• More Vintage Power Systems Feature Withdrawals

  January 11, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In with the new and out with the old is a common theme around this time of the year. It may not be officially spring yet – in fact, we are 71 days away from the vernal equinox here in the northern hemisphere – but Spring Cleaning can and does happen at any time in the IBM product catalog.

  And so it was as 2020 was coming to an end and after we had out the last issue of The Four Hundred for last year to bed.

  In announcement letter 920-167, IBM is withdrawing a number of different features …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 1

  January 11, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  This is the first IBM i PTF Guide of 2021, so we wish everyone a Happy New Year and we are declaring here and now that 2021 will be a better year than 2020, and as it is written, so let it be done.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • TCP/IP

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • TCP/IP

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • TCP/IP

  PTF Groups 7.1:

  • Nothing, as is usually the case unless something really funky is going on. And considering that Big Blue is now supporting IBM i 7.1 on logical partitions on Power9

  …

  Read more

• Paving The Road Ahead For A Better Ride

  January 4, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We always sit behind the wheel of the present as we drive to the future with our baggage from the past in the trunk.

  It is with this in mind that we contemplate 2021 and the uncertainty of regional, national, and global economies as well as how the coronavirus pandemic will be handled around the world in some pretty tricky political climates. These forces will affect all IBM i customers, of course, and we are not so much interested in describing all of these complex turbulences as they intertwine. What we do want to do is provide a few ideas …

  Read more

• Let IT Flow: The Benefits Of Endless Modernization

  January 4, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The “big bang” approach has been falling out of favor for some time in the world of IT project management. Now, according to new research from Micro Focus, organizations that embrace the concepts of continual improvement, or “endless modernization,” of legacy applications achieve better results than those that attempt a wholesale replacement or a full rewrite of them.

  The research was conducted by Standish Group, which Micro Focus contracted to write Endless Modernization: How Infinite Flow Keeps Software Fresh, which was released in early December. The study builds on Standish’s longstanding Chaos Report series, which seeks to document …

  Read more

• Guru: SQL and QTEMP

  January 4, 2021 Ted Holt

  Hey, Ted.

  For many years IBM i developers, operators, and others have taken advantage of an operating system feature called the QTEMP library. Through the years you have referenced it various times in IT Jungle as a useful feature of IBM i. I recently read an article in which a respected IBM expert from the Rochester lab services team told people not to use the QTEMP library when working in SQL. It would be very interesting if you could dive into this topic and explain when/if there is still a time and place for QTEMP. I think a lot of …

  Read more

• Four Hundred Monitor, January 4

  January 4, 2021 Jenny Thomas

  Welcome back! When last we were together, we were all eagerly anticipating the end of a very long and arduous year. Now we find ourselves in the new year with a bit of renewed hope for a return to some sense of the normalcy, although we must continue to tread carefully toward that goal. As we hang up our new calendars, we have the opportunity to look ahead about what may come to pass in the next 12 months. Last year, the prognosticators didn’t do such a great job since nothing went according to plan. But still it is fun …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Numbers 51 And 52

  January 4, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to the new year, everyone, but we have some old business to attend to before we get on with 2021. With The Four Hundred being on hiatus since the middle of December, now is the time of the year when we get caught up on the past IBM i PTF Guide updates.

  Let’s start with Volume 22, Number 51. Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPER’s (High Impact/Pervasive)

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • HIPER’s (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • MQ for IBM i – v7.1.0/v8.0.0/V9.0.0/V9.1/V9.2

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • HIPER’s (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • MQ for IBM i

  …

  Read more

• A Chat With Steve Woodard, The New CEO At Fresche Solutions

  December 16, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Here is one way you know that the IBM i market is still a good one. Smart people who like to make money, and in fact have to make money for their investors, keep buying up the big players in the software spaces related to the IBM i platform, and they are also successively profiting from those acquisitions and those sales as they create big conglomerates that serve the IBM i community.

  So it is American Pacific Group (APG) has become the majority shareholder in Fresche Solutions, which is based in Montreal and which is without question the largest company …

  Read more

• The Prickly Pear Of Auto ID For IBM i

  December 16, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Good companies can batten down the hatches and pilot their enterprise through rough economic waters, but great companies identify opportunities and successfully pursue them whether or not times are good or bad. It takes a bit of pliability to be adaptable enough to not just accept change, but to embrace it, and also to be certain enough of your company and its customers to build a core user base and just serve those customers relentlessly with steady improvements. This is a tough balancing act, but if you look at the case studies, you find this balance is what gives companies …

  Read more

• Happy Holidays From IT Jungle

  December 16, 2020 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  During a normal holiday season, family and friends are our refuge from the adversities and tribulations of the world. And this year, we need our people more than ever and we can’t have them.

  It’s peculiar, and we all have similar stories of how we cannot see and embrace the people who we are closest to because we have to quarantine. It is hard to say if we are overreacting or not, but for many of us, there is a small margin of error and so we err on the side of caution.

  For those of you who have lost …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles