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#cobol

42 posts39 participants0 posts today

A while back I tackled the idea of converting my #budget #spreadsheet to a normal Program.. With reports, transaction processing, and lots of traditional #Banking features I decided to use #RetroComputing #Mainframe tools and languages like #REXX, #VSAM, #IBM S370 a la MVS Tk5, and now #COBOL has joined the project to replace some #x86 (or Z) #Golang preprocessing. Not just any COBOL, #MVT COBOL'68 which lacks MANY modern/OOP/String functionality as they're commonly known.. Hello PIC X OCCURS!

Adam Tooze, on the Ones and Tooze podcast, gives an excellent layperson-friendly explanation of why there is no way Elon's goons can operate safely and competently in the Treasury's COBOL code base.

So the Social Security Administration's benefits system is written in COBOL. I remember COBOL; my best friend (RIP) was a COBOL programmer.

"COBOL is rarely used today, and as such, Musk’s cadre of young engineers may well be unfamiliar with it."

wired.com/story/elon-musk-doge or
web.archive.org/web/2025022019

WIRED · No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security BenefitsBy David Gilbert
Replied to Robbie 👾

@robbienorlyn Unfortunately, gaining #COBOL skills and doing their computer and budget #enshittification is fourth or fifth down the line in the damage Musk and DOGE can do to #SocialSecurity.

Just closing offices, cutting staff, creating a paperwork backlog, making it harder to reach someone can put a claim behind by a year or moresince nearly everything claims related, except maybe retirement by age, has to be touched and approved by a human, esp disability, widows, children survivor benefits, etc.

Also, they are using third parties to go after current beneficiaries, it appears, who are paid a percentage for each "savings" they collect, such as backpay due to their, SSA current system, errors.

Маск утверждает, что миллионы выплат осуществляются лицам старше 150 лет, называя это «крупнейшим мошенничеством в истории».

Программисты отметили, что заявление Маска может быть основано на непонимании того, как функционирует устаревшая система кодирования социального обеспечения, #COBOL. В этом языке, которому уже несколько десятилетий не хватает встроенного типа даты, что приводит к необычной дате по умолчанию — 20 мая 1875 года, сообщает WIRED .

В результате, любой отсутствующей или неполной дате рождения в записях SSA может быть присвоена эта точка отсчета, в результате чего люди выглядят старше 150 лет.

firstpost.com/explainers/elon-

A Social Security card is displayed October 12, 2021, in Tigard, Oregon, US. File Image/AP
Firstpost · Elon Musk uncovers ‘biggest fraud in (US) history’: Is there any truth to it?Elon Musk has alleged that millions of 150-year-olds are fraudulently receiving Social Security payments. His claim is based on Social Security Administration database inconsistencies, where outdated COBOL-based systems list extreme ages due to placeholder values. The SSA’s inspector general previously identified $8 billion in improper payments in 2023, but experts argue that these errors do not equate to widespread fraud
Replied to Toni Aittoniemi

@gimulnautti @georgetakei @GhostOnTheHalfShell

In college, my professor was All About COBOL because everything ran on a Burroughs 'mini frame' and we were replacing it and he took it personally. We went to War because I was employed by said college to EOL the junk, while working on my degree.

These little Tech Bros have no clue the code they're dealing with.

Now, I want a billion dollars and a team to refactor all government away from COBOL. Not this way.

Replied in thread

@cliffco58 when this whole thing spun up, the first thing I said was None of the teen avengers know cobol, that whole spaghetti code is based on #cobol. It is ridiculously easy to screw up in cobol. It why the 200 or so people on the planet who are good at it are treasured resources who can make a lot more money in the private sector, but the ones who believed in the US government stayed there and kept the system alive.
I am not kidding when I say that almost nobody under 50 has any idea how restrictive and prescriptive old code is. These incels have worked with wysiwyg hacking tools, they have no idea what cobol or Fortran is or what it does. And someone told me they are making changes live on prod with no audit trail...and I can’t even imagine how we’re going to fix this disaster of script kiddies set loose on #infosec infrastructure.

#Robodebt on steroids coming to US IRS (Internal Revenue)?

"The context is that the early reporting on the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025 had concerning signs of what was to come. Specifically, I’ve been keeping in the back of my mind this tidbit from the New York Times January 31st reporting:

" "Mr. Akis has made similar inquiries at the I.R.S. about its information technology as part of an effort to automate tax collection, according to people familiar with the matter." "

#USPol #DOGE #USPolitics #COBOL
crisesnotes.com/special-notice

Notes on the Crises · Special Notice: DOGE is Now Going After the IRS Which Means I Need Former and Current IRS Sources, Especially COBOL ProgrammersNotes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025. Today is Day Fifteen Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 & Part 9 If you are a