Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(IT Jungle) When the big Power6 System p boxes start showing up in data centers around the world in April, will the System i customers be on the receiving end as well? That remains a secret, but IBM is planning an announcement during the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition that takes place in Nashville, Tennessee, March 30 through April 3. Systems and Technology Group may put its cards on the table then. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Unless you are reading this newsletter for the first time, you have been sufficiently warned about security issues related to the System i. Then again, maybe there's no such thing as sufficiently warned, because security assessments continue to uncover horror stories about organizations that leave all their corporate secrets unlocked and with no one minding the store. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Organizations (maybe not your organization) have set goals of becoming lean and green and maximizing value from their investments in technology, manpower, and energy. Reducing server counts by consolidating user workloads onto fewer systems is becoming a priority for more than a few. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Performance management is a big deal when you're responsible for the operation of multiple systems. What you don't know can hurt you. And what you think you know, that turns out to be wrong, can hurt you worse. READ MORE >

Vendor Announcements, Promotions, and Deals

(IT Jungle) Bob the Midnight Operator makes Jack the Ripper look like Kermit the Frog. That's because Bob works in your IT department and he's a dangerous dude. Because of him, and others like him, you should continuously monitor a variety of operating systems, databases, file systems, applications, and network devices for changes that could spell trouble. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Ever notice how disaster recovery plans get the most attention after the disaster? One of the many interesting features in i5/OS V6R1 is High Availability Solutions Manager (HASM). If you know a thing or two about replicating data, objects, and resources as part of a high availability or disaster recovery program, this is going to be of interest to you. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) This just might be a way to rehabilitate that mumbling, red-eyed, application developer who sits in the corner conversing with inanimate objects. It has nothing to do with medications, hypnosis, or shock therapy. We're talking about tools for developing Web- and Windows-based front ends to existing RPG and COBOL applications READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) Some manufacturers and distributors just aren't normal. Neither is their software. Not normal, in this case, is good for business. These are companies that specialize in customized products built to buyers' specifications. Guess what? They need software that automates the configuration and sales processes. READ MORE >

(IT Jungle) In IBM's unified communications technology extravaganza, voice over IP has a major role. So does e-mail and instant messaging. To a lesser degree there are tools such as video conferencing, and collaboration tools such as wikis, blogs, and forums. It's time now to add fax to that list. READ MORE >

Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(COMMON) The online session guide for the upcoming COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition provides a quick and easy overview of topics that are of interest to System i professionals. Browsing these topic areas and brief session descriptions might give you some ideas for advancing your career or getting a work project off the back burner. READ MORE >

(IBM) The most recent WebSphere Application Server for i5/OS, Version 6.1, is covered in this report. Topics include: installing the product, working with the server and applications, tuning the performance, and setting up security. READ MORE >

(IBM) All programs moving to i5/OS V6R1, which will be available in March, will need a degree of conversion to run. In order for a program to be converted, its creation data (sometimes referred to as observability) must be available for the system to make use of during a conversion process. Programs created for V5R1 or later have their creation data automatically saved during program creation. Those with programs created for OS/400 V4R5 and earlier need to ensure that the creation data is available for the conversion process. This technical paper provides a focus on what you should expect in terms of conversion processes. READ MORE >

(Aldon) Choosing automated versus manual deployment processes during application development seems like it would be easy. The purpose of this report is to explain the benefits of automatically packaging and distributing code or content files to target locations during each stage of the development cycle. READ MORE >

(IBM) This report provides an overview of the traditional OPM style methods of implementing exception/error handling and how they change in the ILE environment. It also discusses to use "pure" ILE methods to replace some of the more traditional RPG methods. READ MORE >

Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

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

March 13 -- Maryland Heights, Missouri - Pete Helgren, president of Value Added Software, will discuss open source applications and integration activities at the monthly meeting of the Gateway/400 Group, an iSeries user group serving the greater St. Louis area. The meeting time is 11:30 a.m. with lunch at noon and the presentation following lunch. RSVP no later than Monday before the meeting date. LEARN MORE >

March 13 -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Making PHP, MySQL, and Linux will each be highlighted in two sessions during the monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association. Guest speaker is Erwin Earley, a software engineer at the IBM Rochester Labs. A session featuring Linux and the System i will begin at 4:30 p.m. and a session featuring PHP and MySQL in i5/OS will begin at 7 p.m. In between is dinner and networking with the members. LEARN MORE >

March 13 -- Kent, Washington - The Pacific Midrange Systems Association meeting features a session on securing the System i server, presented by Robin Tatum, a trainer and security specialist with MSI Systems Integrators. Topics of discussion will include: security policy, system values, auditing, compliance, and much more. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. LEARN MORE >

March 18 -- Webinar - Many software systems offer generic e-payment solutions, but companies often fail to use them successfully in accounts payable for various reasons. Among the reasons are vendors' unwillingness to divulge the banking information required to establish an e-payment environment and the clumsy, time-intensive process for conversion. This webinar examines how and why companies can and should extend e-payments to accounts payable and outlines a three-step program for vendor sign-up, including a self-registration process that secures the exposure of their banking data. LEARN MORE >

March 18 -- Bloomington, Minnesota - An introduction to DB2 Web Query for System i will be presented at the regularly scheduled local user group meeting. Tyler Even, a DB2 2 WebQuery technology expert, will be the guest speaker. The event is being held at the Comfort Inn and gets under way at 2 p.m. LEARN MORE >

March 18 -- Norwalk, Connecticut - The Fairfield AS/400 Users Group monthly meeting topic is RPG oriented and will examine the best uses of an RPG formatted dump. The discussion will include interpreting the results to prevent future errors, understanding the somewhat cryptic RPG values returned by the system, and becoming familiar with some of the lesser known compiler key words. The guest speaker will be Charles Guarino, an IBM midrange consultant. FASUG meetings are held at the Norwalk Inn and begin at 5:30 p.m. LEARN MORE >

March 18 -- Costa Mesa, California - A presentation by Frank Soltis and Larry Bolhuis, "Dr. Frank Meets Dr. Franken," will likely play to a packed house during the regular monthly meeting of the OCEAN User Group. The OCEAN User Group serves the greater Orange County, California, area. The meeting will be held at the IBM offices and begins at 5 p.m. LEARN MORE >

March 18 -- Irving, Texas - What Guest speakers Kendall Kinnear and Michael Daly will discuss new features that are coming with the Power6 and V6R1 products. Topics will include the HMC, blade server, development tools, and other items of importance. Kinnear is a senior systems architect and Daly is a project manager. Both work for KS2 Technologies. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6 and Perry's presentation at 6:45. MMSA meetings are held at the Radisson Hotel DFW South. LEARN MORE >

March 19 -- Woodbury, New York - The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting features guest speaker Charles Guarino, a midrange consultant, discussing XML and RPG. His session will cover the process of receiving an XML document and parsing it to a database file. LISUG meetings are held at the Fox Hollow Inn and begin at 6 p.m. LEARN MORE >

March 19 -- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - Barry Pow, a System i product manager from the Toronto Labs and Barbara Morris, a lead developer for WDS compilers at the Toronto Labs, will present two sessions at the monthly meeting of the Toronto User Group. Pow's session, at 5 p.m., will cover V6R1 enhancements, and Morris' session, at 7 p.m., will examine the RPG enhancements in V6R1. LEARN MORE >

March 19 -- Independence, Ohio - The IBM Systems Director Navigator for i5/OS V6R1 will be the highlighted topic during the Application Systems Users Group of Greater Cleveland meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. and takes place at Harry's Steakhouse. Guest speaker is Tim Rowe, a senior software engineer at IBM with technical leadership responsibilities for integrating Web based middleware into the i5/ OS. LEARN MORE >

March 19 -- Webinar - The benefits of implementing business-to-business and business-to-customer self-service Web applications will be discussed during this session presented by Todd Endsley, director of e-business development at software vendor VAI. The event begins at 2 p.m. EST. LEARN MORE >

March 20 -- Fairfield, New Jersey - Guest speaker Charles Guarino will discuss XML and RPG at the regular monthly meeting of the North Eastern Systems Technology Users (NESTU) meeting. Topics will include the process of receiving an XML document and parsing it to a database file. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. LEARN MORE >