• RPG Creeps Up Language Ranking . . . VAI Puts POS Chips on Verifone . . . OpenLegacy Signs Partner In Brazil

  September 23, 2015 Alex Woodie

  RPG Creeps Up Language Ranking RPG has crept up in the TIOBE Index, a monthly ranking of the popularity of programming languages. Because RPG is still the primary language that’s used to develop applications on the IBM i platform, this is a good sign for IBM i job growth. The TIOBE Index for August 2015 had RPG as the 42nd most popular ranking with a rating of 0.273 percent. It was in a virtual tie with Haskell and just ahead of (Visual) FoxPro. The TIOBE Index for September 2015 had RPG creeping up three spots to number 39 with

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• What Does IBM’s Embrace Of Apache Spark Mean To IBM i?

  September 21, 2015 Alex Woodie

  IBM is actively embracing a new software framework called Apache Spark as the core engine powering predictive analytics application going forward. The big data world has gone absolutely gaga over Spark, and Big Blue has even put Spark on the venerable z/OS mainframe. But where does that leave its little brother, the IBM i platform? Apache Spark, if you’re not familiar, is hands down the hottest technology at the moment in the world of big data analytics. The open source project is so popular because it implements a relatively easy to use framework for running in-memory analytic workloads across

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• IBM Gearing Up For October Power Announcements

  September 21, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The word on the street is that Big Blue is getting ready to make some announcements for the Power Systems platform in October, so brace yourself for more stuff. We are not sure exactly what IBM is gearing up to do, but we have heard some rumblings that will affect the IBM i customer base tangentially and perhaps, if we have our way, directly. IBM likes to tie announcements to specific events, and personally, I would like for the new hardware, software, and services to be launched at the Power Systems and System Storage Technical University in Cannes, France, which

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• New RDi Ready For IBM i Developers

  September 21, 2015 Dan Burger

  Friday was the first day of RDi 9.5 season. The general availability of the latest edition of IBM‘s modern RPG development environment was celebrated with fireworks, champagne, and raucous cheering at IBM i shops from Boston to Berlin to Beijing. If only it were that illustrious. The adoption rate of RDi is unquestionably on the rise, but the pace is closer to a rustle than a hustle. Maybe the new RDi enhancements will up the tempo. Of all the new features added to RDi 9.5, there are three that may turn up the power of persuasion somewhat for shops

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• Mad Dog 21/21: Land, Hope, And Glory

  September 21, 2015 Hesh Wiener

  The remarkable Edwin Land was a persnickety inventor who wove science and art, a college dropout who never stopped learning and teaching. Land and his Polaroid Corporation built a tower of brilliant things; the SX-70 camera stood at its pinnacle. His life and work inspired Steve Jobs, mastermind of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes app store, and the magnificent, inimitable Apple Inc. After Land left Polaroid, it withered into a husk. Since Steve Jobs died, Apple, IBM’s only hope, has struggled. If Apple eventually collapses as Polaroid did, its demise will accelerate the ruin of IBM. Jobs’

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• IBM Issues HiPER And Security Patches For V5R4

  September 21, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Here is a weird one. Last week, IBM released PTF patches for OS/400 V5R4, also known as i5/OS 5.4, the venerable release of OS/400 that came out in February 2006 and that was withdrawn from marketing in May 2011 and had its standard Software Maintenance ended in September 2013. Extended maintenance is still running for those customers who pay for it, and will continue to do so until September 30, 2016. While this Program Support Extension (PSE) support does offer tech support for the V5R4 stack on Power Systems and earlier machines, it has always been my understanding that Big

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• Hacker Defends DEF CON Talk on IBM i Vulns

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Two weeks ago we told you about a presentation about hacking the IBM i server that was held at the recent DEF CON conference. Now the hacker behind the presentation is taking exception with assertions in the story, and insists that his hacking technique exploits security flaws in IBM i OS and don’t rely on poor server configurations. Carol Woodbury, a former IBM security architect, looks into the hacker’s new claims. Bart Kulach, who runs the www.hackthelegacy.org website and delivered a DEF CON presentation by the same name, sent us this letter. It’s reprinted here with his permission: Dear Mr.

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• SoftLanding Gets Into the Content Management Business

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Most IBM i professionals probably know SoftLanding Systems for the change management software that the company developed. While Turnover remains SoftLanding’s main breadwinner, the UNICOM Global property is further diversifying its offerings with the introduction of a new content management package for IBM i. Dubbed Columbus, the new product combines elements of both content management (which is about managing information in the enterprise) as well as document management (which is about multi-channel delivery of documents). As a document management product, Columbus enables IBM i shops to transform existing output into digital formats that can be more readily consumed via Web,

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• Toolmaker Jumps Into IBM i Web Development with WOPiXX

  September 16, 2015 Alex Woodie

  Toolmaker Advanced Efficiency, a German developer of software for the IBM i server, recently rolled out a new framework for developing Web applications that run on IBM i. The software, called WOPiXX, enables programmers to create new Web apps by leveraging their existing RPG skills, the company says. In the modern Web 2.0 world, developers typically are expected to be fluent in client-centric languages like HTML, JavaScript, and XML. Even in the IBM i space, it’s not uncommon to see companies looking for those rare unicorns who can code the front-end Web apps using those technologies, but also be

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• BCD Adds Digital Signatures to Modernization Tool

  September 16, 2015 Dan Burger

  For many members of the mobile workforce, capturing digital signatures are all in a day’s work. It was just a matter of figuring out how to efficiently and securely collect signatures that identify and authenticate electronic documents. Mobile signature capture is one of the new features BCD Software has added to its green-screen to GUI application modernization tool called Presto. If mobile apps are part of your IT plans, signature capture probably fits in as well. Mobile access to modernized green-screen applications is improving business processes and customer service, says Marcel Sarrasin , who has helped make that happen for

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