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Working more on the document I worked on yesterday brought up even more memories than the SYSABEND Dump. So, I went out to the garage and found my copy of OCC4CCC.HACKLIB. I’m betting most folks won’t even get these references. This is what passed for computer humor in the 1970s:

***

Hail 360 Child of Evil
Mary Shaw, Datamation, 4-1-1971
Hail 360, Child of Evil, for Thy misdeeds we curse Thee. Verily, do we curse and condemn Thee; We call down the Wrath of the Heavens upon Thee.

Know, Three Sickly, that we hate Thee with a Pure and White-Hot passion. May all the Microseconds of Thine Existance be eons in Misery. As Thou pushest about the Bits of Thy Programs, may the 1-bits cause chills and may the 0-bits itch, and may Thou be in continual Torment. As Thou miscomputest the problems of Thy Users may every Man’s hand be turned against Thee. May children cast Card Chad at Thee and call Thee cursed.

May Thy insulation all evaporate and Thy ROS become writeable; and may a User write his FORTRAN program all over it.

May Thy printers Rewind; and Thy tapes Unwind; and Thy memory banks grow Senile; and Thy drums be Out of Round; and Thy high-speed channel be Multiplexed with Thy reader/punch; and may Thy Channel Programs loop.

May Thy bits all have three states. May OS have 100 Releases, and may each release have 5000 APARS. May each APAR have 100 PTFs, and may each PTF be punched Off-Register on Warped Cards. May each PTF have 100 Hex patches, and may each patch grow scar tissue.

May each Release require ten SYSGENs, and cost a Shift, and may each Shift be Billed at Prime Rates.

May Thy Wait State ABEND; may Thy SVC’s get protection violations; may Thy SPOOL overflow, may Thy DATA UNIT cut in and out. May Thy Adder drop its seventh Bit, and may Thy Multiplier compute Cube Roots. May Thy Move-Characters instruction complement every Third Bit. May Thy Floating-Point registers be where Thy Fixed-Point registers should be.

A Pox upon Thee and upon Thy kin: upon Thy mod 44’s and upon Thy mod 91’s and upon Thy mod 67’s. Yea, upon Thy children and Thy children’s children, even unto the seventh Generation of Hardware.

Yea, 360, know that Thou shall be sorely afflicted. From this time forth shall Thy Peripherals become independent Processors and shall Thou be synchronized with the low-speed printer. And Thy Cores shall be as dust within Thee and in Sorrow shall Thou lament Thy lot.

***

PSALM X’17’

IBM is my Shepherd; I shall not interact.
He giveth me dumps of the System Nucleus,
He maketh me Subtract in HEXADECIMAL.
He restoreth my Registers.
He leadeth me in the paths of Ambiguity for His Manual’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of the Program Check, I will fear no ABEND; for OS/MVT is with me.
Thy MESSAGES and thy CODES they comfort me.
Thou preparest a Table before me in the Presence of mine Consultants.
Thou allowest me to Chain my CCW’s;
The Line Printer runneth over.
Surely the Operators will chase me all the days of my life,
and I shall Execute in KEY Zero forever.

***

BATTLE HYMN OF THE PUBLIC

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the NIC,
They were done upon the NETWORK, would be quicker with a BIC.
The mumblejumble and jargon are enough to make you sick.
And time goes marching on…

Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
upon the ARPANET.

I started with a TTY and a manual on my knee.
They preached the TELNET gospel in a numbered RFC.
What with IMPs and TIPs and HOSTS and Hacks I learned the litany,
That Bits go marching on.

Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
upon the ARPANET.

I was told it was so easy, I could hack it in a day,
But a User is a Loser if She’s 15 hops away.
The Bits clogged up the buffers; caused a terrible delay,
And time goes marching on…

Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
upon the ARPANET.

Now I’ve come to face my sponsor and this stuff is hardly hacked,
If it isn’t done by Friday I’ll be tortured, whipped, and racked.
The brave new world surrounds me, but I think the deck is stacked
But I’ll keep typing on…

Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
Glory, Glory, I’m a User
upon the ARPANET.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Figured I’d continue with my song lyrics. I’m sure no-one knows where that lyrics is from, but you can hear a snippet here. Today’s news chum post has to do with computers, and in particular, cybersecurity and its impacts. Well, with one exception.

• Avast Security. This first link is more for my reference. Amongst the free antivirus products out there, I’ve been using Avast for years, supplemented when needed by Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy. Here’s a nice writeup of the current Avast suite.
• Amazon Security. Here are two good articles on how to enable two-factor authentication for Amazon: The Verge, PC World.  In general, you should enable two-factor authentication whereever you can. P.S.: The Google Authenticator app (Android, iTunes) or Authy is another great way to support two-factor.  If you use Google Authenticator, here’s how to move it to a new phone. Here’s a list of who supports Two Factor Authentication.
• Securing Lastpass. I’ve also grown to really like password managers, although they do have a few risks (what doesn’t). Here’s a new blog article on how to enable some additional protections if you use Lastpass. Hint: Use two-factor authentication.
• The Risk of Ransomware. Here’s a good summary of ransomware out there, and what you can do to protect yourself.  The best answer: Get a good backup program (I recommend Acronis), and backup to a USB drive that you connect only during the backup. Backing up to the cloud is second best, because if you sync to the cloud, you might just sync encrypted versions over the good files.
• Mainframe Security. When I got started in computers, I was working on mainframes. I remember the IBM 360/91 well. Now it is the Z/Series, and other friends work on them. Here’s a good article on mainframe security.
• Freeze Right There. Here’s a good article from Brian Krebs where he recommends always enabling a security freeze. As he notes: “credit monitoring services do little if anything to stop thieves from stealing your identity. The best you can hope for from these services is that they will alert you when a thief opens or tries to open a new line of credit in your name. But with a “security freeze” on your credit file at the four major credit bureaus, creditors won’t even be able to look at your file in order to grant that phony new line of credit to ID thieves.”
• Wasting Time. Here’s a non-security article, unless you’re talking an availability attack: The History of Windows Solitaire.
• Seeing The Light. Here’s an article about why staring at a screen before bed is bad for you — i.e., the problems with blue light.  I’ve seen many articles in addition to this recommending f.lux, so I tried it. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stand the color change and the impact on scrolling. YMMV.

But online I don’t drive in a shy way, in my big rig on the Information Superhighway….

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We’re continuing to swab the deck of this pesky news chum. This time, we’re making some things that might be of retirement age walk the plank. Let’s see if they sink or swim:

• The Boeing 747. One of the books I keep rereading from the early 1970s deals with the birth of the Boeing 747. After 45 years, the old lady of aviation (of the current “models” in heavy use, only the 737 is older) may be ready to retire. It’s engineering is from the past: people are astonished when they see the analogue instruments. The flight controls are all dependent on old-fashioned mechanical linkages. A 747 captain once explained that, if hydraulic assistance on the control yoke is lost, you can still put your feet on the instrument panel, give a big tug and wrench the plane about the sky. You cannot do that on a solid-state Airbus. Airline economics have also changed: International flights can now avoid the big hubs and go directly on long, thin routes between secondary cities. The first generation of high-bypass turbofans made the original 747-100 possible, but it was only ever economical when fully loaded, its efficiency tumbling disproportionately as seats were left empty. In the 45 years since its first flight, engine reliability has so dramatically improved there is no need for four thirsty engines. In any case, the fundamental appeal of the original 747 was its range rather than its capacity. Boeing’s own efficient long-range modern twinjets, the 777 and 787 have made it redundant. And the A380 makes it look crude.
• Quicken. If you are like me, you probably have years and years of data in Quicken. I think I started using it back in 1994, perhaps even a bit earlier, with a version running on MS-DOS. Well the markets have changed, and you and I are dinosaurs. All the cool kids use online money management, and Intuit (born of Quicken) has put Quicken on the market. Intuit has decided to focus on its small business and tax software, represented by QuickBooks and TurboTax, respectively — both have strong cloud- and subscription-based businesses — and is ditching Quicken because, as a strictly desktop product, it has neither.  Some predict Quicken to be dead in two years. After all, the three units Intuit plans to sell — Quicken, QuickBase and Demandforce — accounted for less than 6% of the firm’s fiscal 2015 revenue, and just 2% of its net income during the same period. For the last 12 months, Quicken contributed just $51 million to the company’s total revenue of nearly $4.2 billion.  They want a buyer that will keep the brand up. It will be interesting to see. I still use Quicken — and their long-retired Medical Insurance Tracking software — and it would be a pain to transition that data (and the data does not belong online).
• Vinyl Records. On the other hand, vinyl records (which were written off for dead), are seeing a comeback. The NY Times reports that the business of record pressing is now experiencing so many orders they cannot keep up (warning: autoplay video). The problem: how to capitalize on the popularity of vinyl records when the machines that make them are decades old, and often require delicate and expensive maintenance. The few dozen plants around the world that press the records have strained to keep up with the exploding demand, resulting in long delays and other production problems. It is now common for plants to take up to six months to turn around a vinyl order. Still, vinyl is a niche market, albeit a valuable one.

Music: The Slightly Fabulous Limelighters: “Aravah, Aravah” (The Limeliters )

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In my continuing quest to work down the saved links, here are a collection of links associated by the fact that (a) they are related to technology (and perhaps cybersecurity), and (b) they were interesting to me. Note also that I’ve added some links to my post on Windows 10.

Let’s start with everyone’s favorite operating system, Android. Here are some Android related articles:

• 5 tips to make your Android phone run faster, longer. Most of these are common sense, but still they are useful.
• Android Stagefright. A number of articles related to Stagefright. First, Kapersky has a wonderful summary of the problem and all the attempts to repair it.  Motorola has promised a swift fix, but as I’m still waiting for Lollipop on my Moto X… So what to do? This post from Kapersky gives a great suggestion: turn off auto-prefetch of MMS messages.
• Lastpass for Free on Android. Ever since I’ve switched to a password manager, I’ve been loving it. My passwords have gotten stronger, and I don’t have to remember or write down loads of stuff. The best Password Manager I’ve found out there is Lastpass. They used to be free on the PC, and you paid for your phone. Great News. Lastpass is now free for the first device you put it on; you pay for multiple devices. So what are you waiting for?
• Lockscreen Patterns are Insecure. Here’s another Kapersky article on why lockscreen patterns (as opposed to passwords) are insecure: they are too predictable.

Let’s now look at Windows and other software:

• Evernote. Evernote is a wonderful note-keeping software than runs on your phone and your PC. Here’s how to make it more secure.
• Libre Office.  I think in the battle of Free Office Suites, LibreOffice has won. Here’s an interesting article from a LibreOffice developer on the lesson’s learned from its success. [ETA: And if you still use OpenOffice, here’s why you should ditch it and move to LibreOffice]
• Firefox. Although Firefox has improved greatly, it still sneaks in stuff. In this case, it is prefetching (or at least, pre-building the TCP connection) when you hover over links. Here’s how to stop the behavior.
• Thunderbird. No article here, just some shared experience. We recently switched over to Office 365 and Exchange 365 at work. In the Lotus Notes era, I was lucky enough to have a Notes IMAP server, and happily used Thunderbird. It was a pain for calendar entries, however, saving the ical file and reloading it into Google Calendar. Here are some things that make my life easier — perhaps they will help yours. First, install the Exquilla Plug In. It is $10 a year, and allows Thunderbird to talk Microsoft Exchange. You’ll need the Outlook Web Address, and you’ll need to make the change in the URL they show. Next, at least temporarily, install the Manually Sort Folders extension. This allows you to move your Exchange account to the top and set it as the default. You can disable it when done. You should be prompted to turn on the Lighting calendar. After you have done so, add the addon Provider for Google Calendar. You can now add a new calendar and link it it to your Google Calendar. Remember to synchronize whenever you start up Thunderbird. Although you can’t accept events directly into the Google Calendar, you can accept them into your local calendar, and then drag them to Google. [EDITED TO ADD: An Update: Nevermind. This seemed to be working at work… until it wasn’t. There appears to be an interaction between Lightning and Thunderbird that causes it to (a) keep losing the folder pane, and then (b) keep crashing on startup. I had to disable Lightning and the Google Calendar Provider. Sigh.]

One last useful article: What to do when a CD or DVD is stuck in the drive.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Today’s lunchtime news chum collection comes to you courtesy of Timex, for it is all about time and anniversaries. This is appropriate, as NIST is about to introduce a new, more-accurate atomic clock.

• Mail. This week marks the 10-year anniversary of Gmail. Many of you may remember life before Gmail. I certainly remember the days of command-line email — /bin/mail, mailx, and numerous other mail readers (I was particularly fond of using email within emacs). Then we moved to nicer email clients, such as Pegasus, while the Corporate folks dealt with Outlook and Notes. Web-based email, at that time, was horrid — limited storage, limited interfaces, limited searching. Google changed all that with gigantic limits and great interfaces, all for the cost of your soul (no, that not right) your privacy (getting closer) the ability to search through your mail and sell you stuff based on it (that’s the ticket). Gmail isn’t perfect — there still isn’t the ability to work with digital certificates and encrypted mail. Hopefully we’ll get that. Otherwise, Gmail has become such a juggernaut (especially when combined with Android) that it is unstoppable.
• Mobile Phones. Speaking of Android, this week is also the 41st anniversary of the first mobile phone call. Talk about life-changing devices. No longer can you hide anywhere — being incommunicado is now unthinkable. We’ve got from only a few having cellphones to everyone having them with them 24×7. In fact, you now no longer have just a phone, but an entire miniature computer with you. As evidence, I just added a page to my Passover Hagadah to remind people to turn off their cell phones; yet another form of escaping from slavery!
• Mainframes. This week also is the 50th anniversary of the IBM 360 mainframe. Now, many of you youngsters (hey, you, get off my lawn) don’t even know what a mainframe is, so bear with me. Back in the 1950s, computers were one-shots — built for a specific purpose, for a specific task. Some smaller computers (such as the IBM 7090) started to come in, but they still often used plugboards and were unsuitable for the enterprise. In the 1960s, IBM introduced the 360 line — a range of computers, all running a common OS (at that time, OS/MFT) with common machine instructions that were extensible. Business could now afford computers. I programmed on a number of 360 systems: the 360/50 at LA Unified, the 360/91 and 360/75 at UCLA, and later, the 370/3033 at UCLA.

 

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While eating my lunch, I received an Email from URJ about the new issue of Reform Judaism magazine. An electronic issue, where they note that “(1) the magazine is now available as a digital edition for computer, iPad, and smartphones, and (2) all RJ magazine stories are indexed by topic at reformjudaismmag.org. For example, if you click on Strengthening Synagogues, you’ll see subject offerings from “Finding Funding & Cost Savings” to “Management” to “Membership” to “Worship.” From there you can easily access all the articles we’ve published on those subjects 24/7.”

I thought about this as I munched my salad. I decided it was time to climb on my lunch-box and say something.

I’ve written before how I don’t believe the Internet is a wholly positive force. I’ve opined that the Internet has magnified the voices of the crazies and the fringes — one can see this by reading the comments on almost any news article on the web. This magnification has served to increase the hyper-partisanship in politics and society, with people essentially talking to (as Rush Limbaugh would put it) “dittoheads”, and only reading the online news sources slanted the way they think. This is not a good thing.

I’ve also written before about how I think the Internet has hurt communal institutions. More and more organizations are “saving money” by moving from printed newsletters and fliers to email blasts. Now email is great and good, but shouldn’t be the primary mechanism. Email is ephemeral — I doubt anyone prints an emailed organizational newsletter and puts it on their coffee table, or prints an emailed flier to put on the refrigerator. We read it… and promptly forget about it. As any organization, and they will bemoan the fact that attendance at their events has gone done. They blame it on the apathy of society, but I’d love to see if there is a correlation between the drop in attendance/participation and a move to emailed announcements. If you want participation, not only do you email, but you send out paper flyers and you have a call-tree to personally invite people to your activities.

So that brings me to Reform Judaism Magazine. People seem to love online papers and magazines (and trust me, I do, as evidenced by how many papers I skim these days, and how few magazines I read). However, that is an elitist notion. Yes, you, the person reading this, are in an elite class. We forget that much of the world doesn’t have access to the Internet, or the high speed Internet. Some have access, but are unable to use it due to disability or age. By moving to digital sources only, we are disenfranchising such people from participation. So not only are we producing ephemeral product, we’re cutting off a chunk of society from reading it.

I’ll admit I’m a compusaur. I’ve worked on IBM’s big metal. I was on the Arpanet in the late 1970s (on SF-LOVERS and at MIT-AI). The Internet is an extension of who I am. Yet I’ll keep screaming — it is not all for the good.

And now I’ll climb off my lunch-box (before the cheap plastic collapses — I think I ate too much), and go back to work…

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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