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In This Issue
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We Bring It All Together So You Don't Have To.
Sponsored By
 ASNA
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Make solutions, not excuses:
ASNA releases Visual RPG for .NET!
"I worked with WebSphere and Java for 2 months. It was very difficult to learn a new language and environment at the same time. AVR for .NET allows me to use the RPG knowledge I already have in my programs."
--Jeff Cubinski of JTS Technology, Inc. for YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee
AVR for .NET is now available!
http://www.asna.com/infoavrdotnet.aspx
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Top OS/400 Stories from Around the Web
(Guild Companies) Even though IBM isn't expected to announce OS/400 V5R3 until spring of 2004, that doesn't mean there won't be any iSeries announcements in September. At the COMMON conference and expo this week, IBM announced the new iSeries for Capacity Backup and the iSeries for High Availability machines. IBM also announced DB2 Universal Database 8.1 for Linux on iSeries partitions, WebSphere Portal Express Version 5.0, new PCI-X disk arrays, and Lotus Domino 6.5 on iSeries.
(iSeries Network) iSeries General Manager Al Zollar gave COMMON attendees a preview of Lotus Domino 6.5, which includes a new portal-type interface, Sametime integration, and support for non-DB2 databases, such as SQL Server, inside the iSeries version of Domino. The new release also provides multiversion support, which allows users to run different versions of Domino in the same iSeries partition. The release date is September 30.
(Search400.Com) At COMMON, iSeries General Manager Al Zollar said there won't be any iSeries TV ads, because he doesn't believe it's where Big Blue's marketing dollars could be best spent, at least not for the iSeries.
(Guild Companies) Surprise, surprise: Server spending actually rose for the first time in nine quarters, during the second quarter of 2003, according to market researcher IDC. Even though sales increased a meager two-tenths of a percent, it beats the 1.7 percent decline IDC had predicted.
(iSeries Network) Gartner's vice president and research director, Tom Bittman, gave the keynote speech at COMMON. Bittman discussed on demand computing and upcoming problems for pure hardware vendors, and hailed the iSeries platform for its strengths. But Bittman also pointed out that the iSeries has some Achilles' heels, like poor marketing and a waning interest from independent software vendors and entry-level businesses.
(iSeries Network) The vendor expo at COMMON in Orlando last week hosted 85 exhibitors, looking for leads among the conference's 1,929 attendees. However, vendor attitudes toward the expo were mixed. Some high-profile vendors decided not to show up at all, while others liked what COMMON's Vendor Advisory Council was doing.
(MC Press Online) IBM used the Hot Chips microprocessor conference last month to unveil details about its next-generation POWER5 processor. The details revealed a lot about what kind of performance we can expect from the new iSeries servers that IBM will announce in the spring of 2004.
(eWeek) PeopleSoft last week disclosed the initial details of its plan for integrating its products and operations with those of one-time rival J.D. Edwards, saying that links between the two vendors' business applications will be available in the fourth quarter.
(CNET News.com) Oracle CEO Larry Ellison repeated his determination to acquire PeopleSoft. But Ellison wouldn't comment on whether Oracle would raise the offer price of its hostile takeover bid to make the deal.
(CRN) IBM is doubling the rebates it pays to value-added resellers that steal business from Hewlett-Packard accounts. Don Fortin, IBM's vice president of Business Partners for the Americas, told 500 IBM solution providers at a recent partner conference that competitive win rebates will rise to 10 percent from their current level of 5 percent. The higher rebates will be in effect through the end of this year.
(Guild Companies) IBM used the 2003 U.S. Open to showcase a revamped set of server provisioning middleware it acquired when it bought Think Dynamics in May. The ThinkControl provisioning software has been renamed Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator, and it creates a pool of IT resources that can be dynamically allocated to applications based on policies.
(CRN) SCO's chief executive, Darl McBride, said in an open letter this week that the open-source community should stop denial-of-service attacks on SCO's Web site and bring the perpetrators to justice. McBride also confirmed that SGI is a target of SCO's legal efforts because of an "improper contribution of Unix code by SGI into Linux."
(eWeek) Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens, leaders in the open-source community, wrote an open lettter disputing Darl McBride's recent claims against the community and challenged SCO to document what Unix code may have been illegally incorporated into Linux.
(eWeek) A bomb scare Wednesday caused the evacuation of the OracleWorld and Seybold conferences in San Francisco.
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Vendor Announcements, Promotions, And Deals
(Guild Companies) On the heels of its August release of ASNA Visual RPG for .NET (AVR for .NET), ASNA announced last week the impending release of Importa, an RPG-source-code conversion tool designed to generate Microsoft .NET intermediate language assemblies, to integrate with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET, and to be accessed from within AVR for .NET projects.
(iSeries Network) BCD Int'l may get the attention of companies planning portal implementations with its offer of free Nexus Portal Software to 1,000 iSeries shops, consultants, business partners, and ISVs. Users will still pay the annual maintenance fees, which begin at $2,195.
(eWeek) BMC Software has a strategic partnership with GoldenGate Software to outfit its namesake SmartDBA data-management portfolio with GoldenGate 7.0. The company intends to provide customers with end-to-end data management and synchronization, including real-time data coordination.
(Guild Companies) iTera started shipping Reorganize While Active V3R2, a utility that reclaims unused disk space on OS/400 servers without causing downtime. New enhancements include an improved method for dealing with additional OS/400 file attributes, higher performance, and an enhanced user interface.
(CRN) SAP is building a development environment to allow non-coders to create applications that mine information from corporate data sources, the company revealed this week. Code-named the GUI Machine, the project is expected to be released next month as part of SAP's Netweaver application and integration program.
(Guild Companies) SoftLanding announced ExpressDesk, a Web-based self-service interface to Helpdesk, SoftLanding's client/server help-desk application that comes bundled with its flagship TurnOver suite.
(Guild Companies) Symtrax recently launched its new StarQuery tool, which allows users to build Microsoft Excel reports using data extracted directly from a variety of databases. StarQuery includes several substantial upgrades to its XL400 query tool for OS/400 servers.
(eWeek) Trend Micro announced a new gateway antivirus product designed to stop viruses introduced through Web traffic. InterScan Web Security Suite inspects FTP and HTTP traffic and is intended for high-end enterprise customers. The product is available on Windows and Solaris; a Linux version is expected in late 2004.
(Guild Companies) Companies coordinating the failover of complex applications while running different components on different servers may want to note that Vision Solutions last week began shipping Orion, the computer industry's first high availability suite for multiple platforms.
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Sponsored By
 SUSE LINUX
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Mainframe Linux for IBM
Midrange Systems
♦ Available for i/p/z/x Series
♦ Mainframe stability
♦ Access to legacy data
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server lets you keep your current environment and add the power of Linux. Utilize the best of both worlds, exchange data between each OS, all on one system.
Get and evaluation copy today
www.suse.com
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New Redbooks, White Papers, and Other OS/400 Resources
(IBM) Redpaper OnDemand Announcements for the IBM eserver covers the latest key announcements related to On Demand for iSeries, including specialized servers and adapters.
(Crossroads) White paper "Extending the Life of Midrange SCSI Server Resources: The Case for Crossroads ServerAttach Appliances" discusses leveraging investments made in server infrastructures.
(IBM) The iSeries PartnerWorld for Developers Web site provides resources for developers building solutions on iSeries or AS/400 hardware. It covers a number of technologies and services, including Domino, Java, Linux, and WebSphere.
(COMMON) The COMMON user group maintains a calendar of events and affiliations that lists upcoming COMMON conferences, local user group meetings, international events, and more.
(Ignite/400) Ignite/400 is an e-business user group for the iSeries. The group's Web site strives to keep its members abreast of the latest improvements in iSeries e-business technology and offers newsletters, forums, resources, and articles to complete its mission.
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Sponsored By
 HEWLETT-PACKARD
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DEMAND MORE...
Demand more from IT than ever before.
Demand a new IT architecture that is open, modular and flexible.
Demand an alternative to the way IT and IT services have been purchased, implemented and operated.
Demand accountability, rather than account control, from your IT partner.
Demand HP
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Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
September -- LANSA is presenting a number of seminars, workshops, and Webinars across North America in its LANSA Solution series. These seminars deal with various LANSA products as well as hot topics for LANSA users. Go to www.lansa.com/events/solutionseries.htm for dates and more information.
September-November -- ASNA has one-day seminars on ASNA Visual RPG and Caviar and how to run AVR for .NET. Future seminar locations include Hartford, Connecticut; Portland, Oregon; Denver; St. Louis; Houston; and Guildford, England. For a complete list of seminar topics, locations, and dates, go to www.asna.com/0303_ASNA_Visions_seminars.asp.
September-November -- Bytware is conducting several workshops to help customers take advantage of the most valuable features of Bytware's monitoring, security, and paging products. There are workshops on MessengerPlus, StandGuard, and MessengerConsole. Go to www.bytware.com/products/workshops.html for more information.
September 16 and 17 -- The use of biometrics (individual physical characteristics) in enterprise security planning will be discussed in two Webinars hosted by Key Information Systems. The discussion begins at 11:00 a.m. PST on both days. This first Webinar is aimed at financial, banking, gaming, hotel, retail, and manufacturing organizations. The second Webinar is designed for life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare organizations. For more information, go to the Webinar Series page.
September 16 -- The iSeries Network presents "Building a Business Continuity Plan," a Webinar that explains how to keep your business going by performing risk analysis, developing emergency procedures, and more. For more information, go to the registration page for the event.
September 17 -- Web-enablement software vendor SEAGULL is presenting a Webcast titled "Turning Legacy Roadblocks into Building Blocks," which looks at the immediate and long-term benefits of legacy-based projects. For more information, go to www.informationweek.com/events/seagull/.
September 18 -- Help/Systems presents an online seminar on Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/NETWORK, and Robot/ALERT. The seminar demonstrates how these packages work together to provide enterprise monitoring for your network through message processing (Robot/CONSOLE), paging and e-mail (Robot/ALERT), and networking for logical partitions or networked iSeries boxes (Robot/NETWORK). Go to the Help/Systems Web site for more information.
September 23 -- MKS presents "Workflow-Enabled Software Configuration Management for the iSeries," a Webinar that demonstrates the Implementer Software Configuration Management product and its integration with MKS Integrity Manager to provide a complete audit trail for all software changes. Go to the MKS Webinar registration site for more details.
September 23 -- iSeries Network presents "New iSeries High Availability & Capacity Backup ProductOfferings Revealed!" This Webcast explains how new iSeries offerings will help you with disaster recovery and high availability in an on-demand world. Go to the event's registration page for more information.
September 23 -- iSeries Network presents the Webcast "iSeries Security Roundtable: Current Threats and Latest Remedies." John Earl, Dan Riehl, Mel Beckman, and moderator Wayne Madden discuss how to secure an iSeries in the face of multiple requirements. Go to the event's registration page for more information.
September 25 -- MKS presents "Using IBM WDSc in a Team Enviroment to Successfully Develop, Build, and Deploy eBusiness Applications," a Webinar that demonstrates how native AS/400 and Java developers can access required software configuration management functionality directly from IBM's WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries, working in conjunction with the MKS Implementer package. Go to the MKS Webinar sign-up page for more information.
September 27 -- The Computer Professionals Unlimited Midrange Users Group of Kansas City, Missouri, will present a full-day seminar on "Advanced RPG IV and ILE." The seminar will be presented by OS/400 experts Jon Paris and Susan Gantner and costs $199 per person. Go to the CPU Web site for more information.
October 1 -- Help/Systems presents an e-conference on what Robot/CLIENT is, how it works, and how your iSeries operation can benefit from using the product. Go to the Help/Systems Web site for more information.
October 13-17 -- IBM presents an iSeries Technical Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Orlando, Florida. According to IBM, this twice-annual iSeries event is where technical experts and programmers can get their questions answered by IBM's most knowledgeable Rochester and Toronto gurus. Go to IBM's Web site for more information.
November 7 -- The Washington Area Midrange Users Group presents its annual technical conference at the University of Maryland, in College Park, Maryland. The conference features in-depth educational sessions, presented by nationally recognized experts. The agenda includes breakfast with the iSeries' chief scientist, Dr. Frank Soltis, and a luncheon and keynote address by the iSeries marketing maverick Malcolm Haines. The cost is $225 for members and $250 for non-members. Go to WAM's Web site for more information.
November 18-21 -- EXTOL will host its 2003 user conference at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. Go to EXTOL's Web site for more information.
April 28-30, 2004 -- ASNApalooza 2004 will be held at the Westin River Walk Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. ASNApalooza is three days of ASNA Visual RPG instruction and technical insight, with an emphasis on RPG development for Microsoft's .NET platform. Go to ASNA's Web site for more information.
May 2-6, 2004 --The COMMON user group presents its spring 2004 conference and expo in San Antonio, Texas. COMMON is the largest and most widely attended of the iSeries-specific conferences. IBM's own experts and many other industry professionals present sessions and hands-on labs. COMMON provides an excellent opportunity to network with fellow professionals, attend a multitude of educational tracks, and get real-world solutions at the vendor expo. Go to COMMON's Web site for more information and to register.
May 19-21, 2004 -- Aldon Computer Group will present its annual user conference in Chicago. Sessions will highlight the practical application of Aldon software, including Affiniti, CMS, and eTEAM. Go to Aldon's Web site for more information.
June 20-22, 2004 -- The COMMON European Congress will present its annual conference in Cardiff, Wales. Initial planning has already commenced, but if you have any ideas for the event, go to the COMMON Europe Web site to see how you can contribute.
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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 e-mail to Joe Hertvik
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