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OS/400 Edition
Volume 2, Number 10 -- March 14, 2003
   In This Issue

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Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web

(The Four Hundred) Nate Viall and Associates' most recent salary survey reports that OS/400-based salary increases are higher in the United States than one might expect, given the state of the economy. But scratch beneath the surface and you'll see some disturbing trends, including layoffs for less experienced coders and managers, the continued aging of the OS/400 work force, the increased use of H1-B visa programmers, and continued software development outsourcing to labs in India and China. Hey, a raise is a raise in tough times, but it's worth looking at the overall picture, too.
(The 400 Group) While Big Blue is promoting its new IBM Community Tools as an opportunity for open communication between iSeries professionals, there's a new worry that the tools weren't designed for use in a secure environment. In addition, some users report buggy setups and system crashes. Check out the complaints and IBM's response.
(The Four Hundred) The 32-way Itanium-based server from NEC shows Unix-class system performance and a good price/performance ratio while running the forthcoming Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition. Now NEC is showing off the much-improved performance of the "AzuzA" NEC Express5800/1320Xc server, which benefits from tweaks to both the hardware and software. The 433,108 transactions per minute throughput of the box has just about given heart attacks to the iSeries and Unix crowds. The fastest iSeries model, in particular, can probably hit 400,000 TPM with some database tuning and large memory support.
(MC Press Online) While Linux on iSeries deployment hasn't yet reached critical mass, IBM believes 2003 is the year when the demand for Linux applications will emerge in the marketplace. And Big Blue has a strategy for promoting Linux solutions to midsized organizations, a plan that presents both challenges and opportunities to iSeries customers.
(iSeries Network) IBM recently discussed technology details of the new Power5 chip that will make its debut in the iSeries and pSeries machines next year. According to IBM, Power5 builds on Power4's strengths and the processor will "…bring an additional set of weapons into play." Don't you hate when computer companies use war metaphors when describing new products?
(iSeries Network) IBM's opening session at the COMMON user group conference last week spotlighted the "mindless propaganda" of IBM's new business magic TV commercials, and how they will help the iSeries get its fair share of the market, valued at 100 percent by iSeries chief propagandist Malcolm Haines. Cecelia Marrese, IBM vice president of marketing for the iSeries, followed by saying that IBM could provide incentives to ISVs and resellers for increased iSeries sales. And then there's the matter of that viral marketing campaign that will feature iSeries urban legends. But wait a minute…aren't urban legends supposed to be made-up stories? Hmmm. . .
(CNET) IBM consolidated management of its Lotus software division within the company Web portal organization last week. According to IBM, the merged group will report to Larry Bowden, vice president of portal software solutions and Lotus products. Over the next year and a half, IBM plans to rewrite the Lotus SameTime instant messaging and QuickPlace collaborative applications to run on the WebSphere Portal software. Lotus Notes software and e-learning applications running within WebSphere Portal will follow.
(e-Pro Magazine) O'Reilly & Associates has reported a security vulnerability with WebSphere Application Server XML that could potentially expose WebSphere Application Server passwords. IBM downplayed the report and advised that the glitch shouldn't be a risk to anyone who follows safe practices within the WebSphere Application Server environment.

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Vendor Announcements, Promotions And Deals

(IBM) On June 13, IBM will withdraw several of its WebSphere Integration Offering programs, including WebSphere Integration Offering for iSeries. These products will be offered only on an as-available basis through IBM-authorized remarketeers.
(The Four Hundred) Privately held BCC Technologies, the third-party disk and tape subsystem manufacturer for OS/400 servers, has a new management team and a new name: eStorage. The venture capitalists that backed the company have bought out founder David Breisacher and assumed control of the company. The new management at eStorage has retained key BCC personnel and plans to expand its presence in iSeries storage.
(InfoWorld) IBM has detailed new versions of DB2 Content Manager and DB2 Records Manager. Company officials also discussed the way it is broadening the reach of DB2 branding from just being a database to becoming part of an information-integration infrastructure. No word yet on when the new Content Manager package will be available for the iSeries.
(Guild Companies) Integrated Print Solutions introduced its new product, internet OnePrint Solution, this week at the COMMON conference in Indianapolis. The iOPS lets OS/400 hosts assign temporary print device IDs, allowing IPDS documents to print on practically any printer, even over the Internet.
(Guild Companies) InstallShield has launched MultiPlatform 5.0, the latest edition of its cross-platform installation solution for the OS/400, Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS platforms. With this release, InstallShield introduces support for Mac OS X and more flavors of Unix.
(Guild Companies) iTera announced Echo2 V3R1, a new version of its OS/400 high availability middleware, at COMMON this week. iTera has redesigned the application around IBM's OS/400 clustering technology.
(Guild Companies) Magic Software has provided additional details about iBOLT Integration Suite, the enterprise application integration software announced earlier this year. The integrated software suite includes a new business process flow designer, additional support for messaging protocols, and a range of prebuilt connectors and adapters. iBOLT is scheduled to debut in April and will be marketed to midsized companies with less than $100,000 to spend on enterprise application integration projects.
(Guild Companies) Profound Logic Software, developers of the popular RPG Alive programming tool, introduced its first integrated development environment at the COMMON conference. The new IDE, called RPG Smart Pages, is an RPG-centric Web application development environment that integrates a drag-and-drop HTML designer with a Windows-based RPG editor.

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New Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources

(CSS) The eServer User Groups Web site contains a comprehensive listing and links to iSeries and other eServer-based user groups. Group listings are broken down by geographical region, with group listings for the Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. The site also lists user group events for 2003 and beyond.
(IBM) Draft Redpaper -- PCI Card Placement Rules for the IBM eServer iSeries Server describes IOA and IOP card placement rules that must be followed in order to create valid iSeries machine configurations. These rules cover iSeries 270, 800, 810, 820, 825, 830, 840, 870, and 890 servers.
(IBM) Redpaper -- High-speed Link Loop Architecture for the IBM eServer iSeries Server: OS/400 Version 5 Release 2 January 2003 discusses OS/400's high-speed-link (HSL) architecture and how it can provide expandability for iSeries processors, towers, and external xSeries for iSeries adapters. It covers HSL configuration, loop rules and considerations, non-clustered loop configuration rules, how OptiConnect fits in with HSL, and placement diagrams.
(IBM) The IBM eServer iSeries Support Web site has links to iSeries technical forums, to an iSeries support news archive, to iSeries definitions and FAQs, to the Internet PTF downloads Web site, and more.
(IGNITe/400.org) IGNITe/400's Web site features recorded audio and presentation materials for more than 30 recent iSeries Nation chats covering a wide variety of topics.

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Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings

March 17-19 -- Quadrant Software will host two intensive two-and-a-half day workshops that provide customers with tips and techniques to leverage their FastFax/Enterprise or FastFax/Ultra installations. For more information, go to www.quadrantsoftware.com/Products_fdr/training.html.


March 18 -- Information Availability Institute presents a free Availability & Business Continuity Workshop in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 18. Click here for more details.
March 19 -- A Webinar titled "Maximizing Reporting for the iSeries using the Symtrax Portal" will examine how Symtrax technology can help companies reduce paper and printing costs and improve access to important reports. Go to www.symtrax.com/home/us/signup.htm to register.
March 20 and 26 -- SoftLanding Systems will host two Webcasts on its recently announced change management plug-ins for WebSphere Development Studio Client. TurnOver plug-ins embed full RPG, COBOL, ILE, and SQL support in the WebSphere Development Studio IDE. Register at www.softlanding.com/websphere/live-event.htm to see the TurnOver plug-ins working live and online.
March 20 -- iSeries Nation presents "The Business Case for WebSphere," a conference call featuring John Quarantello and Kelly Schmotzer. Go to the iSeries Nation Web site for more information and to register.
March 25 -- PowerTech Group and Penton Technology Media present the "Sound Strategies for iSeries Security" Webcast, featuring Pat Botz and John Earl. Topics include an overview of network access protection, V5R2 security enhancements, and virus and mailware protection. To register, go to the Penton Media OnStage Web site.
March 27 -- iSeries Nation presents "The ABCs of Installing WebSphere Application Server Express on iSeries," a conference call hosted by Robin Clark and Mike Martin. Topics include positioning, installation, set up, and where to go for additional resources. Go to the iSeries Nation Web site to register.
March -- iSeries professionals in the greater Washington, D.C., area can take advantage of a continuing series of technical seminars organized through the cooperative efforts of two local user groups: Washington Area Midrange and Mid Atlantic Midrange. Systems management (March 6) and Web development (March 17) are next on the list. Go to www.wash-midrange.org/seminars.html for details and a list of upcoming seminars and locations.
April-June -- Bytware is conducting several workshops to help customers take advantage of the most valuable features of Bytware products. Workshop topics include MessengerPlus, StandGuard, and MessengerConsole. Go to www.bytware.com/edu.htm for more information.
April 7-9 -- Northeast IBM User Groups will present its 13th annual iSeries and AS/400 user group conference at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel in Framingham, Massachusetts. More than 20 well-known speakers, including Frank Soltis, Allison Butteril, Ian Jarman, Susan Gantner, and Jon Paris, will present three days of classes on WebSphere, WebFacing, SQL, Client Access, RPG coding, iSeries futures, Java, and more. A vendor expo and IBM certification tests will also be offered. A $50 discount is available if you register before March 18. Go to www.neibmconf.com for more information.
April 30-May 2 -- RPG World, an educational event for iSeries programmers presented by some of the top authorities on RPG and iSeries application development, will be held in Orlando, Florida, from April 30 through May 2. Topics include RPG, Web development, and general iSeries application development. Go to www.rpgworld.com for more information.
June 15-18 -- The 2003 iSeries & AS/400 Connection Conference offers four days of iSeries education at the Registry Resort in Naples, Florida. The iSeries educational tracks focus on application development, Java, SQL, e-business, operations, and security. Speakers include Dr. Frank Soltis, Al Barsa Jr., Allison Butterill, Wayne O. Evans, Susan Gantner, Janet Krueger, Jon Paris, Jim Sloan, and Howard F. Arner Jr. Go to www.tramenco.com/naples for more information and registration.
September 7-11 -- COMMON User Group presents its fall 2003 conference and expo in Orlando, Florida. Meet industry experts, attend hands-on labs, exchange information with fellow professionals, attend a multitude of educational tracks, and get real-world solutions at the vendor expo. Go to the COMMON Web site for more information and to register.

Editor: Joe Hertvik
Managing Editor: Shannon Pastore
Publisher and Advertising Director: Jenny Thomas
Advertising Sales Representative: Kim Reed
If you have a resource, event, or any other interesting item that you want to see publicized in Midrange Monitor, send an email to Joe Hertvik

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THIS ISSUE
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