http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfhindex.html iSeries and AS/400 Insight. en-us 2011 Guild Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved February 6, 2012 IT Jungle IT Jungle http://www.itjungle/com/tfh/tfh-rss.html 20 http://www.itjungle.com/images/tfh/title_tfh.gif http://www.itjungle/com/tfh/tfh-rss.html 275 50 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story01.html IBM had the right idea back in April 1964 when it announced the System/360 mainframe, and it even had a name that reflected its understanding of what customers wanted. The idea was that a single line of machines, using different processor and storage technologies, would be united by levels of abstraction that would allow them to all run the same applications, but just on a different scale and with different price points. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story01.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story02.html There'll be no confetti dropping from the ceiling or champagne corks popping, but IBM's announcement that Rational Open Access: RPG Edition becomes available as a free PTF beginning February 14 deserves a little fanfare. Here's a technology with a lot of promise, the native GUI interface as some call it, that's finally available without blood, sweat, and tears poured into the ordering process. And, even better, without any licensing charges. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story02.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story03.html For the past two years RPG Open Access technology has been available, yet it remained unseen and even unheard by a great many people in the IBM i community. A combination of low visibility--partly related to a few ISVs taking the lead on some projects, while onlookers waited to see how the projects turned out--and limited budgets, which put a lot of IT and other expenditures on the skids. Application modernization projects have sprouted here and there, but let's just say it's not burning down the house. It's at a point, however, where we should see a green-screen fade. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story03.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story04.html If you want to become successful, every few years someone will write a book telling you how. Just follow these three steps, develop these seven habits, add stock options and voila, you too can be a screaming success. Or, if that doesn't work, it helps to have the good fortune to be born to rich, connected parents. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story04.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story05.html Rocket Software consolidated its position in the market for terminal emulation software last week when it acquired Zephyr Development Corp., a Houston, Texas, company that developed the PASSPORT line of terminal emulation and integration solutions for accessing and modernizing applications running on z/OS, IBM i, Unix, and OpenVMS servers. It was the second IBM i-related acquisition for Rocket in a month, and sends a strong signal of support for the platform. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story05.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story06.html Don't forget to mention COBOL programmers on the iSeries still writing green screens! http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story06.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story07.html Got a head full of ideas, but no job or maybe the wrong job? Maybe this will help. It's a listing of staffing priorities for 2012 compiled by the career data-mining specialists at Dice, with info based on data scooped from the brains of 1,200 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story07.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story08.html It's a new year and a new first quarter and a new and somewhat challenging economy in North America, and therefore IBM is offering financing deals in the United States and Canada. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story08.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story09.html It sure does look like IBM wants you to stop using Query/400 or any one of a number of third-party query tools that run in conjunction with the DB2 for i relational database at the heart of the IBM i operating system. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story09.html February 6, 2012 http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story10.html Here at The Four Hundred, we search far and wide and look high and low for things that matter to your Power Systems-IBM i shop. We may wander off on a tangent or two here and there as we think about the IT market (especially in the As I See It and Mad Dog 21/21 columns, which have this wandering as their purpose), but we take pride in the fact that we always bring it on home. http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh020612-story10.html February 6, 2012