Reader Feedback on Sundry Four Hundred Stories

Published: January 4, 2010

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As the year was ending, we had a few stories in The Four Hundred that caused readers to crack their fingers and hit that Contact button at the top of the page. Here's what they had to say about what we had to say.

Reader Feedback on Power Systems i: Thinking Inside the Box and Abacus Offers i 6.1 Upgrade Virtual Test Drive Service

Hey, TPM:

From your article: "I was grousing in last week's issue of The Four Hundred that the program conversion process that IBM is forcing customers to go through to move to the i 6.1 operating system was Big Blue's breaking of the covenant between itself and AS/400 shops that they would not have to recompile their applications to move to new hardware and operating system releases. I suggested that IBM do something about it, like give away free servers or porting services to get customers on modern hardware and software."

A clarification: The vast majority of programs and applications DO NOT have to be recompiled to move to V6R1, only having to run an object conversion routine (STROBJCVN). Only programs without observability or a creation date would have to be recompiled, which I have found to be special tools programs such as GUMBO, WINSPOOL, etc., which forces the customer to go back to the vendor and acquire a V6R1 version.

Also, the Abacus offering has some merit in allowing 61 days of testing etc., but for the customers who are on V5R3 or V5R4, they can get the same Analyze Object Conversion tool from IBM to run on their system as the V6R1 that Abacus is offering.

Thanks for the IT Jungle!

--Ernie, IBM Certified Specialist

Dear TPM,

I do enjoy reading your newsletter and marvel at the amount of inside information you are able to get from IBM to give us such great perspectives on the platform.

That being said, I just wanted to point out that starting out in IT over 25 years ago as a programmer I was just lucky enough to land a job on the System/38 platform and moving from one small IT shop to another I did not have much of a chance to migrate away to another platform even if I wanted to.

I have through the years moved from smaller IT shops to larger IT shops, each time gaining a different perspective and growing my salary to reflect my experience. I would have probably not been able to grow my salary as an expert by switching platforms, which has kept me so strongly attached to the IBM i platform.

The point I want to make is that many of us in the trenches are plain lucky we did not get our first job on DEC or WANG or some other platform, but instead landed on one that has thrived and flourished for over 30 years and continues to still be a great platform even in today's culture.

--Bruce

Loved your wonderful article that had huge sweeping themes that I, as a former employee of IBM and DEC, could relate to. I, too, love Prairie Home Companion, and especially enjoyed the Guy Noir skit that took place in Manhattan. Happy cooking,

--Dennis

Timothy, it's over, and no amount of complaining makes a difference. I hope your other newsletters are doing well, I would think the platform is gone in five years. I've been in IBM midrange since 1980. And with AS/400 since 1988 perhaps? My company is transitioning to a Wintel platform, in two phases. And guess what? The new platform will do very well for us.

I'm saddened by what has happened, but not surprised. The situation that exists today should have been very clear to us 10 years ago, if not 15.

--Chuck

Reader Feedback on As I See It: Al and Me

You are a little behind the curve. Climate change was faked and is a hoax. Computer models will say anything you want them to. What would be really refreshing would be a journalist that did some thinking for himself instead of following the liberal playbook and agenda. The most disappointing issue is those who are supposed to be thinking independently are just political marionettes. The biggest threat to freedom is journalists who do not think for themselves.

But, I really enjoy and appreciate the technical articles.

--CSallee

I am getting tired of reading political commentary by Mr. Rozek in your newsletter. Now he is spewing the man-made global warming panic at us. Are you planning to publish the contending view in your next issue? I think not as you never have before. For some reason he is allowed his views with no pushback. I have been an AS/400 professional for 20 years now, very much enjoying your magazines and emails until now. Sorry, but I will be canceling my subscriptions.

--Toni

Green Czar? Green's are. . . .

. . . . hijacking conservation for their political ideology. The "Green's are" hijacking real concern for the environment as a tool to accomplish their agenda and for their own promotion.

I remember when Al Gore was running for president, Diane Sawyer interviewed him at his home in Tennessee. I noticed something in that interview that no one else did. Ms. Sawyer was trying to find out if he was "really a country boy," and among other softball questions, she asked him "what is brucellosis?" and he said "hoof and mouth disease." Gore's wife Tipper quipped "not confined to cattle," but her quip was referring to her hubby's hoof'-IN-mouth. Brucellosis is a disease that makes cattle abort their fetus, among other detrimental affects, but it should never be confused with hoof and mouth, which is a terrible disease that requires all animals affected or exposed to be destroyed.

You might say that Al's incorrect answer is no more important than George Bush missing a question about some obscure world leader. What makes it different is that brucellosis at the time of the interview as well as currently, is part of a big environmental controversy. Tipper's quip was correct because neither disease is confined to just cattle, buffalo and elk are the two active reservoirs of brucellosis in the U.S. It has been a highly publicized environmental issue and even an unworthy hook and bullet guy like myself knows that ranchers shoot buffalo when they stray onto their property because of a fear of brucellosis, not hoof and mouth. If the buffalo get hoof and mouth disease, it will be the government shooting and bulldozing, not ranchers.

Our "green" guy Al was clueless to this important environmental issue, though no one called him on it. I was aware of this information even if Mr. Gore was not and he went on to win a Nobel Prize for a film that contains many un"truths". Of course Nobel Prizes are not prizes any more, not even surprises really. Based upon the current president getting a Nobel Prize, I am expecting mine in the mail any day.

Yep, "green" has been hijacked for a purpose which is nothing more than the George Soros agenda, whether all the "green" followers know it or not. It has been hijacked by the Left to help destroy capitalism in favor of socialism, Marxism, fascism, whatever you want to call large corporations and large government working together to oppress the masses. Tyranny, let's call it that. Don't forget that our ex-"green" czar Van Jones was a self-proclaimed communist, our environment and energy czar, Carol Browner was a member of Socialist International.

There is no concern for the environment from the Left, it's just about power and money. Hollywood types get on TV and berate us for not checking the air in our tires for fuel economy and then jump in a personal jet and pump filth into the sky to move one person back and forth across the United States. I couldn't help but notice when Maria Shriver (a Kennedy) got busted recently for using her cell phone while driving, she was driving a massive SUV.

Have you ever watched a movie and wondered about all that stuff they blow up to make movies, the wreckage and trash they create? Are you telling me that's not going in a landfill somewhere? And we get chastised for buying hamburgers in a polystyrene container. General Electric owns MSNBC and is a recipient of bailout money, so it is no wonder that the channel is nothing but state propaganda promoting the "green" agenda. Keith Olbermann got a raise after the GE bailout, where's the salary czar when you need him? You can't help but put two and two together when you see GE commercials pushing their "green" fluorescent light bulbs. (Those bulbs contain mercury, uh, isn't that the concern about coal powered plants?) They are big into wind turbines, can't say anything bad, just that I bet you never see any around Martha's Vineyard and other Kennedy type places.

Why not, they're "green" aren't they? And jet engines. Oops, jet engines?

Yes, you see you still need fossil fuel to fly a big ole honking airplane across the U.S. to haul a scrawny little politician home to California. Yes we need to burn gas for things that are "important," like the president and his wife each taking a jet to Copenhagen to plea for the Olympics in Chicago, which was a no go (and a shouldn't have gone). And I guess they will burn some more fossil fuel to pick up the "prize" in Oslo or for date night in Chicago, but heaven forgive me for driving a pickup that gets 19 miles per gallon to put my kayak in the marsh--kayaks don't use gas, do I get carbon credits for that? Maybe I can sell them to Ms. Shriver.

Yes, the current government is thinking "green" alright, like money.

--Glen

                     Post this story to del.icio.us
               Post this story to Digg
    Post this story to Slashdot