• glitch1985@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      There are tons of IT systems in the government that have been running the same programming for 30+ years but if it isn’t broke it doesn’t get touched.

      Source: Use mainframe emulators often to perform routine tasks in government HR systems.

        • ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyz
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          18 hours ago

          Just in case you didn’t know, the code is old, but the hardware still gets updates. And when it comes to batch transactions and network speed, mainframes still do the job reliably well. Plus, they are not easy to hack, because few understand them, not to mention the decades of security updates.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          The code may be old but the hardware gets updated. I don’t know if they’re using modern tools but the language also gets updated.

          It alll comes down to budget: who wants to spend the money to modernize stuff that still works? Iss Musk willing to invest in that?

    • AmbientDread@midwest.social
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      19 hours ago

      They would have to spend on new systems instead of giving tax breaks to corporate welfare queens and the landed gentry.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      19 hours ago

      Good luck getting musk to pay to update the programs that most of the government uses.

      These programs were written in COBOL, and they have had no reason to upgrade things that are still working.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          This is the part everyone is missing. Real life is messy and sloppy and incomplete. Real life has bad data. All the time, especially when you’re trying to match 100 year old records. Not handling bad data s a problem of inexperience, regardless what technology you use. Announcing it as fraud, is just being an ignorant asshole.

          That being said, if Musk is willing to put out the billions of dollars it would cost to modernize, that would be great! But it still has to handle bad data. Maybe musk could add hundreds of millions to the budget to hire enough people to manually confirm all the data from before the records were digitized. Good luck with that

          • shawn1122@lemm.ee
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            15 hours ago

            If you want actual proof of this, look at your medical records. And I say this as a healthcare worker. All kinds of nonsense ends up in the chart for a myriad of reasons.

        • doomcanoe@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          Let me get your point straight, because COBOL is an old language, you believe calling out misinformation that shows the people tasked with “finding corruption and financial mismanagement” are completely unqualified for the job isn’t a “valid defense”?

          A valid defense of what? The post doesn’t defend COBOL, it makes no claims regarding the best way to track this data at all. It just points out that the dipshits making the claims of corruption are blatantly wrong.

          Then you go on to claim that these same dipshits are going to “probably” address legacy systems? Why would you want someone who can’t understand the legacy system to be in charge of replacing it? That’s a recipe for disaster.

          Or to put it another way. Saying the government shouldn’t use COBOL “isn’t the defense (of DOGE) you think it is”.

          • nwilz@lemmy.world
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            18 hours ago

            Yes, it is defending cobol. Otherwise it would say this is bad and needs to be fixed

            • doomcanoe@sh.itjust.works
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              18 hours ago

              Lol, bruh… You cant be serious.

              Defending COBOL would require a statement to the effect of “COBOL should be kept because X”. Do you see any affirmative statement to that effect? No? Wanna take a guess as to why?

              I know you won’t be honest about it in your response, but you know exactly why. Because this post has nothing to do with COBOL being good, bad, or in-between for the task at hand. It’s exclusively about calling out bullshit and misinformation spread by unqualified idiots.

              Which brings me back around to the fact that your opinion that “COBOL should be replaced” is not a valid defense of idiots, who don’t understand the systems they are tasked with using, making false claims based on misunderstandings caused by their ignorance.

              • nwilz@lemmy.world
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                18 hours ago

                No it’s not. It’s that they are afraid of all of the waste and corruption being exposed and losing control. They don’t care about misinformation, they spread the most misinformation

            • ridethisbike@lemmy.world
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              18 hours ago

              Well don’t worry. You’re allowed to change your mind at any point in time once you realize the mistakes you’ve made regarding the trust and belief you’ve put in these people.

              • nwilz@lemmy.world
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                18 hours ago

                Right because these departments aren’t rife with waste and corruption. I totally trust the Dems that are throwing a fit to defend these departments as they are exposed

      • nwilz@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        This hasn’t been done because no one can do it. It’s because the government sucks at this stuff

        • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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          19 hours ago

          It hasn’t been done because that’s a great works project that’s on a scale you’re woefully ignorant to (this is an assumption on my part based on what I can grok of you based on your comments here).

          I assure you there is a bevy of skilled developers who would love to modernize the systems they work on but the cost and level of effort is beyond what is politically viable.

          If you changed your perspective from “it’s awful and bad and always will be” to “it’s awful and bad and we can make it better, how can I help” things will improve for everyone.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            16 hours ago

            Mate, from reading the comments of this no-brains, he or she doesn’t even know how to program in a professional capacity, much less have even the slightest clue of the scope of such a project.

            That one is literally a mindless Trump/Elon fan wading into waters way, WAY, WAY beyond his depth.

        • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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          19 hours ago

          I guarantee you that there are no governments, banks, or businesses older than 15 years that aren’t running some old ass code that’s not getting replaced any time soon.

    • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      Lolololol tell that to literally every major bank, I’m sure they’ll get right on it just for you.