• Guru: Testing URLs With HTTP_GET_VERBOSE

  May 20, 2024 Gregory Simmons

  In my previous article Fooling around with SQL and RPG, I explored having a little fun with the HTTP_GET function to fetch a witty Dad Joke from https://icanhazdadjoke.com/. In this article, I want to demonstrate a more practical use of this great function. Or should I say, another version of HTTP_GET, that is HTTP_GET_VERBOSE, which also was introduced to us by the DB2 team in V7R3.

  In its simplest implementation, I can insert the URL I want to test into an SQL statement:

  select *
  from table(QSYS2.HTTP_GET_VERBOSE('https://icanhazdadjoke.com/',''))
  

  I will later want to run this embedded in an RPG …

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• As I See It: Mind Hacks

  May 20, 2024 Victor Rozek

  When I first saw the video, it felt a bit like watching science fiction. There were rows of little children, sitting in a classroom, dressed identically, seemingly concentrating on their school work in compliant silence. It reminded me of 20th century newsreel footage of obedient Hitler youth, except that the kids were Asian. And it had a distinctly dystopian feel to it punctuated by an electronic headband on each child’s forehead.

  But it wasn’t fiction. The headband monitored the children’s brainwave activity, to identify those who were concentrating and those who were not. The results were transmitted in real time …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 19

  May 20, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  You will need a little time to deal with some security vulnerabilities this week, so set aside some time. There is also a warning about infrastructure changes for electronic fixes from IBM and, for those of you who care, a new release of the IBM MQ message queuing middleware.

  You can find out about the new MQ 9.4, which delivers improved cross-platform connectivity, observability, and modernization capabilities, at this link. And  as for preparing customer firewalls and proxies for the upcoming infrastructure changes – Call Home, Electronic Fix Distribution – check out this link.

  That leaves the three …

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• Power10 Entry Machines: The Power S1012

  May 13, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It has taken almost two years to complete the Power10 server set and it has been almost four years since we first wrote about the details of the Power10 processor, but with the launch of the “Bonnell” Power S1012 entry server last week, which will start shipping on June 14, the set is indeed complete. Unless something weird happens, there will be no additional Power Systems servers announced until the Power11 iron starts rolling out sometime in 2025.

  Last week we told you what we knew about the Power S1012, and this week we have gotten our hands on …

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• Database Enhancements Galore In Spring 2024 IBM i TRs

  May 13, 2024 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i server is a database machine at the end of the day, so it’s not surprising that the latest technology refreshes (TRs) focus heavily on enhancements to Db2 for i. From new aggregate functions for the query optimizer to new and improved SQL-based IBM i services, there’s plenty of database goodness to go around in these releases.

  On May 7, IBM announced IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10. You can read the announcement letters for the two releases here and here. The functionality for the two releases, which will become generally available on June 14, is …

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• Guru: The OpenAI API – The Easy Way

  May 13, 2024 Dan Darnell

  When it comes to programming in a particular programming language there is what you can do and what you can do easily. I use RPG every day and have done so since the System/34 days. I love the language but I’ve also picked up other programming languages over time because sometimes RPG isn’t the right tool for the job.

  I’ve been using IBM EGL – Enterprise Generation Language – to create IBM i applications since 2009. IBM made a push at one time to entice RPG programmers to pick up the language and toolset (Rational Business Developer) for modernization …

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• As I See It: Upgrade Exhaustion

  May 13, 2024 Victor Rozek

  Several decades ago I recall seeing a 60 Minutes episode about an arms transfer (or perhaps it was a sale) of state-of-the-art American fighter jets to Israel. The interviewer traveled to the Middle East to see how Israeli pilots were adapting to the latest in American military technology. After being assured that the jet performed as advertised, the interviewer looked into the cockpit and marveled at all the screens, dials, switches, and gadgetry confronting the pilot. A deluge of supposedly useful information was available to the pilot in real time. But the sheer volume of it seemed daunting. Curious about …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 18

  May 13, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Well, this week is a little bit lighter when it comes to new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i stack, so that is a good way to start out the next five business days plus the extra that system admins often have to do because weekends are when it is safe to tweak systems.

  On the vulnerability front, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty are vulnerable to an XML External Entity (XXE) injection vulnerability (CVE-2024-22354), which you can find out more about at this link. Here is the list of affected …

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• IBM Sharpens Its Edge With “Bonnell” Entry Power10 System

  May 8, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Through the many years that we have been following the OS/400 and IBM i platform, we have always been an advocate for powerful entry machines that act as a feeder into the larger machines into which customers might grow. Somewhere between 1988 and 2008, Moore’s Law outpaced the capacity increases that most small IBM i shops needed, and it has been difficult to make a machine that is small enough to be useful and cheap enough to be attractive yet expensive enough to make it all worth IBM’s while.

  Back in February 2017, Big Blue announced what we called the …

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• Lost Data – The Silent Killer

  May 8, 2024 Richard Dolewski

  DATA is the BACKBONE of today’s organization. INFORMATION is the most valuable asset of the CORPORATION. When data is lost, held RANSOM, or simply unavailable, it negatively affects (and potentially halts) all desired business outcomes.

  Today’s dynamic business environments are based on a seamless flow of information. Organizations have invested in IT because they rely on technology to conduct business to sustain profitability.

  Systems of record that previously functioned in the background, include self-service and real-time connections, with endless application endpoints spanning across numerous clouds. Transaction flow of data now originates and is completed across numerous cloud interactions vs …

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