• @kibiz0r@midwest.social
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    09 months ago

    There are only two reasons softwares goes for decades without being replaced:

    1. It’s so unimportant that nobody uses it
    2. It’s so important that the last major bug was squashed 15 years ago
    • @EarlGrey@discuss.tchncs.de
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      09 months ago

      But dude, bro, we could put the entire system on the blockchain man, and make it super efficient with an AI backend that will remove all errors bro.

      Dude it’s not even written in Rust bro. WTF is this dinosaur shit?

      • @rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        I don’t think Rust is a bad language for doing same things people do with C++, but with a smaller standard and less legacy.

        But yep, that’s the kind of people.

        About dinosaur things - I’ve started learning Tcl/Tk and it’s just wonderful.

    • @britaliope@kourjetez.bzh
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      9 months ago

      Also : it’s very complex and it happens to work fine for decades.

      If one day i write a code project and manage to make it work without any major issues for several decades, there is no way i attemptto rewrite it.

      • @jonne@infosec.pub
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        09 months ago

        Yeah, there’s almost 100 years of law, case law and agency regulations built into how this software works. And they fired all the people that knew anything about it.

      • @kibiz0r@midwest.social
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        09 months ago

        I know devs like everything to be perfect, but if your business can work around it for 15 years without fixing the bug or replacing the system, I dare say it doesn’t qualify as a major bug.

      • @NeonKnight52@lemmy.ca
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        09 months ago

        Node.js is a fantastic tool for web servers. Its event loop allows it to rival much lower-level languages in performance while remaining easy to write and maintain. JavaScript has been the most popular programming language for nearly a decade.

        • @green@feddit.nl
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          09 months ago

          Just no man.

          Yes, JavaScript has been the most popular language but it is exclusively because of the front-end. Many companies do not want to pay for separate back-end devs and ask their front-end devs to do it instead. These people (ab)use JS because they’re most comfortable with it and are under crunch; so we end up with the abomination that is back-end JS.

          It is NOT rivaling much lower-level languages; it can’t even rival C#.

          First off, it is interpreted. You are never going to be faster than competently written C, C++, Go, nor Rust. Secondly, the resources it takes to exist makes in a non-option for embedded machines - which Social-Security facilities are all but guaranteed to use.

          Not to mention the horrendous (and insecure) package infrastructure, and under-powered core libraries - it would be the fullest extent disaster.

          The saddest part? The larpers at DOG(shit)E are all but guaranteed to pick the worst tools for the job, over-engineer, and have extremely poor management. Meaning whatever they ship WILL collaspe the system day 1; and all of the people refusing to pay attention will be like “hOw CouLd THis HaPPen”

  • @FauxLiving@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    They’re really playing with fire here.

    So many MAGA supporters are seniors who are entirely dependent on OASDI. If Trump’s minions break this, we’re going to see torches and pitchforks strapped to electric scooters and golf carts coming out of Florida retirement communities in droves.

      • @monkeyman512@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        The reason is that it takes a lot of emotional intelligence and strength to admit that you have been scammed. These people will find it less emotionally painful to deny reality then admit their mistakes.

    • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      09 months ago

      Yep, months is a joke, doubly so when talking about tens of millions of lines of code and also COBOL specifically.

      This is going to be a hilarious disaster but not so hilarious when people who need the benefits need them and won’t be able to get them.

      • @monkeyman512@lemmy.world
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        09 months ago

        To be fair. We assume “months” means less than 2 years. But 10 years can also be “months”, and is probably a more realistic timeline.

        • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          Nobody is referring to 10 years as “months”.

          When you’re talking about multiples of years, it’s going to be called years, not months. They were obviously talking about a short timeline, less than 2 years, likely less than 1 year.

          They have no idea what they’re talking about.

          Like I said, months is a joke.

          • @monkeyman512@lemmy.world
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            09 months ago

            So was what I said. I was presenting a hypothetical way they justify their ridiculous claims by doing something else ridiculous.

            But conveying tone in text is difficult, so I’m not surprised you missed what I was going for.

      • @dryfter@lemm.ee
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        09 months ago

        I’m on SSDI (and Medicaid and HUD housing) and have been having insane anxiety the last month and a half to the point that I’m wondering if I’ll even get paid in April. I regularly check my SSA account online to make sure my direct deposit is still freaking scheduled. Missing a payment could mess up all of my other benefits as well.

        I know the fuck up is coming, but I don’t know if I can handle another few months hoping they don’t fuck up the migration if they don’t fuck up just paying people first with all that’s been going on.

        I’m pretty sure Im not the only one in this situation who can’t handle the stress of this bullshit.

    • @supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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      09 months ago

      I mean this is a great example of what happens when you put conservative men in power who think they know what they are doing but are just going to loudly, incompetently and incorrectly re-invent the wheel while everyone else suffers from not having an actual practical solution.

  • @OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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    09 months ago

    I’m sure having a corrupt non-government narcissist rewrite the code for SS will be fine. It’s not like he could leave any code hidden in there for his own purposes, like controlling or redirecting payments or anything.

  • @ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    09 months ago

    In theory, it wouldn’t be a necessarily bad idea to port the COBOL code to something more modern, but I cannot trust Muskrat and a few vibe coder youngsters with this task.

    • @letzlo@feddit.nl
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      09 months ago

      In theory it is a horrible idea. No port like this ever works out. An incremental approach has much higher chance of success but will take long.

    • Fluffy Kitty Cat
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      09 months ago

      If these people are good enough to redo federal codebases I should apply for a coding job already

    • @800XL@lemmy.world
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      09 months ago

      Bro. Check it out bro, we’re gonna like make it this dope Electron app, bro. It’ll interface with X, bro and everyone will have to login there to get their money, bro. Don’t worry tho, you’ll get paid in recession-proof Trumpbux crypto currency as long as you claim it in time. But X gets a fee of 60% bro.

      Seriously bro we like hired a bunch of grads that took a one week X created code boot camp that like you know revolved around a language big balls created called “cyber coin purse++”. On second thought bro we’re rewriting it in that. Should be like 2 weeks to rewrite it cuz old people wrote the current code and they’re like old or whatever bro. Like I live in an old person’s basement and they’re just like old, bro.

  • شاهد على إبادة
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    09 months ago

    COBOL is perfectly suitable for financial purposes for which it was designed. The SSA code has gone through decades worth of changes and improvements that cannot be replicated even in 10 years.

      • شاهد على إبادة
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        09 months ago

        I bet is cheaper to teach it to new programmers than to rewrite old software. Just because a language is old doesn’t mean it is unlearnable or that software written in it needs to be rewritten.

  • snooggums
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    09 months ago

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    Ow, my sides.

  • @Telorand@reddthat.com
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    09 months ago

    How this will go:

    “Okay Grok. Convert this COBOL code into Python.”

    “Certainly! Here you go.”

    System crashes and exposes all Americans’ SSNs

    “Fuckin’ DEI hires…!”

  • Dzso
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    09 months ago

    This clusterfck has me seriously considering whether taxes are quite as certain as death anymore.

  • @thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This is just another step down “I honestly just can’t comprehend the stupidity of what is going on in the American government”-alley…

    Like… what do they even expect to come of this? Why are they even interested in doing it? Is it just to stir up shit?

    • @MisterOwl@lemmy.world
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      09 months ago

      They are trying to break the government beyond all repair. At that point they’ll say it’s the Democrats that broke it.

      Their cult members will swallow the lie hook line and sinker, and continue to keep them in power. (Side note, this will be made easier by gutting all election oversight as part of the package.)

      Meanwhile, all that money that used to go to Social Security, SNAP, Medicaid and Medicare… basically any other program meant to help people, will flow into billionaire’s pockets.

  • @PiJiNWiNg@sh.itjust.works
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    09 months ago

    The first step towards privatizing an industry is eroding public confidence in the existing program. They have absolutely no intention of improving the program, they just want to make it shitty enough that people stop believing in it. Once that happens, 45 will start shilling, and some lucky company will swoop in and take it over.

    Textbook…

    • will
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      09 months ago

      Yep, this is it. Show how “broken” it is by breaking it, and enough of the population won’t even notice when it’s “fixed” and they’re only getting 2/3 of what they were before (and are entitled to). Plus grift, etc.