The Four Hundred Archives - Page 579 of 1510

As I See It: Success, The Career Killer

January 14, 2013 Victor Rozek

“I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” Better yet to be a success at something you love and to remain lucid and funny past your hundredth birthday. But Naftaly Birnbaum was an anomaly. He knew what he wanted to do by age seven. Talent and singular focus propelled a career that spanned vaudeville, radio, television, and film. By the time of his death, he was a national icon best known by his adopted stage name, George Burns.

Characterizing career success can be as elusive

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IBM Splits Global Services Again As Mike Daniels Steps Down As GM

January 14, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

A year ago, after taking the helm of IBM, Ginni Rometty reshuffled some executive assignments, and one of the things she did after moving up and out of the company’s Global Services and sales organizations to become the company’s CEO was to get executives in place for the eventual retirement of her former peer at Global Services, general manager Mike Daniels. As 2013 got started, Rometty let IBMers know in an internal memo that Global Services was being split into two bits again, that was because Daniels was retiring on March 31.

Several years ago, before it was clear

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North American IT Budgets Stalled By Economic Issues

January 14, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Like the rest of us, the analysts at Computer Economics want to know what IT shops are planning to do in terms of capital and operational spending this year. And so the company did a survey in the fourth quarter to take the pulse at IT shops around the world, which in North America at least were jittery because of the elections and the looming Fiscal Cliff issues in the United States.

The survey is the basis of the company’s Outlook for IT Spending and Staffing in 2013 report, which was just released. Computer Economics did in-depth surveys of

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IT Salaries In North America To Creep Up A Bit In 2013

January 14, 2013 Jenny Thomas

Most of us who have managed to stay employed during the last few years of tough economic times are just grateful to be working. Economic unrest has forced companies to drastically downsize or completely shut down, and IT departments have not been spared as many businesses struggle to survive. In many ways, the IT department has done better than other parts of companies, thanks to the ubiquity and necessity of computing, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been stress.

The good news is that IT pros will see an improvement in pay this year, according to the 2013 IT Salary

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The IBM Patent Machine Keeps A-Cranking In 2012

January 14, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

It has been so long since IBM was not the company at the top of the list of firm issued utility patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that no one can remember who used to be at the top. With the rankings for 2012, Big Blue has been the undisputed leader since 1992, when it was in the middle of both a recession and an identity crisis and yet kept investing in research and development.

As we explain every year when this story rolls around in January, the USPTO stopped doing official counts and publicizing the number of

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Job Board For IBM i Talent Powers Up

January 14, 2013 Dan Burger

Finally, the day has come: IBM i shops on the search for young talent have a dedicated job board to turn to. We have been hearing for years how companies have a difficult time locating people with the specific skills to take on entry-level jobs. There have been fears that the talent pool was drying up. At the same time, colleges teaching IBM i skills as part of their computer science curriculum have not always been successful in placing graduates with companies that had job openings. It has been a frustrating disconnect.

A job board has been on the IBM

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RPG & DB2 Summit Adds Analytics, BI To Agenda

January 14, 2013 Dan Burger

RPG & DB2 Summit Adds Analytics, BI To Agenda

The RPG & DB2 Summit, a twice-annual, subject-focused conference hosted by System i Developer, will take place March 19 through 21 in Atlanta, Georgia. The event is billed as “an interactive, total-immersion experience to RPG and DB2 for i developers who want to stay abreast of the latest advancements and learn how to apply specific RPG and DB2 techniques to keep their software applications vibrant and innovative.” Registration is now open.

The RPG and DB2 topics covered include RPG IV, ILE, and modular programming; embedded SQL, DB2 for i capabilities,

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What’s New With CPYFRMIMPF And CPYTOIMPF?

January 9, 2013 Michael Sansoterra

As my years as a developer whiz by, I often find myself ignorant of the newest features available. For example, I’ve used the Copy From Import File (CPYFRMIMPF) and Copy To Import File (CPYTOIMPF) commands so often that I just became (as my old boss used to say) “fat, dumb, and happy” when using them, not realizing IBM has added new features since the time I first studied these commands. I’ll briefly share a few of the relatively recent enhancements to these commands.

First of all, in i7.1 Technology Refresh 5 (TR5), CPYTOIMPF has been enhanced with a new parameter

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Tracing Routines Explain Why The Computer Did What It Did

January 9, 2013 Ted Holt

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

Every week someone asks me why the computer did what it did. For instance, not long ago a buyer asked me why the computer did not send our requirements for a certain item to the vendor who supplies the item. I started digging through the program that generates the files we send to vendors. Then I realized there was a better way. Let me tell you about it.

In many shops, business rules are embedded in source code. Sometimes rules are hard-coded. I’ve seen code that directly referred

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Admin Alert: Four Things To Do For Your IBM i In 2013

January 9, 2013 Joe Hertvik

A new year always brings new challenges in administering your IBM i machines. Here are the top four things on my 2013 calendar that IBM i shops should look at in 2013, starting this month.

#1: Check Your Job Scheduling Date Objects In January

If you haven’t already done so, look at any date-dependent job processing objects on your system and change them to ensure that they will still work correctly in 2013. These objects might include: