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Alex Woodie

Alex Woodie is Senior Editor at IT Jungle. He was previously editor of two of IT Jungle's main newsletters, Four Hundred Stuff and The Windows Observer. Prior to joining Midrange Server (as Guild Companies was formerly called) in October 2001, Alex was a products editor at now defunct publisher Midrange Computing, where he was first introduced to the AS/400 and covered hardware, software, and services for Midrange Technology SHOWCASE magazine. Before joining Midrange Computing, Alex was a staff writer for The Insurance Journal and a reporter and columnist with The Paradise Post newspaper. Woodie obtained his Bachelors of Arts degree in journalism from Humboldt State University in 1997. Upon graduation, Alex intended to make his way onto a major daily newspaper, but in 1999 he found himself drawn to the high-technology industry, where his background in science and engineering has suited him well. He lives in Northern San Diego County. When he is not writing next week's newsletters, Alex can be found in his favorite chair reading the day's paper, in the kitchen, or at the beach.

  • IBM Patches 13 Security Vulnerabilities in IBM i JDK

    July 20, 2016 Alex Woodie

    Time to shore up your Java. Last month IBM patched 13 security vulnerabilities that impact the Java Development Kit (JDK) for IBM i versions 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3. The flaws range from being small nuisances to severe, particularly the four flaws that earned perfect 10s on the CVSS impact scale.

    Of the 13 vulnerabilities that IBM identified in a June 27 security bulletin, all but three of them were first disclosed to the world by Oracle, which directs development of the semi open-source language and patched the problems. Big Red disclosed the existence of most of the

    …

    Read more
  • Raz-Lee Claims Technological Edge with IBM i Encryption

    July 20, 2016 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops that are on the hunt for an encryption solution to protect their sensitive data may want to check out the latest from Raz-Lee Security. The New York-based software company recently announced that it’s leveraging IBM‘s FieldProc technology to deliver field-level encryption that’s unlike anything else on the IBM i market. The company also announced a new PGP encryption solution.

    Raz-Lee wasn’t the first IBM i security software provider to first to use the FieldProc, which can greatly simplify the process of adding encryption and decryption capabilities to a DB2 for i database, up to the

    …

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  • IBM Delivers WebSphere 9 with Web Enablement for IBM i 1.1

    July 20, 2016 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops that are eager to get their hands on the latest release of the WebSphere Application Server can now do so. On June 24 IBM started shipping IBM Web Enablement for i version 1.1, which includes WAS version 9. Interesting bits shipped with the new release of WebSphere include support for Java 7, integration with Watson cloud services, new API features, and new containerization options, among other features.

    WebSphere version 9 brings the first full refresh since IBM delivered WebSphere 8 back in 2011. As was the case with the previous release, WAS 9 includes the full

    …

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  • IBM i Skills Shortage A Barrier To Digital Transformation

    July 11, 2016 Alex Woodie

    Quick–what’s the top barrier to achieving digital transformation in your shop? If you said “IBM i skills,” then you’re in good company. In a recent informal poll conducted by SoftLanding Systems, a majority of IBM i professionals cited a lack of IBM i skills (taken to mean RPG programming expertise in particular) as the number one impediment to implementing projects such as development of Web and mobile interfaces and electronic document management.

    SoftLanding operations manager Jim Fisher admitted that he wasn’t expecting a lack of IBM i skills to be the number one answer to a question about barriers

    …

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  • Flynet Pivots To Catch IBM i Web Business In U.S.

    June 27, 2016 Alex Woodie

    There’s scarcely any new project for the IBM i these days that doesn’t involve the Web in some way, shape, or form. Mobile front-ends, application modernization, Web services–heck, even the lowly terminal emulator has become a Web app these days. One IBM i software vendor that is positioned to capitalize on this trend is Flynet, which sells a single product that can address multiple Web initiatives for IBM i shops.

    You may have never heard of Flynet, but the company, which is based in the United Kingdom, is by no means new to this sector. In fact, Flynet has

    …

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  • Windows Explorer DOS Attacks On IBM i 7.3

    June 20, 2016 Alex Woodie

    If you have noticed that Windows Explorer seems to be running especially slow when mapped to your IBM i server, you are not alone. Over the past month, there have been several reports of what appear to be limited denial of service (DOS) attacks against servers running IBM i 7.3. This issue stems from a change in protocols for mapped drives that IBM made with the new operating system, but it appears that Microsoft is on the hook for the fix.

    IBM issued a Technote about a month ago to describe the problem and to offer various workarounds. The problem

    …

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  • Rocket Ties Analytic Database Into IBM i

    June 13, 2016 Alex Woodie

    IBM i shops that are interested in extracting insights from their data under the guidance of automated statistical analysis and machine learning may want to check out a new offering from Rocket Software. Called Rocket Discover for IBM i, the new software combines data discovery capabilities with self-service data preparation, and is aimed at regular business users who find things like Tableau Software‘s products too geeky or difficult to learn.

    Rocket began building its Rocket Discover tool several years ago to serve the growing need for self-service tools that can handle the entire analytic spectrum–from data preparation and

    …

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  • HelpSystems Fills Encryption Gap With Linoma Buy

    June 6, 2016 Alex Woodie

    Despite all the IBM i security vendors that HelpSystems has bought over the years–and there have been at least five of them–the company has lacked one key security capability valued by enterprises: encryption. With last week’s deal to acquire Linoma Software, the Minneapolis software vendor has finally obtained that encryption capability for IBM i.

    HelpSystems has been experiencing heavy demand for IBM i encryption capabilities, says CEO Chris Heim. “I wouldn’t say we lost sales because of it, but we definitely wanted to offer a full solution to our customers and that’s why we wanted to check that encryption

    …

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  • Fresche Brings the Heat(map) to Legacy Modernization

    June 1, 2016 Alex Woodie

    Before embarking upon a legacy modernization project, it’s important to do your homework. Not all IBM i screens are equal, but figuring out which ones are the most widely used is neither easy nor straightforward. This is the challenge that application modernization vendor Fresche Legacy hopes to resolve with the new heatmap solution that it’s building for its Newlook modernization suite.

    Guessing how users interact with legacy IBM i applications can lead to erroneous conclusions about how to proceed with legacy modernization. Instead, Fresche says the new heatmap software it’s developing will allow customers to gather usage data from the

    …

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  • CNX Widens Reach with Sencha Deal, Focus on Modernization

    June 1, 2016 Alex Woodie

    Look out: CNX is going global. The Chicago-based provider of IBM i development tools just signed a partnership deal with Sencha that will see the Silicon Valley firm distributing Valence around the world. CNX also just released Valence version 5, which brings a number of new features, including a stronger focus on modernizing RPG applications.

    Scott Mullarkey, Sencha’s vice president of global alliances and professional services, says CNX’s desire to have a global footprint led to an extension of the OEM partnership the two companies signed in 2008.

    “Ninety-five percent of their [CNX’s] business is U.S.-based. They do not have

    …

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