List of Archived Posts
2008 Newsgroup Postings (02/07 - 02/23)
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- What happened to resumable instructions?
- Spammers' bot cracks Microsoft's CAPTCHA
- Govt demands password to personal computer
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- How Safe Are Your Personal Records In The Hands Of Government Officials?
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Govt demands password to personal computer
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- Javascript disabled in Firefox
- Remembering The Search For Jim Gray, A Year Later
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Kerberized authorization service
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
- Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
- Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
- COTS software on box ? to replace mainframe was Re: Curious(?) way to ZIP a mainframe file
- outsourcing moving up value chain
- Throwaway cores
- Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
- COTS software on box ? to replace mainframe was Re: Curious(?) way to ZIP a mainframe file
- VM/370 Release 6 Waterloo tape (CIA MODS)
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- Prison pushes for exploitation of slave labor of prisoners
- Throwaway cores
- Linux zSeries questions
- VM/370 Release 6 Waterloo tape (CIA MODS)
- Linux zSeries questions
- CPU time differences for the same job
- It has been a long time since Ihave seen a printer
- Throwaway cores
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Throwaway cores
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Throwaway cores
- Fwd: Linux zSeries questions
- Linux zSeries questions
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Formerly common things
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Interesting ibm about the myths of the Mainframe
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Time to rewrite DBMS, says Ingres founder
- Throwaway cores
- Regarding the virtual machines
- Regarding the virtual machines
- Time to rewrite DBMS, says Ingres founder
- Interesting ibm about the myths of the Mainframe
- Price of CPU seconds
- Price of CPU seconds
- Price of CPU seconds
- Richard Feynman, the Challenger Disaster, and Software Engineering
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- Escaping decades of hidden app development inefficiency and expense
- was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
- The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband Nationally
- Berkeley researcher describes parallel path
- Migration from Mainframe to othre platforms - the othe bell?
- Migration from Mainframe to othre platforms - the othe bell?
- The hands-free way to steal a credit card
- Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
- U.S. Science Funding Hits a Political Wall
- Berkeley researcher describes parallel path
- The hands-free way to steal a credit card
- Berkeley researcher describes parallel path
- Berkeley researcher describes parallel path
- z10 presentation on 26 Feb
- Database Pioneer Rethinks The Best Way To Organize Data
- 1998 vs. 2008: A Tech Retrospective
- The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband Nationally
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:49:48
sidd@situ.com () writes:
the Case-Shiller index now shows that home prices have dropped 7.7%
over the last year. OFHEO shows a smaller decline (for a different set
of houses). even the NAR today admitted that prices would drop a
little this year. Merrill Lynch sees 20% more. Other observers are
calling 30%.
easy (irrational?) credit would have added significantly to home price
inflation ... one scenario is transition to more restrictive (rational)
credit policies, the boom in real estate valuation would have to
experience adjustment (deflation) ... back to some level that would
correspond to what would have happened if there hadn't been so much easy
credit and bad loans.
in the past, when the fed lowered prime, there would be economic
stimulus with increased borrowing/loans because of an increase on the
demand side (borrowers finding lower rates more attractive).
in the current scenario, there has been so much easy/bad credit
... there is now quite a bit of downward adjustment on the supply side
(compared to what it had been; the prime rate previously having
represented little or no barrier on either the supply or demand
side). it would be very hard for prime rate incentives for the demand
side to compensate for the downside adjustment on the supply side
(lending institutions adjusting to more rational loan policies).
some of this could also be attributed to individuals on the loan side
... having had significant compensation in the past for their brilliant
judgements ... which now has been shown to be significantly flawed ...
now there is some amount of decision paralysis ... having made so many
thoroughly bad loans, they may be quite gun shy going forward, making
new loan decisions; over adjustment for significant amount of past
mistakes. recent decision paralysis post:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#75 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What happened to resumable instructions?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:46:48
slegel writes:
I just noticed this thread today. I see there is a lot of speculation
and incorrect statements, so let me try to clarify.
First, from a processor implementation point of view, there is no
problem with the old-style MVCL/CLCL interruptible instructions. At
appropriate points based on pending interrupts and potential page
crossings leading to an access exception, the millicode exits from
their execution and sets the GRs and PSW appropriately to continue
later. There is no risk of checkstops and it is perfectly well
architected to handle a page fault in the middle, as some have
speculated.
The reason for the new CC3-style interruptible instructions is very
simple. It was requested by software developers (both internal and
external to IBM). It allows more flexibility in handling other system
activity that is not interrupt driven. So for example, software can
go off and perform some housekeeping while a long running MVCLE is
executing. Note that POPS requires the processor to exit with a CC3
every (approximately) 4KB processed. So for a multi-page move, the
overhead of starting and stopping can actually slow down the
throughput of the move very slightly.
I would expect that all future interruptible ops be of the CC3-style.
That said, there will be at least one new interruptible version of an
existing instruction announced soon, however, it is an instruction
never used by the vast majority of software developers.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#67 What happened to resumable instructions?
long storage-to-storage operations with lots of accesses back to real
storage ... is costing ever increasing number of processor cycles (as
mismatch between processor speed and memory speed increases) ... recent
reference
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#92 CPU time differences for the same job
one could claim that nearly the same effective results (cc3-style) could
be achieved for old-style interruptable instructions under program
control ... but requiring a few more registers for loop control ... i.e.
actual length is kept in other registers and the lengths used for
mvcl/clcl instructions being limited (to 4096).
there are other thruput issues associated with long storage-to-storage
operations; even back to working on original mainframe tcp/ip product
implementation.
at the time, some of the competitive tcp/ip implementations were looking
at 5k pathlength and five buffer copies ... and there was comparison
with something like 150k instruction pathlength and 16 buffer copies for
lu6.2. at that time, assuming 8kbyte NFS size buffer ... the processor
overhead for the 16 (LU6.2) 8kbyte storage-to-storage buffer copy
operations exceeded the processor time for the rest of the pathlength.
the other factor that some processors provided was cache-bypass,
storage-to-storage instructions. Large number of significant sized
storage-to-storage operations ... not only has ever increasing
significant overhead in terms of processor cycles ... but can have an
extremely detrimental effect on cache occupancy (the actual data in most
of the buffers has little probability of ever being needed in the cache,
but replacing data that would be needed).
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Spammers' bot cracks Microsoft's CAPTCHA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:21:37
Spammers' bot cracks Microsoft's CAPTCHA; Bot beats Windows Live Mail's
registration test 30% to 35% of the time, says Websense
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9061558
from above:
The bot, said Hubbard, grabs the CAPTCHA -- which is not plain text but
actually an image -- and sends it back to the spammer's server, where
the image is somehow "read" and a clear text match is generated. The
text is then sent back to Live Mail, where it's plugged into the box
where users normally type the CAPTCHA characters.
... snip ...
past posts mentioning CAPTCHA
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#20 Dumb anti-MITM hacks / CAPTCHA application
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#3 Request for comments - anti-phishing approach
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#66 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#2 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#19 Yahoo's CAPTCHA Security Reportedly Broken
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#23 Yahoo's CAPTCHA Security Reportedly Broken
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Govt demands password to personal computer
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:25:56
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#67 Govt demands password to personal computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#68 Govt demands password to personal computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#72 Govt demands password to personal computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#59 Govt demands password to personal computer
somewhat related item:
Consumers Favor PINs Over Banks' Debit Payment Needles; Contact-less and
signature-based authorizations are not preferred because consumers
believe the methods favored by banks are less secure, a Gartner survey
found.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206106236
from above:
According to a survey of 4,500 online U.S. adults, the marketing push
has failed to steer most consumers away from the use of PINs, Gartner
said. Consumers refuse to change because they believe the methods
favored by banks are less secure.
Consumers prefer entering a PIN when using a debit card over all types
of signature-based card payments, whether credit or debit, Gartner
found. Banks promote signature-based debit payments because they earn
more fee revenue from card-accepting merchants.
Banks charge more on the premise that signature-based payments are
riskier and more prone to theft.
... snip ...
one of the issues discussed in this thread is certain kind of
vulnerabilities with debit transactions when signature debit was
introduced ... even when it might involve a card that had never been
used.
another debit card vulnerability that crops up with signature debit ...
can involve debit cards that are enabled for both signature debit and
pin-debit. even if the card is only used in pin-debit mode ... it would
still be possible for a crook to skim the magstripe, create a
counterfeit card ... and use the card in signature debit mode .... w/o
ever knowing the pin.
this is somewhat analogous to part of the x9.59 standard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959
referenced in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#89 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
about account numbers used for x9.59 transaction can not be used in any
other kinds of transactions.
it usually involves special request now, but it is possible to obtain a
debit card that can only be used in pin-debit mode.
note that past studies have found signature debit has 15 times the fraud
of pin debit ... misc. past references:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#21 Debit Cards HACKED now
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#24 Debit Cards HACKED now
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#59 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#15 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#60 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#12 IBM Unionization
... for other topic drift ... in the same time frame as the x9a10
financial standard working group effort on the x9.59 financial
standard for retail payments ... there were a number of other
efforts that attempted to come up with specifications for small
pieces of the overall problems.
some of the other work was doing internet specific specification,
but wasn't applicable to point-of-sale and involved enormous
payload and processing bloat
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#bloat
other work in the period was for chipcards that could only be used at
point-of-sale ... but specification wasn't useable for internet
(card-not-present, cardholder-not-present, MOTO) transactions ...
and had other deficiencies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#yescard
a problem with using PIN-debit in internet environment is that the PIN
is a shared-secret ... and is to be kept confidential and never divulged
(which is difficult to achieve in an internet environment)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#secrets
there were various attempts in the early part of this decade to
introduce various debit-based products for the internet environment
(even some that had specification very similar to x9.59
protocol). however, there was large disconnect between the merchants
and the financial institutions which has never been resolved. As per
the referenced article, the merchants have gotten use to the
justification that (significantly higher) interchange fees are
proportional to products' vulnerability to fraud. For a product that
eliminated nearly all of the existing fraud ... it follows that there
would be much lower interchange fees. The counter offer was that since
such products eliminated nearly all the fraud, the interchange fees
should carry a premium over and above the products that were
vulnerable to lots of fraud.
the x9a10 financial standard working group there was work on making the
resulting (x9.59) standard (light weight and) applicable to all possible
environments (including being able to meet iso 14443 contactless power
profile within transit gate timing constraints) ... w/o sacrificing any
security.
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:29:58
krw <krw@att.bizzzzzzzzzz> writes:
Tax returns are confidential. A SSNs don't even come close to
getting you access to others' files. AFAIK, you can't even allow
others to access your IRS records. The IRS isn't in the credit
reporting business.
as part of working on x9.99 financial privacy standard ... we met with
some number of people involved in HIPAA and GLBA ... as well as people
from various agencies (including irs) involved in privacy impact
assessments. there were thousands and thousands of PIAs (across the
gov) ... and significant effort was getting them published (and all
the information that had to be redacted for publishing as part of
gov. disclosure). for small sample, use search engine restricted to
just irs.gov sites for
privacy impact assessments
the first couple
IRS Privacy Policy
http://www.irs.gov/privacy/index.html
Privacy Impact Assessments
http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=122989,00.html
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:45:38
jmfbahciv writes:
It's not only merchants these days. There are AmEx gift cards out
on the racks.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#90 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
note that from business process standpoint ... the amex gift cards are
little different from amex checks (they are bought from amex, amex
retains the float, etc) ... the introduction of electronic card
processing makes them more convenient
the original gift card processing offering to merchants is over decade
old and there was only one vendor in the market for quite some time.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: How Safe Are Your Personal Records In The Hands Of Government Officials?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:03:28
Stimpy <stimpy1997uk@yahoo.com> writes:
The lost Social Security data wasn't outsourced. It was lost between a DSS
office in the North of England and HM Revenue & Customs in London.
The missing CDs have never been found and no-one has owned up to losing them.
There's a persistent rumour that they were never sent and the whole affair
was started by a junior clerk at the DSS trying to cover up the fact he'd
forgotten to send the data.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#4 Toyoto Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
How Safe Are Your Personal Records In The Hands Of (UK) Government Officials?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208133900.htm
from above:
The loss of a CD by HM Revenue & Customs in November 2007 containing
personal and financial details of over 7 million families claiming child
benefit was swiftly followed by assurances that such a mistake would
never happen again. Then in February, an agency of the Department for
Health* admitted that over 4,000 NHS smartcards (UK cards providing
access to an individual's health records), giving potential computer
access to patient records, had been lost or stolen - and nearly a third
of these in the last year alone.
... snip ...
related discussion going on in mainframe n.g. regarding zeroization of
disks & tapes ... couple posts:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#47 Data Erasure Products
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#48 Data Erasure Products
a couple recent gov related security/privacy news items
GAO creates checklist for auditor requirements
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151234-1.html
GAO: IRS has fixed only 30 percent of security gaps
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151245-1.html
OMB wants privacy review details in FISMA reports
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151386-1.html
OMB stresses FDCC compliance means 100 percent
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151428-1.html
Panel: DOD software is at risk
http://www.fcw.com/print/22_2/policy/151347-1.html
older:
GAO: VA data still at risk
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/150225-1.html
GAO: IRS slow to fix numerous IT security gaps
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/98135-1.html
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:25:40
jmfbahciv writes:
Are you talking about traveler's checks? I can't buy them in any
old store nor off the shelf.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#90 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#5 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
the (amex) gift card business process is effectively the same as its
travelers checks ... except that the gift cards are a lot more
convenient
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Govt demands password to personal computer
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:59:44
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#3 Govt demands password to personal computer
related article:
3D Secure, give it your best short
http://digitaldebateblogs.typepad.com/digital_money/2008/02/3d-secure-give.html
from above:
How pathetic is it that when I want to buy something on the Internet
using my bank card I have do mess around typing in endless details,
numbers, codes, passwords and the like. It's all so 1994. In an a modern
economy, that sort of thing is seen as being on a par with Babylonian
clay tablets or filling out paper forms to make a SEPA Credit
Transfer. But in advanced countries, there is another way:
... snip ...
dates back to original payment gateway
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway
for a small client/server startup that had invented something called SSL
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#sslcert
and wanted to use it for something that is frequently now referred
to as electronic commerce.
misc. past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm6.htm#terror7 [FYI] Did Encryption Empower These Terrorists?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm6.htm#terror10 [FYI] Did Encryption Empower These Terrorists?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm6.htm#terror13 [FYI] Did Encryption Empower These Terrorists?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm6.htm#pcards The end of P-Cards?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay7.htm#3dsecure 3D Secure Vulnerabilities? Photo ID's and Payment Infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay7.htm#3dsecure2 3D Secure Vulnerabilities? Photo ID's and Payment Infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay7.htm#3dsecure4 3D Secure Vulnerabilities? Photo ID's and Payment Infrastructure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm7.htm#pcards5 FW: The end of P-Cards?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm7.htm#3dsecure 3D Secure Vulnerabilities?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay8.htm#epso ePSO-N 10 available on Internet
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm8.htm#3dvulner 3D Secure Vulnerabilities?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm8.htm#softpki16 DNSSEC (RE: Software for PKI)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm8.htm#3dvulner3 3D Secure Vulnerabilities?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm9.htm#3dvulner4 3D Secure Vulnerabilities?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm9.htm#3dvulner5 3D Secure Vulnerabilities?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay10.htm#17 Visa 3-D Secure vs MasterCard SPA Whitepaper (forwarded)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay10.htm#37 landscape & p-cards
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay10.htm#76 Invisible Ink, E-signatures slow to broadly catch on (addenda)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#19 IBM alternative to PKI?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#28 Proposal: A replacement for 3D Secure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#29 Proposal: A replacement for 3D Secure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#30 Proposal: A replacement for 3D Secure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#31 Proposal: A replacement for 3D Secure
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#37 ALARMED ... Only Mostly Dead ... RIP PKI
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm11.htm#38 ALARMED ... Only Mostly Dead ... RIP PKI ... part II
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#1 3D Secure GUI
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#2 3D Secure GUI
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#3 [3d-secure] NEWS: 3D-Secure and Passport
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#4 NEWS: 3D-Secure and Passport
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#5 NEWS: 3D-Secure and Passport
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#6 NEWS: 3D-Secure and Passport
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#7 NEWS: 3D-Secure and Passport
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#8 [3d-secure] 3D Secure and EMV
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm12.htm#10 [3d-secure] 3D Secure and EMV
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm15.htm#5 Is cryptography where security took the wrong branch?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm15.htm#8 Is cryptography where security took the wrong branch?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm15.htm#38 FAQ: e-Signatures and Payments
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm15.htm#39 FAQ: e-Signatures and Payments
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm17.htm#27 Re:Identity Firewall. l PKI International Consortium
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#12 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005l.html#21 The Worth of Verisign's Brand
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#3 Translation of IBM Basic Assembler to C?
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:41:40
Bernd Felsche <bernie@innovative.iinet.net.au> writes:
The "mainframe" model doesn't. The "mainframe on a stick" still can.
It's entirely feasible to build "secure" data stores that cannot be
easily hacked/interrogated. Encrypted data is useless data without a
key.
I carry around a hard disc will several gigabytes of sensitive data.
It's encrypted. Based on the present state of technology, it'd take
tens of years to crack by brute force.
a lot of the data breaches are related to the ease that the information
can be used for fraudulent transactions. some of the information has
diametrically opposing requirements ... aka that it is required to be
readily available over extended period of time for numerous business
processes ... and at the same time the information has to be keep
confidential and never divulged. this has led to our comment that even
if the planet was buried under miles of encryption, it wouldn't prevent
information leakage. the wide exposure of the information in large
number of different places ... also contributes to studies that up to
seventy percent of fraud involves insiders.
x9.59 financial standard
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959
didn't do anything about trying to protect the information ... however,
it did include countermeasure making the information useless by crooks
for fraudulent transactions.
it is similar ... but different to the idea behind one-time account
nubmers ... recent post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#89 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:10:33
Walter Bushell <proto@oanix.com> writes:
Probably much more by Euro value. We have had several market reactions
to actions by single traders where governments had to step in. Now how
do you categorize the housing scandal? A lot of fraud by individuals,
abetted by loaning institution, rating agencies and consolidators and
marketeers.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#9 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
insider problems can be divided into two scenarios.
1) systems that are vulnerable because they have dual-use secret based
operation. the secret ... like an account number ... is required for
both authentication ... aka something you know authentication, from
3-factor authentication paradigm
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#3factor
... and also for standard business process. all sorts of processes are put
in place to keep the secret information confidential and never divulged
... but at the same time, the dual-use nature requires that it has to be
exposed to large number of individuals (ala insiders) performing their
duties. the core systemic flaw is the dual-use characteristic, insiders
still can harvest the information and leak it for "imposter" attacks.
one approach (ala x9.59 financial standard) is to eliminate the
dual-use vulnerability of the information.
2) insiders just performing their day to day operations.
countermeasures are multi-party operations, partitioned duties
and authority. attacks on these systems involve either an insider
exceeding their authority by impersonating other individuals (in the
multi-party operatons), collusion where multiple parties are involved,
and/or lax controls enforcing the multi-party operations.
first kind of insider scenario could be copying master account
database and making it available for others to perform fraudulent
transactions, impersonating the individual account owners. this
frequently gets lumped into the identity theft/fraud category
the second kind of insider scenario are things like embezzlement
... where the individual "exceeds" their authority to transfer
organization funds to an outside account. more complex might be loans
to ficticious individuals and/or based on non-existant collaterial.
One of the loan fraud scenarios from the 80s (as well as other eras)
was large mortgages on buildings at addresses that turned out to be
empty lots and/or mortgages to individuals that have possibly no
possible way of repaying them (and the money otherwise
disappears). Countermeasures supposedly were controls requiring
independent appraisals and audits. When online satellite photos
systems were introduced ... there were suggestions that at least there
could be controls that independently verified whether there was
actually a building at the address (some of the more blantent mortgage
fraud scenarios from the 80s). However, the mortgage fraud scenario
can also simply be theft by outsiders, although they may be aided and
abetted by incompetent "insiders" and lax processes (evolution of
controls tend to try and compensate for both incompetent as well as
crooked insiders)
The identity theft/fraud scenarios are more likely to show up in the
popular press ... especially after the introduction of breach
notification laws. The natural tendency for many of the institutions
has been to sweep such incidents under the rug. Part of the issue is
many of the involved institutions ... their basic "currency" is
trust ... and publicity of such events tends to tarnish and
devalue that "currency" (sometimes more so than the events
themselves).
other recent posts mentioning insiders, breaches, identity theft/fraud
and/or collusion:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#4 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#5 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#7 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#8 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#9 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#11 Information security breaches quadrupled in 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#35 U.S. Identity Theft at Record Level in 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#36 1970s credit cards, was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#26 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#82 Break the rules of governance and lose 4.9 billion
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#44 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#76 Neglected IT Tasks May Have Led to Bank Meltdown
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#89 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:38:49
jmfbahciv writes:
There is a third: just a plain goof up.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#9 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#10 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
sometimes that is incompetent insiders ... as per previous ... and
some of it is plain/normal human mistakes.
to wander back into computers and dataprocessing ... i've mentioned
before we were spending some time talking with a major financial network
a few years ago. they had attributed nearly a decade of 100percent
availability to
• IMS hot-standby
• automated operator
ims hot-standby involved triple replicated systems in two geographic
locations. this provided high availability for system failures as well
as various kinds of natural disasters.
however as referenced in the past ... starting sometime in the early
80s, hardware problems stopped being the major cause of failures. as
other kinds of failures were addressed ... human mistakes started
becoming one of the (few) remaining sources of failures. automated
operator eliminated most of the (remaining) human mistakes as a
source of failures that they had previously experienced.
mainframe IMS used to dominate backend financial systems ... and is
still found in large number of core backend systems (even with the
apparent ascendancy of rdbms in more popular mind ... but ims
continues to be a main component of major industrial dataprocessing).
for random drift ... old email reference to when jim was leaving for
tandem ... and palming off on me, consulting with the IMS group
... and interfacing to outside organizations on relational (including
large financial institution looking at relational)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801006
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801016
in this post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#1 The Elements of Programming Style
there was funny situation about a particular large financial
institution. one of the people from the IMS organization (in STL) had
gone there to head up dataprocessing. he was out hiring IMS
development programmers and the "joke" was that he had managed to put
together a larger IMS development team ... than the "official" IMS
development group in STL. that financial institution (or at least one
with the same name) continues to have very large amount of core
financial dataprocessing systems using IMS.
for other drift ... i've mentioned before my wife being con'ed into
going to pok to be in charge of loosely-coupled architecture (i.e.
mainframe for cluster) ... where she developed peer-coupled shared
data architecture
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#shareddata
... she left the position after short stint, because (except the IMS
group for IMS hot-standby) there was very little uptake until much more
recent with (mainframe) sysplex.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:54:43
"Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj" <urjlew@bellsouth.net> writes:
Is that why: BOS, TOS, DOS, MVT, MVS and related and derivative
systmes both Operating systms, and program products, are so rarely
discussed here? :)
lots of people whos' computer experience is PCs and windows?
some recent posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#15 hacked TOPS-10 monitors
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#19 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers [was: Re: What do YOU call
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#25 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#27 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#28 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#35 U.S. Identity Theft at Record Level in 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#40 No Gory for the *NIX
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#41 IT managers stymied by limits of x86 virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#42 Inaccurate CPU% reported by RMF and TMON
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#45 No Glory for the PDP-15
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#49 IBM LCS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#50 IT managers stymied by limits of x86 virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#68 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#76 Rotary phones
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#77 Radix Partition Trees
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#89 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#0 on-demand computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#8 on-demand computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#11 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#17 Flash memory arrays
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#18 Flash memory arrays
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#19 Yahoo's CAPTCHA Security Reportedly Broken
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#24 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#25 Flash memory arrays
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#27 Re-hosting IMB-MAIN
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#31 How does ATTACH pass address of ECB to child?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#33 windows time service
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#38 What do YOU call the # sign?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#40 windows time service
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#42 windows time service
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#50 How does ATTACH pass address of ECB to child?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#52 China's Godson-2 processor takes center stage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#55 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#58 How does ATTACH pass address of ECB to child?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#69 How does ATTACH pass address of ECB to child?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#71 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#72 Govt demands password to personal computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#75 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#79 Did early Oracle run on the IBM mainframe?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#81 Did early Oracle run on the IBM mainframe?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#1 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#9 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#10 Usefulness of bidirectional read/write?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#24 Job ad for z/OS systems programmer trainee
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#35 New Opcodes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#37 Diversity ( was Re: Usefulness of bidirectional read/write?)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#38 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#45 Young mainframers' group gains momentum
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#49 No Glory for the PDP-15
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#50 Migration from Mainframe to othre platforms - the othe bell?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#52 Current Officers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#53 Migration from Mainframe to othre platforms - the othe bell?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#54 Migration from Mainframe to othre platforms - the othe bel?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#55 Kernels
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#68 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#72 No Glory for the PDP-15
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#78 CPU time differences for the same job
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#81 Random thoughts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#82 CPU time differences for the same job
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#84 CPU time differences for the same job
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#88 CPU time differences for the same job
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#92 CPU time differences for the same job
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#1 What happened to resumable instructions?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#6 How Safe Are Your Personal Records In The Hands Of Government Officials?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#9 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:39:47
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
So it's cute that people here can look at Xen and say "We were
doing that in 1963" or "We were doing that in 1968". Ultimately,
though, it isn't entirely on-point.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#28 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#61 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
then in a computer folklore n.g. talking about doing something in "1968"
has become "isn't entirely on-point" ... sort of the inverse of the
comment replied to in this recent post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#12 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
it might be that in a xen or a vmware n.g. .... related to current
implementations ... there might be more of the attitude that there isn't
anything to learn about what was done in 1968 ... but it seems odd to
make that assertion that something from 1968 isn't "entirely on-point"
in a computer folklore n.g.???
there has been some relatively recent threads in mainframe newsgroup
about the difficulty that i/o subsystems present for virtualization ...
which is along the lines of similar articles regarding the difficulty
that i/o subsystems (in some of the PC-based platforms) present for
virtualization (on those platforms). the difficulty of i/o subsystem
virtualization dates back to at least the early efforts in the mid-60s.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:38:04
Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> writes:
Very early in the conflict, Ho Chi Minh was not anti-US. He asked for
help in removing all foreign intervention in the country and only went
to China/Russia for help after being insulted by the US. The US
backed regime was so thoroughly inept and corrupt that even the local
and regional religions protested against it, however by that time Ho
had pretty much concluded that the USofA was just as arrogant and
ignorant as the other invaders.
there were stories that (later) special forces had pretty much won over
the hearts & minds ... but that the top military commander wanted
traditional military set-pieces to provide the corps opportunity for
promotions.
some additional topic drift mentioning bureaucrats (back in the states),
valuing budget share over military tactics & strategy
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#52 Current Officers
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:14:04
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
What's more important is that it can now be improved upon without
the beancounters at IBM or any other company holding the reins.
Progress in the real world usually comes from startups and other
dorm-dwellers (Dell, Sun, Apple, and the rather marginal MITS).
/That/ is essential, not the details of any specific project.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#28 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#61 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#13 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
actually software back then was free (and source readily available) and
lots of univ. and other organizations actively worked on the
software. it was mostly gov. litigation that led to the "unbundling"
announcement on 23jun69 (starting to charge for software) ... misc. past
posts mentioning unbundling
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#unbundle
however, the corporation was able to make the case with the gov. that
kernel software still should be free ... which pretty much continued for
nearly another decade ... before the pressure & transition to charge for
all (including kernel) software.
a lot of the work came out of the corporations science center on the 4th
flr of 545 tech sq:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
and was somewhat a small, lean operation. it was only about 30-40
people at the time ... and was responsible for creating all the virtual
machine stuff, as well as lots of timesharing work
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#timeshare
and other interactive, online technology. It was also responsible for
the technology that was the basis of the internal network (the internal
network was larger than the arpanet/internet from just about the
beginning until possibly summer 85)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
and also univ. bitnet/earn network
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
it was also where gml was invented in 1969 ... precusor to sgml, html,
xml, etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#sgml
there were some number of commercial timesharing service bureaus
startups that spun out of the science center and/or were cp67 and/or
vm370 based ... recent reference in D&B and NCSS thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#63
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#71
the original html stuff was based on the sgml work originally
out of the science center
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early
and the first website outside of europe was on the vm370
system at slac:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml
for some amount of other virtual machine and science center history, see
the papers at melinda's web site:
http://www.princeton.edu/~melinda/
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:12:30
cb@mer.df.lth.se (Christian Brunschen) writes:
The cloning experiment was not, from Apple's point of view, working;
on the contrary, it meant increased expense (developing reference
motherboards) and reduced income (customers choosing clones rather
than Apple machines).
lots of cloning scenarios down thru the ages have relied on fundamental
(viable) eco-system and then leverage it into additional niches.
sometimes there can be mutual parasitic relationship between the clones
and the large infrastructure. lots of clones dramatically increased the
market size. the increase in market size justified spending on fabs that
run to billions of dollars each ... in order to get further economies of
scale. in some cases the fab costs are justified for specific chip ...
but the same fab/process can also be leveraged for other chips (relying
on economies of scale of large operation to succeed in their nich
markets).
the internet growth is somewhat similar ... combination of massive scale
of personal computers and massive telecommunication infrastructure
(also requiring billions of dollars in investment).
for some additional topic drift:
Cable breaks expose weakness of industry economics
http://www.commsday.com/node/219
one of the earlier cloning activities had prompted the future
system effort
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#futuresys
a specific reference:
http://www.ecole.org/Crisis_and_change_1995_1.htm
quote from the above (i.e. response to clone controllers):
IBM tried to react by launching a major project called the 'Future
System' (FS) in the early 1970's. The idea was to get so far ahead that
the competition would never be able to keep up, and to have such a high
level of integration that it would be impossible for competitors to
follow a compatible niche strategy. However, the project failed because
the objectives were too ambitious for the available technology. Many of
the ideas that were developed were nevertheless adapted for later
generations. Once IBM had acknowledged this failure, it launched its
'box strategy', which called for competitiveness with all the different
types of compatible sub-systems. But this proved to be difficult because
of IBM's cost structure and its R&D spending, and the strategy only
resulted in a partial narrowing of the price gap between IBM and its
rivals
... snip ..
in addition to stuff done as undergraduate in the later half of the 60s
on various system and software stuff (including a lot of work on virtual
machine system) ... i had also gotten involved with a project at the
university on creating a (mainframe) clone controller.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm
this got written up later as four of us being responsible for some
amount of the clone market.
later with the appearance of clone processors, the focus on the future
system effort ... and letting the 370 product pipeline dry up
... contributed to letting the clone processors get a foothold in the
market place.
the success of the clone processors contributed to the decision to
start charging for kernel software. the gov. litigation was big
motivation behind the 23jun69 "unbundling" announcement
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#unbundle
and starting to charge for application software. however, the
corporation was manage to make the case that kernel software should
still be free ... which lasted for nearly another decade.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#28 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#61 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#13 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#15 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:43:40
Stimpy <stimpy1997uk@yahoo.com> writes:
Not *everyone* wants to know anything about how their computer works. They
want to switch it on and write letters, access their bank account and surf
the web.
i got to have some discussions like this with some of the mac
developers (before initial mac announcement). my brother was regional
marketing rep for apple (claimed to have the largest physical region
in conus). he would periodically come to town and we'd go out to
dinner ... with other people from apple (including some mac
developers).
my assertion was that a significant contributing factor to achieving
market size and breaking out of the computer hobbyiests market segment
was terminal emulation. business could buy a pc for about the same
price as 3270 terminal and in single desktop footprint ... get both
existing terminal operation and some local computing
capability. individual businesses might have tens of thousands of such
terminals ... so it was enormous market ... ready-made to be taken
over by PCs. It was relatively no-brainer business decision, money
would have already been budgeted for the terminals ... so no really
new financial case and/or major justification was required for the
purchases.
once some market size threashold had been past ... it started
attracting large number of application developers and the clone makers
... creating snowball effect ... increasing number of new
applications, increased the perceived value ... while at the same
time, the clone makers were driving down the price ... which fueled
increased purchases.
misc. past post mentioning terminal emulation contributed to pc market
breaking out of computer hobbyiest
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation
the mac developers (effectively) were insisting that they were going
to make it purely as kitchen table appliance. it was long battle
... in part, it wasn't until after online & internet became more
pervasive ... that the perceived value of the appliance (along with
the technology cost plummeting) that it made lots of sense for general
public.
for some trivia drift ... my brother figured out how to dial into the
apple datacenter to access assembly line schedules, delivery dates,
etc.
a trivia question:
what was the business computer used in the apple datacenter?
two hints:
future system
rochester
other posts in this thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#28 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#61 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#13 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#15 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#16 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:21:14
latest study:
New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
http://www.govtech.com/gt/262138?topic=117671
New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080211/20080211005754.html?.v=1
same company/study from last feb:
Identity Fraud: ID Theft Victims, Losses Take Welcome Nosedive
http://www.banktechnews.com/article.html?id=20070226T5LTLE8K
the above references identity fraud with respect to opening new
accounts (as opposed to fraudulent transactions against existing
accounts) and banks were doing better processing of new account
requests
other references to same fraud study late year:
Study: ID fraud in decline
http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/423
US ID theft losses decline
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/05/us_id_fraud_survey/
referenced in these posts from last spring:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#29 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#58 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#62 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#58 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
a couple weeks after the studies from last year ... there was a number
of articles that identity fraud was exploding. it seemed to be that
the the different studies were looking at totally different numbers:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#19 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
one of the "opposite" studies from last March
ID Theft Is Exploding In The U.S.; The number of victims and the amount
stolen are both ballooning, according to a new study (Gartner
as opposed to the organization doing the Feb. study):
http://www.banktech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198002061
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:29:22
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
misc. past post mentioning terminal emulation contributed to pc market
breaking out of computer hobbyiest
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#17 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
for additional topic drift:
Emerging compute models locked in a dead heat
http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=22928
from above:
A survey of 705 U.S.-based IT decision-makers at mid-sized to large
enterprises found the most established alternative to thick-client
systems, Terminal Services (a.k.a. thin client computing), scored
highest in awareness of the compute model (96 per cent); familiarity
with the technology (84 per cent); deployment in any capacity, including
test installations (64 per cent); and high-volume production
installations (31 per cent).
... snip ...
for businesses, thin client (current flavor of terminal emulation)
addresses a lot of the compromises and vulnerabilities of PCs
... especially connected to internet with employees loading up
all sorts of unimaginable stuff.
somewhat related posts about 2008 being the year that businesses
disable employees being able to download from the internet:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#39 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#0 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#4 folklore indeed
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:44:04
Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> writes:
Somebody who don't understand the way that computers work have no
business using things that look like computers. That's a crucial
distinction -- for the vast majority out there, a word processor
should look like a word processor just as a microwave oven should look
like a microwave oven.
there was supposedly a period when there was issue about whether people
that didn't understand automobiles should be allowed to have them
(and/or at least didn't have a chauffeur that understood and operate
autombiles on their behalf). automobiles supposedly should have only
been driven by people that knew how to take them apart and put them back
together, do their own repairs and maintenance, etc. ... automobiles
didn't need starter motors ... they should only be driven by people
capable of starting engines with hand crank.
later there were issues about whether automobiles should have
countermeasures for common accident results ... things like bumpers,
safety glass, padded dash boards, seat belts, impact zones, brake
lights, turn signals, etc. along the way, there was also stuff about the
need for traffic rules, right of way, traffic lights, crosswalks, etc.
in many respects computers are still undergoing the transitional period
from professional use ... to general public appliance.
there is still a lot of automobile use by people that have no business
using them. random past reference:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#4 What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#7 What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#10 What ever happened to Tandem and NonStop OS ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#18 Traffic Jam Mystery Solved By Mathematicians
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:11:21
Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
Confirms my findings through experience and a lot of massaging
of PPOE outage data. For five nines uptime, you must go to three
geographically diverse systems.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
a little related news from today:
Euroclear establishes third back-up data centre
http://www.finextra.com/fullpr.asp?id=19855
from above:
The Euroclear group's two primary data centres, located outside
metropolitan areas, use real-time data replication and load-balancing
features to ensure full synchronisation of data and
transaction-processing capabilities between the two facilities. This
allows either of the two primary data centres to take over technical
operations within one hour of a local disaster affecting the other
centre. Production data is also streamed asynchronously to the newly
opened third data centre, located hundreds of kilometres away from the
primary sites. The third data centre is designed to take over the
group's (including Euroclear UK & Ireland targeted for 2010) critical
transaction-processing and data-storage operations within three hours of
a regional or metropolitan disaster that renders both primary data
centres out of action. In extreme cases, a period of reconciliation may
be required before full processing resumes using the third data centre.
... snip ...
when we were out marketing our ha/cmp product
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
we had coined the terms disaster survivability and geographic
survivability (to differentiate from disaster recovery)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#available
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:01:32
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#22 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
GM reports record annual loss, offers buyouts to hourly workers
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-02-12-gm-earnings_N.htm
from above:
GM said it lost $38.7 billion in 2007. The loss largely was due to a
third-quarter charge related to unused tax credits.
...
The 2007 loss topped GM's previous record in 1992, when the company lost
$23.4 billion because of a change in health care accounting, according
to Standard & Poor's Compustat.
... snip ...
also ...
GM offers buyouts to all U.S. hourly workers
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/12/news/companies/gm/index.htm?postversion=2008021207
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:51:13
Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> writes:
Roughly 1996 rumor was that it was largely Solaris.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#17 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
original trivia question was regarding time prior to mac announcement.
another hint ... shipped the first raid.
the product announcement quoted here
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1978.html
states the "only commercial computer with a built-in relational
database"(?)
multics relational database was earlier ... but distinction might
be that MRDS was a separately charged for product(?)
http://www.multicians.org/history.html#tag7.2
and
http://www.mcjones.org/System_R/mrds.html
lots of posts mentioning original relational/sql implementation
(on virtual machine vm370 platform)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr
reference to having worked with the original raid inventor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#72 Remembering the CDC 6600
in disk engineering lab
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk
another rochester reference:
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/rochester/rochester_4009.html
lots of future system posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#futuresys
another raid invention reference:
http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20001113_nmt.html
although the above states "IBM research" filed importantant patents like
the first for RAID in 1978.
however
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#47 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
references wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disk
and patent 4,092,732 awarded in 1978. The inventor was in the disk
division, not in the research division.
Some folklore regarding driving factor behind shipping first raid
implementation was that the filesystem infrastructure treated all
available disks as common subpool resulting in pieces of files scatter
allocated across all available devices. Single failures affected
complete system and could require restore of complete system across all
devices.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Javascript disabled in Firefox
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:57:47
HMerritt@JACKHENRY.COM (Hal Merritt) writes:
Interesting observation about Firefox users - folks a bit more
knowledgeable. Also interesting is that the risks of using IE are borne
by the end user, not the company. Perhaps we need to give these
companies some incentives to support Firefox to counter the pressure
from MS.
before firefox, i was using mozilla with tab support ... i had folder
that i could click on and fetch 100 or so different websites in
different tabs (while i went out for coffee) ... this was somewhat to
compensate for having a dial line ... and objected to the latency with
standard web browsing.
the initial folder had lots of news sites ... and interesting links, I
would click for loading asynchronous in the background (into yet another
new tab). by the time, i had finished the first 100 tabs ... i might
have yet another 400-800 (or sometimes more) to look at. all of these
default to javascript off.
at the time, mozilla would start to noticeably bog down with more than
300-400 open tabs. Enabling javascript execution would really aggravate
the situation ... to the point that mozilla would frequently hang saying
that some script was not responding (and required clicking on a popup).
firefox appeared and pushed as significantly more lightweight ... so i
switched (but still kept javascript disabled).
along the way, i found that it was possible to signal firefox externally
for loading URL into new tab. I moved the initial folder URLs to an
external process that used WGET to retrieve the initial URLs, and
(having saved the previous retrieval) check for new URLs on the pages.
Then the external process would remove any duplicates and cross-check
"new" URLs against the browser history information ... before signalling
firefox to load each URL into new tab (sort of analogous to very
targeted search engine process ... with background asynchronously
fetching of "new" web pages into new tabs).
recent post describing some of the process
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#32 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#35 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers
firefox has since moved its history (and other) information into
relational respository ... so looking at the history information
requires some sql queries.
for a little relational topic drift ... recent thread mentioning apple's
datacenter in the early 80s and what system did they use for running
their business:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#17 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#23 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Remembering The Search For Jim Gray, A Year Later
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:23:03
Remembering The Search For Jim Gray, A Year Later
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206500035
from above:
Microsoft researcher Jim Gray went missing at sea more than a year
ago. Co-worker Tom Barclay describes how the tech industry rallied to
help the search efforts.
... snip ...
postings from last year:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#4 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#6 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#8 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#17 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#33 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#28 Jim Gray Is Missing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#68 A tribute to Jim Gray
somewhat related old posts mentioning original relational/sql
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr
misc. other posts (even old email) mentioning jim:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000.html#18 Computer of the century
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#29 20th March 2000
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001g.html#7 New IBM history book out
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#15 HP-UX will not be ported to Alpha (no surprise)exit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#44 SQL wildcard origins?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#60 Amiga Rexx
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#22 Vnet : Unbelievable
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#39 Vnet : Unbelievable
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#73 They Got Mail: Not-So-Fond Farewells
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003h.html#22 Why did TCP become popular ?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#15 If there had been no MS-DOS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004l.html#28 Shipwrecks
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#39 Facilities "owned" by MVS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#50 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#44 FULIST
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#38 Mainframe Applications and Records Keeping?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#41 Mainframe Applications and Records Keeping?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006d.html#14 IBM 610 workstation computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#39 sorting
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#30 Why so little parallelism?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#46 The Future of CPUs: What's After Multi-Core?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#1 "The Elements of Programming Style"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#13 "The Elements of Programming Style"
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#4 The Genealogy of the IBM PC
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#21 Ellison Looks Back As Oracle Turns 30
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#42 Newbie question about db normalization theory: redundant keys OK?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#43 distributed lock manager
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#65 No Glory for the PDP-15
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:42:58
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
2) insiders just performing their day to day operations. countermeasures
are multi-party operations, partitioned duties and authority. attacks on
these systems involve either an insider exceeding their authority by
impersonating other individuals (in the multi-party operatons),
collusion where multiple parties are involved, and/or lax controls
enforcing the multi-party operations.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#10 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
for some additional
Security Report Claims Net Holes Hidden
http://www.physorg.com/news122029714.html
from above:
Rouland contends the 2007 number would have been higher if not for the
emergence of a black market that will pay up to $100,000 to computer
whizzes who find such threats and sell the information to criminal gangs
eager to exploit them.
... snip ...
however ... as to the insider subject ... also from above:
"Do you think Societe Generale cares that there's 6,000 vulnerabilities,
or the few weak controls they had that cost them billions of dollars?"
Weiss said, referring to the French bank that recently said a rogue
employee's unauthorized trades cost it more than $7 billion. "That's
what really matters."
... snip ...
another article mentioning the study:
IBM Report: Vulnerabilities Decline for First Time in 10 Years
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=145752
from above:
But the number of high-severity vulnerablities increased by 28% last
year, according to the new 2007 X-Force Security report
... snip ...
other articles mentioning crooks paying for vulnerability knowledge:
Web security report says known vulnerabilities fall because criminals
pay to hide them
http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20206/
IBM : Browsers are Under Attack
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/02/ibm-browser-are-under-attack.html
X-Force Warns of Malware Black Market
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/15718/x-force_warns_of_malware_black_market
Security Report Claims Net Holes Hidden
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVWd4IC6SXtYqkvfycLtL39zsFlAD8UOFST80
Web Browsers Under Siege From Organized Crime
http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/02/12/175213.shtml
Critical bugs surge in reduced flaw haul
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/vuln_trends/
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Kerberized authorization service
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kerberos
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:05:00
Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil> writes:
You know, I never liked the term "roles". It's a "hot" term in the
theoretical world, but I guess I never see a practical use of it when
we get down to actually assigning rights to people. To me the easier
concept is ACL - that's something that just naturally fits into the
sort of access control decisions we want to make. The examples I've
seen where they show "role" assignment always seem contrived, and
somehow we never end up doing things like that.
part of NIST/RBAC from a decade ago was to provide some support for
separation of duties. this is somewhat trying to get back to (at
least) the early 80s when multiple party operations was being used as
countermeasure to insider fraud. the internet somewhat distracted
attention from insider fraud ... even tho during the period, it has
continued to be as much as 70percent of the problem.
fine-grain permissions would be separated into roles with a view to
supporting separation of duties ... as part of multi-party operations
as countermeasure to insider fraud.
the problem in the real word ... was that the separation of
permissions might not completely account for real business
processes. Since some amount of the institutional knowledge may have
evaporated with regard to all the work that went into exactly which
permissions needed to maintain separated ... and the sometimes
mismatch between the aggregate defined roles not matching real-world
roles ... the same individual might be assigned multiple roles
... undermining the objective of mandating multi-party operations and
separation of permissions (as insider fraud countermeasure).
because of the typical roll-up of permissions into roles and the way
the related hierarchical information was being maintained ... it
frequently was not possible to easily evaluate consequences of
assigning the same individual multiple roles ... aka would the
aggregate set of permissions violate multi-party mandates and negate
the insider fraud countermeasures ... or exactly what are all the
possible combinations of fine grain permissions that will create
insider fraud opportunities (and undermine separation of duties)
part of the issue getting back to the early 80s state-of-the-art is
maintaining the separation of duties and permissions and then having
to deal with multi-party collusion as a vulnerability ... and then
working on developing collusion countermeasures.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:27:24
jmfbahciv writes:
The Finns feel they are ostracized by the rest of Europe because
they did fight with the Nazis. If the word isn't allies, what
is the correct word that describes what the Finns did?
i thot i saw on history/military channel where (vichy) france was in
north african action against allies killing 5000(?).
wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch
lists allies 479+ dead and 720 wounded ... vis-a-vis vichy 1346+ dead
and 1997 wounded
although a couple hundred more allies here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Madagascar
this doesn't mention allied casualties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dakar
search engine also turns up:
Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385512198/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon
from this review:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/miller_molesky200410060852.asp
A little-known fact from the Second World War: During the Allied
invasion of North Africa in 1942, the first hostile fire American GIs
faced came from the guns of Vichy France. In fact, the Greatest
Generation had to fight its way through the French to get to the Nazis.
... snip ...
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:27:14
D.J. <jollycamper72@cableone.net> writes:
The Vichy Frence fought the Free French in North Africa. The Vichy
French considered the others to be traitors, but it was the Vichy
that were the traitors and collaborators.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#28 was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
the history/military channel(?) and the wiki pages list vichy/french
battles with allies and casualties ... mostly americans
i've mentioned before some number of trips to paris in the early to mid
70s for computer installs ... included helping with emea hdqtrs move to
la defense in the early 70s.
on one visit, somebody (had been a history major) took me on weekend
tour visiting all the war memorials to dead french soldiers in&around
paris. at the end of the tour, i was asked if i noticed anything
... and it was pointed out that there were no ww2 war memorials to dead
french solders.
misc. past posts mentioning helping with emea hdqtrs move from
westchester to la defense:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#149 OS/360 (and descendents) VM system?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#43 Withdrawal Announcement 901-218 - No More 'small machines'
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002c.html#30 OS Workloads : Interactive etc
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#67 history of CMS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#58 Oldest running code
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#7 IBM operating systems
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#25 System/360 40th Anniversary
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#37 passing of iverson
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004o.html#31 NEC drives
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#13 Amusing acronym
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#29 IBM Plugs Big Iron to the College Crowd
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005o.html#34 Not enough parallelism in programming
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#8 Arpa address
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#34 PDP-1
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#6 Article on Painted Post, NY
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006o.html#11 Article on Painted Post, NY
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#35 Metroliner telephone article
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#55 IBMLink 2000 Finding ESO levels
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#48 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#65 Help settle a job title/role debate
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#33 Age of IBM VM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#47 In The US, Email Is Only For Old People
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:40:56
Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
Banking is usually overdoing their uptime requirements. They are not normally
that stringent. As long as the service isn't out for much more than
half a day , and front end systems can handle checking and validation
they can do business almost as usual. Provable correctness is much more
important.
that and things like adequate countermeasures to insider fraud and collusion
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
some of it is a lot of systems with split between real-time/frontend
authorization and settlement in (mostly) overnight batch windows ... it
starts to become more of a problem if there are succesful conversions to
straight through processing ... putting more and more stress on
real-time availability.
a little topic drift mentioning "stand-in":
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#17 Lack of fraud reporting paths considered harmful
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#18 Lack of fraud reporting paths considered harmful
the above was reference to institution doing upfront fraud analysis and
denying transactions ... and looking for processing message type
(indicating the denial) that would make it back to their acquiring
processor and all the way back to the issuing processor (as a way of
automatically indicating to the issuer possible fraudulent transactions
against the account).
recent posts mentioning straight through processing:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#3 on-demand computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#74 Too much change opens up financial fault lines
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:33:14
Walter Bushell <proto@oanix.com> writes:
What if you need to make a withdrawal from the ATM, stat.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#30 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
a little x-over post from the thread here:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#35 H2.1 Protocols Divide Naturally Into Two Parts
that discusses real-time authorization (which includes possibility of
"stand-in") and batch settlement processes ... that frequently occur in
overnight batch window. As implied in other posts about overnight
batch windows and efforts to transition to straight through
processing (i.e. combine authorization and settlement in
straight-through sequence) ... which would result in requirement for
increased availability (the payment and transaction networks already
having five-nines or better availability requirements).
misc. past posts mentioning dealing with five-nines availability requirements:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#137 Mainframe emulation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000g.html#50 Egghead cracked, MS IIS again
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001i.html#48 Withdrawal Announcement 901-218 - No More 'small machines'
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#10 HP-UX will not be ported to Alpha (no surprise)exit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001l.html#47 five-nines
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#85 The demise of compaq
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#90 Buffer overflow
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#24 Buffer overflow
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#28 Buffer overflow
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#44 Calculating a Gigalapse
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002b.html#63 Filesystem namespaces (was Re: Serving non-MS-word .doc files (was Re: PDP-10 Archive migrationplan))
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#47 Multics_Security
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#67 Blade architectures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002e.html#68 Blade architectures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002f.html#6 Blade architectures
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002h.html#73 Where did text file line ending characters begin?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#15 Large Banking is the only chance for Mainframe
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#44 Thirty Years Later: Lessons from the Multics Security Evaluation
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#14 Home mainframes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#68 META: Newsgroup cliques?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002p.html#54 Newbie: Two quesions about mainframes
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003.html#37 Calculating expected reliability for designed system
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003c.html#50 Filesystems
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#17 unix
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003g.html#3 Disk capacity and backup solutions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003h.html#31 OT What movies have taught us about Computers
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003h.html#56 The figures of merit that make mainframes worth the price
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003l.html#11 how long does (or did) it take to boot a timesharing system?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#22 foundations of relational theory? - some references for the
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004.html#40 AMD/Linux vs Intel/Microsoft
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#48 Automating secure transactions
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#24 Relational Model and Search Engines?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004n.html#34 RISCs too close to hardware?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#6 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#7 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#23 More on garbage
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005o.html#18 Data communications over telegraph circuits
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#18 winscape?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006d.html#22 IBM 610 workstation computer
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#42 The very first text editor
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#56 Is computer history taught now?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#44 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#71 The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#36 Future of System/360 architecture?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#64 folklore indeed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#33 windows time service
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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:15:26
Gary@EVERGREEN-SYSTEMS.COM (Gary Green) writes:
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid80_gci1299376,00.html?track=NL-576&ad=624866&asrc=EM_NLN_3060935&uid=1900046
previous posting mentioning zNextGen program:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#45 Young mainframers' group gaims momentum
can you say HONE? ... hands-on network experience ... misc. past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
before the 23jun69 unbundling announcements ... novice system engineers
would get hands-on experience in customer accounts ... as part of larger
team of SEs (with a variety of experience) ... sort of apprentice type
program.
after the 23jun69 unbundling announcements ... besides starting to
charge for software ... SEs time at customer accounts were also charged
for. The situation at the time couldn't come up with having apparentice
SEs learning on the customer nickle.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#unbundle
the initial solution was to put in some number of cp67 virtual machine
systems ... and provide remote login access to SEs from branch offices.
the science center had pioneered virtual machines systems in the
mid-60s ... starting with cp40 (on specially modified 360/40 supporting
virtual memory) which morphed into cp67 (when standard 360/67 machines
with standard virtual memory support become available)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
the science center had also ported apl\360 to cms\apl. apl\360
installations had typically been limited to 16kbyte or 32kbyte
workspaces. the cms\apl port opened up workspace size to full virtual
memory (although parts of apl had to be reworked for virtual memory
operation).
The dramatically increased workspace size and some other features
(added to cms\apl) ... allowed a lot more real-world applications to
be done in apl. One instance was that corporate hdqtrs people loaded
the most sensitive coporate information on to the cambridge system and
ran remote business modeling applications from armonk. This required a
very high level of security since the cambridge system also had
various non-employees from the area universities and colleges using
the same system.
a little topic drift regarding the security issue:
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/list-archive/0409/8362.cfm
another use of cms\apl was to deploy sales and marketing applications
on the HONE systems, supporting branch office (other than
SEs). Eventually these sales and marketing applications came to
dominate all HONE activity ... to the exclusion of SE "hands-on"
use. Before long, it was not even possible for customer machine orders
to be submitted unless they had been preprocessed by some HONE
application.
for slightly other topic drift:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#17 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#23 more on (the new 40+ yr old) virtualization
for other folklore topic drift ... starting in the late 70s, there was
constant series of efforts to move HONE (sales & marketing apl
applications) off of vm370 and on to MVS. The cycle was approx. two
years, a new executive would come in, discover to their horror that
the corporation didn't actually run on MVS ... and mandate HONE be
moved to a MVS platform. All work would stop for 6-9 months while
everybody worked on attempting to move things over ... which would
eventually fail miserably ... and then things would be back to almost
normal for a short period until the next executive replacement. At one
point in one of cycles in the early 80s, one of the POK executives
admonished the HONE organization that a MVS port would easily be
possible if they would just rewrite all the APL applications in
assembler.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:39:54
t-bone@address.invalid (Stan Barr) writes:
You're _so_ right! I consider WW2 as lasting from 1934 when we (UK)
starting ramping weapon production up for the coming conflict to
two-thousand-and--something when we finally paid off the last of the
loans.
I had a german teacher in college who told a story about when they were
much younger, scheduling a tour of germany during the summer of 1939.
They claimed to have devined that hostilities would most likely start on
Sept. 1st and so had carefully scheduled their departure date for
Aug. 31st. I don't remember the reasons they had given for deciding on
the 1sep date ... but the claim was that the evidence was clear to
anyone bothering to pay any attention.
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:40:40
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#18 New Research Confirms Identity Fraud Is On Decline
Consumer fraud complaints up 20 percent in 2007; Identity theft the top
complaint, gov't says
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080213-1210-consumerfraud-ftc.html
and ...
FTC Releases List of Top Consumer Fraud Complaints in 2007
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/02/fraud.shtm
from above:
The FTC collects consumer fraud complaints from more than 125 other
organizations and makes them available to more than 1,600 civil and
criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad via Consumer
Sentinel, a secure, online database. In 2007, the FTC received almost
140,000 more consumer fraud complaints than in 2006. These additional
complaints came from numerous data contributors, primarily the Better
Business Bureaus.
... snip ...
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:23:32
Paul Hinman <paul.hinman@shaw.ca> writes:
How much time was spent doing garbage collection in the APL workspace
given all of arrays that would get created as intermediate results in
a single statement? I could imagine that garbage collection might be
even be required one or more times during the execution of a single
statement in a function. A description of how APL managed storage in
workspaces might make interesting reading.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#32 Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
on assignment, apl would always allocate a new storage location ...
until it exhausted storage and then perform garbage collection and
compact all variables. storage utilization was based on number of
assignments ... somewhat independent of amount of in-use variables.
this was developed for 16k real workspace that was swapped in&out (as
single unit)
this was initially quite tramatic moving to large virtual memory, paged
environment (apl application guaranteed to repeatedly touch all
available virtual memory)
one of the was things developed at the science center
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
(used to look at performance and execution characteristics) was the
precursor to vs/repack (release as product by the science center in the
mid-70s) ... basically instruction address and data store&fetch
addresses. initial version would create plots out on 1403 ... used was
greenbar fanfold paper loaded backwards ... so printing was on
whiteside. standard setup was to print every storage references ...
storage addresses scaled to about 6' of printed output (vertical) and
equivalent to 2000 instructions for every print position (horizontal)
... i.e. equivalent of 264,000 instructions acrossed a page. These
printouts were taped to the walls of science center hall ... so
instruction execution progressed as you walked down the hall ... showing
storage & instruction location use from low storage (near the floor) to
high storage (near the ceiling).
initial apl storage use had very sharp sawtooth pattern ... references
progressing quickly from low storage (near the floor) to high storage
(near the ceiling) ... and then sharp vertical line when garbage
collection was performed. apl would quickly & repeatedly touch every
available page in virtual memory ... regardless of actual program
size. so one of the things that was done before cms\apl shipped
(originally on cp67/cms) as a product was to redo garbage collection so
that its storage use was much more virtual memory and paging friendly.
later palo alto science center did significant apl enhancements ... as
well as implementing the 370/145 apl microcode assist ... which was
released as apl/cms (on vm370/cms).
recent posts mentioning vs/repack ... which would do program execution
and storage utilization analysis and perform semi-automatic program
reorganization (for optimizing real storage use in virtual memory
environment)
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#24 Job ad for z/OS systems programmer trainee
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#78 CPU time differences for the same job
old systems journal article describing early vs/repack precursor
implementation
D. Hatfield & J. Gerald, Program Restructuring for Virtual Memory, IBM
Systems Journal, v10n3, 1971
http://domino.research.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/495f80c9d0f539778525681e00724804/9260d68c69f3965d85256bfa00685a76?OpenDocument
the article has some reproductions of some of the printed displays:
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/103/ibmsj1003B.pdf
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:38:58
Paul Hinman <paul.hinman@shaw.ca> writes:
So what does this all mean, there are those of us who use tools in
ways that they were not intended for but now we do it on PC's that are
many times more powerful than the mainframes of yesteryear.
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#32 Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#35 Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
oh, quicky search engine turns up some references to apl implementations
available for download:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/apl.shtml
http://www.chilton.com/~jimw/getstart.html
the above includes reference to this "free" download which mentions that
it is "slow" because it is the 360 implementation running via a 360
emulator:
ftp://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/languages/apl/sharp.apl/
and this one:
http://www.soliton.com/Systems/SHARP_APL_for_Linux/index.html
from above:
And an awesome development in the APL world is Soliton's decision to
release the new SHARP APL for Linux free for personal use. This is a
serious, state-of-the-art APL system, priced right. If you're running
Linux, download this interpreter today (before they change their mind!).
... snip ...
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: COTS software on box ? to replace mainframe was Re: Curious(?) way to ZIP a mainframe file.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:31:49
steve@TRAINERSFRIEND.COM (Steve Comstock) writes:
Sorry. What is COTS?
commercial off the shelf ... i believe coined by somebody in
gov. sometime around the early 80s ... as alternative to highly
customized, one-off, specialty implementations.
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: outsourcing moving up value chain
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:04:37
KPO identified as the next wave of outsourcing
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/021508-kpo-identified-as-the-next.html
from above:
A new report has labeled Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) as a
recognized and mainstream outsourcing option, particularly in the
financial services sector.
...
To better explain KPO, Hayward cites the hypothetical example of a Wall
St equities research firm which is faced with spending $250,000 to cover
a specific stock when the most it can hope to achieve in revenues from
that research is $200,000.
However, if that research can be outsourced to a KPO provider at a cost
of $100,000, the operation suddenly returns to profitability
... snip ...
however, it may also be explained by increase in demand for knowledge
workers ... and decline in number/quality of new college graduates.
old post referencing when we were considering copyrighting the term
business science ... and trying to depict relationship between
information, knowledge and wisdom
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#8aa 2nd wave?
for other drift, also referenced is this recently mentioned post
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security
a few recent posts mentioning educational competitiveness:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#39 competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#52 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#55 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#57 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#60 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#62 competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#73 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#81 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#83 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#3 on-demand computing
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#6 Science and Engineering Indicators 2008
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#13 Education ranking
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#56 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Throwaway cores
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:29:26
Alex Colvin <alexc@TheWorld.com> writes:
Gosh, is the CDC 6600 I/O processor coming back?
or 360 channels ... however, a lot of the 360 channel processors were
"integrated" with the processor executing instructions ... aka two sets
of micrcode, ... one set for executing 360 instructions and the other
set of microcode for executing channel commands. however, as you moved
up the 360 processor line ... there were separate dedicated processors
for executing channel commands. low-end & mid-range 360s implemented
integrated channels (the channel microcode and 360 instruction microcode
shared the same processor), while the high-end 360s implemented separate
hardware boxes for execution of channel microcode and 360 instruction
microcode.
later in the 370 line, the same processor was initially released in
integrated channel implementation ... i.e. 370/158 product. it was later
revamped and later re-released as 3031 ... where instead of one
microprocessor engine, there was two of the same microprocessor engine
... one called the channel director ... which only ran the 370/158
integrated channel microcode and the other called the 3031 ... which
only ran the 370/158 instruction microcode.
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:20:36
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
and for more drift, latest effort from the comptroller general
U.S. Financial Condition and Fiscal Future Briefing, 2008 Economic Forecast Forum
http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d08395cg.pdf
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#57 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
somewhat related to
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#38 outsourcing moving up value chain
note the comptroller general was appointed in nov98, by the previous
administration (position that has a 15 yr term)
Comptroller general to leave GAO for foundation
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151644-1.html
from above:
"As comptroller general of the United States and head of the GAO, there
are real limitations on what I can do and say in connection with key
public policy issues, especially issues that relate to GAO's client —
the Congress," Walker said in a statement.
... snip ...
including having made some offhand references to nobody in congress for
the past 50 yrs have been capable of simple middle school arithmatic.
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#20 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#21 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#80 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#91 IBM Unionization
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#22 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#13 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: COTS software on box ? to replace mainframe was Re: Curious(?) way to ZIP a mainframe file.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:56:52
EPhilbrook@OSC.STATE.NY.US (Ed Philbrook) writes:
Clark et al,
Depending on the degree of modifications, isn't it a major negative that
mods to a COTS package have to be reapplied or reworked for every upgrade
to the package?
re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#37 COTS software on box ? to replace mainframe was Re: Curious(?) way to ZIP a mainframe file
it is all relative ... and/or return-on-investment
aka whether overall lower net costs of COTS w/modifications or a
wholly developed RYO (roll-your-own) implementation.
also there are business opportunity costs ... aka whether the business
can better spend the same amount of money someplace else (ROI).
for extreme scenario ... a large datacenter (billion or two in
mainframe hardware) paid all the engineering and development for a
new, significantly better PDU (power distribution unit) ... and then
turned it over to a PDU vendor. the business easily justified having a
much better PDU ... but couldn't justify actually getting into the PDU
business. That PDU is now a staple in large number datacenters.
another such example was a large financial institution hired several
experts in complex pattern algorithms and created a sophisticated new
fraud detection tool ... and then turned it over to a vendor of fraud
detection applications. Again, the business easily justified having
much better fraud detection ... but didn't actually justify on