• Updated RDi Keyboard Shortcuts

  January 12, 2016 Susan Gantner

  I’ve written tips about RSE/RDi keyboard shortcuts several times before. Readers of those tips will know that I created a downloadable list of my favorite keyboard shortcuts. I’ve updated the shortcut card fairly regularly and the most recent edition has recently become available. So if you have previously downloaded my shortcut card and found it useful, you may want to get the latest one here. This edition of the card includes a few new shortcuts, including a couple that are new for V9.5 of RDi. The first one is Ctrl+Alt+Q, a new V9.5 shortcut to bring up a dialog

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• ARCAD Sets Out To Modernize German Midrange

  January 11, 2016 Dan Burger

  In theory, modernization is an ongoing process. It’s the opposite of aging. And as we all know, getting old sucks. There are a lot of successful companies that have managed to postpone IT modernization. But eventually age takes its toll and that’s what we see happening in IBM midrange shops, where IT modernization is a big concern. Helping companies modernize is the reason ARCAD Software, the IBM i software vendor, is opening a subsidiary office in Germany. The IBM i market in Germany is estimated to be the largest in Europe. It is largely defined by a half dozen

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• As I See It: Asking The Right Question

  January 11, 2016 Victor Rozek

  Ah, a brand new year, blinding with possibility and so fresh with optimism it can make your eyes water. For most of us, it’s another opportunity to commit to resolutions that will never be kept beyond January. Nevertheless, for the next few weeks, sugar is the enemy, credit cards will be shredded, and every gym in America will be full of people testing the limits of Lycra. Making resolutions is the national binky, pacifying with false promise. And every January millions resolve to manage two of the more important aspects of their lives–fitness and finance–through a firm, if fleeting, commitment

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• Software Group Essentially Gone With Steve Mills Retirement

  January 11, 2016 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The old guard at Big Blue has been gradually retiring over the past several years, and one of the most influential leaders of IBM and one of the more intelligent, successful, and well-spoken of the company’s top brass, retired at the end of 2015. We are talking, of course, about Steve Mills, who ran the Software Group conglomerate for the past decade and a half. While it may not have been apparent to many of us on the outside, something was brewing during IBM’s reorganization this time last year, where a slew of new executives were given new divisions

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• 2016 Predictions For IBM i: Cautious Optimism

  January 11, 2016 Alex Woodie

  For the first time in many years, a cautious optimism seems to be creeping into the IBM i community. Driven by a somewhat vigorous Power8 server refresh cycle, which has at least given IBM server sales a pulse, Big Blue enjoyed last year the first consecutive quarters of revenue growth in what seemed like forever. Here’s our first batch of IBM i predictions from the community, edited for clarity and brevity. Stay tuned next week for another round of forecasts. Pete Massiello, president at iTech Solutions Group and immediate past president of COMMON “Could 2016 be the year that

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• Finding IBM i: A Game Of 40 Questions

  January 11, 2016 Dan Burger

  From the operating system to the programming languages to the expanding or contracting footprint of IBM i environments, we are learning more about the IBM midrange community from surveys conducted by HelpSystems, one of the largest of the IBM i independent software vendors (ISVs), and assisted by IT Jungle and PowerWire, two sources of IBM i news and analysis. Last week, the results of the second IBM i Marketplace Survey, based on the participation of 834 IBM i shops, were released. The IBM i is sometimes referred to as IBM’s best-kept secret. Unfortunately, that keeps many IT professionals,

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• Happy Holidays From IT Jungle

  December 9, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The weather may not know it in most of the Northern Hemisphere, but the holiday season will soon be fast upon us and that means it is time to put away the pens and keyboards here at IT Jungle and to spend some time with family and friends. The Four Hundred has been a part of the IBM midrange community almost as long as the AS/400 and its progeny have been around, and like the AS/400 itself, The Four Hundred has antecedents that have an even longer history. The point is, we have been listening and learning about the IBM

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• Clearing Up IBM i Security Confusion

  December 9, 2015 Alex Woodie

  IBM i is a mature operating system that gives enterprises several ways to accomplish tasks. But sometimes this richness can generate confusion over the best way to accomplish something. For example, when should you use adopted authority in your applications, and when should you use user profile swapping? IBM i security expert Carol Woodbury recently addressed some of these questions. “I will often get questions about things like adopted authority or swapping profiles, and what’s the difference or are they the same,” Woodbury, the former OS/400 security architect at IBM, said in a recent “Coffee with Carol” Webinar hosted

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• Modernization or Migration? Survey Aims to Sort Out the Direction

  December 9, 2015 Dan Burger

  When the IBM i Redbook on modernization was released in March 2014, it became the “all you ever wanted to know” guidebook for modernizing everything about an aging, neglected system–a road map for migrating IT environments designed for the world as we knew it 20 years ago to IT environments for 2015, 2020, and beyond. Where are we now? That’s what IBM i ISV Profound Logic hopes to answer with a new modernization survey for IBM midrange shops. There’s no one size fits all or a single way to do modernization that each organization can follow. There are many choices

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• The Secret to Award-Winning IBM i App Development

  December 9, 2015 Alex Woodie

  The British software house Proximity recently won a second industry award for its IBM i-based application, called STREAM. With demand for its modern logistics software growing, Proximity appears to have hit upon a winning formula that blends PHP, HTML, IBM i, and RPG. But what is the company’s secret to success? Proximity’s managing director Dave Pickburn recently shared the goods. Proximity first caught the eye of IT Jungle earlier this year when the company won the SHD Logistics Award 2015 for STREAM, the IBM i application that it developed and implemented for Scandinavian House, a small European furniture company. This

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