John C E Ellis

My thoughts and ideas

  • Y2K. JOHN’S STORY

    Blood, Sweat and Years. The Y2K remembered

    It only seems a few years ago when the world was awash with how the all the IT systems, PC’s and Game Consoles were all going to stop on the 1st of January 2000.

    Companies were expecting to spend millions on testing and fixing their systems, Government were preparing for everything from nuclear reactors to our water systems just stopping and the world ending.

    HARBINGERS OF DOOM EVERYWHERE

    I was primarily working for a large insurance company that supplied quotation systems to high street Independent Financial Advisors (IFA’s). I was managing a household insurance quotation system that interfaced to a early CRM system which we also wrote, we also had a Motor Insurance system and a Business Insurance system, managed by different teams within the company.

    So one day in early 1999, I was asked to assess what was required to be done to make the systems Year 2000 compliant and implement the changes and get it tested. I was given six months to do this.

    As I looked at 100’s of thousands of code written in COBOL, I realised this would be a very big job; Then I had an idea, the code was effectively all in text files, which I could read in code.

    So I wrote a program to read through all the source code files, find likely candidates for date fields and report on them. This went very well, then I realised that I could use the same code and get it to alter much of the existing code automatically, and just list what I needed to check.

    Instead of 6 months, I had all the changes done in 6 weeks, unit and system tested in another couple of weeks and out to our integration team to test. In the end, my changes were rolled out to the IFA’s in just over 4 months from starting the project.

    From my own recollection, while the Y2K problem was quite a potential issue, the dedication of so many in the industry, meant that on the 1st of January 2000, pretty much everything worked without a hitch. Many people today, say it was a massive hype, but it wasn’t, it was down to a lot of people working very hard to ensure nothing went wrong.

     

    John Ellis

  • Tags

    Tags

    Tagging: From Web 2.0 Buzzword to Powerful Organization Tool

    In the ever-expanding world of digital information, tags have become an essential tool for organization and discovery. But how did these simple labels evolve, and how do they power the way we interact with data today?

    The concept of tags has roots in the early days of information management. In libraries, librarians meticulously categorized books using Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress systems. In computing, tags emerged as a way to describe files and data structures. However, the rise of Web 2.0 in the early 2000s truly democratized tagging. Platforms like Flickr, a photo-sharing site, and Delicious, a social bookmarking tool, allowed users to assign their own keywords, or “tags,” to photos, articles, and bookmarks. This folksonomy, or “classification by the people,” revolutionized how content was categorized and discovered.

    Imagine a user uploading a photo on Flickr of their birthday party. Instead of relying on a pre-defined category system, they could add tags like “birthday,” “friends,” “celebration,” “cake,” and maybe even the specific location like “Pizza Planet.” This not only helps them find the photo later but also allows others searching for birthday party photos, friends’ gatherings, or even Pizza Planet events to discover the image.

    Tags offer several advantages over traditional, top-down classification systems. They are:

    • User-driven: Tags reflect the natural language users employ, making them more intuitive and discoverable. For instance, a user might tag a funny cat video as “hilarious,” “cats,” “lolcats,” whereas a more formal system might categorize it under “Pets” or “Animals.”
    • Flexible: Tags can be specific or general, allowing for nuanced categorization. A recipe could be tagged with “vegetarian,” “Italian,” “pasta,” and “quick meal,” providing multiple avenues for users to find it.
    • Collaborative: In social settings, users can add tags to each other’s content, fostering shared understanding. On a photo-sharing platform, friends might add the missing tag “beach” to a photo someone uploaded from their seaside vacation.

    Tags have become a cornerstone of data management across various fields. Here are some specific examples:

    • Digital Libraries: Libraries leverage tags to categorize articles, ebooks, and other digital resources. An academic paper on climate change might have tags like “global warming,” “environment,” “sustainability,” allowing researchers to discover relevant information more easily.
    • Photo Management: Photo management software allows users to tag photos with keywords like location, event, or people. Imagine tagging a photo from your Paris trip with “Eiffel Tower,” “France,” “vacation,” and the names of your travel companions. Years later, searching for any of these tags will instantly bring up the photo.
    • Music Streaming: Music streaming services use tags to categorize music by genre, mood, or activity. A song might have tags like “electronic,” “dance,” “workout,” enabling users to discover music for specific situations. Whether you’re looking for upbeat party tracks (“dance”) or relaxing background music (“chill”), tags help narrow down the search.
    • Social Media: #Tags are used on almost every social media platform, from FaceBook to LinkedIn to Twitter (X). Tagging the subject, the author, the company, specific interests of the post etc. Users can be whisked into the wider world where #Tags have been used in different scenarios for different things. Click #Cyber and you may get internet security, Doctor Who or Punk music.

    The Serendipitous Journey of Tags

    However, the true power of tags lies in their ability to take you down unexpected paths. Imagine researching the history of robotics for a school project. You start with articles tagged “robots” and “artificial intelligence.” But then you stumble upon a blog post tagged “robots” and “Isaac Asimov,” the science fiction author famous for his “Foundation” series. Intrigued, you delve deeper, discovering a whole new layer of thought about the potential future of robotics inspired by Asimov’s fictional universe. This is the serendipitous journey that tags can enable, where a simple keyword opens doors to entirely new areas of exploration.

    This concept resonates with the overarching theme of Asimov’s Foundation series. In the series, a vast library known as the Seldon Plan serves as a repository of human knowledge, meticulously categorized for future generations. However, the true value of the Plan lies not just in the information itself, but in the way it can be interpreted and reinterpreted, leading to unforeseen consequences and shaping the course of galactic history. Just like the Seldon Plan, tags offer a framework for organizing information, but it’s the user’s exploration and the connections they forge that unlock the true potential of this knowledge.

    The Future of Tags: AI and Beyond

    The future of tags with AI goes beyond just suggesting basic tags or locations. Here’s how AI might revolutionize tagging:

    • Automatic Tagging: AI could analyze content in more depth, automatically assigning not just basic tags but also complex concepts. Imagine uploading a scientific paper. AI could not only tag it with “physics” and “astrophysics” but also identify specific subfields or even groundbreaking theories discussed within the paper.
    • Personalized Tags: AI could personalize tags based on user preferences. For music streaming services, AI might suggest tags based on a user’s listening history, recommending similar artists or genres they might enjoy.
    • Evolving Tags: Tags could become dynamic, evolving as content is consumed and interacted with. Imagine a news article about a developing situation. As new information emerges, AI could update the tags to reflect the latest developments, ensuring users have access to the most up-to-date information.

    However, the rise of AI in tagging also presents challenges:

    • Bias: AI algorithms can inherit biases from the data they are trained on. This could lead to skewed or inaccurate tags, requiring careful monitoring and mitigation strategies.
    • Over-reliance: Overdependence on AI-generated tags could stifle human creativity and critical thinking in the tagging process. Finding the right balance between AI assistance and human expertise will be crucial.

    In conclusion, tags have come a long way from their humble beginnings as simple keywords. They have become a powerful tool for organization, discovery, and even serendipitous exploration. As AI continues to develop, the future of tags promises even greater levels of automation, personalization, and dynamic information management. However, it’s important to navigate this future with a critical eye, ensuring AI complements rather than replaces human judgment in the crucial task of tagging information.

    John Ellis

  • ONE WINTER’S NIGHT

    ONE WINTER’S NIGHT

    John Ellis FIAP, recalls another computer operator ‘adventure’.

    Back in the early days my principle weapons of choice were ICL (2904, 2946, ME29, 3900’s) and Honeywell (62/40, 62/60) Mainframes. Around the mid 80’s I was working with a food wholesaler and retailer on site as support programmer and occasional computer operator, on an ICL ME29 with a stock and order processing system. No Sage accounting then.

    We had a small PC based system (not IBM) attached to the mainframe. Stores would scan their orders in onto a Micronics Terminal, transmit them to us in the evening and we would update the orders on the mainframe systems.

    One evening, while it was snowing outside (rare for the South coast of England at that time) the mainframe suddenly died. We were getting all sorts of alarm alerts but after a few attempts to reboot the system we had to give up and call the ICL engineer. It took him around 2 hours to get to us. When he arrived he spent around an hour investigating and scratching his head and eventually said: “I need to call out another engineer with a full set of boards for this computer. He will be here tomorrow around 6am”.

    This was not good. We had to send picking lists to the warehouse by 2am so as produce could be on the lorries by 6am, ready to deliver to the shops.

    Thankfully I’d written a rudimentary stock system (an off-the-books exercise) that could take the Micronic Terminal data, in order to use a stock held on the disk and produce a picking list. Hooray I here you say. BUT! This was a ‘what if the computer room was destroyed’ system. The system was written in MicroFocus COBOL and ran on a floppy disk. The other problem was that the emergency floppy disk system was not on site. It was at my home some eight miles away.

    Accompanied by another computer operator, I got into my car (a 1973 Morris Oxford) and we headed to my flat, in the snow. Thankfully the roads were empty. Returning to the office through four inches of snow (roundabouts were fun) – no anti-skid or traction control then. It took about an hour to get back to the office.

    Disk into PC – orders put into system – picking lists produced.

    Your would think this would be the point where people would be grateful. If only! The complaints by the warehouse staff about the picking lists not being sorted by location in the warehouse!

    The mainframe was down for four days. After replacing every card to no avail it turned out to be a heat sensor that was thinking the mainframe had overheated. Although we had state of the art air filters for the computer room, diesel particles from lorry exhaust had congealed in and blocked the sensor. We upgraded the backup system but it was never used again.

    Thankfully the Distribution Manager was very grateful. He gave me a case of scotch for my troubles.

    We were young and daft in our early mid-twenties. We should never have risked the car journey, even though we saved the day. Even so, I enjoyed my time as a computer operator!

     

    John Ellis

  • DID WE PUT IT OUT?

    DID WE PUT IT OUT?

    John Ellis FIAP, recalls a computer operator ‘adventure’.

    Back in the mists of time before becoming a programmer, I was a computer operator.

    Being a computer operator in a mainframe environment was a time of great fun (when management went home) and frustration (when magnetic tapes failed). We had a lot of leeway and people wanted processing time which made one feel quite important. Still, I’m wandering away from this little gem of a story…

    One night we were running two ICL 2946 mainframes to complete the overnight batches, as we did every night, when suddenly one of the printers, spooling out around 3000 pages of reports, just stopped. The two of us walked over to the printer and lifted the hood to see whether it had run out of paper or jammed. No lights were showing but on opening the lid smoke bellowed out and up to the ceiling onto a smoke detector. No alarm however (not surprising as we’d quietened down our alarm bell by stuffing a punchcard into it!).

    What could two 20-something year-old computer operators do? We went over to the fire extinguishers, read the instructions and picked up the correct one for an electrical fire. Well I say one, that’s one each. Returning to the printer we checked it was switched off and proceeded to empty both extinguishers into the printer. Certain the fire was out (there was no evidence of flames prior or after the printer cut out) we shut the fuse off to that piece of equipment and switched the printing to an alternative printer.

    Dutifully we filled in the operations log, handed over to the day shift, explained the issue and went home.

    Next evening we returned. In the ops log was a note from the Operations Manager and the Bureau Manager explaining the ‘proper’ use of fire extinguishers and about how the budget costs of such items should be considered in the future. Okay. Yes. We got a bollocking!

    Looking back I would do it all again. I enjoyed being a computer operator.

     

    John Ellis