The Four Hundred--The Blogosphere Says the IRS Uses the iSeries to Manage Bill Gates' Personal Taxes

Newsletters	Subscriptions	Forums	Safari	Store	Career	Media Kit	About Us	Contact	Search	Home

Volume 15, Number 30 -- July 31, 2006

The Blogosphere Says the IRS Uses the iSeries to Manage Bill Gates' Personal Taxes

Published: July 31, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Maybe they should have renamed the box the IRSeries? While I was searching for something on the Internet, I accidentally ran across a posting in a news blog portion of a site with the unlikely name of Suicide Girls that had a blogger who claimed that the Internal Revenue Service is using an iSeries server to keep track of Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates' tax returns.

The Suicide Girls site is very weird, and I would not suggest that you click on the link below and especially not the site's home page, while at work. If you want to see the Suicide Girls' blog and this iSeries-related story, then click here.

You will remember, of course, that Bill Gates claimed earlier this year when he was at an event in Portugal that the IRS has a dedicated computer system to manage his tax returns, which have a few more zeros in them than yours and mine do. At the time, Forbes magazine reported what Gates said as: "Their normal computers can't deal with the numbers. So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven't paid something, when really it is just on the wrong computer."

The only reason I bring this up, of course, is that I found it odd that someone out there in the blogosphere seems to believe that the iSeries is the very computer that Gates was talking about. (The blogger had the handle Adroitbeing and claimed to be from the Cook Islands). This is what she had to say: "This is actually funnier than one might think. Largely the IRS rely on AS/400 and iSeries (now called System i5) boxes running multiple operating systems--RPG, OS/400, COBOL, and AIX. Not surprisingly, in other news, Microsoft has undertaken marketing and sales efforts to encourage users of AS/400 iSeries to migrate to Windows Server. Perhaps this is Bill's personal sales effort."

Well, that sounds pretty informed, right down to the name changes. But there is no way of knowing for sure. The IRS doesn't talk about its computer systems much, after decades of failed modernization attempts, but according to this document detailing a recent security audit on the IRS systems, which was not very flattering, the agency is using a mix of mainframe, Unix, and Windows machines. The IRS has confirmed that the crashing machine Gates referred to was not a Windows box, but did not say what kind it was.

The other reason I decided to mention this tiny item on the Suicide Girls site was that the fact that such a posting exists on a vaguely pornographic site shows the downside of the "viral marketing" techniques that some IBMers want to use to push the OS/400 platform. I think it is better to focus on price/performance of the OS/400 platform and less on the side-show circus performance out there on the Internet. Having said that, I have a feeling that more people saw the iSeries name on the Suicide Girls site than they did in the Wall Street Journal.

Sponsored By
MAGIC SOFTWARE ENTERPRISES

Design IT. Control IT. Monitor IT.

A Powerful IBM System i5 (iSeries) "Integrated Services Environment" for Use by Business Analysts

Keeping the IBM System i5 at the center of your business

Whether you are pursuing service-oriented architecture (SOA) (or simply in need of a streamlined code-free approach to cross-platform integration, web enablement and application-to-application integration), Magic Software Enterprises' iBOLT for System i5 is a secure, scalable, standards-based framework for code-free end-to-end business processes innovation:

· Deploy Existing Business Logic as New Services in a Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA) Paradigm
· Quickly Integrate New Web Interfaces
· Extend Processes Based on 5250 Screens
· Service-Enable RPG, COBOL, ILE and Java Routines
· Connect to iSeries Databases and Files with High Speed Gateways
· Create New Composite Processes from Available Services
· Design, Test and Monitor Using a Code-Free Visual Process Design Interface
· Reduce Risks With "Out-of-the-Box" Native System i5/iSeries/AS400 Components
· Expose Existing Business Logic as New Services in a Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA) Paradigm

Download the iBOLT for System i5 trial version and gain access to these features:

iBOLT Features for iSeries

Database Access
      · Physical files.
      · SQL tables.
      · SQL interface for accessing physical files.
      · Data Mapper.
Accessing iSeries Programs and Commands
      · Invoke RPG/CL/COBOL programs.
      · Run CL commands.
      · Retrieve CPF error messages.
Accessing iSeries System Services
      · Retrieve object lists.
      · Retrieve system values.
      · Retrieve and access spooler file entries.
      · Retrieve and access IFS directory files.
Built-in Open Query File Function
      · Allows record sorting on an iSeries server.
      · Allows record selection on an iSeries server.
SQL Access to Physical Files
      · Ability to use Direct SQL statements.
      · Ability to access Views, Stored procedures, triggers, and functions.
Linux (Wintel/xSeries) and AIX (pSeries) Access to iSeries
      · Communication with iSeries.
      · DB2/400 Database access.
      · iSeries command access.
      · Native iSeries program (RPG/COBOL/CL) access.
Web Process
      · Native iBOLT Server on iSeries.
      · Native iBOLT Apache Internet Requester (CGI) for iSeries.
      · Native iBOLT Apache Internet Requester (CGI and Apache module) for Linux partition
         on iSeries.
Integration/Exposure of iSeries Elements
      · iBOLT Requester API allows invocation of external processes on any other platform from
         iSeries RPG/CL/COBOL programs.
      · EJB support.
      · Web Services support.
      · Email support.
      · XML format support.
      · PDF format support.

iBOLT Data Mapper Service

iBOLT's Data Mapper Service lets you create an association between records and fields in different formats and from different sources using a Visual Mapping device. It supports multiple Sources and multiple Destinations.

You can use the Data Mapper to graphically represent the relationship between source data elements and destination data elements. This creates a way of manipulating the data without having to write any lines of code.

You define the source and destination formats in the Data Mapper Service's Source/Destination Management dialog box. The Data Mapper can carry out any of the following actions:
· Create or update files in XML, HTML, or Flat File formats.
· Create, Update, and Delete a set of database records.
· Call a flow and pass arguments.
· Any Source can be mapped to any destination.

Get the Details You Need Today:
Find out why adidas Canada and hundreds of other System i5 customers choose Magic Software Enterprises. Click here to sign up for downloads and additional information or call (800) 345-6244 ext. 205.

Editor: Timothy Prickett Morgan

Contributing Editors: Dan Burger, Joe Hertvik, Shannon O'Donnell,
Mary Lou Roberts, Victor Rozek, Kevin Vandever, Hesh Wiener, Alex Woodie

Publisher and Advertising Director: Jenny Thomas

Advertising Sales Representative: Kim Reed

Contact the Editors: To contact anyone on the IT Jungle Team
Go to our contacts page and send us a message.

Sponsored Links

T.L. Ashford: BARCODE400 - the fastest way to create compliance labels directly from the iSeries
Advanced Systems Concepts: iSeries data access like nothing else with SEQUEL
COMMON: Join us at the Fall 2006 conference, September 17-21, in Miami Beach, Florida

THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:
Vision Solutions PowerTech ASNA Profound Logic Software Magic Software Enterprises

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bang for the Buck: Baby i5 Servers Versus Windows and Linux Boxes

IBM Creates a Performance-Based Pricing Scheme for Software

New Vendors Join SOA Collaboration Group

As I See It: Productivity and Relationship

But Wait, There's More:

Agilysys Blames Fiscal Q1 Sales Weakness on IBM 'Proprietary Servers' . . . Everybody Loves SOA, Aberdeen Survey Says . . . IT Shops Expect iSCSI and Fibre Channel to Co-Exist . . . Lawson Reports Preliminary Q4 Results, Loses CFO, and Buys CAS . . . Logility's Sales Rocket Skyward in Fiscal Q4 . . . The Blogosphere Says the IRS Uses the iSeries to Manage Bill Gates' Personal Taxes . . .

The Four Hundred

BACK ISSUES


Intel Aims Dual-Core Itaniums at RISC, Mainframe Servers HP Gears Up for Montecito Itanium Shipments Who's Ahead in the X64 Server Wars? The X Factor: Is Memory-Based Software Pricing the Answer?


IBM Gets High Security Marks for Mainframe, Unix Virtualization Top Mainframe Stories and Vendor Announcements Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings


Microsoft Promises Not to Do It Again, Hands Down Twelve Tenets The AMD-ATI Acquisition: Integration and Freedom for Customers, IHVs Microsoft Grows Yearly Revenue by 11 Percent HP Gears Up for Montecito Itanium Shipments


IBM Rounds Out Big Unix Boxes with Power5+ Chips Sun Sees Sales Accelerate in Fiscal Q4, Still Loses Money IBM Creates a Performance-Based Pricing Scheme for Software The X Factor: High-End Chips Draw Even, Vendors Prepare to Differentiate