[email protected] (Rupert Reynolds) writes:
> Does anyone have a copy of the old JARGON FILE that buzzed around the IBM
> VM network in the '90s when i was working in Portsmouth North Harbour? I'd
> love to see it again. I think it included discussion of Bubblegum vs.
> Boeblingen.

i have few different versions done over the years ... but there are
also a few on the web.

1st url using search engine
http://www.comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf

mentioned here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cowlishaw

in the early 80s, we modified the vm/rscs 6670 print driver (ibm copier3
with computer interface, distributed around departmental areas) to
randomly select "sayings" to help fill up the blanks on the separator
page (i.e. alternate paper drawer filled with colored paper). One of the
files of "sayings" was the ibmjargon file

Ran into problem with security auditors one year. I (and others) had
introduced a number of "demo" programs (aka *games* by any other name, I
brought in *adventure* inside ibm) and were maintaining growing large
library of demos. Corporate was having "For Business Purposes Only"
added to the vm370 logon screen ... and the security auditors claimed
that the demo programs had to all be removed since they weren't for
*business purposes*. It turns out we had gotten local change so that the
logon screen had *For Management Approved Uses Only* and had gotten
signoff on demo programs.

The security auditors were starting to feel like there was open conflict
with what they had been instructed from corporate. One evening as they
were doing after hours sweeps looking for unsecured classified material
... including classified prints-out left on 6670 departmental printers
... they came across print-out that had the following on the separator
page.

[Business Maxims:] Signs, real and imagined, which belong on the walls
of the nation's offices:
1) Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing; It Wastes Your Time and It Annoys the Pig.
2) Sometimes the Crowd IS Right.
3) Auditors Are the People Who Go in After the War Is Lost and Bayonet the 
Wounded.
4) To Err Is Human -- To Forgive Is Not Company Policy.

... and they attempted to escalate to top executives that we did it on
purpose ... trying to ridicule them.

this is also about the time that I had first sponsored Col Boyd's
briefings at IBM. I first attempted to do it employee education and they
initially agreed. However, as I provided more information, they changed
their mind, suggesting I restrict the audience to just senior members
of competitive analysis departments. They explained that the corporation
spend a large amount of money training managers on how to deal with
employees, and they were afraid that exposing general employees to
Boyd would be counter productive.

in the mid-80s, doing the vm tcpip interface ... i also converted the
6670 files into "zippy" format ... i.e. randomly select sayings for
email signature line.

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

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