#legacy database system

[softweb-solutions]

Softweb Solutions provided a software to a law firm that was facing challenges of technology migration. We offered them our legacy system modernization services to achieve more business benefits. 

[roseband]

oh my god i don't speak to my dad anymore cuz hes nutty but i know what he does for a living

and musk is currently pulling a "the software govs use is 50 years old which means there can be no advances"

and that's..... that's what my dad does for a living, he gets paid 500-1k an hour to make software that specifically communicates with old legacy software cause he's a 90s dev who knows the old languages still and it's more efficient to hire a freak who knows how to make something to bridge between the old and new programs than to fully trash the old system

like there's literally consultants that get hired for that specific purpose and as a software guy musk KNOWS this

[avendatagmbh]

Von Altlasten zu Innovationen: Die Rolle der Künstlichen Intelligenz in der Modernisierung von Altsystemen

In einer Ära rasanter technologischer Entwicklungen stehen viele Unternehmen vor einer entscheidenden Frage: Wie können veraltete Systeme, die einst das Rückgrat ihrer IT-Infrastruktur bildeten, in das digitale Zeitalter überführt werden? Die Antwort könnte in der Kraft der Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) liegen.

Die Herausforderung der Altsysteme

Viele Unternehmen, insbesondere solche in traditionellen Industrien wie Banken, Versicherungen und Fertigung, stützen sich immer noch auf sogenannte Altsysteme. Diese Systeme, oft jahrzehntealt, sind zwar zuverlässig, aber zunehmend schwerfällig und teuer im Unterhalt. Sie sind nicht nur technologisch veraltet, sondern auch schwer in moderne IT-Umgebungen zu integrieren. Hier kommt die Modernisierung von Altsystemen ins Spiel – ein Prozess, der darauf abzielt, diese veralteten Technologien durch moderne, effiziente und zukunftssichere Lösungen zu ersetzen oder zu ergänzen.

Warum Künstliche Intelligenz?

Künstliche Intelligenz hat das Potenzial, die Modernisierung von Altsystemen auf völlig neue Ebenen zu heben. KI kann nicht nur helfen, bestehende Prozesse zu optimieren, sondern auch neue Möglichkeiten eröffnen, wie Unternehmen ihre IT-Infrastruktur nutzen und erweitern können. Hier sind einige der Hauptgründe, warum KI ein Schlüssel zur Modernisierung von Altsystemen sein kann:

Automatisierung und Effizienzsteigerung: KI kann repetitive und manuelle Aufgaben automatisieren, die bisher von Menschen erledigt wurden. Dies ist besonders wichtig bei Altsystemen, die oft viele manuelle Eingriffe erfordern. Durch den Einsatz von KI-gestützter Automatisierung können Unternehmen die Effizienz steigern und gleichzeitig Fehler reduzieren.

Datenanalyse und Entscheidungsfindung: Altsysteme enthalten oft riesige Mengen an historischen Daten, die wertvolle Erkenntnisse bieten könnten, aber aufgrund ihrer unstrukturierten und verteilten Natur schwer zugänglich sind. KI-Algorithmen können diese Daten analysieren, Muster erkennen und wertvolle Einblicke liefern, die Unternehmen bei strategischen Entscheidungen unterstützen.

Integration und Interoperabilität: Eine der größten Herausforderungen bei der Modernisierung von Altsystemen ist die Integration mit neuen Technologien. KI kann helfen, die Kompatibilität zwischen alten und neuen Systemen zu verbessern, indem sie beispielsweise die Übersetzung und Anpassung von Datenformaten automatisiert.

Vorhersage und Proaktive Wartung: KI kann genutzt werden, um Probleme in Altsystemen frühzeitig zu erkennen und proaktive Wartungsmaßnahmen vorzuschlagen. Durch den Einsatz von prädiktiven Analysen können Unternehmen Ausfallzeiten reduzieren und die Systemverfügbarkeit verbessern.

Praktische Anwendungen von KI in der Modernisierung von Altsystemen

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA ist eine Form der KI, die es ermöglicht, sich wiederholende Aufgaben zu automatisieren. Unternehmen können RPA nutzen, um die Interaktion mit Altsystemen zu automatisieren, ohne dass tiefgreifende Änderungen am bestehenden System erforderlich sind. Ein Beispiel ist die Automatisierung von Datenübertragungen zwischen einem alten und einem neuen System.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP kann verwendet werden, um unstrukturierte Daten in Altsystemen, wie Textdokumente oder Kundenfeedback, zu analysieren und zu strukturieren. Dies kann besonders nützlich sein, wenn Unternehmen Informationen aus alten Berichten oder Archiven extrahieren möchten.

Machine Learning für Prognosen: Machine Learning kann historische Daten aus Altsystemen nutzen, um zukünftige Trends vorherzusagen. Dies ist besonders wertvoll in Branchen wie dem Finanzwesen, wo historische Daten genutzt werden können, um Markttrends oder Kundenverhalten zu prognostizieren.

Fallstudien aus Deutschland

Die Deutsche Bank und KI-gestützte Transformation: Die Deutsche Bank hat erfolgreich KI eingesetzt, um ihre alten Kernbankensysteme zu modernisieren. Durch den Einsatz von KI-Algorithmen konnten sie die Verarbeitung von Transaktionen und die Erkennung von Betrug automatisieren, was zu erheblichen Kosteneinsparungen und einer verbesserten Effizienz führte.

Siemens und KI in der Fertigung: Siemens hat KI verwendet, um die Wartung und den Betrieb seiner Produktionsanlagen zu optimieren. Durch die Integration von KI in ihre alten Fertigungssysteme konnten sie vorausschauende Wartungsstrategien implementieren und so die Ausfallzeiten erheblich reduzieren.

3. Allianz und Datenanalyse: Die Allianz Versicherung hat KI eingesetzt, um ihre Altsysteme für die Datenanalyse zu modernisieren. Mit fortschrittlichen Machine-Learning-Algorithmen konnten sie aus historischen Daten präzise Risikobewertungen erstellen und ihre Versicherungsprodukte entsprechend anpassen

Zukunftsperspektiven

Die Modernisierung von Altsystemen mit Hilfe von KI ist keine kurzfristige Lösung, sondern ein kontinuierlicher Prozess der Transformation. Unternehmen, die diesen Weg einschlagen, müssen bereit sein, in neue Technologien zu investieren und ihre bestehenden Prozesse kontinuierlich zu überdenken. Die Zukunft der Altsysteme liegt in ihrer Fähigkeit, sich zu adaptieren und durch innovative Technologien wie KI ständig weiterzuentwickeln.

Die Modernisierung von Altsystemen mit Künstlicher Intelligenz bietet nicht nur die Möglichkeit, bestehende Prozesse zu verbessern, sondern auch neue Wege zur Wertschöpfung und Innovation zu eröffnen. Unternehmen, die diesen Weg beschreiten, können ihre Wettbewerbsfähigkeit steigern und sich für die Herausforderungen der digitalen Zukunft rüsten.

Mit den oben genannten Ansätzen können deutsche Unternehmen nicht nur ihre veralteten Systeme modernisieren, sondern auch ihre Position in der dynamischen und technologiegetriebenen Welt stärken. Die Modernisierung von Altsystemen durch KI ist nicht nur ein Schritt in Richtung Effizienz, sondern ein Sprungbrett in eine innovative Zukunft.

[mariacallous]

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.

Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.

“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.

The Social Security Administration did not immediately reply to WIRED’s request for comment.

SSA has been under increasing scrutiny from president Donald Trump’s administration. In February, Musk took aim at SSA, falsely claiming that the agency was rife with fraud. Specifically, Musk pointed to data he allegedly pulled from the system that showed 150-year-olds in the US were receiving benefits, something that isn’t actually happening. Over the last few weeks, following significant cuts to the agency by DOGE, SSA has suffered frequent website crashes and long wait times over the phone, The Washington Post reported this week.

This proposed migration isn’t the first time SSA has tried to move away from COBOL: In 2017, SSA announced a plan to receive hundreds of millions in funding to replace its core systems. The agency predicted that it would take around five years to modernize these systems. Because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the agency pivoted away from this work to focus on more public-facing projects.

Like many legacy government IT systems, SSA systems contain code written in COBOL, a programming language created in part in the 1950s by computing pioneer Grace Hopper. The Defense Department essentially pressured private industry to use COBOL soon after its creation, spurring widespread adoption and making it one of the most widely used languages for mainframes, or computer systems that process and store large amounts of data quickly, by the 1970s. (At least one DOD-related website praising Hopper's accomplishments is no longer active, likely following the Trump administration’s DEI purge of military acknowledgements.)

As recently as 2016, SSA’s infrastructure contained more than 60 million lines of code written in COBOL, with millions more written in other legacy coding languages, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. In fact, SSA’s core programmatic systems and architecture haven’t been “substantially” updated since the 1980s when the agency developed its own database system called MADAM, or the Master Data Access Method, which was written in COBOL and Assembler, according to SSA’s 2017 modernization plan.

SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.

“If you weren't worried about a whole bunch of people not getting benefits or getting the wrong benefits, or getting the wrong entitlements, or having to wait ages, then sure go ahead,” says Dan Hon, principal of Very Little Gravitas, a technology strategy consultancy that helps government modernize services, about completing such a migration in a short timeframe.

It’s unclear when exactly the code migration would start. A recent document circulated amongst SSA staff laying out the agency’s priorities through May does not mention it, instead naming other priorities like terminating “non-essential contracts” and adopting artificial intelligence to “augment” administrative and technical writing.

Earlier this month, WIRED reported that at least 10 DOGE operatives were currently working within SSA, including a number of young and inexperienced engineers like Luke Farritor and Ethan Shaotran. At the time, sources told WIRED that the DOGE operatives would focus on how people identify themselves to access their benefits online.

Sources within SSA expect the project to begin in earnest once DOGE identifies and marks remaining beneficiaries as deceased and connecting disparate agency databases. In a Thursday morning court filing, an affidavit from SSA acting administrator Leland Dudek said that at least two DOGE operatives are currently working on a project formally called the “Are You Alive Project,” targeting what these operatives believe to be improper payments and fraud within the agency’s system by calling individual beneficiaries. The agency is currently battling for sweeping access to SSA’s systems in court to finish this work. (Again, 150-year-olds are not collecting social security benefits. That specific age was likely a quirk of COBOL. It doesn’t include a date type, so dates are often coded to a specific reference point—May 20, 1875, the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.)

In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months, then their way is the right way, and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.

DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist.

“This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,” the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. “The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.”

[alexanderlightweight]

The way experiment baby alec rotates in my brain.... the possibilities.....

Hell hound alec,, mermaid alec, cannibal alec..... maybe some dnd bloodhunter type shit... damn

@queensaryn and I actually have a really fucked up idea/headcanon that I haven't worked on yet but that Robert Lightwood is actually sterile and when Valentine helps them with a 'special fertility treatment' but he really just does IVF with his own sperm.

So like, he does not have Maryse's consent and she doesn't know that Alec or Izzy are his and they only find out something is wrong when she and robert try to have another kid and go to the doctors of Idris who are like 'oh no this guys sterile' and maryse is like 'what injury did that' and they're 'oh no. we can tell by his system that he's always been sterile.' and then maryse has to have her kids run through the database because whose are they? like at this point Maryse's is just relieved they're fully shadowhunter with what she remembers hearing about Jonathon later. (who she thinks is dead and doesn't bring up).

They find out the they're Valentine's and the Clave basically is like 'wait... if you didn't know. what if he did this to other people?' and DNA check all kids born during the time Valentine was active (even before he started the circle) just to be safe. it's how they discover Jace is a herondale and that some other fucky shit has happened.

but also Alec on learning who his bio-sperm is immediately does a ritual that basically is destroying his own sire's legacy. like he creates a blood-oath that is basically he will kill Valentine on site.

the clave is all: okay with the evidence before us we don't know that Valentine is dead anymore. so if you see him try to capture him.

Alec: if I see him i'll try to remember to bring you a piece of his corpse. i'm a mama's boy even if she's not the best mom and he violated her consent and I am going to take it out of his hide. he is not my father.

the clave unable to argue since legally he's allowed to do this: ... well at least we don't have to worry about another uprising?

the clave: surely valentine's children won't be downworlders extremists as well? is this something we need to worry about?

Izzy growing up with Alec teaching her to hate everything Circle because it hurt their mom and fucked them over: screw shadowhunter politics. i'm going to live my best life and fuck a bunch of downworlders until my name becomes synonymous with a good time in the downworld. ha! take that Valentine. hows the legacy the kids you made created? is this what you wanted???

Everyone in the Clave: thank Raziel that Alec Trueblood is slightly more normal than his sister and just wants to tear apart his father and is known for killing and sometimes eating other nephilim (aka circle members).

Alec coming out as a consort to a Dominion King: excuse me. I may only fuck ONE downworlder but I do so in style. and I have the best taste.

Magnus and Alec bonding over hating their fathers and their father's hurting their mothers.

Magnus to Valentine: yes I am fucking your oldest. what are you going to do about it. nothing because he wants to kill you

-

but also experiment!Alec is amazing in so many different contexts and I really do enjoy using it because the timeline fits and it makes sense. I doubt Valentine experimented first on his own kid and while maryse wouldn't have been willing, Valentine knows how to lie very convincing. she wouldn't know they were anything but normal medical checks.

so it does make sense that Alec could have been experimented on and its very fun to play with the different things he could be or become.

especially if Alec develops them over time and its a steep learning curve.

thank you for dropping by the asks! this is very fun to talk about

<3 lumine

*mermaid Alec where alec haunts lake lynn until Magnus is called in. mermaid Alec where Magnus is lured to the beach on the waves of a sad song of yearning

i could go so many places

[smokingcreams]

Re: 8tracks

HUGE UPDATE:

As I said on my earlier post today the CTO of 8tracks answered some questions on the discord server of mixer.fm

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN INFORMATION ABOUT 8TRACKS AND THE ANSWERS THE CTO OF 8TRACKS GAVE, PLEASE, KEEP READING THIS POST BECAUSE IT'S A LOT BUT YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

Okay, so he first talked about how they were involved in buying 8tracks, then how everything failed because of money and issues with the plataform then he talked about this new app called MixerFM they developed that works with web3 (8tracks is a web2 product), that if they get to launch it they'll get to launch 8tracks too because both apps will work with the same data.

Here is what they have already done in his own words:

*Built a multitenant backend system that supports both MIXER and 8tracks

*Fully rebuilt the 8tracks web app

*Fixed almost all legacy issues

*Developed iOS and Android apps for MIXER

What is next?

They need to migrate the 8tracks database from the old servers to the new environment. That final step costs about $50,000 and on his own words "I am personally committed to securing the funds to make it happen. If we pull this off since there is a time limit , we will have an chance to launch both 8tracks and MIXER. … so for all you community members that are pinging me to provide more details on X and here on discord, here it is"

Here the screenshots of his full statement:

NOW THE QUESTIONS HE ANSWERED:

*I transcribed them*

1. "What's the status of the founding right now?"

"Fundraising, for music its difficult"

2. "Our past data, is intact, isn't?"

"All data still exists from playlist 1"

3. "Will we be able to access our old playlists?"

"All playlists if we migrate the data will be saved. If we dont all is lost forever"

4. "How will the new 8tracks relaunch and MIXER be similar, and how will they be different?"

"8tracks / human created / mix tape style as it was before

mixer - ai asiated mix creation, music quest where people earn crypto for work they provode to music protocol ( solve quests earn money for providing that service )"

5. "Why is 8tracks being relaunched when they could just launch MIXER with our 8tracks database?"

"One app is web2 ( no crypto economy and incentives / ) mixer is web3 ( economy value exchange between users, artists, publishers, labels, advertisers) value (money) is shared between stakeholders and participants of app. Company earns less / users / artist earn more."

6. "Will we need to create a separate account for mixer? Or maybe a way to link our 8tracks to mixer?"

"New account no linking planned"

7. "What do you mean by fixed almost all legacy issues and fully rebuilt the 8tracks web app?"

"We have rebuilt most of 8tracks from scratch i wish could screen record a demo. In Last year we have rebuilt whole 8tracks ! No more issues no more bugs no more hacked comments"

8. "Will the song database be current and allow new songs? For example if someone makes a K pop playlist theres the capability for new songs and old not just all songs are from 2012. There will be songs from 2020 onwards to today?"

"Current cut of date is 2017, we have planed direct label deals to bring music DB up to speed with all new songs until 2025. This means no more song uploads"

9. "The apps would be available for android and outside USA?"

"USA + Canada + Germany + UK + Sweden + Italy + Greece + Portugal + Croatia in my personal rollout plan / but usa canada croatia would be top priority"

10. "Will 8tracks have a Sign in with Apple option?"

"It will have nothing if we don’t migrate the database but yes if we do it will have it"

11. ""Will Collections return?"

"Ofc If we save the database its safe to assume collections will return"

12. "Will the 8tracks forums return?"

"No that one i will deleted People spending too much time online"

13. "No more songs uploads forever or no more songs until…?"

"Idk, this really depends on do we save database or no. Maybe we restart the process of song uploads to rebuild the and create a worlds first open music database If anyone has any songs to upload that is

We operate under different license"

14. "What is your time limit? for the funding, I mean"

"Good question I think 2-3 months"

15. "From now?"

"Correct"

16. "When is the release date for Mixer?"

"Mixer would need 2-3 more months of work to be released Maybe even less of we would use external database services and just go with minimum features"

17. "Do you have the link for it?"

"Not if we dont secure the database that is number one priority"

*That was the end of the questions and answers*

Then he said:

"You need to act bring here (discord) people and help me set up go fund me camping of investor talks fail so we secure the database and migrate data so we can figure out whats next"

He also said he'll talk with the CEO about buying him the idea of community funding, that all who participate should have a lifetime subscription and "some more special thing", we suggested a message on the 8tracks official accounts (twitter, their blog, tumblr) and he was okay with the idea but he said they need to plan it carefully since the time is limited.

Okay, guys, that's so far what he said, I hope this information helps anyone, I don't know if they get to do a community funding but take in consideration it's a plausible option and that what they want from us is to participate in any way like for example spreading the message, if most people know about it the best, they also want you to join their server so here's the link to the website of mixerfm and where you can join the server:

Keep tagging few people who were discussing about this:

@junket-bank, @haorev, @americanundead, @eatpandulce, @throwupgirl, @avoid-avoidance, @rodeokid, @shehungthemoon, @promostuff-art @tumbling-and-tchaikovsky

#8tracks

[annonymouslyannoying]

Elite Commander Poki redesign and Invader Training Headcanons. (Futher info under cut)

Elite Commander Poki was Almighty Tallest Miyuki's second in command and most trusted advisor- As such she continues to wear the Irken Elite Miyuki Branding even after her death.

Her reassigning following the Initiation of Red and Purple involved the training of worthy soldiers to become Invaders for the upcoming Operation Impending Doom.

Much like Irken Slave Drivers and other Irkens in commanding positions, she wears a suit that makes her appear taller than she really is.

She's a no nonsense drill sergeant type- but below the surface she still hasn't gotten over Miyuki's death and often sees her failing students as a disgrace to her awesome legacy.

Contrary to what you might think, Irken defects are actually quite common.

The Control Brain's Irken Bioengineering Program contains an intentional margin of error- Allowing new or odd genetic properties to emerge and potentially be added into the base database for wide spread implementation.

The term "defect" however is reserved for specimens with genetic irregularities that are seen as problematic to the overall objective of the Empire.

But seeing as how defect Irkens are relatively common, it's no surprise that there were quite a few of them who were trained to be Invaders.

These 4 are proper defects in the sense that their irregularities are not seen as particularly useful.

Zim

•Intense and obessive thought patterns, for lack of a better word, Irken neurodivergency. Brilliant in some respects, but moronic in others.

•Capable of parental love from both ends of the spectrum. Looks up to his leaders much like one would a distant parent, and shows intense affection for his minions.

(This is very odd as most Irkens just see their helpers as tools and affection is looked down upon.)

•Selective hearing and auditory processing problems.

Skoodge

•Capable of romantic love and friendship. He is hated for this and seen as "soft"

•In love with ZIM specifically. He has such terrible taste that it counts as a separate defect.

•On the heavier side. He is seen as ugly for this but it actually makes him much more resilient to physical damage and can go without his Pak for much longer than 10 minutes.

(This is me attempting to justify that time they forgot to draw his Pak for a whole episode lmao)

Grinn

•Warped antennae. This distorts her senses and makes her very irritable to certain noises.

•A natural aversion to taking orders and a frequent questioner of the Empire's System.

•Covered in horrible red blemishes. She has an overactive immune system that manifests in extreme bodily reactions to minor stimuli.

(This is one of the worst defects to have when you drop out of the Invader Program and work in a literal garbage chute)

•Writes poetry

Skutch

•Actually evil. Like. Even by Irken standards.

•Will set things on fire for seemingly no reason.

•Rarely ever speaks and when he does it's incredibly vulgar. The only Irken that says Fuck.

•Has no soul, wants or desires. He only lives for the mild fascination elicited from watching the life drain from a living thing's eyes.

These 4 are seen to have more useful defects- Or in other words, they're "Gifted" Irkens. Okay not Gustavo but because he's tall he managed to not get lumped in with the last 4.

Grenty

•Intense regenerative properties. In fact, she struggles to control it properly and will just randomly grow new limbs.

Her regeneration is so good that she is essentially impervious to damage so long as her Pak remains intact.

•Irregular blood viscosity. Needs to be regulated with a patch.

•Overbite.

Mote

•Likes smooth Jazz

•Oversized antennae- He has insanely good sense of his surroundings and is tormented by having to accidentally hear everyone's horrible secrets he never wanted to know.

•Very frail

Fleep

•Abnormally physically powerful. She could break the arms of every other trainee here.

•Sort of capable of friendship but only the kind shared between High School Prom Queens and their evil lackeys.

•Otherwise very competent and professional.

Gustavo

•I hate Gustavo

•He's really friendly and normal by human standards but an UTTER FREAK by Irken standards.

•Joined the Invader program because he wants something to fall back on when he becomes a freelance advertising consultant.

•Gustavo must die.

•Is tall enough that the bias of the system has prevented him from being killed. (Unfortunately)

ALSO WORTH NOTING-

Zim is responsible for the deaths of most of the people here- The only ones to survive his Operation Impending Doom screw up were Skoodge, Skutch, and Grinn.

(Grinn never became a real Invader, Skoodge is basically immortal, and even Zim knows not to mess with Skutch.)

I imagine that most of the Invaders assigned to Operation Impending Doom 2 were from the generation after Zim and were still in training during the first operation.

Bonus content of Skutch setting fire to the wildlife

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Olivia Troye at Living It With Olivia:

Elon Musk has officially announced his departure from the Trump administration, stepping down as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, in name and irony. The announcement followed closely on the heels of a blistering CBS interview aired earlier this week, where Musk made his disillusionment unmistakably clear: [“I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. I don’t think it could be both.”] He was referring to President Trump’s latest budget bill, a $3.8 trillion deficit driver loaded with pet projects, retaliation slush funds, and performative cuts dressed up as reform. It's the kind of legislation that tells you everything about this administration's priorities: consolidating power, not governing effectively. Let's not romanticize Musk's role. He signed up for this. He knew what he was getting into, or at least he should have. But even he couldn't survive the dysfunction. His exit, after just six months, speaks volumes. Granted, he does have to go legally, given the spot he occupied in the government as a Special Government Employee, but since when does the Trump Administration abide by the law? That to me is the biggest tell. No extension or lies covering up for you, Mr. Musk. The man who redefined electric vehicles and launched rockets into space just got grounded by Trump's Washington. Musk came in promising $2 trillion in government savings. Instead, he claimed $175 billion in government cost-saving initiatives, many of which can't be verified. The rest? Red tape, infighting, and a political environment where facts are inconvenient, and loyalty is currency. He got what he wanted, though, access. His companies benefited from proximity, and he walked away with the keys to more information than most Americans will ever know exists. Databases that were purposely separated to prevent one individual or group from gaining access to all that data at once. Russia also enjoyed a nice piece of it, and I'm not talking about the perfect American honeypot. At one point, Musk’s DOGE team was granted extraordinary access to data inside the Department of Treasury, including internal audits, financial compliance systems, and even elements of IRS enforcement targeting. Where did all that information go? Who has it now? What protections were put in place, if any? Remember this whole fiasco? But hey, if nothing else, in addition to destroying the lives and careers of many public servants, he gave us a government era defined by endless, bizarre references to “Big Balls.” Perhaps that’s the legacy he wanted. Someone should commission a plaque for the U.S. Department of Treasury’s lobby. 

Musk’s departure isn’t just a headline; it’s a symptom. A sign that even billionaires with moonshot visions can't navigate the wreckage Trump has made of governance. Too bad the Trump propaganda machine knew this day would come and has been laying the groundwork for months to ensure that the MAGA crowd doesn’t connect the dots enough to realize that his departure is a red flag. In recent months, Trump-aligned media and surrogates began deliberately distancing themselves from Musk. Once a vocal Musk fan, Steve Bannon dismissed him after Trump reportedly denied Musk access to a classified Pentagon briefing. Conservative outlets started pushing the narrative that Musk was no longer aligned with Trump’s agenda. The point was clear: if Musk walked away, they wanted the base primed to believe it was because he wasn’t loyal enough.

Elon Musk said his goodbyes to the Trump Administration. During his time as a part of it, he helped decimated our country along with TACO Trump.

See Also:

The Guardian: Elon Musk announces exit from US government role after breaking with Trump on tax bill

AP, via HuffPost: Elon Musk Is Leaving The Trump Administration After Criticizing President's 'Big Beautiful Bill'

[allaboutkeyingo]

SQL Server 2022 Edition and License instructions

SQL Server 2022 Editions:

• Enterprise Edition is ideal for applications requiring mission critical in-memory performance, security, and high availability

• Standard Edition delivers fully featured database capabilities for mid-tier applications and data marts

SQL Server 2022 is also available in free Developer and Express editions. Web Edition is offered in the Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program only.

And the Online Store Keyingo Provides the SQL Server 2017/2019/2022 Standard Edition.

SQL Server 2022 licensing models 

SQL Server 2022 offers customers a variety of licensing options aligned with how customers typically purchase specific workloads. There are two main licensing models that apply to SQL Server:  PER CORE: Gives customers a more precise measure of computing power and a more consistent licensing metric, regardless of whether solutions are deployed on physical servers on-premises, or in virtual or cloud environments. 

• Core based licensing is appropriate when customers are unable to count users/devices, have Internet/Extranet workloads or systems that integrate with external facing workloads.

• Under the Per Core model, customers license either by physical server (based on the full physical core count) or by virtual machine (based on virtual cores allocated), as further explained below.

SERVER + CAL: Provides the option to license users and/or devices, with low-cost access to incremental SQL Server deployments.   

• Each server running SQL Server software requires a server license.

• Each user and/or device accessing a licensed SQL Server requires a SQL Server CAL that is the same version or newer – for example, to access a SQL Server 2019 Standard Edition server, a user would need a SQL Server 2019 or 2022 CAL.

Each SQL Server CAL allows access to multiple licensed SQL Servers, including Standard Edition and legacy Business Intelligence and Enterprise Edition Servers.SQL Server 2022 Editions availability by licensing model:  

Physical core licensing – Enterprise Edition 

• Customers can deploy an unlimited number of VMs or containers on the server and utilize the full capacity of the licensed hardware, by fully licensing the server (or server farm) with Enterprise Edition core subscription licenses or licenses with SA coverage based on the total number of physical cores on the servers.

• Subscription licenses or SA provide(s) the option to run an unlimited number of virtual machines or containers to handle dynamic workloads and fully utilize the hardware’s computing power.

Virtual core licensing – Standard/Enterprise Edition 

When licensing by virtual core on a virtual OSE with subscription licenses or SA coverage on all virtual cores (including hyperthreaded cores) on the virtual OSE, customers may run any number of containers in that virtual OSE. This benefit applies both to Standard and Enterprise Edition.

Licensing for non-production use 

SQL Server 2022 Developer Edition provides a fully featured version of SQL Server software—including all the features and capabilities of Enterprise Edition—licensed for  development, test and demonstration purposes only.  Customers may install and run the SQL Server Developer Edition software on any number of devices. This is  significant because it allows customers to run the software  on multiple devices (for testing purposes, for example)  without having to license each non-production server  system for SQL Server.  

A production environment is defined as an environment  that is accessed by end-users of an application (such as an  Internet website) and that is used for more than gathering  feedback or acceptance testing of that application.   

SQL Server 2022 Developer Edition is a free product !

[la-principessa-nuova]

sometimes it’s really interesting how the things going on in our lives can be represented in our dreams

like when my feelings of lack of autonomy over my life and frustration with having to hide how I really felt while continuing to present a certain way to the world translated in my dream into being a priestess in a church with a shady organization behind it and having to keep up public appearances as a stoic priestess while also being horribly abused by the deacons of the church and trying bargain with them to keep the other priestesses safe

but sometimes it really isn’t.

like yesterday the other lead developer in my department was explaining to me and some other devs about how the username column in this one database for a legacy system sometimes uses a human readable username from one system and sometimes the unique ID from another, and then he was saying how he couldn’t remember which of the columns was the username field.

so in my dream i was staying in this weird cabin with him and one other dev, and he was explaining how when you put in your dinner order, you have to use the right representation of the user in the request and he wasn’t sure which one because it depends on one value that was set in the request payload when we booked the stay.

[texasdreamer01]

Atlantis Expedition - Science Division: Chief Science Officer

So I've gone through all of my proposed headcanons on how the Science Division would break down into different departments, the roles of each departments, and the personnel composition (original post here, which contains links to posts on individual departments). But what is a division without its division leader? Thus, a post on the Chief Science Officer (AKA Rodney McKay).

Below is a brief list, in the same style as the department posts, which I will articulate further under the read-more:

> Head: Rodney McKay, Radek Zelenka (extra-canonical) > Contains: 1 person > Function: Implements department policies, decides upon division and department priorities, disseminates tasks according to expedition needs, reviews employee performances, manages employment of each department, secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations, reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests, prepares documentation for review on research progress and results, estimates research project requirements and demands, gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader and military commander according to mission parameters > Examples of function: Hiring and firing of employees, dispute arbitration between employees, disciplinary measures, creating purchase orders for equipment and department supplies, reviewing research proposals and giving feedback on proposals > Personnel quantity: 1 person > A/N: Technically speaking, the department heads fall under this "department" as sub-administrators (and produce the paperwork that will give Rodney headaches)

Radek being the CSO is part of the Legacy book series, which is a pseduo season six (I don't listen to it, for various reasons), but he's mentioned here as a nod to the books.

As for that big block of text about a CSO's function, it helps to separate things into a few categories. Below is that, with commentary:

> IOA/SGC requirements  » Prepares documentation for review on research progress and results  » Reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests  » Maintains documentation of projects for auditing purposes   ⇛ Such as project results, allocation and defense thereof of resources, pertinent stopping and starting points  » Maintains documentation of division personnel usage and other important events   ⇛ Such as field assignments, project assignments, etc  » Maintains documentation of field science research   ⇛ Such as first contact missions, cultural research, etc > Expedition administration  » Gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader according to mission parameters   ⇛ Such as resource allocation in terms of division personnel, technology, and physical resources (i.e. consumable lab resources, such as testing equipment, reagents, medical resources, etc) > Military relations  » Gives military commander feedback and advice on mixed-context situations   ⇛ Such as situations when expedition leader is unable to perform duties, or when needing to defend critical components, spaces, or personnel    ⟹ i.e. When personally in the field (AR-1, other field assignments), attacks on Atlantis, non-military critical situations on Atlantis  » Gives assessments on non-expedition personnel in regards to permissions on division resources   ⇛ i.e. lab access, database access, critical systems access, etc   ⇛ Functionally makes the CSO a super-user and systems administrator of the digital architecture that comprise the expedition    ⟹ The head administrator and military commander will have their own logins with similar, but not identical, privileges > Division administration  » Implements department policies   ⇛ Such as safety protocols, proposal formats, project documentation formats, etc  » Decides upon division and department priorities   ⇛ Based upon IOA/SGC, expedition leader, and military commander priorities (in that order, unless under a military context)  » Disseminates tasks according to expedition needs   ⇛ May contain separate categories of priorities, according to the needs of varying timelines (i.e. long term, short term, etc)  » Reviews employee performances   ⇛ Ideally according to a rubric of IOA/SGC requirements, department policies, and expedition needs   ⇛ Can mark an employee for a review period, limit access based on negative incidents, recommend merit-based pay increases and pay bonuses, etc  » Manages employment of each department   ⇛ Hiring, firing, inter-department reassignments  » Estimates research project requirements   ⇛ Based upon proposals submitted, expedition mission parameters, resources available for allocation, and IOA/SGC requirements  » Secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations   ⇛ Creates, reviews, and submits documentation to expedition head   ⇛ Items such as equipment (i.e. computers), consumable materials (i.e. pens, cotton swabs), and miscellaneous (i.e. lab coats, uniforms, chocolate for morale)

These main categories, as you can see, are IOA/SGC requirements of the CSO, expedition administration, military relations, and division administration. They are, to the best of my assumptions, listed in order of importance - division administration is necessarily at the bottom because the CSO, ideally, ought to be able to trust the department heads to make sure the division runs well. The main job of the CSO is to liase between the division and the overlords people who make the expedition run.

A lot of this ends up rather convoluted due to competing priorities. The IOA pays the expeditions bills and supports its somewhat dubious legality on the international stage, but the SGC does as well, and to boot is also the group that creates and maintains the supplies and supply lines (see: the Daedalus, primarily, and also the Apollo). As this is a civilian expedition, more weight will be put on the CSO than the Military Officer for a return on investment.

What this results in is a lot of paperwork. Every employee, petri dish, and scribble on a whiteboard must be recorded, accounted for, and justified. This would then be forwarded to the expedition leader, who collates it nicely and gives it to the SGC and IOA for a general accounting, but it's up to the CSO to prepare this documentation.

Accordingly, this means that if there's a request from either side (top-down or bottom-up), the CSO must process the paperwork for that. Requests to perform experiments, usage of employees on things like field assignments, requests for materials to perform the experiments within adequate parameters are the work du jour. And, crucially, it must be legal (as much as one can with something like a Stargate program, at any rate). There's a lot more wiggle room for the expedition, given its project background, but not very much with the introduction of international oversight.

In a practical, daily sense, department requests for experiment/research and expedition leader and military commander requests for the same or for personnel must be balanced by the CSO. If, say, Carson Beckett wants to work with the Life Sciences department to develop a hydrogel infused with Pegasus plant extracts for IFAK use that requires many iterations of testing but would then require less supplies procured from the SGC, and Elizabeth Weir wants Carson Beckett to join an away team to help some recently-culled village with their injuries or a persistent illness that had left them originally vulnerable to a culling, Rodney McKay will be the one to weigh in on priorities for the division and devise a compromise on his employee's time based upon what can be done and what ought to be done. (Elizabeth will likely already think of this conundrum, but as she was not the only expedition leader, the ability to say no is a critical tool in Rodney's arsenal for properly fulfilling his duties.)

Likewise, the CSO has obligations to the military contingent of the expedition. While the Wraith were not an expected enemy, the SGC probably assumed something of the Goa'uld caliber was statistically likely, and thus the CSO is there to also offer technical advice to the military commander.  This is important because nobody had any confirmation on what they would find regarding Atlantis, only that the Ancients had abandoned their city and didn't seem to pack much up with them. Mixed-context situations like a technical emergency on Atlantis, or field missions, will require CSO input on technological expertise and personnel assignments from the Science Division.

A working relationship with the military commander will also mean some back and forth, particularly for instances of assessing who ought to have access to critical systems, and whether such previously-given permissions ought to be revoked. Teyla, the Athosians, and Ronon are popular examples, but also situations like Doppelganger where members of the expedition might be compromised and require a change, however temporary or permanent, in security.

In order for the CSO to assist in maintaining expedition security, being a super-user and systems administrator is a pre-requisite of the position. This means such things as inherent back-door access to all expedition systems, ability to manage user login profiles for all systems, screening of technologies that are inputted as peripherals or adoptions of infrastructure, and the design of the infrastructure systems that make up the overall architecture. As the military commander would be in charge of the physical security of the expedition, the CSO would be in charge of its digital security.

Management of the division itself rests upon the above listed duties, and will influence how the division and its various departments are handled. This is very much a daily, intensive part of the job, but if things with the departments are set up well, typically they would be the least worrisome of the duties.

Based upon the various institutional and situational demands upon the expedition, personnel movement and research projects will be delegated accordingly, with the CSO creating the division policies on things like research parameters, experiment ethics, and the minutiae of funding and resource allocations.

Long-term projects, such as the inherent reasons why the expedition exists at all (figuring out Atlantis and developing technologies and knowledge bases from the information they prise from Atlantis), will generally receive priority outside of some form of emergency, and will get the most resources.  Short-term projects, which might run for a few months or a year at a time of active experimentation, are dependent upon spare resources, time, and personnel that aren't already assigned to work of a higher priority.

For example, documenting the plants of a particular planet in the Pegasus galaxy would rank lower than decoding and documenting extant examples of Wraith language, based upon the multiple variables of military commander demands on the safety of the expedition, diplomatic demands from the expedition leader for the safety of the expedition, and if there are similar plants already being studied that were cultivated from other planets.

An inherent part of the management of a division is the personnel, which includes performance reviews, hiring of employees, firing of employees, disciplining of employees (if the department head requires CSO assistance or it is the department head which requires disciplining), and re-assignment of employees based upon expedition or other needs. Part of the personnel is the work the personnel do, which wraps back around to paperwork - if someone wants to do research on attempting to duplicate a particular alloy, then those materials need to be purchased or otherwise required, which means the CSO must fill out all the purchase request forms and other pertinent documentation (even if it only amounts to "found on the ground because AR-1 crashed the Wraith Dart, put alloy samples into backpack").

I imagine a CSO in this sort of position would probably be running a rough calculation in the background of how many cups of coffee to substitute for hours of sleep, because there will not be a lot of sleep to be had, even without all the various emergencies happening because Atlantis is Atlantis. A little bit of stress-induced yelling from time to time is to be expected, I think.

Total Overall Science Division Personnel

> Chief Science Officer: 1 > Medical Department: 23 > Life Sciences: 13 > Field Sciences: 12 > Applied Sciences: 16 > Total total: 65

Due to the revisions made in some of the department headcanon posts, the personnel estimations rose from the original post's 58 to the current 65, a difference of 7 people and also a nice, easy to calculate number. If we keep to the assumption of 200 expedition members, this would make for 135 leftover for the rest of the expedition, and the Science Division at 32.5% of the expedition.

A CMO post will be written and posted at some point, as I forgot about it, and additionally canonical character headcanon posts will also be posted at some point in the future in an undetermined order. After this will be headcanons on the Military Division, Gate Teams, and the Expedition Leader/Civilian Division (currently undecided what that will be).

[softweb-solutions]

Softweb Solutions helped a financial services provider overcome their business challenges with a database modernization solution that improved flexibility, integrations, and data accessibility. 

[buysellram]

KIOXIA Unveils 122.88TB LC9 Series NVMe SSD to Power Next-Gen AI Workloads

KIOXIA America, Inc. has announced the upcoming debut of its LC9 Series SSD, a new high-capacity enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) with 122.88 terabytes (TB) of storage, purpose-built for advanced AI applications. Featuring the company’s latest BiCS FLASH™ generation 8 3D QLC (quad-level cell) memory and a fast PCIe® 5.0 interface, this cutting-edge drive is designed to meet the exploding data demands of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems.

As enterprises scale up AI workloads—including training large language models (LLMs), handling massive datasets, and supporting vector database queries—the need for efficient, high-density storage becomes paramount. The LC9 SSD addresses these needs with a compact 2.5-inch form factor and dual-port capability, providing both high capacity and fault tolerance in mission-critical environments.

Form factor refers to the physical size and shape of the drive—in this case, 2.5 inches, which is standard for enterprise server deployments. PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) is the fast data connection standard used to link components to a system’s motherboard. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is the protocol used by modern SSDs to communicate quickly and efficiently over PCIe interfaces.

Accelerating AI with Storage Innovation

The LC9 Series SSD is designed with AI-specific use cases in mind—particularly generative AI, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), and vector database applications. Its high capacity enables data-intensive training and inference processes to operate without the bottlenecks of traditional storage.

It also complements KIOXIA’s AiSAQ™ technology, which improves RAG performance by storing vector elements on SSDs instead of relying solely on costly and limited DRAM. This shift enables greater scalability and lowers power consumption per TB at both the system and rack levels.

“AI workloads are pushing the boundaries of data storage,” said Neville Ichhaporia, Senior Vice President at KIOXIA America. “The new LC9 NVMe SSD can accelerate model training, inference, and RAG at scale.”

Industry Insight and Lifecycle Considerations

Gregory Wong, principal analyst at Forward Insights, commented:

“Advanced storage solutions such as KIOXIA’s LC9 Series SSD will be critical in supporting the growing computational needs of AI models, enabling greater efficiency and innovation.”

As organizations look to adopt next-generation SSDs like the LC9, many are also taking steps to responsibly manage legacy infrastructure. This includes efforts to sell SSD units from previous deployments—a common practice in enterprise IT to recover value, reduce e-waste, and meet sustainability goals. Secondary markets for enterprise SSDs remain active, especially with the ongoing demand for storage in distributed and hybrid cloud systems.

LC9 Series Key Features

122.88 TB capacity in a compact 2.5-inch form factor

PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 support for high-speed data access

Dual-port support for redundancy and multi-host connectivity

Built with 2 Tb QLC BiCS FLASH™ memory and CBA (CMOS Bonded to Array) technology

Endurance rating of 0.3 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) for enterprise workloads

The KIOXIA LC9 Series SSD will be showcased at an upcoming technology conference, where the company is expected to demonstrate its potential role in powering the next generation of AI-driven innovation.

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Ra

This year, I bought myself some games that were meant to be prestige gifts to myself. Things I really wanted and was very confident I’d love, based on a long-term interest. If I found myself watching videos of people playing a board game two or three times a month then maybe I wanted to play the game myself. One of those games I bough was Ra.

Ra is an auction game in its purest form. There is nothing you do in the game that is not building a lot for auctioning, or bidding on that auction. You have a total of three units of currency to bid with, and their value is public; there’s no making change here. If you have a 3, 7 and 12, anyone knows that you’re going to lose against the player with 13, if they want it hard enough. Every round, you choose whether you’re going to add a tile to the auction lot and put it into one of the limited number of slots, or, you choose to start an auction. Adding a tile to the collection means there’s stuff in the lot to bid on, and it’s the only way you get anything in there. If you start the auction, you get to be the last person to bid on it, which means you’ll see how everyone else lodges their bids before you do.

That’s the game. Add to a lot or start the action.

That’s it.

I watched four people lose their minds at this tonight.

Now, I am simplifying the game process a little. Specifically, in the bag of good stuff you want, there are also red tiles, that are also marked with the god Ra, and when those fire off, an auction starts and the timer that the game runs on advances a stage. Each round of the game is ten ticks of this timer, and there are thirty of that tile in the bag. No matter what you want to do with your turn, you may just pull a tile and force an auction. The result is a game where you are making one decision at a time and that decision is either to push your luck or cut and run, and the only catch-up mechanism you have access to is greed.

Oh, lore, uh, story, fiction. Uh, the point of Ra is that you’re all playing different multi-generational epochs of Egyptian royal families, which you represent by randomly collecting assortments of things through a series of auctions. This is a classic Knizia-style painted-on theme that doesn’t actually do anything to inform the game system. It doesn’t do nothing, though, because the game’s tension cycle is finely tuned and you wind up hoping another player pulls a Ra Tile. You pray to Ra, to make bad things happen.

Board games are an ancient practice. The earliest board games we have records of date back to ancient Babylon. Chess existed before English did. Most card games we play these days were being played before my country existed. There is an oldness available to board games that digital games cannot touch. The category of ‘modern’ board games, the space in which I play, with card games and board games and draft games and kind of the post-Catan, post-Dungeons & Dragons, post-internet board game, is a space where ‘old’ takes on a different cast.

It’s kind of hard to call a board game an old game when The Game of Life was being played during the American Civil War, for example.

Ra, though, of this modern time of board games, of this current and previous generation of internet-enabled, internationally distributed ‘niche’ board games, Ra is old. Ra was made in 1999 by this up-and-coming board game designer, who’d just quit his job at a bank and started in board games, a guy called Reiner Knizia.

Boardgamegeek, the all-purpose omni-list website for board game collectors, numbers games based on when they get added to their database. Pandemic, a 2008 board game is entry 30,549. Pandemic Legacy Season 1, its evolution in 2015, 7 years later, is entry 161,936.

Ra‘s Boardgamegeek archive number is 12.

What I played is not Ra (1999). Nor am I playing Ra (2016 reprint). I got to play, and now my collection holds, Ra (2024), the 25th anniversary edition. This version of the game is a prestige product; instead of being printed on indented cardboard, or on rough-cut chits, this game is made up of some of the nicest pieces of interface design I’ve ever handled in a game of its caliber. The main thing the players use to express agency in the game, the bidding tokens, are large, wooden, carved, and laminated and painted. The tiles are drawn from a large, heavy bag, which is robust and has a nice texture to it. It’s coloured with a specific pattern, not just a standard piece with something screen-printed on it. This edition of Ra is an item that is meant to be nothing but Ra and everything about it is meant to signal that it is well made Ra.

I am writing this after finally, finally, finally getting to play my fancy, expensive version of Ra. I bought this copy for myself because I knew I would like it and I knew I would like it after watching people play it, and seeing the kind of strategies that spilled out around that. I have been keyed up on this game for two years.

I did so badly that the player who won could subtract any other players’ score from hers and she’d still have beaten me. I was routed. That player does not cruise for this kind of game, she is not big on competitive games, and she did not know this game ahead of time. Every single thing in her strategy was a result of playing this game the first time and making plans and prioritising things within those plans as she played the game. It wasn’t even a fixed strategy, of working out one thing early on and doing it over and over until she won. It was dynamic, with a strategy in one part of the game giving rise to a strategy in another part of the game.

The most fascinating thing to me is the way this game kicks you in the pants for being passive. You have to be very mindful of the people around you and the game is under constant pressure to not waste your time. You can bail on a round fast and accept that it won’t be amazing for you, but in that process you might wind up seeing the rest of the players drive a clown car off a cliff, just crashing into one another because they’re in a position to make nothing but bad choices.

Ra is a game where the mastery depth is so shallow, the game gets you playing so fast, and then, once you are playing, you still have complex choices and meaningful decisions but on your third turn, you already know most of what the game is going to throw at you and someone who’s played the game twenty times and you are pretty much on an even footing.

Fascinating game. Absolutely incredible.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[juanabaloo]

There's a Treasury coup going on, led by Musk. The Nazi Republicans are fine with this and the legacy (traditional) media doesn't seem to care. (It start Friday sometime. Friday Jan 31st, 2025) I'll link to the source, but I wanna include the full article from Wired in text here.

They have identified the 6 engineers (supposedly they are engineers) who are part of this coup. These people have names, they are not nameless shadows. May they never know a moment of peace in their godforsaken lives.

[Personally I have zero issue with them being young. The real problem is their lack of experience and training with confidential data, lack of security clearance, and them participating in a fucking coup.]

Vittoria Elliott Additional reporting by Zoë Schiffer and Tim Marchman Wired.com Feb 2, 2025 2:02 PM

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian (also known as Cole Killian), Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. None have responded to requests for comment from WIRED. Representatives from OPM, GSA, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.

(Source: Wired.com)

Full article under the cut, including some initial details like university and internship jobs for some of the six.

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy.

WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.

The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. None have responded to requests for comment from WIRED. Representatives from OPM, GSA, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.

Already, Musk’s lackeys have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more. On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. The Associated Press reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material.

“What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

Bobba has attended UC Berkeley, where he was in the prestigious Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program. According to a copy of his now-deleted LinkedIn obtained by WIRED, Bobba was an investment engineering intern at the Bridgewater Associates hedge fund as of last spring and was previously an intern at both Meta and Palantir. He was a featured guest on a since-deleted podcast with Aman Manazir, an engineer who interviews engineers about how they landed their dream jobs, where he talked about those experiences last June.

Coristine, as WIRED previously reported, appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at Northeastern University. According to a copy of his résumé obtained by WIRED, he spent three months at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company, last summer.e [e seems to be a typo]

Both Bobba and Coristine are listed in internal OPM records reviewed by WIRED as “experts” at OPM, reporting directly to Amanda Scales, its new chief of staff. Scales previously worked on talent for xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, and as part of Uber’s talent acquisition team, per LinkedIn. Employees at GSA tell WIRED that Coristine has appeared on calls where workers were made to go over code they had written and justify their jobs. WIRED previously reported that Coristine was added to a call with GSA staff members using a nongovernment Gmail address. Employees were not given an explanation as to who he was or why he was on the calls.

Farritor, who per sources has a working GSA email address, is a former intern at SpaceX, Musk’s space company, and currently a Thiel Fellow after, according to his LinkedIn, dropping out of the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. While in school, he was part of an award-winning team that deciphered portions of an ancient Greek scroll.

Kliger, whose LinkedIn lists him as a special adviser to the director of OPM and who is listed in internal records reviewed by WIRED as a special adviser to the director for information technology, attended UC Berkeley until 2020; most recently, according to his LinkedIn, he worked for the AI company Databricks. His Substack includes a post titled “The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: How the Deep State Destroys Its Enemies,” as well as another titled “Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears.”

Killian, also known as Cole Killian, has a working email associated with DOGE, where he is currently listed as a volunteer, according to internal records reviewed by WIRED. According to a copy of his now-deleted résumé obtained by WIRED, he attended McGill University through at least 2021 and graduated high school in 2019. An archived copy of his now-deleted personal website indicates that he worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, which specializes in algorithmic and high-frequency financial trades.

Shaotran told Business Insider in September that he was a senior at Harvard studying computer science and also the founder of an OpenAI-backed startup, Energize AI. Shaotran was the runner-up in a hackathon held by xAI, Musk’s AI company. In the Business Insider article, Shaotran says he received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI to build his scheduling assistant, Spark.

“To the extent these individuals are exercising what would otherwise be relatively significant managerial control over two very large agencies that deal with very complex topics,” says Nick Bednar, a professor at University of Minnesota’s school of law, “it is very unlikely they have the expertise to understand either the law or the administrative needs that surround these agencies.”

Sources tell WIRED that Bobba, Coristine, Farritor, and Shaotran all currently have working GSA emails and A-suite level clearance at the GSA, which means that they work out of the agency’s top floor and have access to all physical spaces and IT systems, according a source with knowledge of the GSA’s clearance protocols. The source, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation, says they worry that the new teams could bypass the regular security clearance protocols to access the agency’s sensitive compartmented information facility, as the Trump administration has already granted temporary security clearances to unvetted people.

This is in addition to Coristine and Bobba being listed as “experts” working at OPM. Bednar says that while staff can be loaned out between agencies for special projects or to work on issues that might cross agency lines, it’s not exactly common practice.

“This is consistent with the pattern of a lot of tech executives who have taken certain roles of the administration,” says Bednar. “This raises concerns about regulatory capture and whether these individuals may have preferences that don’t serve the American public or the federal government.”

Additional reporting by Zoë Schiffer and Tim Marchman.

[ellagrace20]

Cloud Migration and Integration A Strategic Shift Toward Scalable Infrastructure

In today’s digital-first business environment, cloud computing is no longer just a technology trend—it’s a foundational element of enterprise strategy. As organizations seek greater agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, cloud migration and integration have emerged as critical initiatives. However, transitioning to the cloud is far from a lift-and-shift process; it requires thoughtful planning, seamless integration, and a clear understanding of long-term business objectives.

What is Cloud Migration and Why Does It Matter

Cloud migration involves moving data, applications, and IT processes from on-premises infrastructure or legacy systems to cloud-based environments. These environments can be public, private, or hybrid, depending on the organization’s needs. While the move offers benefits such as cost reduction, improved performance, and on-demand scalability, the true value lies in enabling innovation through flexible technology infrastructure.

But migration is only the first step. Cloud integration—the process of configuring applications and systems to work cohesively within the cloud—is equally essential. Without integration, businesses may face operational silos, inconsistent data flows, and reduced productivity, undermining the very purpose of migration.

Key Considerations in Cloud Migration

A successful cloud migration depends on more than just transferring workloads. It involves analyzing current infrastructure, defining the desired end state, and selecting the right cloud model and service providers. Critical factors include:

Application suitability: Not all applications are cloud-ready. Some legacy systems may need reengineering or replacement.

Data governance: Moving sensitive data to the cloud demands a strong focus on compliance, encryption, and access controls.

Downtime management: Minimizing disruption during the migration process is essential for business continuity.

Security architecture: Ensuring that cloud environments are resilient against threats is a non-negotiable part of migration planning.

Integration for a Unified Ecosystem

Once in the cloud, seamless integration becomes the linchpin for realizing operational efficiency. Organizations must ensure that their applications, databases, and platforms communicate efficiently in real time. This includes integrating APIs, aligning with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and enabling data exchange across multiple cloud platforms.

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Strategies

Cloud strategies have evolved beyond single-provider solutions. Many organizations now adopt hybrid (combining on-premise and cloud infrastructure) or multi-cloud (using services from multiple cloud providers) approaches. While this enhances flexibility and avoids vendor lock-in, it adds complexity to integration and governance.

To address this, organizations need a unified approach to infrastructure orchestration, monitoring, and automation. Strong integration frameworks and middleware platforms become essential in stitching together a cohesive IT ecosystem.

Long-Term Value of Cloud Transformation

Cloud migration and integration are not one-time projects—they are ongoing transformations. As business needs evolve, cloud infrastructure must adapt through continuous optimization, cost management, and performance tuning.

Moreover, integrated cloud environments serve as the foundation for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT), enabling businesses to innovate faster and more efficiently.

By treating cloud migration and integration as strategic investments rather than tactical moves, organizations position themselves to stay competitive, agile, and future-ready.