the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Gov. Murphy often showed his disdain for taxpayers when he told business leaders that New Jersey may not be their state if they are concerned about tax rates. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy love raising taxes and has even managed to raise taxes during the coronavirus pandemic . But high taxes apparently cant buy you everything and New Jersey needs help with its antiquated computer systems .How antiquated , so old in fact the states main frames use a 1950 computer language known as COBOL.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says that the state is looking for volunteers with skills that can be used to help in the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, and one of those skills is knowing your way around a 61-year-old programming language used on big, old, mainframe computers.
COBOL is an old computer programming language that was first developed in the 1950′s in conjunction with the Department of Defense. Today, most programmers prefer and use more modern languages, but there are pockets where old software written in COBOL remains in use, particularly financial applications and in large enterprises or government agencies.
By the 1990’s, COBOL was widely considered a thing of the past. It was obsolete, mainly because technology was becoming more object-oriented and moving away from the mainframe.
However, COBOL wasn’t left behind completely. It was still used by banks and other major corporations who depend heavily on accuracy and the stability of their programs to keep their companies running. COBOL worked as many of them wanted it to for the most part. When hit with the idea of migration to new languages, they found that many of their COBOL programs were quite large and difficult to migrate. So, as many corporations prepared for year 2000, they upgraded their COBOL programs to run well beyond 2000, versus changing them over to a new languages.
New Jersey needs COBOL programmers because many of the state’s systems use older mainframes, and those systems are now seeing record demand for services as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts the economy.
NJ Unemployment benefits Systems
Still largely run on Cobal.
It cannot handle the massive surge
For emergency Unemployment claims
massive demand right now .
Major Fail Governor . Many families cant pay their rent this month without
these benefits .Trump bootstrapped
All new aid programs ontop of the states unemployment systems that are swomped and claims are limited to certain hours of business day by
Ss number then free for all starts at 4 pm good luck taxpayers . We will need more than Luck
Murphy should resign
As per Paul Krugman’s tweet on this:
The decrepitude of government in a supposedly advanced country: NJ desperately seeking people who still know COBOL — ie, people who remember where they were when JFK was shot — to fix the UI system
quote of the day
I bet the salaries of teachers, and the pension checks of public sector retirees and their health insurance claims are all being processed just fine!
Was COBOL cutting edge when Christie was governor?
COBOL hasn’t been cutting edge since Brendan Byrne, geez i guess raising taxes doesn’t fix everything
Some of the largest firms in the US still use COBOL. If you’re still married to mainframes like many firms are COBOL is still relevant, including many financial firms .
Great comments all true..situation is a complete FUBAR of undeliverable promises
that people are counting on for overdue Rent and food for some sick family members
Florida also looking for COBAL programmers… guess the states will have to compete for those, too?
https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1247706761580236800?s=21
I learned COBOL in 1978-79. I was only 4 when Kennedy was shot, so I must be a youngin’, by Krugman’s standards.