2008 Newsgroup postings (03/28 - 04/12) Lynn Wheeler

2008 Newsgroup Postings (03/28 - 04/12)

Bush - place in history
The Workplace War for Age and Talent
Bush - place in history
It's Too Darn Hot
CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
The Workplace War for Age and Talent
It's Too Darn Hot
was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Was CMS multi-tasking?
Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
independent appraisers
independent appraisers
Was CMS multi-tasking?
The Original mcom.com Revived
independent appraisers
Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality
CA ESD files Options
CA ESD files Options
independent appraisers
WWII supplies
Was CMS multi-tasking?
Doug Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos"
WWII supplies
CA ESD files Options
CA ESD files Options
Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
CA ESD files Options
CA ESD files Options
Billion-dollar IT failure at Census Bureau
independent appraisers
authoritative IEFBR14 reference
WWII supplies
Does TCP Need an Overhaul?
Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
Sad news of Bob Tomasulo's passing
Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
authoritative IEFBR14 reference
Was CMS multi-tasking?
Was CMS multi-tasking?
Coming soon: superfast internet
Fixing finance
authoritative IEFBR14 reference
Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
My last post in this forum
How did third-party software companies deal with unbundling being sprung on them?
IBM emulator for ICL 1900
CA ESD files Options
IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Virtualization: History repeats itself with a search for security
Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Different Implementations of VLIW
performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Machine-Level Assembly Language
independent appraisers
Machine-Level Assembly Language
independent appraisers
independent appraisers

Bush - place in history

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Bush - place in history
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:12:08

Morten Reistad <first@last.name> writes:
Barnake misses one item in his warchest, and that is the ability to take over a bankrupt portfolio and run it; or even do so by proxy. This is why he needs the $big_bank to rescue $smaller_bank, and the support looks ominously like a subsidy to $big_bank.

The FED, as a private insitution cannot be both a bank and a regulator. Make it a normal national bank.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history

news items related to senate hearings on BEAR bailout are raising issue whether it was loan to jpm or FED buying BEAR. supposedly there is some clause that after liquidation, FED gets the proceeds in excess of some value. there were earlier comments that even if there turns out to be the effect of a subsidy, it would have been worse to let the systemic risk play out (dominos falling).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#89 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history

The Workplace War for Age and Talent

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The Workplace War for Age and Talent
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:47:48

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
The Workplace War for Age and Talent
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/538892/

from above:

A study from the American Society of Training and Development shows that 76 million Baby Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, will be retiring over the next 20 years, but only 46 million workers will be available to replace them, most of who are referred to as Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1979, and Generation Y or Millennials, those born after 1980.

... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#99 The Workplace War for Age and Talent

the baby boomers something like quadruple the number of retirees ... they are replaced with little over half the number of workers ... with much lower avg. education and skill level ... so (relative) avg. salary might be 1/2 (or less taking into global competitiveness considerations).

possibly four times the retirees; 1/4th (or less) the aggregate employee income base ... translates into something like 1/16th the revenue base per retiree ... significantly adding stress to existing (not fully-funded, pay-as-you-ago) social security operation.

recent posts mentioning presentations by (retiring) comptroller general pointing out that such obligations could grow until they totally swamp all other fed. gov. budget items
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#57 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#40 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?

who heads up gao ... other recent posts mentioning gao reports
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#73 Is The Government Reselling Tapes With Sensitive Data?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#48 Data Erasure Products

also recent reports on accounting restatements by publicly traded companies:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#96 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history

today there were a couple items about fed. gov. possibly bringing charges against a accounting firm (including random speculation that it might go the same way as anderson) mentioned in the above.

a few other recent posts mentioning enron &/or worldcom
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#71 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#78 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Bush - place in history

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Bush - place in history
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:16:19

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
previous references to PBS program that looked at the repeal of Glass-Steagall ... the show The Wall Street Fix:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/

includes:

WCOM: The Symbol of What Went Wrong
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wcom/

Fixing the Street
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/fixing/

Mr. Weill Goes to Washington
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/

interview with Eliot Spitzer from above:

So you're saying the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the permission for these huge superbanks is one of the proximate causes of the corruption on Wall Street?

Absolutely. There's no question about it. On the day that I announced the global settlement, on Dec. 20, [2002], I began by saying that the problem at its root is a flawed business model, and that business model is the product of a government regulatory decision to repeal Glass-Steagall administratively and legislatively, and to seek this tremendous concentration of power, and then the abuse of that power by the investment houses.

But it was that effort to create these one full-service banks, and that model that was the proximate cause for all of this.

... snip ...

re: (also the increasing financial "restatements" of publicly traded companies):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#96 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history

there are fixes and then there are fixes

How to crack the credit crunch; Fixing Wall Street means getting investors better information - and the sooner the better
http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/27/news/fed-information.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008032911

decade old post mentioning transparency need for mortgage-backed securities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

reference to primary purpose of such instruments originally was to obfuscate the underlying value:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57 independent appraisers

Treasury department's financial system overhaul proposal
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080329/032908_financial_overhaul.html

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

It's Too Darn Hot

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: It's Too Darn Hot
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:28:26

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#72 Price of CPU seconds
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#91 z10 presentation on 26 Feb
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#93 Data Centers Nearing Power-Usage, Cost Crisis

Iceland Woos Data Centers As Power Costs Soar
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/03/29/2331218.shtml

from above:
Electricity consumption for US data centers more than doubled between 2000 and 2006. Among the other stats: for every dollar spent on computing equipment in data centers, an additional half dollar is spent each year to power and cool them;

... snip ...

It's Too Darn Hot; The huge cost of powering - and cooling - data centers has the tech industry scrambling for energy efficiency
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_13/b4077060400752.htm?campaign

from above:
It's a testament to the challenges companies face in operating data centers that Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT) have all checked out this remote corner of the world (although none has made a commitment so far). The reason: Iceland has a rare combination of vacant land, cheap geothermal energy, and chilly climate that makes cooling a data center nearly free.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:27:34

CDOs as mechanism short-circuiting traditional financial governing feedback processes .... as long as mortgage quality played a factor, there would be limit on the number of bad mortgages and the resulting damage done to the financial system.

This can be construed within the framework of Boyd's feedback OODA-loop ... where the observe aspect was subverted (CDOs crippling being able to observe mortgage quality).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd2

past references to toxic CDOs created during the S&L crisis to obfuscate value of underlying properties
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57 independent appraisers

decade old post that also strayed into the issue of value transparency for mortgage back securities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

Traditional market, mortgage originators have to pay attention to all the long-standing rules ... otherwise they are stuck with a lot of questionable mortgages and quickly start loosing money (which would act as feedback drawing a halt to such questionable activity).

With toxic CDOs, there is little attention to mortgage quality ... they can unload blatently unprofitable mortgages as toxic CDOs and repeat the process. Now their revenue is uncoupled from the quality of the mortgage and they can (theoretically) originate mortgages as fast as possible (without regard to quality). Now the major toxic CDO players have an objective of generating as many mortgages as possible, for passing along through the process.

Removing the quality aspect (via toxic CDO obfuscation, blinding observe) in the mortgage (feedback) process helps fuel enormous real estate speculation. With mortgage quality uncoupled from the process ... it also starts uncoupling the underlying property values, starting to let them run wild in much the same way that mortgage origination is allowed to "free wheel" (real estate speculators and the mortgage originators start a unsustainable frenzy, feeding off each other).

Nominally such frenzy speculation would have been cleanly separated from regulated banking infrastructure, something learned in the crash of '29 ... and codified by Glass-Steagall. However the repeal of Glass-Steagall contributed to the effects of the speculation frenzy spreading out into the regulated banking infrastructure.

A similar case can be made for financial reporting (for public traded companies) being the observe part of Boyd OODA-loop ... and audit failures and financial restatements subverting the observe part of the operation. recent posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#96 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#1 The Workplace War for Age and Talent

recent posts mentioning mortgage-backed securities, underlying value and decade old post:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#25 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#66 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#70 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#90 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#12 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#13 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#63 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#14 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#75 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#77 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#79 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2 Bush - place in history

other posts mentioning Glass-Steagall:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#42 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#59 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#1 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#73 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

The Workplace War for Age and Talent

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The Workplace War for Age and Talent
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:53:42

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
possibly four times the retirees; 1/4th (or less) the aggregate employee income base ... translates into something like 1/16th the revenue base per retiree ... significantly adding stress to existing (not fully-funded, pay-as-you-ago) social security operation.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#1 The Workplace War for Age and Talent

cspan is currently (re)broadcasting (from tuesday) a press conference by the social security trustees on their annual review and report to congress. there was comment that the projected turning point in social security is 2011.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

It's Too Darn Hot

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: It's Too Darn Hot
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:15:40

Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:
I'm glad to know that other people have long memories for good music as well. But I can't see this as an emerging problem - the amount of energy expended per unit of computation keeps going *down*. Think IBM 704! Of course, this reminds me that the latest zSeries mainframes are touted as contributing to a solution to this problem.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#3 It's Too Darn Hot

50s, 60s, and thru much of the 70s ... hardware/systems were dominating costs.

80s saw mid-range and workstations using "commodity" hardware and portable operating systems. thru the 70s, hardware vendors had as much expense in developing operating system. with portable operating system in the 80s ... vendor costs to bring out a new system was dramatically reduced.

at the same time personal computing with little complexity requirement were coming out ... starting with little better than embedded system technology ... with application providing much of feature/function (w/o having to rely on much from underlying operating system). This also saw upswing in "COTS" (commercial off the shelf), aka development and support costs amortized over much large install base (frequently more than offsetting competitive advantage of customized roll-your-own implementations).

by late 80s, competition from workstations and growing power of personal computing was both commoditizing hardware (volume manufacturing) was started to overtake traditional proprietary computing at the low-end and extended up through the mid-range.

the commoditizing of hardware and systems was leaving people costs as major item in IT budgets. in the 90s there was lots of talk about killer micros .... IT departments could be mostly eliminated by having each user perform their own maintenance activities. There was also numerous disastrous failures of attempting migration of critical legacy business critical applications to highly parallel clustered operation.

Up through the current period there was ever increasing commoditizing of hardware and system costs ... frequently "throwing" hardware at a problem, frequently in lieu of sophisticated tailored operations requiring scarce skill and talent.

The ever increasing system commoditizing (with ever increasing volumes) and culture of throwing (cheap) hardware at problems (in lieu of carefully considered operations requiring scarce skill and talent) has led to many of these systems operating at 10-20 percent utilization (or even less)

With continued dramatic reduction in system costs with commoditization and culture of throwing (cheap) hardware at problems ... other infrastructure costs would start to dominate. This was somewhat seen in the 70s & 80s with the shift from hardware dominating costs to people frequently dominating costs. The appearance of energy as a dominating cost can be seen as a natural progression (with system costs ongoing radical declines w/o similar decline in other infrastructure costs).

A somewhat analogous case could be made about the proliferation in personal transportation resulting in energy starting to become an increasing factor in that sector.

The other emerging factor is rise of virtual machine technology. Starting in the 60s, i saw virtual machine technology being used to partition and simplify of lots of computing operations. This reduction in complexity contributed to being able to better address security issues as well as resource utilization efficiency. lots of past posts mentioining science center where original virtual machine activity started in the mid-60s
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

Virtual machine technology has somewhat been ignored in the commoditized market segment ... but the increasing security and resource problems in this market segment ... has resulted in virtual machine technology gaining foothold in this market segment.

Partitioning and complexity reduction can go a long ways to mitigating lots of the existing security problems constantly being encountered by customers.

In old-fashion, traditional computing practices, scarce people skills and resources were required to have large number of application co-exist sharing common resources (leading to frequent practice of "throwing" hardware at problems). Virtual machine technology allos for much lower skill & resources to support sharing multiple different applications on common hardware resources. Common claims are reducing the number of hardware systems by factor of 5-10 (with corresponding increase in resource & energy efficiency) ... although the periodically cited downside is corresponding reduction in number of new systems sold.

One could also claim that the rise of multi-core operation also contributes to increased virtual machine deployments ... since more independent operations can be multiplexed concurrently on the multiple processors.

Of course, the most mature of these virtual machine technologies is what is running on the "latest" zSeries. There is support for both LPARs (a subset of virtual machine function embedded as part of the hardware operation) as well as virtual machine software hypervisor/operating system. Early in the days of getting linux running on mainframe, somebody did a demonstration of something like 42,000 concurrent linux virtual machines in a LPAR (i.e. under virtual machine operating system running in LPAR subset of full machine).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: was: 1975 movie "Three Days of the Condor" tech stuff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:05:41

bbreynolds <bbreynolds@aol.com> writes:
Additional cause of increased diabetes Type II diagnoses is the exposure of about 1.5 million military personel to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I have a Type II diagnosis, and the related symptoms of hypertension and a poor cholesterol balance normally associated with Type II appeared at about the same time.

... snip ...

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:19:45

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#52 Pogo reports: big(gest) bank breach was covered up?

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/30/hannaford_case_exposes_holes_in_law_some_say/

from above:
A security breach at grocery chain Hannaford Brothers Cos. is testing the teeth in Massachusetts' new data-privacy law.

The law, passed last year, requires companies to notify officials and residents when they lose control of records that could lead to the theft of such information as a person's name and credit card number. State officials say the law applied in the case of Hannaford, which disclosed on March 17 that 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers were potentially exposed to fraud.

... snip ...

and ...

Data Breach Notification Laws, State By State
http://www.csoonline.com/article/221322

previous posts referencing part of x9.59 financial standard
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

... included work directed at eliminating account fraud as a threat/vulnerability associated with such data breaches (didn't do anything to eliminate such breaches ... just eliminated much of the ability for crooks to make any use of the information for fraudulent transactions):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#50 Liability for breaches: do we need new laws?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#51 Liability for breaches: do we need new laws?

past posts mentioning fraud, threats, vulnerabilities, exploits, and/or risks:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#fraud

as noted in previous posts, we had been brought in to help wordsmith cal state (and later federal) electronic signature legislation.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subpubkey.html#signature

various of the parties were also involved in privacy related activity and had done some detailed consumer privacy studies ... finding that the two major issues were

• identity theft (i.e. using personal information for fraudulent activity)

• denial of service ... aka gov., commercial, private, public, etc institutions using personal information to the detriment of the individual.

this resulted in legislative activity with respect to both breach notification as well as opt-in/opt-out disclosures.

part of the problem was that it was perceived quite a bit of identity theft was resulting from breaches ... but because the actual breaches weren't being publicized, there was little or no work being done on preventing breaches. an alternative approach we had taken in the mid-90s with x9.59 standard was to eliminate much of the threat/vulnerability (& fraud) that could happen as the result of any breaches.

other recent items about hannaford breach:

Advanced tactic targeted grocer
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/28/advanced_tactic_targeted_grocer/
Hundreds Of Servers Compromised In Hannaford Breach
http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/desktop-apps/231602093
Details emerging on Hannaford data breach
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/052408-most-retailer-breaches-are-not.html
Malware cited in supermarket data breach
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2008-03-28-malware-supermarket_N.htm
Targeted Malware Used in Hannaford Credit Card Heist (data breach)
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Targeted-Malware-Used-in-Hannaford-Credit-Card-Heist/
Hannaford cc data thieves planted malware on 300 servers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/28/massive_credit_card_breach_explained/
Malware Cited in Supermarket Data Breach
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/03/28/financial/f085012D35.DTL
Hannaford says malware planted on its store servers stole card data
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9073138
Malware to blame in supermarket data breach
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905991-7.html

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Was CMS multi-tasking?

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was CMS multi-tasking?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:16:32

Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
This is surprisingly hard for me to research:

Was CMS, in and of itself, a multi-tasking OS? I don't mean CP/CMS or VM/CMS or whatever IBM calls it these days, I mean CMS's own design as an OS.

original CMS ... when it was cambridge monitor system ... rather than the rename conversational monitor system ... was single threaded.

when i was doing early pathlength optimization on cp67 kernel ... originally starting out to significantly improve os360 thruput in virtual machine ... old reference to part of presentation i made at fall68 share meeting in Atlantic City:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#18 CP/67 & OS MFT14
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#20 CP/67 & OS MFT14

I then got into multitasking scale-up of cp67 kernel with lots of concurrent cms virtual machines ... and addressing some non-linear scale-up issues ... then the whole dispatching/scheduling algorithms
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare

and page replacement algorithms.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock

then one of the things i started looking at was cms related pathlength overhead. i found biggest (cp67) pathlength overhead running cms was doing cms disk file i/o simulation (sio instruction, channel program translation, lpsw entering wait state, and subsequent i/o interrupt simulation, etc). Since cms was single threaded operation ... i created a modified virtual machine channel i/o interface that did "synchronous" disk i/o operations. This significantly reduced virtual machine simulation overhead for cms ... w/o impacting its thruput (since it never did any concurrent operations during asynchronous i/o activity).

i got dinged by the people at the science center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

because i had "violated" the purity of the 360 principles of operation in the way i did the implementation. however, the overhead reduction of the synchronous disk i/o was significant (and didn't otherwise impact cms thruput) ... that they came up with the DIAGNOSE instruction is defined in the 360 principles of operation as "model dependent" instruction ... and an abstraction of a virtual machine model dependent DIAGNOSE instruction implementation ... where the synchronous disk i/o operation was implemented with DIAGNOSE instruction (rather than interface that I had done in the original implementation).

the cms kernel remained under 64kbytes for quite some time. so later addition of multithreading would have been a relatively easy coding activity. I haven't worked with CMS kernel code in going on two decades ... but I can see where the pipeline package ... which supported various co-routine & asynchronous activity ... could be moved into the kernel and enhanced ... would be a natural evoluation path. old reference to some cms asynchronous activity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/96.html#4a

but aggregate thruput would be limited if synchronous file i/o was still being used.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:46:17

jmfbahciv writes:
DEC never published security breaches either. Why do you have a problem with a company that is acting with responsibility?

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#8 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

there have been lots of examples where information is published results in a lot more attention to the area and improves the integrity and quality.

I've claimed that something like that happened in early chipcard design and deployment where skimming operations had been around for possibly a decade before the design work on payment chipcards ... but the primary countermeasures were for lost/stolen card, but deployments were still trivially vulnerable to skimming attacks (which were starting to exceed lost/stolen as a threat). this led to the yes card attack
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#yescard

i.e. the lack of public information apparently resulted in lack of information even within the industry and not paying equivalent attention to skimming threats as was paid to lost/stolen card threats. we looked at this in detail when doing x9.59 financial standard
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959
and AADS chip strawman
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#aads

and skimming attacks basically shared common threat with security breaches and data breaches ... basically crooks being able to use the harvested information for effectively replay attacks ... using the gathered information to perform fraudulent transactions. the x9.59 protocol standard approach wasn't to eliminate the ability to perform skimming, data breaches and/or security breaches ... but was to eliminate the ability of the crooks to use the harvested information for fraudulent transactions ... misc. past posts mentioning harvesting attacks
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#harvest

lots of past posts mentioning fraud, threats, vulnerabilities, threats, and/or exploits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#fraud

I would claim that the whole common criteria and protection profile stuff is to provide similar public information that raises customer awareness.

another example I've used is RAS operation ... a specific situation i used was in keynote talk i gave at nasa high dependable computing conference
https://web.archive.org/web/20011004023230/http://www.hdcc.cs.cmu.edu/may01/index.html

somewhat because of clone mainframes ... a commercial service grew-up that collected customer mainframe erep reports ... annonymized the information (somewhat akin to HIPAA privacy requirements) and published RAS numbers ... allowing customers to compare different vendor products.

i got caught in situation were i had done driver support for oem vendors channel extender (allowing local channel attached devices to be located remoted ... possibly including connection through some sort of telco operation ... like T1). As part of the design, I had chosen to emulate "CHANNEL CHECK" status for various unrecoverable errors ... that then would go through higher level recovery operation.

Several years later, 3090 processors had been in customer shops for a year ... and the product manager tracked me down with an extremely severe problem. The commercial RAS service was showing that 3090s had something like 20 channel check errors. This was a real problem. 3090 had been design so that there would only be a total of 3-5 channel check errors (that is not 3-5 channel check errors per customer per year; ... that is aggregate of 3-5 channel check errors across all customer installed 3090s per year). It turned out that the additional 15 or so channel check errors were from the channel extender software driver. So a little fiddling, I determined that if IFCC (interface control check) were simualted instead of CC, it would basically go through the identical operating system recovery operations.

This level of attention would never have happened if the information wasn't being published.

I asked all the other vendors in the meeting, how many of them actually collected and/or knew detailed RAS numbers for all customer machines (whether or not they were published).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:03:49

something similar showed up in discussion in critical infrastructure meetings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Infrastructure_Protection

and setting up isacs
http://www.isaccouncil.org/

there was whole issue about whether information would be subject to freedom of information act ... but frequently that was a front for not wanting to share information because it possibly represented competitive advantage (trade-off individual interests against overall industry).

this can also be interpreted as "observe" within Boyd's OODA-loop framework ... recent post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:33:10

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#10 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#14 independent appraisers

a little more ...

UBS fire-sale
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2449999494

from above:

Analysts said they believed the Swiss bank had sold its Alt-A investments to Pimco for 70 cents on the dollar, taking a deep discount on a CHF26.6bn ($25.7bn) portfolio. UBS' shares fell 4% to CHF30.92 after touching a new five-year low of CHF30.88, more than the 1.2% fall in the DJ Stoxx European bank index.

... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#10 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#15 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#32 independent appraisers

UBS Says Ospel Resigns After Writedowns Lead to Loss
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atC1ZPCEta8U&refer=us

from above:
The bank will seek 15 billion francs in a rights offer to replenish capital, on top of 13 billion francs already raised from investors in Singapore and the Middle East. UBS will write down $19 billion on debt securities, bringing the total to almost $38 billion since the third quarter of 2007. Zurich-based UBS also said today it will cut jobs at the investment bank.

... snip ...

Business channels are ridiculing UBS (and citibank) this morning ... saying that UBS is currently ahead in the write-down sweepstakes ... but Citibank hasn't been heard from yet ... and UBS replacing the chairman with the general counsel was a strategy that was also tried by Citibank.

decade old post mentioning that citibank almost went under in '89 from exposure from variable rate mortgages and required infusion of private capital to stay afloat
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

and more recent references to citibank (including receiving large amount of infusion of private capital, mostly from overseas):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#70 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#89 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:03:01

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers

article from yesterday:

New capital raising to be costly for banks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7426387

from above:
Sovereign wealth funds were prominent in the first round of capital raising from November to January, with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), along with others, putting more than $26 billion into Citigroup, and GIC investing $15.6 billion in UBS.

.... snip ...

Above says that (at least) Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) put more than $26 billion into Citigroup (as well as GIC putting nearly $16 billion in UBS)

Earlier news items quote Abu Dhabi (and some of the other investors) weren't planning on putting more into Citicorp (and the money put into Citicorp so far might not be enough).

posts with recent news items mentioning citi:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#11 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#65 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#15 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#16 independent appraisers

including:

Giant Write-Down Is Seen for Merrill
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/11/business/11wall.html?ref=business
Citigroup Could Write Down Up to $24 Billion
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/wireStory?id=4129442
Citigroup sinks on sovereign wealth fund comments
http://ctv2.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080304.wcitigroup0304/business/Business/businessBN/ctv-business
Sovereign funds may not save Citigroup
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_bi_ge/dubai_funds_citigroup;_ylt=AsePivnAVi0glJl3X.JLHk2yBhIF
Citigroup Slides
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/03/04/citigroup-subprime-dubai-markets-equity-cx_md_0304markets18.html?partner=moreover
Sovereign funds may not save Citigroup
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/AP/story/443584.html
Citigroup To Shrink Mortgage Holdings By $45 Billion
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803070425DOWJONESDJONLINE000534_FORTUNE5.htm
More credit costs seen weighing on banks, brokers; Citigroup may face $12 billion in additional write-downs, Goldman says
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/goldman-sees-citigroup-facing-12/story.aspx?guid=%7B69B32AA2%2D5E60%2D48A5%2DBD90%2DDB67644BEEC7%7D
Bloomberg: Citigroup May Need Cash as Losses Mount
http://www.monitordaily.com/Story_Page.asp?News_ID=20829&Type=AlsoToday

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Was CMS multi-tasking?

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was CMS multi-tasking?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:17:20

Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
The padded cell is a very attractive feature of the whole thing. It makes a lot of things much easier, which is why these things get re-invented as soon as the new generation of hardware gets powerful enough to handle it. OTOH, re-inventions are *never* exact. Time marches on and VM/370 never had to deal with first-person shooters demanding access to hardware-accelerated graphics cards.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#9 Was CMS multi-tasking?

there may be some proportional issues, in the late 70s, there was situation where somebody used it to deploy ATM transaction processing on 370/158 (approx. 1mip processing) which was doing large number of ATM machine transactions per second. There was claim that it outperformed ACP implementation on 168. The current event rate "per MIP" for first-person shooters may actually be lower than many of these "high" transaction rate deployments from three decades ago.

Transactions initially came into a virtual machine dedicated to transaction routing ... which then looked around at at pool of transaction routing virtual machines and handed it off to first available. The transaction routing virtual machine had all sorts of fancy scheduling algorithms to optimize processor and disk arm throughput ... and would hand-off to transaction processing virtual machine "just in time".

Separating the transaction routing from transaction servicing ... significantly aided conceptually in being able to implement sophisticated transaction throughput in the transaction routing function. By comparison, ACP had been a monolithic transaction processing operation ... with very rudimentary sophistication in optimizing transaction throughput (other than minimizing overhead).

In some sense, vm/370 kernel had moved enormous amount of optimizing throughput with minimal pathlength into a separate component. Then it was much easier for independent implementation of other strategies in the other components (something extremely difficult or impossible in a monolithic implementation).

As an aside, the growing use of ACP in transaction processing outside the airline industry (especially in financial industry) led to rebranding ACP as TPF (transaction processing facility).

Another example of monolithic operation is the difficulty and late timeframe it took TPF to getting around to supporting multiprocessing (SMP) operation (possible drawing some parallels to current multi-core situation). Numerous past posts about smp support (and/or invention of compare&swap instruction)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

With the advent of 3081 ... there was supposedly not going to be any more single processor (high-end mainframe) offerings ... all future offerings were going to be multiprocessors. This created quite some difficulty for ACP/TPF since it didn't have multiprocessor support and it took quite awhile for ACP/TPF to get around to implementing multiprocessor support.

This became a real problem since ACP/TPF customers would have to start doing all there work under VM370 (which had multiprocessor support) ... running ACP/TPF in (single processor) virtual machines.

This prompted the vm370 development group to add a bunch of stuff to the kernel tailored to ACP/TPF running under vm370 on 3081 ... which turned out to have noticeable degradation for all the other customers running multiprocessor machines.

The situation became so severe, that they eventually they had to come out with 3083 that ran as single processor (primarily for ACP/TPF customers). Prior to 3081, multiprocessors were basically single processor machines that had special cabling and connections to operate in multiprocessor mode ... but could be configured to operate as multiple single processors. For the 3081, they introduced the term DYADIC since the two processors were in a single box and shared a lot of components (and couldn't be configured into two single independent processors).

One might wonder if there is some analogy with the current 3-core chips ... some speculation that they are really 4-core chips ... that had some manufacturing defect in only one of the cores.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

The Original mcom.com Revived

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The Original mcom.com Revived
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:00:45

The Original mcom.com Revived
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/01/1428240

Happy Run Some Old Web Browsers Day!
http://jwz.livejournal.com/856745.html

and ...

http://home.mcom.com/

as i've mentioned before ... two of the people in jan92 ha/cmp meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

later show up at small client/server startup responsible for something called the commerce server. we were called in to consult because they wanted to do payment transactions on their sever ... some past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway

which is now frequently referred to as electronic commerce.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:22:10

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers

article from yesterday:

New capital raising to be costly for banks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7426387
from above:
Sovereign wealth funds were prominent in the first round of capital raising from November to January, with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), along with others, putting more than $26 billion into Citigroup, and GIC investing $15.6 billion in UBS.
.... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers

somewhat related interview:

On Markets and Complexity; Economist Robert C. Merton talks about the current crisis, risk, and financial engineering.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20501/

from above:
Today's financial crisis is often blamed on a system so complex as to be beyond the comprehension of even its practitioners. (See "The Blow-Up.") We asked Merton what he thinks of complexity--and whether he thinks markets have too much of it.

... snip ...

as previously mentioned ... instruments originally created to obfuscate the underlying value .... were used to package large number of credit items (mortgages, loans, etc) which have a significant value component. previous post drawing analogy to subverting *observe* part of Boyd's OODA-loop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop

decade old post referencing need for transparency for accurate valuation of these instruments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

originators, who had been sensitive to underlying value, found that they could now unload their products (as these instruments) with no apparent regard to the underlying value. As a result they no longer needed to pay attention to the underlying value, and the only measure became how many could be turned out per unit time. It even appeared to be a benefit to promote significant value inflation ... which, in turn, attracted significant speculation activity (leading to run away value inflation).

the situation was aggravated with the repeal of Glass-Steagall allowing unregulated (sometimes extremely risky) investment activity would be allowed to contaminate regulated financial operations (which require high degree of safety and soundness).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:43:20

Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/column/0,294698,sid14_gci1308040,00.html

from above:
No one would argue that PCI, SOX et al haven't done some good things for corporate America; certainly they have. But that's almost beside the point now, because in some cases those benefits are outweighed by the enormous amount of time and effort security staffs have to spend on compliance, often at the expense of other projects. We're now beginning to see the results of that compromise, and it's not a pretty picture.

... snip ...

previous posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#8 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#10 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#11 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

the other metaphor that we've used is naked transactions ... lots of related posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#payments

the x9a10 financial standard working group had been given the requirement to preserve the integrity of the financial infrastructure for all retail payments. after detailed end-to-end thread & vulnerability study ... the x9.59 financial standard was produced
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

part of the work in x9.59 was observation that there were an enormous number of points in the current infrastructure that could leak information (which contributed to our comment that the planet could be buried under miles of information-hiding encryption and still wouldn't prevent leaks) ... x9.59 took that tact of eliminating the information leakage as a threat. The current scenario is that attackers can leverage the harvested/leaked information as a form of replay attack for fraudulent transactions (account fraud as subcategory of identity theft). The x9.59 financial standard approach was to eliminate the crooks being able to use the information for fraudulent transactions. X9.59 did nothing to prevent the leakage ... it just eliminated financial fraud that happens in the current paradigm when information has leaked.

misc past posts mentioning burying the planet under miles of encryption not being able to prevent the information leagage.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm25.htm#24 DDA cards may address the UK Chip&Pin woes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm26.htm#24 News.com: IBM donates new privacy tool to open-source Higgins
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005v.html#2 ABN Tape - Found
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#44 Does the Data Protection Act of 2005 Make Sense
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#5 Value of an old IBM PS/2 CL57 SX Laptop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#18 Value of an old IBM PS/2 CL57 SX Laptop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#8 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007b.html#60 Securing financial transactions a high priority for 2007
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#65 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#5 The Unexpected Fact about the First Computer Programmer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#28 EZPass: Yes, Big Brother IS Watching You!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007r.html#21 Is the media letting banks off the hook on payment card security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#16 The new urgency to fix online privacy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#9 folklore indeed

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:59:53

eamacneil@YAHOO.CA (Ted MacNEIL) writes:
Mainframers brag about how long a system stays up. PFCSK's brag about how fast they can re-boot.

a lot of work was done on cp67 and subsequent vm370 to stay up, reboot quickly, and require minimum hands-on for 7x24 operation for around-the-clock, online access.

reboot quickly included quickly back up and operational in lights-out, unattended operation.

this helped allow cp67 to migrate into commercial time-sharing service. first shift was obviously, fairly heavily used ... but offshift and weekends use might be problematical ... making it difficult to justify offshift availability unless costs were reduced to a minimum (i.e. no operator). however, there were other characteristics that were needed. back then, there was high percentage of leased systems ... and the processor "meter" was used to establish monthly charges. in addition to work on unattended/automated operation for cp67 ... there was also work on how to get the meter to "stop" when the system was otherwise idle. the system meter would run when the processor was executing and/or when there was active i/o operations (and would coast for 400mills after things quiesced). it took a little slight of hand to leave active i/o on the (terminal) interface (able to responds to spontaneous terminal i/o) and not have the meter run.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#timeshare

for other topic drift ... posts related to getting to play disk engineer in bldgs. 14 (disk engineering) and 15 (disk product test). at the time they had tried operating test machines (processors used for testing disks & controllers in development) under MVS ... but found it had a MTBF of 15 minutes (hang and/or crash ... both requiring reboot).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk

sort of as a hobby, putting together bullet proof operations where they could not only operate a single "test cell" ... but operate several concurrently (eliminated scheduling bottleneck for dedicated stand-alone single test at a time).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:24:38

warcar@ATT.NET (Warren Brown) writes:
What?

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options

you can get a satellite photo of the old GPD/disk plant site here
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

put in the address "5600 Cottle Rd, San Jose, Ca." and select satellite.

in the photo, bldgs. 14 & 15 are still standing and have cars in the lot ... old reference here
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk

bldgs. 12, 26, 28 and several other bldgs. are bulldozed.

there were recent news items about attempts to declare the bldg. in the upper left corner (intersection of railroad tracks, old monterey rd, & cottle) a historical bldg (keeping it from being bulldozed) ... but a recent fire destroyed much of the structure.

bldg. 28 was the old research facility (before almaden was built and research moved up the hill). among other things, the original relational/sql implementation, System/r was created in bldg. 28 (precursor to sql/ds, db2, etc).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr

bldg. 15 is one story structure just north of what use to be the plant site lake that was adjacent to the homestead facility (between bldg. 28 and homestead) ... nearly all the area north of highway 85 has been bulldozed (and in the "map" view ... much of the roads listed are gone)

bldg. 15 shows two parts with corridor between the two parts. the product test machine room was in the southern part, it included a large environmental chamber (control air pressure, humidity, etc) that could accommodate large full sized 3880 controllers and 3380 drives.

bldg. 14 is two story structure just north of 15. the disk engineering machine room was in the middle of the 2nd floor. in the 80s, when several bldgs were getting seismic retrofit, disk engineering was temporarily moved to an "off-site" location, while bldg. 14 got its seismic retrofit.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:01:04

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
New capital raising to be costly for banks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7426387

from above:

Sovereign wealth funds were prominent in the first round of capital raising from November to January, with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), along with others, putting more than $26 billion into Citigroup, and GIC investing $15.6 billion in UBS.

.... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers

from week or so ago:

Revealed: how sovereign wealth funds were left nursing multibillion losses
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/22/banking.investmentfunds

from above:
In recent months, banks including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS have turned to investment funds, including the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), its sister fund, Temasek, and China Investment Corp, for funding that western investors were unwilling to give as stockmarkets plunged.

... snip ...

and ...
The pain shows no sign of letting up. Two months ago, Citigroup announced it had plunged into the red over the past three months of 2007 and sliced its dividend almost in half as it wiped more than $18bn off the value of its assets because of exposure to sub-prime mortgages. But Wall Street analysts reckon the firm could record a further $15bn write-down for this financial quarter.

... snip ...

Agreement on Sovereign Wealth Funds; The U.S., Singapore, and Abu Dhabi have reached an accord that emphasizes transparency and the elimination of political influence in investment decisions
http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/fannie_mae_and.html

from above:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates the total asset size of sovereign wealth funds at around $2 trillion to $3 trillion, with the potential to grow to between $6 trillion and $10 trillion by 2013.

... snip ...

and from today:

CIC's Wang Says Sovereign Funds Not Treated Fairly
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aT7p7Hj3QXsk&refer=asia

from above:
Sovereign wealth funds have made investments of at least $59 billion in the past year to shore up the balance sheets of Wall Street banks such as Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., dented by more than $232 billion of subprime-related writedowns and losses since the beginning of 2007.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

WWII supplies

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: WWII supplies
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:35:29

D.J. <solosam75@cableone.net> writes:
They thought they had trained well and their gear was good. It wasn't. I have seen documentaries where tankers who fought German tanks in the French bocage and North Africa wanting to have a talk with the people who told them the Sherman could handle it. Something about a baseball bat was mentioned. One guy wanted to put the advertisers in a Sherman, and fire at it with an 88.

past posts mentioning sherman ... and supposedly there was a specific decision that even with 5:1 kill ratio losses ... that shermans could be built so quickly that eventually could dominate thru attrition (modulo troop morale)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000c.html#85 V-Man's Patton Quote (LONG) (Pronafity)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001.html#30 Review of Steve McConnell's AFTER THE GOLD RUSH
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#3 mainframe question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#10 mainframe question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#11 mainframe question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001m.html#16 mainframe question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#27 Controversial paper - Good response article on ZDNet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#24 The SOB that helped IT jobs move to India is dead!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#11 The 8008
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005j.html#14 The 8008
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#14 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006q.html#28 was change headers: The Fate of VM - was: Re: Baby MVS???

This was one of Boyd's examples that large part of WW2 in Europe was based on resource and logistic superiority overwhelming the opposition. Initially it started with rigid command&control structure to handle deployment of large number of rapidly trained soldiers with little experience (effectively substituting the orchestration of enormous resources in lieu of skills and experience). misc. past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd
and various URLs from around the web
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd2

It was also supposedly Boyd's battle plan used in the gulf conflict from the last decade as opposed to the proposed tank slugfest.

John Boyd: Architect of Modern Warfare
http://gtalumni.org/stayinformed/magazine/fall02/article3.html

from above:
When Desert Shield, the buildup for the Gulf War, began, then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney summoned Boyd to Washington. After private sessions with Boyd, Cheney threw out Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's plans for prosecuting the war and developed his own: a Marine Corps diversionary feint at Kuwait while the Army raced far to the west in the now-famous "left hook." Everything about the plan was out of Boyd's Patterns of Conflict -- the multiple thrusts and deception operations created such rampant confusion among enemy forces that they surrendered by the thousands. America picked when and where it would fight and when and where it would not fight — and won without a prolonged ground war.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Was CMS multi-tasking?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was CMS multi-tasking?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:57:50

Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
As I recall, it was tricky to communicate. I think it was mostly through the spool. I wrote a syhstem with a controller server and a couple of workers that communicated his way. I believe IUCV came in with SP, and virtual 3270's maybe XA? Now you have an excess of ways to communicate, sockets over virtual LAN (forget the term), VMCF, SFS, etc.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#9 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#14 Was CMS multi-tasking?

internally there was SPM originally implemented on cp67 and then ported to vm370.

instead of putting out SPM, they did VMCF, which was released in vm370 release 3 (mid-70s) ... which had a small subset of SPM. Then because VMCF wasn't enuf ... IUCV was released later (release 6, pre-sp) ... and VMCF plus IUCV was still a subset of SPM ... and SPM still wasn't released.

the networking implementation used in the internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

supported SPM ... it was even in the version shipped to customers (even though SPM wasn't actually available).

some past references
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#20 Whatever happened to IBM's VM PC software?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#51 other cp/cms history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006t.html#47 To RISC or not to RISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#8 Why these original FORTRAN quirks?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#12 more secure communication over the network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#52 IBM sues maker of Intel-based Mainframe clones

some old SPM related email:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#email851017
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

spm was used by a number of other serivce virtual machines ... one example was cjntel ... some old cjntel related email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#cjntel
it was also used by the cmsback service virtual machine (related to handling personal restore requests)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#cmsback

including reference to this email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email801211
in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)

the above includes extract from 8jun79 SPM document.

the author of rexx also did a multi-user spacewar game for (cms) 3270s ... a monitor/server game controller ran in virtual machine and used special message to communicate with all (cms) client virtual machines ... either on local machine or on remote machines (leveraging special message transparency via the internal network support). some references
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#10 5-player Spacewar?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001h.html#8 VM: checking some myths.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001j.html#26 Help needed on conversion from VM to OS390
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002g.html#57 Amiga Rexx
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003c.html#72 OT: One for the historians - 360/91
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#27 instant messaging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#14 Seven of Nine
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004b.html#33 A POX on you, Dennis Ritchie!!!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004c.html#34 Playing games in mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#20 Whatever happened to IBM's VM PC software?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005t.html#40 FULIST
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#4 Fast action games on System/360+?

a somewhat separate network-oriented facility evolved that supported programmed psuedo-3270 terminal interface. the network-oriented flavor was called passthru virtual machine (PVM) which would create remote emulated 3270 that allowed logging on to remote machine. This interface was also supported by (internal) terminal scripting application called STORY and in conjunction with PARASITE supported both local programmed emulated 3270s as well as remote emulated 3270s (with the aid of PVM ... also predating personal computers and HLLAPI). misc. parasite/story references:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001k.html#35 Newbie TOPS-10 7.03 question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003i.html#73 Computer resources, past, present, and future
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003j.html#24 Red Phosphor Terminal?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#14 were dumb terminals actually so dumb???
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005r.html#12 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006.html#3 PVM protocol documentation found
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#14 Program execution speed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#37 Over my head in a JES exit
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006m.html#35 Draft Command Script Processing Manual
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#23 sorting was: The System/360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#31 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#16 intersection between autolog command and cmsback (more history)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007.html#23 How to write a full-screen Rexx debugger?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#65 The use of "script" for program

after having done synchronous disk/file i/o interface to significantly reduce cms virtual machine overhead ... mentioned in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#9 Was CMS multi-tasking?

later i did a page-mapped implementation for cms filesystem which further reduced cms virtual machine overhead ... but also significantly improved performance ... in part because page-mapped filesystem was much better match with the underlying virtual memory support used as part of virtual machine operation, this never shipped in standard product, was used internal at some number of installations; a special version did ship as part of the special pc/370, xt/370, at/370 product. misc. past posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#mmap

it also included some amount of special handling for sharing paged mapped executable images ... some references of the difficulties encountered
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#adcon

later I undertook to use a combination of page-mapped interface, special message, and some additional interfaces to move the kernel spool file support out of the kernel and into a virtual address space. The objective was to significantly increase the reliability and integrity of the overall system, greatly simplify being able to add new function and increase spool file thruput by couple orders of magnitude or more.

this effort had been somewhat spawned by HSDT project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt

which had multiple full-duplex T1 (and higher speed) telco links as well as local channel-to-channel interfaces. The internal network leveraged to (first cp67 and later) vm370 kernel spool file system for local storage. This was also a "synchronous" interface (similar to the disabled, "synchronous" interface for cms disk i/o) ... but in large, heavily loaded system, the network virtual machine might be limited to 3-5 4k blocks per second (maybe 20kbytes/sec). A single full-duplex T1 required on the order of 300kbytes/sec thruput (aggregate requirement could be as high as several mbytes thruput). Minor footnote, the HSDT internal network support activity was distinct from the HSDT internet protocol network support activity.

Nearly all of the code was re-implemented in VS/pascal running in virtual address space ... and I referred to the project as SFS (spool file system) ... This predating the CMS SFS, shared file system by several years ... although it *shares* some of the same requirements ... being a virtual address space implementation being used by large number of other processes running on the system.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Doug Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos"

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Doug Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:00:25

"Jim Mehl" <mehl@ihot.com> writes:
Yeah, IBM sent me to Austin, Endicott, Yorktown Heights, and a bunch of other places over the years. I actually had a chance to talk to Doug after he gave a talk at IBM Research in San Jose. That was probably in the 80's or so. Fascinating guy.

I got involved with Doug a little as result of being called in to look at technology ... like GNOSIS, as result of M/D purchase of Tymshare (and Doug looking for possible new landing place).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

WWII supplies

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: WWII supplies
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:37:36

Larry Elmore <ljelmore@verizon.spammenot.net> writes:
A good-sized proportion of wrecked tanks could be repaired and returned to service. Finding new crews was harder. Cooks and clerks who've been told they're now tankers, given a few hours instruction and issued tanks right out of the battlefield repair shops with patches and new welds, and sometimes still the smell of the crew killed in it a week before. Sometimes bits of them, too, that inadvertently weren't washed out. There's a morale building scenario for you.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#90 WWII supplies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#21 WWII supplies

i had an uncle that joined right out of highschool and went in as a mechanic ... he was just in time so that he spent three years over there repairing tanks (possibly sometimes operating them?). he never made any references to it. my mother has commented that he was lucky to come back at all ... and did came back very changed.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:55:51

shai.hess@GMAIL.COM (shai hess) writes:
You can have a problem with XP/Linux if you surfing the Internet looking for unreliable sites (XXX site, maybe for the guy who reboot the PC after 2 hours :)), or if you open email from non authorize people. I use the XP SP2 and I have never needed to reboot my PC.

A lot of companies use the PC for production (millions of companies, MF is used only by several thousand only) and as I wrote in the past even IBM uses the PC for some of their hardware also.

I can promise you that if MVS will support email and surfing the Internet you will have the same problem as open system have. MF is reliable not because of IBM genius, but because MF is a closed system with a very simple functionality compare to the open system. Close the open system and you have MF reliability.

The solution is very clear, when you use the XP for production (SQL server, MFNetDisk) , do not use the PC to play with the Internet or receive spam email. That is very simple to understand.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#19 CA ESD files Options

a large number of exploits are buffer length overflows ...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#overflow

which are related to C language implementations ... which can be nearly non-existent in mainframes. I had worked on the original mainframe tcp/ip product implemented in vs/pascal ... and it had none of the common buffer length overflow problems found in C language implementations. some past posts related to adding rfc1044 support to the base implementation and in some tuning tests at cray research between a cray and a 4341-clone ... got several orders of magnitude improvement in bytes/instruction (i.e. from full 3090 processor to get 44kbytes/sec to modest amount of 4341-clone getting 1mbyte/sec, aka channel interface)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044

there have been numerous efforts involving tools to automatically find C language buffer overflow problems ... which have failed to eliminate the problems. Finally there have been some architecture additions to various chips to specifically mitigate some of the common exploits from buffer length related compromises.

In the past, I had done some work attempting to create taxonomy from CVE vulnerability database ... but at the time, the vulnerabiilty reporting structure was quite free form and took a bit of work attempting to categorize vulnerabilities (there have been some recent announcements regarding adding structure to the CVE vulnerability entries ... to aid in categorizing vulnerabilities/exploits).

There are other classes of vulnerabilities/threats involving importing executables &/or scripts off the internet and allowing them to execute ... and/or in some cases, mail clients and browsers that might automatically execute foreign files. In the past year or so ... there has been work on leveraging virtual machine technologies for creating "padded cells" for such applications ... where the environment is created anew from scratch and then completely disolved when done (along with any compromises). There has also been some business and federal gov. activities in creating standard that "business" PCs will have the importing and execution of all foreign files completely disabled.

for other drift ... i've done quite a bit of work on merged taxonomies and glossaries ... reference
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/index.html#glosnote

including one for security.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
To: <ibm-main@bama.ua.edu>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:35:53

shai.hess@GMAIL.COM (shai hess) writes:
All what I want to say is that MF technology is excellent as PC technology today (not in the past).

There are no miracle in MF. If evil hackers will try very hard they will succeed to find place to harm the MF.

It is much more attractive and easy to harm the open because of the Internet and the email which enable everyone to access the PC.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#19 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options

semi-related reference:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#7 Hypervisors May Replace Operating Systems As King Of The Data Center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#37 Tap and faucet and spellcheckers

one of the issues was that frequently, desktop systems started out with design point of stand alone table/desk top operations with no requirement for countermeasures to hostile attacks. A subsequent large install base using these systems were games that took over the operation of the whole system.

later small closed, business local area network operations were introduced ... again in presumed non-hostile environment ... and w/o attack countermeasures. in this evironment, there were large number of applications that evolved automatic execution of files transferred from other machines.

with the proliferation of internet connectivity ... there was straight-forward adaption of the technology ... although the paradigm was drastically different (from closed, non-hostile, to open anarchy, and extremely hostile).

the science center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

was responsible for the technology used for most of the internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

which was larger than the arpanet/internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet

from just about the beginning until sometime mid-85.

also, the (separate) educational bitnet/earn network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet

(based on the internal network technology) was also larger than internet for some perioid. in fact, the bitnet/earn network xmas "worm" predated the internet morris worm by a year ... a couple recent references:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007u.html#87 CompUSA to Close after Jan. 1st 2008
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#58 Linux zSeries questions

now, one of the things that the mainframe heritage included was virtual machine work (also) done by the science center starting with cp40 on a modified 360/40 with hardware support for virtual memory ... which morphed into cp67 when 360/67 with standard hardware virtual memory became available. cp67 use included deployments as commercial timesharing systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#timeshare

which would frequently include customers that were otherwise intensive competitors (and would like nothing more than to obtain competitive information).

In fact, the science center system, for a period was concurrently providing services to Armonk business planners (who loaded information with the highest business security classification on the cambridge system) and at the same time allowing access to students and other non-employees from various educational institutions in the cambridge area.

Another aspect of the (secure) use of the mainframe technology dating back to the 60s, is mentioned here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090117083033/http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/list-archive/0409/8362.shtml

also mentioned in these recent posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#4 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#60 Job ad for z/OS systems programmer trainee
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#32 Interesting Mainframe Article: 5 Myths Exposed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#31 confluence of virtualization and trusted computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#67 Virtualization's security threats
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#68 Virtualization's security threats

I have commented before that while an undergraduate, quite a bit of the work I had done was picked up and shipped in the product. I would also get requests for certain kinds of changes to be implemented. On learning about some of the gov. customers many years later, I've thought that some of the requests actually originated from some of these customers. In fact, I've sometimes commented that some other platforms may not even know what they don't know about the subject.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:53:48

jmfbahciv writes:
I claim that this skimming couldn't have become a serious problem until the transaction rate was increased n-billion times. There is nothing physical in this process; thus, there is no waiting for the previous event to finish before the next event can be started. Computers have made these transactions happen in parallel, not serial (I'm trying a new analogy).

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#8 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#10 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#11 Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#17 Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality

part of the activity behind the spate of data breach laws ... was that customers were being kept out in the cold about their vulnerability to these breaches (and any resulting fraud would be treated as totally unexpected activity) ... i.e.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#50 Liability for breaches: do we need new laws?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#51 Liability for breaches: do we need new laws?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm28.htm#52 Pogo reports: big(gest) bank breach was covered up?

and, in fact, much of the activity in breach countermeasures didn't happen until after the breach laws came into effect.

skimming and database harvesting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#harvest

date back to at least 80s. the volumes only require that the expected fraudulent return-on-investment is greater than the effort to compromise the system ... and less threat to the attacker than alternative methods. there has been some threads discussing LEO focus on physical threats and coming late to the world of electronic oriented threats ... threads also about news organizations (and consumer public) reacting more to news about physical threats (vis-a-vis electronic &/or "white-collar" crime) ... some recent posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#69 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#77 independent appraisers

such breaches can be economical for the crook even predating electronic point-of-sale transactions ... dating back to counterfeit payment cards before the introduction of magstripes.

to some degree this was all taken into consideration when the x9a10 financial standard working group in the mid-90s was given the requirement to preserve the integrity of the financial infrastructure for all retail payments ... leading to the x9.59 payment transaction standard
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Hannaford case exposes holes in law, some say
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:00:38

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#27 Hannaford breach illustrates dangerous compliance mentality

some more recent breach references:

The Identity Theft Resource Center Reports That Data Breaches More Than Doubled in 2008 First Quarter
http://www.foxbusiness.com/article/identity-theft-resource-center-reports-data-breaches-doubled-2008-quarter_544967_1.html Data Breaches More Than Doubled in 2008 First Quarter
http://www.paymentsnews.com/2008/04/data-breaches-m.html
8.3 Million Records Spilled in Data Breaches This Year
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/04/83_million_records_spilled_in.html?nav=rss_blog
Data breaches more common
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/consumersmarts/archives/135617.asp
Grocery Data Breach Offers Important Endpoint Lessons
http://www.bmighty.com/blog/main/archives/2008/04/grocery_data_br.html

similar vulnerability

Vermont ski area reports Hannaford-like theft of payment card data
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9074339&taxonomyName=security&articleId=9074339

and mentioning that the x9.59 standards work
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/x959.html#x959

rather than attempting to prevent breaches ... eliminated the account fraud threat/vulnerability that is frequent consequence of such breaches (and possibly the primary criminal motivation). this is related to the older posts/threads on the naked transaction metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#payments

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
To: <ibm-main@bama.ua.edu>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:38:17

shai.hess@GMAIL.COM (shai hess) writes:
Buffer overflow is a programming error. if you use some C command (reading strings command etc...) you can have a problem. About buffer overflow, open system now protect the stack memory from execute command and by that eliminate the problem.

As I know MF support also C, no?

In MVS also some of the programmer wrote software which I am sure can be used for evil purpose.

Poor programming can also be in MF!

MF is a close system, and there are no millions of genius evil people who try to hack the MF.

If MF will be available as open system are to all the people (cost, cost), I am sure that the MF will have the same problem and even more because MF does not have antivirus software.

You need to protect your system and your net if you are using MF or open system.

If MF will be open like open system there will be a lot of the same Buffer overflow and more (usnig C or poor assembler). if open system are close no hacker software will be able to use their software for bad unless the net allow it, but net is the same (TCP) in MF and open system.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#19 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#26 CA ESD files Options

and
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subintegrity.html#overflow

only if using C and the underlying infrastructure changed to buffer length conventions used extensively in C language operations. As previously mentioned, I had been involved in the original mainframe TCP/IP product ... which was implemented in vs/pascal ... and had none of the buffer length related problems that seem to be epidemic in C language environments.

part of the C language evironment related vulnerabilities and systems that were heavily C oriented ... was that the buffer length abstraction was extremely deficient ... which I've claimed has led to the large number of buffer related vulnerabilities

one of the things that permeate much of the mainframe environment is a very strong buffer length abstraction ... and extremely low occurance of buffer length problems ... regardless of the language used ... even kernels that were totally implemented in assembler (with a much more adequate buffer length conventions) ... it was extremely rare to find buffer length problems ... even in assembler code.

at one point, I did a mainframe failure/dump application
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#dumprx

while never shipped to customers, at one point it was used by nearly all internal locations and customer service PSRs. It introduced some amount of automated failure analysis operations (state of the art in products at the time was all manual activity). As part of being able to implement various automated failure analysis ... I had done extensive analysis of large number of system failures ... looking for things like common (mainframe) failure signatures and frequencies of different categories of mainframe failures.

for slightly other drift, when we were doing ha/cmp product
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

we had done detailed end-to-end vulnerability and threat analysis, somewhat treating security/attack related threats as a subset of general system availability issues
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available

we used that detailed analysis later when we were called in to consult with a small client/server startup.

two of the people that were in this ha/cmp scale-up meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

had left and joined the startup and were responsible for something called a commerce server (and they wanted to do payment transactions on their server ... they also had this technology called SSL). Part of the work resulted in something called a payment gateway (could be considered the original SOA)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway

that work is now frequently referred to as electronic commerce.

We would frequently comment that there were significant aspects of the internet that had never considered business critical dataprocessing issues ... and as part of doing payment gateway deployment we had to create numerous compensating procedures (many of them that wouldn't have been needed if had started with a MF platform).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:11:02

greymaus <greymausg@mail.com> writes:
2) I have been thinking about the problem of computer education. (According to reports here, a problem here as well). In the early days, Apple II, Commadore 64, even the ZX81, one could program the machine in Basic. One could set up fairly complex programs (hard for the ZX81), and then, via, what was it in the Spectrum?, POKE USR ****?. or similiar with the Apple or Commadore, and that led on to machine code, which made everything possible. There is no real path like that with Windows machines, no way for an intelligent youngster to fiddle with the machine in his own time and own way, which made it fun. Thoughts?.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#19 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#26 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#29 CA ESD files Options

somebody once suggested to me that the best & brightest were given fairly free access to univ. datacenter resources and it was the next tier (that weren't at the top level and didn't have that univ datacenter resource access) that led a lot of the early personal computing revolution (somewhat as a poor substitute making up for not having the access to "real" dataprocessing resources).

there are also some aspects of this that are analogous to the golden era of hot rod tinkering.

a lot of newer generation (computer) machines (and automobiles) are more akin to off-the-shelf "appliances" and have much less provisions for tinkering (and appealing to much wider public/audience).

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Billion-dollar IT failure at Census Bureau

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Billion-dollar IT failure at Census Bureau
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:37:59

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#92 Billion-dollar IT failure at Census Bureau

Census Bureau To Scrap Handhelds - Cost $3 Billion
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/04/03/1612249.shtml
Census to scrap handheld computers for 2010 count
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080403_9574.php

from above:
The Census Bureau will tell a House panel today that it will drop plans to use handheld computers to help count Americans for the 2010 census, contributing to the increase in cost for the decennial census by as much as $3 billion, according to testimony the Commerce Department secretary plans to give this afternoon.

... snip ...

i.e. failure in automation implementation increases alternative manual activity by $3b(?)

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:21:07

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
Business channels are ridiculing UBS (and citibank) this morning ... saying that UBS is currently ahead in the write-down sweepstakes ... but Citibank hasn't been heard from yet ... and UBS replacing the chairman with the general counsel was a strategy that was also tried by Citibank.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers

John Reed, Architect Of Citi Merger, Calls Deal Mistake
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804032006DOWJONESDJONLINE001187_FORTUNE5.htm

from above ...
The landmark merger that created Citigroup Inc. (C) was a "mistake" that failed to benefit the financial services conglomerate's investors, customers and employees, said John Reed, who masterminded the $166 billion deal with Sandy Weill in 1998, The Financial Times reported on its Web site Thursday.

... snip ...

the Wall Street Fix?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2

a couple other recent citigroup items

Citigroup and Merrill will have to raise capital if write-down forecasts prove correct: Goldman - FP Trading Desk
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/tradingdesk/archive/2008/04/01/citigroup-and-merrill-will-have-to-raise-capital-if-write-down-forecasts-prove-correct-goldman.aspx
Bank Write-Downs: No End Yet
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1727462,00.html

and other recent posts:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#20 independent appraisers

decode old post mentioning that citi almost went under in 89 due to its involvement in variable rate mortgages (also raising issue of transparency requirement for mortgage backed securities)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm The Thread Between Risk Management and Information Security

and ...

Coming Soon ... Securitization with a New, Improved (and Perhaps Safer) Face
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1933 (gone 404 and/or requires registration)

from above ...
"That will mean that under the best of circumstances, it will be harder to get a triple-A rating, which will reduce the profitability of securities," Guttentag says. Some forms of securities will die. CDOs are doomed, he adds, because the market has seen they are extremely difficult to value. "In the short term, the prospects are dismal. The market will recover, but I don't think we'll ever see CDOs again and the standards will be tougher, so the comeback will be gradual."

... snip ...

and ...
Linneman figures that 1,000 CEOs are accountable for about 80% of the current lending mess. If the government were to spend $10 billion to restore liquidity to the market in nine months with only 1,000 people losing their jobs, it would be the best investment it could make to restore the economy.

... snip ...

presumably the reference is that those 1000 responsible CEOs would be the ones loosing their job (question would be if they would still get those incredible bonuses).

it was't as if everybody on wall street had no idea what they were doing and/or toxic CDOs hadn't been created to obfuscate the underlying value:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#76 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

authoritative IEFBR14 reference

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: authoritative IEFBR14 reference
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:20:37

True in a Nutshell; Appendix: IEFBR14: Clarification
http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tech/oreilly/more-iefbr14.html

from above:
1. As one of the IBM programmers involved in the development and integration of OS/360 in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1965-1967, I assure you it was our understanding that the three-letter prefix to module names used in the operating had no "meaning". The prefix identified the system component to which the module belonged. E.g., IEB: Dataset Utilities; IEH: System Utilities; IEW: Linkage Editor; IEF: Scheduler; etc. In the course of time some prefixes did derive from acronymes (e.g. CLR: Control Library Environment And Resources), but not many. I guess some people might conjure up a meaning, but I doubt it was "official".

... snip ...

cp67/cms had used module names not following any official convention. in the cp67 to vm370 morph ... modules were renamed using DMK prefix for vm370 and DMS prefix for CMS (as well as CMS morphing from cambridge monitor system to conversational monitor system).

when i did the resource manager ... DMKSRM was a take-off on the MVS componenent (system resource manager) ... it was where the "required" tuning knobs went (part of previously mentioned joke) ... and really new code went into DMKSTP (a take-off on product moto the racer's edge)

past posts mentioning resource manager &/or earlier implementation in cp67 (dropped in the initial cp67 to vm370 morph)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare

recent posts mentioning the joke:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#16 No Glory for the PDP-15
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#88 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#16 Kernels

some old references to migrating cp67 feature/function to vm370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

WWII supplies

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: WWII supplies
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:31:20

Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
They should have known. The Blitzkrieg rolled through Poland in 1939 and France in 1940 on tank treads, although they had no real opposition in either case, abnd Rommel had been tearing up North Africa long before Torch. It was just a question of refusing to see the obvious.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#21 WWII supplies

much was made of Guderian's use of 2-way radio to improve tempo/time of operation ... another example Boyd used (to contrast with the rigid top-down, US command&control structure) was Guderian's verbal orders only.

The scenario was related to the definition of auditors ... the people that go around the battlefield, after the war, stabbing the wounded. Guderian wanted the person on the spot making best decisions possible and not have to worry about any subsequent (monday afternoon quarterback'ing) investigations.

examples were used in briefing that went through some evoluation which started out as Organic Design for Command and Control.

misc. posts mentioning Boyd &/or OODA-loops
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd
and various URLs from around the web
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html#boyd2

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Does TCP Need an Overhaul?

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Does TCP Need an Overhaul?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:49:07

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
past posts mentioning resource manager &/or earlier implementation in cp67 (dropped in the initial cp67 to vm370 morph)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare

ARPANET Co-Founder Calls for Flow Management
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/04/04/2027239.shtml
Does TCP Need an Overhaul?
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=499&doc_id=150113

from above:
Thus, there are now two options for network equipment:

• Random discards from output queues -- creates much TCP unfairness
• Intelligent rate control of every flow -- eliminates most TCP unfairness

Although the multi-flow unfairness that P2P uses remains, flow management gives us a simple solution to this: Control each flow so that the total traffic to each IP address (home) is equally and fairly distributed no matter how many flows they use. This eliminates the need for peering into everyone's data to stop P2P and creates a fair distribution of Internet capacity.

... snip ...

one of the things done in the hsdt project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
in internal network links
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

and some of the stuff that nsfnet evaluated in hsdt
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
... and some old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#nsfnet

was rate-based flow control ... including use of resource allocation. some of it had come from a couple decades of doing generalized computer resource management algorithms ... some of the dynanmic adaptive resource policy work came to be referred to as "fair share" ... because of that being the default resource policy.

i've claimed that the window-based congestion control grew out of the point-to-point link implementations that attempted to control overrun of buffers by incoming data ... and adapted to long-haul latency compensation (and the same mechanism then adapted for network congestion control).

i've also claimed that some of the window-based congestion control was also because of the poor system timer features available on most of the platforms from the period ... making difficult for implementation of rate-based flow control.

There may also be some corollary with mind-set that is state oriented (in much of the tcp/ip stack implementation) ... where "windows" paradigms is much more comfortable/compatible (state orientation) ... as composed to transition to a rate oriented paradigm. I've referred to apparent conceptual difficulties having multiple different paradigms coexisting concurrently as contributing to being able to do my "joke" in the resource manager product ... recent resource manager joke reference:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#33 authoritative IEFBR14 reference

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:08:49

Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/04/04/2008-04-04T170743Z_01_BNG207828_RTRIDST_0_GLOBALFINANCIALINSTITUTIONS-LEHMAN-UPDATE-2.html

from above:
Financial institutions reeling from the global credit crunch have recorded $291.8 billion of writedowns so far, the Lehman team wrote. That has been partially offset by about $181.6 billion of equity infusions, but still leaves banks with about $110 billion less capital.

... snip ...

Banking industry in search of a business model
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/04/03/2008-04-03T190017Z_01_L02678524_RTRIDST_0_COLUMN-MARKETS-BANKING.html
Bear Stearns says traders' false rumours took bank to the brink
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article3678336.ece
What We Learned From Bear
http://www.forbes.com/home/wallstreet/2008/04/03/banking-cox-bear-biz-wall-cx_lm_0404banking.html
Credit Crisis Hits Home
http://www.forbes.com/home/opinions/forbes/2008/0421/027.html

and other (toxic) CDO related articles curtesy of Wharton

Securitization 2.0
http://www.forbes.com/home/entrepreneursfinance/2008/04/03/credit-crisis-subprime-ent-fin-cx_kw_0403whartonsecuritize.html
some comments
Market Manipulation--Or Just Business As Usual?
http://www.forbes.com/home/entrepreneursfinance/2008/04/04/inflation-credit-oil-ent-fin-cx_kw_0404whartonmanipulation.html
Exactly How Talented Are Hedge Fund Managers?
http://www.forbes.com/home/entrepreneursfinance/2008/04/04/hedge-fund-alpha-ent-fin-cx_kw_0404whartonhedge.html

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:41:01

more 40+ yr old technology ...

Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/03/virtualization-software-enterprise-tech-virtualization08-cx_wt_0403virtual.html

from above:
Virtualization technologies help companies use more of the computing resources they already have to save money. With a recession looming, virtualization technologies are becoming must-have budget items as companies need to find ways to cut costs. "In a recession, virtualization is going to get hotter," says Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman.

... snip ...

the commoditizing of hardware and COTS ... it was frequently cheaper to throw hardware resources at a problem rather than obtaining the scarce (and relatively more expensive) expertise to optimize available resources. In the current datacenter scenario, a couple of decades of throwing (hardware) resources at problems has tended to create operations with drastically underutilized resources. Virtualization is one way of consolidating/aggregating resource use with relatively low human/skill effort.

recent post/thread:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#3 It's Too Darn Hot
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#6 It's Too Darn Hot

throwing resources at problems ... in lieu of better understanding, isn't just limited to datacenter operations ... it also frequently shows up in threads about management of the internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#35 Does TCP Need an Overhaul?

The paradigm of throwing huge amount of excess resources at problems w/o needing any fundamental understanding (and have the appearance of success) can be found in other areas ... including the whole toxic CDO mess
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36 Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln

it can also be extended out into things like other economic resource consumption areas ... like transportation.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Sad news of Bob Tomasulo's passing

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Sad news of Bob Tomasulo's passing
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:12:21

x-over post lifted from ibm-main:

In the past week or so I had written that most of the System/360 architects (or, to paraphrase another, "brilliant lights in a sea of bright lights") were still around. Sadly, ~46 years after they started working together (on what would become System/360 and OS/360), we have been reminded that they won't be here much longer.

> Subject: Sad news of Bob Tomasulo's passing
>
> ...
> Bob Tomasulo died a day ago. Bob has been living in Michigan
> and had a long struggle with cancer.
>
> Bob Tomasulo was the 1997 Eckert-Mauchly Award recipient for
> the ingenious algorithm which enabled out-of-order execution
> processors to be implemented.
>
> Tomasulo's algorithm was first used in the floating point
> processor of the IBM 360/91.

Robert Tomasulo is the father of the Tomasulo algorithm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tomasulo

An Efficient Algorithm for Exploiting Multiple Arithmetic Units by R. M. Tomasulo.
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/111/tomasulo.pdf This paper describes the methods employed in the floating-point area of the System/360 Model 91 to exploit the existence of multiple execution units.

Dynamic Scheduling Using Tomasulo's Algorithm
http://www.cs.ucf.edu/~lboloni/Teaching/EEL5708_2004/slides/lecture_15_tomasulo.ppt

Google
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Bob+Tomasulo+IBM+360%2F91&btnG=Search

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters

Refed: **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:21:12

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
more 40+ yr old technology ...

Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/03/virtualization-software-enterprise-tech-virtualization08-cx_wt_0403virtual.html

from above:

Virtualization technologies help companies use more of the computing resources they already have to save money. With a recession looming, virtualization technologies are becoming must-have budget items as companies need to find ways to cut costs. "In a recession, virtualization is going to get hotter," says Gartner analyst Thomas Bittman.

... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#37 Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters

Special Report: Virtualization
http://www.forbes.com/home/technology/2008/04/03/virtualization-trend-computing-tech-virtualization08-cx_wt_0403virtualization_land.html
Virtualization is the biggest buzz word in information technology today. The reason? The geeky technology concept is transforming corporate computing, allowing companies to do more with the back-office resources they already have. As a result, virtualization helps companies save millions on hardware, energy and data center costs--good technologies to have during a recession.

... snip ...

Virtualization: Virtualize Me!
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/02/virtualization-welch-vmware-tech-virtualization08-cx_wt_0403companies.html

from above:
Virtualization is a mouthful of buzz for what's really a simple idea: how to get the most processing power out of the computers a company already has. Particularly when the economy threatens to dip into a recession, there's no more important rule in corporate IT departments than making more out of what's already humming in the back room.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

authoritative IEFBR14 reference

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: authoritative IEFBR14 reference
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:23:33

Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
Do you recall *why* it was done that way? It seems to me that meaningful names would be easier to remember and easier to guess at if you came across a new one.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#33 authoritative IEFBR14 reference

predates me ... i was undergraduate towards the tailend of that period ... got to work a lot with the software ... but there was a whole corporate organization between me and them.

i had done a lot of work on os/360 sysgen to 1) run in production jobstream rather than with the starter system, 2) reorganize the sysgen build statements so that the resulting system had components & members carefully placed/ordered on disk to optimize disk arm motion. a lot of this started out being empirical and trial&error. At some point, local corporate people provided me with an internal corporate tool from POK that recorded frequency of various component use ... the frequency use information i could use to help determine ordering/placement.

pure conjecture ... possible similar reason that state license plate tend to no longer have any meaning. when population of automobiles were much smaller ... in many states, the license plate encoding tended to reflect local physical area. as numbers increased, it became more & more difficult to maintain such encoding. area codes are starting to get like that ... especially cellphones, which are becoming totally unrelated to physical region.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Was CMS multi-tasking?

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was CMS multi-tasking?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:04:44

"Dave Wade" <g8mqw@yahoo.com> writes:
Almost all products that communicated between VM's used (and still use) IUCV. The original TCP/IP product 5789-FAL used IUCV to to provide the communciations layer for TCP/IP. The Network/VM product I used to work on used IUCV to pass X.25 between VMs. VM/VTAM uses IUCV to CP to create terminal devices. CMS uses IUCV to talk to the Shared File store...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#9 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#14 Was CMS multi-tasking?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#22 Was CMS multi-tasking?

5789-FAL was ported to MVS by implementing an IUCV diagnose emulation ... for early MVS tcp/ip product support.

as noted in previous posts, SPM predated (original done on cp67) both (vm370 release 3) vmcf and (later vm370 release 6) iucv ... and was superset of both (apparently some NIH issues).

5789-FAL was implemented in vs/pascal ... recent post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options

i had added RFC1044 support to the product ... the base implementation got about 44kbytes/sec thruput using a full 3090 processor. in some tuning tests at cray research, rfc1044 support achieved 1mbyte/sec thruput (channel interface limitation) between cray and 4341-clone using only modest amount of 4341 processor.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044

the vtam tcp/ip (both mvs & vm) support was totally different implementation ... original code had been subcontracted out. old posts referring to some folklore about subcontractor having difficulty getting the implementation accepted (because of some performance comparison vis-a-vis lu6.2).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#13 Barbaras (mini-)rant
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#53 Mainframe Linux Mythbusting (Was: Using Java in batch on z/OS?)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#8 whiny question: Why won't z/OS support the HMC 3270 emulator
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#45 Are there tasks that don't play by WLM's rules
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#50 Running REXX program in a batch job

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Was CMS multi-tasking?

Refed: **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Was CMS multi-tasking?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:40:13

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
the vtam tcp/ip (both mvs & vm) support was totally different implementation ... original code had been subcontracted out. old posts referring to some folklore about subcontractor having difficulty getting the implementation accepted (because of some performance comparison vis-a-vis lu6.2).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#13 Barbaras (mini-)rant
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#53 Mainframe Linux Mythbusting (Was: Using Java in batch on z/OS?)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007h.html#8 whiny question: Why won't z/OS support the HMC 3270 emulator
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#45 Are there tasks that don't play by WLM's rules
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#50 Running REXX program in a batch job

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#41 Was CMS multi-tasking?

vtam/tcp implementation was also much later.

past email about nsfnet backbone related activity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#nsfnet

as well as various posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet

we had working with nsf and then all of our meetings started being canceled (on the corporate side) and we weren't allowed to bid on the original nsfnet backbone.

one of the people in the communication group was watching some of the parties on the other side and their (internal corporate) disinformation ... and forwarded us some of what was going on ... old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email870109

in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#21 SNA/VTAM for NSFNET

as mentioned ... while we had T1 & higher speect links deployed internally
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
and
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

and when we weren't allowed to bid on nsfnet, nsf director had audit of what we had running and wrote a letter to the company pointing out that what we already had running was at least five years ahead of all nsfnet bid submissions. the winning bid actually didn't deploy T1 links ... the nsfnet backbone links that deployed were 440kbits ... and then they had a telco-like multiplexor with T1 trunks (possibly to meet the letter of the contract).

for nsfnet2 rfp (upgrade T1 to T3), we were invited to be the red team arrayed against the rest of the corporate blue team (20-30 from 7 labs around the world) ... possibly believing that they would put to bed any rumors about earlier disinformation activity. at the corporate review, i presented first ... followed by the blue team presentation. something like 5-10 minutes into the blue team presentation, the executive running the review, pounded on the table and declared that he would lay down in front of a garbage truck before allowing any but the blue team proposal to go forward.

misc. past posts mentioning the garbage truck comment:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#77 Is Al Gore The Father of the Internet?^
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#13 Cerf and Kahn receive Turing award
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005u.html#53 OSI model and an interview
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006e.html#38 The Pankian Metaphor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006u.html#56 Ranking of non-IBM mainframe builders?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007l.html#69 nouns and adjectives

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Coming soon: superfast internet

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Coming soon: superfast internet
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:13:00

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
throwing resources at problems ... in lieu of better understanding, isn't just limited to datacenter operations ... it also frequently shows up in threads about management of the internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#35 Does TCP Need an Overhaul?

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#39 Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters

Coming soon: superfast internet
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3689881.ece

from above:
THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, "the grid" will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

.. snip ...

other recent post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#42 Was CMS multi-trasking?

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Fixing finance

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Fixing finance
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:38:32

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
Coming Soon ... Securitization with a New, Improved (and Perhaps Safer) Face
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1933 (gone 404 and/or requires registration)

from above ...

"That will mean that under the best of circumstances, it will be harder to get a triple-A rating, which will reduce the profitability of securities," Guttentag says. Some forms of securities will die. CDOs are doomed, he adds, because the market has seen they are extremely difficult to value. "In the short term, the prospects are dismal. The market will recover, but I don't think we'll ever see CDOs again and the standards will be tougher, so the comeback will be gradual."

... snip ...

and ...

Linneman figures that 1,000 CEOs are accountable for about 80% of the current lending mess. If the government were to spend $10 billion to restore liquidity to the market in nine months with only 1,000 people losing their jobs, it would be the best investment it could make to restore the economy.

... snip ...

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36 Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln

Fixing finance; Crisis are endemic to financial systems. Attempts to regulate them may do more harm than good
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10966204

from above:
Just look at their mistakes. Before the crisis, hedge funds were regarded with suspicion as vulnerable and irresponsible. But, with a few notable exceptions, they have weathered the storm less as culprits than as victims. Instead, the system's own safety features turned out to be its weakest points. The copper bottom fell out of AAA bonds when housing markets failed to do what the rating agencies had expected. Banks avoided rules requiring them to put aside capital, by warehousing vast sums off-balance sheet with disastrous results.

... snip ...

there is the scenario that toxic CDOs were created to obfuscate underlying values ... so there wasn't a lot of surprise when it turns out the triple-A rating, wasn't
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#25 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4 CDOs subverting Boyd's OODA-loop

then there is the issue of Glass-Steagall repeal in the 90s, allowing the unregulated investment banking activities to start impacting the safety/soundness of regulated banking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97 Bush - place in history

the combination creating new environment disconnected from (traditional regulated) economic forces ... 1) originating subprime mortgages effectively uncoupled from the prime rate, 2) unloading mortgages as toxic CDOs effectively uncoupled from value of underlying mortgages, 3) enormous leveraging 30, 44, higher; significantly diluting any regulated capital requirements.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

authoritative IEFBR14 reference

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: authoritative IEFBR14 reference
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:09:08

Peter Flass <Peter_Flass@Yahoo.com> writes:
There is actually some logic to the names. For example, I believe, in PL/I(F) the major overlays might be called "IEMxA" (X=A,B, etc., IEMAA is the compiler root), and second-level overlays of (possibly hypothetical) "IEMBA" might be named "IEMBC", "IEMBD", etc.

Certainly the prefixes were assigned to avoid name collisions between groups of developers. "I" itself is one of the prefixes labelled "reserved for IBM", which (IIRC) might have been I-R, as opposed to names beginning with other characters which were for customer use.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#33 authoritative IEFBR14 reference
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#40 authoritative IEFBR14 reference

executable infrastructure limited symbols to 8 characters.

components names were handed out 3 character prefixes.

module names within a component then tended to use the next three characters ... leaving two characters for individual entry points within a module.

in the cp67 ... the science center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

didn't follow any particular convention assigning names to modules ... other than some attempt to be meaningful, i.e.

CCWTRANS ... was the routine that translating CCWs DISPATCH ... was the dispatcher PAGTRANS ... handled page faults, replacement algorithm, translation

in the morph to vm370, the kernel was assigned "DMK" 3 character component id (and CMS was assigned "DMS" 3 character component id). There was legacy hangover in the morph;CCWTRANS became DMKCCW, DISPATCH became DMKDSP, PAGTRANS became DMKPTR, etc.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:06:34

Gartner bullish on virtualization market; The research firm called virtualization the "highest-impact trend" for IT through 2012
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;2088188382

from above:
The driving factor behind the growth, according to Gartner, will be server virtualization, which the research firm said contributed to a four per cent drop in the x86 server market in 2006. The report states that about 90 per cent of the server market is composed of x86 architecture servers. Based on the traditional model of one application per server, Gartner said, roughly 80 to 90 per cent of server computing capacity is unutilized.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

My last post in this forum

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: My last post in this forum.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 07:33:51

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#19 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#26 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#29 CA ESD files Options
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#30 CA ESD files Options

i've being doing online discussions for over 30 yrs ... in fact, it was nearly 30 yrs ago ... i got blameed for online discussions being on the internal network (which was larger than the internat/arpanet at the time)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet

there was an incident where somebody printed hardcopy of various discussions (300 pages) and packaged them into tandem three-ring binders and sent them to the six members of the executive committee (ceo, president, executive vps, etc) ... which i also got blameed for.

this kind of post is long time stereotype ... it is almost always followed by some subsequent post that they've changed their mind because something has changed about how they feel. those that really drop out of discussions ... never bother to announce it.

for other topic drift ... approx. 25 yrs ago, a researcher was paid to spend nine months in the back of my office taking notes on how i communicated (somewhat as result of being blameed for online discussions on the internal network). They got copies of all my incoming and outgoing email as well as logs of all instant messages. The result was also a stanford phd thesis (joint between language and AI) and material for some number of subsequent papers and books in the area of computer mediated communication ... random posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

How did third-party software companies deal with unbundling being sprung on them?

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: How did third-party software companies deal with unbundling being sprung on them?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:32:45

Chris Barts <chbarts+usenet@gmail.com> writes:
It would seem that unbundling would inevitably lead to massive re-implementation of services once part of the OS install, and concomitant incompatibilities between applications, and between specific applications and the OS (when the unbundled features are installed). Did any application developers handle this gracefully?

depend on what unbundling applies to. 23jun69, ibm announced unbundling ... starting to charge for (previously free) software, engineering services, etc .... largely because of various litigation and gov. activities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundle

however, they were able to make the case that kernel was still "free" ... unbundling and charging for software applied to application software.

i had done a lot of stuff for cp67 as an undergraduate ... which was picked up and shipped in the standard product. this included adding tty/ascii terminal support to cp67. as part of that effort ... i tried to get the terminal controller to do something that it actually wouldn't quite do. this somewhat was behind the univ starting a clone controller project ... reverse engineered the channel interface and built a controller channel interface card for an interdata/3 ... programmed to emulate standard mainframe controller (and doing some of the extra stuff ... including automatic terminal baud rate recognition). there was subsequent article that somewhat blameed us for the clone controller business
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360pcm

the clone controller business then was claimed to be a primary motivation for the future system project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

old post with reference to future system project in fergus/morris book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#33

recent post with some quotes on future system project motivation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#16

from long article here
https://www.ecole.org/en/session/49-the-rise-and-fall-of-ibm
https://www.ecole.org/en/session/49-the-rise-and-fall-of-ibm

in the morph of cp67 to vm370, a lot of the changes i had done as undergraduate had been dropped ... including stuff in page replacement and virtual memory management ... as well as dynamic adaptive resource management.

somewhat with the demise of the future system project ... there was a mad rush to get hardware & software back into the 370 product pipeline ... which had somewhat dried up with all the attention that future system would completely replace the existing 360/370. part of that, the mainframe "batch" group in pok, managed to convince the company to kill the vm370 product and move all the development people to pok in order to get out mvs/xa product on any sort of schedule.

the future system distraction also aided clone processor vendors to gain foothold in the market.

i had migrated a bunch of the stuff from cp67 to vm370 (as well as adding a bunch of features) for internal distribution
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

in fact at one point, the size of (just) this internal distribution was larger than the total number of multics installation that ever existed ... a reference to multics being on the 5th flr of 545 tech sq and the science center on 4th flr
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

in any case, as a result of combination of factors in the wake of future system being killed ... it was decided that i could release a lot of the vm370 code as a separately packaged kernel product
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock

and with the rise of processor clone vendors, it contributed to decision to start charging for kernel software ... and my resource manager being selected as the guinea pig ... which met that I had to spend time with business planners and lawyers on and off over a six month period helping work on policy and practices for kernel software charging.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

IBM emulator for ICL 1900

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM emulator for ICL 1900
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:59:59

"Dave Wade" <g8mqw@yahoo.com> writes:
I don't every recall a ICL1900 emulator being a product, but these days IBM no longer keeps very old announcement letters on-line so its not easy to find out. I can't see much commercial value in it, because ICL Operating System were, as far as I recall always proprietry. There were certainly tools to convert programs across, but I don't recall an emulator.

there is a website that is following the ibm legal action against PCI ... which supposedly is a spin-off of Amdahl ... and supposedly leveraged some (ibm) confidential technology for their mainframe processor clone implementation on itanium (and seems to have implications for all such mainframe processor clone implementations). along the way, there was some sort of reference to icl 1900 emulator

URLs for article here:
http://www.isham-research.co.uk/emulation_2005.html
http://www.isham-research.co.uk/platslns.html

including this one with passing reference to ICL 1900:
http://www.isham-research.co.uk/ibm-vs-psi-amended.html

for other drift, recent post mentioning the (70s) processor clone vendors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#48 How did third-party software companies deal with unbundling being sprung on them?

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

CA ESD files Options

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: CA ESD files Options
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:31:30

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
for slightly other drift, when we were doing ha/cmp product
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp

we had done detailed end-to-end vulnerability and threat analysis, somewhat treating security/attack related threats as a subset of general system availability issues
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available

we used that detailed analysis later when we were called in to consult with a small client/server startup.

two of the people that were in this ha/cmp scale-up meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

had left and joined the startup and were responsible for something called a commerce server (and they wanted to do payment transactions on their server ... they also had this technology called SSL). Part of the work resulted in something called a payment gateway (could be considered the original SOA)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway

that work is now frequently referred to as electronic commerce.

We would frequently comment that there were significant aspects of the internet that had never considered business critical dataprocessing issues ... and as part of doing payment gateway deployment we had to create numerous compensating procedures (many of them that wouldn't have been needed if had started with a MF platform).

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#29 CA ESD files Options

Mainframe Computing Jobs in Demand Again
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1327814/mainframe_computing_jobs_in_demand_again/index.html
Old tech skills again in demand; Mainframe computing jobs vacant as the Baby Boomers who set up systems begin retiring with few educated to fill the spots
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-tech-jobs-ibmapr05%2c0%2c2110029.story

from above:
Computer scientists say mainframes, the machines housed in hulking metal boxes that store and process massive amounts of data for organizations, are unfairly regarded as historical curiosities when they in fact remain vital to corporations. As the Baby Boomers who set up these systems begin retiring, companies are searching for new graduates with mainframe computing skills.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:33:25

antonbritz@GMAIL.COM (Anton Britz) writes:
Based on the discussions I follow on the PBS channel, the "Hedge FUnd Mess" and the subsequent 30 Billion Republican bail out was because of the lact of "Regulation" by Greenspan.

note that the toxic CDOs being invested in were designed in the S&L crisis ... somewhat to obfuscate the underlying value ... so it isn't much of surprise when they lost their triple-A ratings:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#4
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#44

reference to write downs heading for $400bln
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36

UBS is not the only one being ridiculed ... citibank is taking some too ... some additional references
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32

old long-winded post from nearly decade ago touching on several things ... including needing improved (value) transparency for such financial instruments.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm

part of the problem is repeal of Glass-Steagall in the 90s which had kept unregulated investment banking separated from saftey and soundness of regulating banking (i.e. Glass-Steagall passed in the wake of crash of '29 having learned that unregulated activity had to be kept strictly separated from regulated activity).

various posts mentioning PBS program on the Wall Street Fix (repeal of Glass-Steagall):
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#13
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#97
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2

PBS Wall Street Fix program URLs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/fixing/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wcom/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html

including ...
On Oct. 21, with the House-Senate conference committee deadlocked after marathon negotiations, the main sticking point is partisan bickering over the bill's effect on the Community Reinvestment Act, which sets rules for lending to poor communities. Sandy Weill calls President Clinton in the evening to try to break the deadlock after Senator Phil Gramm, chairman of the Banking Committee, warned Citigroup lobbyist Roger Levy that Weill has to get White House moving on the bill or he would shut down the House-Senate conference.

... snip ...

unregulated activity has had "leverage" rumored as high as 100 times; buy a toxic CDO, then borrow on the value of the toxic CDO and buy a new toxic CDO, repeat 100 times (actual capital is only one to two percent). repeal of Glass-Steagall allowed (such unregulated) activity to start to permeate into regulated banking.

UBS recently unloaded $24b of toxic CDOs ... supposedly "high quality" at 70 cents on the dollar. Reports some of the toxic CDOs have gone for as little as ten cents on the dollar.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:58:28

Tom.Harper@NEONESOFT.COM (Tom Harper) writes:
The point I was trying to make is that the compensation package for the IBM CEO, compared to others heading up large corporations and compared to other very bright people, such as James Simons, did not strike me as unusual or excessive, or out-of-line in any way, especially considering how well IBM has been doing recently. So I'm not quite sure why you decided to call our attention to it???

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

unregulated investment banking institutions (outside federal reserve regulation ... although repeal of Glass-Steagall allowed such activity to impact regulated banking institutions).

earlier post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#76

references: The Fed's Too Easy on Wall Street
http://www.businessweek.com/#missing-article

from above:
Here's a staggering figure to contemplate: New York City securities industry firms paid out a total of $137 billion in employee bonuses from 2002 to 2007, according to figures compiled by the New York State Office of the Comptroller. Let's break that down: Wall Street honchos earned a bonus of $9.8 billion in 2002, $15.8 billion in 2003, $18.6 billion in 2004, $25.7 billion in 2005, $33.9 billion in 2006, and $33.2 billion in 2007.

... snip ...

now you roll forward into 2008 and finding that these firms are taking write-downs currently approaching $400b ... large part because of toxic CDOs investments over the past several years (and some cases requiring external investments to stay afloat ...or in other cases, not surviving).

and
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32

references:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1933 (gone 404 and/or requires registration)

from above:
Linneman figures that 1,000 CEOs are accountable for about 80% of the current lending mess. If the government were to spend $10 billion to restore liquidity to the market in nine months with only 1,000 people losing their jobs, it would be the best investment it could make to restore the economy.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:46:06

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes:
No, it's worse than that. They also closed down their x86 long-term development and had to restart it later. It is also the reason that the NetBust technology lasted for so long - Intel didn't have anything to replace it with!

They came pretty close to doing what IBM did with the System 360, as I posted in 1998 - i.e. betting their entirely company on the IA64's success. And that is executive incompetence, though they backed off just in time, and their nuts were pulled from the fire by the Israelis. If the latter had not produced the 'Core' design, which they did without central authorisation, Intel could have lost a LOT of market share and heads would have rolled.

... possibly more akin to future system effort ... which was to completely replace 360/370. recent post with some discussion and refs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#48
and
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#16

old thread with some references/comments from fergus/morris book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#33

above references that the culture in wake of future system failure also contributed to not being more aggresive with risc. on the other hand, i've claimed that a lot of 801/risc was motivated to go to the opposite extreme of future system ... misc. past posts mentioning 801/risc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801

I had somewhat ridiculed the (FS) effort at the time ... drawing comparison with continuously long-playing cult film down in central sq (inmates being in charge of the institution). Effort was killed before being announced ... but software & hardware product pipelines had somewhat alowed to empty ... so there was mad rush to get stuff back into motion. this is claimed to have contributed to clone processors gaining foothold in the business.

misc. other posts mentioning future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:31:34

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
I had somewhat ridiculed the effort at the time ... drawing comparison with continuously long-playing cult film down in central sq (inmates being in charge of the institution). Effort was killed before being announced ... but software & hardware product pipelines had somewhat alowed to empty ... so there was mad rush to get stuff back into motion. this is claimed to have contributed to clone processors gaining foothold in the business.

misc. other posts mentioning future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#53

Amdahl had given a talk at mit in the 70s (sort of in the middle of future system effort going on) about starting a clone processor company. the audience gave a hard time about funding from non-US interests. He was also asked how did he justify the funding for the new startup. He said that customers had already spent something like $200b in developing 360 application software ... and even if IBM were to totally walk away from 360/370 (which could be considered a veiled reference to FS), that the application software base was sufficient to keep him in business through the end of the century.

since i had continued to work on 360/370 software all thru the period, some old email references:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

The 370 product pipeline going dry ... and then the mad rush to get stuff back into pipeline (after future system was killed) ... contributed to decisions to allow me to ship a bunch of software.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:22:26

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes:
Which is very relevant to the "the empire of the x86 will last a thousand years" debate. If IBM had walked away from the 360/370 and taken up FS, it would have been a totally dead system by the end of the century, whatever Amdahl did. There wasn't much of a stub (though a lucrative one) by then, even with IBM backing it.

The people who didn't believe that IBM compatibility was the Holy Writ is was made out to be were proved right during the Attack of the Killer Micros. Some of those people are still around, and don't believe that Intel compatibility is the Holy Writ it is made out to be :-)

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#53 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#54 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

part of the issue of the attack of the killer micros ... was believing throwing hardware could overcome any design/software difficulty.

we had done the ha/cmp project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
and worked on cluster scale-up ... some old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa
before it was transferred to another org. and announced as a supercomputer ... AND we were told we couldn't work on anything with more than four processors ... misc. old post reference
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

however, there was an enormous amount of money poured into various legacy re-engineering projects using object oriented messaging technology and "massive" parallelism.

one market segment working on this was financial, which was specifically encountering problems with the overnight batch windows. especially in the 70s&80s, some amount of financial operations had been partially moved online ... supporting real-time transactions ... but much of the processing was still being deferred and run in something called overnight batch windows.

the "massive" parallelism with the killer micros ... was to migrate to straight-through processing ... where the real-time transactions were processed to completion. The overnight batch windows were under extreme pressure from increasing workloads and globalization decreasing the length/size of the window (which straight-through processing and massive parallelism would all make go away). where the projects failed was that the object-oriented messaging paradigm was found to introduce a factor of 100 times overhead vis-a-vis the batch implementations (this was not discovered until well into several of the projects) which totally obliterated any "killer micro" and massive parallelism benefits. In some cases, nobody even bothered doing any speeds&feeds until attempting to start some actual production deployments.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:16:03

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes:
And exactly what changed between then and the Merced?

Oh, yes, with the Merced people believed that improved compilers could overcome any design / language / coding paradigm difficulty ....

But has that changed between the Merced and now? :-(

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#53 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#54 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#55 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

side note ... one of the people that had worked on 801/risc in the 70s left and went to work for another vendor (in fact, several risc projects at other vendors picked up former 801 people during the 80s). later he shows up as one of the primary itanium architects. folklore was that he continued to work on blue iliad (1st 32bit 801 chip) for the two weeks after giving notice.

in the original 801/risc from the 70s ... the matra was that improved compilers & systems (pl.8, cpr, etc) would overcome ...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
and various old 801 email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#801

and attempting to take risc to the exact opposite of future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

the hardware was exceedingly simplified (lots of hardware/software trade-offs in favor of sophisticated software) ... including things like no cache consistency (negating most smp implementations, up until joint somerset effort with motorola, apple, etc), no protection domains (only valid applications would be loaded for execution ... and only correct applications would be produced by compiler), inverted virtual memory tables, hardware segment "registers" (in lieu of tables). criticizing limited number of segment registers (in the 70s) for virtual memory operations was answered with the comment that "no protection domains" and "perfect applications" (produced by perfect pl.8 compiler) would be allowed to switch virtual memory segment register values as easily as changing general register contents.

early 801/risc projects were to replace the large myriad of corporate microprocessors ... including those used in low-end and mid-range 370s. Various "Iliad" 801 chips were targeted as processor emulation. Original as/400 was going to have iliad ... but when iliad ran into problems, as/400 group quickly turned out a cisc processor (later as/400 would finally move to 801/risc with power/pc ... and just last couple days there was announcemnt that the separate unix & as/400 lines on power/pc were being consolidated).

another early 801/risc project was romp which was going to be a (OPD) displaywriter follow-on. when that got killed, there was some investigation if they could keep the project alive ... and discovered "unix workstation" market. The pl.8 programmers were put to building a "virtual resource manager" and the company that had produced the pc/ix port was hired to do a port to "VRM". the justification was that the production of the VRM and the outside company doing a unix port to the VRM interface would take less time/money/resources than do a straight port directly to the 801/romp hardware ... this was later shown to be untrue and the VRM disappeared with transition from ROMP to RIOS (the snide explanation was that the whole VRM scenario was to give the pl.8 programmers something to do). romp also had to have some hardware tweaks for the unix workstation market since it required paradigm of kernel/privileged mode (and applications weren't presumed to be perfect and/or non-hostile).

for other topic drift ... having done a lot of work on smp, smp kernels, compare&swap instruction, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp

the choice to do cluster scale-up for rios ... was large part motivated by rios not supporting any sort of (SMP) cache consistency
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
besides obvious numerical intensive applications ... some mentioned in old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa

also doing scale-up distributed lock manager for dbms operation ... referenced in this post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13

was at least in part based on having worked on original relational/sql implementation ... misc. past posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:30:55

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#44

Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/08/business/imf.php
IMF says credit crisis remains threat to economic growth.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/08/news/economy/Economic_Forecast.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008040812

Citigroup, Wells Fargo May Loan Less After Downgrades
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a9YwntHR.pFQ&refer=home

from above:
The credit crunch has already cost the world's biggest financial companies about $232 billion and forced a government bailout of New York-based Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank. The International Monetary Fund said last week that banks were in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

... snip ...

recent posts mentioning Lehman suggesting it would (only) hit $400b
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#52

posts quoting "write-down" sweepstakes news item (the winner was UBS, but "citigroup hadn't been heard from yet")
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36

Citigroup Slips After 10 Years as Biggest U.S. Bank
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=akRS1ZzldtpA&refer=home

from above:
Reeling from $20 billion of writedowns that helped shrink its shares to less than half the 2000 high of $54.76, Citigroup is poised to dispose of more than $200 billion of loans and securities to shore up its capital, said a person with knowledge of the plans who declined to be identified because they haven't been made public.

... snip ...

reference to Wall Street Fix ... and repeal of Glass-Steagall:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2

Banks must get handle on complicated securities
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409/GIStory/
Banks must get handle on complicated securities
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409/BNStory/robNews/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409

long winded, decade old post that makes reference to being able to correctly value such securities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm

of course, they were invented during the S&L crisis ... somewhat specifically to obfuscate the underlying values ... recent reference:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57

recent posts mentioning securities analytics
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#25 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#66 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#70 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#71 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#12 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#21 Financial Analytics in E-Commerce: Starting to Take Shape
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#24 folklore indeed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#24 Job ad for z/OS systems programmer trainee
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM

other related news stories on the subject:

Morgan Stanley's Mack Expects Credit Crisis to Last
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aw21NeVRhBFs&refer=us
Morgan Stanley CEO says he sees opportunity in credit crisis
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/08/news/newsmakers/Morgan_CEO.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008040812 Citigroup Chief Aims to Sell $12 Billion of Loans, Person Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQUjnLLhAEK8&refer=home
Washington Mutual Declines In Pre-Market After Reportedly Selecting TPG Over JP Morgan $7 Bln Offer
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/STOCK%20ALERT/1334659/
CIBC finally agrees to $32-billion for ABCP restructuring
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=%20c8f65706-1ca6-4875-889b-87242563f033
Banks must take fewer risks to restore confidence: Ackermann
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=433396
Britain's economy | The bust begins
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11001376

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Virtualization: History repeats itself with a search for security

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Virtualization: History repeats itself with a search for security
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:11:32

Virtualization: History repeats itself with a search for security
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/46092-1.html

from above:
"Every year at RSA there is a belle of the ball," Shimel said. "I think this year virtualization and security is that topic."

"Nobody was talking about virtualization, and certainly not virtualization security, 18 months ago," Boltz said. "Now, virtualization and security are the topics of the year."

... snip ...

i would take issue with that.

for instance (from mailing list 1sep2004 about 60s virtualization & security)
https://web.archive.org/web/20090117083033/http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/list-archive/0409/8362.shtml

and recent thread touching on MF VM integrity/security issues:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#18 CA ESD files Options.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#25 CA ESD files Options.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#26 CA ESD files Options.

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:16:37

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
Banks must get handle on complicated securities
http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409/GIStory/
Banks must get handle on complicated securities
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409/BNStory/robNews/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080409.wiif0409

long winded, decade old post that makes reference to being able to correctly value such securities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm

of course, they were invented during the S&L crisis ... somewhat specifically to obfuscate the underlying values ... recent reference:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#53
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#57

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#57 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

Regulate All That Leverage
http://www.forbes.com/home/opinions/2008/04/09/croesus-chronicles-leverage-oped-cz_rl_0409croesus.html

from above:
Even in the wake of the crisis atmosphere post-absorption of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase, most major investment banking companies still are leveraged 30 to 1, meaning that they have $30 of obligations and liabilities for every $1 of equity capital.

In good times when markets are rising, this extreme leverage magnifies the profits and the stock values of the likes of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley and a host of others.

But in rocky times, this kind of leverage can sink the ship in no time at all, as was the case of Bear Stearns and innumerable hedge funds that have closed shop and are being liquidated.

... snip ...

Taking The Credit Crunch Private
http://www.forbes.com/home/wallstreet/2008/04/09/banking-credit-debt-biz-wall-cx_lm_0409private.html

from above:
The problems aren't just mortgage-related securities either. According to Standard & Poor's, banks are saddled with $200 billion of buyout debt they can't unload without painful losses. Leveraged loans are trading an average of 88 cents on the dollar.

... snip ...

there were articles that crash of '29 was made so bad because stock market allowed margin trades with 20percent equity (5 to 1 leverage); decline of more than 20 percent, not only wiped out original investment ... but also required additional capaital from the investor. subsequent rules increased margin trades to 80percent equity.

30 to 1 leverage (or much higher) ... is only a little over 3 percent equity ... so it takes very trivial downturn to completely wipe-out the original investment. This sort of is assuming that they even start out with a reasonable valuation of the financial instruments (turned out that the toxic CDOs were exceedingly overvalued).

High Finance Laid Low
http://www.forbes.com/home/wallstreet/2008/04/09/banking-regulation-risk-biz-wall-cx_newsweek_0409samuelson.html

then there is the whole Wall Street Fix involving repeal of Glass-Steagall and allowing unregulated investment banking activity to pollute safety&soundness of regulated banking
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#2

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Different Implementations of VLIW

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Different Implementations of VLIW .
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:29:57

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes:
The point is that VLIW originated as a way of making direct use of separate hardware units, and was quite commonly used for microcode (e.g. on the IBM System/370 range). It was 'rediscovered' in the 1990s as a way of making use of the 'available' ILP in programs written in 3GL languages (like Fortran or C).

among others, 370/168 & 3033 were horizontal m'code (i.e. kind of vliw).

and as mentioned here
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#56 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

... one of the itanium architects had worked on 370 as well as 801/risc
https://web.archive.org/web/20000816002838/http://www.hpl.hp.com/features/bill_worley_interview.html

another old itanium article
https://web.archive.org/web/20051031092309/http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2001/apr-jun/itanium.html

the "itanium" architect is also credited with dual-address space mode for 3033.

the mainstream batch 360 operating system had a heavily ingrained pointer passing paradigm. in moving it to a (370) virtual memory environment, each application was given a 16mbyte virtual address space. However, first half of each virtual address space (8mbytes) contained an image of the kernel.

Also, there were many application services that had been done by "sub-systems" outside the kernel ... which also used pointer passing paradigm. In the morph to MVS virtual memory, each of these sub-systems resided in their separate virtual address space. In order to maintain the pointer-passing paradigm, a "common segment" (initially one mbyte) was created in each virtual address space ... where applications could squirrel away paramemters, invoke a kernel call to transfer to a specific subsystem ... passing a parameter pointer. The size of the common segment was actually proportional to the subsystems ... which for larger installations was hitting 4-5mbytes (and growing) ... only leaving 3-4mbytes for actual application use.

in the mad rush to get stuff back into 370 product pipeline ... after demise of future system project
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

and also recently mentioned
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#53 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#54 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

the 370-xa effort was kicked off ... which was going to take eight years. however, as a stop-gap there was the 303x effort. they took a 370/158 and slightly repackaged it as a 3031 and a 370/168 repackaged as a 3032. The 3033 started out as 168 wiring diagram mapped to faster (& denser chip technology). Initially just using the same circuits per chip, the 3033 would have been 20percent faster than 168. Some last minute design to take advantage of denser circuits/chip in critical areas pushed 3033 to 50percent faster.

however, the larger machine would have also met that customers would have run a larger variety of applications and subsystems on the 3033, resulting in the common segment increasing to 8mbytes ... and leaving zero bytes left for applications.

370-xa architecture had a generalized mechanism (access registers) to handle semi-privileged subsystem instruction access to multiple virtual address spaces (eliminating the need for using common segment for stuffing in parameters in support of pointer passing paradigm) as well as new hardware feature that allows direct calls&returns transferring between virtual address spaces (bypassing requirement for call into kernel for processing virtual address space switch). This was independent of 370-xa being 31-bit virtual addressing ... change from 24-bit virtual addressing.

However, 370-xa was still several years away ... so a dual-address space mode Q&D subset was rolled out for 3033 (attempting to mitigate common segment growing to 8mbytes and leaving nothing in each 16mbyte virtual address space for applications)

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
Newsgroups: comp.arch,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:24:16

Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> writes:
IBM compatibility applies to mainframes, minis were not compatible and as you mention micros did not even try but are compatible with other micros. So compatibility only applies within a new architecture. With multi-core the hardware people are trying to introduce a very different architecture. One for which special software has to be written. So the multi-cores probably do not need to be 8086 compatible.

early mainframes also didn't attempt any compatibility ... it was only later as the market matured that the compatibility issue began to emerge ... first plug-compatible controllers and peripherals
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360pcm

... and then later, processors.

also some comparison could be made with the stumble in the 70s with future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

providing opening for plug-compatible processor vendors ... and the stumble with itanium also has claimed to provide additional opportunity for AMD.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#53 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#54 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#55 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#56 performance of hardware dynamic scheduling

old post that had some reference to FS from Fergus/Morris book:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001f.html#33

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

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From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:45:51

sidd@situ.com () writes:
citi wants to sell 12b for 90c on dollar..but they are in first loss position for 20% of loss .. so mebbe effectively 72c/$

today goldman sachs unloaded 1/2 b of chrysler debt for 63c/$

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#57 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#59 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

some bookkeeping magic?

the $24b that UBS unloaded for 70cents on the dollar were supposedly "high" quality. the toxic CDOs that were downgraded from their triple-A status are supposedly going for between 10-50 cents on the dollar.

misc. refs:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#10 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#14 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#13 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#16 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#20 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36 Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

earlier referenced UBS item:

UBS fire-sale
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2449999494

from above:
Analysts said they believed the Swiss bank had sold its Alt-A investments to Pimco for 70 cents on the dollar, taking a deep discount on a CHF26.6bn ($25.7bn) portfolio. UBS' shares fell 4% to CHF30.92 after touching a new five-year low of CHF30.88, more than the 1.2% fall in the DJ Stoxx European bank index.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Machine-Level Assembly Language

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Machine-Level Assembly Language
Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370,alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:14:47

Allodoxaphobia <bit-bucket@config.com> writes:
When you get to "Assembly Language", you require some sort of compiler to decode/encode the almost-english-like instruction mnemonics into the actual binary encoding usable by the target machine.

Then there's the topic of Relocatability.........

don't get me started ... it was one of the severe problems ... the os/360 relocatable address adcons ... lots of past posts on the severe problems it gave me
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#adcons

the science center in the mid-60s
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech csc/vm (&/or sjr/vm) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm

along with starting out with doing the cp40 virtual machine implementation (also doing hardware modifications to 360/40 for virtual memory support), also did cms (started out as cambridge monitor system, was later renamed to conversation monitor system).

cms made extensively use of os/360 language applications (assemblers, compilers, etc) with emulation of the required os/360 facilities. this included program link/loader having to support the intermediate os/360 TXT conventions ... old post with "RLD" format:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#26 Relocation, was Re: Early computer games

starting on cp67 (the science center had morphed cp40 to cp67 when 360/67 with standard virtual memory hardware became available), i had implementated page-mapped filesystem support for cms with a lot of features for mapping executable files (from the filesystem) into virtual memory. some old email referencing migrating work from cp67 to vm370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006v.html#email731212
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750102
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email750430

while the page-mapped filesystem stuff never shipped in product ... it was extensively used in internal distributions ... recent reference
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#48 How did third-party software companies deal with unbundling being sprung on them?

a small subset of the csc/vm support for mapping of objects to virtual memory was shipped in vm370 release three as DCSS. This somewhat happened because the demise of future system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

and the resulting mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipeline ... created opportunity for picking up and shipping a lot of stuff that I had been doing (all thru the future system period) ... see the above referenced post regarding unbundling.

part of the issue was the original/basic support permitted a page-mapped filesystem object to be mapped to an arbitrary virtual memory address as well the same virtual memory object to be mapped to multiple different virtual address spaces (as shared object) ... and a shared object wasn't required to appear at the same virtual address in different virtual address spaces.

the os/360 TXT deck convention for RLD processing ... was that when the executable object is fetched and mapped to address space ... all the RLD address constants have to be swizzled to correspond to the loaded address. These has very adverse effects in a virtual memory environment. First ... all the virtual pages containing relocatable address constants, were being prefetched and modified before program execution could begin (forcing changed status on the page). Second ... once the relocatable address constants were swizzled to correspond with executing virtual address ... it was pinned to that address and wouldn't work at different addresses (eliminating the feasability of having the same virtual executable object appearing simultaneously at arbitrary different virtual addresses in different virtual address spaces).

At least this was one area where tss/360 did get it right (and some number of other operating systems specifically designed for virtual memory environment) ... which had executable object convention that allowed for it to be page-mapped with-out requiring all the relocatable address constants in arbitrary virtual pages to be modified ... as well as allowing for shared executable image to appear at arbitrary virtual addresses in different virtual address spaces.

For all the executable images that I would allow to appear at arbitrary virtual addresses ... w/o pre-swizzling all the relocatable address constants ... i had to go thru the source and eliminate all such relocatable address constants. This was complicated by CMS having a kernel API SVC202 interface that had a convention with a relocatable address constant (frequently "*+4") following the SVC instruction.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#23 command line switches [Re: [REALLY OT!] Overuse of symbolic

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:43:54

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:

https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#78 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#4 independent appraisers

non-owner-occupied speculators ... holding properties off the market for year or so ... would tend to inflate the apparent demand ... helping fuel real estate price inflation (and also contributing to over building).

speculators who anticipate real demand ... can rev up the suppliers to start producing additional product before the demand actually materializes.

however, later in the cycle ... i conjecture that economic modeling of speculators, effectively holding product off the market ... would start to look more like hording ... creating appearance of demand in excess of actual supply. then the incremental, artificial scarcity goes thru period of adjustment. an analogous hording of consumable products tends to go thru more rapid adjustment. non-owner-occupied speculation properties, using the hording analogy ... contributes to additional property inflation ... which will have to go through an adjustment period (when the anticipated demand doesn't immediately materialize).

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#5 independent appraisers

so, as opposed to the hording metaphor (speculators holding product off the market anticipating appreciation/inflation, subprime mortgages contributing since speculators are hoping they can flip before the adjustment occurs) ... another aspect of the toxic CDO infrastructure uses a pyramid metaphor (in conjunction with toxic CDOs being used to obfuscate underlying value, further contributing to infrastructure inflation)

What Is Wall Street Worth?
http://www.forbes.com/home/opinions/2008/04/08/sosnoff-wallstreet-value-oped-cx_mts_0409sosnoff.html

from above:
Net worth of the major houses ranges from $20 billion to $40 billion. With this paper a multiple of net worth, they had put themselves into the category of prospective moral hazard candidates (an economist's term). I prefer the more descriptive trader's argot: "an accident waiting to happen." Ask yourself whether you would act so crazy with your own account.

... snip ...

Confessions Of A Hedge Fund Manager Redux
http://consumerist.com/377065/confessions-of-a-hedge-fund-manager-redux

from above:
HFM: I don't know the size of the team, but they were sitting there, buying asset-backed securities backed by sub-prime mortgages, they were borrowing a lot of money, they used the capital they had, they borrowed outside money, they bought sub-prime mortgages. They were highly, highly leveraged. 50:1 leverage.

... snip ...

Are we headed for an epic bear market?
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/AreWeHeadedForAnEpicBearMarket.aspx

from above:
CDOs were first widely used back in the late 1980s by Drexel Burnham Lambert junk-bond king Michael Milken to sell off damaged and previously unsellable debt in a way that was more palatable to customers.

... snip ...

Credit Default Swaps: Derivative Disaster Du Jour
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_ellen_br_080410_credit_default_swaps.htm

from above:
The Wall Street Ponzi Scheme

The Ponzi scheme that has gone bad is not just another misguided investment strategy. It is at the very heart of the banking business, the thing that has propped it up over the course of three centuries. A Ponzi scheme is a form of pyramid scheme in which new investors must continually be sucked in at the bottom to support the investors at the top. In this case, new borrowers must continually be sucked in to support the creditors at the top. The Wall Street Ponzi scheme is built on "fractional reserve" lending, which allows banks to create "credit" (or "debt") with accounting entries. Banks are now allowed to lend from 10 to 30 times their "reserves," essentially counterfeiting the money they lend. Over 97 percent of the U.S. money supply (M3) has been created by banks in this way.

... snip ...

How Conventional CDO Analytics Missed the Mark
http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2007/Dec/20/Kamakura_Releases_Study:_How_Conventional_CDO_Analytics_Missed_the_Mark.html

from above:
"Two years ago the Wall Street Journal in a page 1 story pointed out the dangers in relying on the copula approach for CDO valuation, but investors were slow to realize the magnitude of their model risk"

... snip ...

CDO Correlation: Reversal of Fortune; New Kamakura Study Proves Common CDO Assumptions Can Lead to Serious Valuation Errors
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=811168

...

long winded, decade old post mentioning the S&L crisis, citicorp (needing private equity infusion bailout in '89) and the mortgage-backed securities valuation problems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay3.htm#riskm

misc. past posts with references to some of the above:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007v.html#25 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#66 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008.html#70 As Expected, Ford Falls From 2nd Place in U.S. Sales
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008b.html#12 Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#21 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008c.html#87 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#85 Toyota Sales for 2007 May Surpass GM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#42 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#65 Banks failing to manage IT risk - study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#70 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#17 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#43 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#46 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#51 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#71 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008f.html#94 Bush - place in history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#37 Virtualization: The IT Trend That Matters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#59 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#62 Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

Machine-Level Assembly Language

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Machine-Level Assembly Language
Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:03:33

Clark F Morris <cfmpublic@ns.sympatico.ca> writes:
Then there are assemblers for the microcode portions of various computers and other devices.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#63 Machine-level Assembler Language

a little x-over from thread in comp.arch about tools for programming horizontal microcode and vliw ...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#56 performance of hardware dynamic scheudling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#60 Different Implementations of VLIW

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:57:41

Walter Bushell <proto@xxx.com> writes:
Ah, yes. The heads I win big, tails I collect a very good salary effect on our society. It's a scream as well as a scam.

Remember this applies to head of major corporations also, except even if the company loses money they may cut themselves a big bonus.

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers

recent posts mentioning business tv shows ridiculing both UBS and Citigroup
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36 Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

Coming Soon ... Securitization with a New, Improved (and Perhaps Safer) Face
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1933 (gone 404 and/or requires registration)

The Fed's Too Easy on Wall Street
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-03-19/the-feds-too-easy-on-wall-streetbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

from above:
"The Federal Reserve continues to bail out major financial institutions without imposing meaningful conditions to improve their conduct and performance," complains Peter Morici, professor at the Smith Business School at the University of Maryland.

Here's a staggering figure to contemplate: New York City securities industry firms paid out a total of $137 billion in employee bonuses from 2002 to 2007, according to figures compiled by the New York State Office of the Comptroller. Let's break that down: Wall Street honchos earned a bonus of $9.8 billion in 2002, $15.8 billion in 2003, $18.6 billion in 2004, $25.7 billion in 2005, $33.9 billion in 2006, and $33.2 billion in 2007.

... snip ...

and ...
So far that financial hit seems to be more the exception than the rule. After all, when Stanley O'Neal lost his job as head of Merrill Lynch, he retired with more than $160 million in benefits and stock while Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, left with a walk-away package worth almost $70 million.

... snip ...

The Wall Street Fix
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/

includes:

WCOM: The Symbol of What Went Wrong
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/wcom/
Fixing the Street
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/fixing/
Mr. Weill Goes to Washington
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/

from above:
So you're saying the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the permission for these huge superbanks is one of the proximate causes of the corruption on Wall Street?

Absolutely. There's no question about it. On the day that I announced the global settlement, on Dec. 20, [2002], I began by saying that the problem at its root is a flawed business model, and that business model is the product of a government regulatory decision to repeal Glass-Steagall administratively and legislatively, and to seek this tremendous concentration of power, and then the abuse of that power by the investment houses.

... snip ...

.... also:
On Oct. 21, with the House-Senate conference committee deadlocked after marathon negotiations, the main sticking point is partisan bickering over the bill's effect on the Community Reinvestment Act, which sets rules for lending to poor communities. Sandy Weill calls President Clinton in the evening to try to break the deadlock after Senator Phil Gramm, chairman of the Banking Committee, warned Citigroup lobbyist Roger Levy that Weill has to get White House moving on the bill or he would shut down the House-Senate conference.

... snip ...

John Reed, Architect Of Citi Merger, Calls Deal Mistake
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804032006DOWJONESDJONLINE001187_FORTUNE5.htm

from above ...
The landmark merger that created Citigroup Inc. was a "mistake" that failed to benefit the financial services conglomerate's investors, customers and employees, said John Reed, who masterminded the $166 billion deal with Sandy Weill in 1998, The Financial Times reported on its Web site Thursday.

... snip ...

John Reed on Citigroup: A Decade Long Disaster
http://seekingalpha.com/article/71270-john-reed-on-citigroup-a-decade-long-disaster

from above:
One of the reasons Chuck Prince succeeded Weill, after all, was that he's a lawyer and was thought best equipped to deal with all the regulatory issues that had beset Citi by the time Weill stepped down.

... snip ...

Which CEO to Blame for Citi's Woes?
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/04/04/which-ceo-to-blame-for-citis-woes

Did Spitzer get a little help in hanging himself?
http://news.muckety.com/2008/03/12/spitzer-falls-farther-and-faster-than-his-targets/1121

from above:
Sanford Weill, who had built Citigroup into a global financial titan, but whose final months as chief executive officer were overshadowed by Spitzer's probe into the relationships between equity research analysts and investment bankers during the internet boom years. Under a 2002 settlement with Wall Street banks, Citigroup paid a $400 million fine, and Weill was forbidden to communicate directly with his company's equity research analysts.

... snip ...

A Short History of Troubled Investment Bank Sales
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/03/16/a-short-history-of-troubled-investment-bank-sales/?mod=yahoo_hs

from above:
Drexel Burnham Lambert: Drexel was hit by the unexpected downturn in the junk-bond market in the late 1980s, just as Bear Stearns has been hit by the downturn in the subprime-mortgage markets. Drexel, like Bear, also faced rumors of a liquidity squeeze. In 1989, Drexel's troubles caused it to post the first operating loss in its 54-year history; in 2007 Bear posted the first loss in its 83-year history.

... snip ...

.... and:
Salomon Brothers: The firm was forced to pay a huge regulatory fine for allegedly submitting false bids on Treasury bonds. Warren Buffett took over the firm for 10 months and saved Salomon when it was briefly banned from trading Treasurys by intervening with regulators. Mr. Buffett later said he believed Salomon might have gone bankrupt and brought the world's financial system to a standstill -- as many believe might happen were Bear to fall. Buffett sold Salomon to Sanford I. Weill of Travelers Group for $9 billion. Salomon's name survived for a time as Salomon Smith Barney. Though some veterans still work there, they have been subsumed into Citigroup's investment bank.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

independent appraisers

Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **

From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: independent appraisers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:08:23

Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
recent posts mentioning business tv shows ridiculing both UBS and Citigroup
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#12 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#32 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#36 Lehman sees banks, others writing down $400 bln
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#51 IBM CEO's remuneration last year ?

re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#64 independent appraisers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008g.html#66 independent appraisers

Bank Write-Downs: No End Yet
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1727462,00.html

from above:
UBS, of course, is hardly alone. It may be the current banking leader of the write-down scorecard, but the implosion of the U.S. subprime mortgage market and general deflating of home prices has hit Wall Street all around. Merrill Lynch, which ousted CEO Stan O'Neal in October, has written down some $25 billion worth of assets. Citigroup, which booted CEO Chuck Prince in November, is approaching $24 billion. On April 1, the same day as UBS, Deutsche Bank declared another $4 billion write-down. Across the board, banks are out some $200 billion since the beginning of 2007.

... snip ...

... also:
Then there is the Federal Reserve, which has started lending directly to investment banks (which have very happily borrowed) in order to instill confidence in the system. And if the federal government will take mortgage-backed paper as collateral, how bad could it be, really?

The answer, it seems, is worse.

... snip ...

Banks set to stumble again; Wall Street expects ugly first-quarter results from Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. And the worst may not be over for financials just yet.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/10/news/companies/bank_earnings/index.htm?postversion=2008041115

from above:
Of the six banks and brokers scheduled to report results in the next few days, three are expected to post a loss - Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Washington Mutual, according to estimates from earnings tracker Thomson Financial.

... snip ...

--
40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar70

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