Dan Burger
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An Encryption Horror Story
August 23, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThe auditors are knocking at the door. You knew this day would come. Preparations were in place. When the PCI audit team looked for cross-platform data security measures, your bases were covered. The point of sale (POS) software was taking care of everything for you. But then, just a few days ago, it was discovered that credit card information that was encrypted on Microsoft SQL Server could not be decrypted on the IBM Power Systems i.
“This year we’ve had five or six incidents where this has happened,” says Patrick Townsend, chairman of the board and chief technology officer of
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Unemployed Developers Eligible for Education Grant
August 23, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreJobs are scarce. Competition intense. Although predictions for the technology job market continue to be for double-digit growth for at least the next four years, it’s the skills that will separate the sheep from the goats. Companies need skilled IT folks. But those skills aren’t often the ones that were taught 20, 15, or even 10 years ago. Frequently, ongoing training hasn’t kept pace either. The question is where will companies find newly skilled employees?
If you are on the outside of the employment window looking in, you’re going to need skills that put you at an advantage. A green-screen
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Lotus Focus and Some Hocus Pocus
August 16, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreIt seems every time IBM‘s Lotus division makes an announcement, some heckler in the crowd shouts out a crack about Notes/Domino users migrating to Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. Last week, two Lotus software announcements came to my attention. One detailed Notes/Domino 8.5.2 and the other LotusLive 1.3. Coincidentally (conspiracy theorists might find fault with that word), a Gartner report on Notes migrations became available. And that lit the fuse on the Lotus powder keg that goes by the name of Ed Brill.
Brill is the director of messaging for the Lotus division and is likely the company’s best known
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RPG World Turns to Chicago Training Facility
August 9, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreMotivated students can learn in almost any environment. I mean, if you want to take RPG, its multiple database connectivity, and the IBM Power Systems hardware running the i operating system to a level that’s on par with any other business computing system, you could probably do that in a cave. But that would be so Neanderthal. Facilities do have a bearing on learning. And that’s why Bob Cozzi has scheduled his next RPG World conference at the Q Center in suburban Chicago.
This is a first-class facility. It’s specifically set up for training–a high tech, distraction-free environment. Cozzi describes
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New Site, Positive Vibe Mark OCEAN Tech Conference
July 26, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere are still several local midrange user groups that can organize and put on top-quality tech conferences. The OCEAN user group in Southern California continues to show it can get the job done in a big way. This year, the organization moved to a new location without skipping a beat. Attendees and vendors approved and OCEAN was able to do well enough to fund another year’s worth of monthly programs that keep members educated, informed, and enthusiastic about the IBM i platform and their careers.
In regions where local user groups have not folded up their tents, there remains some
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Wisconsin i Job Market Looking Gouda
July 26, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere’s no end to Wisconsin cheese jokes. Sorry to perpetuate the stereotype, but those folks who proudly wear blocks of cheese on their heads at televised sporting events are chiefly responsible. In California, we’re known for fruits and nuts. In Wisconsin, it’s cheese.
Last week in The Four Hundred, I wrote about a few regional opinions that the IT job market was gaining momentum. This week the job outlook comes from Nick Simmons, an account executive at TEK Systems, one of the leading technology staffing and servicing companies in the United States. Simmons works from an office in
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inFORM Introduces High Speed Batch Scanning
July 20, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreThere’s little question that business documents can be better managed and workflows streamlined by converting paper to digital files. Cost savings related to information that is easy to access for a variety of workers come along with that. How to tackle the conversion process and what to pay for the software are questions that face numerous companies. So a new product release by inFORM Decisions that brings batch scanning, at a low price point may surprise some of you.
inFORM Decision’s new recognition-assisted document capture product with batch-scanning capability in an IBM i environment is called iScan. It integrates with
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Increase in IT Jobs Led by Contract Worker Demands
July 19, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreIn the IT job market, recession-proof careers were about as reliable as tissue paper umbrellas. A lot of people got rained on. It’s not much better now than it was a year ago, but it is better. From a variety of sources comes the word that companies are ready to hire again. Some will try to reclaim quality people that were laid off, while others will look for less experienced, less expensive replacements or additions. Shops running their businesses on the IBM i operating system are following the same hiring pattern as everyone else.
After talking with a handful of
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Health Insurance for Your Career and Your Company
July 13, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreWhen it comes to job-related or career-related training, the majority of you are on your own. Your employers–IBM i platform adherents–aren’t proactively offering IT educational opportunities. Their employee handbooks probably cover training and education and your company may reimburse employees for passing courses that relate to job performance and provide a benefit to the company. But it’s still up to you to take the reins.
Consider training and education like health insurance. You don’t want to be without health insurance, and you decide when you need it. If you’re not looking after your career health, you only have yourself
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Get Me a Vendor Who Knows My Business
July 12, 2010 Dan Burger
… Read moreOne aspect of the COMMON Europe Top Concerns survey results that were released a few weeks ago is in tune with a recent Forrester Research report. Both sources of feedback from people who buy software and services strongly suggest a desire to work with vendors that demonstrate how well they know the vertical industry of the buyer and how well a specific vendor understands a specific company’s position in its market.
Call it the “to know me is to love me” company-vendor relationship.
While plenty of vendors try to endear themselves to customers and prospects by offering the one-stop shopping