The Governator vs COBOL

Hi,

Arnie 0 - COBOL 1

This isn't a reference to Arnie taking on a world from Battlestar Galactica.

It's a reference to the 2nd generation programming language COBOL halting his plans for pay cuts in the Californian Public Sector.

This is a great example of old technology lasting longer than the people who can support it. Like NASA searching rubbish tips and eBay for computers old enough to run their 80s software.

Reading on in the article it is pretty obvious that firing the part time workers who maintained this code wasn't a good move for Arnie. Asking for help from people he's trying to give pay cuts to also seems to be a poor strategy.

The moral of the story is - if you're making a 40 year investment in a computer system make sure you've made a similar investment in the people who maintain it.

I'm still chuckling over this, and considering sending in my CV and asking for a big money contract :-) I've got mad COBOL skills from wayyyyy back.

NP Out