Cat Herder Software, LLC

And for the future: http://www.destinationz.org/Member-Spotlight/Ray-Mullins

I am the featured Member Spotlight for the next two weeks at Destination z! http://www.destinationz.org/

I have been busy, but I must acknowledge that December 15 is Cat Herder's Day. We cat herders work hard and the reward is satisfying.

Cat Herder Software lives up to its name.

I am finally catching up on "Halt & Catch Fire" since Cheri did not like it. I am watching episode 3, and it reminded me of my own recover-data-off-a-dead-disk experience. This was 4 years earlier than the time frame of the series, so it involves 8-inch floppies. A diskette with important files lost its FAT-equivalent (I don't remember the acronym) track. This was a CP/M formatted disk. The first thing I did was write a Z80 assembler program to hex and character dump every ...sector. IIRC, there were 9 512-byte sectors per track, two sides. I began to notice a pattern that each file's sectors were every 6. There was enough of the disk directory that I was able to figure out the fields. I used a BIOS listing (I had the source) to find the disk I/O interrupts. I modified the program to read the directory and then reconstruct the files on a new floppy. Luckily this S-100-bus machine had two drives, which made it much smoother. Mission accomplished, data preserved. Backups taken more regularly afterwards.

After almost 10 months, I hope this is a sign of a return to normal. This is the first time Felix has done this.

Google, you funny.

Thank you, Felix, for somehow stepping on the UPS power switch. You are one talented kitty, I do say so myself.

Take time today to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Purposely vague on purpose: This week, I had a phone conversation which affirmed my career choices and my reputation in the mainframe world.

Thanks to a FB friend, I wound up getting this new toy for $80 (with tax), after some financial shenanigans.

My latest blog entry. http://catherdersoftware.blogspot.com//i-am-hobset-because

A note for future reference so someone Googling this particular ABEND has something to check. When binding an LE-enabled program for use under CICS, never use HOBSET=YES. It will cause an APCL abend.