Interview Help

[ColinEssex]

Brian - do you remember the "English Electric Leo Marconi KDF8" computer?

Col

 

[Brianwarnock]

Brian - do you remember the "English Electric Leo Marconi KDF8" computer?

Col

I applied for a job working on it but got knocked back so know of it not about it.

Brian

 

[ColinEssex]

My mate worked on one when I was in London. It was for the (then) Midland Bank just off Trafalgar Square. It was in a room the size of an aircraft hangar and had the processing power of a modern calculator.

The best bit was when it spat the punch cards all over the floor, then appeared to have wind and spat the little "dots" everywhere. like confetti

Col

 

[Brianwarnock]

Those little "dots" have special name, it became common knowledge during the Florida election fiasco, but I can't remember it , we used to have fun putting them down the back of the girls .. oh well lets not go there.

Brian

 

[Brianwarnock]

It was in a room the size of an aircraft hangar and had the processing power of a modern calculator.

Col

Powerful then hey!

The first one I worked on was in the only airconditioned room in the building, a popular room in hot weather

Brian

 

[selenau837]

I'm along time out of main frames and things will have moved on my guess is Dumpmaster is software to improve the analysis of the machine dumps one gets when things go wrong on the mainframe, in the 60s and 70s it was just a hex dump but as time past it got more formatted.

I guess you know MVS is the operating system , MVS because its dynamic variable number of partitions as opposed to the old MFT which had a predetermined fixed number, and Job Control Language is the control statement system for running jobs, its very comprehensive but usually a small subset of the parameters are all that's required for testing, we had a specialist team of schedulers for the live stuff.

I guess that's the end of this old guys knowledge

Brian

Nope had no idea that MVS was the OS. I am use to JAVA, ASP.net VBA, VB 6.0 and now VB.net. That is what I am use to using. I suppose I am heading into a different ball field.

They class has a 100% passing rate. They say they only select candidates that they fill can pass all the courses. However, seeing it now on paper really lets me know it is 'REAL'. It is a bit scary knowing I'm going from the Big fish in the pond to the Li'l fish in the pond. Ohh, well I'll grow. As well as I have all y'all old timers here to help me if I need it.

Perhaps we need request a place to ask COBOL questions as well as other archaic languages.

 

[Joe8915]

Dang did she get the job?

 

[KenHigg]

Yes - Didn't you notice the peace keeper had left the building....

 

[selenau837]

Yes - Didn't you notice the peace keeper had left the building....

I've not completely left the building, just hidding a bit. Just remember Kenny boy...I'm still watching you....*evil kitty stare*