But Wait There's More . . .

• Look for the upcoming special editions of The Four Hundred dedicated to looking at the technology inside the new OS/400 V5R2 release, which begins shipping August 30. Our techies have gathered a lot of technical information from IBM Rochester to give you a deeper understanding of what is inside this new release of the iSeries operating system. Subscribers to this newsletter will automatically receive the V5R2 special editions, the first of which will be published August 15.

• IBM released a new service pack for Client Access Express for Windows V5R1 on August 1. Service Pack SI05361 contains fixes for iSeries Operations Navigator, the Data Transfer function, ODBC, OLE DB Provider, and PC5250. The next service pack for Client Access Express V5R1 is due December 6, while a new service pack for iSeries Access for Windows is due September 30 and a Client Access Express for Windows V4R5 service pack is due October 31. See IBM's Web site for downloads and more information.
  
  
• Jacada has acquired Anota, a privately held Israeli company that develops a line of Web-to-host middleware that is similar in some respects to Jacada's own Interface Server, for accessing OS/400, mainframe, and Unix hosts. Jacada plans to offer Anota's GUI-ifer, WEB-ifier, and HOST-ifier products alongside its own software. Gideon Hollander, Jacada's CEO, said the acquisition gives Jacada a "fast, easy, and extremely affordable" way to provide companies with thin-client host access. Jacada paid $640,000 in stock for Anota's technology and intellectual property. The acquisition came a week after Jacada announced disappointing second quarter results and a restructuring plan to get the company back on track. Total revenue for the quarter was $5.3 million, down from $6.8 million in 2001. In an attempt to cut down on expenses and return the company to profitability, Jacada laid off 25 percent of its workforce, which the company estimates will save it $6 million annually.
  
  
• PentaSafe Security Technologies has joined the Honeynet Project, a volunteer organization consisting of 30 IT security experts whose mission is to develop an open-source framework, or a "honeynet," that can be used to attract criminal (or "black hat") hackers and gather intelligence about their tools, tactics, and motivations. PentaSafe, developer of an integrated cross-platform security management system, will contribute to the Honeynet Project the expertise of Ralph Logan, manager of PentaSafe's VigilEnt Intelligence and Threat Analysis Lab.
  
  
• Service Information Access, a Canadian value added reseller and OS/400 ERP software developer, has acquired Computer Traders Inc., a Woodbridge, Ontario, company that provides iSeries, pSeries, and xSeries hardware, software, and services to small and midsize businesses in the Ontario region. SIA will continue to operate Computer Traders Inc., which has developed a specialty in electronic data interchange (EDI) implementations, as a subsidiary, but will move CTI's headquarters from suburban Toronto to its own headquarters in Montreal, Quebec. The principals of CTI, Paul Suggate and Denise Hanna, have joined SIA and will be responsible for the Toronto operations. SIA said it is considering additional acquisition and partnerships to bolster its WebSphere and content management practices and to build its American and Canadian reseller network for Common Sense, its ERP suite for manufacturers and distributors.
  
  
• A new application service provider has been launched by Computer Configuration Services, an Irvine, California, reseller of iSeries, xSeries, and pSeries hardware, software, and services. CCS says the creation of its new Managed Application Hosting Service is a natural extension of its goal to become an end-to-end supplier of midrange solutions to its customers, and has already proved vital in helping to land a new account--a casino. CCS will deliver its customers' applications in various ways and is guaranteeing customers a selection of application uptime and backup and recovery capabilities through service level agreements. CCS, which is a reseller for Lakeview Technology, DataMirror, and H.A. Technical Solutions, is also offering high availability services for customers who need higher levels of availability. CCS also announced that iSeries ERP provider Infinium Software has named CCS an approved hosting partner. Infinium, which has a large install base among casinos and hotels, launched its own ASP division during the heyday of ASP hype in 2000 but shut it down last year after failing to draw enough customers.
  
  
• Aldon Computer Group has formed an agreement with one of its Australian partners to launch Aldon Australasia, a new joint business concern that will market, sell, and support Aldon's iSeries Affiniti change-management suite in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific Islands. Pickett Computer Services, in Avalon Beach, New South Wales, Australia, has distributed and supported Aldon's software since 1998, when the two companies formed their partnership. The creation of Aldon Australasia, which comes one year after Oakland, California, based Aldon established other support staff in the region, formalizes and strengthens the partnership between the two companies. Pickett Computer Services' expertise is rooted in performance management. The company also has reseller agreements with Midrange Performance Group, ASNA, and Mid-Comp International, the Australian company that developed the SnapShot/400 system resources monitoring tool.
  
  
• Registration for the OCEAN User Group's seventh annual iSeries technical conference and vendor expo is now open. The one-day event will focus on honing RPG programmers' development skills and will feature specific classes on RPG IV advanced techniques, WebSphere development tools, interfacing with the Web, XML, and SQL. The event's featured speakers will be iSeries experts Jon Paris and Susan Ganter of the Toronto, Ontario, management consulting firm Partner 400. The conference will be held on September 13 at the Marriott Hotel in Irvine, California. Last year's OCEAN conference was sold out, and OCEAN is encouraging people to sign up soon to reserve their space, which is limited. If you register before August 10, the fee is $225 or, if you're already an OCEAN member, $175. After August 10, those rates go up to $285 and $235 respectively. To register, go to www.ocean400.org.

Sponsored By COMMON

REGISTER FOR COMMON IN DENVER, OCT. 13-17 Get the IT training you need by attending COMMON Users Group's Fall 2002 IT Education Conference & Expo, October 13-17 in Denver. Early Bird registration is $1,150 until September 4. Choose from over 720 sessions and labs covering a wide range of industry topics. Also receive training from J.D. Edwards, MAPICS, and other vendors. Don't miss out! Go to www.common.org