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‘COBOL Cowboys’ Aim To Rescue Sluggish State Unemployment Systems

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‘COBOL Cowboys’ Aim To Rescue Sluggish State Unemployment Systems
npr ^

| April 22, 2020
Posted on 08/20/2020 7:44:40 AM PDT by 11th_VA

Bill Hinshaw’s phone has been ringing off the hook lately. From his home in Gainesville, Texas, which Hinshaw describes as “horse country,” he runs a group called the COBOL Cowboys. It’s an association of programmers who specialize in the Eisenhower-era computer language. Now their skills are in demand, thanks to the record number of people applying for unemployment benefits. Many state unemployment systems run on COBOL, but lack the programmers needed to deal with the swell of applications. Like Hinshaw, 78, many COBOL programmers are older. In fact, there are more COBOL programmers in retirement than there are in IT departments right now. Hinshaw, who keeps a roster of 350 IT veterans at the ready in case organizations have COBOL crises, said he’s ready to deploy his Cowboys to help states now hunting for programmers who can speed up the processing of unemployment claims. “Basically when COBOL Cowboys gets most of its calls it’s on an urgent SOS,” Hinshaw said. Such a distress signal was sent by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy at a press conference earlier this month. Beyond New Jersey, Connecticut and Kansas have also been trying to recruit old-school coders as a shortage of COBOL programmers bedevils state officials…

(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org …

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current EventsKEYWORDS:

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Hilarious … still needed

1
posted on 08/20/2020 7:44:40 AM PDT
by 11th_VA

To: 11th_VA

A riot.
Though not enough to undo Cuomo’s latest sabotage of his citizens for political purposes: turning down the $300 a week Trump has offered to the NYS unemployed—fully funded by the feds.

2
posted on 08/20/2020 7:46:00 AM PDT
by 9YearLurker

To: 11th_VA

What cannot be forgotten:
CALCULATE NET_PAY EQUALS HOURS_WORKED TIMES HOURLY_PAY_RATE

3
posted on 08/20/2020 7:50:37 AM PDT
by budj
(Combat vet, 2nd of three generations.)

To: 11th_VA

Funny i couldn’t get a job 15 years ago and moved to the user side and managed a huge payment system. even certified as a java programmer. If i were to work for the state of PA i would probably sabotage all of their applications. put in time stops like the year 2000.

4
posted on 08/20/2020 7:53:32 AM PDT
by kvanbrunt2
(spooks won on day 76)

To: 11th_VA

5
posted on 08/20/2020 7:54:26 AM PDT
by Shark24

To: 11th_VA

I learned BASIC, COBOL, RPG back in 1975.

6
posted on 08/20/2020 7:54:45 AM PDT
by PROCON
(Voting Democrat in November is tantamount to kneeling on the throat of Lady Liberty.)

To: PROCON

I was a FORTRAN and ASSY programmer – retired now. Funniest piece of code I ever debugged had a comment, “You should never get here”

7
posted on 08/20/2020 8:01:05 AM PDT
by 11th_VA

To: budj

CALCULATE NET_PAY EQUALS HOURS_WORKED TIMES HOURLY_PAY_RATEShouldn’t that be GROSS_PAY ?

8
posted on 08/20/2020 8:01:32 AM PDT
by PAR35

To: budj

CALCULATE NET_PAY EQUALS HOURS_WORKED TIMES HOURLY_PAY_RATE Don’t I wish someone in my payroll department had written that.

9
posted on 08/20/2020 8:04:39 AM PDT
by KarlInOhio
(In 2016 Obama ended America’s 220 year tradition of peaceful transfer of power after an election.)

To: 11th_VA

10
posted on 08/20/2020 8:06:30 AM PDT
by Yo-Yo
( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)

To: 11th_VA
CICS baby…

11
posted on 08/20/2020 8:08:26 AM PDT
by Chode
(Send bachelors and come heavily armed.)

To: 11th_VA

Back in the 60s. Went from GMAP to COBOL whlle working for GE. We had another opportunity in the late 90s as we approached the year 2000. All those date fields with just two digits.

To: budj

MINUS FED STATE LOCAL TAXES.

13
posted on 08/20/2020 8:10:16 AM PDT
by DownInFlames
(Galsd)

To: 9YearLurker

First programming job was doing Cobol.
Still writing RPG code on an iseries (AS400)…In an era where computers are obsolete in no time the AS400 is still being made since 1985? by IBM. Rock solid platform for REAL business computing…..

14
posted on 08/20/2020 8:11:19 AM PDT
by FreshPrince

To: 11th_VA

“Funniest piece of code I ever debugged had a comment, “You should never get here”.
The worst piece of code I had to maintain was given to me by a very ‘bright’ and clever programmer that used to modify OP codes in assembler.

15
posted on 08/20/2020 8:11:48 AM PDT
by duckman
( Not tired of winning!)

To: kvanbrunt2

You have to remember the mentality of an IT group that still uses COBOL.
The obviously are not amiable to change of any kind and are totally risk averse.
The first change to be made are get rid of those assholes. Then you may get some good ideas.

16
posted on 08/20/2020 8:12:38 AM PDT
by ImJustAnotherOkie
(All I know is The I read in the papers.)

To: budj

CALCULATE NET_PAY EQUALS HOURS_WORKED TIMES HOURLY_PAY_RATE Actually that would be the COMPUTE command.

17
posted on 08/20/2020 8:12:44 AM PDT
by CodeJockey
(Dum Spiro, Pugno)

To: FreshPrince

Takes me back. Just like keeping the old kids’ toys in the attic until they become collectors items, stubbornly sticking to old skills eventually pays off!

18
posted on 08/20/2020 8:13:07 AM PDT
by 9YearLurker

To: PAR35

Whoever manages a COBOL shop is getting paid too much.

19
posted on 08/20/2020 8:13:08 AM PDT
by ImJustAnotherOkie
(All I know is The I read in the papers.)

To: Chode

Don’t forget to invite ROSCOE.

20
posted on 08/20/2020 8:13:47 AM PDT
by ImJustAnotherOkie
(All I know is The I read in the papers.)

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