[Hidden-tech] Rewriting SSA code in months - possible?
Rob Laporte
rob at 2disc.com
Fri Apr 4 20:57:39 UTC 2025
I second Mik’s query on Musk’s “more” claim, and for the same reason Mik states. My Grok inquiry explained clearly why Musk’s prior claims of waster, fraud, and abuse were exaggerated but also were not far from the truth. Grok revealed the boring and/or analytically demanding middle ground between easy, knee-jerk judgments. Stepping back, I think what’s important to all of us is whether one’s news source even mentioned Musk’s newsworthy "more" claim, and whether it did so without an editorial judgment. True, pure news without an editorial slant is an ideal only, but it’s an ideal worth at least trying to attain.
As one who grew up perhaps naively trusting the NYT, I was dismayed to discover its many lies and omissions on crucial topics over the last 4-5 years. Months ago a friend suggested The Guardian, which Shel recommended in this thread, and sadly I found that it and the AP also lied. Before I say more, I should declare that my general political leanings are traditional left, which is mostly opposite the current left, though I’ve long shunned party alignment in favor of just following evidence. The only politician I ever donated to was Bernie Sanders, as I believe in the worker-owned business model. I don’t mention my political leanings in fear of the now common condemnation, but instead to remind us that arriving at truth based on evidence should make political leanings irrelevant. Anyway, past lies don’t guarantee future ones, yet I won’t insult readers’ intelligence by explaining why one must abandon news sources that have lied.
I could dig up my research showing those lies—and they were enormously consequential—but such investigation is something each citizen should (learn to) do. A good high school education and 2-3 hours is sufficient for such an investigation, although in my shocked disbelief, I did much more than that. One pointer: you should use thehttps://web.archive.org/web/20130821134950/http://index.html because now news sources sometimes edit their past stories to avoid being caught in lies after clear truth becomes publicly available.
In short, these days two people with the exact same values can arrive at opposite conclusions merely based on which top news source each happens to use, and that’s a problem. Some argue convincingly that that is the problem.
It looks like politics that express the new left is fair game on this list now; I wonder whether political statements from any other camp would be censored, or have been. Rich, perhaps clarify this or link to an existing HiddenTech policy page.
Swerving from politics within this important SSA topic, a smart friend’s very smart financial advisor recommended she take SS early, for a number of reasons. Within the next month, I will use LLMs and will code a spreadsheet in order to ascertain the math in such a decision. Actual past and projected inflation is central to this math. Being grandfathered in prior to a possible negative change in SS was one factor my friend’s advisor mentioned. Those are just two of the many factors my research and spreadsheet will handle. I’ll gladly share my findings here. Meanwhile, I welcome resource URLs that may help my research.
Best Regards,
Rob Laporte
CEO | R&D Manager
DISC - Making Websites Make Money
mailto:Rob at 2disc.com, 413-584-6500
https://www.2disc.com
NOTE: Emails can be blocked by spam filters throughout the web. If you don’t get a reply within an expected span of time, please call.
---- On Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:03:48 -0400 Michael Muller via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote ---
What stuck out to me is that he said SSA
recipients would get *more* (his emphasis) money in their
checks, not less. He then repeated that statement.
I'm not sure how that works. Aren't those
checks cut in a set amount? Why would they go up because he
saved 0.003%?
Mik
Mik Muller, president
Montague WebWorks
20 River Street, Greenfield, MA
413-320-5336
http://MontagueWebWorks.com
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On 4/3/2025 5:04 PM, Jan Werner wrote:
Good
point, although probably not what you had in mind.
Left out of that 1 minute video is the context, which is that Musk
was discussing his claim that 40% of all phone calls to SSA are
fraudulent.
The NY Times had an excellent article Tuesday on where he came up
with that figure, which was a report that 40% of direct deposit
fraud involved phone calls. Total direct deposit fraud amounts to
$100 million a year, so we're talking about $40 million in fraud
from phone calls. That's not nothing, but given that SS pays $1.5
trillion a year in benefits, we're talking about less than .003%
of benefits lost to phone fraud. That's not even a rounding error,
as Musk surely knows.
Thanks, but I'll get my news from reliable sources, not YouTube
clips.
Jan Werner
______________
On 4/1/2025 11:24 PM, Rob Laporte via Hidden-discuss wrote:
Regarding SS payments, it's /really/ worth knowing what Musk
said in this one minute video:https://youtube.com/clip/ Ugkxit7SyqsJxYkfVJGYIKNYGEe8AtT5-wJX?si=4VVWpzQnubES1r1R https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxit7SyqsJxYkfVJGYIKNYGEe8AtT5-wJX?si=4VVWpzQnubES1r1R. Will that happen? I don't know, but I
sure as heck expect a half-decent news source to report that
statement to me, because then I can follow-up on it later.
*Here's the punch line:* harmony among citizens depends on news
channels that are balanced and not mere editorial fed to fan our
feelings and clock click revenue. I'm still seeking one such
news source, if anyone has suggestions. I've heard an India news
source is good, but I forget which. Though using a "truth
machine" takes much less time than verifying each news story I
read, it still takes a lot more time than good ol' news that
obeys no party, cites the relevant sources, and does not omit
crucial parts of the story.
Best Regards,
*Rob Laporte*
CEO | R&D Manager
*DISC - Making Websites Make Money*
mailto:Rob at 2disc.com mailto:Rob at 2disc.com, 413-584-6500
http://www.2disc.com https://www.2disc.com
*NOTE:* Emails can be blocked by spam filters throughout the
web. If you don’t get a reply within an expected span of time,
please call.
---- On Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:55:20 -0400 *Michael Muller via
Hidden- discuss mailto:hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net*
wrote ---
Considering the recent backtracking and re-hiring of some of
the
more important fired personnel at critical federal agencies,
the
slap-dash eager beavers running around DOGE without a leash
feel
like drunk moshers in china shop. Any conversion by these
people
will be a fiasco, because they intrinsically don't care.
Log in to the SSA portal and download your payments and
benefits
report before it's offline.
Mik
Mik Muller, president
Montague WebWorks
20 River Street, Greenfield, MA
413-320-5336
http://MontagueWebWorks.com http://MontagueWebWorks.com
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On 3/29/2025 1:12 AM, AI Zuckerman via Hidden-discuss wrote:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-
rewrite-ssa- <https://developers.slashdot.org/
story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-rewrite-ssa-codebase-in-months?
utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed>
codebase-in-months?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
<https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-
rewrite-ssa-codebase-in-months?
utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed>
Hi Hidden Techies,
Here's one for coders on the list. A friend sent me a
link to
this article in Wired. Apparently, DOGE techies are
claiming
they can rewrite the SSA code in months. Wire reports
that the
SSA codebase has over 60 million lines of COBOL
<https://
oig.ssa.gov/congressional-testimony/2016-07-14-newsroom-
congressional-testimony-july14-ssa-modernization/> and
handles
record keeping for all American workers and payments for
all
Social Security recipients.
The aim is to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL ... and
onto a
more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled
tight
timeframe of a few months," notes Wired.
Some questions:
Is it possible to handle this mammoth job in a month?
What happens if the techies in DOGE make mistakes?
Would SSA have a backup system of the COBOL code?
Let all of us oldsters who depend on our SSA benefits
keep them
safe. If any people can do this, I know either you can
or know
someone who can. Please post your thoughts to the list.
If you want to chat with me about this situation then
call me at
413-362-4392.
thanks!
Amy Zuckerman
HIDDEN TECH mother emeritus
I
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