I had to go through a project's code to match up open source code with their licenses. We had to switch a JDBC library that required a fee for commercial use to another library that didn't.

Then I had to train others with the tool we used. The company said "Do not use GPL code in our code base". When GPL licensed code was found, they wanted to 'fix it' by changing the license. I had to explain you can't change the license, only your use of the code. The fix is removing the code with the license you don't want and re-engineering with different code. If you replace the hood ornament on your Ferrari with one from a Toyota, the insurance company is still going to charge you for a Ferrari.

There was a time when copy protection on Apple ][ and PCs kept people out too.
Eventually someone will figure out a way around the signing. When Tivos came out, AMD64 didn't exist.
There might be enough computer power to brute force things today.

Publicly accessible PR reviews
Build systems (github actions)

Gitlab?
Bitbucket?

Don't forget the iPod.
The 1st phone (by motorola for apple) was a phone with an iPod.
Without the iPod, there would not have been the iPhone.
Without iTunes the App Store might not have happened.

I had a Syquest 88 (1st gen was 40MB) and an Adaptec 1542b SCSI card.. My 286 had a 30MB MFM drive internally, so it was a big addition. I was learning Minix and leaving my main drive untouched was great. I had 2-3 disks to use. Since it was SCSI, I could also use it with Macintosh w/ a DOS format software.

When I bought a 486, I wanted 386BSD or Linux. A university nearby had Macintoshes w/ internet access. I was able to FTP Linux, etc unto that Syquest instead of transfering to a stack of floppies. I later got a 4mm DAT. I had tar programs DOS, Macintosh, OS/2 and of course Unix that could read/write tapes.

CDs were just starting to appear, but I didn't have one. My 1st sysadmin job had 1 CD drive for Sun systems, another for HP and another for SGI. 70 machines & 3 drives. It was 5 years later that work bought a CD-R for $1000 instead of sending software on tape.

When I was hired, the 1st week was in person training & to meet the team. That went away during covid.
I'm surprised these larger companies do not do this.

For finding patterns & connections, AI is a great tool. Sure, it will find the dependencies & workflows.

After that, you're going to need a good engineer, who knows the risks, to guide the AI and explore what the code is doing.

Translating the code to another language is the easy part. Understanding what you start with and verifying the translation is what makes these projects hard. AI is just another tool, like spreadsheets and project planning software that makes some parts a bit easier or even possible.

Most of the comments in this post are not that engineer. They're the manager who says "All you have to do is..."

UK management at its typical.

Exactly this.

I used to buy comics every week and read them. They stacked up to 2-6 inches. I was up to $75/week and decided to stop.
In the 20+ years since I haven't been able to get into reading comics again. When I look to buy, I'm not easily interested. When I do buy, I might not read it. That's a hobby that has sailed on for me.

I still buy other types of books. ebooks are good for novels. Put them on your phone and you always have it with you. If it draws you in, you'll make time. Until then, it's ready in your pocket.

Computer books have really declined. I once had half the O'Reilly catalog. All of that type of info is now online, for free and searchable. The last few physical books I purchased were obsolete within a year. As a devops type, reading is a huge part of the job and the info is not in books anymore.

For my hobbies, I still read books. One is woodworking. Lots of the info has moved on to blogs or youtube. I do hand tools and archive.org has tons of historical books and I can also purchase PDFs for some of the books I buy. For every physical book I have on woodworking, I have 20 ebooks from archive.org and have a local search setup for all of them.

AI has lots of data about OSS. Source, working programs, guides, blogs, git/svn logs.

How would it work on proprietary code? Especially code that doesn't use lots of OSS (how much is left nowadays?)
Would it have enough data? This could be an argument against OSS being less secure.

The trope is for 8 megs. My 486 motherboard couldn't go beyond 16MB and adding 8MB was > $2000.

Linux would run, with X11, on 4MB. So double the RAM and emacs still caused swapping.
Luckily, web browsers came out and made emacs look frugal with RAM

UPS has a standard training program for drivers.
When the drivers get their route, UPS has eliminated left hand turns, avoided stop signs and other things. It makes the route safer and reduces fuel usage. They were using route mapping before GPS, before internet, before the 80286 existed.
Because of their scale, when gas got to be more than $1/gallon (90s), they were experimenting with CNG until the gas price came down again.

When I pass a UPS truck doing a delivery, it's usually off the side so it doesn't cause a driving hazard.

Amazon doesn't do any of that. Its left up to the contractor. So is all liability
During delivery, they are not off the side, often hidden around the corner or placed before a corner and causing a blind spot. It a gamble going around because of where they chose to stop the truck.

Amazon will never do anything to improve the safety of delivery for the drivers or the general public. They will never let their franchises get big enough or profitable enough to justify the cost of anything like what UPS has done through the years.

Apes make a nest at night by bending & breaking branches. So of course we did too.

Its just that stone, bone and metal get preserved better. All the archeologist have been doing the equivalent of searching for a lost item under the lamp because the light is better

Sometimes I could work on diet and my stomach would shrink. I couldn't eat as much. But I was always hungry and ate the same portions. My stomach size increased

With these meds, I no longer have the constant hunger. Before, couldn't really tell when I was full. Now I can hear the signal.

I'm changing habits, switching portion size tracking what I eat and keeping within a calorie budget. Its been a game changer. I hope I can continue it when I'm off.