In Reply to: There's slow, and then there is the FAA posted by mh on November 09, 2026 at 19:59:57
Given that our entire medical system still relies on fax machines, it makes sense that we would use the IBM Series/1 and floppy disks.
There are actually some compelling reasons behind this seemingly outdated technology:
Reliability: The code is essentially bulletproof. These systems have been operating for decades because they are relatively simple machines with very limited failure points.
Cybersecurity: Older technology is largely immune to modern malware and many of the vulnerabilities associated with internet-connected systems.
Physical security: If someone wanted to modify the data, they would have to physically breach the command-and-control bunker to insert a floppy disk. That's a pretty effective security measure.
Remember, under Obama, we managed to set back Iran's nuclear program by years through Stuxnet, which was introduced into their systems using infected USB drives. It demonstrated that even isolated systems can be vulnerable to carefully engineered attacks.
The GAO also uses the IBM Series/1, reportedly for similar reasons.
Walmart, on the other hand, uses somewhat newer IBM mainframe technology for its point-of-sale systems. The underlying philosophy is similar to what we want in our nuclear defense infrastructure: redundancy and resilience. The system needs to keep operating even if multiple mainframes go down.
The goal is to avoid the kind of systemic failures we've seen with Wildberries in Russia.