Remember when blockchain was going to change everything? Now AI is the trend dominating every conversation—but some of the most effective programming ideas have been around for decades. This post examines one of COBOL’s lesser-known yet highly practical features: the 88-level field. Far more than a simple boolean, 88-level fields provide a clear, maintainable way to describe data conditions, enforce business rules, and streamline initialization. Through real-world examples, you’ll see h...| Keyhole Software
This is the second installment in the Notes on the Crises series on the IRS. While the first essay traced how the agency has become a political target and potential tool of authoritarianism, this piece investigates how DOGE’s so-called tech modernization efforts may further entrench those risks.| Notes on the Crises
How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a long multi-part series on the IRS spearheaded by Anisha Steephen.| Notes on the Crises
Early last week I started working on a piece on why the Federal Reserve didn’t step in during the Trump Tariff Financial Panic. The basic idea of that piece is simply that “repo rates”- the interest rate at which you can, in essence, borrow funds| Notes on the Crises
Nobody is going to mistake an IBM i conference for a college campus anytime soon. But if the recent POWERUp 2025 conference at Disneyland was any indication, there is a definite trend toward younger professionals working on the platform. While the IBM i youth movement is real, companies will benefit from some simple ways to| IT Jungle
IBM is making progress with Watsonx Code Assistant for i, which is on track to become available as a public preview next month. And while IBM perhaps is running into some challenges with generating RPG code, the long-term potential of agentic AI on IBM i is brighter than ever. As we previously reported, IBM is| IT Jungle
At the COMMON POWERUp 2025 conference this week, IBM pulled the covers back a bit on Watson Code Assistant for IBM i, the new name for the AI-powered coding assistant that IBM first started talking about one year ago. A public preview of WCA for i is becoming available to a limited number of testers,| IT Jungle
Exactly seven weeks since the first interview Krugman did with me was published, I have another interview to bring readers -- it's focused on the bread and butter elements that make up a modern financial crisis.| Notes on the Crises
I have a confession to make. Two months ago I tried to crash the stock market. Let me explain.| Notes on the Crises
I don’t really know what to say. I’ll figure out what to say another time. Paul Krugman, who recently left the New York Times, interviewed me for his newsletter and the transcript of the conversation, as well as the video, are being posted in both of our newsletters.| Notes on the Crises
Notes on the Crises pivoted on February 1st into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025 Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6 If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee,| Notes on the Crises
UPDATE 4:21 PM: MARKO ELEZ HAS RESIGNED. WALL STREET JOURNAL CLAIMS IT WAS OVER "RACIST POSTS". OBVIOUSLY NOT TRUE- WIRED, TALKING POINTS MEMO AND I GOT HIM. NEED TO REST, MORE TOMORROW Notes on the Crises pivoted over the weekend into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury| Notes on the Crises
Notes on the Crises pivoted over the weekend into around the clock coverage of the Trump-Musk Treasury Payments Crisis of 2025 Read Part 0, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4 If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee, especially if you’re| Notes on the Crises
If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee, especially if you’re a legacy IT programmer with years of experience and especially if you are a COBOL programmer currently working on the PAM, SPS or any other adjacent team, contact me over email or| Notes on the Crises
If you are a current or former career Bureau of the Fiscal Service Employee, especially if you’re a legacy IT programmer with years of experience and especially if you are a COBOL programmer currently working on the PAM, SPS or any other adjacent team, contact me over email or| Notes on the Crises
My experience is that most of the programs created within organizations are very short, i.e., around 50–100 lines. Sometimes entire businesses are run using many short programs strung together in various ways. These short programs invariably make extensive use of the functionality provided by a much larger package that handles all the complicated stuff.| The Shape of Code
A new “State of software security” report says application code is “drowning in debt”, where debt is defined […]| DEVCLASS
IBM a annoncé en 2013 l’ouverture d’un nouveau centre de services à Lille. IBM Services Center Lille a pour mission de fournir aux clients français des compétences technologiques de proximité pour répondre à leurs besoins spécifiques en termes de développement et de gestion d'applications ainsi que des services d'intégration de systèmes. | Centenaire IBM France - 2014 : 100 ans d'IBM en France #IBMfr100