The Y2K fail finally happened?

It would be interesting to know more about how Amtrak's IT infrastructure is set up. How much dates back years and years? How does the dispatching tie into the departure/arrival boards and ticketing systems, POS systems for food, signal systems, financial systems, email systems.

Some is probably defined in publicly available APIs

Railroads are amongst the earliest users of electronic technology, such as telegraphs and accounting systems, switching and signals.

[OT] It's wild to open up a computer program and realize it was originally written 15+ years earlier. Or have a programmer, his replacement, and his replacement all tell you that a system is junk, the original writer of a system come back and tell you he is shocked that you are still using the system he wrote.

I don't think they would be that shocked. If it does the job why change it ? Most backroom stuff is fine with old technology and programs. Its the customer interaction stuff that has advanced ( or customers expectations of it ), and needs to be up to date. I think you'd be surprised , despite all the fancy apps and new programs , how much business and industrial computer work is still done with excel spreadsheets etc

David Benton wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 1:43 am I don't think they would be that shocked. If it does the job why change it ? Most backroom stuff is fine with old technology and programs. Its the customer interaction stuff that has advanced ( or customers expectations of it ), and needs to be up to date. I think you'd be surprised , despite all the fancy apps and new programs , how much business and industrial computer work is still done with excel spreadsheets etc

Why change it? Hardware breaks. Parts become scarce. Software goes end-of-life and is no longer supported. Nothing lasts forever.

For instance, if it weren't for IBM keeping the VM-370 platform alive with the z-Machine series, my local DMV would of switched to more modern SQL based tech a long time ago. They were looking for COBOL programmers as of 6 years ago... hmm... (*checks...*) ah, they must of filled the position.

It's amazing how major companies will stay on the oldest supported version, only upgrade when the vendor threatens end of support. It usually comes back to bite in the end.

I work full-time in IT Incident Management.... this is near and dear to me.

The number of times our core MVS or TPF platforms experience anomalies or outages over 20 minutes? Once, maybe twice a year.

The number of times our Linux based Oracle or Microsoft based SQL platforms experience anomalies or outages over an hour? Four or five times a month.

Newer isn't necessarily better or even more stable. That's why places like state DMV's, insurance companies, airlines, etc. stick with MVS and TPF. No shortage of Cobol programmers overseas. They still teach machine language in places like India and Malaysia for a reason -- there's global demand.