Louisiana

The Office of Motor Vehicles had to beg the governor to sign an executive order proclaiming an emergency and giving people grace periods to get things done. The “COBOL mainframe” is the problem and they claim they are working on a fix to get things back in order.

Of course, it may or may not be a real IBM mainframe. Maybe it’s an overloaded AS/400. No info on that in the press. But most “mainframes” don’t suddenly start performing badly. So somebody has taken their eye off the capacity management ball and we’re harshing on the poor machine.

The COBOL part of the story is just a bunch of bureaucrats painting the picture with the “COBOL IS OLD” brush. No info. No details. They’re probably lucky it’s in COBOL, they have options!

Social Security Immortals

The turmoil around Elon Musk and DOGE and COBOL continues. Most amusing. It is a shame that no applications architect from within SSA stood up and explained, in technical detail, what the various artifacts actually meant. I have seen no such clear and defensible explanation and continue to think the worst.

GCC COBOL

Our new friends at GCC are amazing. Jim and Bob report they’re busier than ever working on all the recommendations and requirements. The GCC team is thorough and professional. And they have a lot of experience doing the GCC thing.