Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 2
"January 5, 1998 - 725 days to go." WRP58
(c) 1997, 1998 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this article as long as this entire document is reproduced in
its entirety including this notice. I do not grant permission to
a commercial publisher to reprint this in print media.
As seen in
USENET:comp.software.year-2000
http://www.elmbronze.demon.co.uk/year2000/
http://www.kiyoinc.com/HHResCo.html
Please fax or email copies of this to your geek pals, especially those
idiots who keep sending you lightbulb, blonde, or Bill Gates jokes,
and urban legends like the Arizona rocket car story.
If you have a Y2K webpage, feel free to host the Weather Reports.
Don't forget- April 2, 3 1998, Geek Out.
1. Readers Mailbox - getting a date... raise.
2. Capaccess.org fails on January 1, 1998
3. The buzz.
4. Plans for Geekout.
5. Followup from Raj's Article.
6. True Time Machine Stories
7. DC Y2K
8. CCCC
-------------- Readers Mailbox ----------
This email came in. I have deleted the references that identify the author
but the general sense is intact. <my reply>
--------------
I have to e-mail becouse usenet isn't working for me at the
momement and you are Mr Rate. I only have three and a bit years
experience, I don't know if our 'shop' is unusual.
Boss: 'We need to this feature/fix for the next release so that we
can get/keep this client. How long will it take?'
If I were honest I would have to say: 'Well first I will have to work
out what needs to be done before I can work out how long it will take
to do, but having done that I would of done most of what needs to be
done bar typing the code then making changes becouse of bugs or what
I/you thought you wanted wasn't quite what you wanted. And how long
will it take to make each of those changes? and how many changes will
need to be made?' This dosn't take into account interuptions.
So I usualy guess and it _always_ takes longer (yes I've tried
guessing then doubling it, in fact I'm now quintupling it).
So I keep saying we have to re-write this thing, which makes me feel
even more incompetent given the ammount of effort (which is increasing
exponentialy with time) put into to it. And it's getting harder and
harder to find time to re-write (more and more requests for new
features, more and more new features put in, so more and more bugs).
And of course all these new features (and more otherwise it would
appear to have been a waste of time to rewrite) would have to go into
the rewrite. Every now and then I make a start.
...two paragraphs deleted...
Yes, that's right, I'm in the belly of the PHM beast. ...one sentence
deleted...
...one paragraph deleted...
Our client base is exploding! how much longer can we keep this facade
up! Me at work: phone cradled between head and shoulder frantically
hacking away at the keyboard talking to the Quality Assurance Manager
of Mega Bucks Corp, 'that's a great idea, our software development
team are working on that as we speak, it should, if all goes well, be
in the next release two weeks from now'.
But then I enjoy writing some of code I have to write. Lots of fun
...one paragraph deleted... my office also looks like a bombsite.
In fact I'm beginning to suspect that the not only am I the only one
who has some vague idea of how it does what it does, I'm the only one
who knows all of what its supposed to do. ...one sentance deleted...
Oh, I could go on. ...one paragraph deleted... if they only knew what was
in the code. I dread the momement when they find out the truth.
How can I ask for more money? ...one sentence deleted...
<Who's seen this before? Half the room raised their hands. Who's there
now?... Here is a brave, hardworking geek, struggling to do his job while
the massa has a boot on the geek's neck. The problem isn't the geek, the
problem is, this is a deathmarch. This is what you have to do. First make
sure that there is an offsite backup of the source. Begin to build an
escape plan, get a haircut, buy a suit, save some cash, go on a few job
interviews, get ready, you may not have to resort to using your plan but
have it in place and be ready to rock and roll.>
<When you have a job offer, put on your suit and ask for a half hour
with the decision maker, mr. big, the horn-hair of horn hairs. Start out by
saying that you enjoy the work and you want the company to succeed. Be
extremely polite, business-like. Tell him that 1) you are overworked and
underpaid. 2) you need an assistant, a trainee or a jr programmer, 3) you
need better compensation to include equity in the company as well as a
nominal salary increase, I'm thinking 40K/year is about right and about 3
percent of the stock. Practice saying this as you drive your geekmobile
around. People will see you and think you are singing. It's important that
you can say, "I expect a 40 thousand dollar raise and 3 % of the company
without choking, without your voice cracking. This is like the time in
highschool when you and your date were in the back seat of your mom's Ford.
You can do it. Just like in the Ford. Mr. horn-hair wants you to
succeed, he'll help you just like your date did. We all want the same
thing, sometimes someone needs to take a little initiative.>
<If mr. horn-hair does anything except agree with your nominal requests,
resign, he's hosed, the company will collapse. adios, you had your chance,
time to move on. You don't need them, they need you. If your date said
no, you say, we can still be friends and move on. It's that fast. Don't
let them take advantage of you.>
-------- Capaccess.org fails --------------
I have an email account at the DC area freenet, http://www.capaccess.org.
They haven't been online since December 31, 1997. I'm guessing a date
problem. Any other freenets or BBS's offline?
They've been down for 5 days now.
-------- The Buzz backfires ---------------
Spoke to a geek today about the recent press coverage including the
Washington Post front page article on credit cards. He mentioned that he's
been giving copies of the programmer shortage articles to his client and
his client has been passing them to his management, contracts people, and
the bean counters.
This is good, I slapped him on the back, YES!
But then he said, "my client has been making noises about quiting and
going into contract programming himself."
NO! We need him to stay there.
Later, I had lunch with a geek who is contracting to another firm, I told
him the story, turns out he's been passing articles to his client too AND
his client is also making noises about bailing out.
We need these guys to STAY, STAY BOY, we've been training them to think
big, so they can write big contracts to us, not so they bail out to get the
big bucks for themselves.
When you work the buzz, invest your time in educating your client, make
sure that they will stay so they can give you the big bucks. That's only
fair.
-------- Plans for Geek Out ---------------
Say, wasn't there supposed to be some kind of Y2K-day on January 1, 1998? I
guess it didn't happen. Don't let this happen to Geek Out 1998. Lets
crank up the awareness mill... and cash in.
Geek Out isn't a strike, it's the early spring day when we celebrate our
geekiness, renew our geek power, join geek to geek into geek
solidarity. It's a geek holy day, a time to reflect on the geek way, light
the geek candle, sing geek songs (songs from the currently running
contest), and share geek food (Pepsi and donuts, pizza and french fries,
barbequed chicken wings).
We celebrate our geekiness by taking a couple days off from work... and let
the horn hairs wonder, hey where is everyone?
Here are your geek out assignments. Clip 'n font up and fax or give the
following to computer and other geeky stores, recruiters, HR departments at
your competitors, and fellow geeks.
---------- begin fonting here -------------
Are you interested in meeting dozens, hundreds of cash flush, computer
experts? Are you a retailer with merchandise that would interest computer
specialists, a contracting firm that needs more experts, or a recruiter?
Get ready for April 2, 3, 1998, it's Geek Out 1998, a two day spring break
when computer specialists of all kinds take a break from the grind. They
won't be at work, they might be in your store, at your job fair, or
discussing new opportunities with you.
Here's how you can cash in on Geek Out.
If you are retailer, put selected products on sale for Geek Out, These
items should be promoted and advertised as on sale on April 2nd and 3rd
only. A deep discount on a hot product like a color printer, scanner, or
new game will draw customers who will stop to buy, and buy and buy. Be
sure to advertise the product as a 'Geek Out 1998' special to show that you
are supporting the cause.
If you are a recruiter or HR department, sponsor a job faire but
be sure to have door prizes or a drawing. An appropriate item for a
drawing would be a color monitor, a gift certificate for a trail bike, or
digital camera. When you advertise the job faire, if you offer a prize
worth more than $250, you may list the job faire as a "Geek Out 1998"
event. Refreshments are appreciated.
That's all you have to do.
----------- end fonting --------------------
So fancy up the flyer and fax it retailers, companies, headhunters. Do
your part to get Geek Out publicity and goodies.
-------- Followup to Raj's article --------
The local TV media has been relentlessly covering the credit card
expiration date problem. I've seen four stories, interviews with local
merchants and Y2K experts.... whatever that is.
There have been several stories in the newspapers too.
-------- True Time Machine Stories ---------
Here is part of an extremely interesting discussion from
bit.listserv.ibm-main.
==============================
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998
From: "Mike Garcia" <taekwonmg@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
Moving from an MVS 4.3 system to OS/390, from the time the ServerPack tapes
arrive at your facility, what is a good working time to have a tailored system
up and running for production checkout.
My IBM rep said 8 weeks. Can you validate this?
===============================
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998
From: Yair Elharrar <yair@ASHUR.CC.BIU.AC.IL>
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
OS/390 means JES2 v5. Meaning Sysplex. Meaning GRS... Meaning more CTCs.
We still haven't upgraded JES2 due to that fact.
Total time from ServerPac to production - about 3 months at our shop.
===============================
From: edjaffe@netcom.com (Edward E. Jaffe)
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 03:21:21 GMT
Actually, these days you're looking at JES2/JES3 V 6.04 (HJE6604/HJS6604).
You mean XCF. In a sysplex, GRS, JES2/JES3, MCS, etc. use XCF to
transport messages from one system to another.
If you go to a parallel sysplex you don't need CTCs for XCF signalling
(but they *can* be faster since they are a dedicated resource). Since you
can now (since OS/390 R2?) run VTAM-VTAM CTC traffic over XCF in a basic
or parallel sysplex, you may not require any more CTCs than you already
have. It's possible that, with OS/390, you could actually realize a net
decrease in your total requirement for CTCs! If you go to a parallel
sysplex, you could potentially reduce the number of CTCs needed down to
zero (if you wanted to).
================================
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 22:23:51 -0600
From: Rex Widmer <rwidmer@UIT.NET>
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
Lots of issues concerning how much stuff you have integrated into your
system that has to be moved forward, and how well you have planned.
You will likely not believe this, but using the pre-configured
Application Developers OS/390 R1.3, it took about 4 hours from opening
the box to IPL. 3 hours was spent PKUNZIPping the CD's to virtual DASD
images ( I had enough DASD to have dedicated new volume images to 1.3).
I have a job to define and connect all ICF catalogs that are off the
system volumes.
Minor update to linklist, lpalist and run.
Biggest time consumer - re-consolidating all ISPF libraries and
preprocessing the Panel libs.
Of course this is an extrodinarily simple configuration, that has been
built to move our development / test / assurance across MVS 5.2.2,
OS/390 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3. As the customization increases on any one
system the effort to build the next one goes straight up.
--
Builder of Software Archaelogy Tools -
Digging thru the bonepile of existing applications....
==============================
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998
From: Yair Elharrar <yair@ASHUR.CC.BIU.AC.IL>
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
Right now we don't even have a GRS ring! We rarely share anything except
the JES2 spool. Crash-implementing GRS can be quite hazardous...
Parallel sysplex means even MORE hardware! You need an ES-9000 as a
minimum, plus a 9674 or a 9672 LPAR to run the CFC.
Our current 3088 has no more free slots, and we don't have enough ESCONs to
create more CTCs...
=============================
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998
From: "Edward E. Jaffe" <edjaffe@NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: OS/390 Installation time
I don't recall anyone suggesting a "crash" implementation of anything.
Just to be clear, in spite of your comments (which obviously relate to
your specific environment), with OS/390 an installation *can* move the
GRS, MCS, JES2/JES3, and VTAM-VTAM message traffic over XCF in a basic
(not parallel) sysplex. Therefore, an installation does not need a box
with coupling facility links, does not need CFC or ICMF LPARs, and can
still realize no net increase in CTC device requirements over those used
for existing VTAM-VTAM or JES3-JES3 connections.
However, in your particular case, it sounds like you may not be able to
implement even a basic sysplex. I'm almost certain XCF needs SCTCs rather
than BCTCs to function. So in your case, if you can't afford to replace
your 3088 with ESCON channels, you're probably out of luck (I'll double
check that on Monday and repost if I'm wrong). Also, it wasn't clear
whether you were sharing your spool across multiple, physical boxes or
across LPARs on the same box. Clearly, if they are separate boxes, you
would need boxes that are at least capable of being attached to an ETR
and, of course, the ETR itself. From the tone of your posting, it sounds
as if your CPU hardware may be too ancient even for that.
If this is the case, you may want to look into some of the (IMHO "hard to
pass up") deals that exist for new or used 9672 CMOS-based processors and
rack mounted or internal DASD. After factoring in the environmental costs
for space, power, and heat, from your old equipment, you might find you
break even after a relatively short period of time. For us, it was less
than three years! ;-)
=================
Oh and if Tim or anyone else has a simpler approach than SCTCs for XCF,
please, feel free to jump right in with a solution.
And to any non-programmers who still think us geeks are getting uppity, you
can wade in too. Please, tell us how to remove a brain tumor from MVS.
The nerve of some people.
-------- DC Y2K Meeting -------------------
Do you dare to enter the DMZ known as the District of Columbia? Can you
drive without streetlights. Does being near a multiple
"Execution-style" murder site give you the creeps?
This is a call for RSVPs for the first WDCY2K meeting in 1998. The meeting
will be held on Tuesday, January 20th, from 5:30 pm to 9 pm at the Fannie
Mae headquarters at 3900 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, D.C., a few blocks
from the Starbucks Murder Site.
RSVP to: g8ubew@fanniemae.com
Name:
Title:
Division:
Organization:
Phone:
E-mail:
The topic of our meeting this month is: "Bracing for Impact: Year 2000
Contingency Planning". With the Y2K 'singularity' coming up at the end of
next year, we need to look at possible consequences and prepare
accordingly.
-------- Cory's closing clueless comments -
It's getting good. I see regular articles about Y2K now. Here're some
assignments for you; once a week, call or write to the media in response to
a Y2K article, have your friends and family call or write too, don't be a
pest but let them know that you want to see more information. If they've
misstated the problem, give them some feedback.
The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun are already bragging about how big
next week's High Tech Job Ad sections will be. The job panic is beginning.
I thought summer 1997 would be the start of the panic. Looks like it's
starting now. Yippee!
Check out http://www.ntplx.net/~rgearity any evening, 8-10PM EST. Lots of
hot Y2K talk.
725 days to go.