• crownrai (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"
    AdT:
    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    Or even easier still, turn all the buildings and structures around 180 degrees.

  • slapout (unregistered) in reply to t3h

    It's like a monster movie. At the end you think everything's okay. Then, as the survivors walk away, the camera plans and you realize that the monster's still alive.

  • AnonymASS (unregistered)

    PUNCHLINE_NOT_FOUND

  • (cs) in reply to alegr
    Satanicpuppy:
    Even BSD is scary crusty old unix based,

    FTFY

  • C. Moore Butz (unregistered) in reply to AnonymASS

    public enum Booleany { TRUE, FALSE,

    AnonymASS:
    PUNCHLINE_NOT_FOUND

    }

    There, fixed.

  • (cs) in reply to alegr

    A lot of windows bashing in this thread coming from people who can't even get basic facts right.

  • Hoodaticus (unregistered)

    This is the kind of work product I lovingly call the "forgasm". You were better off not trying at all.

  • TopCat (unregistered) in reply to Balentius
    Balentius:
    ...oh, boy - you haven't worked in IT for long, have you? It was needed by a specific date, and it specifically mentions the "tangle of cables" underneath - I'm sure that they just moved those servers there, figured out some way of getting the cables from one side to the other, put the floor panels in place and breathed a sigh of relief when it actually worked.

    Mapping everything and organizing the wiring would have been left for the next guy, who will start HIS article with "My first day on the job was to remove 2 of the non-essential servers, without disturbing the others..." :)

    Nope, not too long, only 20 years.

    The quickest and simplest way of moving systems like this is to label the end of each cable as you unplug it. You then end up with a pile of cables with both ends marked as to where they go - voila instant mapping!

  • TopCat (unregistered) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    I call bullshit on this story. There are VERY few banks that push 1 Trillion dollars each day. Very few. Working at a large bank myself I really doubt that any of the ones that do push that much capitol around had any problems like this.

    Okay, maybe it's not bs, but just exaggerated.

    Dunno, sounds just like quite a few data centres I have been in - even down to the DECNET and X25 over TCP cludges to fool everyone into thinking that it is all running on IP (for M$ people, think Netbios over TCP only much, much more clunky).

  • Ron Jeremy (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy

    As an old fart I can tell you that I would love to work in a mainframe dungeon again.

    Give me the soft hum (hey, I'm nearly deaf from the impact printers that stood outside my 'office' for ten years) of those magical mystery machines over the rows of cold hearted bland NT servers.

  • iToad (unregistered)

    Bah. Any amateur could get TCP/IP running on VMS. (Hint: Pathworks). A real hardcore system administrator could get a VAX print queue to communicate with a legacy HP LaserJet-4 printer, using Appletalk.

  • notshakespeare (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy

    No money is enough for that.

    That is spoken like someone who hasn't been on unemployment for a year.

  • Blargh (unregistered) in reply to whomp
    whomp:
    DECnet, which was a network protocol not too dissimilar from TCP/IP

    What do you have against the word "similar"?

    Litotes, that's what.

  • (cs) in reply to slapout
    slapout:
    It's like a monster movie. At the end you think everything's okay. Then, as the survivors walk away, the camera plans and you realize that the monster's still alive.

    Technically, it's called a pan... If the camera is making plans you've got a whole different problem.

  • acid (unregistered) in reply to Ian
    Ian:
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    Sorry, the correct answer was with a shovel and a lot of patience.

    Actually, you hire a bunch of HPCs to build you a small lookout rest stop on the other side of the village, then get them to put a massive billboard sized plasma screen right in front of it with a webcam image coming from the mountain on it. You then cover it with weather resistant clear gel.

    That way, your entire village rocks up, they LOVE the new gooey interface, and they really know that the whole thing is still only working because of the mountain behind them but they don't care - it looks pretty and it cost them about what they were prepared to pay.

    At least, that's what every outsourced consolidation project I've ever seen seems to do.

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to Ian
    Ian:
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    Sorry, the correct answer was with a shovel and a lot of patience.

    Sounds awful. Much easier to declare every building in the village illegal, and get a few army trucks in to take everyone to their new homes.

  • Goggles (unregistered) in reply to Krishna
    Krishna:
    My cousin who works as a DBA said if I come to this site and type, "My glasses do not work", then I will be recognized as an important IT worker and offered a job. I have done what is requested, pls do the needful on your end.

    You were meant to say "My eyes !! these goggles do nothing !!" And anyway you picked the wrong article to post that anyway !! :)

  • db (unregistered) in reply to Steve the Cynic
    Steve the Cynic:
    Satanicpuppy:
    "Data Processing" means old school proprietary unix, and we're not talking Solaris or AIX or anything updated in the last 20 years, we're talking VAX and MPE and other hellish deadend systems running on custom built hardware.

    VMS is not any kind of UNIX. Neither is MPE.

    Oh, and don't forget the modern inheritor of VMS: Windows NT. Yes, the core architecture of NT was designed by the same guy (Dave Carter) who designed the core architecture of VMS.

    Yep, just like Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle - exactly the same car as those Porsche sports cars isn't it?

    In other words, NT is not any kind of VMS.

  • grapkulec (unregistered)

    So, the WTF is that Frank and rest of these 200 people took big money for making old hardware look new and cleaning the dust off just to trick The Board into happiness? I need to sign up for one of those contractor jobs some day...

  • jim steichen (unregistered) in reply to moz

    Actually, you could spread a rumor that there's a large gold deposit underneath the mountain and watch everyone go bananas trying to find it.

  • Roger Garrett (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    No, you rotate the village 180 degrees.

  • letatio (unregistered) in reply to Maurits
    Maurits:
    whomp:
    DECnet, which was a network protocol not too dissimilar from TCP/IP

    What do you have against the word "similar"?

    /me hands whomp a copy of H2G2 (not entirely unlike Wikipedia)

    Hitchhiker's to Guide to?

  • k1 (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Well, you create the village graveyard on the other side of the mountain. Then wait; giving it enough time...

    CYA

  • (cs) in reply to letatio
    letatio:
    Maurits:
    whomp:
    DECnet, which was a network protocol not too dissimilar from TCP/IP

    What do you have against the word "similar"?

    /me hands whomp a copy of H2G2 (not entirely unlike Wikipedia)

    Hitchhiker's to Guide to?
    "Hitch Hiker" is two words.

  • Herby (unregistered) in reply to db
    db:
    Yep, just like Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle - exactly the same car as those Porsche sports cars isn't it?

    In other words, NT is not any kind of VMS.

    You are implying that VMS is like a VW, and NT is like a Porsche.

    NEITHER is true.

    VMS you get a repair manual for, NT is a sealed unit that works on hope (or change). Oh, and VMS didn't take up all of the road, and then demand you build a bigger road to use that as well.

    No, NT is like a Ford Pinto, it will blow up when rear ended. VMS is like a big LIMO, it gets you there in style, but it is big and clunky. Unfortunately they stopped making them a few years ago. Yes, both were built in Detroit (thus the connection)

    p.s. driven both a Porsche (356) and a VW (Beetle).

  • Pedant (unregistered) in reply to Watson

    "Hitchhiker" is one word http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchhikers_guide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchhiker

  • Frank (unregistered)

    "...Frank had all the traits of a young man in IT – beyond his physical appearance, he was brash, overconfident, and narcissistic..."

    Best part.

    A lot of Franks here...

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Herby
    Herby:
    db:
    Yep, just like Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle - exactly the same car as those Porsche sports cars isn't it?

    In other words, NT is not any kind of VMS.

    You are implying that VMS is like a VW, and NT is like a Porsche.

    NEITHER is true.

    VMS you get a repair manual for, NT is a sealed unit that works on hope (or change). Oh, and VMS didn't take up all of the road, and then demand you build a bigger road to use that as well.

    No, NT is like a Ford Pinto, it will blow up when rear ended. VMS is like a big LIMO, it gets you there in style, but it is big and clunky. Unfortunately they stopped making them a few years ago. Yes, both were built in Detroit (thus the connection)

    p.s. driven both a Porsche (356) and a VW (Beetle).

    I think you might be taking the analogy a little bit too far. One could say you've driven it into the ground, in fact...
  • SCB (unregistered) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    There are VERY few banks that push 1 Trillion dollars each day.
    Quite a lot in Zimbabwe, I expect.
  • Pony Princess (unregistered)

    No, you rotate the earth 180 degrees.

  • (cs) in reply to db
    db:
    Steve the Cynic:
    Satanicpuppy:
    "Data Processing" means old school proprietary unix, and we're not talking Solaris or AIX or anything updated in the last 20 years, we're talking VAX and MPE and other hellish deadend systems running on custom built hardware.

    VMS is not any kind of UNIX. Neither is MPE.

    Oh, and don't forget the modern inheritor of VMS: Windows NT. Yes, the core architecture of NT was designed by the same guy (Dave Carter) who designed the core architecture of VMS.

    Yep, just like Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle - exactly the same car as those Porsche sports cars isn't it?

    In other words, NT is not any kind of VMS.

    Terrible example. Porsche is Volkswagen's high-end line, like Lexus is to Toyota. The internals of the first Beetles and Porsches were EXTREMELY similar, even in the 1930s.

    And NT might not be "any kind of VMS", but their internals are extremely similar. Even Dave Cutler has said NT is a successor to VMS.

  • Chris S. (unregistered) in reply to Balentius

    IT like you are the reason I have a job. My company gets hired after you get fired when the system goes down and you can't figure out why because there's no documentation, no mapping, no logic to the layout; it's simply whatever worked.

    The first lesson of a project like this is that there's three variables: cost, time, and scope. The people requesting the project get to set two of those, the PM sets the other. If the requester insists on setting all three it's the PMs job to warn of impending failure and quit the project or get some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card. When you don't, that's how you get fired, because they asked the impossible and you agreed.

  • Anone (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    Depending on the requirements you might even be able to get away with just rotating the village 180 degrees.

  • Anone (unregistered) in reply to Anone
    Anone:
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    Depending on the requirements you might even be able to get away with just rotating the village 180 degrees.

    Wow, I never expected so many other people to have stated this or variations on such. Ah well.

  • ClaudeSuck.de (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    Jake Vinson:
    Ahh, a riddle question, like "how would you move a mountain to the other side of a village?"

    Easy... You don't actually move the mountain to the other side of the village. You move the village to the other side of the mountain.

    You better bend space-time then it looks like the mountain was on the other side.

  • Gary B (unregistered) in reply to IceMan
    IceMan:
    I refactor my code in exactly the same way, it looks all nice and clean in the upper levels, but underneath it's just a mangled mess.
    Shhhhh!! Don't tell anybody!! Don't reveal our professional secrets!!
  • Honest Joe (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that you lied to the board.

  • tdo (unregistered)

    How do you spell pyjamas?

  • Ville (unregistered) in reply to Captain Oblivious
    Captain Oblivious:
    Terrible example. Porsche is Volkswagen's high-end line, like Lexus is to Toyota.
    Really? You might want to tell that to Volkwagens and Porches chiefs so they can stop wasting time on trying to buy each other.
  • Michoel (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy
    Satanicpuppy:
    All the code will be COBOL, RPG, and proprietary development environments that no one uses anymore.

    How do you write code with a Rocket-Propelled Grenade?

  • Phil (unregistered) in reply to Michoel
    Michoel:
    Satanicpuppy:
    All the code will be COBOL, RPG, and proprietary development environments that no one uses anymore.

    How do you write code with a Rocket-Propelled Grenade?

    carefully

  • Keith (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy

    and yet...I'd give my right arm to be working on MPE again, instead of the unreliable crap that I have to support now. Sure, there are negatives to AS400, MPE/iX, etc, but you get to sleep at night.

  • Syn (unregistered) in reply to IceMan

    Ah, the Facade pattern meets the Ravioli code anti-pattern :)

  • Compro01 (unregistered) in reply to Captain Oblivious
    Captain Oblivious:
    db:
    Steve the Cynic:
    Satanicpuppy:
    "Data Processing" means old school proprietary unix, and we're not talking Solaris or AIX or anything updated in the last 20 years, we're talking VAX and MPE and other hellish deadend systems running on custom built hardware.

    VMS is not any kind of UNIX. Neither is MPE.

    Oh, and don't forget the modern inheritor of VMS: Windows NT. Yes, the core architecture of NT was designed by the same guy (Dave Carter) who designed the core architecture of VMS.

    Yep, just like Ferdinand Porsche designed the Volkswagen Beetle - exactly the same car as those Porsche sports cars isn't it?

    In other words, NT is not any kind of VMS.

    Terrible example. Porsche is Volkswagen's high-end line, like Lexus is to Toyota. The internals of the first Beetles and Porsches were EXTREMELY similar, even in the 1930s.

    And NT might not be "any kind of VMS", but their internals are extremely similar. Even Dave Cutler has said NT is a successor to VMS.

    slightly backwards. Volkswagen is Porsche's low-end, as Volkswagen is majority owned by Porsche.

    Similarly amusing, Lamborghini is owned by Porsche, by way of Audi, which is owned by Volkswagen.

    As an aside on VMS, when I worked at a certain government's department of corrections, the main software ran on openVMS 8.2 on an alphaserver (previously ran on 6.something on a VAX) accessed via PuTTY. not a pretty program, but it was reliable and fairly easy to use.

  • Douglas W. Goodall (unregistered)

    It was a fun story, evoking scary aspects we have all seen at some point in our careers, but my experience in bank data processing was very different. I worked at Western Bancorp, where nothing was done in a mysterious or haphazard way. Nothing happened that was not understood and approved of by a team of auditors that were at least as smart as the programming staff, and I expect well beyond them.

    It is fun to think you can pull the wool over management's eyes. There is a good possibility that management would have approved moving all the data centers into one room as they eventually did.

    What I am getting at is that all of this stuff is in motion. Hardware comes and goes, and software enhancements roll out on a constant basis. Periods where things stay the same are nothing more than chanced to breath and catch up on sleep before the next major rollout.

    I guess what unsettles me about the story is that ultimately, responsibility for the efficient and reliable operation of the overall system belongs to the corporate officers who control and pay for everything. Anything that happens behind their backs leads to them having a less than perfect understanding of the tradeoffs and limitations inherent in a particular solution.

    While they did stabilize the systems somewhat, they only pushed meaningful evolution out to the future. Oh I agree that what happens next will be easier with everything in one room, but the moral of the story is what they don't know won't hurt them, and I think it ultimately will. The guy who is the whatever of data processing, the one with "Data Processing" on his door... He will live with the fear and an ulcer that upper management will ask something which appears to be reasonable from their distorted point of view, and everything will fall apart with him in the middle.

    Perhaps the best thing is for the bank to sell its operations to a backwater bank who will keep it as-is for the next thirty years. Then they can set up new, contemporary hardware and software and get the reorganization they will ultimately need.

    This is a legacy system and those that understand it will have a job for life most likely, but when they die, the bank will be in serious trouble. No amount of key man insurance will pay for what has to happen if something catastrophic happens to the data center. It is a ticking time bomb.

  • Slowpoke (unregistered)

    Bank got incredibly lucky. 95 out of 100 guys with all the traits of a young man in IT – beyond his physical appearance, he was brash, overconfident, and narcissistic would have come up with a solution that would blow the bank and put a considerable dent into country wide economy.

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