On Friday, 08/09/2013 at 10:03 EDT, Gabe Goldberg <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not arguing against "fit for purpose" -- IBM's current buzzword for > "use the best platform for the application". Of course, it's not clear > to me that one server/plane or ten servers per 10,000 seats provides the > mainframe's robust and responsive service. If that setup was more > effective/economical, wouldn't it be used? Same for wherever mainframes > are used, no? > > My point is that mocking "antiquated mainframe reservations systems ... > technology developed four decades ago" makes as much sense as saying > that we shouldn't be driving today's cars because -- shockingly -- they > resemble cars of a hundred years ago, still having four tires, a > steering wheel, and gas/brake pedals. > > He's not arguing on the merits, he's just saying that today's mainframes > and res systems were developed forty years ago, and he's wrong.
And it was a red herring. Troll bait, in fact. The server technology has NOTHING to do with the subject of his article about accuracy and longevity (or lack thereof) of a price quote on an airline seat whose value changes based on a set of opaque criteria. He didn't even examine whether it made sense for airlines to follow the model that arena and stadium event managers use to sell seats, where they lock your seat selection for, say, 3 minutes. And he doesn't discuss whether the Observer Effect applies. (I don't intend to debate the issue here.) And he makes no comparison to other industries where quotes aren't really quotes, but a value plucked from a rapidly moving stream of data. (There's a reason public access to the Stock Exchange is on a delayed interval basis.) All in all, a poorly written article that would leave the uninformed believing that this is yet another issue that may be laid at the feet of the mainframe. Our segment of the industry has its share of problems to be sure, but this isn't one of them I'm happy to say. Alan Altmark Senior Managing z/VM and Linux Consultant IBM System Lab Services and Training ibm.com/systems/services/labservices office: 607.429.3323 mobile; 607.321.7556 [email protected] IBM Endicott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
