Nick Batik

More about me than you probably wanted to know.

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Nicholas Batik

Information Handling Services – 1981-1982

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I was hired away from StorageTek to head a new project at IHS. They re-published Mil-Specs, Fed-Specs, and a broad collection of vendor catalogs indexed and cross-referenced by industry standard and Mil/Fed Specification so that any government or military contractor could review, bid and perform on a contract, finding vendor parts matching both the contract requirements and the applicable specifications. At that time, the entire product line was published on microfilm and microfiche. This new project was an exploratory demonstration to put the products on the newly invented Video Disc technology.

Since market penetration of video discs was very low, and cost of development was high, that project was put on hold until the technology matured.

For my next task I shipped out to Stanford University to work on a project with Prof. Donald Knuth and senior graduate student David Fuchs to port a copy of the TEX typesetting language to our IBM mainframe and connect that to a digital phototypesetter. This was used to format the output of the huge databases for the product directories.

While at Stanford, David showed me a computer network that he called ARPANET, and it had 18 computers connected across the country. In retrospect, that was the beginning of the internet, but at the time I didn’t appreciate its significance.

In addition I worked on loan with the sister company BRS/Search in Latham, NY where I worked programming the MEDLARS database.

StorageTek – 1980-1981

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When I first joined, the company was Storage Technology Corp (STC)., but changed names to StorageTek (STK) halfway through my tenure. They were attempting to launch a mainframe to compete with IBM. I was part of the operating systems development team that including Mogens Pedersen, Robert J. Racer, and David Serls, where I programmed the the Initial Program Loader (IPL), scheduler/dispatcher module, and a collection of system utilities.

The project also included the Virtual Storage System (VSS) which drew on my experience with Pierce Data Systems. The VSS project attempted to optimize utilization of storage. The VSS system monitored data. Active files were migrate to closer and faster storage, less requested data moved to slower or offline storage. The content of DASDs was dynamically reorganized to achieve maximum density.

After $22 million and several insurmountable problems, the project was cancelled.

Pierce Data Systems (PDS) 1979-1980

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I saw an ad run by Pierce Data Systems for a Mainframe Systems Programmer with 3-5 years experience. At 21 and on summer break, I thought to myself “I took a semester in assembly language programming, that’s pretty close.” I walked in with my stack of listings to show what I could do.

It worked.

In that day of mainframes there was no simple way of knowing how much empty space was on any storage device. On my first day on the job my boss turned to my and told me to write a channel program utility to list the empty space on all the DASDs (Direct-Access Storage Devices). That’s when I discovered the mysterious and undocumented EXCP command on my 360/370 Assembly Language Quick Reference meant EXecute Channel Program. Two days later I found the reference manual for channel programming, and by the end of the week I had my utility.

The primary clients for PDS were Micromedex Corp. and Dr. Barry Rumack at the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center. At PDI I was part of the 3 man team that created and developed the databases that were used to publish DrugDex and PoisonDex. DrugDex was a bibliographic database of every medical journal article that discusses interactions between drugs. It was cross-referenced and indexed by each of the drugs in the interaction. PoisonDex was a database of every household chemical on the market, cross referenced by poisoning symptoms, with recommendations for treatment. Later Micromedex extended their product line to include the DeHahn Series of Drugs in Prospect, Drugs in Research, and Drugs in Development where the database included chemical and technical data on each drug.

Delaware Community College – 1978

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My first programming job was as an Application Programmer. Working for the Lab Manager, Vic Tenaglia, I developed a database of all laboratory equipment and set up the maintenance history and scheduling system.

This was also where I reconnected with an old mentor, Randy Turner, who had taught me HAM radio. As it turned out, he was taking management classes at DCC. At the time he was DP Manager, Air Products, Corp. and he suggested a series of classes for me to take, starting with Basic Assembly Language for IBM 360/370 series mainframes. Following this he suggested Job Control Language for the IBM. Since JCL was only available to students of advanced COBOL and I had never had any COBOL classes, he advised me to get the IBM Self-Study Course in COBOL which I taught myself over the Christmas break so I could register for JCL.

I also acquired a collection of JCL manuals from the IBM Document Center in downtown Philadelphia so I could prepare myself in advance of class.

Three problems emerged. First, the course was taught by the Head of the Department, and was supposedly only available to students on his recommendation. Apparently Registration never checked things like that, and were happy to take my money and sign me up.

Second, I spent a lot of time in the computer lab and other students got to know me and would ask questions when they were stuck. About a month into the semester I received a note from the Learning Center requesting me to stop by. It turned out that numerous students had requested my assistance as a tutor, and they wondered if I would be willing to work for them on a regular basis. I agreed, and began tutoring in FORTRAN, COBOL, and Assembly Language. Many of my students were in same Advanced COBOL class.

Third, I did not realize that the college did’t actually own the mainframe, they were on a time-share with a larger university. Unaware of this, I was exercising all the amazing JCL options that were in the Senior Computer Operator’s Manual I acquired from IBM. As I learned shortly, this nearly exhausted the entire college computer budget for the year. I faced an expulsion hearing before the Board of Regents.

It was decided that because I had not technically done anything wrong, that I could not be expelled, but all of my remaining assignments were to handed to the Head of the Department for clearance before they could be run. He informed me that because of my undisciplined ways that I would never be a successful programmer.

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