It's 2018. Are you serious?!

in The Pub
Every now and then, I come across a document that was written less than 5 years ago and has something that is so jarringly out of date that (even if it makes sense when you really think about it) it takes me a second to process.
Today, I was browsing through the IBM Redbook on Power8 performance tuning and came across this gem:
Now, as I said, it makes sense when you think about it, as IBM (particularly in the AIX and i (AS/400) space) has to manage a LOT of legacy code, but the initial lolwut was fun.
So, yeah. Whatchagot?
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The software that is the backbone of our agency is web-based. No big deal, of course. It's still actively being developed. Also no big deal. Last update came in March.
Software only runs on IE in compatibility mode, and uses... wait for it... ActiveX controls. To scan. And to print.
Fortran is still used in scientific computing. I've prefer Fortran90 though I've also maintained Fortran77 codebases. It is really good at what it does: language-intrinsic vector math (linear algebra).
Yeah, I know. And COBOL is still really heavily in use in finance where they use mainframes, but it's still jarring to see it sometimes.
@Kwitko When I left the University in 2013, we still had vendor apps that REQUIRED IE6. I feel that pain.
i work day to day in ruby on rails, which has its place but is basically looked at as ancient by any nerd under 30
https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/#vacancies remote, pay NYC salary, works with Ruby
EDIT: I'm not saying you're wrong about nerds under 30, but you could say that about a lot of things that power core business features.
These fuckin things are still used in 2018.
You have no idea how many checkbooks I've gone thru renovating this damn house. It's basically 50/50 these days whether you get "Here's my Stripe reader, done" or "I need a check for this deposit one week before work begins".
I think I used like 12 checks total before 2012, now I'm on like stack-o-checks #12.
I typically write 2 checks/month. Everything else is auto-pay or some other electronic means. I can see where projects like yours would necessitate it more than usual, though.
THESE FUCKING THINGS ARE STILL USED IN 2018!!!!
Requiring FAX as if it is more secure than other options ^
My bank doesn't even provide checks, but can send one if I have an address and such.
I work for a LARGE finance company, the customer system uses InfoLease software...no GUI. For perspective, I first worked with this software in 1996, and it looked old then.
I'm sure when we hire IT guys and they see it they must have similar reactions to the OP. We've been scheduled for an upgrade for years and years, it keeps getting put on the back burner.
I fax quite a bit for different things. But on the more modern side, I use an app on my phone to do it instead of one of those old boat anchors.
Today I used Win XP on a 6 inch touchsceen. Not a fancy touchscreen either, it was one of those that react to pressure, rather than electroconductivity or whatever magic you find in phones today.
Also, replacement floppy discs are harder and harder to come by these days..
Holy geeze that's painful. Resistive touchscreens were the worst. They're better now than they used to be (see 3DS, most cars, etc), but capacitive is the way to go all the time.
Also: XP was never designed to be touch-enabled, making everything that much worse.
I like that the dot-matrix printer is called "Sailor"
Fun fact: the patent for fax technology was issued May 27, 1843.
In fintech, we still have to deal a lot with SOAP. Mostly from Equifax and these other dinosaurs that monopolize the space.
Yup
We're currently having issues where Equifax's FTP server will just not respond, causing a lot of our jobs to freak out until the service comes back.
How is equifax still in business?
Too big to face actual consequences.
And those juicy lobbying dollars.
Capitalist until we're not.