[Mick]

Speaking of initial unemployment claims, California has decided to cease processing initial unemployment claims for two weeks.  Apparently, we have so many in California that we need to avoid taking care of society's most vulnerable people who have had their lives ripped apart.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/20/e...ms-faster/

Maybe we should hire some of those newly unemployed to help process claims?  Just spitballing here.

That being said, I don't know about California's system specifically, but a lot of the machines that run the unemployment claims are old and the underlying programs that run it are in an archaic programming language (COBOL) that is rarely used anymore.  It wasn't designed to process that many claims at once and it is struggling under the weight of new claims.

BC

COmmon Business Oriented Language.  Ugh.  Spare me.  I remember that and BASIC.  yech...

I read once that most government computers are old/outmoded/outdated/inefficient.  I'd also read that government computer installations go particularly badly.  I think Tandem Computers had a botched DMV installation some decades ago.

Also read that some of the IRS computers in use in the late 1990s were so old that the IRS was still using some computers from the 1950s with vacuum tubes.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes....97irs.html

[Mick]

Speaking of initial unemployment claims, California has decided to cease processing initial unemployment claims for two weeks.  Apparently, we have so many in California that we need to avoid taking care of society's most vulnerable people who have had their lives ripped apart.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/09/20/e...ms-faster/

Maybe we should hire some of those newly unemployed to help process claims?  Just spitballing here.

That being said, I don't know about California's system specifically, but a lot of the machines that run the unemployment claims are old and the underlying programs that run it are in an archaic programming language (COBOL) that is rarely used anymore.  It wasn't designed to process that many claims at once and it is struggling under the weight of new claims.

BC

COmmon Business Oriented Language.  Ugh.  Spare me.  I remember that and BASIC.  yech...

I read once that most government computers are old/outmoded/outdated/inefficient.  I'd also read that government computer installations go particularly badly.  I think Tandem Computers had a botched DMV installation some decades ago.

Also read that some of the IRS computers in use in the late 1990s were so old that the IRS was still using some computers from the 1950s with vacuum tubes.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes....97irs.html