• Guru: Odds And Ends

  May 14, 2018 Ted Holt

  Little things can make a big difference. Today I am pleased to present a few short tips that may make a difference for you. I hope you get something useful here. If you have short tips that you would like to share with your fellow readers, please email them to me and I’ll see what I can do. Have a wonderful day!

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  Hey, Ted:

  I just read your article More Date And Time Conversions Using SQL. Just as aside, the scalar functions Decimal/Dec, Integer, and BigInt can convert times, dates and timestamps directly into a numeric representation in the …

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• Boston Power9s Set To Debut

  May 14, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The Power9 systems aimed at data ingest and data analytics, code-named “Boston” after the band from Beantown that features what is arguably the tightest album side in classic rock music, are now out and will be available by the end of the month. These are Linux-only machines, and like some of the prior LC models (short for Linux Cluster, not Low Cost as I keep thinking it means) based on Power8 processors, these were created by Supermicro and are resold by IBM as well as being sold by Supermicro in its SuperServer line.

  IBM is, of course, Supermicro’s biggest customer …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 19

  May 14, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  We like to keep you on your toes here at the IBM i PTF Guide, and this week we are popping up at the tail end of the Monday edition of The Four Hundred instead of the usual Wednesday edition. This will happen from time to time, as the publishing schedule for the newsletter changes, so don’t get nervous. The IBM i PTF Guide and The Four Hundred carry on, as always.

  So, without further ado, let’s get to the patches. First up, V7R3 has a new DB2 Group – with a whopping 94 PTFs added. (Whew! Somebody’s …

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• Here’s What’s Next for the Enterprise Software World

  May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Thirty years ago, enterprise resource planning (ERP) was a hot new technology promising to help streamline business processes. While ERP continues to generate billions in revenue, it’s mostly for keeping complicated systems up and running. Now the daughter of the founder of JD Edwards is sharing a bold new vision for how her company, called Nextworld, plans to take enterprise software to the next stage.

  We first got wind of Nextworld venture about a year-and-a-half ago. We knew the Colorado company had big plans and a stream of funding from Kylee McVaney’s father, Ed McVaney. However, since Nextworld was …

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• IBM Adds New PDM Perspective to RDi

  May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie

  IBM is receiving high marks for a new feature called PDM Perspective that it just launched in Rational Developer for i version 9.6.0.2. The new feature gives users the capability to filter libraries or members in RDi that’s very similar to the way PDM functioned in SEU. It’s so good, according to some IBM i experts, that it eliminates any reason not to use RDi.

  There are several new features in RDi version 9.6.0.2, which IBM released May 2, but it’s the PDM Perspective feature that’s getting the most attention. According to IBM, the new PDM Perspective in the Object …

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• IBM i Data Vulnerable, Security Report Says

  May 9, 2018 Alex Woodie

  HelpSystems last month published its 15th annual State of Security report, in which it summarizes the security checks that it performs on its clients and prospects’ IBM i servers over the course of a year. This year’s report covers 158 systems, and if the results are to be extrapolated to the IBM i installed base as a whole, then there’s a lot of vulnerable data out there.

  If you’ve followed the HelpSystems and PowerTech reports over the years, then you’ve likely been made award of the irony that lies at the heart of IBM i security. The contradiction is this: …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, May 9

  May 9, 2018 Dan Burger

  Regardless of what side of the “Millennial” divide you stand on, the discussion of ageism in IT never gets old. Though a strong argument can be made that tech is driven by youth, there is also much to be said for experience, especially when talking about a platform like the IBM i. As our beloved platform creeps closer to its 30^th anniversary, we can all agree that the IBM i needs young blood as much as it does the seasoned professional. This week, we take a look at some articles that tackle both side of the age issue.

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 20, Number 18

  May 9, 2018 Doug Bidwell

  We’ve got some new HIPER’s and Security group PTFs to share with you this week, plus we’ve added a few new links for your review. If you haven’t looked at the links tab in the guide before, make sure you take a peek. There is some good stuff out there.

  First up, there are several Temporary disk Space Recommended PTFs for V7R3 and V7R2, and of course we would advise it is always a good thing to put those on.

  V7R3	MF64447	SQE temporary storage allocation
  	MF64487	Database runtime temporary segment growth
  	SI67332	QDBRRCDL & QDBRJBRL API storage leak
  	SI67421

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• Keep Your IBM i Baby, Not The Bathwater

  May 7, 2018 Alex Woodie

  In the quest to modernize computer systems, some IBM i shops cease being IBM i shops. Wholesale migrations or complete rewrites of applications on different operating systems are sometimes necessary and beneficial, and sometimes they do more harm than good. When King III Solutions set out to enhance its advanced replenishment system, it managed to create a modern Web front-end that resonates with millennials without giving up its rock-solid IBM i back-end.

  Based in Marietta, Georgia, King III Solutions, or K3S, develops software that helps wholesale distributors and retailers better manage their inventory, in part through a collection of …

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• IBM Wheels And Deals To Boost Power System Sales

  May 7, 2018 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  A lot of the revenue that comes to the Power Systems division – and perhaps the bulk of it if history and the changed nature of the product line is any guide – comes from relatively big iron machines, at least by IBM i standards for what is little, middle, and big iron. And IBM needs to do something here in early 2018 to keep customers of big iron boxes investing while it prepares to ship machines with four sockets or more of the Power9 processors under a schedule that we told you about back in February and that seems …

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