What do you guys think of IBM?

Arkhan Asylum · 06/28/2012, 11:35 AM

Quote from: SuperDeadite on 06/28/2012, 11:31 AMWell I'm not a horse fetishist for one.

you missed the "high horse"ness, apparently.

I'm still curious what exactly we are jealous of.

Because, I don't think there actually is anything.

soop · 06/28/2012, 11:47 AM

I think it's to do with iSync or whatever. I don't own any Apple products. Unless Quicktime counts?

Arkhan Asylum · 06/28/2012, 11:56 AM

Quote from: soop on 06/28/2012, 11:47 AMI think it's to do with iSync or whatever. I don't own any Apple products. Unless Quicktime counts?

Yeah. I don't know. That seems like a dumb thing to latch onto.

SuperDeadite · 06/28/2012, 01:11 PM

Spucks is totally jealous of me, otherwise he wouldn't even have posted in this thread. It was by my sheer man charisma that brought him here. I don't think he even knows what this topic is about.

Arkhan Asylum · 06/28/2012, 01:18 PM

Jealous of what. Your self inflicted xenophobia?

SignOfZeta · 06/28/2012, 01:24 PM

Quote from: SuperDeadite on 06/28/2012, 11:27 AMSo much jealousy here. It's ok, just keep pretending your ifail doesn't sound like ass.

My main audio setup is vintage Marantz, Pioneer, Grado, etc. Its where good sounding shit belongs: in my living room.

Meanwhile, when I'm on the go I use an iPhone. The audio quality could be better, but its not supposed to be the ultimate in sound, its the ultimate in convenience. No device that small and that crammed with tech is going to sound great, but it does other things. That video I linked to before of me at the race track was done entirely on an iPhone, for example. The logging of GPS, G, speed, the video overlays, the countdown, all automatic. I guess that makes me a lazy fag, but whatever. The alternative is no video.

And besides...you have some other command like driven alternative that allows you to manage 100,000 files with keystrokes? I didn't think so.

Arkhan Asylum · 06/28/2012, 01:26 PM

It's probably like this.

STAR COMMANDER FOR IPOD!

My iPod works good for blasting speed metal in the car, and it fits in my pocket. So I use my PSP or iPod.

I'm not sure what sort of CLI alternative devices there are. Heck, there is an open sauce GUI based iTunes ripoff for Linux.

i guess we're all fags.

SignOfZeta · 06/28/2012, 01:29 PM

I like the case.

Sparky · 06/28/2012, 03:56 PM

wooooah... this your FAIL Princess D i am just here for the lolz....

RegalSin · 06/28/2012, 04:44 PM

Quote from: soop on 06/28/2012, 10:39 AMBut if it's something I do once in a blue moon, like run a trace, or a packet capture, hellz yeah gimme a GUI, I can't remember that shit, but I can fill in a box, check some options and click "go". It's not like I'm an idiot that can't be bothered to learn

You remember when computers was a mans, world. Where most women would not thread at all. If it was a GUI, most women would never ever touch a keyboard, unless it was to type a letter, or send a message. However nowadays, everybody has that power.

I am not argueing, I am just saying that GUI's got carried away, over the years. First they made homer simpson, ( a person would never even get near a ramstick ) into an Harvard graduate, now Better Crocker, holds a mouse instead of a spatula. What has this world come to.

Then when we had games, it divided the userspace into two groups.
The Videogamers, ( the pong freaks ) and the computer gamers ( the freaks who played pong after inputing commands. Yes the pong on the computerized systems was much more colorful and had better sound,
but at least the computer user had the knowledge to use such games.
No girls, allowed....No girls, allowed.... does that phrase not mean anything anymore. I am for equal rights but everybody is a computer wiz thanks to GUI, and while the workflo is easier then waking up and using the bathroom. Everybody who shuns computers just keeps on hating, but they can somehow find thier way to youtube, and facebook.

NightWolve · 06/28/2012, 05:18 PM

Quote from: RegalSin on 06/28/2012, 04:44 PMYou remember when computers was a mans, world. Where most women would not thread at all. If it was a GUI, most women would never ever touch a keyboard, unless it was to type a letter, or send a message. However nowadays, everybody has that power.

...

No girls, allowed....No girls, allowed.... does that phrase not mean anything anymore.

This is a man's world
This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing
Nothing, without a woman or a girl

kazekirifx · 06/28/2012, 08:50 PM

It's actually a woman's world. They just keep telling us it's a man's to keep men in check.

SuperDeadite · 06/28/2012, 09:30 PM

Quote from: guest on 06/28/2012, 03:56 PMwooooah... this your FAIL Princess D i am just here for the lolz....

Exactly you are here for me. You follow me everywhere. You should really stop this, I'm not gay. My cock is not for you.
By the way you never answered my old question. Do you still use that SGX AC Adapter you got from me for free? Did you lick all my jizz resin off of it?

Sparky · 06/28/2012, 10:15 PM

But your such a catch, those long girly nails that thinning hair your a ladyboy in the making.
Oh an I got that AC from Beamer, had I know it was yours ya I would have not touched it, poor beams.

soop · 06/29/2012, 05:32 AM

I use Regal's randomness as subject lines in emails. I'm gonna use the better crocker one next.

BigusSchmuck · 07/01/2012, 01:28 AM

Back on subject, I had to go through today and figure out what printers were emulated in this crappy software. Turns out that our expensive color copier, a few cheap printers aren't compatible. Too bad these IBM idiots didn't tell us that we had to emulate these printers until the last minute. Ugh. Good thing we can convert spooled files into HTML files or PDF. http://www.prodatacomputer.com/splf.shtml

kazekirifx · 07/01/2012, 08:58 PM

Ah. It really is an old AS400-based system. You're right. Why the hell would anyone adopt this now?
My company just spent untold amounts of money and time switching over to something more up-to-date.

Opethian · 07/01/2012, 09:52 PM

at my old job we migrated the application from AS400 machines to server 2008. the mainenance on the AS400s we had added up to over 1million dollars a year so yea it was worth it to move. the machines were older than me.

roflmao · 07/01/2012, 10:21 PM

A couple of years ago I had to develop a website that interfaced with a database stored on an AS400 (order tracking and whatnot). That was one headache after another.

BlueBMW · 07/02/2012, 12:03 AM

Quote from: SuperDeadite on 06/28/2012, 09:30 PM
Quote from: guest on 06/28/2012, 03:56 PMwooooah... this your FAIL Princess D i am just here for the lolz....
Exactly you are here for me. You follow me everywhere. You should really stop this, I'm not gay. My cock is not for you.
By the way you never answered my old question. Do you still use that SGX AC Adapter you got from me for free? Did you lick all my jizz resin off of it?

Quote from: guest on 06/28/2012, 10:15 PMBut your such a catch, those long girly nails that thinning hair your a ladyboy in the making.
Oh an I got that AC from Beamer, had I know it was yours ya I would have not touched it, poor beams.

So what do you do if you have two friends that want to kill each other? Its rough being the Universally Loveable Teddy Bear...

BigusSchmuck · 07/02/2012, 07:59 PM

Quote from: kazekirifx on 07/01/2012, 08:58 PMAh. It really is an old AS400-based system. You're right. Why the hell would anyone adopt this now?
My company just spent untold amounts of money and time switching over to something more up-to-date.

The idea is to have one system to run almost everything cause we are a COOP. Man today was very irritating, spent 7 hours running around trying to get these printers to work only to find out about 15% aren't compatible with this damn software and one of them is a big ole expensive color copier that my company spent close to 10 grand on. Horrible, absolutely horrible.

kazekirifx · 07/02/2012, 10:21 PM

Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/02/2012, 07:59 PMThe idea is to have one system to run almost everything cause we are a COOP. Man today was very irritating, spent 7 hours running around trying to get these printers to work only to find out about 15% aren't compatible with this damn software and one of them is a big ole expensive color copier that my company spent close to 10 grand on. Horrible, absolutely horrible.

Our AS400 caused all sorts of ridiculous printer issues as well. It's all antiquated and designed to work with ancient dot matrix printers. Needs conversion and emulation to work with modern printers at all. Changing over to our current system was also hell, and decisions were riddled with compromise. Still, now that we've had the current system for over a year and everything's settled down, I have to say my job is much much easier now than it was when we were using that antiquated AS400 system. Can't imagine why anyone would adopt it now. There must be plenty of other affordable modern options to choose from instead.

BigusSchmuck · 07/02/2012, 10:41 PM

Quote from: kazekirifx on 07/02/2012, 10:21 PM
Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/02/2012, 07:59 PMThe idea is to have one system to run almost everything cause we are a COOP. Man today was very irritating, spent 7 hours running around trying to get these printers to work only to find out about 15% aren't compatible with this damn software and one of them is a big ole expensive color copier that my company spent close to 10 grand on. Horrible, absolutely horrible.
Our AS400 caused all sorts of ridiculous printer issues as well. It's all antiquated and designed to work with ancient dot matrix printers. Needs conversion and emulation to work with modern printers at all. Changing over to our current system was also hell, and decisions were riddled with compromise. Still, now that we've had the current system for over a year and everything's settled down, I have to say my job is much much easier now than it was when we were using that antiquated AS400 system. Can't imagine why anyone would adopt it now. There must be plenty of other affordable modern options to choose from instead.

Well if it was IT's descsion we would have found something that fit the bill, but all we got was a crappy 30+ year old system. Hell this thing belongs in a museum, and the fact that its older than me makes me wonder what the hell were they thinking?

kazekirifx · 07/03/2012, 02:21 AM

Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/02/2012, 10:41 PMWell if it was IT's descsion we would have found something that fit the bill, but all we got was a crappy 30+ year old system. Hell this thing belongs in a museum, and the fact that its older than me makes me wonder what the hell were they thinking?

How can they make IT decisions without IT on board? Do they make marketing decisions without getting the marketing department's opinion too?

The closest thing that's happened in my company is that marketing and sales went ahead and bought a bunch of iPads without consulting IT, and then expected IT to completely support them - including app installation, etc. Damn how I loathe iOS. Stupidest 'smart' OS in history.

soop · 07/03/2012, 05:13 AM

You know what you need to do? Hire a load of IT guys that support AS4000 without telling HR. If that's the way they want to roll.

BigusSchmuck · 07/03/2012, 09:58 AM

Quote from: kazekirifx on 07/03/2012, 02:21 AM
Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/02/2012, 10:41 PMWell if it was IT's descsion we would have found something that fit the bill, but all we got was a crappy 30+ year old system. Hell this thing belongs in a museum, and the fact that its older than me makes me wonder what the hell were they thinking?
How can they make IT decisions without IT on board? Do they make marketing decisions without getting the marketing department's opinion too?

The closest thing that's happened in my company is that marketing and sales went ahead and bought a bunch of iPads without consulting IT, and then expected IT to completely support them - including app installation, etc. Damn how I loathe iOS. Stupidest 'smart' OS in history.

This isn't the first time they have done this. They tried to tell us that we shouldn't be building pcs anymore and that we should go completely to the white box solution. So what do they do? Buy a bunch of cheapo dells and wonder why they all have various issues. Half of them we sent back and now we are back building our own pcs due to this blunder. Call it old school, but out here in the sticks we build our own due to there is literally no big electronics store let alone a Dell store. Back on subject, found out this morning that this thing supposedly supports Cartrol, but we have to do some sort of crazy back end shit to get it to convert over whereas before it was pretty straight forward to do. Also, credit cards can't be stored on this system due to it being non pcicompliant, so we are still stuck using two different systems old and new. Ugh, yet another crazy day.

soop · 07/03/2012, 10:34 AM

If I were you, I'd get the head of IT to report to someone on the board and get whoever's responsible in marketing fired. This is a stupendously idiotic move to be making in these troubled times.

SignOfZeta · 07/03/2012, 01:29 PM

My company uses Dell's for almost everything and...dang they sell some cheap as shit to their corporate clients. I mean, this stuff is CRAP. The laptop power supplies are always dying, the ports blow out, the keyboards and mice are just total fucking garbage...its depressing that stuff this sad is even being built.

When you see what they are charging for these things and you wonder how they can even build them at all. I mean, $600 for a current-gen ship set and a 20" monitor? Like...how?

kazekirifx · 07/03/2012, 09:29 PM

I wish we built our own. That would be sweet.

BigusSchmuck · 07/05/2012, 11:08 AM

Quote from: kazekirifx on 07/03/2012, 09:29 PMI wish we built our own. That would be sweet.

Its more out of necessity and practicality than anything. Closest Best Buy or even Dell is like 200 miles west in Portland Oregon and if someone's machine went down, they would be down at least 24-48 hours to wait for a replacement vs we can get it done in a fraction of that. Not only that, but its cheaper in the long run.

kazekirifx · 07/05/2012, 08:56 PM

Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/05/2012, 11:08 AMClosest Best Buy or even Dell is like 200 miles west in Portland Oregon and if someone's machine went down, they would be down at least 24-48 hours to wait for a replacement vs we can get it done in a fraction of that.

Why is that really an issue? Just mail order. Maintenance would have to be send-away too of course, but just keep some spares around. If they're all the same model you can just put the end user's hard drive in a spare and they're up and running again.

I know it's easier said than done though. Building our own would be sweet too...

geise · 07/06/2012, 06:59 AM

Actually Dell workstation are pretty rad. Our dell precision workstation never have issues and have top of the line specs. They seem really well built. Laptops on the other hand I will never ever touch from dell. I got burned years ago buying one for my wife. Past five years it's been Vaio and all is well. Every manufacturer builds shit that's going to have issues, it just seems Dell it's usually more the case with their laptops.

soop · 07/06/2012, 07:20 AM

Quote from: geise on 07/06/2012, 06:59 AMActually Dell workstation are pretty rad. Our dell precision workstation never have issues and have top of the line specs. They seem really well built. Laptops on the other hand I will never ever touch from dell. I got burned years ago buying one for my wife. Past five years it's been Vaio and all is well. Every manufacturer builds shit that's going to have issues, it just seems Dell it's usually more the case with their laptops.

Dell Laptops are teh suck. I'm using one right now (work).
The thing about places like Dell is they know most consumers only focus on HDD space, Processor speed (in Mhz), and the amount of RAM. So they buy the cheapest components available in huge bulk, and use them as widely as possible. And that results in all sorts of bottlenecks throughout the system that you don't get in a (well built) custom built PC. So even though Dell seem cheap for what they are a "lower spec" machine will often outperform a Dell that should trump it.

As for Vaio's they're expensive for what they are, and pretty much for vain shallow people who are not quite pompous enough for a Mac.

Which is why I have 3 of them in my house.

geise · 07/06/2012, 08:38 AM

Hehe. That's funny since I just bought a 14" vaio for my wife straight from sonystyle's web page for $469 with a:
500gb hd
i5 2.5ghz (3rd generation)
6gig ddr3 1333 ram upgradeable to 16
dedicated 1gig nvidia 410
windows 7 64 bit home

If you go to their web page they have stuff on clearance for cheap. Ordering straight from sony is cheaper than going on newegg. Sony doesn't need to markup their own product to make some profit.

soop · 07/06/2012, 09:50 AM

WOW O___O

That's an incredible deal. I got my tiny netbook recently for £250, but I'm very happy with it

BigusSchmuck · 07/06/2012, 06:14 PM

Quote from: kazekirifx on 07/05/2012, 08:56 PM
Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 07/05/2012, 11:08 AMClosest Best Buy or even Dell is like 200 miles west in Portland Oregon and if someone's machine went down, they would be down at least 24-48 hours to wait for a replacement vs we can get it done in a fraction of that.
Why is that really an issue? Just mail order. Maintenance would have to be send-away too of course, but just keep some spares around. If they're all the same model you can just put the end user's hard drive in a spare and they're up and running again.

I know it's easier said than done though. Building our own would be sweet too...

The problem is that any machine outside of this office isn't on our domain and they are only getting backed up locally. Good news though, we finally got some fiber wired up so we can start getting these machines on the domain and start getting replication servers out there.

Quote from: geise on 07/06/2012, 08:38 AMHehe. That's funny since I just bought a 14" vaio for my wife straight from sonystyle's web page for $469 with a:
500gb hd
i5 2.5ghz (3rd generation)
6gig ddr3 1333 ram upgradeable to 16
dedicated 1gig nvidia 410
windows 7 64 bit home

If you go to their web page they have stuff on clearance for cheap. Ordering straight from sony is cheaper than going on newegg. Sony doesn't need to markup their own product to make some profit.

If you got a newegg business account, you get all sorts of great deals. We were building quadcore amd athlons for around $200ish with windows xp or about $400 with Windows 7. Nice thing about amd am3 boards they are forwards compatible so we can put am3+ cpus in them (trust me I researched on which ones can do this) with a simple bios update and save even more money by doing this. I also suggest getting 2 hard drives these days as it seems that drives crash way more frequently than they used to.

BigusSchmuck · 08/17/2012, 08:58 PM

Update on the IBM BS. After a month of going live, this thing hasn't worked out at all especially when it comes to doing statements. Since the company I'm working for is a CO OP, you would think this software would cover and do everything management wants and more right? Wrong, the supposed "interface" with our old Eagle, SSI and cartrol it only took HALF of our customers over into the new system and the ones it did bring over it DIDN'T bring over the signatures which is very important to our credit department. To top things off, a big portion of the cartrol data (transactions) were completely lost to antiquity. Mark off another $10,000+ in transactions that will never come back. Second, our agronomy department is on SSI so when they moved their invoices over some people got double charge and some people didn't get moved over because their account numbers were too long for this IBM crap to read. Take another $20,000 lost in transactions. Good news on the SSI stuff though, its still on the old system but they just can't bill them out so all is not completely lost. Finally, our retail stuff and petro had yet another similar issue with the customer transactions not going completely over on the other side. Not sure on the total loss on this is, but its easily in the $100s of thousands of dollars. Bottom line, under no circumstances do you let a dumb redneck accountant and Grain guy do ANY IT decisions, its just going to bite you in the arse in the end. Oh yeah, did I mention we had to buy $10,000 worth of printers just so they can work with this system because it doesn't like anything at all except Lexmark printers? Ugh.

Tatsujin · 08/18/2012, 07:43 AM

HAL

soop · 08/18/2012, 07:48 AM

Holy shit. Those people need to be fired.

BigusSchmuck · 09/13/2012, 03:40 PM

I about shit my drawers when I read this:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/brad-pitt-to-produce-ibm-and-the-holocaust.html

SignOfZeta · 09/13/2012, 04:15 PM

Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 09/13/2012, 03:40 PMI about shit my drawers when I read this:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/brad-pitt-to-produce-ibm-and-the-holocaust.html

Wow, I never thought that book would be made into a movie.

Well, it's not made yet, I guess. We'll see. With this and the upcoming movie about Turing, a lot more people are going to get some real computer knowledge dropped on them in a short span of time.

Arkhan Asylum · 09/13/2012, 04:23 PM

This is where all the appletards go

OMG
STEVE
JOBS
DIDN'T
INVENT
COMPUTERS?

SignOfZeta · 09/13/2012, 04:35 PM

I don't think there are many people like that. Once computer knowledge drops below a certain level they don't even know who Jobs was.

thesteve · 09/13/2012, 06:56 PM

as400 works well for forms/inventory tracking
windows can do it as well, but can be less reliable.
note that as400 talks to dumb terminals, and windows runs terminal emulators

BigusSchmuck · 09/14/2012, 10:00 AM

Quote from: thesteve on 09/13/2012, 06:56 PMas400 works well for forms/inventory tracking
windows can do it as well, but can be less reliable.
note that as400 talks to dumb terminals, and windows runs terminal emulators

What crack are you smoking? The shit doesn't work very well at ALL. It bugs out and clears your system setup on the windows client, can't interface with anything worth a damn very well (cartrol, Epicore and a few others), have to get Lexmark printers for multiple tray function (already spent close to $5,000 on this), people get locked out on this DAILY, and to top things off this damn thing even with its Windows front end for the grain scale interface you can't even do a reprint of a scale ticket (kind of important for truck drivers). This thing is quite possibly the worst mistake this company has ever done and I just hope by the end of the year I'll still have a job considering there will probably be all sorts of layoffs if the grain department didn't at least make enough money to cover this mistake. And if the higher ups decide to push this thing on Agronomy and Payroll, there will be hell to pay for doing so. Knowing my luck, they'll start hiring a bunch of greying IBM guys to support this on site 24/7 because thats what I'm doing right now.

thesteve · 09/14/2012, 11:21 AM

I was speaking from experience at a former employer.
as to what it will and wont do, thats all in how its setup.

SignOfZeta · 09/14/2012, 12:53 PM

AS400 was perfectly fine for decades. It just isn't any fucking good at all now because 1) unless you have a very specific application it's going to require all sorts of special hardware and software just to interface with all your modern stuff and 2) nobody knows how to use it except angry old dudes who got into the business when it actually paid something and will retire at any second.

I do still kind of wish they used it for ATMs though...

BigusSchmuck · 09/14/2012, 01:40 PM

Quote from: SignOfZeta on 09/14/2012, 12:53 PMAS400 was perfectly fine for decades. It just isn't any fucking good at all now because 1) unless you have a very specific application it's going to require all sorts of special hardware and software just to interface with all your modern stuff and 2) nobody knows how to use it except angry old dudes who got into the business when it actually paid something and will retire at any second.

I do still kind of wish they used it for ATMs though...

They use it for gas systems, thats enough.

Although the interface with gas boy sucks mad balls...

majors · 09/14/2012, 05:02 PM

Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 09/14/2012, 01:40 PMThey use it for gas systems, thats enough. Although the interface with gas boy sucks mad balls...

GVR in the house? I had a contract at Gilbarco for a year and some. On the deploment team for pre-production(read: beta) Passport software. All running shitty Windows boxes with modems for RDC (I had forgotten 56k speed!). AS/400 versus XP?...6 of 1, half dozen of another...

BigusSchmuck · 09/15/2012, 06:02 PM

Quote from: majors on 09/14/2012, 05:02 PM
Quote from: BigusSchmuck on 09/14/2012, 01:40 PMThey use it for gas systems, thats enough. Although the interface with gas boy sucks mad balls...
GVR in the house? I had a contract at Gilbarco for a year and some. On the deploment team for pre-production(read: beta) Passport software. All running shitty Windows boxes with modems for RDC (I had forgotten 56k speed!). AS/400 versus XP?...6 of 1, half dozen of another...

Yeah we still have a few modems in the IT room. Its been my mission these past 2 years to finally retire them just for the simple reason they are noisy and sooooooo out of date (56k would be a luxury with these things). I will say that we finally did get rid of the old dot matrix continuous feed printer, gawd that thing was noisy. Anywho, the AS400 drama continues as people now realize they have to manually clear out their printer ques. Oh joy...