Generating a Validation String in Java

Hey, David:

I am porting an application to the iSeries and need to generate an MD5 hash that is used to validate a license key, but the only utility I can find to do this relies on a hardware coprocessor to generate the MD5 hash. This procedure will run a few times a day, and very few of our customers have this hardware anyway, so API is out of the question. Do you know of any software-based solutions (preferably free or one-time license) that will generate an MD5 hash for a text string? A callable API would be best, but a Java program would be OK.

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Query Management and Outer Joins

Hey, Ted:

We have used Query/400 to generate a significant number of queries to which we pass parameters at runtime. We have a good technique, but there is one problem I can't figure out.

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Reader Feedback and Insights: Why Java?

With the ease in which an RPG programmer can write a CGI application that presents a graphical interface that is dynamic and easily capable of making database updates, why would anyone bother with Java? Is Java sweeping the iSeries community, or is that what IBM would like us to think? E-RPG, as it is commonly called, is so great that I do not understand the big Java push. Is it something that I should learn, and, if so, how?