i5/OS and IBM i Support: How Long Does It Last?
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Now that IBM has given i5/OS V5R4 a stay of execution and extended its marketing life out to May 27 of this year, the question that everyone now wants to have answered is how long will that venerable operating system for prior Power-based systems have support from Big Blue? It is debatable how much history is any guide, since the IBM i platform is not at a particularly strong point in its upgrade curve for a lot of different reasons. READ MORE >

Going Full Spiral, Not Coming Full Circle
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The Mayan calendar says the world is going to end in 2012, and in the unlikely event that doomsday should indeed come to pass, then 2011 will be the last year we have to worry about anything and make predictions about the future. But I doubt very much humanity will get off that easily. We surely have not for the past several million years from the studies I have read. The end of the world is a metaphor, and things long gone often return again, albeit slightly differently. READ MORE >

Lotusphere Coming into View; Social Business Looms Big
by Dan Burger

Social networking has become a significant factor in the business world. Companies are lining up to tell their Fastest gun in the West success stories on a multitude of networking sites. The IT industry can't do enough to help these stories be heard. IBM's Lotus division, for one, is doing all it can to promote social business. WithLotusphere coming up the end of this month, there will be a hail of social businesses bullets ricocheting around the Web. READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: Something Wiki This Way Comes
by Hesh Wiener

If Bradley Manning had become a quarterback like Peyton Manning or Eli Manning, Julian Assange might never have been accused of having a greater aversion to condoms than the Pope. Instead, Bradley Manning is in the brig, accused of pilfering classified material that ended up in the hands of Wikileaks, which one might want well washed before shaking. From Wikileaks, the fishy secrets ended up in the fish-wrappers produced by the New York Times, the Guardian, der Spiegel, and elsewhere. It's all enough to make most any IT professional (even you) pay a little more attention to system security. READ MORE >