April 28, 2000, Volume 3 - Number 7
Tools and Nostalgia
Remembering the days way before Y2K
Mark Twain once said that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. I got nostalgic and decided to surf the Web for computing devices from the early days of my career. Technology is a bit like Mr. Twain.
Only about 12 percent of the world’s data is in SQL databases. The majority is in Cobol systems, flat files, or older legacy network databases, such as IDMS (now CA-IDMS). This should make a database consultant like me very happy, because it seems to guarantee migration work for the rest of my life. However, reports of the death of legacy databases are a bit premature.
Back in January of last year, the Allen Systems Group Inc. (www.asg.com) announced a free offer to download its journal-analyzing software, ASG-Tracer for IDMS. Yes, I know you are reading this too late to take advantage of the offer, but they do have some 30-day trial offers that you may find interesting if you still have an IDMS shop. ASG-Tracer could be useful for finding any Y2K problems that are still lurking.
By December of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice gave Allen Systems clearance to acquire specific Platinum mainframe systems management software products and related assets from Computer Associates International Inc. (CA). To comply with U.S. antitrust regulations, CA was forced to divest specific products that it acquired when CA purchased Platinum Technology International. These products include those products formerly known as AutoSys/Zeke for VSE and MVS (including AutoSys/GWS), AutoRerun, AutoMedia, and CCC/Life Cycle Manager.
I had also counted out another legacy product, Kaypro computers. I still remember lugging my “portable” Kaypro to work at Georgia Tech. Kaypro showed up on Fox Television’s December 19 episode of the animated television series King of the Hill, where Hank and Peggy Hill evidently were among the progressive early adopters of the personal computer, much like myself. However, the Hills had not maintained the technology and were struggling to make their computer Y2K-compliant. The answer is, of course, tough luck.
The Hill family, their friends, and local computer retailers had also missed the Internet revolution. Had they been cruising the Web, they would found the www.kaypro.com Web site! Yes, it is a relaunched Kaypro brand selling fully Y2K-ready, custom-configured personal computer systems available for 24-hour delivery right from its e-commerce Web site.
“I was very sorry to hear about any family out there in America who was not aware that Kaypro is on the Web for everyone,” observed Kay Duncan, director of Kaypro Technology Inc. “I tried to contact Mr. Hill to bring him up to date, but was told he was asleep in the backyard hammock. Of course, I left our Web address for him and look forward to helping him and his family join our new Kaypro family.”
Nobody manufactures slide rules anymore. I think that I can also report that virtually nobody knows how to use a slide rule anymore or has written a recent best seller about one, either. Pocket calculators wiped them out.
However, I was surprised to find that nobody makes edge-notched cards any more, either. These were also known as McBee cards, after Royal-McBee Corp., the office equipment company that sold them. Imagine a deck of cards, about the weight of manila folder stock, with holes running along the edges. To record data, you took a special hand punch and turned the holes into notches. To sort or search data, you ran a knitting needle through the holes and lifted up; the notched cards fell out of the deck while the holes stayed on the needle. Primitive, yes, but they worked pretty well and did not require electricity.
The one bright note in my search was finding out that Japan’s Tomoe Soroban Co. Ltd. is still in business and has a Web site at www.soroban.com. A soroban is a Japanese-style abacus, with fewer beads and usually smaller than the Chinese version. You can go to its Web site and order sorobans, books, or a training video in English. You can even play with a virtual soroban. It’s nice to know one of my job skills is still useful.
Joe Celko is an Altanta-based independent consultant. He is the author of Instant SQL Programming (Wrox Press, 1997). You can contact him at www.celko.com or 71062.1056@compuserve.com.
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