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LGR Tech Tales - Ancient Computers of the IRS (Patreon)

Published:
2019-04-05 12:41:36
Edited:
2019-04-07 00:38:44
Imported:
2021-03

Content

https://youtu.be/qL5ut8o5pfs

Ever since the Tax Day outage last year, I've been wanting to cover this story on Tech Tales. And even though April is usually Edutainment Month on LGR, it's also tax season, so this feels like the ideal time!

So yeah, turns out the IRS is home to the oldest IT system in the United States government, around 60 years old at this point. And in 2018, there was a serious failure that made their whole system come crashing down on Tax Day. A failure which was attributed to a storage array that stores and runs software written in COBOL and IBM assembly languages dating back to the Kennedy Administration.

Heh, y'know, legacy support is something I'm always pretty amused to see, but this is a pretty extreme case of it. Hope you enjoy this look into the ancient systems of the IRS!

Files

The Ancient Tax Computers of the IRS [LGR Tech Tales]

Comments

Anonymous

A new LGR Tech Tales, hurray! I rewatch the whole playlist on a regular basis, it is just so interesting

Anonymous

Unfortunately, this is a common story across all aspects of government and public services. Or even trying to make something completely new, is an abject failure; see NHS Computer Project.

Anonymous

Hurray to see a new Tech Tale! It's interesting to see how phobic the response was at first (I suppose it was especially scary to see in the hands of the IRS.) Nice video!

Robert Butler

Huh, I wondered what happened!

Anonymous

The Martinsburg, (WV) Monster heh . <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vyslc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vyslc</a>

ogspeace

did you make a new LGR sign/board thing? (0:48).. glad to have another tech tales ep.. it's been a while :D

Terry Lee

I didn't see this one coming, fascinating story

Anonymous

LGR Tech Tales are always great! Thanks again!! 👍

ChrisFratz

You think they would have fully replace the old stuff when the new stuff came out. Well, I hope that outage was an eye-opener for them.

Seth C

This was one of the best videos in the series! Your production quality is really exceptional!

Anonymous

Even technology companies had this problem. Gateway Computers operated off 7 AS400 computers which were almost entirely disconnected. You would connect with a terminal emulator to enter the build information for one, switch to another to enter payment information. The reason for this was that Gateway, like most cash starved technology companies, made use of retired IBM and DEC minicomputers to save money. After Gateway tried and failed to integrate these onto a GUI, they just went back to using the multiple green screens.

Anonymous

Working on large, distributed systems gets increasingly difficult as time goes on unless you've planed for upgrades from the start. Where I work we're facing difficult challenges upgrading off of systems like Solaris to Linux, or even just upgrading between versions of RHEL. It's no wonder that with a system as large as what the IRS uses that things fell behind quickly.

LazyGameReviews
>>21497232

Combine all the with all the funding cuts and additional red tape the IRS faces, and yeah it's little wonder. Still nuts that their systems are the very oldest in the government!

LazyGameReviews
>>21496576

Thank you! Been trying to really polish my videos to a mirror sheen this year. Moving to one video a week was what it took, but I'm much happier with each video now myself.

LazyGameReviews
>>21496327

Yep, that's one of the videos I used here! It'll be linked to in the sources section of the final video. Love those old news reels.

LazyGameReviews
>>21496126

Yeah the whole topic of computer phobia during the 20th century is a fascinating topic on its own. Ended up cutting a lot out for this video, but the fearmongering was hilarious.

Anonymous

What do they say? Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Nearly identical story for the VA Department of Motor Vehicles. "Redundant" storage array was out for almost a week. &lt;eek&gt;. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131022143512/http://www.governor.virginia.gov/News/docs/NorthropGrummanAudit.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20131022143512/http://www.governor.virginia.gov/News/docs/NorthropGrummanAudit.pdf</a>&lt;/eek&gt;

Anonymous

This is the most exciting taxes have ever been.

Anonymous

Ahhh Tech Tales are my favorite! And production quality keeps improving. Keep it up!

Anonymous

Fantastic video Clint! Great work on the research behind this story...I have been watching 'Halt &amp; Catch Fire' so all the history behind big blue's mainframe's is perfect timing...at my office I am the NetAdmin for the ever aging 20+ year old AS400 (complete with original keyboard)...the company wants to phase it out, but all of our old warranty claims are still on it, so they just keep it running, and whenever the power goes out it's a half an hour to boot that thing up......

Anonymous

A fascinating video Clint, kudos on your research for this Tech Tales episode ^_^

Anonymous

Given how much data the government and private businesses have on us nowadays, the freak out about the Martinburg Monster seems so naive. PS: Thanks for reminding me to do my taxes.

Anonymous

Seeing how the rest of the American government runs, I’m not really surprised by this. I didn’t even realize this happened, I do however remember not being able to get on the irs website last year

DOSGamerMan

Ah yes, before IBM became predominately a service company. Still love their hardware.

Anonymous

Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!

Anonymous

This was an excellent video. Stories of the government relying on technology decades older than me always fill me with a combination of horror and wonder.

LazyGameReviews
>>21496347

I did indeed! The original one was shot on an older camera at 1080p30, well overdue for an upgrade.

LazyGameReviews
>>21499035

H&amp;CF was wonderful for getting a glimpse into (fictionalized) old school IBM. Also Mad Men, season 7. I mean really the whole show is great, but "The Monolith" and subsequent episodes feature 60s IBM mainframes and it's fantastic.

Anonymous

Very interesting and awesomely made video, love the old footage, thanks!

LazyGameReviews
>>21506778

Heh, likewise. The very thought that so much of the country relies on such an old code base is a wee bit unsettling.

Anonymous

This is extremely great research dude. Felt like I was watching a short 'period' film/documentary. So well made. My hat off to you sir!

Vlaphor

Excellent video. I work for a company that still requires us to do most of our stuff through internet explorer, so I know the pain of being forced to use older tech (though not to this degree). I saw something similar to this story in terms of the New York Subway System, and how it's run using technology from the 30's in some cases. Or this story <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a16010/30-year-old-computer-runs-school-heat/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a16010/30-year-old-computer-runs-school-heat/</a> about how an Amiga is still running the heat and AC for 19 schools.

Anonymous

Love the tech tales and odd ware episodes

Anonymous

Only three things in life are certain. Death, taxes and that someone will tell you this.

Anonymous

I have my taxes done as soon as I get my W2 in. Normally the first week of February. So I didn’t even know this happened last year

LazyGameReviews
>>21529716

Yeah I've always done mine as soon as I get all the paperwork in, so I was surprised to see that 14 million taxpayers wait until the last minute

LazyGameReviews
>>21516737

Fascinating stuff! Sometimes the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage makes sense. I'd wager an Amiga running the climate control is probably good to go for another 30 years. :)

Anonymous

Clint, you sir have an incredible talent. I don't think anyone but LGR could make a video about taxes interesting, never mind the awesomeness that is this video.

Anonymous
>>21529716

Yeah I guess not everyone is as tax conscientious like us.

Anonymous

I got so excited when I saw the "Tech tales" email, it doesn't matter if its tech tales of paint mixing taxes or you reading the phone book

Anonymous

Great episode! Always look forward to new tech tales. The IBM storage array that experience the cache issue, it is more of a continuing issue with that microcode. The magic fix is getting away from IBM. Surprised they haven’t hit it earlier.

Anonymous

Interesting episode. Switch to a flat tax and can retire all this stuff.

Anonymous
>>21529716

Yup. Got a CPA and will never go back to doing my own taxes.

Anonymous

Thank you for another cool episode. Have you thought about making a series about the history of computers? From mechanical calculators to punched cards, tabullators, vacuum tubes, transistors... I'd love to see it and if it was you the one making it, it would be superb!

Anonymous

Signed up to Patreon because I saw your tweet that Tech Tales underperform compared to all your other videos yet you love making them. I love watching them, and super happy to help you make them :)