• N2i Gains Traction Among IBM i Newbies

  January 25, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The YiPS made a big push to inject youth into the IBM i community over a decade ago. But when the youthful vigor ran low, members of the community regrouped, re-energized, and rebranded into a new group called New to IBM i (N2i). And judging from N2i’s recent success, the group has hit on something.

  N2i has its roots in the YiPS, according to Marina Schwenk, who was a YiPS member back in the day and now is active in COMMON and the WMCPA. But there’s a crucial difference between N2i and YIPS, she says.

  “The group that we’re …

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• Realizing The Promise Of Cross Platform Development With VS Code

  January 25, 2023 Jeff Tickner

  An integrated development environment is like a tractor or a truck, or indeed any other kind of tool. There are farmers who want a tractor from John Deere or Ford or Massey-Ferguson, contractors who want a Ford or Dodge or GMC truck, and carpenters and electricians who use Dewalt or Milwaukee Electric or Makita cordless tools.

  No matter the choice of tools, ultimately these blue collar workers are going to farm and build things, and the choice of tool should not interfere with that effort. White collar – or far more likely no collar T shirt – programmers are no …

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• 2023 IBM i Predictions, Part 3

  January 25, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Security. Cloud. AI. The IBM i installed base moves with the general IT tide, which makes these hot topics for all. But what about specific IBM i things, like the availability of IBM i jobs and the difficulty in finding a good RPG developer? These are topics we are tackling in our third – and final – round of 2023 predictions.

  Bob Langieri, the IBM i recruiter who owns Excel Technical Services, has his pulse on the IBM i job situation, particularly in his Southern California region. 2023 looks to be a mixed bag, job-wise, he says.

  “In the …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, January 25

  January 25, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  Have you noticed there is national day for just about everything? Just in the month of January, we have national chocolate-covered cherry day, national bean day, national houseplant appreciation day, and national dress up your pet day, to name just a few. As it turns out, we are now in the middle of a week that our industry should probably be celebrating a little bit louder. Data privacy week, which runs from January 22 through 28, was created by the National Cybersecurity Alliance to help spread awareness about online privacy, and educates citizens on how to manage personal information, and …

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• Join The 2023 IBM i Marketplace Survey Webinar Tomorrow

  January 25, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last fall, many of you took part in the 9^th annual IBM i Marketplace Survey that is done by Fortra, formerly known as HelpSystems. And on Thursday, January 26, Fortra will host the webinar covering its results at 10 a.m. Eastern. A whole bunch of us will be on hand to present historical trends and analysis on those results.

  You can sign up for the webinar at this link, which is free and which will last for an hour.

  Among the many topics that will be covered are:

  • Power10 adoption and future plans
  • How organizations continue to

  …

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• It Is Time To Have A Group Chat About AI

  January 23, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The first rule of any technology is that is can be used for good or evil, but generally it is used for something vaguely in between. The second rule, rarely used, is that some technologies need to be tightly controlled because of the global-scale damage they can cause. Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion come immediately to mind. And so does the special branch of machine learning called deep learning, which most people call AI training these days.

  I can’t remember precisely when I first started writing about AI training and the neural networks and frameworks underneath them, but I wrote …

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• 2023 IBM i Predictions, Part 2

  January 23, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Two thousand twenty-three is shaping up to be a transition year of sorts in the IBM i community, with midrange Power10 servers hitting the market, IBM i 7.3 (finally) meeting its end, and an economic recession looming. We tapped our network of IBM i prognosticators to help fill in the particulars with part two in this annual series.

  There’s been a security awakening in the IBM i community, and Robin Tatam, director of security technologies with Fortra (formerly HelpSystems), sees that translating into greater security controls as threats to the IBM i proliferate in 2023.

  “The IBM i community is …

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• Multiple Vulnerabilities Pop Up In Navigator For i

  January 23, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Why do we network computers again? Remind me.

  A new security bulletin was released for the Navigator for i system management interface for the IBM i platform on January 18, which rolls up four different vulnerabilities for Navigator for i that leave it open to log file access, to obtaining file attributes, and to SQL Injection attacks due to multiple other vulnerabilities.

  You can read about this security bulletin at this link. The most severe of the issues is the SQL injection attack, which has a CVSS Base score of 6.3 out of 10. According to the bulletin: “IBM …

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• Participate In The 2023 IBM i Marketplace Survey Discussion

  January 23, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  It is late January, that means it is time for a discussion about the results of the 9^th annual IBM i Marketplace Survey. The survey is performed by Fortra, formerly known as HelpSystems, and the webinar talking about the results of the survey will be held on January 26 at 10 AM Eastern.

  You can sign up for the webinar at this link, which is free and which will last for an hour. Among the many topics that will be covered are:

  • Power10 adoption and future plans
  • How organizations continue to support remote workforces
  • The trend towards

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 4

  January 23, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Here are some reminders to start off the IBM i PTF Guide this week.

  First, there are new releases for Access Client Solutions and the ODBC database driver. (See ACS_NAV in the Guide for the links.) The funny bit – funny odd, not funny hilarious – is that version 26 of ACS did not allow companies to create a database source for ODBC, which is serious shortcoming. Now, there is a new version 27 that will let you do it. Here is the updated software:

  Description				   Version
  IBM i Access Client Solutions (1.1.9.1)	   1.1.9.1
  ACS Windows App Pkg English (64bit)	   

  …

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