If any iteration of the OS/400-i5/OS-IBM i platform could be said to have lived long and prospered, it is i5/OS V5R4, often now called IBM i 5.4 although that was not its original name. This release, which was announced on April 10, 2007, has had a long life among the OS/400 family of operating systems not only because it was a good, solid OS, but because the move to the more recent IBM i 6.1 and 7.1 required a program conversion process customers either couldn't do or didn't want to do.

IBM had the right idea back in April 1964 when it announced the System/360 mainframe, and it even had a name that reflected its understanding of what customers wanted. The idea was that a single line of machines, using different processor and storage technologies, would be united by levels of abstraction that would allow them to all run the same applications, but just on a different scale and with different price points.

There'll be no confetti dropping from the ceiling or champagne corks popping, but IBM's announcement that Rational Open Access: RPG Edition becomes available as a free PTF beginning February 14 deserves a little fanfare. Here's a technology with a lot of promise, the native GUI interface as some call it, that's finally available without blood, sweat, and tears poured into the ordering process. And, even better, without any licensing charges.

Being prepared for a disaster makes good business sense, especially with the recent spate of major disasters occurring recently in the United States. For IBM i shops, disaster preparedness requires a little extra planning and capability. One company that's growing its specialized IBM i disaster recovery (DR) service business is TECA Data Safe, which provides everything a company needs to recover its IBM i environment, including servers, bandwidth, and--most importantly--experienced staff.

For the past two years RPG Open Access technology has been available, yet it remained unseen and even unheard by a great many people in the IBM i community. A combination of low visibility--partly related to a few ISVs taking the lead on some projects, while onlookers waited to see how the projects turned out--and limited budgets, which put a lot of IT and other expenditures on the skids. Application modernization projects have sprouted here and there, but let's just say it's not burning down the house. It's at a point, however, where we should see a green-screen fade.

You can't beat free. Earlier this month, Raz-Lee Security announced that it's giving away copies of its IBM i antivirus software, which is based on the open source ClamAV engine. The free version doesn't include some of the more advanced features that are available in the enterprise version of the software, but it will help IBM i shops detect and eliminate Windows malware that can infect and be distributed via the Integrated File System.

Rocket Software consolidated its position in the market for terminal emulation software last week when it acquired Zephyr Development Corp., a Houston, Texas, company that developed the PASSPORT line of terminal emulation and integration solutions for accessing and modernizing applications running on z/OS, IBM i, Unix, and OpenVMS servers. It was the second IBM i-related acquisition for Rocket in a month, and sends a strong signal of support for the platform.

Symtrax last week unveiled Compleo Suite 5, a major new version of its line of output management software for IBM i and other platforms. With version 5, Symtrax has added a Web-based interface for the first time, providing an alternative to its Windows-based client. Better backups of critical documents, workflow capabilities, and new support for inputting additional document types round out this release.

It's a new year and a new first quarter and a new and somewhat challenging economy in North America, and therefore IBM is offering financing deals in the United States and Canada.

It will be easier to automatically send emails from your IBM i applications using the latest release of KeyesMail, an IBM i-based email package developed by Computer Keyes. With KeyesMail version 9, the Woodway, Washington, company has rewritten the APIs to make them easier to use.

It sure does look like IBM wants you to stop using Query/400 or any one of a number of third-party query tools that run in conjunction with the DB2 for i relational database at the heart of the IBM i operating system.

In qsort: A Better SORTA, I described the use of the qsort API. This time, we'll be looking at its companion API--bsearch--which, as its name suggests, is used to perform searches.

Here at The Four Hundred, we search far and wide and look high and low for things that matter to your Power Systems-IBM i shop. We may wander off on a tangent or two here and there as we think about the IT market (especially in the As I See It and Mad Dog 21/21 columns, which have this wandering as their purpose), but we take pride in the fact that we always bring it on home.

In my last article, Meet JSON, I introduced you to the concept of JavaScript Object Notation and how it's changing the way Web applications are being built. Let's explore JSON syntax a little further by building a really simple customer inquiry Web application.

RJS Software Systems, which has been on a product integration kick of late, last week announced that a new release of its Windows-based WebDocs document management and routing software can now be used directly with WebForms, its online forms offering, resulting in heightened usability.

Handling the QSECOFR user profile is always problematic. On one hand, it's essential for the smooth operation of your system. Conversely, it can be a major issue if someone discovers its password. This week, I'll review some real-life QSECOFR security breaches I've encountered and what can be done if you encounter these situations in your shop.