3 chapters across the catalog
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy makes a public plea for COBOL programmers to help fix the state's 40-year-old unemployment insurance systems. The hosts discuss how the entire country's financial and government infrastructure still relies on this legacy language. They joke about "COBOL Cowboys" coming out of retirement to handle the surge in claims.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reveals that the U.S. military still uses 8-inch floppy disks from the 1970s to coordinate nuclear forces. While the media portrays this as a dangerous security flaw, the hosts argue that legacy COBOL systems are more secure because they lack modern internet connectivity. One host recounts owning a collection of vintage 8-inch disks and custom shirts designed to hold floppy media.
The entire U.S. Navy continues to run on the obsolete Windows XP operating system, necessitating a multi-million dollar support contract with Microsoft for custom security patches. Microsoft ended general support for XP, but the Navy's refusal to upgrade has created a lucrative revenue stream for the software giant. The hosts criticize the lack of technical oversight in military IT procurement.
