mainframes and sex

[sergebroom]

Maybe it is insanity.

I mean, I am the only person in our team who has any mainframe-based skills and what did I suggest to my manager today? I proposed converting our last remaining mainframe-based process into a unix one like everything else our team owns. Basically I am making one of my skills obsolete. On the other hand, it’s not as if they keep me onboard because of that unique knowledge. The last time I had to do maintenance to that process – which I created 15 years ago – was in June 2007. That thing never breaks – as is usually the case with my work – and I seldom use those skills except twice a year, when all mainframe-based processes must prove that, should something happen to the Big Machine, they could switch to a backup. Like sex, those exercises involve a lot of preparation then “Boom!” it’s quickly over, but without the fun that usually ends the Other Activity. This process will be shut down some time in 2012, possibly after the End of the World. Why then bother? Why not leave things as they are for the next 2 years?

I’m bored.

I look back upon 2010 and most of what I did was to provide support to the contractors working on our merger, or keeping the system alive, or transferring most of our unix-based processes to new servers in another data center. I am quite good at working in the engine room.

In other words, I have done very little creative work.

And there will be a lot of that here. The conversion doesn't mean keeping the existing logic as is while translating one computer language into another. I will instead translate the logic itself to take advantage of a different technology.

Comments

[summers-place.livejournal.com]

I understand where you're coming from. With that said, does it make me a horrible person if the best takeaway I'm getting from this post is your comparison between your job and sex?

No? Oh, good... ;-)

[pedanther]

The physicist Richard Feynman used to say that, for him, physics was like sex, in that it produced practical results but that wasn't why he did it.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That's him all right. By the way, did you ever see the film that Matthew Broderick directed and in which he played Feynman? It's called "Infinity". It was decent and covered mostly his Los Alamos days.

[pedanther]

I've heard of it, but I haven't had a chance to see it yet.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

And I get paid for sex... er... I mean, for my job.

[soon_lee]

"I will instead translate the logic itself to take advantage of a different technology."

So, are you any good at cryptic crosswords?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Definitely not. Obviously, I can figure out puzzles pretty well otherwise I couldn't do my job, but usually in a technological context. Outside of it, not so much. Typical SFnal nerdiness, I guess.

[pedanther]

That's interesting, because I find that cryptic crosswords often involve the same sort of wordplay that's implicated in the creation of awful puns.

And we all know how you feel about the creation of awful puns.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That reputation is nothing but a tissue of lies!

[pedanther]

Your skill with puns is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

[evilrooster.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, I see your point. On the other hand, from the testing side of the fence, what leaps out at me is that you're changing something because it's too reliable.

I mean, I suppose it keeps people like me in business, but ow.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

And we do want to keep you in business. But that's not why I'm doing the conversion.

One year ago, my boss's boss passed on to my boss that we should not have processes across different platforms. His concern was that there was one piece of what we do involved technology that only one person knew how to handle, and should that person be hit by a bus, they would be in trouble. That's not what he actually said, but... I pointed out to my boss that the mainframe platform was very stable, but stability was not their prime concern. Again, that's not what he said, but... I could see that there was no point in arguing. We had two mainframe-based things remaining and one of them was originally going to be shut down a few months from now instead of late in 2012 so we left it alone. I converted the other process. It was kind of neat to do actually, especially in the middle of all the non-creative work I was doing. That conversion turned out to be a good thing because, when the merger hit, it made some of the necesssary changes very easy. The mainframe is very stable, but defines things very rigidly. Of course, the unix version is very stable too because, well, that's what I do (says he humbly).

[xeger.livejournal.com]

Heh. I understand completely. These days I almost look forward to finding (interesting) bugs, because it means a fair amount of time digging and debugging and figuring out, instead of interminable writing and hand holding. It's so nice to do creative work.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Frankly, I've had it with being a Subject Matter Expert.Is tech-support what you normally do?

[xeger.livejournal.com]

Heh. No, actually nothing I do is supposed to be tech support.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Let me guess.

People come to you anyway because You Know Stuff. And because you won't treat them like idiots. And because - dare I say it - you're too reliable.