• IBM Tweaks Power Systems Rebate Deals Once Again

  February 13, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Those marketeers at IBM are at it again, jiggering and rejiggering their Power Systems deals. Two on-again, off-again deals that Big Blue has been running for years were modified last week. The Power Systems First In Location rebate deal was modified in announcement letter 312-018. This deal was last tweaked in June last year, when IBM added and subtracted the machines that could be acquired as well as the ISV applications that could be acquired to be eligible for the deal. This time around, the Power7 Gen2 machines that have PCI-Express 2.0 peripheral slots–the entry and high-end machines that

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• Tech Spending Up 9 Percent In 2011, But Slowing In 2012

  February 13, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There are a lot of prognostications and predictions this time of year about what the new year will hold in terms of IT spending and shifts of focus for the IT department as it copes with changes in the business environment. It is tough to get a complete picture sitting as you do at your desk, which is why we keep our eyes out for what the Wizards of IT say about the future. The latest predictions are coming out of IDC, which has just updated its Worldwide Black Book, its mother-of-all reports that shows IT spending diced

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• Paul Schlieben: Founder, SoftLanding Systems, 1945-2012

  February 13, 2012 Dan Burger

  You sometimes learn a lot of life’s lessons from a person you work with, work for, and even sometimes compete against. Those who knew Paul Schlieben through his company have great praise for him. Not just as a boss or a successful businessman, but as the head of a family. He made his business his family. His employees, his customers, his associates and colleagues, and, I think, even his competitors recognized he was something special. It encompassed being a smart businessman of solid character, a friend, a mentor, and a person of great thoughtfulness. His passing last Thursday leaves many

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• Oracle Rejects Damages from SAP, Opts For TomorrowNow Retrial

  February 13, 2012 Alex Woodie

  Here we go again. Last week, Oracle–still hoppin’ mad that a Federal judge reduced by more than $1 billion the damages awarded from its civil suit against SAP and its now-defunct TomorrowNow subsidiary–formally rejected the $272 million from SAP and requested that a new trial be granted in the case, which began nearly five years ago. A jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages in November 2010, a figure that was appealed by SAP. The German software giant had admitted in late 2007 that TomorrowNow had acted inappropriately (it shut down the third-party support unit in 2008), and all

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• Mad Dog 21/21: The Codd Piece

  February 13, 2012 Hesh Wiener

  IBM used to boast that its mainframes and their DBMS packages manage most of the world’s business and government records. Maybe that’s still true. There are, however, other contenders for that distinction. One is Oracle. And then there’s the little DBMS that holds more data than DB2 and Oracle combined: SQLite. It will be installed in more than a half billion systems this year alone. Like DB2 and Oracle, SQLite is relational fruit of the tree planted by Ted Codd. It’s software as a component. It’s open source. It’s rock solid. And it’s turning computing on its

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• The Storage Cocktail Is Blended, Not Shaken

  February 13, 2012 Dan Burger

  I’ll bet very few of you have ever heard of the George Crump strategy. Well, that’s about to change. At least for those of you who are curious what a storage analyst has to say about the IBM midrange market. Crump is president of a technology assessment company called Storage Switzerland, a company that evaluates and reports on products, the technology inside the products, and the organizations that are current and potential customers. There are many storage strategies to consider, and Crump began our conversation last week by explaining that he believes in a blend. So you are not

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• IBM Sunsets i5/OS V5R4 Again–For Real This Time

  February 13, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  If any iteration of the OS/400-i5/OS-IBM i platform could be said to have lived long and prospered, it is i5/OS V5R4, often now called IBM i 5.4 although that was not its original name. This release, which was announced on April 10, 2007, has had a long life among the OS/400 family of operating systems not only because it was a good, solid OS, but because the msove to the more recent IBM i 6.1 and 7.1 required a program conversion process customers either couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. But last week, in announcement letter 912-011, IBM

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• Big Blue To Bring Live Migration To IBM i 7.1

  February 13, 2012 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  While talking about the sunsetting of support for the i5/OS V5R4, also known as IBM i 5.4, operating system last week, which you can read about elsewhere in this issue of The Four Hundred, Ian Jarman, manager of Power Systems software at IBM, said that Big Blue was going to deliver something for IBM i that all virtualized operating systems in the 21st century need: live migration of virtual machines or logical partitions from one physical server to another. Jarman was talking about how well-received the Technology Refresh process was for updating the IBM i 7.1 operating system,

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• Admin Alert: QSECOFR Security Problems I Have Known

  February 8, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  Handling the QSECOFR user profile is always problematic. On one hand, it’s essential for the smooth operation of your system. Conversely, it can be a major issue if someone discovers its password. This week, I’ll review some real-life QSECOFR security breaches I’ve encountered and what can be done if you encounter these situations in your shop. Real-Life QSECOFR Security Situations A lot of strange things can occur with QSECOFR usage. Here are some common situations I’ve run into over the years and what can be done, if you encounter them. 1. Situation: Your IBM i administrator doesn’t change the QSECOFR

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• Using JSON and RPG To Create Interactive Web 2.0 Applications

  February 8, 2012 Alex Roytman

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. In my last article, Meet JSON, I introduced you to the concept of JavaScript Object Notation and how it’s changing the way Web applications are being built. Let’s explore JSON syntax a little further by building a really simple customer inquiry Web application. The code can be downloaded here. This application consists of three simple parts: CustInq.html–Simple HTML page to ask for customer number and present customer information CUSTINQ.rpgle–RPG/CGI program to output customer information in JSON format CustInq.js–JavaScript code to facilitate the communication between the RPG

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