* Posts by Don Casey

52 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Jan 2008

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Postgres pioneer Michael Stonebraker promises to upend the database once more

Don Casey
Holmes

Precedent?

One could argue that, in the mainframe world, IBM's CICS is a predecessor to this approach. It allowed/required application code to make all 'system' calls to the container (CICS), not the underlying operating system. Mainframe architecture forced this approach, so that CICS could maintain control of the processor and internally dispatch the multitude of threads it was managing. This meant replicating Opsys functions such as memory management, timers, file access, and task dispatching. It was only when there was no internal work ready to run that CICS (and IDMS) would issue a 'wait' and free up the TCB/thread/processor.

CICS is not a database, it is a teleprocessing monitor of course, but Cullinet's/CA's/Broadcom's IDMS-DC is both a TP monitor AND a DBMS. IDMS-DC is architecturally similar to CICS, with the addition of the DB component to the mix. The system definitions for both the DB side and the DC portions are stored in a database (called the 'Dictionary', but no different in form than a user database). CICS has been around over 50 years (longer than Ingres), IDMS-DC more than 40 (but commercialized in bulk to the existing IDMS-DB user base while Ingres was still a pup).

Both CICS and IDMS-DC provide 'system calls' for memory management, file access, etc. Those calls are generally processed internal to the container, using a pool of resources obtained from the operating system.

One could contemplate an approach where the 'few' operating system functions and batch processes these systems need being folded into the DB itself.

Waymo robo-car slays dog in San Francisco

Don Casey
Holmes

I hate coincidences....

May be nothing, but I went into Google maps and looked around that area (being a SF Bay Area denizen and SF Native-born I got curious)... two things about that location:

1) Waymo has a major depot (Waymo Toland Depot) at 201 Toland.

2) A little way down Toland, where it intersects Toland Place (at 700 Toland) is a building that houses, at least in part, "Ace Dog Sports", a facility that appears to provide agility training.

So sure, some random mutt from a homeless encampment, not some expensive nob's little Jack Russell who bolted after their session in the gym.

(Getting more and more cynical the older I get and the more time I spend on social media).

This typo sparked a Microsoft Azure outage

Don Casey
Unhappy

It's the data, stupid!

As a retired big shop guy, with a focus on things like D/R and database, I worry that unless your role in IT is data-focused you are insufficiently paranoid when it comes to making changes that impact data.

Losing data can be an extinction event for a company.

That's why ransomware is so effective.

That is why I once had to let an insufficiently paranoid DBA go.

FAA grounds all US departures after NOTAM goes down

Don Casey

Re: Old clunky system goes down

For the curious; see here: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/domesticnotices/

Don Casey

Re: Just after Patch Tuesday? Hmmm.

My first job as a mainframe programmer (1971) was for a 360-40 that had 64K (yes, K, not M, not G) of memory. This was before 'virtual memory' existed.

That 64K included memory for I/O buffers and the operating system. YOU HAD TO KEEP CODE SMALL!

Intel settles to escape $4b patent suit with VLSI

Don Casey
Facepalm

How soon we forget

Somewhat amazed that nowhere in this article or thread is a mention of Groklaw, or the topics it covered. Deja vu all over again.

Intel reveals pay-to-play Xeon features with software-defined silicon

Don Casey

Nothing new here

How is this in any way different from how IBM has been marketing their mainframes for the past several decades?

The "chip" (size of a DVD case) can scale from a handful to dozens (if not hundreds) of processors.

It is cheaper for IBM to make identical chips, and allow people can pay for whatever power they need. This allows small organizations to buy only what they need, instead of IBM having to price to the median.

If you need more power, a mainframe box can scale quickly and massively through 'just' a simple software key download (all it takes is $$$$$$).

No; never worked FOR IBM, but spent the last 10 years of my career managing the mainframe capacity and upgrade cycles of a company with four large-ish mainframes.

Elon Musk shows what being Chief Twit is all about across weird weekend

Don Casey

Re: Just for context, Elon Musk tweeted:

No shareholders. Musk owns it lock, stock and two smoking barrels.

If you fire someone, don't let them hang around a month to finish code

Don Casey

Re: Unhelpful comments

Patches to assembler-generated code were typically done in machine language.

On rare occasions I would 'patch' on the fly a COBOL program with a bug after it had run for a couple hours then failed. After figuring out a patch, I would restart from the last checkpoint, set 'stop on address' switches on the 360/40, then set data and address switches to push the patch into memory, hit the "STORE" button, and pray. Actually worked more than once.

This would normally take place at 2am, after I was woken by Ops when my weekly Hospital Billing program failed. It had to complete in order for the next daily to run.

Good times.

AWS wobbles in US East region causing widespread outages

Don Casey

Re: For crying out loud!

Yes; hence the phone apps and hub... what Alexa brings to the mix is voice control.

Don Casey

Re: For crying out loud!

Speaking of keeping the lights on... woke up this morning (West Coast USA) to discover Alexa refused to turn on any of my lights (which are 50% on some combo of WEMO, FEIT, Belkin, etc...). Fortunately the phone-based app and/or the Samsung hub all worked just fine.

A lightbulb moment comes too late to save a mainframe engineer's blushes

Don Casey

Re: Big wall, small red button

Missed watching the Big Game this year... thought the Randy Rainbow concert at The Masonic would be more fun.

Given the waxing The Bears gave The Cardinal I may have been wrong in my choices.

Don Casey

Glorified Selectric typewriter

My first IT job was with a county government that had 360-series gear; initially a 360-40 and 360-30, then the 40 got upgraded to a 360-50 (by the time I 'graduated' from programmer to PFY systems programmer).

Our single most time-critical application was the election tally system... if things ran slow we had the media (bad) and the politicians (fatal) all over us. The weak spot in the chain was the 1052 console, coupled with the fact that the application was 'console chatty' (for no good reason).

We lived in constant fear the app traffic to the 1052 would overrun the console buffer and crash DOS (sic!).

This was mid-1970s. By the time I left in the late 1970s (as BOFH) we'd migrated to a 370-155 running OS/MVT with a partition or two running the DOS emulator. All this in 384K of memory, as this was pre-virtual (needed a 370-158 or better).

Good times.

Oh, Comcast. An Xfinity customer and working from home? Maybe not this morning

Don Casey
Black Helicopters

Looks like something broader... or people are using Comcast pipes

DownDetector shows a double spike for Comcast, 10pm and 6am.

It also shows similar spikes for T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and other single-spikes for other carriers that match one or the other of the two Comcast spikes (e.g. Frontier shows the 10pm spike).

Feels like either Comcast infected large numbers of providers, and/or a major backbone/routing issue.

Microsoft emits more fixes for Exchange Server plus patches for remote-code exec holes in HTTP stack, Visual Studio

Don Casey

Another fine mess...

All my existing msgs in Outlook inbox have no visible text. Appears to be a bug in something released today. https://twitter.com/MSFT365Status/status/1392208966231355392

Theranos destroyed crucial subpoenaed SQL blood test database, can't unlock backups, prosecutors say

Don Casey

Re: Sure thing

Early in my career as a field support type with an unnamed (mainframe) database vendor (not IBM), I was called to an organization that couldn't get their backups to restore. Seems they were taking month-end financial backups, and then at end-of-year restoring in order to run year-end reports.

After some poking around and detective work I discovered there was a disconnect between our backup software and the (DOS) tape management software (EPAT) they were using. The result of that disconnect is instead of writing database blocks to tape, it was writing unused buffers to tape.

I sadly told them there was no way to get that data back. I left quickly (and silently).

Had they ever tried a restore, they would have seen this in time to fix things.

BTW; 'fault' was in EPAT making assumptions on where data is being written from is the same location as where the DTF was pointing at OPEN, our software was using (legal) facilities to change that, post-OPEN.

Don Casey
FAIL

Sure thing

Any DBA worth his/her salt will tell you an untested backup is not a backup. This was in all likelihood intentional, and it is highly likely the court will direct any jury that they may infer same during deliberations.

Super Cali COVID count is somewhat out of focus, server crash and expired cert makes numbers quite atrocious

Don Casey
FAIL

Never, ever, attempt to hide a screwup that is inevitably going to become obvious

I don't know for sure what happened, but people below Newsom KNEW for days, maybe weeks, there were problems with the data, and they let him make public statements about how good the numbers were.

They deserved to be fired. You don't set your boss up like that. Never.

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

Don Casey

50 years ago...

... as a struggling Computer Science major at The University of California (Berkeley): in one class we were tasked with writing a simple compiler (using SNOBOL) to spit out COMPASS (assembler code for the CDC 6x00-series) code for a set of statements.

I graduated, and passed the course (somehow), but never got the damn thing to work. After graduation moved into the commercial world and never saw Fortran, Algol, SNOBOL, or COMPASS ever again.

IT services sector faces armageddon as COVID-19 lockdown forces project cancellations – analysts

Don Casey

Re: 1984

The Schroedinger Think System.

UC Berkeley told to cough up $5m in compensation to comp-sci, engineering students recruited to teach classes

Don Casey

... another thing about Cal and CS...

A year after I got my degree in Computer Science (1970), one Steve Wozniak enrolled. He later dropped out, and had a significantly larger impact on computing that I ever did... so much for the value of a degree. So yeah, BSD, and Cal arguably played a roll in the formative years of an Apple co-founder. Also INGRES, arguably the first complete implementation of a relational DBMS came from work by Cal professors M. Stonebraker and E. Wong. RISK and RAID have roots in Cal research. 7 ACM/Turing awards.

Oh snap! The road's closed. Never mind, Google Maps has a plan...

Don Casey

Re: A Guess

For California: wet, and on fire, are our two seasons.

Those darn users don't know what they're doing (not like us, of course)

Don Casey

Re: brought a tear to my eye...

Just did a little math; if you assume 15 miles per gallon, then a half mile is 1/30 of a gallon, or around 1/2 cup. Between the two SUs there was likely at least that much gas sloshing around in the carbs.

Don Casey

Re: brought a tear to my eye...

Yeah, although some of that would have to be downhill. The engine wasn't happy the last quarter mile. I think I did this maybe 2-3 times... but that was in the 70s and my memory ain't what it used to be. Truth be told, it was probably sucking a little gas sloshing around the tank during the first minute or so of 'fibrillation'.

Don Casey

brought a tear to my eye...

... that SU fuel pump reference did. In my youth (we're talking 50 years past) I had a beloved AH 100-6, the BN6 two-seat variety. The fuel pump (electric) was located directly behind the driver's seat below the trunk. Once could actually feel it go into Atrial Fibrillation when the tank ran dry, giving you about 1/2 mile notice to find a gas (I'm on the wrong side of the pond) station or safe parking spot before the SU carbs ran completely dry.

Good times!

Robocall crackdown, choked Lifelines, and pole-climbing: Your new FCC rules roundup

Don Casey
Mushroom

Wait, what?

It is already illegal seven ways from Sunday to robocall, so the FCC decides to "allow" telecom providers to block said calls? Have they ever been introduced to the verb "compell"?

Minnesota Senator calls out US watchdogs: Why so cozy with Amazon?

Don Casey

Where is the anti-trust angle?

This is not a case where the number of corporate entities in an economic sector decreases, impacting competition (which is pretty much all the FTC cares about).

If two different grocery chains were to merge the FTC would rightly need to look deeply into it. Not sure that holds here, regardless of how you view Amazon. If anything, this could increase competition.

US students prevail in rocket-powered egg challenge

Don Casey
Mushroom

No surprise

For those on the other side of the pond... Alabama is home to Redstone Arsenal/Marshall Space Flight Center near Huntsville. Where the Saturn rockets and Army missiles are/were built.

Spooky ghost town vid perfectly sums up YouTube's 8K playback: It's virtually no use to anyone (yet)

Don Casey
Headmaster

Ghost TOWN

Entire clip appears to have been shot at Bodie State Historic Park in California; east of the Sierra and just north of Mono Lake.

In a galaxy far, far, far away ... Farthest ever star system discovered

Don Casey
Thumb Up

Re: I'm confused

Excellent document! Have done a quick peruse, and will read in depth after I get a whisky in my hand.

Notable point in the summary (and de-confusionizer): things are and have been moving away from us faster than the speed of light.

Don Casey
Mushroom

I'm confused

I used to think I knew something about Physics; I was even a Physics major into my Junior year. Having trouble piecing this together.

Universe is said to be around 13B years old.

This galaxy is 13B light-years away.

Universe is expanding.

So this galaxy and us have been separating at the speed of light since the Big Bang (see icon)? Yes/no?

The light we're seeing is 13B years old, where is this galaxy now? Another 13B years away (thus moving TWICE the speed of light)?

My head hurts.

Reckon YOU can write better headlines than us? Great – apply within

Don Casey

Re: Pet Peeve

I stand corrected. Best Guinness in downtown; not too sure if some bar in the Richmond might beat or tie, but who wants to ride the 38 during rush hour to find out?

Adobe price hike: Your money or your files, frappuccino sippers

Don Casey
Mushroom

Solved that problem

Was thinking Capture NX2 wasn't up to a (very) few things I needed to do with my images, and maybe I should move on to Photoshop.

Nope; think I'll be staying with NX2. Maybe with enough Adobe defections Nikon will start enhancing it.

'Charge memory' boffins: Hungover Li-Ion batts tell fat whoppers

Don Casey

Re: Blown out

Canon 10D - introduced 10 years ago

Microsoft secure Azure Storage goes down WORLDWIDE

Don Casey
Alert

Re: This doesn't kill "the cloud" for me

Cloud vendors are interested in your business (the money you pay them), not your Business (what you do to have people pay you money).

They don't know your wants/needs/tolerance for outages, etc. etc. If commodity is all you need from IT, then fine.

If IT is mission critical to you (and that is an ever-expanding universe) then you have to think twice about giving up even indirect control over what happens to the infrastructure running your Business.

Outsourcing is one thing; you have a direct line of communication to people who should understand your Business and can react accordingly when making changes and when things go sideways.

Going to The Cloud completely removes you from the decision makers and actors, you have no control over the how and when and all you can do is hope your business is enough to keep them competent enough so they don't screw up your Business.

Tesla's Elon Musk v The New York Times, Round 2

Don Casey
Black Helicopters

Facebook on wheels?

Anybody else find it spooky that the car had that much information about the journey? Is this normal for Teslas, or did this particular car have special logging systems installed.

Happy birthday, Lisa: Apple's slow but heavy workhorse turns 30

Don Casey

Trivia

At the time, Cullinet (makers of IDMS, later absorbed into CA) was developing an integrated desktop application called Goldengate, which included Word/Excel/PPT equivalents (my memory is hazy on the latter).

On bit of this was the ability to upload/download mainframe database data from an IDMS facility known as the Information DataBase (some packaged IDMS facilities that provided a quasi-relational database).

Apple and Cullinet were in joint development, until Apple (as I hear it) pulled out of their side. Cullinet went on to develop the product for the PC side of things, where it pretty much underwhelmed, in spite of being arguably revolutionary.

I still have my square "Lisa/Cullinet: the Intelligent Link" button.

Exposing China's vast underground economy

Don Casey
FAIL

Re: PeXdant Alert!

sigh.

That's what a UC Berkeley education gets you... although in my defense the major was Computer Science, not English.

Go Bears!

Don Casey
Headmaster

Pendant Alert!

There is no "California University". There are two systems, the California State University system, including semi-independent campuses such as "California State University - Chico" (AKA "Chico State) and the University of California system, including campuses such as UC Berkeley (AKA "Cal"), UCLA, etc.

This appears to be the product of the UC, as opposed to the CSU system. There is NO CU system.

Zombie Microsoft antitrust case shuffles to retrial

Don Casey
FAIL

missing the point

It doesn't matter if Wordperfect was doomed anyway... Microsoft could have let market forces drive it to the final death.

The issue and question is; did Microsoft illegally hasten that death? Seems like the votes are 23 for, one against.

Mythbusters cannonball ‘myth-fires’

Don Casey

Closer yet

I believe the Calavaras fault is the closest to Dublin... maybe a mile or two.

Has been known to generate magnitude 6 quakes.

DBMS pioneer Bachman: 'Engineers have more fun than academics'

Don Casey
Happy

A Moment of Zen

IDMS structure diagrams used to be referred to as "Bachman Diagrams". Problem was, Charlie didn't create the gory details of the structure diagram... each Record box on the diagram was subdivided into about a number of sub-boxes (Record name, location mode, Area name, etc). These were extensions to the classic E-R diagram; CulCorp even used to give away rubber stamps with the Record block so people could draw their diagrams (I still have mine).

On tech conference Charlie was invited as a guest, and my region had created t-shirts that featured a portion of a database diagram on the front.

Your zen moment: watching the head of West Coast Field Education explain to Charlie Bachman the "Bachman Diagram" on his tshirt.

Microsoft bans open source license trio from WinPhone

Don Casey
Thumb Up

I suspect

Microsoft's problem is if they distribute an app with a GPL3 type license, then effectively they are cutting off their ability to sue anybody over any code found later to exist in that app.

They will, in effect, be granting to the world a license to use any code so distributed, whether they knew it or not.

Like if somebody included the Linux kernel in such an app.

oopsie

Texan smut baron spanked over UK schoolgirl snap

Don Casey
Stop

not to mention....

Aside from the photo, her image ITSELF is in many jurisdictions copyrighted; a photographer cannot use an image of a person for a commercial work unless there is a release, or the image falls into the "educational or editorial" category. Neither applies here.

Defendant most definately screwed (and should be).

Bear and Monkey smack Apple with patent suit

Don Casey
Grenade

au contraire...

Any number of people have come up with a fix; declare software patents null and void.

San Francisco's rogue BOFH is guilty

Don Casey
Coat

Been there, heard that

Having spent a day on jury duty recently, I can confirm the rules are:

1) No talking about a trial while it is going on

2) After the verdict is delivered, fair game

Fortunately as a consulant who doesn't get paid if I'm not working, I didn't get picked for an actual trial so I'll just take my coat and head back to work.

Charges against London tube tourist snapper thrown out

Don Casey
Unhappy

Why I photographic inanimate objects

I love photography, but shooting people is just too icky. First off, if you shoot a person or small group you really ought to ask, but I'm on the shy side. Secondly, if you intend to use the photo in some commercial setting, you need to ask for/negotiate/get a "model release". Too much hassle.

That said, the inclusion of people in photographs makes them that much more engaging to those who view photographs: people. Landscapes are pretty, but people draw you in.

I just don't want the aggravation that comes with 'candid' shots of people, so I live with shooting rocks, trees and buildings, and hope the local gendarmerie are looking for terrorists somewhere else.

Of course, you can get hassled for shooting somebodies building too, so really rocks are about all you have left that are at all safe.

sigh

Patent troll sues Oprah, Sony over online book viewing

Don Casey
Pirate

Stupid move

I hope they get destroyed; (*&$ing trolls!

They've chosen to sue somebody who is rich, popular, and articulate... who also likes taking up causes. If Oprah decides to fight this watch out.

Can you imaging Oprah in front of a jury? She'd have them crying in their seats.

RFID could kill you

Don Casey
Go

Here's why hospitals NEED this technology

The number of deaths due to incorrect medicine and/or dosing is non-trivial. If each container of pills was tagged (passive tag) then read when dispensing for each patient (and automatically checked against the patient database) the occasional fatal error would likely be caught.

The issue (as pointed out) will be with the radiation emitted by the reader, as passive tags don't transmit, they "reflect", and active tags are not appropriate for most hospital applications.

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