<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">anybody can write crap in a few months- this really requires analysis and design by people who understand all the intricacies and you KNOW they don’t have those people on the job.<div><br></div><div>As Sam Rayburn said, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”<br><div><br></div><div>Also, in my experience w/legacy systems, coders used to grab “unused” bits from a field w/a pointer and separate overlay because we had such limitations on disk and cpu. </div><div><br></div><div>and the number of libraries needed to build modern systems if not done from the ground up introduces stacks of vulnerabilities, too.</div><div><br></div><div>So… those of us living on the social security retirement we paid into are…. screwed.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div>
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Mar 29, 2025, at 1:12 AM, AI Zuckerman via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div dir="ltr"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-rewrite-ssa-codebase-in-months?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed" target="_blank" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-rewrite-ssa-</a></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/2148205/doge-to-rewrite-ssa-codebase-in-months?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed" target="_blank" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">codebase-in-months?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed</a></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Hi Hidden Techies,</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">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 <a href="https://oig.ssa.gov/congressional-testimony/2016-07-14-newsroom-congressional-testimony-july14-ssa-modernization/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(0,102,102);box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px">over 60 million lines of COBOL</a> and handles record keeping for all American workers and payments for all Social Security recipients. </span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">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.</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Some questions:</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Is it possible to handle this mammoth job in a month?</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">What happens if the techies in DOGE make mistakes?</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Would SSA have a backup system of the COBOL code?</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">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.</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">If you want to chat with me about this situation then call me at 413-362-4392. </span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">thanks!</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Amy Zuckerman</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">HIDDEN TECH mother emeritus</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I</span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0.5em;padding:0px 0px 0px 1em;border-left:3px solid rgb(221,221,221);display:block;color:rgb(54,54,54);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div>
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