• Sun Shareholders Vote to Sell to Oracle

  July 20, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The deed is done, the die is cast, and unless the antitrust regulators in the United States or Europe throw a spanner in the works, the deal is going to be signed on the dotted line. I am referring, of course, to software powerhouse Oracle‘s $5.6 billion acquisition of server, storage, and operating system maker Sun Microsystems. Last Thursday morning, shareholders of Sun gathered in its Santa Clara, California, headquarters and voted on the proposed acquisition of Sun by Oracle. And 62 percent of the aggregate shares were tendered in favor of the deal, which means that Oracle,

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• IBM Cranks Out Power Systems i Redbooks

  July 20, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If you are one of the many OS/400, i5/OS, and i shops that are considering a move to Power-based blade servers, here’s a little reading assignment for you. In fact, there’s some homework that just about every i shop can do to brush up on the current Power Systems line, thanks to IBM‘s Redbook technical publishing unit. On the blade front, IBM just published the BladeCenter JS23 and JS43 Implementation Guide on July 2 (with some updates last week already), which is a tutorial explaining how to set up i 6.1, AIX, Linux and the Virtual I/O Server to

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• Criminal Enterprise or Legit Business? It Can Be Hard to Tell, Cisco Says

  July 20, 2009 Alex Woodie

  In its recently released mid-year security review, Cisco Systems makes the case that online criminals are using more sophisticated tools and methods of attack, and are increasingly using legitimate business techniques to mask their nefarious goals. A good example of this evolution was on display with Conficker, a worm that began circulating in late 2008 and that continues to infect computers to this day. When Conficker surfaced late last year and blossomed into the biggest computer worm in more than five years, it took security experts a bit by surprise, according to Cisco, which documented the technology and techniques behind

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• Pat Townsend Secure with New President

  July 20, 2009 Dan Burger

  Patrick Townsend Security Solutions (PTSS), one of the best-known security software developers in the IBM i OS market, has hired John Earl as its president and chief executive officer. Earl is one of the i community’s most familiar faces. He’s the former chief technology officer and a vice president at PowerTech (a company he founded with others) and a long-time volunteer at the COMMON user group, where he has served on the board of directors and is currently a security subject matter expert for that organization. His IT career spans nearly 30 years. Patrick Townsend, PTSS founder and president until

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• The Case of the Missing .NET Data Provider for i5/OS in Visual Studio 2008

  July 15, 2009 Michael Sansoterra

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. Like most people, I hate purchasing something only to find out a piece is missing. If you’ve been merrily rolling along with Visual Studio (VS) 2005 and recently upgraded to 2008, or if you’ve started tinkering with some .NET tutorials with VS 2008, you may have noticed something odd. There’s a piece missing! The .NET Data Provider for i5/OS that comes with V6R1 System i Access does not appear as an option in the Visual Studio 2008 data source configuration wizard. (This tip only applies to the V6R1

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• Are MOVE and MOVEL Obsolete?

  July 15, 2009 Ted Holt

  I’ve been writing free-format RPG calculations for several years now, yet I still find myself missing a couple of old friends. No, I don’t mean GOTO and TAG. I refer to MOVE and MOVEL. Usually I can find a way to avoid them, but occasionally, it gets a bit difficult. For example, suppose I read an eight-digit numeric field that identifies a customer. Into this field are loaded two pieces of information. The first two digits are a company number. The last six digits contain a customer number. (This is by no means far-fetched; we have been doing this sort

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• Restoring Spooled File Data After a System Restore

  July 15, 2009 Hey, Joe

  I recently performed a complete i5/OS system restore, using my weekly system save and a current daily backup. During the restore, I cleared and restored my user libraries from the daily backup, except for the QUSRSYS or QGPL libraries, which were current. However, once we start saving output queues on i5/OS V5R4 (we’re still on V5R3), how should I restore QUSRSYS and QGPL, where our output queues reside? –Rich Although QUSRSYS and QGPL technically aren’t IBM libraries, on most systems they usually contain some user and third-party objects. Looking at one of my systems, here’s what I found in QGPL:

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• JDA Plots Course Forward for MMS, and–Surprise–It’s Java

  July 15, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Retailers that rely on JDA Software‘s i OS-based Merchandise Management System (MMS) have several updates to look forward to in the coming months. While MMS customers will have to wait a bit longer than originally expected for the new GUI in MMS 7.5 that JDA showcased at its user conference this spring, the software giant is already scoping out a version 7.6, which is currently targeted for 2011. The company also clarified its long-term strategy for MMS customers, which is contingent on the Java-based framework obtained with Manugistics. JDA originally planned to ship MMS 7.5 last month. The biggest

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• Cicero Evolves Application Integration through Desktop Automation

  July 14, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Enterprise application integration is one of those painfully complex IT topics that people tend to shy away from. Want a sure-fire way to clear out a business meeting or induce sudden narcosis? Start debating the merits of various object request broker architectures. One IT vendor that’s trying to make enterprise integration more approachable is Cicero, a North Carolina outfit that develops a desktop automation product that offers a non-invasive way to connect applications running on all types of platforms, System i included. Neil Crane, director of product development for Cicero, has lots of experience dealing with the physical and

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• Phantom Targets UDO Customers Following Plasmon Bankruptcy

  July 14, 2009 Alex Woodie

  System i shops that installed ultra density optical (UDO) storage technology from the bankrupt company Plasmon may be left wondering where to get service and media for their UDO investments. One option is Alliance Storage Technologies, which bought Plasmon’s assets in January, but which is not honoring old Plasmon maintenance contracts. Another option is former Plasmon partner Phantom Data Systems, which sells optical storage systems that, like UDO, is based on Blu-ray technology. The details surrounding the demise of U.K.-based Plasmon are a bit murky. What is clear is that, in October 2008, Plasmon Ltd. went into administration,

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