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NEWS Wire Daily Is Taking a Holiday!
NEWS Wire Daily is taking a vacation next week to celebrate Independence Day. Regular publication will resume Monday, July 10. We wish you a safe and happy holiday!
On "Out of Context: Shortage of Interest in IT"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52602
**FROM ALAN G. CAMPIN, via the Web:
Geez, I wonder why [there's a shortage of interest in IT at the college level] when our own government is doing everything it can to export every IT job it can out of the country! You, too, can get an education, learn a trade, and help transfer your knowledge to an outsourced employee before you, too, become unemployed.
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MB Software
Visit the iSeries Network Solutions Library to access this FREE journal analysis and optimization white paper sponsored by MB Software. A detailed analysis of your journal receiver transactions can provide significant opportunities to improve application performance and reduce hardware costs on your iSeries and AS/400 systems. Go to the iSeries Solutions Library now!
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Internet Gender Gap
- 45 — The percentage of women whose work computer has been infected with spyware from an Internet Web site.
- 35 — The percentage of men whose work computer has been infected with spyware from an Internet Web site.
- 64 — The percentage of women who seek IT help for their spyware–infected work computers.
- 30 — The percentage of men who seek IT help for their spyware–infected work computers.
- 14 — The percentage of women who use instant messaging for personal use at work.
- 20 — The percentage of men who use instant messaging for personal use at work.
- 11 — The percentage of women who play PC games while at work.
- 7 — The percentage of men who play PC games while at work.
- 1.5 — The average number of work hours women spend each week accessing non-work-related Web sites.
- 2.3 — The average number of work hours men spend each week accessing non–work–related Web sites.
Source: Websense Inc. 7th Annual Web@Work study
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iSeries Network
Beginning Wednesday, July 19, Sharon Hoffman's e–class teaches what XML is, the basics of XML syntax, how to use XML to make your applications more adaptable, and more! This iSeries Network e–Learning class is $299 for ProVIP Members; click here for more information and to register.
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On "Out of Context: The Man IBM Marketing Forgot"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52343
**FROM JEFF COLEMAN, via the Web:
Steve sounds like one of those shortsighted IT guys who don't really understand the concept of "Total Cost of Ownership." The iSeries system is a transactional–processing monster that can't be beat. Reports and pretty pictures are great for the replacement system, but what are they going to show if they can't process the workload of the transactions?
**FROM KENNETH ANDERSON, via e-mail:
The hardware may be 10 years old, but when you've set the bar at its highest level to begin with, it's going to take 10 years just for others to catch up. When will other vendors provide 64–bit architecture? It's been in the '400 since 1996, and now IBM competitors are introducing it as a new concept. By the time they get there in 2007, IBM will have moved even further beyond. I could match feature to feature like this for two days.
By the way, if folks are questioning why they have to hire a third party to extract information from a '400, they may want to determine if they have the skills on staff to run an IT group. Excel sure is easy to use once someone has shown you how. Try using it without any education. Does that mean we should scrap Excel as a spreadsheet tool because someone who has never used it can't create a spreadsheet?
On "10–Second Survey: Should IBM Rename RPG?"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52356
**FROM WAYNE PFEIFFER, via e–mail:
I am a longtime Cobol programmer, although I currently spend most of my non–PC–support time in RPG. I sometimes think IBM is monitoring old Cobol programmers, waiting for the last one to enter the FINISH oval in life's flow chart. Then, with no one to know the difference, IBM will dust off the latest version of Cobol, rename it RPGi or iRPG, and proclaim it to be the latest in legacy programming languages. Oh,I know, Cobol is wordy, but when was the last time any programmer wrote a complete program from scratch? Compare the time it takes to debug a Cobol program with the last time you had to modify an RPG III program where the original author (long gone) managed to use all 126 of the 99 available indicators.
With RPG Free, longer variable names, new op codes, and other enhancements, RPG continues to resemble Cobol more with each new release.
On "Out of Context: End of an Era"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52738
**FROM RICHARD KISH, via e–mail:
Why is it that so many people feel that software should be free? Or should be advertiser–supported? Newsflash: There is not enough ad revenue in all of advertising to support a Microsoft, and why should they? Why should you be able to use another person's intellectual property and not have to pay for it? Linux caught on mostly, not because it was a free operating system, but because it was not Microsoft. IBM and the other big Linux supporters wanted a system that they could fight back with. And you know what? They are using the same kinds of tactics that Microsoft first used two decades ago: offering free or low-priced software against a well–rooted, bloated competitor. Remember MS–DOS and CP/M?
Software is an expensive proposition. It takes many managers years of work before even the first version of a product can be brought out. These developers and funders have spent lots of money nurturing a product that they think is great. If it is good, they deserve to be compensated. Not by the limited advertising dollars from their site, but by the people who actually buy and use their software and realize efficiency gains and higher profits from it.
On "More Programmers Now Set RPG Free"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52226
**FROM KENNETH BURTON, via e-mail:
Peter [Coliukos] (NEWS Wire Daily, June 22, 2006) might start by referring to the platform by its currently correct name, System i, although that may have changed a couple more times by the time this response sees print. Next he could stop beating the straw man about RPG ILE being object–oriented. It isn't, and nobody should have ever said it was.
But that really isn't the point. The point is, or should be, about business objectives: does code written in whatever version of RPG continue to serve well the business purposes for which it was written? If it does not, it's got to go. (The same is true of code written in Java or C++ or Cobol or any other language, procedural or OO, that you care to mention.)
But if the RPG code in question does, in fact, support the underlying business objectives, there is no reason to replace it, no matter old it is or how much IBM harps on it not being "modern." Peter will still be listening to his gongs and getting oriented to his objects when the diminished supply of RPG developers [fails to meet the] demand, and those of us who know the language have more work than we can handle. My guess is that this will occur by the end of this decade.
On "iSeries Might Learn from the zSeries How to Attract New Talent"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52308
**FROM TOM CUSICK, via the Web:
I am a part–time instructor at two of the larger Chicago suburban junior colleges. I teach Windows networking classes and can give you a perspective on the state of technology education in local colleges.
Enrollment is down severely from a few years ago. The reason is that there are not many jobs, and the ones our students find either pay virtually nothing or require unrealistic levels of experience.
It is common practice for junior colleges to offer classes but to cancel them if the enrollment does not justify the class. The two colleges I teach for offer Windows, Linux, and sometimes Unix and Novell. Programming languages include C++, Java, and VB.Net. Both colleges also offer Cisco certification programs. None of these classes is bursting. The colleges at one time taught RPG and Cobol but have not offered them for some time due to lack of enrollment.
So, although it might be nice to ask them to teach the AS/400 classes and to even donate equipment, unless there are students willing to take the course, the class will be cancelled.
Currently, the students have such a hard time finding work that many of them just give up. Employers are either offering McJob wages or expect certifications and experience levels that are impossible. As word gets out, the new students just find another major.
The only solution I can suggest is to hire one of the recent graduates, use their skills to assist you in Windows (or Linux) networking, and train them on the AS/400. Pay them a reasonable wage — don't exploit them. Make it a condition of their employment that they continue their education, and obtain some online classes for them.
The next generation of the AS/400 community is going to have to come from the existing one. No one else is interested in solving this problem — but you can.
On "Q&A: Two Minutes with Elaine Lennox on Building iSeries Community"
http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=52436
**FROM IRA CHANDLER, via e–mail:
I have a suggestion that would really help the "community." How about renaming the iSeries System "i" to Application Server/400, and we could call it AS/400? And the operating system "OS/400"?
That truly represents what the box is all about. Forget the absurd ads that claim it runs Windows, Linux, AIX, and, oh, by the way, i5/OS (whatever that is). How about going back to what the people already know is the strength of the box over Intel — the applications and operating system.
How am I supposed to proselytize to the great unwashed when we cannot even agree on the identity of the box? Of the little time that I get to brag on the box to non–believers, why do I have to spend half of it explaining the schizophrenic naming absurdities? Even Lennox swaps back and forth between "iSeries" and the new idiotic name "System i" in [a conversation that] must be totally confusing to anyone without the history at hand.
Let IBM admit that all the name changes were insane obfuscations and get back to the box having a stable identity. Apparently, few in the press and nobody at IBM realize the demoralizing effect of their efforts to make the box indistinguishable from all of the other IBM hardware offerings. IBM might not care which server is sold so long as it carries an IBM logo. But we care.
Our company, Curbstone Corporation, has officially decided to call the box an AS/400 — we are not playing IBM's game. Has anyone at IBM ever tried to use a search engine to find "System i"? It is impossible. All search engines consider the "i" an article and delete it from the search. Do you
think that I am going to change our Web sites to use the new terms — and render us invisible to the world?
Even the press has wimped out on this subject in spite of the obvious conflict between your heavily invested name "http://www.iseriesnetwork.com" and the new, asinine name. In the article, [news editor] Cheryl [Ross] keeps asking about the iSeries, and Lennox keeps flipping between System i and iSeries. Has IBM lost all concept of Marketing 101 — brand is everything?
Let's start the uproar! Reject the new names. Let's call it AS/400 and OS/400. *We* are the community.
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