There are more VAX machines around than you probably expect. We sell VAX and Alpha emulators and support a lot of customers on those or real hardware. We have *many* folks on [Open]VMS 7.x and even more on 8.x. Even a handful that still run Tru64 UNIX (4.0G also called "Digital Unix" and 5.1B).

There's SIMH if you want something for free, there's AVTware's vtVAX (and vtAlpha), there's MSI's FreeAXP and Avanti alpha emulators, there's also Charon-AXP emulator from horrible horrible Stromasys. I also think Qemu emulates the alpha pretty effectively but doesn't have all the ROMs you need to run VMS or Tru64. There are a couple of projects to implement VAXen in FPGA that I'm looking forward to as well.

Well, right there with you rocking age and macular degeneration. You're right. It was only a year before, though, in 1991. The first version of Linux IIRC was in 1992. I remember getting it either in late 92' or early 93' as "SLS Linux" on @30 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy disks.

What kills me is that there is no corporate jail or death penalty for stuff like this. I'm also a little salty about how sanguine everyone has always been about stuff like Windows Server or M$ Exchange. I'm always flabbergasted when someone's an MS fan, too (yes, they do exist). I'm like "don't you remember what they did!?"

Mother fuck Microslop (their preferred name, I heard recently). Die in fire.

Bro... 400? Is your stash photographed anywhere? I'd like to just simply SEE that many micros in one place. Holy shit.

I do agree completely. The code it produces isn't good enough and takes more effort to debug than my own code. However, it can get me unstuck on really small issues a lot faster than a web-search can these days. 100%

They are giant lead acid batteries and in newer sites I know some use flow batteries. They don't care about weight, more about service life.

There exist better batteries (more capacity, better charging characteristics). However, last time I was in a CO was a week ago. They still had big lucite tanks with oversized lead acid batteries. I don't think the newer battery chemistry is what you really need for a big stationary UPS like that. They don't use NMC, LIFO, LIPO, or other advanced chemistry because they have different needs (durability, service life, weight doesn't matter much).

There is one potential upside. The example I saw was my grandmother. She ended her career as a COBOL programmer in the early 1980's. She worked for Western National Gas which had just been snapped up by Diamond Shamrock. They were going to "redo all this old mainframe stuff" that was written in COBOL. The problem was that the migration to whatever "other thing" they were moving to which was probably "4GL" at the time didn't work and the migration failed. Then they had nobody who could fix some of the really urgently needed bugs/updates. So, they re-hired my grandmother. She only worked 20 hours a week but made more than she used to make full time. They hired her off and on for about 15 years.

The same kind of thing is happening to me. I've almost always been a systems engineer or just a work-a-day C programmer. Everyone since day one has been saying my job was in jeopardy and I'd better exit soon before XYZ makes me obsolete. XYZ has been half a dozen other languages which I was told were the next-big-thing, "visual" IDEs, CASE Method, India, and a zillion other "threats". In the end, all that seems to happen is more folks leave and/or get frustrated out by how dumb and unrealistic customers are. However, they always seem to have more migrations, more projects, more code, etc... It never actually shrinks or goes away. I dunno how many times I've cleaned up after some exec or management team that came in and ran everyone off, only to find out they couldn't run their business and now "Shit how do I get that capability back!"

So, I do wonder if AI won't just become another episode in a long list.

You and I generally disagree. Not in this case. Not at all.

These stock idiots definitely think AI is going to replace coders the same way Pets.com was going to replace pet stores. They aren't super interested in history.

Microsoft's been hacked and pwned a million times. People still buy from them. Then there is our government. They've been hacked a zillion times, too. Nobody cares, nobody does shit, business as usual. I'm the alien here.

I have a Honda CRZ that gets close to 50MPG and a Chevy Express 2500 that gets 10 MPG in the city. I drive each as needed. Right tool for the job.

As long as just about every ship is burning bunker oil, folks can stuff their complaints about what I drive and their second guesses about what I need.

What Big Pharma is thinking is "This was pretty easy last time."

Basically. Yep.

Looked more like Russia wanted Ukraine to stop shelling their expats in Donbas and Luhansk. They refused. Russia took Crimea as reprisal. Ukraine still refused. So, Russia rolled into the spots where their citizens were getting killed and said "this is our territory now." Ukraine objected, but lacked the power to re-take those areas and still lacks it and continues to lose it's territory. What did I miss? Do we need to talk about the 2014 coup, too?