What’s better than 150 Extra Engineers? This blog post! (What I find interesting in tech, June, 2026 edition)

Ok, technically the IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch was better than 150 extra engineers. I can’t provide you with one of those, but I can provide you with this list of links on what I find interesting in tech lately (besides AI, which I have posted on separately since it is a big topic in itself).

Hardware

The big fun thing that came out lately was the MacBook Neo. CNN wrote about it, here: MacBook Neo: Apple launches a cheap new MacBook for the first time and Ars Technica did as well: MacBook Neo hands-on: Apple build quality at a substantially lower price
More on Apple from Ars Technica: Imminent Apple hardware updates include MacBook Pro, iPads, and iPhone 17e
Here’s a new laptop worth looking at: Framework Laptop 13 Pro arrives with major redesign, longer battery life, and touch display – Yanko Design. Relatedly, Framework Laptop 13 Pro is the first major revision to the original Framework Laptop – Ars Technica
Speaking of laptops: The Lightest ThinkPad Ever Also Scored 9/10 for Repairability – Yanko Design
Here’s some fun hardware stories:

Software:

I was surprised by this: Why Kubernetes is retiring Ingress NGINX – The New Stack – thenewstack.io
I needed this link recently as I was running neo4j in a container: Connect to Neo4j in Docker from python in a different Docker container
Pardon the language, but this was good: git – the simple guide – no deep shit! Also helpful: Git – Basic Branching and Merging
This is, frankly, ridiculous: COBOL Is the Asbestos of Programming Languages | WIRED – www.wired.com
This is neat: Landing Page Templates to Build Landing Pages in Minutes | Rocket Templates – www.rocket.new
This is a good Linux distro I might try soon: Zorin OS – Make your computer better.

Raspberry Pi :

Miscellany:

Not a good idea: I Revived an Old BlackBerry to Cut Down on Screen Time. Things Went Awry. | Reviews by Wirecutter – www.nytimes.com
I found this useful: Managing Data in IBM Cloud
Can anything help Apple’s Vision Pro? Maybe this: YouTube is coming to the Apple Vision Pro | The Verge
A good cheat sheet: Chmod Command Cheat Sheet & Quick Reference – quickref.me
PROFS was huge in the 80s: PROFS: The Office Suite Of The 1980s | Hackaday – hackaday.com
I have a number of his covers: Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78 – Ars Technica – arstechnica.com
Good to know: Google Now Lets You Change Your Gmail Address. Here’s How | WIRED
Highly debatable: Tim Cook Was Great for Apple Investors. He Was Not as Great for America.
Finally, I was watching these IBM commercials with Avery Brooks recently. They are old but still great. Sadly, my favorite one on WebSphere, is not up there, but if you search Youtube you can find these two and more:
- Avery Brooks in a commercial touting IBM’s commitment to Linux – YouTube
- IBM – Avery Brooks – Serious Software (2000) TV Commercial – YouTube

(Credit for the top image: File:IBM 150 Extra Engineers 1951.jpg – Wikimedia Commons)

AI: what people are doing and what people are saying (June, 2026)

When it comes to AI, there are 1) lots of people doing practical things with AI and 2) lots of people writing about AI. They rarely overlap. 🙂

But overlap they do in this post! For those of you not doing practical things with AI, skip to the second section.

1) Here’s a bunch of links for people who are doing practical things with AI:

Much is written about models these days, which makes sense since it is a rapidly changing part of technical AI. For example:
- I like this since I run LLMs on my Mac: Best Local LLMs for Mac in 2026 — M1, M2, M3, M4 Tested | InsiderLLM – insiderllm.com
- I use Ollama to run my models, so I liked this too: Top 10 Ollama Models: What They’re Good For and What You Need to Run Them
- This is a big development: 1M context is now generally available for Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 | Claude. It’s amazing how much a big context window helps.
- This was fun: Introducing talkie: a 13B vintage language model from 1930. Ok not all that practical, but …fun!
- What does the great computer scientist Knuth think of Claude? That paper he wrote will tell you.
- A good piece on different models when it comes to writing: The Creative Gap: Models Split on Writing – makerpulse.ai
- Really there is so much being written about models. For instance:
On IBM Bob, a tool I use a lot: IBM Gets Bob 1.0 Off The Ground
A good piece on how COBOL and AI‘s use with it:
- Can Claude Code Really Understand COBOL Applications?
- Relatedly, IBM weighs in on the topic: Lost in Translation: What the AI code debate keeps getting wrong
Agentic AI is the hot space and has much focus, so here are some agentic AI pieces:
Finally, Rabbit R1’s OpenClaw Update Could Be Its Most Important Moment Yet – Yanko Design

2) Here’s a bunch of links for people who like to read about AI:

On AI and jobs, so much is being written. Take a look:

Some pieces on OpenAI:
How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans – www.ben-evans.com
- - OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias.
  - OpenAI Is Making the Mistakes Facebook Made. I Quit.

Finally,
- I thought this is well done: The Star tried something with AI we had never done before
- Lots of people mocked Marc A for this, and rightly so: Analyzing That Controversial Super Prompt For Controlling AI That Billionaire Marc Andreessen Posted
- AI is giving security folks lots of reasons to lose sleep: OpenClaw gives users yet another reason to be freaked out about security – Ars Technica
- Yeah, probably not a good idea: Amazon is determined to use AI for everything – even when it slows down work
- Also not good: Here’s how Israel is using artificial intelligence to find targets in Gaza and Moltbook was peak AI theater | MIT Technology Review

It’s summer. Time to hit the beach with a good…list of tech links :) (What I find interesting in tech August 2024)

The last time I wrote about what I find interesting in tech, it was winter. Now it’s anything but, and I have lots of things I’ve been studying in IT. Lots of material on COBOL and mainframes since I am working on mainframe modernization. But there’s stuff regarding Python, cloud, Apple computers and so much more. Let’s see what we have here….

Software: this section is so big I need to break it up! First up, COBOL:

Why you should brush up your cobol, a is a 60 year old language (it’s suddenly in demand)
How to make static and dynamic calls in COBOL
Here’s 7 cobol examples with explanations
A good argument: face it, there nothing that can replace COBOL
How to run COBOL on Kubernetes
How to run COBOL on aws lambda
Some good Cobol Code samples
A good tutorial on modern cobol and microservices
Another cobol.microservice example
How to write docker microservices in cobol

Next, here’ some good stuff on Python:

How to manipulate XML with pythons here and here
How do I check which version of python is running my script
Something on the openpyxl package for excel spreadsheets
how to read pdf files with python using pypdf2 also this
Something on python and yaml here and here and here

And lastly here’s some general software links:

How to use the gitignore file in git
How to run multiple version of nodejs with node version manager
Ohoh! Many of todays top passwords can be cracked with brute force in less than an hour
A bunch of links on Docker and podman, here and here and here and here.
How to do n2G coding
This tool is great Make your own flowise
This is a good sample program to talk to Slack APIs
How to work with rest something something full api stack
On microsoft windows 11 start menu ads app recommendations

Mainframe

A good run down on Z/OS and USS and how Java plays out: zos – How to distinguish Java on z/OS from Java on Linux on z/OS? – Stack Overflow. Key to note: Java applications are not binaries, so the same Java byte-code runs on any Java JVM (with exceptions).
More for my benefit: Install and configure EGit for IBM Explorer for z/OS – IBM Developer
A reminder that there is a version of Liberty that runs in CICS: Develop a JMS application for CICS Liberty – IBM Developer
A very good tutorial on automating your CI/CD whereby you use Jenkins with Zowe to run things on the mainframe. It uses groovy scripts but no UCD. Worth trying: Create a fully automated CI/CD pipeline for IBM z/OS testing using Jenkins and Zowe – IBM Developer
Why you should use Java on the mainframe: Harnessing the Power of Java on Z Mainframe: Advantages and Relevance in the Era of Watson Code Assistant for Z | by Vikas Pujar | Medium
On Setting up JNI for calling Java from COBOL on z/OS – Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion
Angular on Linux. Note their is a program listening on port 4200, which is ng. ng is the CLI for angular. Not sure if it works on Z: Angular CLI – How to Create a New Angular Project in Linux
Node.js runs on Z. It runs on USS, CICS and in BATCH (though this looks like USS too). Lots of good info here: Node.js on z/OS: How Real Is It? – TechChannel
How to connect node.js with IBM Open Enterprise SDK for Node.js
Might be useful: Running Angular without a Server: A Local Setup Guide
Not sure if this will work on USS on Z, but: Guide to Deploy Angular App for Production on Linux Servers
Useful Develop a Java Application for z/OS with IDz 15.0 in Minutes – IBM Z and LinuxONE Community
Good piece on the software technology for testing on Z: Introducing the IBM Test Accelerator for Z – IBM Z and LinuxONE Community
Intro to IDz: IBM Developer for z/OS
How to try out Z software like ADF: IBM Z Software Trials | IBM
On Application Delivery Foundation for z/OS | IBM
Good intro on using Zowe with REXX: Zowe CLI: “Hello World” w/REXX. {Core} Running REXX on a mainframe in… | by Dan Kelosky | Zowe | Medium
A good discussion of WAS on Z. It “competes” with CICS and IMS. Also you don’t need WAS to run Java:Websphere Application Server – Now An Essential Part of z/OS – Planet Mainframe
Java and CICS: Try Java in our sandbox – IBM Documentation
Good intro: Getting Started with Zowe CLI. Zowe CLI is for z/OS like the AWS CLI… | by Sujay Solomon | Zowe | Medium
How to Example: invoking Java from a batch COBOL program – IBM Documentation
How this company does the migration – it’s a combination of Liberty for online and plain Java for batch: Natural/ADABAS migration | Application conversion | FreeSoft. Here’s something on their technologies: Modernization tools | Legacy modernization | FreeSoft
A really good redbook: Practical Migration from x86 to Linux on IBM Z –
Also good, an application modernization assessment.
How to use python with jcl and rexx
Beef up your mainframe skills here
Good: uncovering mainframe seams for mainframe modernization
In case you were wondering: the ibm mainframe – how it runs and why it survives
More on modernization automated refactoring from mainframe to serverless functions and containers with blu age
More on blu age: how to migrate mainframe batch to cloud microservices with blu age and aws
Out of the blue: set up automation populate watsonx code assistant database here
Something on challenges and patterns for modernizing a monolithic application into microservices
The mainframe is just old cobol right? wrong
Some application modernization patterns
Here’s a modern jcl editor
A list of JCL utilities, here
Modernize your mainframe with Azure here

Apple…a few good links:

Can apple save the vision pro. I think so. More on that device, here
Some history: the imac g3 unveiling. More on that here.
Apple secures patents for future foldable iphone and ipad. Could be interesting.
No longer interesting (for Apple): apple ends electric car plan
Also interesting: try old versions of mac os in your browser
Here’s how to resize or reduce photo size on mac

Some helpful cloud pieces:

Getting start with the Container Registry, here
On deploying a simple http server to ibm cloud code engine from source code using python node and go
Provisioning on ibm cloud using terraform with a sample_vpc_config
On how set or restore remote access windows vsi
How to create a single virtual server instance (VSI) in a virtual private cloud (VPC) infrastructure on IBM Cloud, here.
File Sharing through RDP from MacOS here

And finally, here’s a good set of Random links that were too good to pass up:

three things to know about the white houses executive order on ai. Worth knowing.
A cool retro terminal here. Likewise, this cool retro term makes the mac terminal look like an old crt monitor here
More history, Revisiting the old web. And microsoftgraveyard.com.On the Rise of the Internet with a focus on 1980s here.
It’s seems google has made find my device improvements
On motorola’s low cost moto g 5g which is appearently good.
Here’s a nice way to run linux vms on mac.
What’s the diff between ext4 vs ext3? Read that.
How to find your linux filesystem type
If you are adding a new disk drive to an ubuntu system read this.
Here’s how to mount a drive in ubuntu
Linux on the mainframe: get started with ibm linuxone
What are the golden signals for kubernetes? Relatedly, sla metrics.
A bunch of links on crowdstrike bsod issue, here and hereand here
On the 6 cs of devops adoption.
On deployable architecture on ibm cloud
Here’s how to make classes and packages clickable in html pages here
Check out these animated interactive flowchart diagrams for documenting case scenarios
On domain drive design
Very fun: macos sequoia wallpaper using classic macintosh icons from susan kare here
On ibm and the transformation of corporate design
Yay: microsoft minecraft chromeos chromebooks release. More, here.
Like geocities, but new: neocities.org.
On microsoft word font Aptos
The future: IBM’s big picture roadmaps
The past: a bunch of stories on Japan and floppy disks, here and here and here and here.

It’s winter. Time to curl up with a good…list of tech links :) (What I find interesting in tech January 2024)

500 Wow. I have not posted any tech links since last September. Needless to say, I’ve been doing alot of reading on the usual topics, from architecture and cloud to hardware and software. I’ve included many of them in the lists below. There’s a special shout out to COBOL of all things. Is there something on DOOM! in here? Of course there is. Let’s take a look….