• 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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• Mad Dog 21/21: Slim’s Simmering SIMs

  February 27, 2012 Hesh Wiener

  Carlos Slim Helú worth about $75 billion, might be the richest person in the world. One of many companies Slim and his children control is Mexico-based América Móvil, which spans the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 200 million mobile telephony customers. On Groundhog Day, Straight Talk, one of AM’s brands, aided by a cadre of phone unlockers and iPhone jailbreakers launched its assault on the USA’s cell phone business. For openers, it halved the cost of operating an iPhone. What will follow might do more than change carriers’ market shares. It could reshape the entire mobile client ecosystem. This

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• Thinking Strategically About IT As A Service

  February 27, 2012 Dan Burger

  Real change doesn’t come from the change machine, where a dollar will get you four quarters but it doesn’t change what you can buy with the money. The IBM midrange, on the other hand, could be in for some real change. I’m talking about the change that comes with consuming IT as a service instead of buying it as a product. Are we any closer to that happening than we were five years ago? Could be. Here’s why. Although it’s tempting to say it all comes down to money and saving it whenever and wherever you can, that’s not the

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• Xerox Launches IAAS Cloud for Power Systems, Intel Servers

  February 27, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Xerox is the latest company to roll out an infrastructure as a service (IAAS) cloud offering that includes support for IBM i workloads. Unveiled last month, Xerox Cloud Services enables small and midsized businesses to run their IBM i, AIX, Windows, and Linux applications on servers owned and managed by Xerox and its IT services arm, formerly called ACS. The $21 billion IT services and printing giant is also allowing partners to white label the cloud offering to their own clients. Most IBM i professionals know Xerox as a printer manufacturer, but the company has a much broader array of

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• The Application RISC Machine System/500

  February 27, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Let’s have a little fun here. Those of us who have made a living in the market for AS/400 systems and their progeny on down to the current Power Systems-IBM i platforms spend a lot of time looking back at the past and pointing out all of the innovations that IBM cooked up in the System/38 and AS/400 product lines since the dawn of the commercial computing era in the midrange. We spend a lot of time talking about keeping legacies alive, but we don’t spend enough time talking about building a new machine that will be worthy of being

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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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• 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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• 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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• RPG & DB2 Summit Picks Tipton for Keynote

  February 20, 2012 Dan Burger

  RPG & DB2 Summit Picks Tipton for Keynote System i Developer, the education and training firm that stages the twice yearly RPG & DB2 Summits, has selected Robert Tipton as the keynote speaker for the upcoming Summit scheduled for March 26 through 28 in Fort Worth, Texas. Tipton–a consultant, educator, and author–will discuss bringing innovation into business operations. Tipton is a seasoned veteran of the IBM i community, with involvement dating to the AS/400 days. He knows the territory well, which gives his message–a mixture of attitude adjustment, performance enhancement, and taking joy in what you do–added relevance. His

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• Jack Henry Says SilverLake Banking System Still Has It

  February 20, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Jack Henry & Associates is one of the largest peddlers of applications and services to small and large financial services institutions, and not only are the company’s Windows-based products doing well. So are its IBM i-based applications, known appropriately enough as the SilverLake System, after the internal IBM code-name for the AS/400 while that machine was in development. Apropos of nothing except a little excitement perhaps, Jack Henry put out a statement saying that in the past eight months, five mid-tier banks–meaning those with assets of between $1 billion and $20 billion–have opted to use the SilverLake System to run

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