http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfhindex.html All Four Hundred Newsletters. en-us 2013 Guild Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved May 21, 2013 IT Jungle IT Jungle http://www.itjungle/com/tfh/400-rss.html 20 http://www.itjungle.com/images/tfh/title_tfh.gif http://www.itjungle/com/tfh/400-rss.html 275 50 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story01.html In last week's issue, I talked generally about big data and the use of tools like the Hadoop big data muncher created by Yahoo to emulate the very early unstructured data processing and related file system created by Google to power its search engine. While you do not have to take a snapshot of the Internet and index it continuously, as Google did when the Google File System and the MapReduce batch processing method was created, you do have your own big data challenges. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story01.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story02.html Being more responsive to customer needs is a common theme these days. Companies can quickly get into hot water by neglecting customers either completely or by choosing favorite segments, such as those with the biggest budgets. IBM's customer consciousness, as it applies to the Power Systems and IBM i community (the focus of IT Jungle newsletters), includes the independent software vendors (ISVs). The IBM i ISVs are hugely important. Big Blue must wish it had a similar vendor base for its other platforms. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story02.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story03.html COMMON Europe has given a jolt to the IBM i community, and right as we are approaching the 25th birthday--the silver anniversary, in fact--of the Project Silverlake machine that became the AS/400 minicomputer. After a hard look at the attendance data for its European Power Summit 2013 a month from now, COMMON Europe made the tough decision to cancel the event. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story03.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story04.html I never found Leonardo DiCaprio believable as an actor. No matter the costuming or how much makeup they trowel on his face, he always comes across as being a 12-year-old playing dress up. (He's not unlike Tobey McGuire in that regard, but at least Tobey knows enough to make movies that appeal to 12-year-olds.) So when a moving flash ad for DiCaprio's new opus, Gatsby, darkened my computer screen, it was both annoying and amusing. It did interrupt my browsing, but it also conjured up images of a child in a tuxedo throwing fits. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story04.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story05.html In 2004, PowerTech unveiled its first report on the state of security for the iSeries server, as the IBM i platform was then called. The report uncovered major problems at iSeries shops involving passwords, remote access, and user profiles. Fast forward to April 2013 and PowerTech's 10th annual report, which uncovered systemic problems with--you guessed it--passwords, remote access, and powerful user profiles. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story05.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story06.html It's not exactly what you think. This isn't about speeding tickets or parking tickets. It's about tickets to sporting events and how the IBM i platform and a software vendor in the United Kingdom have teamed up to create a faster, more dependable, and much more user friendly experience for buying tickets and merchandise. It's also about what a performance boost, courtesy of Power7 processors, and an innovation boost, thanks to the cloud, can mean for business. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story06.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story07.html With new Power7+ entry and midrange servers fully ramped and Big Blue well into its second quarter, it is time to add the new Power Systems machines to more deals, and that is precisely what IBM has done. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story07.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story08.html High availability and disaster recovery software maker Maxava is throwing its money around the IBM i community again, and I mean that in the best way possible. The New Zealand company, which has become an increasingly global company over the past decade, has been generous once again and has ponied up $50,000 to fund the Maxava iFoundation, which it started three years ago. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story08.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story09.html If you're looking for some training for IBM's Rational Developer for Power Systems (RDP), you know it can be hard to come by. But the fact of the matter is there are plenty of businesses that need people to maintain programs in RDP. The good folks at Manta Technologies have some good news if you're in that category: A new Manta series covering the most popular IDE for IBM i application development. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story09.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story10.html The Michigan IBM i and AIX Technical Education Conference (MITEC), the annual opportunity for Power Systems professionals to distinguish themselves and the companies they work for by building on their current skills, is coming up June 4. The training day is sponsored by six local user groups in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, and has 51 sessions on its agenda. MITEC is one of the top Power Systems technical conferences in the nation, with attendance topping 200. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story10.html May 20, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story01.html The reasons why organizations undertake IBM i application modernization initiatives are as varied as organizations themselves. Sometimes, it's people-driven, while other times, the technology itself needs a refresh. With 12 years in the modernization business, the folks at Fresche Legacy (formerly Speedware) have seen it all. Recently, the company shared details of three current IBM i modernization projects. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story01.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story02.html When it comes to learning PHP, there is no shortage of information available on the Web, where thousands of tutorials and forums can be accessed with the touch of a button. But for RPG veterans who prefer a little handholding with their PHP, like IBM i consultant Russ Khory, a different approach is warranted. Khory found the WebSmart PHP package from BCD provided a way to learn PHP in an environment that is both structured and productive. New templates just released in WebSmart PHP 9.5 should further boost productivity. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story02.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story03.html The more applications are changed, the more complicated they get. What was originally designed with a certain set of facts in mind, over the course of 10, 20, or more years, almost always becomes convoluted, complex, and unable to keep up with changing business requirements. Many IBM midrange shops face this problem. They spend more time maintaining old complex and inflexible code than providing new business solutions. Many struggle to assess that situation. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story03.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story04.html Tango/04 last week announced the general availability of SmartConsole 8.0, the latest version of its multi-platform systems monitoring tool that includes new iOS and Android tablet interfaces and a cloud back end. The software can be used for much more than delivering notification of a failed job on the IBM i server, as Tango/04 is setting is sites on helping customers to monitor a wide range of business events as a means to increase agility. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story04.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story05.html Surround Technologies recently shipped Accelerator for .NET version 4.0, a major new release of its .NET-centric development tool for creating new applications from IBM i database files, or modernizing existing ones. The new version includes an HTML5 client that can support nearly all of the same user interface controls that Surround Tech has supported on its full Windows client, as well as faster code generation. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story05.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story06.html Linoma Software just increased the potential marketplace for its GoAnywhere software as the result of being awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule 70 contract, which streamlines the purchase of the managed file transfer (MFT) software by federal, state, and local governments. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story06.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story07.html It didn't take any fancy big-data analysis to show that Tableau Software had a very good day Friday, when its stock price soared 63 percent from its opening price. The company, which makes data visualization tools, enjoyed another 11 percent gain in early trading yesterday, giving it a market capitalization of around $365 million. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story07.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story08.html Infor yesterday announced that users of its Sales and Operations Planning application can now utilize Infor's Ming.le social platform to foster collaboration among various stakeholders in an organization.. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story08.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story09.html Corus360 last week announced a data vaulting offering for servers running IBM i, Windows, Linux, and AIX operating systems. With Vault360, customers back up their servers over the network to Corus360's data center, which can also provide recovery services if needed. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story09.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story10.html Rimini Street has been providing third-party support and maintenance services to users of SAP Business Suite ERP software for four years. Now, the company is offering support for SAP's BusinessObjects business intelligence software, too. http://www.itjungle.com/fhs/fhs052113-story10.html May 21, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story01.html The green screen PDM and the GUI Rational Developer for i (RDi) tools provide developers an easy way to search through source code to find a specified text literal. But what if these tools don't have access to all your code, in particular the SQL code? Many developers may not be keeping an up-to-date source copy of their SQL persisted stored modules (functions, procedures and triggers) and further, may not be keeping a copy of the source at all. If this is the case in your shop, never fear, for DB2 for i maintains a record of the source statements in each SQL-based object that it creates. This information is stored in the DB2 catalog views and can be easily queried. http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story01.html May 15, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story02.html I advise, recommend, urge, admonish, and even cajole RPG programmers to quit using subroutines and start using subprocedures instead. Yet I still hear from people who work in shops that allow the use of RPG IV (a.k.a. ILE RPG), but do not allow binding to modules and service programs. Today I offer two ways to use subprocedures that do not require ILE binding. http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story02.html May 15, 2013 http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story03.html I want to add another batch job queue to my QBATCH subsystem for submitting reporting jobs that take a long time to process. I want to put them in their own job queue so they can just chug away in QBATCH without interfering with my other batch work. How do I add another job queue that I can submit these jobs to? http://www.itjungle.com/fhg/fhg051513-story03.html May 15, 2013