OS/400 Alert: alphaWorks and Homeland Security

February 4, 2004 Shannon O'Donnell

In this issue of “OS/400 Alert,” we’ll tell you about some new electronic initiatives from the Department of Homeland Security. We’ll also alert you to some of the cool new tools, betas, trials, and emerging technologies from IBM’s bleeding-edge technology center, alphaWorks. IBM alphaWorks has consistently cranked out exciting new software technology, exceeding the output of any of the other major software skunkwerks anywhere in the world. In fact, many technologies being used today on the iSeries started as prototypes and became demos at alphaWorks.

NEW HOMELAND SECURITY NEWSLETTERS

The war on terrorism is about to hit your mailbox–at least your electronic mailbox. The Department of Homeland Security will begin sending e-mail newsletters on homeland security, targeted at a variety of different audiences.

The new National Cyber Alert System is a product of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division and is coordinated by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT. Three e-mail services are included in the e-mail newsletters. The tips newsletter is aimed at non-technical home users and highlights the latest Internet security issues. The bulletins newsletter is for more technically minded users and also highlights the latest internet security issues. The alerts newsletter is aimed at both home and technical users and provides information on the latest security threats and attacks.

If you are interested in subscribing to the newsletters, go to the US-CERT Web site.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES TOOLKIT

The Emerging Technologies Toolkit is a combination of runtime environment, demos, examples, as well as a plethora of additional development tools, that showcases new and emerging technologies from IBM alphaWorks. The toolkit also provides tutorials and other introductory material to educate developers on autonomic and grid-related technologies and Web services.

Using the toolkit, developers can get a firm grasp on how to use such technologies as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), grids, Reporting Grid Services (ReGS), the Web Services Inspection Language (WS-Inspection), and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI).

For complete documentation, an online demo, or to download the Emerging Technologies Toolkit, go to the alphaWorks Web site.

WEB SERVICES FOR LIFE SCIENCES

Looking for Web services examples that go beyond the standard item lookup for sales histories, which are the lifeblood of the business world? How about checking out a series of Web services examples in the life sciences genre? Look no further than Web Services for Life Sciences, a new downloadable package of Web services examples from IBM alphaWorks.

The download package includes PubMed, a Web service that queries a Web database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for articles related to scientific research; GenBank, a Web service that queries a database at NCBI, which returns the nucleotide sequence for each accession number submitted; Phylogenic Tree, a Web service that renders an evolutionary relationship, specified as a newwick formatted string into a PDF or GIF file; BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), a Web service that conducts a sequence alignment analysis for each input sequence; ClustalW, a Web service that runs the ClustalW application, a fully automatic program for global multiple alignment of DNA and protein sequences; and Life Sciences Demos, a sample proxy application that demonstrates how to invoke Web Services for Life Sciences programmatically.

POLICY-BASED DATA-MANAGEMENT TOOL

The Policy-Based Data Management tool, written in Java and developed for Windows NT/4.0/2000/XP, supports DB2 databases and lets non-IT experts define and manage data and administration policies as business objects. The tool provides the capability to manage data access control; data retention; data export, import, deletion, and insertion; and the transmission of data between systems. Also included are two separate user interfaces: one for business object definition and one for policy definition. If you are interested in downloading and experimenting with this demo, go to the alphaWorks site.

THIS WEEK’S NASTY WINDOWS WORRIES

Last week we alerted you to the W32.Novarg.A@mm virus, which, if activated, will initiate a denial-of-service attack beginning on February 4. This week we want to let you know about another worm virus named MyDoom.B. The MyDoom.B virus is actually a variant of the W32.Novarg.A@mm virus. This incarnation of the virus is targeted at Windows platforms and, like most viruses, is activated by opening the enclosed attachment, and it generally plays havoc with your computer’s hard drive and Windows Registry. If you are running virus protection software on your PC, such as Norton or MacAffee AntiVirus, and you are keeping your virus definitions up to date, you should be okay.

PTF’S AND FIXES FOR OS/400 AND RELATED PROGRAMS

The latest cumulative package from IBM for OS/400 V5R2 customers came out January 21. Information on this cumulative package can be found on IBM’s Web site.

The latest HIPER package was released on January 20, so you’ll want to grab this one if you’re not current.

The Database Group PTF was updated on November 11.