One of my projects was to analyze the traction motor failures and identify problem areas to concentrate on in our rebuild plant.  After gathering tons of information from our repair shops in a database on the main frame, it was time to write some reports.

I put in an IT request for them to write some queries based on my parameters.  After several months of not hearing back, my boss and I checked on the progress.  The IT department said and I will quote: “We are having a meeting next week to decide when we can decide on when to do your project.” My boss told me to do it myself.

So, in writing reports, I needed some addition information on the query language so that I could process the data in steps because the query was going to take so much time and processor resources.  I asked for the complete manual and was told that they could not give it to me because “it would be like putting a loaded gun in the hands of a child”.  hmmm, did you hear that gauntlet fall?

I then wrote up the entire query and started it running.  About an hour later, I got a call from IT.  It seems that I had won “core wars” because my query was using all the mainframe’s processing power.  The killed the program and the next day, I received the complete manual.