The AS/400 at 19: Predicting the Future--Or Not
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

As a young student of math and engineering a few decades ago, I was drawn to these topics because they offered what seemed to my eyes a calculable and assuring degree of certainty in the answers they provided. I didn't think about it at the time all that much, but math was particularly fulfilling because it had answers, and given a set of data and conditions, you could predict future sets of data and their conditions. In that idealized world, you can predict the future. READ MORE >

IBM Kills Off System i ServerProven, Standard Edition Rebates
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The long-running rebate program that the System i division has sponsored to give customers who buy OS/400 and i5/OS servers plus systems and application software created by independent software vendors and certified through IBM's ServerProven program has been canceled. IBM made the announcement last week. IBM also killed off another rebate program for customers buying certain System i machines running i5/OS Standard Edition. READ MORE >

VoIP and the Search for Single Points of Failure
by Dan Burger

At its most basic level, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is about moving verbal communications from phone lines to the Internet. In an article last week, Terry Boulais, the director of business development at Key Information Systems, began our introduction to VoIP by explaining its benefits and providing an overview of the technology that could usher a new era of application integration that takes advantage of corporate data and communication efficiencies. READ MORE >

As I See It: Dare to Be Rich
by Victor Rozek

Let me preface this by saying that what I'm suggesting may be illegal. Which is not to say that there aren't a lot of wealthy people and corporations doing it. It's called sheltering income and those who shelter theirs do so because they can; and they can because wealth provides them with a level of immunity from the laws they find restrictive-an exemption not generally available to toi and moi. So if you want to join the chorus singing Gimme Shelter, it may be necessary to adopt the same swagger and contempt for equity exhibited by the ruling class. In other words: Dare to be rich. There's no reason why IT professionals shouldn't keep a little more of what they earn. READ MORE >