Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) Save the banks. Save the housing industry. Save the auto companies. Everywhere you turn, somebody or something needs saved. At some point you just want to say to all those people clamoring for life savers: Save your breath. If there's any room left on the lifeboats, how about saving the AS/400? READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) As if temperatures so cold that exposed flesh freezes in 10 minutes aren't bad enough, many of the good people who work at the IBM facility in Rochester, Minnesota, (home of the AS/400) are numb from the fear of potentially losing their jobs. Rumors of a worldwide layoff of as many as 16,000 IBM employees have swirled for more than a week. No one knows if those rumors are true and, if so, which facilities will be affected or to what extent. IBM has no comment. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) How strategic is it to cut your IT investments? Maybe you believe you have no choice. But if one out of every four companies is increasing their IT budgets, what are the competitive advantages they are gaining? Application modernization projects right now may be your best bet to position your business for success when the economy gains momentum again. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Remember that magical time when all the air came rushing out of the dot-com balloon? I say magical because it was a disappearing act for many companies and it had the effect of turning IT professionals into truck drivers and house painters. If you ask Victor Janulaitis, an IT compensation tracker with a book full of statistics, he'll tell you today's IT job market is as bad as he's ever seen it. READ MORE >

(System i Blogger) This could be in the top five of worst on-the-job nightmares. One day you come to work and you're greeted by a brand new CIO or IT manager. He doesn't have horns or cloven hooves, but something about him makes the hair on the back of your neck prickle. Soon you discover he doesn't know anything about the System i AND he has a deep bias for another platform. How do you like that? READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) As a Microsoft Windows alternative, Apple's Mac is not yet the straw that stirs the drink. It is, however, making inroads into the enterprise computing workspace. And together with Linux, they're the best anti-Microsoft options available. So it's nice to see IBM Lotus recognizing Apple by introducing a Mac-compatible Notes 8.5--the most current release of its widely used collaboration software. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities are often a major component of business intelligence solutions. Due to vigorously growing demands for analyzing huge volumes of data and supplying it to more employees throughout the enterprise, companies are turning to OLAP solutions to overcome scalability and performance issues. For those accessing Oracle Essbase along with DB2/400, here's some news that's worth your time. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) On the other hand, if you've been planning to break away from Lotus Notes, but the thought of Microsoft's hand reaching deep into your pocket is disturbing, there's an alternative that should get your attention. Take a look at this Notes-to-Google e-mail migration. The automation in this switch-over may surprise you. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Smooth transitions are often promised, but heartbreak is what's frequently delivered in the cold cruel world of information technology. The perfectly smooth transition may be a myth, but that's why it's critical to consider some degree of smoothness as a big improvement over nine miles of bad road. Take, for example, the upgrade to the IBM i 6.1 operating system. How much downtime are you factoring in for that? READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Not every sales and marketing genius who has thought of forty-eleven ways to make use of spreadsheets has figured out how to pay for the high-dollar System i reporting software. This, as you may well know, is the fuel for many internal fires. You want better spreadsheets--the kind that tie into to ERP data? This might be what you need to put out one of your biggest sales and marketing fires. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Document management is another one of those "must-have/can't afford" debates that seem to remain endlessly tabled until more and better research can be completed. If you already know how document management would help your organization, this might be the more and better research that gets your project under way. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(GMAN Tech) Good programming relies more on understanding the process than the use of any single language. If you're a programmer, you understand that at the end of the day all that matters is getting things done. This is the philosophy that guides Bruce Guetzkow, and this is his Website where he shares his System i development skills with others. READ MORE >

(IBM Lotus) This white paper is a guide to the newly released Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5. It covers everything you would expect in terms of mail, contacts, calendar, and security, but it also examines new features such as Domino Attachment and Object Service, the Notes ID Vault and Shared login, disk I/O reduction, and the latest features in iNotes. READ MORE >

(IBM) Virtualization technology is being used to simplify and optimize IT infrastructure. This report covers the combination of hardware and software on Power Systems that can to aggregate and manage resources using a consolidated, logical view. Topics of discussion include: reducing energy costs through server consolidation, reducing the cost of existing infrastructure, and managing growth. READ MORE >

(System iDeveloper) Programming, like driving across town, is so much easier if you know the shortcuts. The more you know, the easier it is to reach your destination. Here's a list of WDSC/RSE keyboard shortcuts provided by RPG experts Susan Gantner, Jon Paris, and Paul Tuohy. It includes windows shortcuts, navigation shortcuts, and editing shortcuts. Enough to last you for a while. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

See our full calendar of events at
http://www.itjungle.com/fhm/fhm-calendar.html

January 20 -- Webinar - Increasing data visibility, streamlining business processes, and reducing costs by connecting multiple databases and servers through business application mashups is the topic of this online session. Particular focus will be given to gaining a composite view of customers, orders, product, and inventory that are confined to silos in their current application configuration. LANSA Product Marketing Manager David Brault and two individuals from System i organizations that have implemented application mashup programs will be presenting the material. The event begins at 11 a.m. CST. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Irving, Texas - Guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Metro Midrange Systems Association, a user group for the Dallas and Fort Worth metro areas, is Ken Frei, a former AS/400 programmer who is currently working in project management. His presentation topic is Microsoft Project, which is project management software that assists managers in planning, assigning resources, tracking progress, managing budgets, and analyzing workloads. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6 and Frei's presentation at 6:45. MMSA meetings are held at the Radisson Hotel DFW South. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Oak Brook, Illinois - The featured topics at the monthly meeting of the OMNI User Group will be the IBM i developer's road map and a step-by-step approach when moving from RPG to a service oriented architecture. Both topics will be presented by IBM's Alison Butterill at the IBM offices. Free pizza for attendees. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Costa Mesa, California - A presentation on RPG and Web development will be the highlight of the regular monthly meeting of the OCEAN User Group. The guest speaker is Aaron Bartell, a senior software developer for Krengel Technology, who specializes in Web services on the AS/400 and Java development. Meetings are held at the IBM offices and begin at 3 p.m. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Atlanta, Georgia - An overview of EGL and Web application technology from IBM Rational will get top billing at the Atlanta Mid-range Computer Users monthly meeting. The guest speaker Stefano Sergi, IBM Rational's worldwide sales executive for EGL technology, will be4 the guest speaker. The event is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Norwalk, Connecticut - The Fairfield AS/400 Users Group monthly meeting topic is IBM Rational Team Concert for i. RTCi is a development environment for RPG/COBOL and distributed (Java, EGL, PHP) development teams. It integrates capabilities such as source configuration management (SCM) and work items (change management) into the development teams' processes. It also provides project planning, automated data collection, and reporting that helps govern software projects. RTCi is based on Rational's technology platform for collaborative software delivery known as Jazz. The guest speaker is Nazmin Haji, a frequent speaker in conferences and user groups, and is also a co-author of the book, The Remote System Explorer: Modern Developer Tools for the System i. FASUG meetings are held at the Norwalk Inn and begin at 5:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Madison, Wisconsin - The January Madison Area Midrange Systems Users Group session will be presented by Jeff Bender of SPSI (a local Madison area partner of the noMax High Availability product). Topics will include discussions of high availability and disaster recovery techniques, examples of networking solutions, best practices and implementation options. There will be a brief overview of the product as it pertains to IBM i journaling to replicate data files and libraries. Also discussed are topics such as user IDs, the Integrated File System, and spool files. A question and answer session will also be included. The event begins at 9 a.m. and will be held at Friskars restaurant. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Minneapolis, Minnesota - Tips and techniques for using DB2 Web Query will be presented at the regularly scheduled Quser local user group meeting. Guest speakers are Gene Cobb and Tyler Even. The event begins at 2 p.m. LEARN MORE >

January 20 -- Nashville, Tennessee - This meeting of the Tennessee IBM Mid-Range User Group will feature a presentation on the DBA tools in IBM System i Navigator. The meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn Vanderbilt located at 2613 West End Avenue. It begins at 5:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

January 21 -- Southfield, Michigan - The "Top Ten Gotchas for Admins in Upgrading to V6R1" will be presented at the regularly scheduled local user group meeting of the Southeast Michigan iSeries User Group. Guest speaker is IBM's Larry Bolhuis. His presentation will provide advice and insights for preparing for an operating system upgrade. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at IBM Southfield offices located at 18000 West Nine Mile Road. LEARN MORE >

January 21 -- Woodbury, New York - The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting features three presentations at this month's meeting. It begins at 5 p.m. with a session on client-side application development options followed by a discussion of the Project Management Institute and the Project Management Professional certification process. The main session topic is IBM Rational Team Concert for i. RTCi is a development environment for RPG/COBOL and distributed (Java, EGL, PHP) development teams. Guest speaker is Nazmin Haji, an IBM expert and frequent speaker on RTCi. The networking portion of the meeting begins a 6 p.m. followed by dinner and then the main topic discussion. LISUG meetings are held at the Fox Hollow Inn. LEARN MORE >

January 21 -- Webinar - A Query/400 migration planning session for IBM i (AS/400) customers who use Query/400 is being hosted by New Generation Software (NGS). This online session is designed for those evaluating a migration path from Query/400. Topics of discussion include replacement factors to consider such as ease-of-use, performance, licensing terms, support, and the advantages of the NGS-IQ business intelligence and reporting solution. Product demos will feature examples of NGS' dynamic dashboards; Web reporting; OLAP presentations; MS Excel reports; Web, Windows, and 5250 user interfaces; and the variety of output options provided. LEARN MORE >

January 22 -- Fairfield, New Jersey - Guest speaker Nazmin Haji will discuss the IBM Rational Team Concert for i. RTCi is a development environment for RPG/COBOL and distributed (Java, EGL, PHP) development teams. It integrates capabilities such as source configuration management (SCM) and work items (change management) into the development teams' processes. It also provides project planning, automated data collection, and reporting that helps govern software projects. RTCi is based on Rational's technology platform for collaborative software delivery known as Jazz. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. LEARN MORE >