By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | August 26, 2005
They're the grizzled, unglamorous veterans of the computing world, middle-aged men and women who don't create best-selling computer games or dazzling special effects for the movies. All they do is quietly run the most important computer systems in the world.
They operate mainframe computers, the 'big iron' machines that run businesses and governments all over the planet. Mainframes issue Social Security checks, track credit-card purchases, and oversee the nation's air-traffic network. They're immensely powerful computers, and immensely reliable, routinely running around the clock for years at a time.
But many mainframe operators have been at it for decades, and they've begun to realize that their time is running out.