List of Archived Posts

2010 Newsgroup Postings (06/27 - 07/12)

Idiotic programming style edicts
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series
Assembler programs was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated
Idiotic programming style edicts
The Attacker's Advantage
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series
Idiotic programming style edicts
Idiotic programming style edicts
Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?
TSO region size
taking down the machine - z9 series
Idiotic programming style edicts
taking down the machine - z9 series
What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
taking down the machine - z9 series
Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?
taking down the machine - z9 series
Idiotic programming style edicts
Idiotic programming style edicts
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Idiotic programming style edicts
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series
Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
taking down the machine - z9 series
Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
GML
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Just wondering what precisely happened to this newsgroup
Taglines
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
GML
GML
GML
Information on obscure text editors wanted
Information on obscure text editors wanted
GML
Idiotic programming style edicts
Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
GML
Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
taking down the machine - z9 series
History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
Idiotic programming style edicts
GML
taking down the machine - z9 series
History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
Idiotic programming style edicts
Idiotic programming style edicts
taking down the machine - z9 series
Idiotic programming style edicts
Idiotic programming style edicts
GML
Idiotic programming style edicts
"SIE" on a RISC architecture
"SIE" on a RISC architecture
Idiotic programming style edicts
Idiotic programming style edicts
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series
taking down the machine - z9 series

Idiotic programming style edicts

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:51:35 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
I can tell who has extensive OS developement experience. There are also a minority of people in this world whose work was to produce an OS for many people to use. their buisness was OS development and nothing else. There exists an even samaller minority who worked for companies which depended on that OS development to be completed and shipped in a timeframe which was determined by the schedules of hardware development. I call this OS work production line OS development.

one of the things that I liked to have when doing OS development ... was also to have responsibility for real live production system ... it provided two benefits 1) opportunity to see incremental changes in live production environment with relatively short feedback cycle ... and 2) not loose touch with what goes on in real live environment.

really large organizations can have developers doing something ... and it takes a year or two before it hits the streets, by which time the developers could be on to something completely different (resulting in little or no feedback about their activities ... or at least a very long feedback cycle).

recent comments about also shipping/supporting highly enhanced OS for internal installations:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#31 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#98 "The Naked Mainframe" (Forbes Security Article)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#27 HONE & VMSHARE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#24 Unbundling & HONE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#24 Would you fight?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#13 IBM 5100 First Portable Computer commercial 1977
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#85 Idiotic programming style edicts

also related is hardware/processor development. i've commented about the auto industry C4 taskforce meetings looking at remaking the US auto industry processes in 1990 timeframe. US cycle was on 7-8 yr schedule, foreign competition had cut that in half and were in the process of cutting it in half again. Some number of technology vendors were invited in to participate ... including both the workstation and mainframe folks. I've commented before about (offline) chiding mainframe brethren participants, because (at the time) they were also on development cycle timeline comparable to US auto industry (which might limit any practical advice they might be able to offer).

misc. past posts mentioning C4 taskforce meetings:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#43 Reason Japanese cars are assembled in the US (was Re: American bigotry)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#61 TGV in the USA?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#51 [OT] Lockheed puts F-16 manuals online
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004h.html#22 Vintage computers are better than modern crap !
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#20 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#49 The Pankian Metaphor (redux)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#50 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#29 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#34 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#52 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#13 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#33 IBM Unionization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#31 IBM obsoleting mainframe hardware
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#84 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#22 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#68 Toyota Beats GM in Global Production
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#31 IBM announced z10 ..why so fast...any problem on z 9
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#50 Toyota's Value Innovation: The Art of Tension
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#65 Is a military model of leadership adequate to any company, as far as it based most on authority and discipline?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#2 Republican accomplishments and Hoover
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#50 update on old (GM) competitiveness thread
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#58 Mulally motors on at Ford
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#21 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#52 Are family businesses unfair competition?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#4 Michigan industry
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#77 Tell me why the taxpayer should be saving GM and Chrysler (and Ford) managers & shareholders at this stage of the game?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#22 Is Pride going to decimate the auto Industry?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#2 China-US Insights on the Future of the Auto Industry
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#3 IBM interprets Lean development's Kaizen with new MCIF product
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#10 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#31 Why are z/OS people reluctant to use z/OS UNIX?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#14 360 programs on a z/10
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#47 z9 / z10 instruction speed(s)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#49 z9 / z10 instruction speed(s)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#55 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#70 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#8 Far and near pointers on the 80286 and later
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#75 Favourite computer history books?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:52:52 -0400
greymausg writes:
I think that either Sweden or Norway (or both) aare the same, state monopoly, and the drink stores were designed to look as boring as possible. Friend said that the Islands between Sweden and Finland are famous for people getting sloshed during the Winter and freezing to death.

my impressions that scandanavia was trying to combat significant drinking problem ... but found it interesting visiting ... that the gov. found itself somewhat schizo ... putting on tv advertisements with sales ... apparently trying to increase purchases.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:14:51 -0400
hancock4 writes:
But if industries had to pay they'd past those costs on to the rest of us.

The steel industry was a nasty polluter in the 1950s and 1960s, but steel was cheap and fed the thriving economy of those decades. When they finally forced steel to add pollution devices the prices went up (among other factors), and then imports came in.


they also had significant retirement plans ... but was creating massive pyramid problem ... it worked in the early years before there was any significant numbers of those eligible had retired ... but as increasing numbers of those eligible moved into retirement. it looked like significant strategy (executives, directors, older retirees) was to loot the business for as much as possible before declaring bankruptcy ... and throwing the retirement plan and cleanup costs for past pollution onto the gov.

at one point there were articles that (non-fully funded retirement plans ... treating current retirement payments as current expenses ... as opposed to setting aside money for future retirement obligation) retirement payments represented over half the cost of US steel. it works when there is extremely large ratio of workers to retirees ... basically big fund for the relatively small number of retirees ... and taking the future retirement obligation for current workers out as profit or bonuses ... but as the number of retirees accumulate and the ratio of workers to retirees start to reach an equilibrium ... the money has already disappeared to meet those retirement obligations has disappeared.

baby boomers moving into retirement significantly exacerbates the problem. with baby boomer bubble four times larger than the previous generation ... it was pretty well hidden ... paying the previous generation of retirees out of the profits from the baby boomer labors and looting the rest. with the baby boomer bubble twice the size of the following generation ... the ratio flips (ratio of workers to retirees declines by factor of eight) ... but the money is already gone.

past posts mentioning the looming baby boomer bubble retirement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#37 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#38 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#24 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#56 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#59 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#46 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#45 not even sort of about The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#72 Favourite computer history books?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#74 Favourite computer history books?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Assembler programs was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Assembler programs was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main, alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:40:22 -0400
joarmc@SWBELL.NET (John McKown) writes:
I think that there is a difference between having a "normal" (ain't no such beastie) application programmer and an "old style" sysprog. I think sysprogs need HLASM. I am not convinced that it is necessary for applications people to really know HLASM or even z architecture. Today's COBOL is much better than in the past. I can see needing the speed of assembler in "embedded" type applications. But that is not z/OS's forte. Commercial programming and COBOL go together like pancakes and maple syrup. But other languages are coming up for the "webified" world. I like PHP. PHP using DB2 with perhaps some COBOL stored programs is, IMO, likely one of the best ways to talk via the web. But others may reasonable disagree.

there was the period in the 90s ... when various parts of the financial industry spent billions on re-engineering for straight through processing as part of eliminating the overnight batch window. there were spectacular failures ... tainting "re-engineering" efforts for years to come. they tended to use "new" technologies that were known to have some increased overhead (compared to the batch cobol) ... but thot it could be compensated for by using parallelism with large numbers of "killer micros". the problem was that there was lots of hand-waving about the increased overhead ... but not actually quantified. when the efforts started to be deployed and the factor turned out to be one hundred times ... the efforts went down in flames (factor of one hundred ... totally swamps any offsetting benefits of using large number of "killer micros").

recently there have been some new re-engineering with approaches that use high-level specification that is translated into lots of SQL. rather than relying on large number of application programmers, each trying to invent their own optimized parallelism methodology ... it relies on the significant parallelism optimization investments that have gone into major RDBMS.

Part of this plays out in how much investment different vendors are pouring into RDBMS parallelism ... aka recent item

Larry Ellison's IBM-Slayer Is Oracle Exadata Machine
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/policy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222301424

and from last year

DB2 announces technology that trumps Oracle RAC and Exadata
http://freedb2.com/2009/10/10/for-databases-size-does-matter/
IBM pureScale Technology Redefines Transaction Processing Economics. New DB2 Feature Sets the Bar for System Performance on More than 100 IBM Power Systems
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28593.wss

mentioned in these posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#43 From The Annals of Release No Software Before Its Time
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#46 From The Annals of Release No Software Before Its Time

... and past posts mentioning original relational/SQL System/R implementation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr

recent posts in other parts of this thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#81 Percentage of code executed that is user written was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#82 Percentage of code executed that is user written was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#83 Percentage of code executed that is user written was Re: De

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:06:32 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
We used ourselves as the guinea pigs. That was a change in procedure when the TOPS-10 group shipped a complete utter disaster monitor. I can't remember the version...V5.04 or V5.03. Each week's monitor edit had to be up and running without continuous crashing before the next edit was made. The edit was made on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, a developer would come in at 3:00, take the monitors built by Alan Frantz (later in MRO, Release Engineering) and try to boot them. Each monitor edit had a patch file generated by those Wednesday morning sessions.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#80 Idiotic programming style edicts

I had developed an automated benchmarking procedure ... initially for validating performance optimization and resource management algorithms ... but could also be setup for stress testing. I used it extensively in converting a bunch of stuff from cp67 to vm370 (i.e. the initial vm370 morphing involved a lot of simplification and dropping stuff that had been in cp67) ... some old email refs:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

also recent post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#54 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform

initially, I could guarantee that standard vm370 would crash 100% of the time with the stress-test. part of rectifying the situation was complete rewrite of the vm370 kernel serialization mechanisms ... eliminating all known cases of zombie/hung users as well as class of failures involving dangling pointers (pointers left around long after associated storage had been free'ed/released).

when I was asked to do a specific package of enhancements for release as the resource manager ... recent reference to resource manager also being selected as guinea pig for change to start charging for kernel software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#80 Idiotic programming style edicts

there was a final series of 2000 automated benchmarks that took 3 months elapsed time ... that I ran as part of final validation. misc. past posts referencing automated benchmarking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#benchmark

the standard vm370 product had major releases around every 12 months ... but there were also incremental monthly releases called PLC (program level change) ... in theory accumulated fixes (since last release) ... but periodically also use for major enhancements.

in any case, I was asked to do a monthly resource manager release in sync. with the base product PLC release. my counter offer was once every three months. I claimed that for each new "PLC" release, I had to do a minimum set of benchmarks and performance regression tests ... taking 2-3 days elapsed time ... and I didn't have enuf spare time to do that more than once every three months.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

The Attacker's Advantage

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From: lynn@garlic.com (Lynn Wheeler)
Date: 28 June, 2010
Subject: The Attacker's Advantage
Blog: Financial Crime Risk, Fraud and Security
The Attacker's Advantage
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25581/

The x9a10 financial standard working group had been given the requirement to preserve the integrity of the financial infrastructure for all retail payments. In the mid-90s, doing detailed end-to-end threat & vulnerability study of the payment landscape ... there were a couple observations ... some:

security proportional to risk; the value of payment transaction to retail merchant can be a couple dollars while the value of payment transaction to transaction processor can be a couple cents ... In contrast, the value of the (information in a) payment transaction to an attacker can be the account credit limit &/or balance. As a result, an attacker may be able to outspend by a factor of 100 times attacking the system ... than merchant/processor can spend defending the system.

dual-use vulnerability; payment transaction information needs to be readily available for dozens of business processes occurring at millions of locations all over the world. however, the knowledge of the account number may be sufficient to perform a fraudulent transaction ... and as such needs to be treated as something you know authentication ... and therefore is kept confidential and never divulged. the diametrically opposing requirements (readily available and at the same time, never divulged) implies that even if the planet was buried under miles of information hiding encryption, it wouldn't stop information leakage.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:30:08 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#2 taking down the machine - z9 series

looting retirement funds have been done in various ways ... they are constant lucretive objective since so much money is involved. making promises to baby boomers boomers during their prime working years ... but running a pay-as-you-go retirement scam ... which basically says that the money isn't there when the baby boomers retire (effectively skimming the difference).

there is outright fraud ... basically straight stealing the money out of the accounts.

the recent financial bubble was sort of double whammy. we had been asked to look at how to value mortgage-backed securities in the late 90s ... being provided with some number of scams that had been used in the past (including gimmicks used during the S&L crisis). a big target for toxic CDOs was the retirement funds which were only investing in triple-A rated instruments. one of the big factors in the recent financial mess/bubble was being able to pay rating agencies for triple-A ratings on toxic CDOs ... even when the originators and the rating agencies knew that they weren't worth triple-A.

misc. past posts with reference to the congressional hearings into rating agencies (and triple-A ratings on toxic CDOs) the fall of 2008:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#78 Who murdered the financial system?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#80 Can we blame one person for the financial meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#3 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#9 Do you believe a global financial regulation is possible?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#47 In Modeling Risk, the Human Factor Was Left Out
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#11 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#12 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#19 Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#20 How is Subprime crisis impacting other Industries?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#32 I was wondering what types of frauds the audience think will increase?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#49 Have not the following principles been practically disproven, once and for all, by the current global financial meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#50 Obama, ACORN, subprimes (Re: Spiders)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#69 if you are an powerful financial regulator , how would you have stopped the credit crunch?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#10 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#35 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#58 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#64 Is This a Different Kind of Financial Crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#67 What is securitization and why are people wary of it ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#8 Top financial firms of US are eyeing on bailout. It implies to me that their "Risk Management Department's" assessment was way below expectations
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#9 Blind-sided, again. Why?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#20 Five great technological revolutions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#23 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#30 How reliable are the credit rating companies? Who is over seeing them?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#35 Is American capitalism and greed to blame for our financial troubles in the US?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#55 Is this the story behind the crunchy credit stuff?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#59 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#60 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#14 What are the challenges in risk analytics post financial crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#32 What are the challenges in risk analytics post financial crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#42 Lets play Blame Game...?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#52 The Credit Crunch: Why it happened?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#74 CROOKS and NANNIES: what would Boyd do?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#79 The Credit Crunch: Why it happened?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#1 Are Both The U.S. & UK on the brink of debt disaster?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#25 The recently revealed excesses of John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, while the firm was receiving $25 Billion in TARP funds makes me sick
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#49 US disaster, debts and bad financial management
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#51 Will the Draft Bill floated in Congress yesterday to restrict trading of naked Credit Default Swaps help or aggravate?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#52 What has the Global Financial Crisis taught the Nations, it's Governments and Decision Makers, and how should they apply that knowledge to manage risks differently in the future?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#53 Credit & Risk Management ... go Simple ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#54 In your opinion, which facts caused the global crise situation?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#73 What can we learn from the meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#78 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#80 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#1 Audit II: Two more scary words: Sarbanes-Oxley
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#16 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#39 'WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLOBAL MELTDOWN'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#51 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#61 Accounting for the "greed factor"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#65 is it possible that ALL banks will be nationalized?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#0 PNC Financial to pay CEO $3 million stock bonus
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#22 Is it time to put banking executives on trial?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#37 NEW SEC (Enforcement) MANUAL, A welcome addition
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#42 Bernard Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty -- are there more "Madoff's" out there?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#62 Is Wall Street World's Largest Ponzi Scheme where Madoff is Just a Poster Child?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#73 Should Glass-Steagall be reinstated?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#77 Who first mentioned Credit Crunch?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#8 The background reasons of Credit Crunch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#15 The background reasons of Credit Crunch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#30 Timeline: 40 years of OS milestones
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#36 Architectural Diversity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#53 Are the "brightest minds in finance" finally onto something?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#70 When did "client server" become part of the language?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#31 What is the real basis for business mess we are facing today?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#41 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#49 Is the current downturn cyclic or systemic?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#27 Flawed Credit Ratings Reap Profits as Regulators Fail Investors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#40 Analysing risk, especially credit risk in Banks, which was a major reason for the current crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#20 UK issues Turning apology (and about time, too)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#47 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#68 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#48 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#15 The Revolving Door and S.E.C. Enforcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#4 Goldman Sachs -- Post SEC complaint. What's next?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#7 The Enablers for this "Real Estate Crisis"- Willful Blindness, Greed or more?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#34 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#48 "Fraud & Stupidity Look a Lot Alike"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#12 Warren Buffett faces hearing over ratings agencies

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:03:32 -0400
Brian Boutel <fake@fake.nz> writes:
Debit cards are universally accepted here, too. Retailers prefer them, but don't like credit cards for smaller purchases, as the commission eats into their margin. For international travellers, though, debit cards (at least in the sense that I am using the term) are not usable.

By "debit card" (which is a term not in wide use here, we use "EFTPOS" - Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale), I mean a bank-issued card not associated with Visa, Amex, Diners or any of the others, which is usable in ATMs and retailer's counter machines. AIUI, the ATM network is global, but the retailer's machine calls somewhere for approval, and while swiping a credit card connects to a global organisation, swiping an EFTPOS card connects to somewhere that only recognises domestic issuers.

Does an American "Debit Card" work in any retailer's with a terminal, or are there competing, non-communicating systems? Is it the same card you use in an ATM? Does it work anywhere in the US, or only in the issuing bank's territory? Does it debit your checking account directly, or is it a stored-value card that needs to be pre-loaded?


traditional "pin-debit" cards were used in ATM cash machines and represented two-factor authentication ... PIN is something you know authentication and card/magstripe is something you have authentication ... from 3-factor authentication paradigm ... misc. past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#3factor

pin-debit transactions go thru the debit network to the issuing financial institution (whether they originate at ATM cash machine or at a retail terminal).

in the late 90s, there was some shift from credit cards to debit cards also being used at point-of-sale. this represented significant loss of revenue for issuers and associated networks. somewhat as a result, there are now "signature-debit" which have similar level of interchange fees as (signature) credit (in part because they have similar fraud levels) and transaction flows thru the association (credit) networks.

early part of the century there was walmart/merchant anti-trust litigation against the associations regarding rules for signature-debit cards. some url refs: The 'Wal-Mart case' revisited
http://www.greensheet.com/emagazine.php?story_id=1894
2d Cir. Affirms $3 Billion Visa, MasterCard Antitrust Settlement
http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bf/atr/20050105/20050105visa.html
MasterCard Settles Wal-Mart Suit Over Debit Fees, Visa Will Fight
http://tech.mit.edu/V123/N22/debit_22.22w.html

There have been lots of skirmishes between retail merchant associations (& walmart) over interchange rates charged merchants (bascially discount taken on the transaction ... where merchants only see the transaction amount minus all the interchange fees).

GLBA which played significant roll in current financial mess ... for its repeal of glass-steagall (i.e. didn't create the risky transactions ... but allowed regulated depository institutions to have unregulated investment banking arms ... where the investment banking risky operations would put the whole institution at risk) ... had rhetoric on floor of congress that major purpose of GLBA was allowing institutions that were currently banks to remain banks ... but institutions that weren't currently banks couldn't become banks (specifically calling out walmart and microsoft).

part of walmart issue was if it got a banking charter ... then it could be its own "acquiring institution" ... and then collects its own significant "acquiring" part of interchange fee (that it has been paying to a few large acquiring financial institutions).

if walmart figured a way to issue cards to its own customers ... then it would collect its own significant "issuing" part of interchange fees. Then when walmart issued cards were used in walmart stores, it would be "on-us" transactions and eliminate the association part of interchange fee. since walmart represents something like 25-30% of retail transactions in the US ... that amounts to a whole lot of money in interchange fees its current providing to financial infrastructure.

debit cards with association "bug" on the card can be used for "signature-debit". if you have a "bugged" card .... only used it in pin-debit mode ... there is still possibility that the magstripe can be skimmed for creation of counterfeit card and crook using it in "signature-debit" mode. you have to specifically ask for a pin-debit only card.

there is some difference between credit and debit (whether pin & signature) with regard to gov. mandates on how institutions have to treat fraud (although most institutions will advertise that they will treat credit and signature-debit the same ... even if they don't have to ... in part because they are getting similar fees from merchants).

there has been more than decade push to deploy chipcards that would combat some of the fraud ... although some of the technologies have peculiar limitations. In the UK there have been complaints that incentive to merchants and financial institutions for deploying chipcard infrastructure was effectively to change the burden of proof in disputes (in the US, effectively merchant/bank in dispute with consumer has to prove consumer was responsible ... in some places deploying chipcard ... consumers now have to prove that they weren't responsible).

misc. recent posts mentioning pin-debit and/or signature-debit:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#67 Govt demands password to personal computer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#68 Govt demands password to personal computer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#3 Govt demands password to personal computer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#40 Calling Out
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#38 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#45 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#48 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#54 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#55 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#59 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#73 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#75 Should online transactions be allowed on credit cards without adequate safeguards?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#64 In your experience which is a superior debit card scheme - PIN based debit or signature debit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#11 Can Smart Cards Reduce Payments Fraud and Identity Theft?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#58 Do soft certificates provide two factor authentication?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#69 ATM PIN through phone or Internet. Is it secure? Is it allowed by PCI-DSS?, Visa, MC, etc.?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#83 Residual Risk Methodology for Single Factor Authentication
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#0 ATM Skimmers: Watch Out for Electronic Theft Devices
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#25 Wrong Instrument for Recurring Payments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#14 question about ssh-keygen with empty passphrase
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#21 ICSF and VISA/MasterCard?amex reference list
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#39 PIN Crackers Nab Holy Grail of Bank Card Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#60 Cobol hits 50 and keeps counting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#62 Solving password problems one at a time, Re: The password-reset paradox
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#78 Kansas City Fed Chief Espouses ACH for Debit Card Processing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#12 Latest Pilot Will Put Online PIN Debit to the Test for Credit Unions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#46 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#50 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009j.html#50 How can we stop Credit card FRAUD?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009l.html#39 Network Rivalry Sparks 10-Year Quadrupling of PIN-Debit Pricing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009m.html#14 The Art of Creating Strong Passwords
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#54 Crypto dongles to secure online transactions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#98 Korean bank Moves back to Mainframes (...no, not back)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#17 Chip and PIN is Broken!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#21 Credit card data security: Who's responsible?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#44 Can't PIN be mandated in normal POS machines ? to avoid Losses / Frauds / NPA's ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#45 Swipe this card; shopping could be cheaper
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#10 Wal-Mart to support smartcard payments

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:58:24 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
We had a "group" (originally consisting of a manager and a worker) which was supposed to do that kind of testing. The worker would use up a whole night's stand-alone time and did nothing but run the same batch job. He never developed any new tests. Later, a gal was hired to do testing. She earned the name Crash because she had the knack of writing assembler code which exasperated odd scenarios. I remember the time that she tested a UUO which had a 4-word argument list (can't remember the UUOs..something to do with paging, I think). Crashed the monitor spectacularly. Turns out she managed to locate the arg-list over a page boundarry which no other progam managed to do in the CPU-years' of runtime.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#80 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#0 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#4 Idiotic programming style edicts

science center instrumented cp67 and started convention of gathering the stats at 5-10 min intervals ... eventually 7x24. this then propagated to other operations installing cp67. this eventually resulted in several years of data across multiple systems that profiled configuration, system operation, and workload profiles. this was then used in automated benchmark specification with synthentic workload ... to approx. real observed operations. with the transition to vm370 ... the number and variety of internal systems increased dramatically that data was being collected from.

recent thread in ibm-main discussing some of the operation and performance monitoring technologies (including past references to the performance predictor and "vs/repack" ... semi-automated program reorganization for virtual memory/paged environment)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#81 Percentage of code executed that is user written was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated

some of it eventually evolving into things like "capacity planning"

previously mentioned was finally run of 2000 automated benchmarks that took 3 months elapsed time to run. the first 1000 were manually selected to cover operational and workload characteristics from wide variety of observed data.

in the above reference, one of the technologies mentioned was the performance predictor ... and apl-based analytical model of system operation. it had been deployed on world-wide HONE sales&marketing support system ... allowing customer marketing people to input customers configuration and workload profiles and then ask "what-if" questions about what happens if workload &/or configuraiton changed (i.e. sell an extra megabyte of memory). misc. past posts mentioning HONE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone

in any case, a modified version of the performance predictor was adapted for automated benchmarks ... with the characteristic and result of each benchmark fed into the predictor. this helped calibrate the predictor (as well as helping calibrate my dynamic adaptive resource manager). for the final 1000 benchmarks ... the predictor was programmed to try and find anomolous operating points ... it would examine the benchmarks made so far and select a new combination of configuration and workload for the next benchmark, predicting what the result sould be. the result of the benchmark would then be compared against the prediction. then the process would repeat.

misc. past posts mentioning automated benchmarking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#benchmark

misc. past posts mentioning science center at 545 tech sq
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:41:08 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#80 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#0 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#4 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#8 Idiotic programming style edicts

after my dynamic adaptive resource manager had been in customer shops for awhile ... I got a bug report ... I think from cornell. there was some code that every several minutes would calculate some activity avgs. there was sequence of 100 or so instruction that took the current TOD clock value and did some stuff. If somebody pushed the processor stop buttom while the processor was within those 100 instructions and left the processor stopped for at least 30 minutes ... before pushing the stop buttom ... there would be a (kernel) program check with divide error.

previous posts mentioning that 23jun69 unbundling announcement started charging for application software ... but case was made that kernel software should still be free
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundle

during the process of getting ready to release my dynamic adaptive resource manager ... it was decided to make it guinea pig for charged for kernel software (plausibly because clone processors were starting to get market foothold as a result of the distraction of the future system effort).

vs/repack was finally released from the science center as a charged for (application) product the month before my resource manager. at that time, the company had policy that developers in "field" locations got the first month rental from every installed (charged-for) software application.

In the month between the release of vs/repack and the release of the resource manager ... the science center was redisignated as an internal location rather than field location (science center was officially part of the DPD sales/marketing division and was "field" location at MIT campus). the effect was that I was no longer eligible for first month rental from every installed resource manager. For some baroque internal political reasons ... they had decided to make the monthly rental of the resource manager nearly thousand dollars (per month). When the resource manager passed 1000 installed customers, I offered to forfeit my salary in return for the first month rentals.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 29 Jun 2010 09:12:34 -0700
BillF@MAINSTAR.COM (Bill Fairchild) writes:
YDRC (You Don't Recall Correctly).

The 3310 and 3370 were FBA above the covers. All other mainframe-attachable DASDs from IBM were CKD above the covers (3390, 3380, 3375, 3350, 3340, 3330, 2321, 2314, 2305, 2303, 2302, and 2301).


aka 3375/florence was first of FBA device underneath (3370) with CKD emulated above.

3375 was to get some 3370 sales in MVS shops for the mid-range market ... since all the other operating systems managed to ship native FBA support (and 3380s were targeted for the high-end customer shops). vm/370 saw an enormous upswing in mid-range systems with 43xx machines ... some large commercial customers ordering multiple hundreds of 4341 at a time ... and installing them out in distributed environment like converted conference rooms or departmental supply rooms. vm370 4341+3370 and 4331+3310 fit nicely into that niche ... but represented much more of a barrier for mvs.

I've mentioned before offering native FBA support ... but response that I had to do $26M business case to cover cost of new (MVS) training and documentation (claim was that customers would just buy same amount of FBA as they were buying CKD ... eliminating incremental sales as business justification ... and I wasn't allowed to use long-term life cycle savings as business justification). This may have been just a side-effect of perception that much of MVS characteristics were so intertwined with CKD ... that FBA operation would violate some amount of MVS philosophy.

misc. past posts getting to play disk engineer in bldgs. 14&15
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk

recent reference to joke about working 4shift week:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#85 Idiotic programming style edicts

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

TSO region size

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: TSO region size
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 29 Jun 2010 12:07:38 -0700
gerhard@VALLEY.NET (Gerhard Postpischil) writes:
That doesn't sound right. Each TSO session runs in its own region, and you need an additional TCAM or VTAM region to handle terminal I/O. A machine with 4MB was considered large. So if you had three sessions of that size, your machine probably wasn't doing much else.

In our case we opted to run Wylbur, with dozens of users, which gave as much higher productivity.


360/65 & 360/75 was one mbyte ... unless you got LCS add-on

LCS mentioned here
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1465599
and 2361 LCS mentioned here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360

a 360/195 could have two mbytes ... but it was rather late in 360 time-frame ... and rather expensive to be used for TSO machine
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP2195.html

with 370 ... could get 2-3mbyte:
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PR370.html

from above:
Main core memories having capacities up to 2-million bytes for the Model 155 and 3-million for the Model 165.

... snip ...

370/168 in '72 with virtual memory standard ... had up to 8mbytes.
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_2423PH3168.html

recent post in a.f.c. about virtual memory 360/67 (basically 360/65 with addition of virtual memory capability ... although multiprocessor version had a lot more changes more like 3081 than 360 & 370 multiprocessors) ... with some number of installations (especially univ) ordering the machine for use with tss/360.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#67 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform

with tss/360 running into number of problems ... some number of operations then did something of their own. the science center had started cp/40 on specially modified 360/40 with virtual memory ... which morphed into cp/67 when the center got an early 360/67.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

Michigan did MTS (using virtual memory).
https://web.archive.org/web/20050212073808/www.itd.umich.edu/~doc/Digest/0596/feat01.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20050212073808/www.itd.umich.edu/~doc/Digest/0596/feat02.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20050212183905/www.itd.umich.edu/~doc/Digest/0596/feat03.html

Stanford did Orvyl/Wylbur (and then Wylbur was available on vanilla os/360 platform)
http://www.stanford.edu/~guertin/manuals/SPIDES.HTML#I.1.1.3.4
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/explain/manuals/ORVMAN.HTML
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/its/support/wylorv/
http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Wylbur

other places just used 360/67 as vanilla 360/65.

Boeing Huntsville had a multi-processor 360/67 that they started out running as two 360/65 with os/360. it had been installed for some long running 2250 design applications ... which severely aggravated MVT storage fragmentation. Boeing did do a hack for MVT-13 for using virtual memory (w/o any paging) as mechanism for re-org'ing memory into contiguous areas as work around to MVT storage fragmentation.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:26:10 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#7 taking down the machine - z9 series

mag stripe wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_stripe_card

standard was initially ran out of the los gatos lab for a decade. los gatos lab was one of the places that i had offices and labs (although not part of their organization ... did favors for them in return for facilities) ... including putting in a 4.5m tdma satellite dish in the los gatos lab parking lot ... used in conjunction with ku-band transponder on sbs4. part of hsdt effort, misc. past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt

los gatos lab also did atm cash machines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3624

there was a vault installed in the basement of los gatos lab where machine full of bills for different denominations and countries were kept (on the order of $50,000 per) ... used for testing bill counting/dispensing mechanism.

design of PIN for 3624
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identification_number

for other cash machine reference ... recent post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#73 IBM 3670 Brokerage Communications System

reference IMS wiki page mentions that ATM transaction is likely to go thru some IMS system someplace in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Information_Management_System

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:34:33 -0400
Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
That's it. I've installed software on various systems since the sixties. OS/360 and sons often had software distributed as object files as well as source, so you might have had to relink at worst. I've looked at packages where the windows version comes as a precompiled binary as well as source, but the *nix version is source-only. Other systems usually distributed executables: VAX, OS/2, etc.

cp67 was distributed as source ... with fixes distributed as source.

when some people science center came out to the univ in jan68 to install cp67 ... the cp67 group didn't quite trust the cms file system ... and so the cp67 source routines were os/360 files ... which had to be assembled on os/360 and generate real binary decks. the binary decks for the different kernel routines were then arraigned in card tray with bps loader on the front ... and the build for kernel image was booted from 2540 card reader. the build would load all the routines into memory and transfer to "savecp" routine which wrote memory image to disk in bootable form.

by the summer of 68, they were comfortable enuf with cms file system so that all the cp67 source had been moved to cms, assemblies performed on cms and binary card image files kept on cms. there was cms procedure that would "punch" an image (of what had been kept in the card tray) ... which then would appear in the virtual reader and booted. the kernel image was loaded from virtual 2540 reader into virtual memory and "savecp" wrote the memory image to disk (normally setup so that it was the disk used for real system boot).

moving to CMS allowed source updates to be done as "update" file rather than modifying the original source image. The convention had been base source started with 1000 and incremented each card by 1000. Update control statements referred to deleting, replacing and/or inserting using the sequence numbers in the base source files. The convention was that inserted/replaced cards would start out being in hundreds off the thousands number in the base ... i.e. if inserting a statement after 159000 ... the inserting "card" would have 159100 in its sequence field (the insert/replace sequence field numbers had to be manually typed)

I was doing so much source changes ... that I invented the "$" and a preprocessor program ... which would preread the "update" file ... look for update control statements with "$" ... strip off the dollar and then insert appropriate sequence numbers in any following cards. the actual update program then would work with a temporary file that was the output of my preprocessor.

Later ... my "$" preprocessor function was merged into the standard CMS update command. Also "update" option was added to source editing ... where the editor would take any changes ... and rather then saving a modification of the original file ... create an "update" file that when applied to the original file ... resulted in file image that corresponded to the changes that had been done during the edit session.

standard os/360 would distribute source image that roughly corresponded to major release ... but rarely was there system build from distributed source (except in case of some select subcomponents like HASP).

A standard os/360 build had a "starter system" ... maybe 50-100 cards (effectively all high level macro statements) were punched up (stage1 sysgen) that were assembled using starter system macro library. They specified macros that typically resulted in "punching" cards (stage2 sysgen, could be on the order of 2000 cards) that were various kinds of job steps that mostly specified copying binary image from the starter system libraries to new production system libraries.

Fairly early on, I had started doing customized os/360 stage2 sysgens ... by taking the "stage2" output card deck ... and carefully rearranging all the move/copy statements so that it resulted in optimal ordering of data on the resulting production system disks being built. The issue was that large parts of os/360 were quite disk intensive (limited real storage paradigm with program processing involving sequentially loading lots of little pieces) and as a result was quite sensitive to avg. arm seek distance. for the univ. workload, I could achieve nearly factor three times improvement in thruput by the careful ordering.

univ. sent me to fall68 SHARE user group meeting in Atlantic City ... where I made presentation on some of the os/360 optimization work that I had been doing ... as well as lot of cp67 rewrite that I had been doing. old post with small part of that presentation:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#18 CP/67 & OS MFT14

misc past posts mentioning cms source update process:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#66 History of project maintenance tools -- what and when?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#59 A POX on you, Dennis Ritchie!!!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004g.html#43 Sequence Numbbers in Location 73-80
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005i.html#30 Status of Software Reuse?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005p.html#45 HASP/ASP JES/JES2/JES3
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#45 sorting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#26 Assembler question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#42 vmshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#48 vmshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#15 Patents, Copyrights, Profits, Flex and Hercules
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#20 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#48 Book on Poughkeepsie
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009s.html#17 old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009s.html#37 DEC-10 SOS Editor Intra-Line Editing

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:08:04 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#7 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#12 taking down the machine - z9 series

ATM wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_teller_machine

Global ATM Alliance (eliminate International ATM access fees):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_ATM_Alliance

above includes Westpac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westpac

Westpac page on using ATMs overseas
http://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/services/overseas-services/using-atms-overseas/

credit card networks tended to grow up with lots of proprietary messages formats. debit card networks have tended to conform much closer to ISO8583 (and past decade there have been more work converging to ISO8583 ... including merging X9.15 merchant protocol into 8583 standard):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8583

wiki pages for various ATM networks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrus_%28interbank_network%29
1,000,000+ (?) ATMs worldwide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus_%28interbank_network%29
20,000 ATMs worldwide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_%28interbank_network%29
289,000 ATMs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STAR_%28interbank_network%29
250,000 ATMs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYCE
301,500 ATMs

reference to US X9 financial standard group
http://www.x9.org/home/

X9 is also chair of ISO financial standard group:
http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/open/tc68

reference to old NACHA trials for secure ATM card payments:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070706004855/http://internetcouncil.nacha.org/News/news.html

other references here (including work on x9.59 standard in x9a10 financial standard working group)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html

mapping x9.59 to iso8583:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/8583flow.htm

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:21:11 -0400
Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> writes:
<http://groups.google.com/group/net.followup/msg/4f2a1da7fdaf11ab?hl=en&dmode=source>

<news:bnews.purdue.385> of Sep 22 1982:

"At the moment, the folks at the Network Information Center at SRI maintain a central database of all the hosts on the Internet; as the nameserver services come up, this will probably go away."

[1] There are probably earlier ones, but Google Groups starts in Jan 1981, some non-Usenet articles in GG default to 1981, and sometimes the phrase "the Internet" does not refer to the Internet itself (for example "the Internet environment"), so I didn't bother to look for earlier stuff.


old post from apr99
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/internet.htm#1 Internet and/or ARPANET?

with reference:
.... misc IEN:

IEN#1 - Issues in the Interconnection of Datagram Networks 1977/07/29
IEN#3 - Internet Meeting Notes 1977/08/15
IEN#5 - TCP Version 2 Specification 1977/03/
IEN#10 - Internet Broadcast Protocols 1977/03/07
IEN#11 - Internetting or Beyond NCP 1977/03/21
IEN#14 - Thoughts on Multi-net Control and Data Collection Factilities 1977/02/28


... snip ...

directory of ien files:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/ien/
index of ien files:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/ien/ien-index.html

i.e. work on internetworking protocol before great switchover on 1/1/83 ... slightly related post about email gateway fall82 (before switch-over)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/internet.htm#0 Internet and/or ARPANET?

posts in
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/internet.htm
are actually collected from internet/arpanet specific posts from 99 ...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html

big change in the change-over to internetworking protocol on 1/1/83 was organized gateways that allowed lots of different networks to be interconnected ... significantly enabling growth in the number of interconnected nodes ... something that was much more difficult in the ARPANET environment with the homogeneous interconnection using IMPs.

I've claimed that the internal network technology had a flavor of gateway in every node from just about the beginning ... which greatly facilitated the internal network being larger than arpanet/internet from just about the beginning until sometime late '85 or early '86.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

the other big contributor to internet passing internal network in size was the connection of large number of workstations (and growing number of PCs). for various political reasons, there was lots of pressure that only host mainframes appeared on the internal network ... and computing devices appeared as various kinds of emulated terminals. misc. past posts mentioning terminal emulation subject:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation

a side issue with the internal network was that corporate dictates required all links be encrypted. In the mid-80s, there was claim that the internal network had over half of all the link encryptors in the world.

in the early to mid-80s it also represented a problem for my hsdt project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt

having links running at faster than T1 ... since off-the-shelf link encryptors were hard to find that handled more than T1 (and even just plain T1 encryptors were quite expensive). This prompted an effort to work on link encryptors that operated at much higher sustained rate and were significantly cheaper than any T1 encryptors available on the market (an issue that never really showed with either nsfnet backbone or other internet links). some random old email mentioning encryption
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#crypto

past posts in this thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#66 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#68 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#70 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#75 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#76 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#80 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#81 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#82 [OT] What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#85 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#0 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#4 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#9 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#23 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#16 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#75 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#76 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#78 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:28:57 -0400
hancock4 writes:
The problem was that the prosecution of the war was done all wrong from almost day one. The army knew back in 1962 that this fight had to be completely different than WW II, but they still seemed to use WW II tactics and mindset. Further, McNamera's vaulted information system was horribly flawed--Washington was horribly disconnected from the reality over there. Given the improvements in communiation technology since WW II, I don't understand how things got so fouled up. But what Johnson wanted to do and was doing and what was actually happening were two different things. Lastly, Johnson was trying to straddle the fence. (I've read McNamera's books but they went over my head.)

Boyd had stories that the people in the pentagon were disconnected from what was going on in the field (and measurements used in the pentagon was hardly related to success/failure in the field ... one might claim that something analogous occurred spawning the current financial mess).

one story was about air force air-to-air missile. Boyd had reviewed it before it went into operation and predicted that it would have deplorable hit-ratio. finally air force general in the field grounded all fighters and had them converted to navy sidewinders which was significantly better missile. the general lasted 3 months before he was called on the carpet back at the pentagon. he had commuted one of the worst sins possible in the pentagon ... loosing budget share ... air force fighters were winner more encounters, fewer air force planes were being shot down ... requiring fewer replacements (reducing air force budget share) ... but even worse ... navy budget share was increased by the use of navy sidewinder. a couple recent posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#94 Daylight Savings Time again
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#70 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking

huge number of sensors were scattered for the mcnamera "line" ... but i've heard stories about elephant had similar signature to large troop movement resulting in large number of elephant air strikes.

there are articles about special forces had been gaining quite a bit of success among locals ... but mainstream army wanted traditional battles ... which would result in lots of medals, ribbons, promotions.

misc. past posts mentioning boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html

misc. URLs from around the web mentioning Boyd and/or OODA-loops
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd2

there have been comments (with reference to boyd having been responsible for desert storm strategy/battle plan) that major problem going into current conflicts was Boyd had died in the interim.

boyd did year stint in command.of.spook base ... misc. past posts referencing one of boyd biographies mentioning spook base was $2.5B windfall for IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#22 Old Computers and Moisture don't mix - fairly OT
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#23 Old Computers and Moisture don't mix - fairly OT
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#24 Old Computers and Moisture don't mix - fairly OT
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#1 Dangerous Hardware
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#37 Was FORTRAN buggy?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#38 Was FORTRAN buggy?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#49 Where can you get a Minor in Mainframe?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#50 Where can you get a Minor in Mainframe?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#18 The Future of CPUs: What's After Multi-Core?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#13 The Perfect Computer - 36 bits?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#4 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007j.html#69 Lean and Mean: 150,000 U.S. layoffs for IBM?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#60 Scholars needed to build a computer history bibliography
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#58 Current Officers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#38 Boyd again
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#0 Has anyone got a rule of thumb for calculation data center sizing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#74 Is SUN going to become x86'ed ??
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#15 System/360 Announcement (7Apr64)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#5 mainframe replacement (Z/Journal Does it Again)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009m.html#16 comp.arch has made itself a sitting duck for spam
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#37 Young Developers Get Old Mainframers' Jobs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#33 Survey Revives Depate Over Mainframe's Future
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#60 MasPar compiler and simulator
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#38 The 50th Anniversary of the Legendary IBM 1401
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009r.html#14 "Portable" data centers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#76 Senior Java Developer vs. MVS Systems Programmer (warning: Conley rant)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#33 SHAREWARE at Its Finest
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#43 Boyd's Briefings
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#20 Would you fight?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#63 Handling multicore CPUs; what the competition is thinking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#20 How many mainframes are there?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#33 45 years of Mainframe

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 30 Jun 2010 05:04:38 -0700
shmuel+ibm-main@PATRIOT.NET (Shmuel Metz , Seymour J.) writes:
But does anybody here still have manuals documenting that fact, or contacts with someone who has access to the IBM archives? I was hoping that someone still had the CE manuals.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#10 Documenting the underlying FBA design of 3375, 3380 and 3390?

I had to leave several file cabinets of stuff behind when I left. Old email archive basically has stuff regarding when various levels of 3375 support went into product and EREP issues related to 3375 ... and a note that 3375 was a "mid-range" product announcement (for CKD, underlying 3370 was considered "mid-range").

I have some other stuff about 3380 starting out with inter-track spacing of 20 track widths and higher densities were obtained by reducing inter-track spacing (i.e. cutting inter-track spacing in half doubled the number of tracks).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#30 Why magnetic drums was/are worse than disks ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#32 Why magnetic drums was/are worse than disks ?

aka
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#email871122
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006s.html#email871230

maybe somebody will eventually contribute some to bitsavers.org. some misc stuff that has shown up
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/logic/
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/305_ramac/
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/typewriter/

there is other stuff about one of the senior technical people in the disk division getting talk scheduled at the annual world-wide internal communication group conference ... and started out the talk by stating that communication group was going to be responsible for the demise of the disk division. the issue was that communication group blocked several disk division products that would have provided really high-speed data access service to the distributed environment; the communication group claiming that it had corporate strategic responsibility for anything that crossed the wall of the datacenter. The net was that lots of data was leaking out of the mainframe datacenter to platforms that provided much better service for the distributed environment.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:55:47 -0400
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
boyd did year stint in command.of.spook base ... misc. past posts referencing one of boyd biographies mentioning spook base was $2.5B windfall for IBM

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#16 taking down the machine - z9 series

slightly before boyd went to far east ... I was brought in to Boeing to help setting up BCS (boeing computer services ... in theory moving all dataprocessing operations into independent business operation). Nominally was in office in hdqtrs down at boeing field ... but got to visit the renton datacenter several times.

claim was that renton was between $200m-$300m of ibm equipment (not all of it had been installed while I was there ... 360/65s were showing up faster than they could be installed ... with numerous uninstalled boxes constantly sitting around in the halls around the datacenter perimeter).

It is hard to imagine a datacenter with possibly ten times the ibm equipment that was in the renton datacenter.

that summer there was work on replicated renton datacenter up in everett. there was disaster scenario that if mt. rainier even slightly warmed up, it would melt ice&snow on the mountain, resulting in massive mud slide ... pontentially reaching renton datacenter. there were calculations that the cost to the company loosing the renton dataprocessing for a week was more than cost of the renton datacenter ... which justified duplicating renton dataprocessing up at the everett 747 plant (out of the path of the mt. rainier mud slide).

in any case ... as to difference between how pentagon measured success and how success might be measured in the field ... there is the adage about "follow the money". pentagon is closer to the fabled military/industrial complex and gold-plated beltway bandits. There was article a couple yrs ago about gold-plated beltway bandits (which can also be applied to military/industrial complex) titled the Success Of Failure. gold-plated beltway bandits realizing that in the long term, they made more money from failed projects than successful projects (large percentage were dataprocessing re-engineering of one sort or another at a billion or more per failed attempt).

misc. past posts mentioning Success Of Failure article:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#25 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#41 U.S. house decommissions its last mainframe, saves $730,000
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#19 STEM crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#26 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#38 F.B.I. Faces New Setback in Computer Overhaul

applied to military/industrial complex ... it is massive weapons programs and never ending conflicts fought using traditional warfare.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:26:22 -0400
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> writes:
There's nothing wrong with Powerpoint, provided I don't have to use it or watch anything prepared with it. It does a wonderful job keeping layer upon layer of management from doing harm.

back when presentations had switched to transparencies and overhead projectors ... there was claim that there was dept at armonk corporate hdqtrs that had the job of converting transparencies to executive flip-chart presentations.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:30:03 -0400
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> writes:
There's nothing wrong with Powerpoint, provided I don't have to use it or watch anything prepared with it. It does a wonderful job keeping layer upon layer of management from doing harm.

more recently there was an item claiming that officers in iraq spent more time preparing powerpoint presentations than any other activity
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/07/draft-draft-draftpowerpoint-1/

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:26:44 -0400
hancock4 writes:
In the late 1950s, Tom Watson Jr was nervous about RCA's inroads into the business because RCA had far more electronics experience than IBM. But RCA didn't have the _systems_ experience that IBM had. (Nobody seemed to be able to mimic the IBM method, even though it was obvious).

RCA licensed some IBM patents--IBM had to release them per the 1950s Consent Decree. However, if memory served, doing so meant RCA had to license its patents to IBM, which was a help to IBM.

If memory serves, RCA's troubles in the computer business were due to bad management. They kept shuttling operations between Cherry Hill NJ (near Phila) and Boston, Mass, creating confusion and needless delay and expense. I think in those years Sarnoff Jr took over from his father and his leadership wasn't as good.


I heard story that in the gov. litigation, one of the competitors (I believe RCA) testified that in the late 50s, every company in the computer business realized that the single most important requirement in the business was to have a compatible product line across the market. IBM was the only business that pulled it off (with the 360 line) ... the story went that IBM executive (Watson) forced all the different manufacturing plants to stick to the 360 specification ... and not do tweaks optimized for whatever technology that particular plant was using.

None of the competition executives were able to enforce that requirement/objective.

misc past posts referencing the gov. litigation testimony:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/96.html#20 1401 series emulation still running?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001j.html#39 Big black helicopters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#85 The demise of compaq
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002c.html#0 Did Intel Bite Off More Than It Can Chew?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003o.html#43 Computer folklore - forecasting Sputnik's orbit with
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#22 System/360 40th Anniversary
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#0 IBM/Watson autobiography--thoughts on?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#4 IBM/Watson autobiography--thoughts on?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#77 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#42 1960s: IBM mgmt mistrust of SLT for ICs?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#34 IBM 8000 ???
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007p.html#8 what does xp do when system is copying
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#63 Remembering the CDC 6600
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#45 360 programs on a z/10
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#14 360 programs on a z/10

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:48:24 -0400
hancock4 writes:
It wasn't easy for IBM. Some of its executives strongly felt other technologies were better; one fellow wanted to use SLTs to build a super 1401. One could understand their feelings on the low-end machines--they wanted the programming simplicity, a tiny address space, and 6 bit characters which the popular 1401 architecture offered.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#21 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

growing (customer) companies being able to migrate their software applications to larger machine ... was a significantly larger strategic competitive advantage (especially with only one company in the market with that advantage) ... than any tactical competitive advantage from having a specific "better" model .... aka costs associated with customer software applications far outweighed other considerations. 60s represented big uptick in business use of computers and the 360 compatible line story was a powerful marketing advantage (even if didn't always turn out to be completely true for application software migration)

it is somewhat easy for technologists to get lost in the momentary comparison between two (incompatible) machines at any particular moment ... loosing site of the difference in business costs potentially spanning decades

note that the corporation did loose sight of that during the future system distraction ... which contributed significantly to clone processors to gain market foothold. misc. recent posts mentioning clone processors:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#4 360 programs on a z/10
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#6 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#39 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#42 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#60 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#66 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#79 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#25 HONE Compute Intensive
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#28 What was old is new again (water chilled)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#61 z9 / z10 instruction speed(s)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#62 z9 / z10 instruction speed(s)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#11 IBM And Microsoft Clash Over Unbundling Policy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#68 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#5 25 reasons why hardware is still hot at IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#22 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#3 Significant Bits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#19 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#20 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#57 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#76 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#80 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#82 Percentage of code executed that is user written was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#9 Idiotic programming style edicts

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:16:28 -0400
DMcCunney <plugh@xyzzy.com> writes:
Offhand, I'd guess because someone decided the parts were worth more than the whole. It won't be the first time a concern has been chopped up like that for that reason.

turns out that the parts don't actually have to be worth more than the whole ... just that the people involved in the sales are taking a commission/bonus/percentage of the sale (and then frequently moving on to the next transaction opportunity). has nothing at all to do with the value before or after the transaction ... just being able to make huge amount off the transaction (the current financial mess has large component of this also)

this not only shows up in breaking up companies and/or selling off units ... but also in various operations doing reverse-IPOs (taking public company private) and then after a year or few ... doing an IPO. There can be enormous borrowing as part of the reserve-IPO ... and the borrowed money shows up as corporate liabiilty after going thru the reverse-IPO/IPO cycle (some recent articles about whether the large debt service for these companies will allow them to survive).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#80 Favourite computer history books?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:22:01 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#23 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

think parasite ... there was news item that financial services sector tripled in size (as percent of GDP) during the financial mess ... w/o any observable benefit to anybody but themselves ...

a couple recent news items from this week

Time to shut down the US Federal Reserve?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100006729/time-to-shut-down-the-us-federal-reserve/
In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30aig.html?src=me&ref=business

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:01:17 -0400
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
(XOK is their exokernel.)

Was IBM's VM ever used like this? It seems fairly obvious once you have a VM to play with, but a quick google doesn't seem to pull up any relevant hits.


they were called service virtual machines ... several things were done that way ... including the networking support.

one of the early issues was that logon was manual ... but it was possible to manually logon on a (service) virtual machine and then "disconnect it" ... i.e. run it w/o a connected terminal ... basically analogous to demon.

one of the things that I had to do for automated benchmarking was add a feature that brought up virtual machines automatically at system boot ... as well as could be executed under program control. the process was that the kernel at startup, would execute the autolog command for the autolog virtual machine. scripts in the autolog virtual machine would then execute autolog commands for other services. In the case of automated benchmarking ... the autolog virtual machine script was switched from standard production operation to autolog'ing the automated benchmarking virtual machine ... which then would have scripts for setting various configuration options and then "autolog'ing" various other virtual machines running various synthetic workloads. recent posts mentioning automated benchmarking:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#39 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#62 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#54 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#4 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#8 Idiotic programming style edicts

the use of the autolog command also aided with minimize physical person operation ... i.e. scripts for automated operator. the multicians tome mentions having cp67 & multiics side-by-side and multics suffering in comparison by taking an hr or more to get back up after a crash ... while cp67 was back up within a few minutes. however, with the proliferation of service virtual machines ... there would still be several system features not up and running until manual (operator) intervention.
http://www.multicians.org/thvv/360-67.html

the "automated" operator support (like automatic bring up of service virtual machine with autolog command) contributed to reducing off-shift costs and leaving systems up & available 7x24 ... misc. past posts mentioning transition to offering online timesharing service 7x24 (mostly related to system meter):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#34 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#35 IBM Rational Developer for System z
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#37 Idiotic programming style edicts

past email reference to migrating lots of code changes from cp67 base to vm370 base.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

some number of the changes were picked up by the development group and shipped as part of the base vm370 release 3 (like autolog command and very small subset of the vm370 & cms changes for shared segment operation). A lot of the other changes were packeged and shipped to customers as part of the "resource manager" (later in the vm370 release 3 product cycle) as a separately priced kernel software option (i.e. guinea pig for start of charging for kernel software).

currently service virtual machine frequently goes by virtual appliance. misc. past posts mentioning virtual appliance:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006t.html#46 To RISC or not to RISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#25 To RISC or not to RISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#6 Multics on Vmware ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#8 vmshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#36 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#26 user level TCP implementation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#48 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#67 Operating systems are old and busted
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007m.html#70 Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#3 Hypervisors May Replace Operating Systems As King Of The Data Center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#25 VMware: New King Of The Data Center?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#4 Why do we think virtualization is new?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#26 Oracle Introduces Oracle VM As It Leaps Into Virtualization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#35 Oracle Introduces Oracle VM As It Leaps Into Virtualization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#39 New, 40+ yr old, direction in operating systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#41 New, 40+ yr old, direction in operating systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#81 IBM mainframe history, was Floating-point myths
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#75 virtual appliance
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#80 software preservation volunteers ( was Re: LINC-8 Front Panel Questions)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#59 old internal network references
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#39 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#52 China's Godson-2 processor takes center stage
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#2 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#55 Kernels
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#11 Kernels
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#15 Kernels
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#6 It's Too Darn Hot
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#47 Microsoft versus Digital Equipment Corporation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#97 Is virtualization diminishing the importance of OS?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#14 recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#21 recent mentions of 40+ yr old technology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#67 Is Virtualisation a Fad?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#68 New technology trends?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#22 VMware Chief Says the OS Is History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#57 VMware renders multitasking OSes redundant
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#62 Virtualization: What is it exactly?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#56 Computer History Museum
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#59 Operating Systems for Virtual Machines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#67 Status of Arpanet/Internet in 1976?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#1 Status of Arpanet/Internet in 1976?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#35 Operation Virtualization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#5 real-time messages
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#62 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#73 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#74 Adventure - Or Colossal Cave Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#11 Crazed idea: SDSF for z/Linux

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:35:36 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

for another example ... in the 80s ... I did an implementation moving the vm370 spool file support out of the kernel into a service virtual machine. the kernel based code was in assembler and tightly intertwined with lots of services provided to regular virtual machines.

my issue was that the networking support (running in service virtual machine) made heavy use of the vm370 spool file system. the spool file system internally managed data in 4k page-sized chunks (spool file and paging used some common support infrastructure) ... but was serialized/synchronized API (to the virtual machine) at those 4k boundaries. A spool file system might be doing 30-60 4k block transfers (/sec) ... aggregate across all virtual machine activity in a system. However, the networking virtual machine spool file activity would be interleaved with other virtual machine activity ... so it would only get 4-8 4k transfers/sec (20k-30k bytes/sec).

Some of the internal network backbone locations were starting to run into bottlenecks with multiple full-duplex 56kbit links; each full-duplex link requiring approx 10kbytes/sec capacity.

With HSDT ... having multiple full-duplex T1 and higher-speed links I was having significantly more problems ... using the links for internal network operation (I did other stuff for using links with tcp/ip operation). A single internal network full-duplex T1 link required approx. 300kbytes/sec sustained. For HSDT, I needed several mbytes/sec thruput.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt

In any case, my vm370 spool rewrite moved to service virtual machine was done in vs/pascal ... added new API ... for moving virtual spool requests out of the kernel up into spool virtual machine and back. I had originally done paged mapped API on cp67 (for cms paged mapped filesystem) ... and was able to make use of that API for spool virtual machine. The paged-mapped API already had an asyncrhonous mode of operation that could be leveraged. However, to meet at least several mbytes/sec operation ... delayed contiguous allocation for asynchronous multiple 4k block writes had to be done for output into the spool system (on disk) as well as multiple 4k block asynchronous reads bringing them back in.

there was also some bells & whistles added for things like extra redundancy for failures recovery ... and signficiantly reduced elapsed time for failure recovery in worst-case failures.

the mainframe TCP/IP support was done in vs/pascal running in service virtual machine. The original had very poor thruput consuming huge amount of processor cycles. I did the changes to add RFC 1044 support and in some tuning work at Cray Research (between cray and medium-size 370 mainframe) ran at mainframe channel thruput with only modest cpu use (around 500 times improvement in cpu cycles per byte moved). misc. past posts mentioning doing RFC 1044 support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#rfc1044

misc. past posts mentioning spool file system (SFS) rewrite:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000b.html#43 Migrating pages from a paging device (was Re: removal of paging device)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#7 More newbie stop the war here!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#26 Microkernels are not "all or nothing". Re: Multics Concepts For
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#63 SPXTAPE status from REXX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004g.html#19 HERCULES
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004p.html#3 History of C
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#38 Thou shalt have no other gods before the ANSI C standard
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#28 MVCIN instruction
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#35 Charging Time
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007c.html#21 How many 36-bit Unix ports in the old days?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#63 Operating Systems for Virtual Machines

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:59:44 -0400
DMcCunney <plugh@xyzzy.com> writes:
Any with a terminal. And the same card I use in an ATM. There are several different ATM networks, but they linked together some time back to permit transactions. The debit card is a direct charge against the bank account it's linked to. What *may* take place is a surcharge. If I use my card to get cash in an ATM machine operated by a different bank than mine, I may get hit with a service charge for the transaction. Retail purchases are just debits of price+tax.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#7 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#12 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#14 taking down the machine - z9 series

there was something of blame-game in the press in the first part of this century regarding proliferation of signature-debit.

long ago, magstripe credit cards had vulnerability where crooks would fabricate counterfeit cards using simple formulae that was used for checking valid account numbers ... basically creating some number of cards with account numbers that passed simple valid number check. the idea was that just random distribution ... some number of the cards would specify a real, valid account number and fraudulent financial transaction would go thru.

industry eventually developed a account number guessing countermeasure ... which was a secure hash added to the magstripe. it basically was a static value that hashed some of the other information on the magstripe (primarily account number), encoded it with bin/bank "secret" (aka key), and truncated it before encoding it on the magstripe.

pin-debit ATM cards never really had to develop a corresponding countermeasure becuase it already had two-factor authentication i.e. card as something you have authentication and PIN as something you know authentication ... from 3-factor authentication model, some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#3factor

where multiple authentication factors are considered more secure because the different factors are assumed to have different compromises (not to have common compromise).

In any case, the PIN acted as countermeasure to counterfeit card built just from account number guessing (and didn't need the secure hash) ... wiki card security code page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_security_code
above mentions field carrying the value in ISO8583
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8583

however, with starting to enable ATM cards for signature-debit ... not needing PIN ... they became vulnerable to counterfeit card magstripes generated from account number guesses. In any case there were several press/news items a few years ago about how the ATM industry had less secure cards than credit industry (because they never evolved the secure hash feature on the magstripe).

the issuing institution validates the secure hash field from the electronic transaction ... using the bank/bin level secret used to encode the information. the association networks also have a "stand-in" feature where they have table of all the bin/bank secrets from all the issuing members ... to do a pre-validation of electronic transaction as it passes thru their network.

It was somewhat fluff and show ... because the crooks had pretty much moved on to skimming compromises ... where the full static data from valid magstripe are recorded for the generation of a counterfeit card (including any secure hash).

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:49:18 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#7 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#12 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#14 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#27 taking down the machine - z9 series

some thread between ha/cmp & cluster scale-up ... electronic commerce, and retail financial transactions.

ha/cmp posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
some cluster scale-up email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa

and then there was this meeting in early jan92
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

we depart by that summer ... and two of the other people mentioned in the jan92 also depart. they then show up at a small client/server startup responsible for something called the "commerce server" ... and they want to do payment transactions on the server. The small client/server startup also had invented some technology they called "SSL" they wanted to use. we were brought in as consultants for the payment transactions ... as well as mapping "SSL" technology to payment transaction business processes. part of the effort included a gateway that sat on the internet and acted as interface between webservers on the internet and bank/payment networks. some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway

the result is now frequently referred to as "electronic commerce".

somewhat as a result of the "electronic commerce" work, in the mid-90s we were invited to participate in the x9a10 financial standard working group ... which had been give the requirement to preserve the integrity of the financial infrastructure for all retail payments. That is ALL as in point-of-sale, attended, unattended, low-value, high-value, face-to-face, internet, cellphone, transit turnstile, debit, credit, merchant stored-value, gift cards, aka ALL.

Part of the x9a10 effort required during detailed end-to-end threat & vulnerability analysis of the various environments.

One of the challenges was looking at some of the smarcard activity that involved point-of-sale "contact" payments ... sort out various vulnerabilities and being able to have higher security ... but also apply it to internet & cellphone environments ... as well as make it work within the power and elapsed-time constraint of contactless operation at transit-turnstile.

there was a transit meeting in the 90s where one of the contact cards was asked how it would be made to work in a transit environment. Basically they came up with a "sleeve" and a 15ft electro-magnetic tunnel leading up to every turnstile ... people would be required to walk slowly thru the "tunnel" leading up to the transit turnstile ... with the contact sleeve acquiring sufficient radition power within the tunnel to drive the payment card and perform the transaction. this is compared to standard contactless card that is swiped within a few inches of the reader/power and performs the transaction within small fraction of second (using the power it is able to acquire being near the reader in that short swipe period).

misc. posts about some of the x9.59 standard work in the x9a10 financial standard work group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

the previously mentioned nacha atm internet trials ... was done with a relatively vanilla contact smartcard with a x9.59 "similar" protocol
https://web.archive.org/web/20070706004855/http://internetcouncil.nacha.org/News/news.html

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:11:12 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
Congress would love to shut down the Fed and allow politicians to run the monetary policy again. This would revert history to the decade before the depression.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#23 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#24 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

greenspan was on this morning trying to explain why the fed just miscalculated.

the issue had been that business & consumer loans were an infrastructure that intertwined the fed and regulated depository institutions ... with the fed being able to exercise lots of control over their leanding, interest rates, etc.

there was a small, relatively side area involving securitized loans which involved lending outside the traditional regulated environment (where FED exercised some control) ... but it wasn't significant market; in part because there was lots of skepticism about the quality of the instruments. they had been used during the S&L crisis to obfuscate underlying value (we had been contacted in the late 90s looking at doing valuation and various kinds of fraud detection related to securitized mortgages).

all of that changed this century when unregulated loan originators discovered that they could pay the rating agencies to get triple-A ratings on toxic CDOs (securitized loans). this blew open the market from billions to tens of trillions ... with all sorts of parties playing with triple-A rated toxic CDOs. the unregulated loan originators found they could sell off every loan they could originate ... without regard to the loan T&Cs, interest rate, loan quality, borrowers qualifications, etc. The only thing limiting their take was how big were the loans and how fast they could make the loans (they were taking percentage of every loan based on on loan value ... w/o regard to any other considereation).

this permeated out across the world with people dealing in toxic CDOs taking a percentage of their value ... and nobody paying any other attention because of the triple-A rating.

This was outside the FED control and pretty unaffected by things like FED rates.

It perculated back into the regulated depository institutions in number of ways. GLBA had repealed Glass-Steagall ... so that "safe" regulated depository institutions could now have unregulated risky investment bank operations that dealt in this highly risky instruments ... and which could cascade into taking down the whole institution. Indiscriminate pumping money into loans created a huge economic bubble that spread out into many areas of the economy. The collapse of the bubble affected all areas of the economy ... including businesses that had taken out standard commercial loans from depository institutions that had never played in the risky investment banking games (some of those businesses collapse and their traditional loans turn bad ... affecting institutions that never participated in any risk behavior).

The FED did play a major role in GLBA ... and therefor allowing banks to indirectly have risky behavior that could take them down. The FED also played other roles in other areas around the perimeter of the triple-A rated toxic CDOs (but didn't have any direct relation to the instruments).

misc. past posts mentioning triple-A rated toxic CDOs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#66 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#90 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#75 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#42 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#65 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#70 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#75 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#77 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#79 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#37 Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#44 Fixing finance
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#52 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#59 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#62 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#1 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#28 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#32 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#48 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#49 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#89 Credit Crisis Timeline
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#90 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#4 A Merit based system of reward -Does anybody (or any executive) really want to be judged on merit?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#30 subprime write-down sweepstakes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#64 Is the credit crunch a short term aberation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#77 Do you think the change in bankrupcy laws has exacerbated the problems in the housing market leading more people into forclosure?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#104 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#3 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#9 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#12 To: Graymouse -- Ireland and the EU, What in the H... is all this about?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#15 What is "timesharing" (Re: OS X Finder windows vs terminal window weirdness)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#18 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#22 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#23 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#38 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#40 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#46 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#48 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#51 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#64 lack of information accuracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#67 lack of information accuracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#68 lack of information accuracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#69 lack of information accuracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#71 lack of information accuracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#6 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#10 Why do Banks lend poorly in the sub-prime market? Because they are not in Banking!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#11 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#12 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#13 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#14 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#16 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#19 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#20 IBM's 2Q2008 Earnings
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#23 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#27 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#33 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#42 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#44 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#67 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#70 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#12 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#15 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#16 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#26 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#76 When risks go south: FM&FM to be nationalized
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#80 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#81 Fraud due to stupid failure to test for negative
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#91 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#92 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#95 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#96 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#99 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#3 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#12 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#14 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#19 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#21 Michigan industry
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#23 Michigan industry
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#24 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#25 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#33 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#37 Success has many fathers, but failure has the US taxpayer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#40 Success has many fathers, but failure has the US taxpayer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#42 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#44 VMware Chief Says the OS Is History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#49 VMware Chief Says the OS Is History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#74 Why can't we analyze the risks involved in mortgage-backed securities?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#78 Isn't it the Federal Reserve role to oversee the banking system??
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#88 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#94 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#95 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#15 Financial Crisis - the result of uncontrolled Innovation?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#18 Once the dust settles, do you think Milton Friedman's economic theories will be laid to rest
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#19 What's your view of current global financial / economical situation?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#26 SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), is this really followed and worthful considering current Financial Crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#28 Does anyone get the idea that those responsible for containing this finanical crisis are doing too much?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#31 The human plague
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#42 The human plague
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#43 The human plague
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#45 The human plague
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#51 Why are some banks failing, and others aren't?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#52 Why is sub-prime crisis of America called the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#62 Would anyone like to draw a diagram of effects or similar for the current "credit crisis"?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#65 Can the financial meltdown be used to motivate sustainable development in order to achieve sustainable growth and desired sustainability?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#68 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#71 Why is sub-prime crisis of America called the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#74 Would anyone like to draw a diagram of effects or similar for the current "credit crisis"?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#75 In light of the recent financial crisis, did Sarbanes-Oxley fail to work?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#78 Who murdered the financial system?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#80 Can we blame one person for the financial meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#82 Greenspan testimony and securization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#3 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#8 Global Melt Down
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#9 Do you believe a global financial regulation is possible?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#47 In Modeling Risk, the Human Factor Was Left Out
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#60 Did sub-prime cause the financial mess we are in?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008p.html#70 Is there any technology that we are severely lacking in the Financial industry?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#11 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#12 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#19 Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#20 How is Subprime crisis impacting other Industries?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#28 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#32 I was wondering what types of frauds the audience think will increase?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#49 Have not the following principles been practically disproven, once and for all, by the current global financial meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#50 Obama, ACORN, subprimes (Re: Spiders)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#57 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#58 Obama, ACORN, subprimes (Re: Spiders)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#68 Obama, ACORN, subprimes (Re: Spiders)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008q.html#69 if you are an powerful financial regulator , how would you have stopped the credit crunch?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#4 Basel Committee outlines plans to strengthen Basel II
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#10 Blinkylights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#35 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#58 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#64 Is This a Different Kind of Financial Crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#67 What is securitization and why are people wary of it ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#8 Top financial firms of US are eyeing on bailout. It implies to me that their "Risk Management Department's" assessment was way below expectations
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#9 Blind-sided, again. Why?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#20 Five great technological revolutions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#23 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#24 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#30 How reliable are the credit rating companies? Who is over seeing them?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#35 Is American capitalism and greed to blame for our financial troubles in the US?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#55 Is this the story behind the crunchy credit stuff?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#59 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#60 Garbage in, garbage out trampled by Moore's law
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#14 What are the challenges in risk analytics post financial crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#15 What are the challenges in risk analytics post financial crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#21 Banks to embrace virtualisation in 2009: survey
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#31 Banks to embrace virtualisation in 2009: survey
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#32 What are the challenges in risk analytics post financial crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#42 Lets play Blame Game...?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#52 The Credit Crunch: Why it happened?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#63 CROOKS and NANNIES: what would Boyd do?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#73 CROOKS and NANNIES: what would Boyd do?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#74 CROOKS and NANNIES: what would Boyd do?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#77 CROOKS and NANNIES: what would Boyd do?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#79 The Credit Crunch: Why it happened?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009.html#80 Are reckless risks a natural fallout of "excessive" executive compensation ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#1 Are Both The U.S. & UK on the brink of debt disaster?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#23 BarCampBank - informal finance rantathon in London
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#25 The recently revealed excesses of John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, while the firm was receiving $25 Billion in TARP funds makes me sick
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#37 A great article was posted in another BI group: "To H*** with Business Intelligence: 40 Percent of Execs Trust Gut"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#49 US disaster, debts and bad financial management
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#51 Will the Draft Bill floated in Congress yesterday to restrict trading of naked Credit Default Swaps help or aggravate?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#52 What has the Global Financial Crisis taught the Nations, it's Governments and Decision Makers, and how should they apply that knowledge to manage risks differently in the future?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#53 Credit & Risk Management ... go Simple ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#54 In your opinion, which facts caused the global crise situation?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#57 Credit & Risk Management ... go Simple ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#59 As bonuses...why breed greed, when others are in dire need?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#73 What can we learn from the meltdown?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#78 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#79 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#80 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#1 Audit II: Two more scary words: Sarbanes-Oxley
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#6 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#8 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#16 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#29 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#32 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#38 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#39 'WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GLOBAL MELTDOWN'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#51 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#53 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#55 Who will give Citigroup the KNOCKOUT blow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#61 Accounting for the "greed factor"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#65 is it possible that ALL banks will be nationalized?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#67 How to defeat new telemarketing tactic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#0 PNC Financial to pay CEO $3 million stock bonus
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#7 Are Ctibank's services and products so vital to global economy than no other banks can substitute it?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#16 The Formula That Killed Wall Street
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#18 HSBC is expected to announce a profit, which is good, what did they do differently?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#22 Is it time to put banking executives on trial?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#28 I need insight on the Stock Market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#37 NEW SEC (Enforcement) MANUAL, A welcome addition
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#42 Bernard Madoff Is Jailed After Pleading Guilty -- are there more "Madoff's" out there?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#46 Bernanke Says Regulators Must Protect Against Systemic Risks
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#62 Is Wall Street World's Largest Ponzi Scheme where Madoff is Just a Poster Child?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#73 Should Glass-Steagall be reinstated?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#74 Why is everyone talking about AIG bonuses of millions and keeping their mouth shut on billions sent to foreign banks?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#77 Who first mentioned Credit Crunch?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#8 The background reasons of Credit Crunch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#15 The background reasons of Credit Crunch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#23 Should FDIC or the Federal Reserve Bank have the authority to shut down and take over non-bank financial institutions like AIG?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#30 Timeline: 40 years of OS milestones
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#36 Architectural Diversity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#53 Are the "brightest minds in finance" finally onto something?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#70 When did "client server" become part of the language?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#31 What is the real basis for business mess we are facing today?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#35 US banking Changes- TARP Proposl
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#38 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#41 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#43 On whom or what would you place the blame for the sub-prime crisis?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#49 Is the current downturn cyclic or systemic?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#56 What's your personal confidence level concerning financial market recovery?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009f.html#65 Just posted third article about toxic assets in a series on the current financial crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#1 Future of Financial Mathematics?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#27 Flawed Credit Ratings Reap Profits as Regulators Fail Investors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#31 OODA-loop obfuscation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#34 Board Visibility Into The Business
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#37 Future of Financial Mathematics?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#52 Future of Financial Mathematics?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#53 We Can't Subsidize the Banks Forever
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#61 Prosecute Bank Execs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#3 Consumer Credit Crunch and Banking Writeoffs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#10 China's yuan 'set to usurp US dollar' as world's reserve currency
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#29 Analysing risk, especially credit risk in Banks, which was a major reason for the current crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#40 Analysing risk, especially credit risk in Banks, which was a major reason for the current crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#13 UK issues Turning apology (and about time, too)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#17 UK issues Turning apology (and about time, too)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#20 UK issues Turning apology (and about time, too)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#21 UK issues Turning apology (and about time, too)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#47 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#56 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#58 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#62 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#68 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#23 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#23 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#25 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#37 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#61 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#48 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#53 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#8 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#10 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#11 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#26 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#29 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#56 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#74 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#15 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#33 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#54 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#69 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#76 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#81 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#15 The Revolving Door and S.E.C. Enforcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#22 In the News: SEC storms the 'Castle'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#27 In the News: SEC storms the 'Castle'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#32 In the News: SEC storms the 'Castle'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#4 Goldman Sachs -- Post SEC complaint. What's next?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#7 The Enablers for this "Real Estate Crisis"- Willful Blindness, Greed or more?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#34 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#47 "Fraud & Stupidity Look a Lot Alike"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#48 "Fraud & Stupidity Look a Lot Alike"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#49 "Fraud & Stupidity Look a Lot Alike"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#79 Favourite computer history books?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#12 Warren Buffett faces hearing over ratings agencies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#6 taking down the machine - z9 series

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:52:03 -0400
Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
Note, as you mention below [snipped] that giving customers access to the source allowed them to do a large part of IBM's job - they could not only report a problem, they could often report where in the code the problem was occurring and provide a suggested fix.

in the OCO-wars in the 80s (i.e. no longer shipping source ... just shipping "Object Code Only") ... one of the issues raised was shipping source encouraged users to modify production code ... contaminating the environment and making problem determination harder.

that was somewhat red herring since problems with customers making source code changes was more than offset with having higher skilled customers that were capable of dealing with problems.

there was a fundamental problem with customers making source code changes and how fast customers could be migrated to newer products.

in the late 70s and early 80s ... there was period where there were incremental low-level (supervisor) hardware and operating system changes going on. in some corners this was viewed as countermeasures to clone processor competition. anything slowing down the customer from migrating to the latest hardware/software combination ... could result in the customer being more vulnerable to switching to clone processor from some other vendor (in part because the clone processor vendors would introduce machines at better price/performance ... but might have a year lag with including the latest hardware architecture tweak).

One of the most extreme version of this ... was leaking an early version of my CSC/VM distribution to AT&T ... old email mentioning converting lots of cp67 enhancements to vm370 for csc/vm distribution (otherwise only within the company)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

this csc/vm distribution didn't have multiprocessor support and only ran with single processor configuration. at&t made additional enhancements (like virtual tape running over network ... i.e. application at one at&t csc/vm location could use local read/write channel program to a virtual tape drive ... which actually ran over a network link to real tape drive at a remote csc/vm system).

in any case, come the 80s ... this csc/vm distribution had propagated around AT&T ... but the next generation of IBM processors were 3081 ... which came only in multiprocessor flavor. clone processor vendor had single processor machine competitive with the aggregate 3081 multiprocessor thruput as well as price/performance competitive. the national marketing rep for at&t tracks me down ... looking for help migrating at&t from the ancient csc/vm system to a "modern" vm370 system with multiprocessor support.

some comments about (future system effort and) technology used in 3081
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm

misc. past posts mentioning multiprocessor/smp support and/or compare&swap support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

as i've mentioned before the initial morph of cp67 to vm370 involved a lot of simplification and dropping various things that were already shipping in cp67 product. the standard vm370 release didn't ship multiprocessor support until vm370 release 4 ... in the later part of the 70s.

misc. past posts mentioning OCO-wars:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#42 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#61 (slightly OT - Linux) Did IBM bet on the wrong OS?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#17 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#19 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#20 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#22 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:49:22 -0400
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
I wouldn't have guessed that name, either. ;)

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#26 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

virtual appliance wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_appliance

linux virtual appliance reference:
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/138166

vmware virtual appliance reference:
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/

parallels virtual appliance reference
http://www.parallels.com/en/support/docs/

dell virtual appliance reference
http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/virtualization-infrastructure.aspx

citrix virtual appliance reference
http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/XenServer+Virtual+Appliances;jsessionid=CB28E471E24D60208A2BE2C8E2266068

little search engine use turns up lots of others.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:40:57 -0400
"Dave Wade" <g8mqw@yahoo.com> writes:
I would say that's exactly how VM/370 was (and is) used. CMS is a simple OS. Its a single threaded single user OS. Its about as complex as MSDOS. VM the underlying Hypervisor simply divides up the hardware and creates lots of padded cells for CMS to run in. It has short comings in that its hard to share files, but in terms of terminals you get about 10 times as many users on as with TSO where a monolithic program has to manage multi threading and the complexity of a multi user file store. So two heads are better than one...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#26 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#31 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

i had done lots of work on os/360 and then cp67/cms as undergraduate in the 60s. the cp67 virtual machine culture had significant more focus on performance ... lots more attention paid in general to instrumentation, algorithms, etc. the separation of the functions into distinct entities simplified being able to focus on improving specific areas ... like resource management ... in traditional operating system lots of things were all jumbled together making it much more difficult to address/focus/solve.

lots of resources/attention were further focused on vm performance because there would be side-by-side comparisons running traditional operating system on the bare hardware (w/o the hypervisor) and under the hypervisor (difficult to run tso with and w/o the underlying os/360 operating system).

clean separation & partitioning simplified work on performance and resource management ... but also other stuff like security & integrity.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:42:16 -0400
Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
I was thinking of them, but how many run CMS and not bare metal? Or is there a "CMS Services" facility for filesystem access, etc. that doesn't require full CMS. All the service machines (that I'm aware of) use CMS files for their configuration data, etc.

I know that VTAM, and maybe other stuff, uses "GCS", which is sort of an "MVS-services" layer, but not an OS running on top of VM.


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#26 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#31 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#32 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

The network examples initially loaded CMS ... which then loaded the networking code that took over the whole virtual machine ... had its own interrupt handlers, monitor, etc.

person that wrote the rscs/vnet code was working for a different company doing something with one of the major real time systems not too long ago ... and thot they recognized something familiar. they x-checked the c-language monitor (/dispatching) routine (from real time system) with the corresponding 360/370 assembler routine from rscs/vnet (that they had written decades earlier). The c-language appeared to be a statement-for-statement manual conversion of the 360/370 statements down to having identical comments on each statement. old post mentioning discovering the similarity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#32 "The Elements of Programming Style"

image of cms is still sitting around in the address space and CMS APIs can be invoked for some services ... but it is hardly a CMS virtual machine any longer. a lot of them used cms for basic scaffolding.

the multi-user spacewar game (done by the author of rexx) was similar, cms was used for basic scaffolding to bring up the "server" ... which then took over most of the machine. misc. past posts mentioning multi-user spacewar game:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#10 5-player Spacewar?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#8 VM: checking some myths.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#34 Playing games in mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#74 Adventure - Or Colossal Cave Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#0 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?

a lot of the service virtual machines (or game servers as in the spacewar game) ... used paradigm where messages were "sent" to if (as if there was a normal person interacting with real terminal). cp67/vm370 "SPM" function was used to intercept the messages (intended for printing on real terminal) and handled under program control (specially for service virtual machines running disconnected w/o real terminal). This was used for deploying various "services" and/or automating various kinds of human "operator" functions.

old history email about SPM ... originally done on cp67 at Pisa science center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#email851017

also mentioned in one of the features I included in csc/vm converting from cp67 to vm370 (i started using vm370 pre-release slightly earlier than 8/12/75 date mentoned in above)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

for whatever reason, rather than shipping SPM ... there was some NIH which started out inventing IUCV (a subset of SPM) and then adding SMSG (a different subset of SPM) ... to try and eventually provide all the features supported by the (internal) SPM.

I had done CMSBACK as backup/archive mechanism (ran around in service virtual machine off-shift checking for new/changed files to be written to tape). Independent of CMSBACK there was tape-management library that had directory of all tapes ... users set "messages" requested mounts ... which were intercepted, checked against the directory ... and then mount messages sent to a "real" operator for tape mounting.

Then a restore service virtual machine was added to CMSBACK ... users could send query&restore messages to the CMSBACK restore service virtual machine (get lists of all their files archived ... using wildcards in filenames and/or date ranges for filtering and/or specify a specific files or groups of files to be restored). The restore function had access to the CMSBACK directory of all files and all backup/archive tapes ... and correspondence between backup/archived files and backup/archive tapes. After a couple internal releases, CMSBACK morphed into the workstation datasave facility (shipped as product to customers), which then morphed into ADSM, which subsequently morphed into the current TSM. misc. old email mentioning CMSBACK
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#cmsback
misc. past posts mentioning backup/archive
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#backup

misc. past references to SPM:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#32 z900 and Virtual Machine Theory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#51 other cp/cms history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006t.html#47 To RISC or not to RISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#8 Why these original FORTRAN quirks?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#11 vm/sp1
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#14 Just another example of mainframe costs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#14 more shared segment archeology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007k.html#25 IBM 360 Model 20 Questions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#41 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#73 Addressing Scheme with 64 vs 63 bits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#48 New machine code
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009n.html#67 Status of Arpanet/Internet in 1976?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#0 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header time-stamp?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:54:48 -0400
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
Well, look at how I snipped things here: I don't know that CMS was ever optimized to be the OS for a specific application the way a libOS is expected to be.

CMS was pretty minimalist ... but it wasn't optimized in the sense of only supporting service functions ... not in the way RSCS/VNET was ... evidence the apparent cloning of parts of it (like RSCS/VNET MSUP) for real-time system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#33 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

for instance CMS had 64kbytes of code that provided OS/360 simulation sufficient to run lots of OS/360 code. When MVS came along with the kernel image took up 8mbytes of every 16mbyte application address space ... there were some snide jokes about the CMS 64kbytes of OS/360 simulation was sure a lot more efficient than the MVS 8mbytes of os/360 simulation.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:20:24 -0400
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
Sharing files in a modern re-implementation would be almost as natural as breathing for programmers who understand that each padded cell is its own machine: Set up a virtual LAN, establish some protocol for automatically finding out what's on the system with you, and use the same networking code that's already been banged around and proven on the real Internet/LANs.

about the same time I was doing SFS (spool file system) ... ref:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#26 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

there was SFS (shared file system) ... that was service virtual machine using IUCV (which was an inter virtual machine communication facility).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#3 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

VM listserver discussions ... includes mailing list specifically for shared file system
http://www.vm.ibm.com/techinfo/listserv.html
other shared file system reference:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zvm/v5r3/topic/com.ibm.zvm.v53.dmsb3/dup0003.htm

I had gotten blamed for line computer conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s and early 80s. somewhat in the wake of that coming to attention of top executives ... there was direction to provide some official support ... and TOOLRUN was one of the results ... providing both usenet-like operation as well as mailing list like operation on the internal network. misc. past posts mentioning internal network (more nodes than arpanet/internet from just about the beginning until late '85 or early '86).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

bitnet (& earn in europe) then was corporate sponsored network for educational institutions using technology similar to that used on internal network. misc. past posts mentioning bitnet/earn
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet

old email from person setting up earn ... looking for network-centric apps:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#email840320

listserv was TOOLRUN subset providing mailing list function, originally developed in Paris for EARN
http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv-history.asp

other recent posts mentioning above:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#7 CAPS Fantasia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#36 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#75 Posts missing from ibm-main on google groups
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#68 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform

all this networking and feature/function being done as service virtual machines.

misc. past posts mentioning online computer conferencing and computer mediated communication
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:31:06 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
You suffer from the ability to think well. :-) US politicians are now gounging small business with fees and taxes. These politicians aren't even eating the seed corn; they're burning it up.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#48 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#49 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#40 F.B.I. Faces New Setback in Computer Overhaul
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#88 taking down the machine - z9 series

the scenario that the economists gave for "flat rate" tax was

1) special provisions eventually accumulate until the tax code is 60,000 pages and dealing with the complexity consumes something like 5-6 percent of GDP (aka any one special provision may be seen as positive contribution ... but the paradigm of having special provisions more than offsets the benefits of any special provisions ... it is sort of myopic/tactical vis-a-vis strategic ... or not seeing the "forest for the trees")

2) the tax code special provision paradigm creates a culture that results in major portion of the lobbying that goes on; being a major contributor to congress being considered the most corrupt institution on earth.

the social, cultural and economic costs of dealing with all the little nits are like the death of thousand cuts ... even if any specific special provision can be taken out of overall context and made to appear that it will be the savior of mankind (all wrapped up in motherhood and apple pie).

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:47:51 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#36 taking down the machine - z9 series

... if one were inclined to such flights of fantesy ... one might draw analogy between the 60,000+ page tax code with enormous number of special provisions ... and enormously bloated operating systems .... compared to a flat-rate tax code that ran 400-500 pages (better than two orders of magnitude reduction) analogous to lean & mean hypervisor with super-efficient virtual appliances (overall providing enormous improvements in efficiency and operation).

... recent hypervisor thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#26 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#31 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#32 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#33 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#34 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#35 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 2 Jul 2010 08:06:50 -0700
PaulGBoulder@AIM.COM (Paul Gilmartin) writes:
Is there a shell interface to flock()?

Is the lock automatically freed when the requesting process terminates, for whatever cause?


from flock man page:

NAME
flock - Manage locks from shell scripts

SYNOPSIS
flock [-sxon] [-w timeout] lockfile [-c] command...

flock [-sxon] [-w timeout] lockdir [-c] command...

flock [-sxun] [-w timeout] fd

DESCRIPTION
       This  utility manages flock(2) locks from within shell scripts or the command line.

The first and second forms wraps the lock around the executing a command, in a man-
ner  similar  to su(1) or newgrp(1).  It locks a specified file or directory, which
       is created (assuming appropriate permissions), if it does not already exist.

       The third form is convenient inside shell scripts, and is usually used the  follow-
ing manner:

(
         flock -s 200
# ... commands executed under lock ...
       ) 200>/var/lock/mylockfile

The  mode  used  to open the file doesn't matter to flock; using > or >> allows the
lockfile to be created if it does not already exist, however, write  permission  is
       required; using < requires that the file already exists but only read permission is
required.

By default, if the lock cannot be immediately acquired, flock waits until the  lock
is available.
... snip ...

lock is freed when command (or subshell) completes.

possible more than you ever wanted to know ... I have shell script for morning news reading:
function sqlhq {

# block everybody else until file of previously seen URLs is created
(
flock -x 200
.... sqllite extraction from browser history file and url reformating
uses exclusive lock ) 200>sqlhq.lock

} # end extracting previous URLs from browser sqlite history file
#-------------------------------------------------------------

# wget retrieve and convert news page URL
function wgethq {

... calls wget to fetch news url web page, then extracts & reformats
news item urls in the web page ... news web page processing
done asynchronously

(
flock -s 200
.... waits until sqlite browser history extraction has finished before
eliminating news item URLs already seen, uses "shared" lock
once exclusive lock has been released ) 200>sqlhq.lock

(
flock -x 300
... does some serialized global processing, one news URL page at a
time; sends active browser each unseen news item URL to be
be opened in separate background tabs (in aggregate can be several
hundred tabs/urls). uses exclusive lock. ) 300>x1.lock

}
# end processing of each wget file
#---------------------------------------------------------

... start main shell ... asynchronously start browser history URL extraction sqlhq &

# ansynchronously fetch/proces each news URL page
fn=0
while read url ; do
wgethq f$fn $url &
let fn=$fn+1
done<hq.list

# wait until everything has completed
wait


... snip ...

"hq.list" contains a list of 70 or so news webpage URLs from around the internet.

there is very tiny possibility of race condition ... that "sqlhq" asynchronous function doesn't set exclusive lock until after the first wgethq asynchronous function obtains the shared lock (however, realistically even if the asynchronous sqlhq function was stalled for unknown reasons, the ansynchronous wgethq functions do quite a bit of web operation before attempting to obtain the shared lock).

wgethq function eliminates previously seen news item URL (already in browser history file) from being sent to the browser for loading. The global serialization (in wgethq) is for the case where multiple different news sites might refer to the same news item URL ... so that it is only sent to the browser for loading once.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:24:17 -0400
DMcCunney <plugh@xyzzy.com> writes:
The difference I can see for a micro-brew is that it is probably produced locally and *consumed* locally. (Think brew pub.)

To be economic, wine really needs to have a larger market.

(I have friends who are wine connoisseurs who rant about various legal and tax issues that make it hard for them to *get* certain wines, because the vintners aren't allowed to ship to them.)


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#88 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#36 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#37 taking down the machine - z9 series

tax code comes to be dominated with special provisions ... enormously complicating everybody's life (enormously greater downside than the small benefit of the individual special provisions).

another way is to remove various kinds of gov. subsidies to transportation ... so that transported goods reflected the fully loaded costs of the transportation.

benefits of scale-of-operation needs to fully account for transportation involved with serving larger market. otherwise, there can be enormous distortion in economic operation ... with the frequently hidden costs to the infrastructure far outweighing any actual benefits and/or costs persisting long after there were any practical net benefits. part of the downside is that individuals may position themselves in non-viable economic niches ... being able to take advantage of the distorted economic operation.

slightly related past threads about having heavy trucking pay their appropriate fully loaded costs:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002j.html#41 Transportation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#5 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#6 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#10 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#12 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#15 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#19 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#24 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#26 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#32 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#35 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#46 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#48 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#49 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#50 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#51 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#52 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#53 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#54 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#56 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#57 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#59 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#60 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#61 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#62 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#0 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#5 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#6 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#11 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006h.html#23 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#97 Loads Weighing Heavily on Roads
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#55 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#48 fraying infrastructure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#25 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#36 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#37 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008l.html#54 dollar coins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#41 VMware Chief Says the OS Is History

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42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 2 Jul 2010 14:18:13 -0700
zedgarhoover@GMAIL.COM (zMan) writes:
OK, it's Friday afternoon, so time to broaden this a bit: Is HTML a programming language?

HTML derived from SGML:
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/

which was ISO standard of GML ... misc. posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml

invented in 1969 at the science center ... misc. posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

GML is derived from the initial of the last names of the people at the science center inventing GML. GML markup capability was added to cms script command ... which had started out as document formating using "dot" formating commands ... from CTSS runoff.

One of the first major corporate documents done (other than cp67 & cms documents from the science center) was the 370 architecture "redbook". The 370 architecture redbook could be formated as either the full document ... or just the "principles of operation" subset ... at the time was about half the size of the full "redbook" (redbook comes from the color of the red 3-ring binder that was used for the full manual).

there were old jokes about whole organizations that appeared to have formated documents as their only work product (i.e. specialized in being "script programmers" ... as opposed to strictly gml programmers)

slightly related topic drift ("powerpoint programmers") ... couple recent posts in part of thread that got into talking about people spending their time formating things (including major activity of officers in iraq)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#19 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#20 Idiotic programming style edicts

for other drift ... old reference to first webserver outside cern, was on slac/vm system:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml

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42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 2 Jul 2010 15:59:36 -0700
BillF@MAINSTAR.COM (Bill Fairchild) writes:
For Friday use only. :-)

The only meaning of the letters GML that ever occurs to me is the initials of Canada's premier balladeer Gordon Meredith Lightfoot.


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#41

look at the SGML reference here (mentions the last names):
http://agman.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=20

more history here (also mentions last names):
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185033/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/roots.htm
another one
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm

wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language

for some reason, I've got a "blue card" that is stamped with "M" name (remember when people had custom stamps with ink pads ... they could put their names on books and other things). "blue card" is similar to "green card" but lots of stuff specific to 360/67.

for whatever reason both "G" and "L" transferred out to the west coast in the time-frame that I did.

misc. past posts mentioning gml
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml

as an aside ... the name for the compare&swap instruction was chosen because CAS are charlie's initial ... invented by charlie at the science center ... working on cp67 fine-grain smp locking. initial attempt at including CAS in 370 was rebuffed because the POK favorite son operating system people claimed that T&S (from 360) was more than sufficient. guys that owned the architecture ... provided challenge that to get CAS into 370 architecture required coming up with a use that wasn't SMP specific ... thus was born the programming notes regarding CAS for multithreaded/multiprogramming use ... that still shows up in current principles of operation. misc. past posts mentioning SMP &/or CAS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:17:21 -0400
Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
Lots of small banks are making money. Maybe they could make more as part of a large bank, but recent events have shown they can also lose *lots* more. I'm fortunate to have several small and medium-sized banks in the area. One is still largely family-owned, so maybe they won't want to sell out. I think we need to get back to geographical restrictions on banks to keep any of them from getting too big.

there has been industry publication that publishes huge amounts of numbers about financial institutions ... more than hundred pages, 50-60 items per page ... numbers arrainged in two columns ... avg numbers for the largest regional banks ... and avg for the largest national banks. the regional banks were doing slightly better than the national banks (this was before the too-big-to-fail national institutions really kicked in their unregulated investment banking operations ... courtesy of repeal of Glass-Steagall by GLBA; it wasn't just that they were "too big" ... but also that their unregulated investment banking arms were allowed to engage in risky activities that would bring down the institution).

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Just wondering what precisely happened to this newsgroup

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Just wondering what precisely happened to this newsgroup...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 08:56:43 -0400
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> writes:
In my car the control to the left of the clutch pedal is the hand^Wparking brake, the dip switch is on the stalk where a transpondian probably expects a gear lever.

i learned to drive old '38 chevy flatbed truck when i was eight. there was starter pedal on the floor
http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1938/38csm251.html

and there was no synchromesh ... had to double clutch every gear change (depress clutch, move to neutral, release clutch, adjust motor speed, depress clutch, move to new gear).
http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1938/38csm178.html

past posts with truck picture:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002i.html#59 wrt code first, document later
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#41 If there had been no MS-DOS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#19 Working while young
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007n.html#39 Is Parallel Programming Just Too Hard?

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42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Taglines

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Taglines
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 3 Jul 2010 06:34:51 -0700
ptlyon@MIDAMERICAN.COM (Patrick Lyon) writes:
OMG - I have to hand it to you Ted. I didn't think it was possible to come up with a tagline more annoying than your last, but by George, you've done it.

standard distributions tend to come with lots of quotes from Zippy The Pinhead
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_the_Pinhead

and yow that will select a random entry from the file ... with email/posting applications having options ... to use yow in selecting random signature/tag line.

long ago and far away, I had converted a copy of the ibm jargon & couple other files to yow format and modified email/posting app to random select between the different files and then select random entry.

misc. past posts mentioning signature/taglines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#77 Inserting autom. random signature
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#78 Inserting autom. random signature
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#48 Random signatures
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004k.html#48 Xah Lee's Unixism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005c.html#50 [Lit.] Buffer overruns
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009l.html#19 Disksize history question

one of the entries that periodically came up from ibm jargon was "tandem memos" ... aka (tag line could be longer than the rest of the message):
Tandem Memos n. Something constructive but hard to control; a fresh of breath air (sic). "That's another Tandem Memos." A phrase to worry middle management. It refers to the computer-based conference (widely distributed in 1981) in which many technical personnel expressed dissatisfaction with the tools available to them at that time, and also constructively criticized the way products were [are] developed. The memos are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in quality products. If you have not seen the memos, try reading the November 1981 Datamation summary.

... snip ...

I had gotten blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s & early 80s ... and one of the references to that period was "tandem memos" ... there was even a nov81 datamation article on the subject.

reference to copy of ibm jargon file
http://www.comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf
also mentioned here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw

part of the "tandem memo" theme was Jim had left for tandem (and tried to palm off some number of tasks on me ... like consulting to the IMS DBMS group ... and interacting with various organization regarding relational DBMS & System/R) ... a couple old email references:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801006
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#email801016

and I would periodically visit Jim at his new location. The above makes reference to Jim's departing tome, "MIP Envy" ... there are a couple version around ... one here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081115000000*/http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gray/papers/mipenvy.pdf

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42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:59:13 -0400
Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
A lot of the guys running the large organizations are nothing but parasites. They buy a company on credit, sell off the profitable parts to repay the loans, and junk the rest. The fact that a company which might have been still earning a profit is now in the scrap-heap, and that lots of good people have lost their jobs, means nothing to them.

the easy credit over the past decade ... resulting in the current financial mess didn't just apply to mortgages and other consumer loans. it also applied to large speculators ... borrowing for a reverse-ipo (taking the company private), put all the borrowed debt on the company ... and then did an IPO (with the new public company now carrying enormous debt) ... all the borrowed debit is serviced by the company that was run thru the reverse-IPO/IPO cycle.

there was significant personal motivation for doing these loan transactions ... in all the different market segments ... because the people involded got commissions on the gross transactions ... sufficient motivation to overcome any possible concernt about the resulting effect on the companies involved, the country, and/or the economy.

recent reference to book about the reverse-ipo/ipo transaction cycle.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#80 Favourite computer history books?

there is some analogy with the illegal stock portfolio transaction churning ... doing transactions purely for the purpose of the commission earned on the transaction (no intrinsic justification for the transactions other than the commissions on the transactions). the actual executives of the companies involved could be bought off with various kinds of bonuses and/or buyouts.

A lot of the mortgages from unregulated loan originators using toxic CDOs as source of money ... can also be framed as primary motivation for lots of the parties, was the commissions from the transactions (aka doing the transactions became an end-in-itself).

There was past reference to financial service industry tripled in size (as percent of GDP) during the financial mess period. There was reported to have been an aggregate of $27T in toxic CDOs done during the period. Take the aggregate transaction commissions from writing the original mortgate, real-estate transactions, secutizing the loans/mortgages and selling the toxic CDOs ... an aggregate of 10% commission from all the various transaction pieces comes to $2.7T ... more likely with all the various transactions the aggregate commission comes closer to 20% or $5.4T (not quite $1T/annum during the period).
Evil Wall Street Exports Boomed With 'Fools' Born to Buy Debt
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2008-10-27/evil-wall-street-exports-boomed-with-fools-born-to-buy-debt

Quite a few executives had another kind of financial fiddling going on, with bonuses tied to quarterly financial reports ... they would fiddle the reports to significantly inflate their bonuses. This was supposedly illegal before Sarbanes-Oxley & Enron ... and supposedly became even more illegal after Enron & Sarbanes-Oxley ... with Sarbanes-Oxley supposedly putting in lots more auditing procedures to prevent/catch such illegal activity.

Possibly because the GAO didn't believe that SEC was doing anything ... even after the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new audit procedures, GAO started publishing reports of public company financial reports (subject to SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley) that they considered fraudulent and/or in error.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-06-1079sp
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-138
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03395r.pdf
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06678.pdf
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d061053r.pdf

with the uptick in fraudulent reports even after Sarbanes-Oxley ... how to spin the significant audits imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley:

• Sarbanes-Oxley audits had no effect on fraudulent reporting • Sarbanes-Oxley audits encouraged public companies to increase fraudulent reporting • if it hadn't been for Sarbanes-Oxley audits, all public company would have been doing fraudulent financial filings

misc. recent posts mentioning GAO reports on audits of public company financial filing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#36 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#81 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#33 The 2010 Census
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#15 The Revolving Door and S.E.C. Enforcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#16 The Revolving Door and S.E.C. Enforcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#67 The Python and the Mongoose: it helps if you know the rules of engagement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#84 Idiotic programming style edicts

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 3 Jul 2010 13:41:16 -0700
Linda.lstsrv@COMCAST.NET (Linda Mooney) writes:
Genenalized Markup Languge, often called Script, ran under VM/CMS, html is very similar to it.  IBM used to produce their manuals years ago .  I don't know if they developed it.  I used it for several years during the '80s and early '90s to write complex bids and documentation

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#41 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML

at periods in the past there were whole organizations that were accused of having nobody but script programmers working for them ... much worse than the recent reference to officers in iraq spending more time on powerpoint than any other activity.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#20 Idiotic programming style edicts
and
http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/07/draft-draft-draftpowerpoint-1/

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:00:05 -0400
eamacneil@YAHOO.CA (Ted MacNEIL) writes:
GML is a superset of Script. Script came first, then GML tags were developed as Macros in the scripting language.

I believe it started as Waterloo script, then was acquired by IBM (on this I could be wrong).

I wrote my University papers using Waterloo script.

Then macros were written and assigned to GML as 'tags'.

For example:

.dm P .sp 1 .dm off .gs p p (If I remember my taging language, correctly -- but it's close)


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#41 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#47 GML

some people from CTSS went to project mac on 5th flr of 545 tech sq and did multics; others went to the science center on 4th flr where virtual machines, cp67/cms, internal networking technology, lots of online tools, lots of performance technologies (some that eventually evolved into capacity planning). the cms script command was somewhat a port of CTSS runoff ... that used dot (".") commands.

then in 1969, GML was invented at the science center ... and GML "tag" processing was added to script ... so that it supported both ctss runoff type formating as well as gml tag type formating ... they could even be intermixed in the same document.

misc. past posts mentioning gml, sgml, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml

misc. past posts mentioning science center & 545 tech sq
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

Waterloo SCRIPT:
http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/sdtp/watscr.html

from above:
Waterloo SCRIPT is a rewritten and extended version of a processor called NSCRIPT that had been converted to OS and TSO from CP-67/CMS SCRIPT. The original NSCRIPT package is available from the SHARE Program Library. Waterloo obtained NSCRIPT in late 1974 as a viable alternative to extending ATS to meet local requirements. The local acceptance of Waterloo SCRIPT has continued to provide the motivation for additional on-going development.

... snip ...

Some old CTSS RUNOFF reference:
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/PSN-40.html

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

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From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 3 Jul 2010 15:08:20 -0700
Efinnell15@AOL.COM (Ed Finnell) writes:
We were ESP for early GML and the little tin foil printers 42xx somethings. IIRC SCRIPT and Waterloo were similar but diverged at the MACRO level starting with GML. Dr Goldfarb used to be one of the 'highlight' sessions at SHARE and was entertaining as he was informative. Probably worst engineered thing I ever saw was the 6610(?) printer where the nixie tubes were in series with the printer memory.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#41 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#47 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML

6670 was basically ibm copier3 with computer interface ... allowed things like duplexing (print on both sides of paper). sjr enhanced it for all-points-addressable ... i.e. SHERPA or APA6670 (not just print character fonts ... but also images).

6670s were deployed around bldg. 28 in departmental areas. the 6670 had 2nd paper drawer ... and vm driver would print a "separator" page using the altnerate paper ... assuming it had been loaded with different colored paper (somewhat analogous to using red-striped cards for JCL on card decks ... made it easier for operator to separate out large trays of cards into individual jobs).

sjr modified the 6670 vm driver to include random selected item from a couple different source files ... to help make the separator page a little more interesting. one file used was reformated ibm jargon file ... another file was a "6670 sayings" file with misc. collected items from various sources. i've mentioned this recently having taken the files and converted for use for mail signature/taglines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#45 Taglines

one incident involved a corporate security audit and there was some conflict with the auditors over large collection of demo programs (they considered games) that they demanded be removed (counter argument was that demo programs were very valuable asset and the decision should be a management decision not an auditor decision). Then in an after hours sweep of the bldg by the auditors looking for unsecured (left out) classified material ... they came across some output on departmentl 6670 that had seperator page with:

[Business Maxims:] Signs, real and imagined, which belong on the walls of the nation's offices:
1) Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing; It Wastes Your Time and It Annoys the Pig.
2) Sometimes the Crowd IS Right.
3) Auditors Are the People Who Go in After the War Is Lost and Bayonet the Wounded.
4) To Err Is Human -- To Forgive Is Not Company Policy.


... snip ...

they complained the next day, that we had purposefully placed it to ridicule them.

One friday, somebody in POK sent me a bogus corporate memorandum concerning rules for password selection ... which I forwarded to several people in bldg. 28. Apparently over the week, somebody printed a copy using on departmental 6670 loaded with corporate letterhead paper and placed it on all the bldg. bulletin boards. Monday morning numerous people reading the memo didn't realize it was bogus ... and later that day complained loudly ... resulting in new policy that blank corporate letterhead paper had to be always kept locked up. Old post with reproduction of the bogus corporate memorandum:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#52 A beautiful morning in AFM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001d.html#53 April Fools Day

old email about doing apa6670/sherpa demo:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#email820304

misc. passed posts mentioning apa6670/sherpa
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005f.html#48 1403 printers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#44 Materiel and graft
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#49 Materiel and graft
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#1 Materiel and graft
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007g.html#27 The Complete April Fools' Day RFCs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#72 Parse/Template Function
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#51 It has been a long time since Ihave seen a printer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#68 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008o.html#69 Blinkenlights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#74 Apple iPad -- this merges with folklore
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#43 Boyd's Briefings
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#59 IBM 029 service manual

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Information on obscure text editors wanted

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Information on obscure text editors wanted
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:21:16 -0400
thvv <thvv64@gmail.com> writes:
This is an incorrect statement. Multics provided both "permissive" security and mandatory security, active at the same time. If either security mechanism said no access, then access was denied.

The feature was requested by a Multics customer, and partly funded by them, with the condition that the mandatory access control be part of the standard product, not an add-on, and not disableable. Many sites set the mandatory controls so they had no effect.

Who decides what is a "normal" operating system?

NSA had a couple of Multics systems and actually invited me to look at a proposed OS design that was a predecessor of SELinux back in the 90s. The mandatory access control implementation is one application of SELinux, but it has many other applications. This margin is too small for a discussion of its good and bad points :-)


I have some recollection that you were with them (on the east coast), the week we had the high-availability and integrity JAD on the west coast (excuse for not showing up for our meeting).

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Information on obscure text editors wanted

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Information on obscure text editors wanted
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:22:09 -0400
thvv <thvv64@gmail.com> writes:
So cp/67 in my view was another "second system" relative to CTSS. And the 370 implementation, that had much use, was a "third system" .. wherein we learn what not to do in a second system, and get it right on the third+ try.

part of vm370 was that it re-organized cms to take advantage of bunch of segment stuff that was in the original 370 virtual memory architecture. when those features got dropped (before 370 virtual memory was announced/shipped ... this was because of schedule problems retrofitting full set of features to 370/165) ... the group somewhat floundered around on what to do.

in any case, vm370 did a lot of simplification vis-a-vis cp67 ... which then had to be put back in ... some old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

part of the above was also because part of the period was when some amount of the group got co-opted into working on future system (and there wasn't going to be anymore 370):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

I continued doing cp67 (& then vm370) stuff ... making less than complimentary comments about future system activities along the way. when future system was finally killed, there was mad rush to get stuff back into 370 product line ... which possibly contributed to picking up and releasing some of the stuff I had been doing (i.e. sufficient motivation to offset NIH).

possibly closer to a 3rd try was "ZM" effort in the 80s ... somehow along the way, the effort was declared strategic and hundreds were put on writing specs for the design ... and eventually floundered. misc. past posts mentioning "ZM":
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001.html#27 VM/SP sites that allow free access?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001l.html#25 mainframe question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#53 TSS/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#46 Blinking lights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#14 Z/OS--anything new?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#57 ANN: Microsoft goes Open Source
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#63 CHROME and WEB apps on Mainframe?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009g.html#76 Undoing 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#17 Senior Java Developer vs. MVS Systems Programmer (warning: Conley rant)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#72 Entry point for a Mainframe?

some recent posts with references to the old email (putting stuff into vm370):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010.html#42 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#31 Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#39 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#60 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#65 Adventure - Or Colossal Cave Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#70 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#21 paged-access method
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#24 Unbundling & HONE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#52 LPARs: More or Less?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#24 Would you fight?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#3 16:32 far pointers in OpenWatcom C/C++
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#47 16:32 far pointers in OpenWatcom C/C++
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#72 Interesting presentation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#13 IBM 5100 First Portable Computer commercial 1977
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#20 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#22 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#38 Information on obscure text editors wanted
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#51 Information on obscure text editors wanted
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#54 Article says mainframe most cost-efficient platform
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#4 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#25 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#30 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#33 Was VM ever used as an exokernel?

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 3 Jul 2010 21:04:03 -0700
lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler) writes:
more history here (also mentions last names):
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185033/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/roots.htm


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML

from roots.htm ...
Later in 1971, when product development was imminent, I gave GML its present name so that our initials would always prove where it had originated. One of the ugly truths of technology transfer is that developers tend to be grateful for research work when first received, and virtually oblivious to it by the end of a lengthy development cycle, which in those days could take years and years. (Actually, it still takes that long today; they just bring the software to market much earlier in the development cycle.)

... snip ...

and ...
Ed Mosher's technical notebook indicates that by 1971 we had succeeded with tag interpretation and multiple use (which Ed had implemented using Script set-symbols) and moved along into thinking about models and finite state machines.

... snip ...

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:44:46 -0400
thvv <thvv64@gmail.com> writes:
(RUNOFF was a CTSS command written by Jerry Saltzer in MAD, if you came in late.)

slightly related ... there is running thread in ibm-main about cms script, gml, etc ... with cms script starting out very much as a port of CTSS RUNOFF ... and then after GML was invented at the science center in 1969 ... support was added for GML tag processing:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#41 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#47 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#49 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#52 GML

a couple refs from above thread

Waterloo SCRIPT:
http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/sdtp/watscr.html

from above:
Waterloo SCRIPT is a rewritten and extended version of a processor called NSCRIPT that had been converted to OS and TSO from CP-67/CMS SCRIPT. The original NSCRIPT package is available from the SHARE Program Library. Waterloo obtained NSCRIPT in late 1974 as a viable alternative to extending ATS to meet local requirements. The local acceptance of Waterloo SCRIPT has continued to provide the motivation for additional on-going development.

... snip ...

Some old CTSS RUNOFF reference:
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/PSN-40.html

script/gml then morphs into html at cern
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/

first webserver outside cern was on slac vm/cms system:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml

some gml history
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185033/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/roots.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 4 Jul 2010 07:30:56 -0700
wfarrell@US.IBM.COM (Walt Farrell) writes:
If you consider ENQs such as the one ISPF created to protect updating members of a partitioned data set, and that some other programs also use, that ENQ is more obviously advisery.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#38 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

in that sense, ACP controller lock were advisery ... old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#email800325
in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008i.html#39 American Airlines

i.e. channel programs on loosely-coupled could execute w/o requiring locks ... but "LOCK READ CCW" and "WRITE UNLOCK CCW" set/unset logical locks in the controller. the value specified for logical locks can be arbitary value ... applications can establish the possible convention/meaning (and required cooperating application)

by comparison reserve/release channel programs would prevent other processors from accessing device for i/o ... even if the other processors didn't execute a reserve.

distributed lock manager I did for ha/cmp ... required cooperative DBMS (or other cooperative applications) on all the clustered processors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

and I did some amount of slight-of-hand to get scale-up performance in the ha/cmp distributed lock manager ... reference here
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

not so much mentioned in direct scale-up ... but there was also some hacks required to drastically cut down elapsed time for DLM recovery in various kinds of failure scenarios.

and some old-email about cluster scale-up ... not just DBMS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa

and
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#43 From The Annals of Release No Software Before Its Time
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#46 From The Annals of Release No Software Before Its Time

more recent
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#3 Assembler programs was Re: Delete all members of a PDS that is allocated

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

GML

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main, alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:05:41 -0400
jcewing@ACM.ORG (Joel C. Ewing) writes:
When IBM took over Script, I don't know about VM but at least under MVS they renamed it DCF (Document Composition Facility). DCF was still commonly called Script because the internal invoking Clists on TSO were still "SCRIPT". We started off running freebie Waterloo Script in late 1980's, but at some point went with DCF, and then started using SGML macros which came with DCF. At least at our installation a distinction was always made between DCF/Script and SGML. At some point DCF software prices got so far out of line with our need for the product that we were forced to drop it.

My impression was that the same IBM folks involved with SGML were involved with GML, which either evolved into or influenced HTML. Joel C Ewing


originally script was port/re-implementation of ctss runoff for cp67/cms. it was done by MIT graduate student working at the IBM cambridge science center ... some past posts mentioning the science center (4th flr 545 tech sq)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

Some old CTSS RUNOFF reference:
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/PSN-40.html

the original CTSS RUNOFF was implemented in MAD.

The original cms script implementation was done in 360 assembler ... but for whatever reason, the person developing script defined had used some number of "MAD" (360 assembler) macros (but "MAD" are also first three letters of their last name)

some CTSS references mentioning MAD (MIchigan Algorithm Decoder):
http://www.multicians.org/thvv/7094.html
http://www.multicians.org/shell.html
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/unpubs.html
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/lcs/tr/MIT-LCS-TR-016.pdf
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mit/ctss/CTSS_ProgrammersGuide.pdf

also
http://www.heuse.com/m.htm

from above:
MAD -

1. Michigan Algorithm Decoder. Developed at U Michigan by R. Graham, Bruce Arden <arden@hopper.ee.rochester.edu> and Bernard Galler <Bernard_A._Galler@um.cc.umich.edu>, 1959. Based on IAL. For the IBM 704, 709 and 7090, later ported to Philco, Univac and CDC machines. MAD was one of the first extensible languages: the user could define his own operators and data types. "Michigan Algorithm Decoder (The MAD Manual)", U Michigan Computing Center, 1966. Sammet 1969, p.205.


... snip ...

GML was invented at the IBM cambridge science center in 1969 ... and then was standardized as ISO SGML:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185033/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/roots.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm

some past posts mentioning script, gml, sgml, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml

waterloo script was rewritten version of NSCRIPT from SHARE program library, which was a version of CP67/CMS script ported to TSO.

Waterloo SCRIPT:
http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/sdtp/watscr.html

from above:
Waterloo SCRIPT is a rewritten and extended version of a processor called NSCRIPT that had been converted to OS and TSO from CP-67/CMS SCRIPT. The original NSCRIPT package is available from the SHARE Program Library. Waterloo obtained NSCRIPT in late 1974 as a viable alternative to extending ATS to meet local requirements. The local acceptance of Waterloo SCRIPT has continued to provide the motivation for additional on-going development.

... snip ...

and then HTML derived from SGML at CERN:
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/

and first webserver outside cern was on slac vm/cms system
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml

past posts in this thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#47 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#49 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#52 GML

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 4 Jul 2010 10:56:53 -0700
jayarelim@HOTMAIL.COM (J R) writes:
It's _sleight_ of hand.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#38 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#54 Unix systems and Serialization mechanism

thnks ... my (lack of correct) typing/spelling is well documented.

after getting blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s and early 80s ... some past posts on internal network (was larger than arpanet/internet from just about the beginning until sometime late 85 or early 86):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

... a researcher was paid to sit in the back of my office taking notes on how i communicated ... got copies of all incoming & outgoing email as well as logs of instant messages ... also went to meetings (including notes on telephone conversations, face-to-face meetings in office, group communication, etc).

the result was internal corporate research report as well as stanford phd thesis (joint between computer ai and language departments) was well as material for some number of papers and books

there were also stats like I avg'ed email exchange with approx. 275 different people per week for the nine month period. misc. past posts mentioning computer mediated communication
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc

references to some (posted) old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html

as to (loosely-coupled/cluster) locking/serialization ... some of it comes from Peer-Coupled Shared Data ... some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#shareddata

which my wife had done when she had been con'ed into going to POK to be in charge of loosely-coupled architecture. she didn't last long because of lots of resistance ... including battles with sna group over requirements to use vtam for loosely-coupled operation (there were temporary truces when it was allowed she could use anything she wanted within the boundary walls of machine room ... but vtam had to be used for anything that crossed the walls of the machine room). Other than IMS hot-standby ... there was little uptake (until sysplex) ... which also contributed to her not remaining long in the position.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:13:47 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
Sure. I'd be willing to do that. However, the random unknown is the gasoline and what kinds of gunk has been added when manufactured. Gas didn't use to turn to gunk but it does now with all the additives.

I had done a lot of performance enhancements that were picked up and shipped in the product ... including a lot of scheduling algorithm stuff. In the morph from cp67 to vm370 to simplified a lot of stuff, including removing my scheduling stuff. Also vm370 was supposed to follow a corporate module naming convention. cp67 had just named modules ... somewhat related to their function ... like "savecp" was that module that wrote (new) kernel memory image to disk (having beein loaded into memory from cards) ... so that it could subsequently be booted from disk. Corporate naming convention was a three letter (corporate assigned) prefix ("DMK" for vm370 and "DMS" for CMS) with three letter product assigned suffix; so "cpinit" became "DMKCPI".

so after having converted a bunch of stuff from cp67 to vm370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

and demise of future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

along with the mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipeline ... decision was made to release some of the stuff I had been doing (all during the future system period ... including having made less than complimentary comments about future system). Some of the stuff (scheduling algorithm, misc. other performance enhancements and features) was selected to be guinea pig for seprarately priced kernel component.

In any case, I introduced a new routine into the kernel as part of the scheduling stuff and named it DMKSTP ... after tv advertisements for a gasoline additive that had tagline of "the racer's edge".

mentions that lead can still be used in off-road vehicles ... that the lead prohibition only applied to on-road vehicles (also mentions other additives or formulas)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

mentions that in low-temperature period/regions, diesel has special additives to keep in liquid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_fuel

above also mentions biocide treatments to control microbe growth.

--
42yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970

History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:41:58 -0400
hancock4 writes:
Not really. Tax law is made by Congress, not the IRS. Congress is not made up of logical accountants, but emotional politicians. The tax law is filled with incentives and penalties to encourage or discourage certain business practices and to make tax law "seem fair".

that is the excuse for the special provisions.

from a economists annual conference ... there was call for flat rate tax. the lobbying and contributions for special provisions is major motivation for congress having special provisions ... and the whole scenario is major reason for congress getting labeled as most corrupt institution on earth. it also results in 60,000+ page taxcode and claim that it costs the country possibly 5% to 6% of GDP (lost dealing with the provisions and non-optimal business decisions) ... costs far exceeding any benefit of the special provisions (and enormous amount of tax revenue leaking out thru all the provisions/loopholes).

the economists claim was that flat-rate tax (eliminating special provisions) would go a long way towards eliminating the massive corruption culture around congress (associated with most lobbying). More recently the massive corruption and lobbying associated with special tax code provisions has somewhat been overshadowed by the massive lobbying associated with financial & health reform bills. There was some claim recently that the financial industry got $1000 dollars in benefits for every dollar spent on congress (some claim that over the past ten yrs, they spent $5B on congress, implying the they saw something like $5T in benefits/ROI; which may have resulted in costing the country/economy ten times that).

misc. past posts mentioning flat-rate tax reference
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#37 "The Elements of Programming Style"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#71 Cormpany sponsored insurance
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008m.html#49 Taxes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#43 Architectural Diversity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009e.html#83 Architectural Diversity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#20 China's yuan 'set to usurp US dollar' as world's reserve currency
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009i.html#13 64 Cores -- IBM is showing a prototype already
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#31 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009p.html#39 Opinions on the 'Unix Haters' Handbook
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#48 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#49 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#40 F.B.I. Faces New Setback in Computer Overhaul
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#88 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#37 taking down the machine - z9 series

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:27:40 -0400
hancock4 writes:
To me, the complex part of payroll processing would be tracking all the deductions for each employee, then sending them off.

last time we looked EFTPS was going to be mandatory for all corporations with 12(?) or more employees (electronic remittance of employee tax withholding as well a corporate taxes) ... approaching 100% of tax collections coming in via eftps:
https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/

also
http://www.fms.treas.gov/eftps/index.html
http://www.fms.treas.gov/eftps/eftpsregs.html
http://www.irs.gov/uac/EFTPS:-The-Electronic-Federal-Tax-Payment-System-

a couple past posts mentioning eftps
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#7 income tax [was: Computers in Science Fiction]
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#13 Cost of patching "unsustainable"

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:35:31 -0400
"Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
This is a result of marketroids changing the word "migrate" from an intransitive verb to a transitive one. To "migrate" a customer (transitive) implies a forced move. If customers aren't sufficiently pliable, they might just migrate (in the intransitive sense) to another vendor.

one of the excuses for object-code-only ... eliminating source code ... was that availability of source code encouraged customers to make source code changes ... which got in the way of migrating customers to the latest & greatest (which frequently could impact vendor revenue).

some recent posts/threads:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#17 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#19 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#20 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#22 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#30 Idiotic programming style edicts

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

GML

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 7 Jul 2010 04:23:09 -0700
Steve Samson <ssamson@dc.rr.com> writes:
If in SCRIPT, some GML function is based on and built with dot command primitives and implemented as SCRIPT macros, that does not make GML a superset of the dot commands.

... and (cp67/cms) SCRIPT was written in 360 assembler ... which doesn't make the dot commands a superset of 360 assembler. script dot commands came from ctss runoff written in MAD ... and script source had some number of (360 assembler) "MAD" macros (mostly likely from the runoff/MAD heritage ... not because they are the 1st three letters of the author's last name). a couple recent posts in thread mentioning runoff:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#55 GML

Some old CTSS RUNOFF reference:
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html
http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/PSN-40.html

SGML is iso standardization of GML invented at the science center in 1969 by "G", "M", & "L". some GML/SGML history
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001185033/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/roots.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm

waterloo script was derived from NSCRIPT taken from the share program library ... which was a port of cp67/cms SCRIPT to TSO. a couple recent posts mentioning waterloo script:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#49 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#55 GML

Waterloo SCRIPT:
http://csg.uwaterloo.ca/sdtp/watscr.html

from above:
Waterloo SCRIPT is a rewritten and extended version of a processor called NSCRIPT that had been converted to OS and TSO from CP-67/CMS SCRIPT. The original NSCRIPT package is available from the SHARE Program Library. Waterloo obtained NSCRIPT in late 1974 as a viable alternative to extending ATS to meet local requirements. The local acceptance of Waterloo SCRIPT has continued to provide the motivation for additional on-going development.

... snip ...

HTML evolved from SGML at CERN:
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/

and 1st webserver outside cern was on SLAC VM/CMS system:
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/history/earlyweb/history.shtml

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:03:50 -0400
Joe Makowiec <makowiec@invalid.invalid> writes:
This was on NPR (National Public Radio in the USA) a couple of weeks ago: 'The Environmental Cost of Growing Marijuana' - seems that in Humboldt County, California, electric use per capita is substantially above the average due to the large number of gro-lights. They're also using dyed diesel.

executive i used to report to, owns a large chunk of humboldt county ... a large part of it abuts national forest ... and things have gotten so bad that gov. has been issuing warnings about wandering around the backwoods anywhere in the region.

there are claims that pacific nw is the largest meth lab region ... for much the same reason that the mega datacenters are in the area ... lots of water and (hydro-) electric power.

misc. past posts mentioning hydro-electric and/or mega datacenters:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003d.html#32 IBM says AMD dead in 5yrs ... -- Microsoft Monopoly vs. IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#72 Price of CPU seconds
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#68 VMware Chief Says the OS Is History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#79 Google Data Centers 'The Most Efficient In The World'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008r.html#56 IBM drops Power7 drain in 'Blue Waters'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#13 A "portable" hard disk
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#27 A "portable" hard disk

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:09:54 -0400
greymausg writes:
Nigeria is generally regarded as the most corrupt place on Earth. You need cash to get on a plane, get off, pass any civil servent. (Or so I am told). Beyond that, you get to places where people are prosecuted for bribery, or receiving bribes, and which from the number of prosecutions make it seem that they have a problem, or places where such things are not prosecuted, and which thereby would seem less corrupt. 'Politics are the last refuge of the scoundrel' seems like a good description.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#58 History--automated payroll processing by other than a computer?

there may be different criteria involving the amounts involved versus how frequently it happens (2009 est gdp for nigeria is $341B)

another is powerful business lobbying block that employ illegal aliens. in the last go-around with congress more than a decade ago ... they said that they were passing legislation that would fix/normalize the situation (at the time) and make sure it never happened again (obvious just a lot of hot air).

however, in that go-around ... congress had asked GAO to study the difference between what the illegals were earning and the cost of their benefits & services at all levels of gov ... coming up with a number of $10k/annum/person gap between what they earned and what they cost. I somewhat found it odd that in this go around ... GAO wasn't asked to do an update of that study. In any case, besides being considered a direct $10k/annum/person gov. subsidy to the illegal alians ... it could be considired an indirect $10k/annum/person gov. subsidy to the businesses that employ them.

The issue of not being able to get citizens to do the work ... could be totally dwarfed by the profit motivation of the businesses that employ them. With estimated numbers between 10m & 30m ... at $10k/annum/person (numbers from 15yr old study) indirect gov. subsidy ... that would be between $100B and $300B for those businesses. At those levels, it would easy for such businesses to justify dropping a billion or two on congress.

other corruption references:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#48 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#49 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010f.html#40 F.B.I. Faces New Setback in Computer Overhaul
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#69 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010i.html#34 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#88 taking down the machine - z9 series
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#36 taking down the machine - z9 series

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:41:42 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
I don't think I ever encountered that (getting in the way of replacing old gear).

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#60 Idiotic programming style edicts

aka ... sometimes new software products that required new hardware ... or at least new features in new software products that were dependent on new hardware. software modifications could lock businesses into existing products.

early days of computers ... was also in days of business going thru rapid expansion (and/or at least rapid expansion of their computer use) ... hardware compatibility was needed so that companies could easily move existing applications to new processing platforms with higher thruput.

as business expansion (and/or increasing use of computers by business) ... started to reach saturation levels ... vendors had to start relying on other gimicks to get businesses to continue buying new hardware on regular schedule (i.e. new car every year paradigm ... whether you needed it or not). million hr MTBF can also be double-edge sword (marketing touting it as competitive advantage ... but what happens if customers actually only need to make a purchase once every 100 years).

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:03:26 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
people always used up all availabe disk space within 3-6 months unless the operations staff imposed restrictions. Private packs with more and more capacity were needed. Comm access increased exponentially. CPU power was used up as soon as it became availabe. That's how people used computers. when the system could do what people were doing by hand, the task was done on a computer ASAP. Perhaps that was the difference between IBM-style batch data processing and timesharing; I don't know. More and more university departments "discovered" computing applications and started to hold classes which trained the kiddies how to do it.

New hardware usually meant increased computing resource capacity.


re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#60 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#64 Idiotic programming style edicts

the case study repeatedly highlighted at (ibm user group) SHARE meetings in the 70s ... was amoco research in tulsa ... started by going from 1800 to vm370 370/135 and guickly grew to a couple 370/168s. there were other operations that were similar ... but didn't show quite the dramatic growth of amoco research.

part of what saw big upsurge in 43xx installations (in the mid-range ... as well as vax) ... was datacenters were becoming full. large commercial customers were ordering 43xx boxes multiple hundred at a time and placing them out in converted conference rooms and departmental supply rooms ... eliminating much of the upfront capital outlay for datacenter expansion. this bled off a lot of the datacenter growth in the late 70s and 80s.

however, by the mid-80s a lot of the mid-range market was starting to move to workstations and large PCs. datacenters were starting to see more capacity with vendors moving to large higher capacity per sqft ... mitigating the datacenter construction costs for extra capacity. however, lots of feature/function was migrating out of the main datacenter. this was somewhat the theme of the disk division talk at the internal annual world-wide communication conference ... that started out by claiming the communication business group was going to be responsible for the demise of the mainframe disk business group (within a few years of the talk, mainframe disk business was declining at low double digits per annum) . ... some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation

the premise for the talk was that facilities offered by the communication group to access datacenter, from distributred environment, were extremely limiting ... accelerating the leakage of datacenter data residence out into the distributed environment (accelerating workstation and PC disk business).

in any case, new applications and/or business growth involving datacenter operations had significantly slowed &/or was declining by the 90s. some datacenters had gone from bursting at the seams to barely ten percent of raised floor occupied (combination of lack of growth and technology changes that packed much higher densities in much smaller footprint).

leakage of new applications & operations out into the distributed environment (mid-range machines and then workstations & large PCs) had started affecting mainframe datacenter growth by the early 80s ... which was sort of the start looking at other mechanisms to maintain annual revenue ... including the OCO-wars (transition from source to "object-code-only") of the early 80s.

customers had been making source moditifications to the core operating system. vendor might ship new hardware with new features that required the latest operating system. customer migration to newer operating systems were slowed by having source modifications ... which then delayed installation/sale of newer hardware.

even w/o source changes ... some of the mission critical datacenter operations have regression tests (part of strict/formalized "change control") that may take six months elapsed time ... and switch-over windows that only happen at 2-4 times a year.

LPARs somewhat helped with this ... basically a highly optimized virtual machine subset supported by the hardware. most mainframe operations now routinely run in LPAR-mode as normal operation with combinations of "production" LPARs and "test" LPARs running concurrently on the same machine.

more pervasive use of sysplex (i.e. loosely-coupled or cluster) also helps ... allowing rolling operating system switch-overs without having to take down everything at one time resulting in total service outage.

now ... at some time in the past, my wife had been con'ed into going to POK to be in charge of loosely-coupled architecture ... where she came up with Peer-Coupled Shared Data architecture ... some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#shareddata

except for IMS hot-standby ... this saw very little uptake until sysplex ... which contributed to her not remaining long in the position. also there were ongoing battles with communication group trying to force her to use SNA for cluster coordination.

we then started ha/cmp (on rs/6000) before mainframe got around to really doing sysplex ... misc. past ha/cmp posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

of course, ha/cmp cluster scale-up perceived competition with mainframe may have contributed to transfer of cluster scale-up (for numerical intensive market only) and we being told we couldn't work on anything with more than four processors ... reference to jan92 meeting shortly before the transfer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

misc. old email related to cluster scale-up
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa

LPAR wiki page (in the following, PR/SM was actually developed after & in response to Amdahl's hypervisor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPAR

wiki page on (mainframe) parallel sysplex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Parallel_Sysplex

ims wiki page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Information_Management_System

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:45:41 -0400
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
executive i used to report to, owns a large chunk of humboldt county ... a large part of it abuts national forest ... and things have gotten so bad that gov. has been issuing warnings about wandering around the backwoods anywhere in the region.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#62 taking down the machine - z9 series

humboldt country ..

Humboldt County Afraid of Being Uprooted from Pot Perch
http://hempnews.tv/2010/04/08/humboldt-county-afraid-of-being-uprooted-from-pot-perch/
Move to Legalize Marijuana in California Sparks Fears About Drop in Prices
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/move-to-legalize-marijuana-in-california-sparks-fears-about-drop-in-prices/

Medical Marijuana's Eco Boomtown; Humboldt County High: California Community Thrives on Legal Pot
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/BusinessTravel/story?id=5727836&page=1

LIFE IN A POT GROWING COUNTY
http://www.3ammagazine.com/politica/2002_jun/pot_county.html

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:05:10 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#60 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#64 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#65 Idiotic programming style edicts

... and some of the customer "operating system" (aka kernel) source code changes were NOT multiprocessor "safe" .... in the early 80s (about the time of the OCO-wars), next generation of more powerful IBM mainframes started out being multiprocessor-only (not even offering a single processor version). single-processor code locked the customer into single processor machines ... obstructing move to next generation of (multiprocessor only) mainframes. Aggrevating the situation was some clone processor vendors were offering more powerful single processor (non-multiprocessor) machines (as an alternative).

a slightly analogous situation is the recent transition with processor chip MHZ/mip rate reaching plateau and the move to multi-core chips (multiprocessor by any other name). Since the instruction speed had hit upper threshold ... higher thruput only comes from running multiple instruction threads in parallel (aka multiprocessing/multi-core).

past reference to Intel having to explain the problem to the Microsoft CEO
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#42 Panic in Multicore Land

a couple others
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#37 Panic in Multicore Land
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#64 Panic in Multicore Land
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#74 Multicore boom needs new developer skills
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008j.html#42 Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#63 Intel: an expensive many-core future is ahead of us

misc. past posts mentioning multiprocessor and/or compare&swap instruction
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:55:41 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#60 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#64 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#65 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#67 Idiotic programming style edicts

aka ... if customers had been buying newest & shiniest every year ... there can be significant drop-off in revenue (maybe cut annual earnings in half or more). To compensate ... new marketing ploys have to be invented to try and boost sales.

the PC genre saw multiprocessor on server side in 90s (not multi-core ... but multiple chips sharing memory). Sequent claimed having done significant multiprocessor enhancements for NT ... for running on their intel-based multiprocessors (getting NT running on eight or more processors having significant higher thruput than NT running on just two processors ... which they claimed was significant issue when they started).

sever kernel then supported multiprocessors ... but applications needed multiprocessor/multithreaded operation to actually get more thruput out of a multiprocessor machine. DBMS servers that were optimized for multithreaded operation doing lots of different transactions concurrently fit that bill.

however, the desktop application environment tended to be single large monolithic applications that only saw higher thruput when running on faster processors. this is what desktop has experienced starting nearly decade ago. cellphones & PDAs have wanted touted multi-application support ... not so much needing multiple different application to be compute intensive concurrently ... but being able to instantaneously switch between applications avoiding stop & restart delays.

misc. past posts mentioning SMP &/or compare&swap
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

GML

Refed: **, - **, - **
From: lynn@GARLIC.COM (Anne & Lynn Wheeler)
Subject: Re: GML
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: 9 Jul 2010 06:00:41 -0700
with regard to cms script & "dot" commands from ctss runoff (implemented in MAD), there was recent announcement (on a.f.c.) about having CTSS up and running under simulator. reference here:
http://www.cozx.com/~dpitts/ibm7090.html

misc past posts in thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#42 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#47 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#48 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#49 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#52 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#55 GML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#61 GML

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:49:59 -0400
jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> writes:
But what kinds of access were limiting? Most of the limited we saw was human being access. TTY and printing access tended to move to the local office area. Most still used the -10 as their main computing service provider, not the thing they typed at.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#60 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#64 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#65 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#67 Idiotic programming style edicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#68 Idiotic programming style edicts

there was early big uptake of PCs because large commercial accounts (some 10,000-100,000 terminals) could get PC for about the same price as 3270 ... have 3270 terminal emulation and local computing ... in the single desktop footprint (i.e. with cost of 3270 terminal already business justified ... it would be trivial to switch existing business justification to PC orders).

as PCs got more sophisticated ... the 3270 emulation got various kinds of HLLAPI interfaces ... doing "screen" scraping of information held prisoner in the datacenter ... to feed to local applications. As PCs and PC application became more and more sophisticated ... along with move into more sophisticated distributed computing, network filesystem, client/server, etc ... screen scraping became a bottleneck/limited factor ... and contributed significantly to data leaking out of the datacenter to more "distributed environment" friendly platforms (either directly on local PC with application as well as various kinds of fileservers).

the disk division made several attempts to announce/deploy sophisticated & powerful network/distributed interfaces to the datacenter ... but by that time the communication division had huge terminal emulation install base to protect. misc. past posts mentioning communication business unit protecting its terminal emulation install base and disk division starting to make comments that the communication business was going to be responsible for the demise of the mainframe disk division.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#emulation

some of this even dates back to when my wife had been con'ed into going to POK to be responsible for (mainframe) loosely-coupled (i.e. cluster) architecture ... and came up with Peer-Coupled Shared Data architecture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#shareddata

although, except for IMS hot-standby, there was very little uptake until sysplex ... contributed to her not staying long in the position. Also were ongoing wars with communication business unit ... attempting to force her into using SNA for loosely-coupled operation ... with temporary truces allowing that she could use anything she wanted within the walls/boundaries of the datacenter ... but anything crossing the datacenter walls had to be SNA.

other recent threads mentioning the disk division foretelling its demise (in the 90s, business decreasing at low double digits per annum)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010b.html#17 How long for IBM System/360 architecture and its descendants?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#8 search engine history, was Happy DEC-10 Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#5 What is a Server?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#29 someone smarter than Dave Cutler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#16 What is the protocal for GMT offset in SMTP (e-mail) header

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

"SIE" on a RISC architecture

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: "SIE" on a RISC architecture
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:23:14 -0400
Owen Shepherd <owen.shepherd@e43.eu> writes:
I was reading about the IBM SIE instruction on Andy's wiki (Article at
http://semipublic.comp-arch.net/wiki/SIE ), and a few things struck me.

The first is the question of "If I'm implementing this efficient virtual machine system, do I really need a separate 'user mode'?". The second is "How can this instruction be made to fit better with the general design of a RISC architecture?"

An important consideration is also how to integrate the instruction with some typical RISC performance enhancing features - a key one being tagged address spaces - which may require kernel support. Of course, this is a non- issue if we are implementing our user mode as one of these virtual machines, which is something that I would be inclined to do.

The other question is that of the actual interface that software uses to interact with it - while one would likely make it register based (rather than the memory "SIEBK"), but how would you define these? This question is particularly relevant in provisioning it to support the addition of further hardware assists in future.


basic 360/mainframe had two modes ... "problem mode" (non-privilege) and supervisor state. bunch of instructions were invalid in supervisor state.

original 360 virtual machine implementation ran virtual machine in "problem mode" ... and all supervisor state instructions interrupted into the hypervisor kernel ... and were simulated (according to virtual machine "rules").

virtual machine assist started out as a special flag that basically implemented two modes for (some) supervisor state instructions ... "real machine" mode ... and virtual machine mode; virtual machine mode basically was what the hypervisor kernel would have done in simulation. over a period of a decade or so ... more & more supervisor state instructions were added to being done in virtual machine mode ... directly by hardware (w/o requiring interrupts into the hypervisor kernel and emulation by the software).

the original SIE implementation was on 3081 and a "heavyweight" instruction ... the 3081 having limited microcode storage ... so the initial execution of the SIE instruction (for entering virtual machine mode) was actually on a disk and had to be "paged" into microcode memory for execution.

Next generation 3090 ... had SIE instruction better integrated into the native hardware and had significantly better performance. old email discussing some differences between 3090 & 3081 (including SIE implementation)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#email831118
in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#42 Flash 10208

In the 3090 timeframe ... one of the mainframe clone vendors introduced "hypervisor" ... which was a subset of virtual machine capability implemented totally in the "hardware" ... eliminating the requirement for a separate virtual machine operating system (as long all that was needed was the hypervisor subset).

the response for the 3090 was "PR/SM" ... which was virtual machine subset ... implemented in the "hardware" ... and not requiring a separate virtual machine operating system (to partition the machine) as long as all that was needed was the subset function. PR/SM leveraged the SIE capabilty and originally SIE hardware function wasn't recursive ... aka a virtual machine operating system running in a virtual machine ... wouldn't have SIE capability being performed by the real hardware. Since PR/SM was using SIE instruction ... a virtual machine operating system running under PR/SM wouldn't have SIE available.

PR/SM evolved into LPARs (logical partitions) and running SIE under SIE support was added (since LPARs leveraged the internal SIE implementation ... it was necessary to add some recursive capability to allow a virtual machine operating system, running in an LPAR, to use SIE).

some PR/SM references
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r2/topic/eicaz/eicazzlpar.htm
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg209611e17c3b8d419852573f700645d4d&aid=1

some LPAR references (includes comment that PR/SM and LPAR terms sometimes being used interchangeably).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPAR
http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/administrator/9917p1.aspx

some discussion regarding running virtual machine operating system in LPAR and interaction between the virtual machine operating system and PR/SM function.
http://www.vm.ibm.com/perf/tips/lparinfo.html

this mentions some limitation on SIE recursion (since SIE feature is also being used by hardware LPAR feature/function)
http://www.vm.ibm.com/perf/tips/z890.html

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

"SIE" on a RISC architecture

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: "SIE" on a RISC architecture
Newsgroups: comp.arch, alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:06:50 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#71 "SIE" on a RISC architecture

actually ... this email goes into some more of the SIE differences between 3081 & 3090 (trout)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006j.html#email810630
in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006j.html#27 virtual memory

above email mentions VMTOOL & VM/811

after failure of future system ... there was mad rush to get products back into the 370 product pipeline ... some past posts mentioning future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

in parallel with launching 370 follow-on effort 370/xa ... first cut at the 370/xa (31-bit addressing some number of other things) specification & architecture documents ... giving rise to the "811" reference (which was going to take 7-8 yrs for both software and hardware and first ship with 3081)

in the aftermath of the future system failure ... the favorite son operating system in POK managed to make the case that the virtual machine product needed to be killed and all the people transferred to POK to support the development of the "XA" version of that operating system (aka mid-70s). Part of that effort was the "VMTOOL" ... which originally was going to be internal only (providing 811 virtual machines for internal product development).

eventually there was a group that managed to pickup the virtual machine product mission ... but they had to reconstitute a new development effectively from scratch.

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:43:35 -0400
Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
as PCs got more sophisticated ... the 3270 emulation got various kinds of HLLAPI interfaces ... doing "screen" scraping of information held prisoner in the datacenter ... to feed to local applications. As PCs and PC application became more and more sophisticated ... along with move into more sophisticated distributed computing, network filesystem, client/server, etc ... screen scraping became a bottleneck/limited factor ... and contributed significantly to data leaking out of the datacenter to more "distributed environment" friendly platforms (either directly on local PC with application as well as various kinds of fileservers).

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#68 Idiotic programming style edicts

there was screen scraping software before PCs and PC 3270 terminal emulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3270
above mentions screen scraping here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_scraping

and from above:
In the 1980s financial data providers such as Reuters, Telerate, and Quotron displayed data in 24x80 format intended for a human reader. Users of this data, particularly investment banks, wrote applications to capture and convert this character data as numeric data for inclusion into calculations for trading decisions without re-keying the data. The common term for this practice, especially in the United Kingdom, was page shredding, since the results could be imagined to have passed through a paper shredder.

... snip ...

on vm there were some HLLAPI for "virtual" 3270 terminals ... before PC 3270 emulation.

"parasite" was interface to virtual 3270 terminal facility ... and "story" was a screen interaction programming language.

past posts with description of parasite/story and some old example "stories"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#35 Newbie TOPS-10 7.03 question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#36 Newbie TOPS-10 7.03 question

some past posts with refs to parasite/story
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#73 Computer resources, past, present, and future
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#24 Red Phosphor Terminal?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#14 were dumb terminals actually so dumb???
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#3 PVM protocol documentation found
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#14 Program execution speed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#37 Over my head in a JES exit
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#35 Draft Command Script Processing Manual
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#23 sorting was: The System/360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#31 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#23 How to write a full-screen Rexx debugger?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#65 The use of "script" for program
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009k.html#0 Timeline: The evolution of online communities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009l.html#43 SNA: conflicting opinions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#4 Arpanet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#66 spool file data

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Idiotic programming style edicts

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Idiotic programming style edicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:00:27 -0400
DMcCunney <plugh@xyzzy.com> writes:
Most folks don't use half of the features available on smartphones. Purchase is determined by "coolness" and carrier, and the buyers require something comparable to (but arguably better than) what their social circle uses, where "better" is an intangible probably unrelated to hardware, OS, or functionality.

there was session by a couple people ... that had apple store apps in the top 100 ... who did an analysis of top apps ... lots of the stuff is eye annd/or ear candy ... and frequently, critical factor was hiring a professisonal graphic/visual artist to help with the design (major differentiating factor)

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virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:38:01 -0400
Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
This is simply wrong. Try growing your own food in urban New York City, or eastern Montana, or anywhere else humans live that isn't conducive to farming on the scale you'd need to have a balanced diet. (In eastern Montana, wheat grows fairly well. So do cattle, because they can digest grass. How well do you live on just grass?)

i remember yrs when there was barely 3 bushels/acre ... the traveling combines did it just to clear the field ... "harvest trail" ... few refs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custom_harvesting
http://www.skinnerharvesting.com/
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/may09/may11/Followthewheatharvestthissu.cfm
http://www.heimesharvesting.com/?tag=kansas-wheat-harvest

then i ran across references to some harvests with 90-100 bushels/acre
http://www.americasheartland.org/episodes/episode_214/wheat_harvest.html
and
http://columbia.washingtonhistory.org/anthology/economyofwashington/goldenHarvest.aspx

from above:

In fact, prime wheat land in the Palouse Hills along the Washington/Idaho border would prove to have a higher per acre yield than acreage in any other major grain-growing region in the nation.

... snip ...

this only mentions "more than" 80 bushels/acre
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003861712_wheatharvest31m.html

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virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:37:51 -0400
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#75 taking down the machine - z9 series

about the only thing that make wheat farming in NE montana remotely viable is "cheap" petrol (and the machines that use it) ... ROI with straight human labor (w/o petrol) wouldn't be at sustaining level (aka enormous amounts of human labor for little return).

w/o cheap petrol ... grass lands, livestock, and low density would come closer to basic subsistance in NE montana (grazing cattle have lot lower human labor requirement ... so ROI on number human calories burned is closer to subsistance level ... given relative low density).

one of the distorted economic niches ... was feds selling water to rice farmers in cal. for few cents on the dollar ... which was only economical given large amounts of extrodinary cheap water. runs into problems as the competition for that water increases. recent reference to distorted economic niches
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010k.html#40 taking down the machine - z9 series

past posts mention distorted economic niches & cal. rice farming dependent on water at few cents on the dollar:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#4 some VLIW (IA-64) projections from January, 1999...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#17 Spam Bomb
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#15 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#24 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006g.html#41 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#50 Is computer history taugh now?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#19 The Return of Ada

of course ... there are claims that the whole american life style is one large distorted economic niche dependent on lots of cheap resources of various kinds.

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

taking down the machine - z9 series

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: taking down the machine - z9 series
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:20 -0400
Patrick Scheible <kkt@zipcon.net> writes:
But yes, I know some other countries are much harsher. Even some other places in the U.S. Doesn't matter to me, I don't use it anyway.

some amount of boxer rebellion was also to eliminate british being able to openly sell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion

from the opium wars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War
http://historyliterature.homestead.com/files/extended.html
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/heroin/opiwar1.htm

there was claim that afterwards, worst of problem was eliminated within two years with strict off-with-their-heads (potentially actually less aggregate human misery than variety of other approaches).

western/british history perspective treats it differently than asian (also possibly further from the period, there is reduced vested interest in spinning the events).

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virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970




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