Wow. Somebody I don't know read my memoir. ----------------------------------- Frank Wimberly
My memoir: https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly My scientific publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 2:56 PM Steven A Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > Frank - > > I am, it's first draft is roughly what I get when I filter my outbox. > The chapters on "memoirs of sci/tech" are in the "recipients:Friam" > stream... this collection may very well also be the primary contents of > many's TL;DR folder here. > > I would appreciate a second memoir from yourself covering the years > (and anecdotes) including running Paul Erdos out of the Berkeley Campus > Library each night and the belly of the ATT and CMU (and???) beasts... to > complement the not-too-long-after-wild-wild-west days in NM. > > My friend who is no more than a couple of years younger than you who > grew up in Las Vegas and Amarillo recognized a lot of familiar "color" from > your memoir. He got lucky and ended up at MIT in the early 60s... > > - Steve > On 12/26/19 11:30 AM, Frank Wimberly wrote: > > Steve, > > You should write a memoir. > > Frank > > ----------------------------------- > Frank Wimberly > > My memoir: > https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly > > My scientific publications: > https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 > > Phone (505) 670-9918 > > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 10:42 AM Steven A Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > >> Frank - >> >> It is fascinating to hear that you were in the "belly of the beast" if >> only for a short while. I suppose we have all been in the belly of *some* >> beast in our various times. >> >> My earliest years were without a telephone in the house (camp-trailer in >> the woods) followed by several party lines (shared in 2 cases amongst other >> USFS families in forest-camp compounds) and understanding that the magical >> rings and voices coming from the handsets in the house were modulated >> (whatever that meant to a 3 year old) over the insulated bundles of wires >> running from tree-to-tree and pole-to-pole... It wasn't hard to >> understand the idea that if voices could travel over single wires, that any >> one of us on a party line could pick up and hear the other's voices during >> a conversation or even that the volume/static on the line would abruptly >> change if someone picked up (say to listen in?). It made perfect sense >> that such resources (wires on poles) were very scarce and needed to be >> shared... I had heard of operator-assisted calling which made great sense >> (patch panels) but the idea that the pulses sent via the spring-loaded >> rotary dial could "tell" a electromechanical switch (my father showed me >> the one in the main location at the second forest camp when I was about 5) >> and I remember watching/hearing a call go through it... relays opening and >> closing as ring pulses went through... >> >> One of my friend's father was the local telephone lineman and he was busy >> all the time either going out on trouble calls or doing maintenance on the >> switches. Realizing that in a community of roughly 300 (600 in the county >> at the time!) was keeping one man busy (more than) full time doing this was >> my first taste of "infrastructure". I don't know what kind of backup he >> had... I never saw anyone else working with him nor heard of anyone else >> employed... though I do know sometimes there were company trucks parked at >> the fenced yard next to his house... probably for new line buildout? >> Another father of a friend owned/operated the local "vending" routes which >> included soda machines, candy machines and best of all pinball machines. >> HIs territory must have been pretty wide because our 300 town only had one >> soda/candy machine at each of 2 gasoline stations and 3 pinball machines at >> the drug/variety store. I got to see the ones in their shop behind the >> house under repair opened up and really got a kick out of trying to "trace >> the logic" of a coin-drop/lever-pull, delivery-chute... and even better, >> the complex logic of a pinball machine. Yet another father drove the >> propane delivery truck (he had a boss who drove some, but he was the main >> driver) and another who ran the local branch of the power - coop along >> with his wife. They had more trucks that came in from the next large town >> (60 miles and maybe 1000 people?) to do major repairs/upgrades, but he was >> out in his truck all the time fixing/installing *something*. Several of >> these men ran an ad-hoc cable network in the core of the village... >> nothing came in by antenna and I guess they had their own up on a mountain >> with a rebroadcast system... the network was down as much as it was up >> and while *some* of the customers had to have been paying customers, it was >> these guys who somewho cooperatively kept it going. I *knew* that someone >> besides these men were *designing* and *building* the systems they >> maintained (thought the cable TV thing was more DIY). >> >> Many years later, we moved to a large town/small-city (2 supermarkets, a >> dozen motels and gas stations?) and our neighbors at the edge of town owned >> the local AM radio station... they solicited me to clean the station every >> Saturday and after a few months of that I graduated to typing up station >> program logs and then began to operate the station under supervision... >> they were largely "automated" which meant 4 big carousels with 4-track >> endless loop (similar to 8-track) cartidges that we would load with music, >> PSAs and commercials which were then "programmed" by inserting pins in >> different patch-panels... there were two modes... for example, the system >> that took over on the top of hour for the network news would inject one of >> a small handful of instrumental tunes that could be faded/interrupted >> at-will to flip over the newsfeed. The rest of the time, the system had a >> priority stack and the commercial/PSAs stack had priority in the sense that >> it wanted to play out it's queue within the allotted time (usually one >> hour) no matter what... while the music queue would simply play whenever >> one of the others were not... only rarely (due to bad planning) would a >> commercial or PSA go unplayed. Not every hour was different, but there >> were periods (8-12AM, 1-5PM, 6-10PM) that had a particular character and >> there was some variation within it. By the time I was 15 (Freshman in HS) >> the station owners saw my diligence and curiosity (the Station Engineer >> would take the time to explain most everything there to me in as much >> detail as I had time for) and offered me a nighttime live show which I ran >> for most of my HS years. I always had the option to fire up the automated >> system, as I was also trying to do my homework during that time. I went >> in to the station before 4PM to handle the 4-6 news programs (I can still >> hear Paul Harvey ringing in my ears) and then the (automated) 6-7 PM >> "sundown serenade" curated by the wife but executed by me (most of the >> time). At 7 we rolled into "the Night Show" which was conceived by the >> owners to be something for the "youth crowd". It was nominally a Rock show >> but was really Top-40 by their measure... We had the full array of classic >> rock vinyl in the shelves and I was allowed to use (most of) it but there >> was the top-40 billboard charts to be serviced which meant a lot of >> pop-rock and country-rock and pop-pop. >> >> Yet another exposure to the complexities of "programming" and "logic" >> from a somewhat different perspective. The engineer at the time had been >> on the predecessor to the NIF fusion project in Livermore (MFE?) >> (designing/building the capacitor banks) and clued me in a lot of things. >> He was a greasy-haired wiry little hippy that drove an old italian >> convertible (very finicky with dual carbs...) and had a penchant for >> visiting the bars/brothels in Mexico (this was a border town) and probably >> got rolled by someone at least once a year... and had the stories (and >> scuffs) to tell about it. He taught me binary logic/arithmetic and showed >> me how that related to the somewhat similar/different discrete/analog >> systems behind the carousels (all the electronics were exposed, so you >> could trace wires and watch relays open/close) and even taught me the >> basics of analog circuits including soldering, relays, power >> amplifiers/transmitters. Later, as I went into the all-digital world of >> Computer Science, It was as if I was learning about Mammals after growing >> up among only Marsupials. Of course automobiles had their own share of >> analog-discrete logic with an HV (timed) side and a 12V mostly continuous >> (but with switches/relays) side. This was the 70s and the autos of >> interest were mostly from the 50s/60s. >> >> I went to LANL in 1981 to work on the Proton Storage Ring which was in >> some ways the epitome of an anolog/digital hybrid systems with huge >> subsystems being HV and HF while others were "utility" (110/60) and yet >> others were TTL. The place was "in flux" all the time... with magnetic >> fields (intended and unintended) coming and going effecting everything. >> It was a quite the milieu. Moving to HPC was both a relief and a whole >> new world... even though I still worked with some analog systems, they >> were much less dangerous and much less high speed... the digital stuff was >> lickety-split (by those days standards) and the introduction of vector and >> parallel (and eventually distributed) processing was new and interesting. >> By the time I was mentoring others (90s), the backgrounds were almost >> exclusively digital and most if not all of the "kids" that came through had >> never even worked on their own cars, much less vending machine or automated >> tape carousel logic. >> >> As Y2K approached, a consultant from SAIC was working in my general >> area... we became friends... but his role and way of thinking was >> incredibly foreign to me. One of his roles (he felt like a plant from the >> military-industrial into the military-scientific establishment) was to >> consult on Y2K readiness. My system at the time had been hand-built on >> top of UNIX (replacing a VMS system that was falling apart every day) by a >> small team (3-5 of us) and while I did not know every line of code in the >> system (I had written a good portion of it), we had coding practices and >> standards and code-reviews and I was roughly 99.9% confident that we didn't >> have a single 2-digit date in the system, nor did we depend on any >> libraries or system code which did. The open-source/community nature of >> BSD Unix meant that everything we relied on and trusted without inspecting >> personally had been inspected by hundreds or thousands of others. The Y2K >> problem had been discussed a lot and there were plenty of procedures in >> place to encourage (though never ensure) that every code-team/system had >> expunged any possible Y2K bugs. My SAIC buddy talked in SLOC and had >> metrics up the wazoo about things which almost exclusively did not apply >> (well) to our systems as-designed and as-built. There may well have been >> (especially in the Business Processing side of the house) some big >> risk/holes, but I knew my system intimately and the other major/similar >> systems (slightly larger development teams with more turnover) were well in >> hand. >> >> We (the three major systems) also had on-call responsibility and were >> used to being called at 3AM if something wasn't right.... *we* had been >> trained by the operations staff to not leave them hanging... they could be >> pretty easy-going/helpful with those of us who answered our phones and were >> easy-going/helpful with them, but the few who thought they shouldn't have >> to help stand up a system they built when it fell over (or sprung a leak) >> at 3AM on a holiday discovered quickly that they would not be let off >> easier just because they were reluctant or pissy about the call. Bottom >> line was that we (developers) knew that our systems had to run 24/7/365 and >> the 00:00:01 01/01/00 was just like any other day, and if/when/as the >> dominoes might start to fall, it was OUR job to be right there standing >> back up any of OUR dominoes that might fall on their own or be knocked down >> by others. There was a little rivalry between systems (operations as well >> as development) but for the most part of someone else's system was falling >> down and making a mess (creating possible/implied bugs in other systems) >> we all pulled together pretty well. I don't know to this day if my SAIC >> friend understood how coordinated and intimate we all were, because he kept >> on predicting gloom and doom for us as the date approached. As it was, >> there wasn't even much scurry as the calendar/clocks cranked over Y2K, and >> I don't remember any acute problems. We (wanted to?) believed that the >> ADP side of the house had no end of problems due to their heavy dependence >> on commercial systems/layers/middle-ware/vendors. As I remember it, Y2K >> was pretty much a flop everywhere. >> >> All this in response to "IT is Not Sustainable". I would claim that >> virtually NOTHING we build is sustainable... or at least there is a huge >> spectrum. Engineering can be incredibly robust within it's design >> parameters, but is often incredibly fragile when confronted with a >> unexpected conditions... Evolved systems are also simultaneously fragile >> and robust. They are robust within the "basins of attraction" implied by >> the ecosystem they operate within but once pushed out of those robust >> regions they can self-destruct quickly... I've been studying (very loosely) >> the myriad examples of species extinction and habitat loss and cascading >> failures (in progress and/or impending) in our ecosystems and am appalled >> at how unprepared we (humans, engineers, even scientists) are to apprehend >> the fragile interconnectedness and "designed for near-optimal-conditions" >> we have set up. Not precisely a house of cards, a line of dominos, a >> stack of Jenga sticks, but not precisely NOT those either. >> >> My recent trip to Europe/Scandinavia opened my eyes to some things I was >> previously under-aware of. The evolved-engineered systems of polder and >> canal and dike and hydrology in the Netherlands is perhaps the most >> impressive. Realizing that they started significantly holding back the >> north sea during the "little ice age" (dikes and polders had started >> earlier, but this was when they really came into their own?) helps me to >> appreciate the difference between what they have done there over centuries >> vs what our own Army Corps has done in less than 100... and most to the >> point, the ways a whole culture can adapt to things including their own >> engineering given many generations, but how we "moderns" don't have time to >> adapt culturally to the changes. We DO adapt (the talk of telephones and >> the earliest examples leading up to a global wireless, >> multi-system-technology mesh/grid being an example), but it isn't clear to >> me that our adaptation is *deep* enough to be robust... >> >> Another example in less detail is what has been come to be called "the >> Nordic Secret" which is roughly the response of Scandinavia to the >> enlightenment followed by the industrial revolution and perhaps most >> acutely the post WWII industrial/cultural explosion in the west. In many >> ways they follow the rest of the West, but it seems they may actually know >> "a secret" about sustainability, both industrially and culturally. >> >> The "Endogenous Existential Threats" of our time are many/myriad and to >> the point... Endogenous... self-generatated... and while we may be taking >> down a lot of the biosphere-as-we-know it with us, the biggest tragedy >> seems to be set to land ON us, and those closest to us (our domisticates >> and the remaining large mammal species)... though that also may simply be >> an anthropocentric view. >> >> As Dave's title says "IT" is not sustainable... you name the "it" and >> it very likely has a lamer lifetime than you imagine (my Y2K anecdote >> notwithstanding)... >> >> I WILL say that despite my neo-Luddite rants, I've become more of an >> Eco-Modernist of late... not necessarily wanting to trust that we can >> "technology" our way out of the disasters we are creating with our >> technology, but recognizing that perhaps we have little other choice >> (culturally)... and that we must *try* to walk the tightrope of using >> "fire to fight fire" but with (perhaps) a lot more self-awareness than that >> which we used to paint ourselves into this (mixed metaphor of a) corner. >> >> </ramble> >> >> - Steve >> >> >> On 12/26/19 9:08 AM, Frank Wimberly wrote: >> >> >> "CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) has set a goal to reduce power consumption on >> its public switched telephone network by nearly 22,000 megawatt-hours a >> year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as more customers migrate to VoIP >> and mobile voice services. >> >> Although CenturyLink is growing its IP-based voice service, this project >> is focused on consolidating more than 400,000 legacy PSTN subscriber lines >> across 50 Class 5 voice switches. " >> >> >> They're called class 5 because of 5ESS which is the most used class 5 >> switch at CenturyLink. >> >> Sorry, but I had to clarify this. >> >> >> Frsnk >> ----------------------------------- >> Frank Wimberly >> >> My memoir: >> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly >> >> My scientific publications: >> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 >> >> Phone (505) 670-9918 >> >> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 8:43 AM Frank Wimberly <wimber...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message). 5ESS >>> used in a mobile telephone network. The 5ESS Switching System is a Class 5 >>> telephone electronic switching system developed by ... >>> ----------------------------------- >>> Frank Wimberly >>> >>> My memoir: >>> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly >>> >>> My scientific publications: >>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 >>> >>> Phone (505) 670-9918 >>> >>> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 8:36 AM Marcus Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Frank writes: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> “This was the telephone network in question.“ >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> With the mobile carriers and VOIP, I wonder how much of that code is >>>> still used? I once worked for a small company that wrote software to do >>>> billing for long distance telephone carriers. I was amazed by the >>>> seemingly arbitrary complexity. Complex at a policy and >>>> inter-organizational level, not just the software. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Marcus >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> *From: *Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> on behalf of Frank Wimberly < >>>> wimber...@gmail.com> >>>> *Reply-To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < >>>> friam@redfish.com> >>>> *Date: *Thursday, December 26, 2019 at 5:39 AM >>>> *To: *The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < >>>> friam@redfish.com> >>>> *Subject: *Re: [FRIAM] IT is Not Sustainable >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> At Bell Labs we sure didn't pay anyone by LOC. We also had code >>>> reviews and software tools to enforce standards and very high pay. With a >>>> brand new PhD I made more than all but the 3 most senior members of the CS >>>> faculty at Pitt where I was a grad student. This was the telephone network >>>> in question. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Despite the high pay I disliked software administration methodology. >>>> The disagreements between the software tool developers (version control, >>>> integration of subsystems, compilers, etc) and the implementors of the >>>> applications, such as call processing, were epic. Recall that Bell Labs >>>> invented C and Unix. After 18 months I returned to Pittsburgh to work at >>>> Carnegie Mellon in Robotics for two thirds the salary. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Number 5 ESS was first deployed in March 1982, 4 years after work >>>> began. I suspect that it didn't have 200 million lines of code then, but >>>> close to it. Maybe Dave doesn't consider it an IT project but many of the >>>> software tools that were developed were included in later Unix releases, I >>>> believe. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> It's going to be a beautiful day in Santa Fe. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Frank >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ----------------------------------- >>>> Frank Wimberly >>>> >>>> My memoir: >>>> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly >>>> >>>> My scientific publications: >>>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 >>>> >>>> Phone (505) 670-9918 >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019, 1:28 AM Gary Schiltz <g...@naturesvisualarts.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Spot on. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 2:29 AM Marcus Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Most programmers won't struggle to rationalize or improve code written >>>> by other people. The problem is that people are selfish. They think >>>> that their 10K LOC problem is beautiful and nimble, but that 1M LOC was >>>> once that too. It's the behavior of teenagers. >>>> >>>> On 12/25/19, 10:47 PM, "Friam on behalf of Russell Standish" < >>>> friam-boun...@redfish.com on behalf of li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: >>>> >>>> It's all about the LOC! Actually, I kind of agree - having worked on >>>> some MegaLOC codebases that functionally seemed to be no more >>>> complex >>>> than a 10KLOC project I'm involved in, the 10KLOC project is much >>>> more >>>> nimble - compile times are far less, making changes to the code >>>> easier >>>> and bugs less troublesome to winkle out. >>>> >>>> I've also refactored or rewritten pieces of code to slash the LOC >>>> by a >>>> factor of 3 or more for that particular section (eg 3KLOC -> 1KLOC) >>>> - >>>> but usually when bugs and problems kept on cropping up in that >>>> section. >>>> >>>> Even though the LOC is an entirely bogus measurement - if you paid a >>>> programmer by LOC, you'd get boilerplate and crappy comments. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >>>> Principal, High Performance Coders >>>> Visiting Senior Research Fellow hpco...@hpcoders.com.au >>>> Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au >>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> to unsubscribe >>>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>>> >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>> FRIAM-COMIC <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/FRIAM-COMIC> >>>> http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>>> >>> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
