Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report V2, # 21
"May 18, 1998 - 592 days to go." WRP77
(c) 1997, 1998 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this newsletter as long as this entire document is reproduced in
its entirety. You may optionally quote an individual article but you should
include this header down to the tearline. 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
--------------------tearline -----------------------------
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.
Did you miss Geek Out?
Project Dumbass needs you.
In this issue:
1. Denial heads
2. Rates (email)
3. Medical
4. Rail
5. Software Licenses
6. 3330 mod eleven
7. CCCC
-------- denial-heads ---------
Yoo-hoo, denial-heads, do you want to know how dolt-like you appear to us?
Here's an email I got from a real code cranker:
-------- begin email clip ---------
One of those people, the husband of a couple we've known for many years,
told me last night that he has noticed an increase in the number of Y2K
articles. He sees this as a scare tactic by Microsoft or Intel to build
up the fear level in the country so at an appropriate moment they can
announce that they have a solution that will solve all the problems --
for a really high price. I reminded him that most of the critical
programs still ran on main frames and that even if MS or Intel had a
solution it wouldn't help mainframes. He was not convinced.
-------- end email clip -----------
Yes, this is wacked-out, an example of the clueless trying to think. Please,
those of you in denial about Y2K, please don't try to think, it's embarrassing
to read your insane ravings. Yes, it might seem to you that you're engaged in a
cognitive process, it feels like thinking, it's similar to what you've done
before and then, someone, your mom, Mr. Smith your debate teacher, or another
usenet newgroup said, atta-boy, good one, some real thought there. But not
here. This is c.s.y2k. The systems will not be fixed in time.
We're trying to identify the vulnerbilities, such as SVC-11, tm_year, collating
issues, VSAM keys, database problems, CICS, TCAM.
---------- Rates ----------------
Here's a very slightly anonymized email from a c.s.y2k reader.
Thanks for the phone call the other night and the inside info about the DC area.
Looks like we'll be moving to Sxxxxxxxx, XX. I had 4 job offers this week:
1 - Washington DC 148k (we talked about this one on the phone)
2 - Birmingham AL 110k
3 - Lexington KY 102k
4 - Sxxxxxxxxx XX 100k
(all rates are W-2 hourly - example, 50/hr = 100k/year)
The Sxxxxxxxxx area is large enough to offer lots of job opportunity
but not as intimidating as a major metro area like DC. Also only 140 miles
from my home. My wife will be able to get a good job there without much
problem. Now, here's some stuff for your next DC WRP (just don't use my name):
1. Of the jobs listed above only #1 was a Y2K job, the rest were just regular
maintenance, support, new development, etc.
2. This would seem to indicate a couple of things:
A. The panic has definitely not started (only 1 out of 4 is Y2K???)
B. However, they are paying as much for regular mainframe work as for Y2K.
Makes you wonder what the rates will be when the panic does start.
3. #4 is double my present rate. Current company has lost 3 geeks in the last 6
weeks and has no incentive plan in place. Probably more to follow.
4. Feel free to list the cities and rates and specify that these were real
offers on the table, not the bait-and-switch stuff. Maybe you could start a
STICK-EM-UP section in the WRP that displays this kind of real rate info.
Once again, thanks for your help about contracting, DC, etc. I really tried to
specifically get a Y2K job to feel like I was helping the cause but it
hasn't worked out that way. I'll try to make my next contract Y2K. Let's stay
in touch and good luck in your contracts. God bless you.
Larry (not his real name)
--------------------------
Our reader is an experienced cranker, probably the best in his shop but not a
Shmuel. With a little shopping he was able to double his old salary of
$50K/year. When comparing rates and cost of living, be careful about places
like NY, Boston, Chicago, DC, SF.
At 100K/year, he'll move his career ahead and maybe, just maybe if everything
goes right, he'll be able to pay his house off in a few years. Wouldn't that be
great? House paid for, some savings, his wife gets a rewarding job.
Anyone out there still underpaid? Please don't let them take advantage of you.
Ask for and get your fair share, it's only right.
--------------- hush-hush email --------
Came in Thursday, May 14, 1998; Names are changed but the facts are whole.
Cory,
Mxxx xxxx resigned Tuesday, with his last day May 31.
Pxxx xxxx resigned Thursday, with his last day May 31.
Fxxx xxxx resigned Thursday, with his last day May 31.
Axxx xxxx resigned Thursday, with her last day May 31.
Cxxx and I are resigning Friday, with our last day May 31. (Please
do not discuss this until after we have gotten a chance to tell Gxxx
xxxx. He is coming over at 3:00 to talk to us. I owe him the
courtesy of telling him myself in person.)
What will XYZ Co do?
In response to a question about the turnover rate at XYZ Co, Axx told the
board of directors that he and Bxx had spoken personally to each XYZ Co
employee and nobody is planning to resign. Bxx also said that if
someone wants to resign, let them, XYZ Co would be stronger without them.
We will see.
Love,
Betty (not her real name)
-----------
XYZ Co is a consulting company with 60 employees, 10 % of the company and
15% of the revenue is walking. Bxx is the owner and Axx is the president.
Has the screaming started on executive row? Do they understand what's
happening? Axx and Bxx think they can hire programmers, all they want. The
average salary of the programmers above is $75K/year.
Larry turned down a $148K/year W2 job in this area. Betty is leaving a
$75K/year W2 job. Oooh-oooh, math be hard for horn-hair. Be lots of
programmers, me have good hair, programmer work for pennies on
dollar. Programmer stupid, executive smart. Me have big office. Programmer
dumb, not wear nice suit like horn-hair. Programmer quit? Me hire secretary.
Swing from tail. Print business card, secretary now "developer". Client
stupid, pay $150/hour for "developer-secretary"; me pay secretary $20/hour.
Peel banana with toes.
There's a lesson in the two emails, it's about treating programmers well, being
aggressive, decisive, and pro-active in providing adequate compensation, fair
benefits, and equitable treatment. If you're an employer in a less than
desirable location, plan to pay much more.
Be very, very careful about your compensation plan. The Y2K crisis has *yet* to
begin. In a few months, you'll see that what I wrote in the first WRP's over a
year ago, were understatements. This has never happened before in the history
of the world. You had fair warning.
--------------- Medical ----------------
In addition to Tetanus, travelers to third world countries should have:
Thyphoid - good for 5 years.
Hepatitus-A - 20 years
Polio
Will the U.S. be a third world country? I don't think so but why take a chance?
--------------- No Answers here -------
On Mon, 18 May 1998 03:09:43, scottd@nbnet.nb.ca wrote:
>
> I keep reading in this newsgroup that railroads have virtually
> abandoned their large switchyards (a.k.a. hump yards, marshalling
> yards) and have moved onto a concept of "distributed switching" (which
> may be a phrase of c.s.y2k origin).
Fly to Ronald McDonald Washington National Airport. Walk 300 yards to the bridge
connecting the airport to Crystal City, Arlington. Look south from the bridge,
you will see a huge open area, a big-box shopping center, there's a Borders
Books, Office Depot, Old Navy, Sports Authority, etc. 10 years ago, CSX was
squeeking freight cars all night there. Here's the sound...
squeee-eEEEEe-eeeeek.... crash! squee-eeEEEeee-eeEEEK... crash! The whole area
was a rail switching yard. It's gone, torn up, gone to cyberspace.
4 years ago, the Washington Post ran a series of articles on the rail yard.
It was supposed to become the Marlena Cooke Sports Stadium but the residents of
Arlington and Alexandria stopped that project. The Post's articles explained
why the switching yard was no longer needed. Detailed how switching on the fly
was possible because of computers and computer driven communication.
> A secondary problem, apparently, is that the railroad(s) is/are using
> TCAM as their message handling software which may or may not be Y2K
> compliant, and which may or may not be (easily) fixable.
A railroad consortium... this issue is hard to wrap your mind around, doesn't
mean anything unless, like a Shmuel, you understand S/370 computer
communications and the history of enterprise systems. There's no "may or may
not" about it. Large assembler applications intertwined with system code are a
problem.
>
> Rick Cowles' site at www.euy2k.com also points to Y2K troubles with
> railroads as being a possible source of problems moving fossil fuels
> for the electric utilities.
>
> Are these facts or impressions? Railroad operations and/or
> switchyards Y2K-compliance seems to have sparked a number of ongoing
> debates in this NG, but I have rarely (never) seen anyone add any
> facts to the file - it just seems to go on endlessly based on very
> sparse information.
What do you want... the address of the missing switchyard? The version of TCAM
that I saw... it was TCAM 10. ...a certificate from a choo-choo accrediting
authority that their system is non-compliant? Gimme a break, the FAA still
says they're getting the job done. They're not spelling it out, you have to
analyze the signs.
>
> Who holds the facts on railroad operations here? Any URL's?
What the H*ll is this? Why do we believe URL's and not experts like Shmuel,
myself, and your own ability to analyze the self consistant facts.
> Thanks for any info
>
> p.s. Paul Milne need not reply - I'm looking for facts.
Oddly enough, paul's rants are as credible as communications from corporate
public affairs offices.
------------ Software Licenses ---------------
Help for your time machine? Last week there was some discussion on the problem
of adding S/390 MIPS and blowing your software budget. Before you order a CPU
or upgrade your 9672 from a G3 to a G4, drop me an email or call my pal Jane at
(201) 653-5776. Jane will set you up with a solution that will save you money on
hardware upgrades.
Any of you in the hardware sales business, if you're selling 9X2's, Skylines,
etc. and you're worried about the increased MIPS driving up the cost of
software, call Jane, she'll help your client purchase your hardware for their
Time Machine and save some money too. There's no magic, Jane does software
license engineering and software lease negotiations.
----------- 3330 mod eleven --------------
While I'm talking hardware, does anyone know where there is a running 3330 mod
eleven? What about one in a warehouse? I have a client with legacy data on a
3330 mod eleven. Y2K is bringing out a lot of ancient history. I called around
to a bunch of site and data recovery companies. No one can handle this problem.
I found one PC data recovery company that seems eager to help but their
questions were naive.
Them: What kind of interface is on the drive?
Me: you don't seem to understand, this isn't like a PC drive where you have an
IDE or SCSI connection. I have a disk pack, there's no electronics or
mechanicals. It's just a bunch of ferrite coated aluminum platters.
Them: What's the data capacity?
Me: 200 megabytes.
Them: How many files are on the disk and what programs wrote it.
Me: We don't know but that's what I'll be working on. We just need someone with
a drive that can read the disk. I'll be handling the data organization issues.
So I'm looking for a 3330 double density drive and control unit. Know where
there's one? let me know.
--------------- CCCC ------------------
OK, we're having a good time in c.s.y2k, the facts are out, it's a real mess;
the screaming is starting; the programmer raids have begun.
Every geek out there, every cranker, code-head, all you hairy, sweaty, T-shirt
wearing, BMW driving, Enterprise System real programmers should be able to look
back over the last 18 months and see a huge salary increase. You did get your
fair share didn't you?
Please, don't continue working for pennies on the dollar; if you deserve a 40%
increase, ask for it. You deserve it.
Check out http://www.ntplx.net/~rgearity any evening, 8-10PM EST. Lots of
hot Y2K talk. I won't be in this Tuesday evening. The DC Y2K is meeting
Tuesday night and DD and I will be grazing at the incredible buffet.
Speaking of DC Y2K. the topic this month is testing.
-- Annie Anguah-Dei (Software Testing Engineer, US Central Intelligence
Agency). Annie will discuss how to set up and run a Y2K testing program for
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software.
-- Tracy Bair (Vice-President, SAIC). will present an approach to year 2000
certification and testing based on experiences with several federal agencies.
The approach is risk based and is focused on tailoring Year 2000 testing
based on the actual risks presented by the application and the level of the
software engineering used to develop the system.
-- Larry Summers (Year 2000 Test Program Manager, BDM International). Larry
has been running at Y2K testing effort for a Wall Street firm and will talk
about test planning, test strategy, and implementing a test with a service
provider.
-- Linda Vance (Vice-President, Fannie Mae). Linda will discuss Fannie Mae's
approach to Y2K testing, including creation of a separate test facility and
clustering of associated applications for testing. She will also talk about
the factors behind the approach taken and the lessons learned to date.
592 days... times up people, starting thinking about the 10-20% of your systems
that absolutely must work and defer the rest until later. I've been harping
about triage for the last 6 months, Y2K triage means identifying those
activities that are essential and ruthlessly eliminating everything else. If
you haven't done this selection, drop me an email and I'll get you back on track
for survival.
If you're not scared, you *don't* understand the problem. If you don't
understand the problem, it will grind your company up and spit it out.
cory hamasaki 592 days. Y2K does matter.