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News Briefs and Product Shorts
Foreign language support occupies two slots in this week's news briefs and product shorts roundup,
including a new OS/400 tool developed by Linoma
Software that helps to separate language-specific components from the rest of an application's source
code, as well as an ill-fated demonstration of IBM's
ViaVoice translation software at the PartnerWorld 2002 convention, held in San Francisco last week.
Lakeview Technology last week announced
that it has hired Bryan Flanagan to be the OS/400 high-availability software vendor's new business
development director. Flanagan comes to Lakeview directly from iSeries reseller Sirius Computer Solutions, where he directed sales and business
development and helped create its Point5 Solutions subsidiary. Flanagan managed the IBM Executive
Briefing Center in Rochester, Minnesota, and is credited with helping IBM's AS/400 division, as it was
called then, to develop a specialized version of the AS/400 tuned to run J.D. Edwards' ERP software. The acquisition of an executive with
Flanagan's experience was good news for Lakeview, which took a hit last month, when its vice president of
marketing, David Wegman, left the company to work for its close competitor and rival Vision Solutions.
Jacada last week announced that its legacy
rejuvenation technology has been successfully deployed at AIT Worldwide Logistics, an air freight company based in
Itasca, Illinois. AIT used the Jacada Interface Server to create three new Java-based thin-client interfaces
that extend AIT's iSeries-based transaction processing system, which was written in RPG. The new Agent
Service Center allows AIT's partners to enter shipment updates directly into iSeries applications through the
Internet. AIT employees now access the iSeries through WorldPort, allowing them to perform daily
administrative tasks. Customers can create shipments and monitor status updates through the new Electronic
Advantage Internet Shipping application.
LANSA announced last week at the PartnerWorld
2002 convention in San Francisco that its development tools have been certified as ServerProven, an IBM
program that guarantees software can run on its Microsoft Windows-based xSeries servers. While LANSA's high-
level language development tools have supported Windows--and OS/400 and Unix and any other operating
system it chooses to support--for years, the Oak Brook, Illinois, company hopes that achieving
ServerProven status will help remind potential users that its tools work as well on Windows-based Intel servers as they do on iSeries hardware.
Help/Systems recently announced that its
quality management system has been successfully renewed as compliant with the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9001
standard. In November 1992, Help/Systems, a provider of systems management and automation and
scheduling tools for OS/400 platforms, became the first software company in the United States to be
certified under the ISO 9001 standard and the TickIT accreditation for software development. It was the
company's third successful recertification. The first two occurred in 1995 and 1998.
Renowned iSeries expert Craig Pelkie has developed a VisualAge for Java course that he guarantees
will have RPG and COBOL programmers coding like accomplished Java masters in a week or less. Pelkie
says he has distilled the knowledge he's gained from reading more than 20 books, IBM Redpieces, and
tutorials on programming Java for WebSphere into VisualAge for Java for WebSphere, a 40-hour,
self-paced tutorial, which features a 590-page manual and a CD-ROM with sample code. The course costs
$695 and includes Pelkie’s money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied. For more information, visit
Pelkie's Bits & Bytes Programming Web site, at www.web400.com.
Linoma Software recently announced the release of a new tool that allows developers to create various
versions of OS/400 applications that support different languages, but requires only a single set of source
code. National Language Support searches through AS/400 and iSeries programs, display files, and print
files for "constants" and then "externalizes" them into language libraries, Linoma says. This process
separates the language constants from the source code, preventing the need for costly rewrites of programs
or display files. There is no restriction on the number of languages supported by National Language
Support, and it's simple enough to be used by non-programmers, says the Omaha, Nebraska, software
vendor. The utility is available now and ranges from $5,000 to $28,800, depending on the size of your
AS/400 or iSeries. For more information, visit www.linomasoftware.com.
IBM previewed several promising new products and technologies for business partners at its
PartnerWorld 2002 convention last week, including Deep Thunder, a weather-forecasting system that could
save billions of dollars in agricultural losses every year, and a hybrid Intel-Linux server that is perhaps the
first eServer that belongs to no particular caste, creed, or series. IBM also gave a demonstration of the
language translation product ViaVoice. IBM's Jeff Cuznick chose business partner Humberto Gonzales to
help with the demo, which seemed doomed from the beginning. Whatever Gonzales said in Spanish, it is
doubtful that ViaVoice's two robotic translations--"My name is Humberto. Where can I honest one of these
machines?" and "I will be patient, but I need to make everything the possible money"--were very
accurate.
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