Legacy systems

I hadn't heard of the phrase 'legacy systems' before, and apparently it's most often used in relation to the computer world.  However, according to Wikipedia, it may also be used to describe human behaviors, methods, and tools. For example, timber framing using wattle and daub is a legacy building construction method.    In other words, the phrase applies to the use of old methods (or in computerese, old programming systems) that are still functioning alongside more recent ones.

We tend to think that the computer world continues to upgrade at every point - certainly for us end-users that seems to be mostly the case - but for those who work in the basement, as it were, where all the programming is actually done, it seems there are a host of possibilities.   Programmers can continue to use old ways of programming alongside new ones without blinking an eyelid. 

But it has some issues, which is why places will advertise legacy system programmer jobs these are for people who know how to program using the old systems.  It's kind of like having an old tradesman on the job with you who can do things that the modern machine doesn't do nearly as well.

The Wikipedia article tells us that NASA still uses a lot of 1970s technology because it's too expensive to replace.   But NASA's not alone in this: many companies would find it prohibitively expensive to replace their computer systems.   So they live with the consequences.

I sometimes think I'm a person in the legacy systems mode: I much prefer to play the piano when there's a choice between a piano and a keyboard.  For me, so far, there hasn't been a keyboard that's successfully duplicated the touch and feel and weight and much more of an actual piano.   But then I'm a Luddite in all sorts of things...!

Confirming opinions/hobby horses

Some see Investigate as a controversy-making populist magazine that hypes up some facts and ignores others. However, I'm inclined to a more moderate view of the mag, which has more than once brought material to light that's been ignored or quashed in other media, isn't afraid to state its case (even if it occasionally winds up with egg on its face) and is also open about its editor's Christian beliefs.

The following paragraphs come from their latest email promo.

".....David Cameron’s controversial speech signalling the death knell of multicultural policies in the UK and Europe. Cameron says weak liberalism has left Westerners scared of defending core values for fear of offending someone.

“A passively tolerant society says to its citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values.”

Instead, argues Cameron, what is needed is a much more “muscular” defence of Western culture: “Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality...This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe in these things. Each of us in our own countries must be unambiguous and hard-nosed about this defence of our liberty..making sure immigrants speak the language of their new home...ensuring that people are educated in elements of a common culture and curriculum.”

The UK, France and Germany are all now backpedalling from decades of politically correct policies..."

I've believed for some time that both the bi-cultural and multi-cultural models here in NZ haven't done the country good; nor have they achieved much abroad, it seems. It looks like others are finally getting to grips with the problem.

And something else I've said for a while is that perhaps all the weather problems we're having around the world are related to a shift in the earth's axis. Not being a scientist of any sort, this was a merely intuitive idea. Curious then, to find this also in the Investigate's promo:

"Did you know the magnetic pole has begun shifting at a startlingly accelerated pace?

“NASA has been warning about it...scientific papers have been written about it...geologists have seen its traces in rock strata and ice-core samples. Now ‘it’ is here: an unstoppable magnetic pole shift that has sped up and which may be causing life-threatening havoc with the world’s weather,” begins the report from Terrence Aym in HIS.

Two weeks ago, the US Geological Survey issued a new report warning that massive superstorms could be in the offing capable of causing US$300 to $400 billion worth of damage – far exceeding the US$12 billion tag for the Christchurch quake, by way of comparison."

While that's not exactly a shift in the earth's axis, it's similar. Curious, and scary.