A Technology Collapse

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A Technology Collapse

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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December 5, 2020 at 12:00 am

#3816282

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Rodney Landrum SSCommitted Points: 1900 More actions · Answer 1

Great post. And I love that they mention Pensacola, Florida in Contact. Their representation of Pensacola is more like a Caribbean island with hanging palm trees and coves than the real thing but I will take the mention for my hometown.

skeleton567 SSCertifiable Points: 5868 More actions · Answer 2

"There are good techniques for modifying our objects, and helping to ensure we don't break systems, but we often do need some cooperation and collaboration with application developers to implement those changes. Much of DevOps avoids talking about the database, but we shouldn't. Instead, we ought to embrace database refactoring patterns, both at the database and application levels, ensuring that our systems can survive for as long as we need them while adapting to the changing requirements of our clients."

Well before the current term DevOps became popular our DBA group was essentially the only source for SQL code and stored procedures on which all our applications were based. There was essentially zero embedded code in the applications. Besides the design and development of databases, we provide the application developers with hundreds and hundreds of stored procedures we created and tested on development systems, which were then released to QC teams with front-end application code for final testing. DBA's 'owned' the code libraries and all SQL that was released to production.

Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )

stephen.lightfoot Valued Member Points: 64 More actions · Answer 3

The database we use at the hospital that I work for is over 50 years old and is still being developed! Does this make it one of the oldest database systems still in production? https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/meditech-turns-50-5-things-to-know-about-the-company-s-history.html#:~:text=Pappalardo%20went%20on%20to%20found,August%20of%20the%20next%20year.

skeleton567 SSCertifiable Points: 5868 More actions · Answer 4

stephen.lightfoot wrote:

The database we use at the hospital that I work for is over 50 years old and is still being developed! Does this make it one of the oldest database systems still in production? https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/meditech-turns-50-5-things-to-know-about-the-company-s-history.html#:~:text=Pappalardo%20went%20on%20to%20found,August%20of%20the%20next%20year.

Stephen, my thought is that Mr. Papalardo must have done a phenomenal development job of that since it has survived this long. And you must have a very large responsibility for keeping it active what with all the technology changes. My hope for you is that you don't at some point arrive at a place where "you can't get there from here".

I have that situation with a software package I use is six year old version but the developer has gone off in directions that don't fit my needs, and has gone to a subscription style I will not pay for. My system contains 76 years of historical data which is more important to me and more valuable than the new features and requirements of the new versions. I began using the package in 1986 when my system was a 32-bit i386 processor and have just moved my data to an Intel i9 using their 2014 release.

This makes me aware of how dependent we are on those who provide our software resources and the risk that we assume in using any given system. I'm at the point where I depend on a package that I love to hate. It is simultaneously the worst but the best available.

Rick
Disaster Recovery = Backup ( Backup ( Your Backup ) )

Rod at work SSC-Dedicated Points: 34007 More actions · Answer 5

This is the first I've heard of the Arecibo telescope collapsing! I'm shocked and saddened. Years ago, I worked at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory's Very Large Array (VLA), in central New Mexico. We always thought of Arecibo sort of as a big brother.

Sad, very sad.

Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

ashaiman Newbie Points: 1 More actions · Answer 6

Excellent article.

Lordy, I remember SABRE as well - I actually used it in a previous life working for an industry-related magazine, from an admin/research perspective. And Apollo from United!

Blast from the past indeed. And for anyone interested in the evolution of travel res systems:

https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/history-of-flight-booking-crss-gds-distribution-travel-agencies-and-online-reservations/

aroggeband-815867 SSC Enthusiast Points: 169 More actions · Answer 7

I doubt that they will build any more giant dishes. Most giant radio telescopes now are long baseline arrays which coordinate their signals using atomic clocks in order to increase the resolving power and build images. No single dish could compete with antennas scattered across a continent or even the whole planet. Although I am sure that astronomers and physicists will miss Arecibo's contribution. And Puerto Rico has lost a star.