posting ... security proportional to risk
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#61
and a few other news URLs from this morning:
AT&T says hackers accessed customers' cards
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060829/tc_nm/telecoms_att_data_dc
AT&T says hackers accessed customers' credit cards
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-08-29T232958Z_01_WEN4690_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-ATT-DATA.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-technologyNews-2
AT&T Offers Credit Monitoring Service to Customers Whose Credit Cards
Were Accessed
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-29-2006/0004423795&EDATE=
Flurry of data breaches exposes personal data on thousands
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9002828&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
AT&T hack exposes 19,000 identities
http://news.com.com/AT38T+hack+exposes+19%2C000+identities/2100-1029_3-6110765.html
Flurry of data breaches exposes personal data on thousands
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002828
Study: Many believe data thefts can't be prevented
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9002834&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
Peering at Identity Fraud as Hackers Break into AT&T System
http://www.sda-asia.com/sda/features/psecom,id,559,nodeid,1,_language,Singapore.html
AT&T breach affects 19,000 customers
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1213279,00.html
AT&T Breached, Exposes 19,000 Identities
http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/08/30/0332220.shtml
AT&T says hackers accessed customers' cards
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/telecoms_att_data_dc
AT T Cracked For Credit Cards
http://www.securitypronews.com/insiderreports/insider/spn-49-20060830ATTCrackedForCreditCards.html
Credit card fraud causes cancellation of over 1,000 Barbra Streisand
show tickets
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/8434.html
Thousands exposed by AT&T hack
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39282020,00.htm
Hackers break into AT&T's online store
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39161840,00.htm
AT&T Web Store Hacked, Up to 19K Affected
http://www2.csoonline.com/blog_view.html?CID=24366
AT&T Says Hackers Accessed Customers' Cards
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192500234
AT&T online store hacked, data compromised
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/08/30/HNat&tstorehacked_1.html
AT&T says hackers accessed customers' credit cards
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002843
Hackers Hit AT&T System, Get Credit Card Info
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2010001,00.asp
What part of z/OS is the OS?
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What part of z/OS is the OS?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:06:53 -0600
Craig.Mullins@ibm-main.lst (Craig Mullins) writes:
Perhaps this site is "helpful" in narrowing down what an OS is?
http://www.answers.com/topic/operating-system
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#10 What part of z/OS is the OS?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#11 What part of z/OS is the OS?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#13 What part of z/OS is the OS?
... from recent posting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#15 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
involving some copies of old email from long ago and far away ...
one of the items mentioned was 2 chip operating system processor:
To: wheeler
Date: 29 September 1982, 10:46:37 EST
Hm, interesting article you sent....
I obtained advance information about the Intel iAPX286 .... it looks
very interesting.... also have some data on the iAPX 86/30 and 88/30
Operating system processors.... this looks extremely interesting, and
one can assume that the 286 cannot be far behind in getting an
operating system chip to go with it....
iAPX86/30 is a 2 chip processor, with 35 operating system processor
primitives as instructions... things like job and task management,
interrupt management, free memory management, intertask communication,
intertask synchronization, and environmental control... It also
supports 5 operating system data types: jobs, tasks, segments,
mailboxes, and regions. Someday we'll be able to look back at the big
RISC vs. CISC and wonder what all the fuss was about....
... snip ... top of post, old email index
news group maintenance: SPEC CPU2006 announced
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: news group maintenance: SPEC CPU2006 announced
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:35:48 -0600
Del Cecchi writes:
If he ends up like that it will be due to a total breakdown in society
or mental illness on his part. How much money could one save and
invest over a career like his?
actually, anybody growing up budget constrained would (or at least
should) know that dogfood is one of the absolutely worst economic
propositions. buying dogfood for consumption, isn't an economic
constraint issue, it is an ignorance issue.
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:40:16 -0600
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/education/30sat.html?ex=1157601600&en=b251a151ba57e85b&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS
The average score on the reading and math portions of the newly
expanded SAT showed the largest decline in 31 years
... snip ...
misc. past related threads:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#41 How will current AI/robot stories play when AIs are real?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#45 How will current AI/robot stories play when AIs are real?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003b.html#45 hyperblock drift, was filesystem structure (long warning)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#28 Offshore IT
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#38 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004j.html#40 Many engineers lack even a four-year degree
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#48 Mozilla v Firefox
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#5 Where should the type information be?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#43 Academic priorities
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#17 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#63 DEC's Hudson fab
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#12 DEC's Hudson fab
Admired designs / designs to study
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Admired designs / designs to study
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:59:00 -0600
eugene@cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya) writes:
My old headache was how much AT&T NC wanted to charge for it.
It was almost as bad as Unix TSS for the IBM 360/67. Fortunately that
machine was gone in adequate time.
minor nit ... it was stripped down tss/370 called ssup ... somewhat
micro-kernel running on 370s. tss/360 (for 360/67) had been decommited
as a product ... but there was a few customers with continued interest
which was sufficient to keep tss going somewhat as a skunk works ...
and also do a migration from 360 to 370.
ssup/unix had been done for internal at&t
a few past posts mentioning tss370/ssup
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#37 A Glimpse into PC Development Philosophy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005b.html#13 Relocating application architecture and compiler support
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#20 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#61 Virtual Machine Hardware
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#34 Power5 and Cell, new issue of IBM Journal of R&D
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#26 Old PCs--environmental hazard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#2 The Pankian Metaphor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#30 Old Hashing Routine
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 13:05:51 -0600
Al Balmer writes:
The first clue that you should read the article is the "newly expanded
SAT" phrase :-) The headline might make one think that reading and
math abilities have declined, but the article seems to point to
testing factors instead.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#23 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
but all the changes that i've heard that went on over the past 30
years always involved making the tests easier ... not harder.
i've commented before about doing some work with large mid-western
state univ. ten years ago ... at the time, they had mentioned that
they had dumbed down the entering freshman curriculum three times
between the late 60s and the early 90s.
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 14:37:40 -0600
kkt writes:
Also significant is a greater number of kids of middle and lower
abilities aspiring to college and taking the test.
i just did google looking for sat historical references, i found a
couple
the first item returned
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/DENYSAT.HTM
... from above ...
National score data for the SAT are first available for 1952. Between
then and 1963, SAT test scores held constant or even increased,
despite the fact that the proportion of high-school students taking
the SAT rose from 7% in 1952 to 30% in 1963, and thus that many
less-qualified students were taking the test. It seems reasonable to
conclude that the quality of American education held steady or even
increased a bit during those years. In 1964, scores declined, and by
1970, national average scores on the verbal aptitude portion of the
SAT had fallen from 478 out of a possible 800 to 460; mathematical
aptitude scores fell from 502 to 488. When millions of people are
taking the test, even a small variation in the average can be
significant. By 1977, verbal scores were down to 429, math scores to
470. By 1981, scores had declined for 19 consecutive years; verbal
scores had fallen a total of 54 points to 424, math scores had fallen
36 points to 466. In 1982, for the first time in two decades, scores
rose; math by one point, verbal scores by two.
... snip ...
the above goes on to look at some studies correlating sat scores with
other factors:
The usual statistical measure of correlation is called the
"correlation coefficient". It has a value of 1 for perfect
correlation, zero for no correlation at all, and -1 for perfect
negative correlation. The correlation coefficient between SAT scores
and first-year college grades is 0.35. This is a rather moderate
correlation; it would be more useful to examine the correlation
between math SAT scores and mathematics grades, and so on. The Nader
Group prefers a different measure, the "percentage of perfect
prediction", which is the square of the correlation coefficient; in
this case 0.119, which is impressively smaller than 0.35. On this
basis, Nairn and Associates claim that the SAT scores account for only
11.9% of perfect prediction of first-year college grades and are
essentially worthless.
Now, what's the correlation coefficient between social class and SAT
score? Here Nairn and Associates pursue a very different
course. Unlike the correlation between test scores and grades, for the
link between family income and test scores they provide lengthy tables
comparing test scores and average family income. There is indeed a
correlation, but without the correlation coefficient, we have no way
of knowing how significant the correlation is -- and there is no
mention of the correlation coefficient anywhere in the discussion!
There is a passing reference to it in a footnote in the back of the
book; it is -- 0.35! The level of correlation that supposedly makes
tests worthless in predicting grades suddenly becomes ironclad proof
that social class determines test scores!
... snip ...
the following gives sat scores from school years 66-67 thru 04-05
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_127.asp
minor extract ... the full table gives "old scale" scores for
66-95. it gives "new scale"(?) scores for 66-05 (the old scale having
been "adjusted"?) ... the following is "new scale"(?) extract:
| Verbal score | Mathematics score|
|__________________|__________________|
School year|Total| Male|Female|Total| Male|Female|
___________|_____|_____|______|_____|_____|______|
1966-67 ...| 543| 540| 545| 516| 535| 495|
2003-04 ...| 508| 512| 504| 518| 537| 501|
2004-05 ...| 508| 513| 505| 520| 538 504|
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:31:18 -0600
Al Balmer writes:
Regardless, well-sourced statistics recently posted here showed that
literacy in the US has been improving over recent years. In any case,
don't you find a large change in a single year just a bit suspicious?
so in the original post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#21 Sat Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
referenced several previous posts mentioning some aspects of the subject.
a few of the previously mentioned posts including references to
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/facts_overview.html
and extracts from the 2003, National Assessment of Adult Literacy
for instance one such mentioned post was:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#42
which included some camparisions to other "high-income countries"
(US ranking ranging between 14 and 19 out of 19).
and the SAT verbal score (i.e. non-math, more related to reading and
literacy) in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#24 Sat Reading and Match Scores Show Decline
from:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_127.asp
shows decline from 543 in the 66-67 school year to 499 in the 92-93 school
years ... and then climbed back up to 508 in the 03-04 school year where
it stayed for the 04-05 school year.
so the cited article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/education/30sat.html?ex=1157601600&en=b251a151ba57e85b&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS
says that the avg. score fell five points from 508 to 503.
note from the referenced table
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_127.asp
there was also a five point increase between 93-94 (499) and 94-95
(504), a two point drop between 00-01 (506) to 01-02 (504) and a three
point gain between 01-02 (504) to 02-03 (507).
after a relative rapid ten percent score drop over ten year period
(from 66-67 school year) ... there had been a year-to-year one percent
or less fluctuation (hitting a low of 499 in the 90-91 and 93-94
school years and a high of 508 in the 03-04 and 04-05 school years).
Admired designs / designs to study
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Admired designs / designs to study
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:46:06 -0600
eugene@cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya) writes:
Yeah, but in the end, I didn't have to buy it at $100K per CPU/license.
it was sort of self-justifying. a box built for around $1k (as part of
mainframe tcp/ip support), they wanted to charge @$40k the
justification was that the forcast market for the box was only the
tss/370 unix installations ... and there was a forcasted maximum of 14
such installations. as a result they had to amortized the full
corporate documentation, sales, marketing, etc ... across a maximum
projected sales of 14 boxes.
there was something of a chicken and egg scenario that the prices were
so high because the forcast was so small and the forcast was so small
because the price was so high.
actually they started out saying that they weren't going to allow
mainframe tcp/ip products at all ... and then they fell back to the
position that the only market for mainframe tcp/ip products were the
maximum 14 projected tss/370 unix installations.
somewhat related ... the eventual box sold was crippled in other ways
(besides the price). it was eventually sold to other than tss/370 unix
installations running other mainframe operating systems ... typical
operation got 44mbyte/sec sustained thruput burning a 3090 processor.
misc. past posts implementing rfc 1044 support and some testing at
cray research getting 1mbyte sustained thruput
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044
What part of z/OS is the OS?
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What part of z/OS is the OS?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 17:36:16 -0600
Alan_Altmark@ibm-main.lst (Alan Altmark) writes:
LOL. "Simplest terms". No kidding there!
I suggest Madnick & Donovan's "Operating Systems" textbook (McGraw-Hill,
1974), the one everyone seemed to use back in college in the Good Ol'
Days. (Remember? Icky yellow book? Appearing in garage sales all over
town these days?)
According to them, an operating system manages memory, processors,
devices, and information. "Information" in their model is the file
system. They discuss 3 ways of viewing the operating system:
- resource view
- process view
- Hierarchical/extended machine view
No discussion of transaction systems or databases (those are
applications), but lots of talk about how OS/MVT and VM/370 are
structured.
note stu worked at the science center in the 60s and early 70s
(virtual machine and cp67 days)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
among other things, stu implemented cms script ... that supported
"dot" formating commands (similar to runoff). later, at the science
center, "G", "M", and "L" invented gml ... and gml tag processing was
added to script (for quite awhile you could find gml tags intermixed
with "dot" formating controls in script documents).
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
old post mentioning document formating history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003o.html#32 who invented the "popup" ?
PDP-1 Expensive Typewriter (Peter Sampson) about 1962
CTSS RUNOFF (Jerry Saltzer) 1964-65
CMS SCRIPT (Stuart E. Madnick) 1967
CTSS BCPL runoff (Rudd Canaday, Dennis Ritchie) 1967-68
Multics BCPL runoff (Canaday, Ritchie, Ossanna) 1968
UNIX troff (J. F. Ossanna) dunno
...
misc other past posts mentioning madnick
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#91 Documentation query
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000e.html#0 What good and old text formatter are there ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#50 IBM 705 computer manual
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#54 DSRunoff; was Re: TECO Critique
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002b.html#46 ... the need for a Museum of Computer Software
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#67 Coulda, Woulda, Shoudda moments?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#73 Specifying all biz rules in relational data
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#74 Specifying all biz rules in relational data
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005e.html#34 Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard
Greatest Software Ever Written?
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Greatest Software Ever Written?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 18:31:51 -0600
"Mickey" writes:
Well yes, when compared to C and Java, COBOL looks good. But anything
that can be done in 2000 lines of COBOL can be done in 200 lines of
Rexx, and 600 lines on PL/1. COBOL is verbose, and if I want verbose,
there is always my sister-in-law.
early rex item in the (internal) vmnews letter (21aug79)
http://www.rexxla.org/About_Rexx/mfc/rexnews1.txt
another rexx historical reference:
http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/ieee/af_forum/read.cfm?forum=10&id=21&thread=7
object rexx was created in 1997 ...and now available
http://www.oorexx.org/
http://www.oorexx.org/products.html
my misc. past postings about doing "dumprx" in rex ... wanting
to demonstrate that rex wasn't just another pretty scripting
langauge (like EXEC and EXEC2)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#dumprx
a much simpler rex program i wrote in 80 ... from long ago and far away:
/* supply list of biggest pigs of CP spool system */
hi='1de8'x; lo='1d60'x; /* Bright up/down */
'DEPTH'
if rc<=1 then do
hi=' '; lo=' '; end
else 'CLEAR'
arg na; if na ^='' then do
if datatype(na) ^= 'NUM' then signal tell
end
else na = 19;
db=0
if db then say time() 'at entry'
parse value cpa('CPR QUERY FILES') with 'FILES:' rdr ' RDR, ' prt ' PRT, ' pun ' PUN'
rdr=strip(rdr,'B')
prt=strip(prt,'B')
pun=strip(pun,'B')
if rdr = 'NO' then rdr = 0
if prt = 'NO' then prt = 0
if pun = 'NO' then pun = 0
rdr = rdr + 0; prt = prt + 0; pun = pun + 0;
ku=0; kf = 0; kr = 0; sw = 0;
qcls = 'PUN'
call Qrdr
if rln ^> pun then sw = sw + 1
if db then say time() rln 'pun'
qcls = 'PRT'
call Qrdr
if rln ^> prt then sw = sw + 1
if db then say time() rln 'prt'
qcls = 'RDR'
call Qrdr
if rln ^> rdr then sw = sw + 1
if db then say time() rln 'rdr'
if sw ^= 0 then signal xx
yy:
'MAKEBUF'
kuk = 0
do i=1 to ku
name = nar.i
if k.name > 0 then do
queue right(k.name,8) || ' ' || name || ' ' || f.name
kuk = kuk + 1
end
end
queue
'TSORT 1 8 (REVERSE'
do i=1 to kuk
if i > na then leave
pull recs name files
if recs < 100 then leave
say left(name,9) || right(files,4) || ' files ' || right(recs,7) || ' records'
end
'DESBUF'
say 'total: ' || hi || right(kf,4) || lo || 'files' || hi || right(kr,7) || lo || 'records'
tot = rdr + prt + pun
say 'FILES: ' || right(tot,5) || ' tot, ' || right(rdr,4) || ' rdr, ' || right(prt,4) || ' prt, ' || right(pun,4) || ' pun'
exit
Qrdr:
parse value cpa('CP QUERY' qcls) with . . . . rln .
if rln < 2 then return
parse value cpa('R') with owner . /* check header line */
if owner = 'OWNERID' then ss = 1
else ss = 0
do rl=2 to rln
parse value cpa('R') with name fnum clas type records rest
if datatype(records)^='NUM' then do
say 'Arrgh! records var "'records'" not numeric in:'
say name fnum clas type records rest
say 'name' name 'fnum' fnum 'clas' clas 'type' type
iterate rl
end
if type='DMP' then records=records*50 /* for CP dumps each is a whole page*/
else records=(records+49)%50*50 /* round to nearest page assuming cards */
if records=0 then do
say 'Erk! Recs=0?' name fnum clas type records rest
end
if s.name ^= 0 then do
ku = ku + 1
nar.ku = name
s.name = 0
f.name = 0
k.name = 0
end
if ss = 1 then do
f.name = f.name + 1
kf = kf + 1
k.name = k.name + records
kr = kr + records
end
end
return
xx:
if db then say 'xx routine entered'
qcls = ' RDR * '
call Qrdr
do i = 1 to 26
z = substr('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ',I,1)
qcls = ' RDR CL ' || z
call Qrdr
end
kf = 0; kr = 0;
do j=1 to ku
name = nar.j
f.name = 0; k.name = 0;
qcls = ' RDR ' || nar.j
call Qnamx
qcls = ' PRT ' || nar.j
call Qnamx
qcls = ' PUN ' || nar.j
call Qnamx
end
signal yy
Qnamx:
x=cpa('CP QUERY ' || qcls); parse var x . . . . rln .
do rl=1 to rln
x=cpa('R') /* read next line from Q N response */
parse var x garb fnum clas type records rest
if datatype(records) ^= 'NUM' then iterate
if s.garb ^= 0 then do
ku = ku + 1
nar.ku = garb
s.garb = 0
end
f.name = f.name + 1
k.name = k.name + records
kf = kf + 1; kr = kr + records
end
return
--------
Tell:
parse source . . . . . me .
say ' ' me ' < no. > '
say 'displays number of spool files and records allocated by user'
say '(sorted by no. records). Top 19 users (or number specified)'
say 'are displayed.'
exit 100
/* Lynn Wheeler */
/* November 80 */
Greatest Software Ever Written?
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Greatest Software Ever Written?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:26:44 -0600
Brian Inglis writes:
Compare to something using CMS pipes and Unix-like commands:
'CP Q RDR' | sort +1rn | head -19
With Unix tools, you can knock out "top ten" lists for any resource
you can measure in a trice, sometimes using an awk one-liner to
summarize numbers.
i have numerous examples similar to that now ...
earliest record that i have to hartmann and cms pipes is in 87 ... 6-7
years after the posted rex example.
earliest customer reference is end of 88 ... from vmshare archives:
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/browse?fn=PIPELINE&ft=MEMO
leading up to that, john had done other things like toy ... contribution
for John's 50th b'day
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/96.html#4a John Hartmann's Birthday Party
the above contains abstract of talk John gave at a conference I
held mar82.
John's 50th b'day web pages
http://vm.marist.edu/~piper/party/jph-01.html
a few other posts mentioning john
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#33 Over-the-shoulder effect
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#39 System/360 40th Anniversary
old email from john
To: wheeler
Date: 07/17/78 17:22:00
Hi, Lynn. Howi is life in sunny California? I have bben studying the
SEPP scheduler a bit to figure out how the various things are computed
etc. Rich Kogut said that no-one can understand all of it (maybe
except for you) and I tend to agree with him. If you can, please
explain about
1. Around statement 301600 the guy who gets compute bound is inserted
in the runlist based on a recomputed priority, but VMEPRIOR is re-set
to the original priority after he has been inserted. Why does the
priority not correspond to where he is in the list? It must screw up
the addlist routine.
2. The working set calculation is based on the calculation of max
resident pages * max+1 (which is pages squared) which is subtracted
from the sum of resident pages at read plus the currently resident
pages (I cant decide what the unit of this is: pages times page reads,
I think). This is like comparing apples and pears (isnt it). What is
the reasoning behind this. Around line 713100.
3. Calculating the delay based on the external user priority certainly
keeps the high speed multiply on a 168 busy, but why was it not made
as a table look-up? Lines 740100.
Thanks a lot. John Hartmann 17JUL78 17:36 CET.
... snip ... top of post, old email index
Greatest Software Ever Written?
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Greatest Software Ever Written?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:35:48 -0600
Anne & Lynn Wheeler writes:
John's 50th b'day web pages
http://vm.marist.edu/~piper/party/jph-01.html
one of the things that is strange ... reading the reference web page,
john is order than i am.
ref
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#28 Greatest Software Ever Written?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#27 Greatest Software Ever Written?
"25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:13:56 -0600
"Jukka Aho" writes:
I had a fully automated setup where I only needed to select the boards
to call from the phone book of a terminal program, go away for a
coffee (or whatever), and come back a little bit later to find the
Amiga offline and new messages loaded in a message reader. Scripts
would handle logon, uploading my reply packet, downloading new
messages, checking the file areas for a list of recently uploaded new
files, logout, unpacking the new message packet, and, finally, loading
it into an offline reader.
part of the early migration to c/s and then to 3-tier ... was moving
out of the terminal emulation paradigm. ibm/pcs started to see rapid
uptake in business environments because a single desk footprint could
both emulate mainframe terminal as well as provide some amount of
local interactive computing.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation
we had been doing terminal emulation scripting using mainframe virtual
terminal facility ... earlier with parasite/story ... first showed up
about the same time as the early rex ...
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#28 Greatest Software Ever Written
some of the syntax was similar to rex ... but was completely different.
old parasite/story terminal scripting ... a few old parasite/story
postings:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#35 Newbie TOPS-10 7.03 question
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#73 Computer resources, past, present, and future
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#24 Red Phosphor Terminal?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#14 were dumb terminals actually so dumb???
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#3 PVM protocol documentation found
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#14 Program execution speed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#37 Over my head in a JES exit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#35 Draft Command Script Processing Manual
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#23 sorting was: The System/360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That
for some time, there was period that view the components of 3-tier as
independent ... this post mentioning project vis-a-vis personal
computers ... as alternatives. there is such a discussion in this
report about bell labs from the early 80s
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#56 AT&T Labs vs. Google Labs - R&D History
from recent thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#28 Greatest Software Ever Written?
one of the rex historical references:
http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/ieee/af_forum/read.cfm?forum=10&id=21&thread=7
from above:
By far the most important influence on the development of Rexx was the
availability of the IBM electronic network, called VNET. In 1979, more
than three hundred of IBM's mainframe computers, mostly running the
Virtual Machine/370 (VM) operating system, were linked by VNET. This
store-and-forward network allowed very rapid exchange of messages
(chat) and e-mail, and reliable distribution of software. It made it
possible to design, develop, and distribute Rexx and its first
implementation from one country (the UK) even though most of its users
were five to eight time zones distant, in the USA.
... snip ...
i.e. and i've periodically noted that the internal network
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
had nearly 1000 nodes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/internet.htm#22
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#3 Arpa address
compared to possibly 250 nodes at the great arpanet/internet switch
from arapnet to internworking protocol on 1/1/83
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#40 Arpa address
the attached email references some evolution of 2-tier operation
... just between "mainframes" ... i.e. typical glass house operation
... like HONE that had been providing world wide online interactive
support to all field, marketing, and sales
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
... and the "project" or "departmental" 43xx machines that were
starting to find their way into the branch offices.
To: wheeler
Date: 07/06/81 14:50:37
Hi Lynn,
I've just return from 10 glorious weeks in New York. I had the
privilege of attending SRI. Now that I'm back in the trenches I am
trying to get caught up on what's been happening in the real
world. How did your HyperChannel setup work out? Seems to me that it
could be a possible solution for a project I'm working on. If you have
a few minutes give me a call or send a message with your ideas to the
following:
We are trying to provide central maintenance for VM and VSE to the
Customer Support Centers located in about 150 branch offices. Initially
I have convinced 14 to work with me to develop the methodology to do so.
The CSCs have 4331 Model Group 2 with 4 meg and will run a VM/VSE
environment most of the time if not always. Central maintenence will
involve problem determination, PTF application, and component distribution.
The base systems will be generated here and distributed on tape but
looking to the future we expect to provide electronic distribution.
My biggest concern is what facility to use for bulk data communications.
So far I have agreement from Tampa to use the 56KB SNA backbone, and
from SBS to use an undetermined bandwidth (all the cities I selected
will have earth stations in the near future). Initially I will use
existing 9600 bps lines. If I use conventional TP, I am limited to
56KB due to the 4331 ICA. If I can sell something like the HyperChannel
I could take advantage of the satillite's higher speed (cost will be
a definite issue).
In any case your ideas will be appreciated. If you think it would be
beneficial to get together I can arrange that too. Be talking to you.
... snip ... top of post, old email index
part of the reference in the above is that HSDT (high-speed data
transport) project activity had already started ... using initially
terrestrial T1 (and non-sna protocol) ... and then adding satellite T1
links (for a while, hsdt even had its own dedicated transponder on
sbs4)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
we even got to be VIPs at the 41D launch for SBS4
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-41D.html
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/41-d/mission-41-d.html
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/41-d/41-d-info.html
so what we started to see progressing (somewhat in parallel) was the
proliferation of 2-tier operation between glass house and
department/project computers ... and the evolution of terminal
emulation PC operation into 2-tier (and client/server) operation.
the proliferation of these two, somewhat independent (2-tier) activities
started to then to evolve and coalesce into early, internal 3-tier
operations.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#3tier
however, by the time we were starting to make marketing presentations
to customer executives on 3-tier ... the SAA effort was moving into
full swing ... somewhat directed at trying to contain 2-tier,
client/server ... and protect the existing terminal emulation install
base as long as possible.
OT - hand-held security
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: OT - hand-held security
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:03:01 -0600
Alan_Altmark@ibm-main.lst (Alan Altmark) writes:
And, more importantly, change. I know of a large multinational IT company
that has a 90-day password change policy, applying to system AND network
access. It doesn't close the window completely, of course, but it *does*
reduce risk.
- How long since I changed my pw did I lose/throw away my smartphone?
- How long did it take someone to find it?
- How long did it take them to break into it?
- How long did it take them to figure out it it was worthwhile to try it?
Polices that suspend network/system access due to inactivity help as well.
passwords and other shared-secrets paradigms
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#secrets
are something you know authentication ... out of the 3-factor
authentication model
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#3factor
some number of the tokens are something you have authentication
... but they also use some sort of "secret" to "prove" the possession
of a unique object.
the issue in the "secret" paradigms ... is that the threat models
involves leakage of the secret (especially when it is stored and used
in so many places) and cross-domain exploits ... i.e. passwords and/or
secret-based tokens require a unique value for every security domain
... as a countermeasure to entities in one domain attacking another
domain, a form of insider attack as opposed to various outsider
attacks skimming/harvesting secret.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#harvest
part of the requirement for frequent secret changes is that secrets
can leak (guessing, skimming, evesdropping, harvesting) w/o the
entities being aware .. and then authentication replay attacks. this
can happen with some forms of tokens (like magstripe), which may also
be susceptible to evesdropping, skimming, harvesting attacks and the
creation of counterfeit token for replay attacks. The issue of a
purely something you have token, the person can notice a lost/stolen
compromise and report it. However, a guessing, skimming, evesdropping,
harvesting compromise might occur w/o the person being aware of it
happening.
for cross-domain exploit and other reasons, there has also been a
instititional-centric paradigm for hardware tokens ... i.e. each
institution issues their own hardware tokens. I've frequently
commented that if this were to ever take off ... you then would have
one hardware token for every pin/password (which is scores or even on
the order of hundred for some people).
I've periodically drawn the analogy with the mid-80s use of unique
floppy disks as a DRM paradigm for applications programs
... i.e. appearance of hard disks was evolving installation of
applications. There was early use of specially coded floppy disks as a
DRM countermeasure to software pirating. If this paradigm ever had a
large uptake ... there could be computers with hundreds of associated
unique floppy disks (one per application) that the person would have
to continually shuffle as they switched between applications. In the
case of emerging token use, having a hundred or so tokens stuffed into
a (very large) pocket.
As an aside, about the time of the ibm/pc announcement there were some
investigation into adding a unique serial number chip to each
motherboard and a software licensing paradigm ... similar to
mainframe, based on storing the cpu identifier.
there are two-factor authentication schemes using both a pin/password
(something you know) and a token (something you have), as a
countermeasure to lost/stolen token. the issue here is an assumption
that the multiple factors are subject to independent vulnerabilities.
however, you find some of the pin/magstripe implementations being
vulnerable to a common skimming compromise (i.e. both the magstripe
and pin is recorded at the same), invalidating the assumption about
independent vulnerabilities.
a similar infrastructure problem showed up with the two-factor
chip&pin deployments (with pin as countermeasure to
lost/stolen token). the chip would present some static data
authentication (as proof of having the unique something you
have) and then the infrastructure would ask the token if the
correct pin was entered. the attackers would skim the static data (in
much the same way that magstripes are being skimmed) and use it to
produce a counterfeit yes card. once the static data had been
checked by the infrastructure, the chip would be asked some number of
additional questions about business processes (like whether the
correct pin was entered) ... and, of course, the counterfeit yes
card would always answer YES (from where the exploit got
its name).
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm22.htm#29 Meccano Trojans coming to a desktop near you
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#29 DDA cards may address the UK Chip&Pin woes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#32 DDA cards may address the UK Chip&Pin woes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#4 Crypto to defend chip IP: snake oil or good idea?
Again there wasn't an independent vulnerbility for the PIN entry
... and independent exploit assumptions regarding multi-factor
authentication was no longer valid.
a few past posts discussing enabling token person-centric
infrastructure as an alternative to institution-centric infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#49 Crypto to defend chip IP: snake oil or good idea?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm24.htm#52 Crypto to defend chip IP: snake oil or good idea?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#7 Crypto to defend chip IP: snake oil or good idea?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#47 Maximum RAM and ROM for smartcards
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005g.html#57 Security via hardware?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#37 public key authentication
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#6 Innovative password security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#25 Hi-tech no panacea for ID theft woes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#28 RSA SecurID product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#26 RSA SecurID product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006d.html#41 Caller ID "spoofing"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#20 Gen 2 EPC Protocol Approved as ISO 18000-6C
SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:19:35 -0600
kkt writes:
I agree that the reason more kids were interested in going to college
is that more and more decent jobs decided to only hire college grads,
even when the job doesn't actually require anything they learned
there. Quite a waste, really.
there was a big deal made in the early to mid-80s about Japanese
companies setting up operations here in the US, finding that they had
to require a minimum of junior college degree in order to get what
they were use to in high school level graduates.
thread reference:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#21 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#23 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#24 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#25 SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline
"25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:20:28 -0600
appended is another project/departmental reference from the early 80s
... similar to the 150 4331s for US branch offices mentioned in
(from long ago and far away)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#31 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
this is for european branch offices and is referred to as BOIS ...
involving 4341s in EMEA (europe, middle east, and africa) branch
offices.
the bois/ddp represents another emerging 2-tier paradigm with
project/departmental computers moving out into the branch offices (but
operated, supported, maintained, and interconnected into old style
glass house operation).
some of the services were an adjunct to HONE ... the internal
world-wide online interactive system for field, sales, and marketing
started in the early 70s with cp67/cms systems.
a few other past posts mentioning departmental and/or distributed
computer stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#15 departmental servers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#23 Alpha vs. Itanic: facts vs. FUD
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#2 The demise of compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#7 The demise of compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#4 IBM Mainframe at home
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#52 Bettman Archive in Trouble
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#30 CDC6600 - just how powerful a machine was it?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#4 HONE, ****, misc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003d.html#64 IBM was: VAX again: unix
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#46 What makes a mainframe a mainframe?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003o.html#24 Tools -vs- Utility
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004.html#46 DE-skilling was Re: ServerPak Install via QuickLoad Product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004j.html#57 Monster(ous) sig (was Re: Vintage computers are better
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004k.html#23 US fiscal policy (Was: Bob Bemer, Computer Pioneer,Father of
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#71 will there every be another commerically signficant new ISA?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#49 Secure design
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#12 IBM's mini computers--lack thereof
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#27 X.509 and ssh
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#56 AT&T Labs vs. Google Labs - R&D History
from long ago and far away ...
From: wheeler
Date: 9/12/82
Subject: VM Trip 6/19 to 7/29
This summer I visited four European locations to review VM/370 use and
teach VM/370 classes. The locations were Orleans France, Zurich
Switzerland, Stockholm Sweden, and Boeblingen Germany. In addition, on
the return trip, I stopped in London and visited a couple UK
locations, gave a talk to a group of UK SEs, and made a customer call
at Imperial College.
The locations represent a wide diversity in load, purpose,
configuration, and users. In spite of this, there was a large
commonality in the problems they face.
I spent two weeks at Orleans, France teaching a one week VM/370
internals course and reviewing their system and projects for a week.
I had already taught the VM/370 internals course in San Jose the week
prior to going to Europe. The San Jose class included 8-10 people from
IBM education who are in the process of developing an official IBM
VM/370 internal class. I also traveled to Paris and gave an one hour
VM/370 introduction to some IBM France executives.
Orleans France is the DP administrative headquarters for IBM
France. It has a large DP machine room complex running several large
systems. Except for a 168AP, all the systems are MVS (and among other
things the AAS system for IBM France is located here). The VM 168AP
system is used primarily for the delivery of a single data base
inquiry application to IBM Branch offices in France and EMEA
headquarters in Paris. The application is referred to as BOIS (branch
office information system ... unfortunately there are also a number
of different things around in the States which are also referred to as
BOIS) and is a high level inquiry application interface allowing
complex queries to be performed against the information in the AAS
data base. Every evening the complete IBM France AAS data base is
copied from the MVS system to various CMS minidisks. The BOIS
applications are built on the APL/DI product.
BOIS was initially a pilot application project done by IBM France, but
intended for eventual used throughout IBM Europe. It has been
operational for less than a year, but the 168AP is already severely
overloaded. To help ease the problem, a 158AP was in the process of
being installed while I was there.
Follow on plans for BOIS call for the migration of the application to
a group of distributed 4341s. These 4341s would also be used to
deliver other types of data processing applications to the branch
offices (electronic mail, text processing, etc.). This project is
referred to as DDP (distributed data processing) and several
machines will be initially installed in one machine room (near the
Orly airport) to implement the pilot.
The current BOIS implementation is extremely CPU intensive even though
it is a large data base application. On the current 168AP, under peak
load, response time for inquiries can run to 30 minutes or more. In
the case of the execution of a single BOIS virtual machine, over 90%
of the elapsed time is spent in CPU consumption. To significantly
improve the performance of the application will require the CPU
consumption to be drastically reduced. The CPU requirements of BOIS
will have to be reduced by at least 70-80 percent before I/O activity
begins to represent a significant resource bottleneck.
The new 158AP VM system for BOIS will share some of the same packs as
the 168AP. Since the available CPU is being increased by less than
30%, the increase in I/O loading on the shared packs will not be
significant. The proposed BOIS-DDP plan will further minimize the
possibility of I/O activity becoming a critical bottleneck. Only a
subset of the total AAS data will be present on a particular 4341
(only the data for the branch offices using that machine). There will
be fewer requests against the files on each drive, and the size of the
files will be smaller (requiring less search time/IOs to process each
request).
Eventually the BOIS application will be in use all over Europe. The
total amount of people time spent using BOIS will become quite
significant. Even relative insignificant improvements in BOIS
performance will represent large people time savings for the IBM
company. Using this as a justification, it should be feasible to
create a project to optimize the efficiency of the BOIS
application. The major portion of the BOIS application is APL/DI.
Without knowing anything about the APL/DI implementation, I can
suggest a couple possible areas that might result in major CPU
consumption reductions.
The HONE system in the States is heavily dependent on APL applications
for most of their services. They have discovered that what is taught
as good APL coding techniques (short, one to ten line programs)
represent extremely bad performing applications (the majority of the
CPU time is spent in the APL supervisor linkage routines). Factors of
five or more in performance improvement have been achieved by
performance optimization of critical APL applications (replacing 1-10
line programs with 30-50 line programs). Another possibility is to
recode high use functions in assembler or PLS and use one of the
numerous APL exit routines to call compiled, machine-language code.
The BOIS-DDP project has a requirement to develop new support (a
problem being faced by a large number of other VM-DDP projects, both
inside and outside the company),
• remote machines w/o on-site DP-professionals