LGR Tech Tales - Ancient Computers of the IRS

Andrew Chappell

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 :)

Jontsuba

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!

Chris Rogers

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

Chris Munch

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

Matt Williams

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.

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

Myles MAN

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

LGR

I appreciate the kind words :)

Corey Ruth

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.

LGR

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. :)

LGR

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

Myles MAN

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

Gary Leigh

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

Love the tech tales and odd ware episodes

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.

LGR

Thanks a lot!

Deckard Games

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!

LGR

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

LGR

Happy to hear it! The National Archives are a treasure trove of that stuff :)

Kilrah

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

LGR

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.

LGR

Thanks a lot!

LGR

LGR: making tax collection interesting since 2019.

LGR

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

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.

Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!

LGR

Thanks! Made some good use of the US National Archives for this one 👍

DOSGamerMan

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

Zachary Outen

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

Steve Lovelace

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.

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

John Piscopo

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......

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

Adam Christensen

This is the most exciting taxes have ever been.

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;

LGR

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.

LGR

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.

LGR

Quite welcome, thanks for the support 😊

LGR

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.

LGR

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!

Ian Spence

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.

Dinty's Hideaway

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.

Seth C

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

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.

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

Terry Lee

I didn't see this one coming, fascinating story

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

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>

Robert Butler

Huh, I wondered what happened!

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!

David Rickard

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.

Frederic St-Georges

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