Four Hundred Monitor, July 19
July 19, 2017 Dan Burger
The graying of the IBM i workforce is opening the door for somewhat of a youth movement. Yes, that has the potential to be culturally shocking. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some youthful influence is needed in organizations (yours might be one of them) that have done little to change the IT formula in the past 20 years or more.
This week Monitor also includes articles on what’s tormenting IBM’s cognitive superhero Watson, a blockchain blockbuster deal for IBM, and an interview with the RDi chief architect and his insights into what RDi can do for you.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(You and i) IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will is on a mission. You might call it Mission Possible. His goal is preparing technical people to promote the value of IBM i to their business leaders by explaining what’s possible. In his latest blog, Will writes about the youth movement in the IBM i community and the positive impact it is making on IT staffing in IBM i shops.
(Tech Crunch) IBM’s Watson may not have all the answers. A recently released report from Jefferies, a global investment bank and institutional securities firm, describes IBM as “struggling to bridge the gap between client needs and its own technological capability.” Overhyped marketing, deficiencies in operating with deep learning and GPUs, and intensive data preparation demands are considered as signs of trouble.
(CBR) Today’s IBM i for Business might be integrating into tomorrow’s blockchain for business. That’s one reason to take note as IBM just signed a lucrative deal to provide a European banking consortium with blockchain-based financial trading. The new trade finance platform aims to simplify and facilitate domestic and cross-border trade for small and medium enterprises in Europe, while helping to increase overall trade transaction transparency.
(iTalk With Tuohy) If you know more about playing the banjo than you know about RDi (Rational Developer for i), I hope you are one helluva a banjo player. Because if you’re not, RDi skills will be worth a lot more to you. Let Edmund Reinhardt, chief architect for the development of RDi, tell you what this development tool can do for you.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(Seiden Group) This handout from Alan Seiden’s presentation titled “Speed up your web site” includes tips for improving Web application performance. It focuses on front-end performance including topics such as request-response protocol, caching, creating favicons, the “KeepAlive” setting, compression to decrease file size, and tips for JavaScript and cascading style sheets.
(IBM) The IBM Academic Initiative has a new site called OnTheHub that lists schools teaching IBM Power Systems and IBM i content. IBM i shops, local user groups, and IBM i vendors should bring this to the attention of local colleges and technical schools that could be graduating students with skills that are better aligned to organizations running on i.
(IBM) The details of building cognitive applications with visual recognition are covered in volume three of a seven-piece collection of IBM Redbooks titled Building Cognitive Applications with IBM Watson Services. The series includes getting started, conversation services, visual recognition, natural languages classifier; language translators; speech-to-text and text-to-speech; and natural language understanding.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
July 20-22 — Costa Mesa, California – The OCEAN Tech Conference is featuring more than 45 sessions and more than 20 speakers over three days. Topics include SQL and DB2, systems management, RPG, RDi, open source, cloud and professional development. Standard sessions and a vendor expo take place on Thursday and Friday. Workshops and hands-on labs are scheduled Saturday. The list of presenters includes: Ted Holt, Scott Forstie, Jesse Gorzinski, Scott Klement, Alan Seiden, Charles Guarino, Aaron Bartell, and Mike Pavlak. The conference location is National University located at 3390 Harbor Boulevard near Orange County Airport.
July 20 – Webinar – IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will plans to discuss the IBM AS/400, cognitive systems, and everything in between during this one-hour online session. That’s not a misprint. Will recognizes the AS/400 is the foundation for the modern IBM i, but he’ll have a lot to say about how that historic system has evolved, the development strategies in progress, and ways that cognitive computing fits in with IBM i. The webinar begins at 10 a.m. Central Time.
September 19 — Schaumburg, Illinois – The 2017 Omni Technical Conference and Expo features IBM i on Power Systems education on important topics such as advanced RPG, DB2, SQL, application development, Web development, application modernization, security, modern toolsets, and systems administration. The conference will be held at the IBM Schaumburg offices.
October 2-4 — St. Louis, Missouri – The COMMON Fall Conference features technical sessions, workshops, certifications, networking opportunities, and a vendor expo. The session grid and speaker lineup has yet to be posted, but you can expect a mix of fundamental skills and new technologies. An early registration discount is available and hotel reservations can be made.
October 17-19 — Minneapolis, Minnesota – The twice-a-year, spring and fall, RPG & DB2 Summit returns to the upper Midwest for its next technical conference with an agenda that expands to cover new topics such as Python for RPGers, how to bring the power of Watson to RPG applications, and SQL aggregation. It also incorporates sessions that will introduce hidden gems in DB2 for i as well as anticipated Q4 2017 updates to the database. In addition to the three-day Summit, an optional fourth day of hands-on workshops October 16, provides intensive education into four technology areas — SQL, RSE/RDi, Service Programs or PHP. Workshop attendees choose one topic for the “deep dive.” An early registration discount is available through August 31.
