The Four Hundred Archives - Page 530 of 1511

IFSPOP–Another (And A Better) IFS Interface

August 7, 2013 Hey, Ted

Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here.

I read your article, Another IFS Interface, and I agree with you that IBM‘s green-screen solutions leave a lot to be desired. I got so fed up with WRKLNK, and the even more obtuse WRKFLR, that I wrote my own solution. It’s nothing fancy, but it is a lot better than what exists. It’s a green-screen solution written in RPG.

I modeled it after POP, one of my favorite tools, from the System/36 days. The idea, like POP of old, is that if there is something

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SQL and Invalid Decimal Data

August 7, 2013 Ted Holt

I’m sure no reader of this august publication likes decimal data errors. One single such error can ruin an entire day. The wise programmer uses tools and techniques to keep invalid numeric data from becoming a problem. One such tool that you can use to find and fix invalid data is SQL.

Assume that a physical file has a customer account number stored as seven digits packed decimal, with no decimal positions. Suppose there are one or more blank records in the physical file. You query the file by customer number, like this:

select * from baddata
where customerid =

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Admin Alert: Budgeting For Your Next Power Systems Upgrade

August 7, 2013 Joe Hertvik

If you’re acquiring a new Power systems machine in 2014, you may be preparing your capital budget right now. However, there’s more to purchasing a Power system running IBM i (Power i) than just a good purchase price. This week, I’ll look at some other expenses you may encounter when buying new hardware, and what you can do to budget correctly and minimize those costs.

Budget For Operating Expenses, As Well As Capital

A frequent Power i purchasing mistake is that companies sometimes make sure they have enough capital budget for new or upgraded machines, but they forget to budget

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IBM Dresses Up The Power 750+ In A Linux-Only Tuxedo

August 5, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Big Blue wants a much bigger piece of the $10 billion annual Linux server business, and it is rolling out a fatter version of its Power7+ server lineup in the PowerLinux line to chase big Java, database, and analytics workloads. The new machine, called the PowerLinux 7R4, is a Linux-only version of the four-socket Power 750+ server that was announced back in February along with a revamped entry Power7+ server line and an even fatter Power 760+ machine.

Like other PowerLinux machines, the new PowerLinux 7R4 is designed specifically to compete head-to-head with Intel Xeon E5 and E7 machines in

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Big Blue Chops PureSystems CPU And Memory Prices

August 5, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

With the Power Systems business and the System x business not growing in the most recent quarters, I have been expecting IBM to start testing the elasticity of pricing on its plain vanilla Power and X86 boxes as well as on the PureSystems modular systems to stimulate a little business. IBM has not made a lot of pricing changes this year, but did last week on its PureSystems line as part of a third quarter push.

Specifically, in announcement letter 313-060 on July 31, IBM tweaked the prices on X86 processors used in the Flex x220, x240, and x440 processor

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A New IBM i Team Is Needed

August 5, 2013 Dan Burger

Sparks will fly when application development teams get this news. Someone set the stun gun for high voltage. Let the yowling begin. Management has decided that following an IT strategy that was begun in the last century is not appropriate for this one and a decision has been made to move from application centric development to data centric development. IBM midrange shops shudder at the thought of this, but here’s a scenario where it could come to pass.

Mergers and acquisitions have put a small to midsize company into a much bigger arena. And in this hypothetical situation let’s say

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As I See It: Hot Fun In The Summertime

August 5, 2013 Victor Rozek

Ah, summer! The weekends are yours and they’re finally worth having. Guys are manning their BBQs, watchful as captains at the helm, and the siren scent of burning meat is wafting across the land. Coolers stand packed with iced beer, shoes give way to flip-flops, and the couch competes for lounging time with the patio furniture. The travails of the workplace fade until they become little more than necessary annoyances that put meat on the grill.

Women often mistakenly believe that summer is the time to tackle that long list of home improvement projects put off since the Pleistocene. But

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IBM Names New GMs For Power Systems And System z

August 5, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Back in May, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty switched the roles of her chief strategist and the head of Systems and Technology Group, and the changes are now rippling through the various IBM server divisions.

As The Four Hundred previously reported, Tom Rosamilia and Rod Adkins switched desks. Adkins had been running Systems and Technology Group for the past couple of years, and Rosamilia, who used to work for Adkins as general manager of the System z business and then the additional Power Systems business unit within Systems and Technology Group, was tapped by Rometty to be vice president of corporate

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Modern RPG Tops List of Essential Skills

August 5, 2013 Dan Burger

For the past six weeks, IT Jungle has encouraged readers to take a brief survey that would measure the boundaries and intensity of the IBM i skills shortage. Jim Buck, the tenacious outrider for IBM i education, is monitoring the survey responses and last week he emailed me to report the number of IBM midrange shops participating in the survey now totals 111. He also provided some indicators of areas of widespread concern.

At the top of the most wanted list was advanced RPG skills. You might think that with so many RPG programmers in the IBM i community, and

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IBM i 7.2 Sighted At The iDoctor

August 5, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

We all know that the next update to the IBM i operating system, release 7.2, is coming to market sometime in 2014. But it may be sooner than we think.

Last week, on August 1, IBM updated its iDoctor for IBM i performance tools, which are used to collect and analyze performance data on Power Systems machines running the grandchild of the venerable OS/400 operating system. And check it out: