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Reader Feedback On: Big Blue Pulls The Plug And As I See It: Overrated

February 27, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

On Big Blue Pulls The Plug On IBM i Discount Deal:

Mr. Tim:

The withdrawal of the 40 percent off user pricing for IBM i was not a big deal. The original 311-171 announcement clearly said that the intention was to encourage customers to move from older machines, not targeted at net new. They had already announced the ability of installed user based machines to move all their users along with an IBM i license for $5,000. Solution Edition machines provide 70 percent off user pricing (as you pointed out). Remember that you can write your own apps and

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looksoftware Hosts

February 27, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

i Believe Event Ahead of COMMON

If you were thinking of heading out to California a little early to play at Disneyland before the COMMON midrange user group meeting and expo, then application modernization tool maker looksoftware is hosting a special event ahead of COMMON that will probably pique your interest.

The COMMON event is being hosted May 6 through 9 at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and will presumably feature the top brass from IBM‘s Power Systems division as it always does. (Although with a little more emphasis on AIX as has been happening over the past

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Nips And Tucks For IBM Power Systems Trade-In Rebate Deal

February 27, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

This long-running Power Systems Trade-In deal from IBM has had more modifications than a badly written novel. But the fact that IBM keeps on tweaking the deal shows that it is changing the Power Systems product line enough to warrant the changes, which is a good thing.

The Power Systems Trade-In deal gives customers with earlier generations of AS/400, iSeries, and System i machines, as well as pSeries and System p boxes, a cash-rebate that ranges from a low of $250 on a PS700 blade server to a high of $120,000 on a loaded up Power 795 big bad box.

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Magic Posts Mad Profit Surge, Declares FY11 ‘Best Ever’

February 27, 2012 Alex Woodie

This is a great time to be Magic Software Enterprises. The application development and integration tool maker, which was all but written off several years ago, continued its comeback recently when it announced its financial results for 2011, which were the company’s best ever.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, Magic reported a 22 percent increase in revenue, to $30.5 million, and a 42 percent increase in net income, to $4.4 million. For fiscal year 2011, the company reported a 28 percent increase in revenue, to $113.3 million, and a whopping 60 percent in net income, to $15

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Application Maintenance Outsourcing Is On The Rise

February 27, 2012 Dan Burger

Like a horror movie sequel, the outsourcing of application maintenance work has brushed off the dirt of its would-be grave and is on the prowl again, thirsty for the blood of programmers here in the USA. Outsourcing never really died. It just fell off the pace that was being set prior to 2009, when the trend stumbled rather badly thanks to the Great Recession.

According to a recently released study by Computer Economics, the number of organizations that are outsourcing application maintenance work has risen during the past two years to near pre-recession levels.

After a peek at this

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bsearch: Partial Key Searches and More

February 22, 2012 Jon Paris

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

In bsearch: A Better %LOOKUP, I mentioned that bsearch permits us to do a partial key lookup (i.e., a lookup that is based on just a portion of the search field). Since bsearch performs a binary search, it will not necessarily return the first matching element in the array. If we need to handle all matching elements then we have to be able to locate the first match in the array, and then process subsequent matching elements.

Before we jump into the mechanics of how to do

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Prompt Control Controls Parsimonious Command Prompting

February 22, 2012 Ted Holt

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

I like everything to be as simple as possible. Call me parsimonious, but I agree with my friend Cletus the Codeslinger, who says, “When something’s complicated, somebody’s trying to get your money.” One way to simplify CL command prompting is to show relevant parameters only. Here’s how that’s done.

By default, prompting a CL command shows all parameters, even though some of them may not be applicable to what the user is trying to accomplish. The Prompt Control Definition (PMTCTL) keyword allows you to prompt for a parameter

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Why Can’t I Access My Remote System’s AS/400 IFS?

February 22, 2012 Hey, Joe

I’m trying to create a QFileSvr.400 link between two of my IBM i machines. I created the link on my local machine just like I’m supposed to. But when I open the link to access AS/400 Integrated File System (AS/400 IFS) objects on my remote machine, it gives me a Not Authorized To Object error. What’s going on here?

–Wil

Background on QFileSvr.400

Before I answer Wil’s question, here’s some background information on the QFileSvr.400 file system. If you’re already familiar with QFileSvr.400, skip ahead to the answers section.

The QFileSvr.400 file system is a unique IBM i machine construct.

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IBM i Tech Refresh Coming This Spring

February 20, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

If this were a normal and historical operating system update for OS/400 or i5/OS, this lead story in The Four Hundred would be talking about how AS/400 and iSeries shops would have to brace themselves for a new operating system version that is coming out. But as it turns out, IBM‘s new Technology Refresh approach to sliding in new features and hardware support for IBM i is a lot less dramatic.

That doesn’t mean Technology Refreshes, of which we have had three in the past year and a half or so, are unimportant. You can be important without being

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Big Blue Pulls The Plug On IBM i Discount Deal

February 20, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM, like most retailers of capital goods, has to use a combination of carrots and sticks to encourage customers to spend money on new systems or upgrades, particularly when the economy is as dicey as the current ones in parts of North America and Europe still seem to be. Sometimes there’s a real stick–like the threat that an operating system will no longer be available–and sometimes there’s the withdrawal of the carrot, which feels like a stick when it hits you.

In the wake of IBM’s announcement last week of the sunsetting of the i5/OS V5R4 operating system release

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