If you have some interesting information to pass along and to be added to this page, send it to scandal@swoose.com.au We hold out the possibility of some reward, ranging from a highly desirable free gift (is there any kind of gift other than free?) to whatever we can drag from the closet of Swoose Surprises.
Operating Systems
OpenVMS is not dead!! The impact of the takeover of OpenVMS by VSI from HP, breathed life into the world-leading operating system. Updated to version 8.4 were released late 2016, development and support was brought back to the US from India; great news for the operating system once rated by DEFCON as the most unhackable OS produced.
Hardware
Itanium seems to have a limited life - the rate of improvement of the x86 range of chips, coupled with the fact that only HP produces any hardware that uses Itanium, could spell the end for this architecture. And now that VSI has demonstrated successfully booting OpenVMS on plain x86 hardware, the future is looking positive.
Other significant developments
Looking for a secure web server environment, both hardware and software? Well, go to http://wasd.vsm.com.au/ and have a look.
Remember, laughing at the misfortune of others is better than reading about yourself. Send any information unfit to print (we will be the judge of that) to scandal@swoose.com.au and see your comments, friends, enemies, employers, competitors and others that you admire - in print.