IMHO, the problem is at least twofold. 1) The problem domain of maintaining systems with changing bureaucratic / legal requirements occurs in all similar systems. That's deeply embedded organizational knowledge which is often upheld by the proud verbal tradition. 2) Again, similar systems have the challenge of fitting new interfaces onto existing systems. This isn't quite as challenging as 1), but the intricacies of fitting the bespoke glue and gaskets to the old pipes just isn't available from cut 'n paste repositories. A SWEng / Programmer that can't quickly learn COBOL isn't up to snuff. You don't need the A team for the COBOL. And did I mention test beds?

When Saint Joe said "We will teach our twisted speech to the young believers" (LC, Clampdown - 9:10) surely the prophecy referred to Andy Jassy's brilliant corporate-speak utterance: "If your customer experiences aren't planning to leverage these intelligent models, their ability to query giant corpuses of data and quickly find your needle in the haystack, their ability to keep getting smarter with more feedback and data, and their future agentic capabilities, you will not be competitive" Whoa! Try to diagram that sentence! If your customer experiences aren't planning should you put them over your knee and spank them? Should they have "agentic" capabilities, or did he mean angelic? Please don't tell me that the quote was written by a full blood human ... For as the holy writ sez: "No man born with a living soul Can be working for the clampdown" (LC, Clampdown - 14:15)

An ADD story from the late 90's: School in my little town has 12 kiddos. 4 boys, 8 girls. 2 room school, K-5, then off to the big city of Boulder. One of the two teachers has a hard time managing the laddies, one of the girl's mums complains about my nephew. The school district has psychologists, and one diagnoses 3 of the boys with ADD. Didja know that schools get extra $$ if they have kids with special needs? This was true at this time and place - probably not universally true. My sis, an RN,doesn't buy the "diagnosis". It turns out that nephew got an eye infection that was moving up the optic nerve to his think-organ. Nephew gets admitted to hospital, IV antibiotics to the rescue from pediatrician. Sis knows the doc. When nephew is on the mend, she asks the MD to look for ADD. Upon a 1h exam, she sez: "No ADD. Congratulations, you have a boy". My sis asks her how you can say no ADD? Doc notes that nephew knows every Pokemon card and comic book hero, the kid has excellent attention, just doesn't care about school. I point out to sis that the "diagnosis" that found its way into his permanent record (yes, there is such a thing) could have adverse impact on his future employment, education, and immigration status to another country. And BTW, a medical doctor can make a diagnosis, not a school psychologist, but nobody's gonna recognize that subtle difference. Sis volunteers at the school, small town community involvement at its best. When the teachers are teaching, she goes into the office, locates the file, and takes the papers out - along with those of the other two lads false diagnosis. It's never noticed. Nephew is now married, responsible parent and homeowner and has a satisfying career pursuing his passion - cannabis. So you were wise to not accept that diagnosis. Oh - and back when I was a Greek god, we didn't put up with spear carrying trollops springing out of our foreheads fully formed.

The term actor has been around for at least 5 years. Any insight as to why this term is used? Why not just attacker or hacker?

Utah's LDS folks have been doing geneological databases for a long time, and their work has always seemed pretty proficient and secure. Say what you want about their beliefs, but folks from Deseret know database. In my experience Mormon goobers are the exception, at least in the IT world. This is why I suspect that some IT wag deliberately exposed this piece of asininity.

I've bought and sold houses sans realtor three times at age 71. I still own one of 'em and a realtor would have noted a couple defects in title that I was unaware of, but they've been fixed at reasonable expense and I learned what a "public trustee" is in Colorado. However my current house was bought from the estate of a landlord who died, and the beneficiary was in Mexico and wouldn't enter the US. Although my partner had lived there for 6 years, and knew the physical defects in the house, she was unaware of legal defects. My credit union banker wouldn't touch the deal - credit unions are risk averse. However she advised getting a buyer's agent, and I sure was glad we did. The realtor discovered 2 legal defects, the most absurd of which was a 50 year old well 2 feet off the property line on federal land. Although it had a state permit, the feds required an archaeologist to certify that there were no indigenous artifacts before they'd lease it to us. When's the last time you hired an archeologist? Bottom line: a realtor can be a good thing for you and archeologists. What? You don't need no stinkin' realtor? I forgot here at /. we're experts on everything ;-)

Feng Shui practicioners blaming the furniture placement for Covid. Now which one of you little rascals hid my meds?

Love yr post! Mostly agree, especially first phrase - which I'll be repeating. Sadly, disagree with last sentence. It's seldom that this type of crime against humanity has accountability. And just so you're aware, the govnor of FL's drag name is Rhonda Santis.

Oh my, your sig made me burst out in laughter.

Outside of mega transaction volume, I don't get why any normal person would use an institution where you're a customer rather than a member. Even for my infrequent >5 figure BTC transactions, my Boulder CO credit union clears in a few hours. YMMV, but why are folks still doing biz with these snot weasels?

I ran into this at UFL in 1978 or so. PL/1 on punchcards. I had learned Hollerith codes in high school. The frustration of punchcards sure made me a better proofreader.

Linux admins hate this. A wunderkind at MicroSoft named "Bill" has uncovered this one weird particle unused by humans that has been around for 13.7 billion years. Yet there's a loophole in the laws of nature that the big boys don't want you to know about. Hidden in RFC 2543 and 3261, the Session Initiation Protocol has implied this feature FOR YEARS! It allows you to LOSE WEIGHT and do SPOOKY REMOTE ADMIN AT A DISTANCE using a simple fax machine, yellow stickies with passwords on them, and the anal gland drippings of a Common Madagascar Gibbon. Don't delay - this can't last - once Big Admin finds out it will be containers and turtles all the way down!

Nature has intentions? I never knew ;-)

You made it into my QOTD!

I've contracted this while trying to help out a feral cat. Blood poisoning spread up veins on my arm, and antiobiotic IV infusion at the emergency room fixed it. I discovered that they have bacteria on their claws 'n jaws as part of their predator equipment - and then stalk their sickly prey. They aren't quite the cuddly creatures that domestic cats are, but you gotta hand it to 'em: They work smarter not harder!