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.
-
Kisco Unveils the Newly Renamed iFileUtility
September 10, 2013 Alex Woodie
It’s already been five years since the last major name change of the platform formerly known as AS/400. Just the same, there are still a lot of products out there that have some variation of ‘400 in the name (including, ahem, some IT Jungle products). One product vendor that’s been working to clean its lineup of the ‘400 name is Kisco Information Systems, which recently unveiled iFileUtility.
iFileUtility is a native green-screen tool used to browse and maintain IBM i databases. The product enables users to view and update single records, or view and update groups of records simultaneously.
-
Databorough Snapped Up By Fresche Legacy
September 9, 2013 Alex Woodie
Databorough, the UK-based developer of application and database analysis and migration tools for IBM i, has been acquired by Fresche Legacy, a Canadian company devoted to helping customers modernize or migrate their legacy applications. The resulting company seeks to create a “powerhouse” in the field of IBM i application modernization.
Fresche Legacy was formed in March 2012 when Speedware bought a collection RPG migration tools from the German company Sykora and took the fresh new name. Today, the Montreal, Quebec, company has hundreds of modernization, migration, and consulting jobs under its belt, including three IBM i engagements that
-
Synon Founder Breathes New Life Into Lazy Software
August 26, 2013 Alex Woodie
Simon Williams, who created the Synon/2E and Obsydian 4GL development tools that were so popular during the AS/400’s heyday, is back at the helm of Lazy Software, the company he founded in 1998 to develop and market a revolutionary associative database. Williams rejoined Lazy Software in 2010 after the company and product foundered about for several years, and now he is shipping a new release of the database, Sentences 4.0, and gearing up to tackle big data problems.
Lazy Software got off to a big start in 1998, the same year that Synon sold itself to Sterling Software, which
-
Krengel Adopts Tokens in Credit Card Transaction Software
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
Krengel Technology recently updated its card authorization software to use a token-based approach to accessing sensitive card data. This approach helps Krengel Credit customers avoid the strictest PCI requirements by offloading the storage of sensitive data from its customers’ IBM i servers to Cybersource, the company that processes transactions for Krengel Credit customers.
For many businesses, the capability to process credit card transactions is an absolute necessity, especially compared to the hassle of handling cash or checks. However, the PCI rules that govern the handling of credit card data are getting stricter every year, and complying with the rules is
-
Kisco Gives IBM i Security Tool a Web Interface
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
Administrators can view information about the security of their IBM i servers from the comfort of a Web browser with the latest release of SafeNet/i from Kisco Information Systems. The new Web-Central interface, unveiled last week, lets administrators do everything they could do under the 5250 green-screen interface, and a few extra things, too.
SafeNet/i is a network security tool that uses IBM i exit points to lock down common but potentially dangerous routes of access to the IBM i server, such as IBM i Navigator, ODBC, and FTP connections. The software, which Kisco says was the first network
-
Quadrant Launches New Fax Appliance
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
Quadrant Software went virtual with last year’s launch of QuadraDocV, which was designed to provide IBM i shops and other companies with fax over IP (FoIP) serving within the portable confines of a VMware shell. While the virtual application approach is still important to Quadrant, the company gave the physical appliance approach a new shot in the arm with the recent launch of its new QuadrAppliance.
Quadrant CEO Steve Woodard made a good case for going virtual with fax software during last year’s launch of QuadraDocV. While Quadrant had historically done very well selling “black box” fax appliances as part
-
RJS Tackles a ‘Screen Jumping’ Problem
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
Tired of jumping back and forth between Windows and IBM i screens? You’re not alone. While RJS Software Systems can’t erase all cases of “screen jumping” in the world, the Minnesota software company has worked to eliminate the annoying practice in iForms, its electronic forms and report writing tool for the IBM i server.
RJS last week announced that it has overhauled the Windows-based iForms Text Designer component of iForms to make it much easier to use. iForms allows users to create professional-looking documents, such as invoices and reports, from enterprise data sources like IBM i, and output it in
-
PCI 3.0 Gets Positive Initial Reviews from Security Pros
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
For many IT professionals, the letters “PCI DSS” conjure painful memories of invasive audits of internal systems that, in the end, generated hundreds of billable hours for compliance experts but did little to actually boost security. While the PCI 3.0 standard that was previewed last week won’t eliminate deep scrutiny, it may actually boost security, experts say.
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) last week issued a preview of version 3 of the Payment Cardholder Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). According to the PCI SSC, the new standard “will help companies make PCI DSS part of their business-as-usual
-
IBM to Stop Supporting SPSS Statistics Component on IBM i
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
IBM last week announced that the version 22 release of SPSS Statistics will be the last release of the product to have any component that runs on System i (IBM i). It will also be the last release with the capability to pull SQL data out of the DB2 for i database, which is arguably more damaging for any IBM customers that might want to run some statistical analysis on their DB2/400 data.
SPSS Statistics is mature and multi-faceted software package that gives users a variety of advanced statistical analysis capabilities. Surrounding the core analysis component is a fleet of
-
Chrono-Logic Offers Full Support for LANSA Version 13
August 20, 2013 Alex Woodie
Chrono-Logic last week announced that its iAM change management suite offers full support for LANSA 13, the latest iteration of LANSA’s RDML language and the LANSA development environments for IBM i and Windows.
Montreal, Canada-based Chrono-Logic sells a range of tools in its iAM Suite that enhance the LANSA development experience, whether it targets the IBM i or Windows servers. The company’s primary goal is to provide change management capabilities for LANSA development, including providing task management, version control, code promotion, and distribution. However, it also supports development on IBM i in RPG, COBOL, and Java languages, and also provides