Four Hundred Monitor, August 30
August 30, 2017 Dan Burger
Implementing new IT solutions should help a company or department run more smoothly, effectively, and efficiently, yet trepidation about the process is a frequent occurrence. Whether it’s refactoring a database, modernizing applications, upgrading the system or ERP software – those tasks can be intimidating. Two IT pros provide insights into creating good strategic planning, clear and honest communication, and conscious time-management with the goal of alleviating stress by setting expectations, establishing security and building confidence.
This week’s Monitor also includes tips on getting more value from your RPG, evaluation of IBM i security fiction, and a new training opportunity for novice RPG developers.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(Hamway Software Solutions) Introducing a new internal project–whether it’s modernization, system or ERP upgrades, change management, or something else–to your schedules of existing client projects and company tasks can be daunting. Change isn’t always smooth and predictable. Although present systems may not be perfect or fully modern, they’re at least familiar. Why risk disrupting the status-quo? You have a choice.
(i Talk With Tuohy) Some people get a lot more out of RPG and IBM i than others. Liam Allan is one of those people. The first thing that surprises people about Allan is that he’s only 19 years old. The second thing that surprises people is what they can learn from him.
(MCPress) The distinction between reality and fiction is frequently blurred. A great example is any discussion of IBM i security. Misguided assumptions abound. Subject matter expert Carol Woodbury takes on topics such as user adopted authority, class settings, performance issues, default passwords, compliance, and more.
(You and i) COMMON has a new online educational component that features 10 recorded sessions pertaining to ILE RPG basics. The training incorporates modern, free format RPG and the use of Rational Developer for IBM i. It’s aimed at employees with no previous experience in ILE RPG. Each video lesson was created by an RPG subject matter expert.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(IBM developerWorks) The IBM Rational Developer for i Hub is a place for the RDi community to mingle and discuss all things RDi. It also provides a library of useful RDi information and resources.
(IBM) The IBM open source wiki page includes links to a boatload of information. Topics like speakers and their presentations, developer tools, requests for enhancements, and the licensed open source offerings are just a click away.
(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.
(IBM) The IBM Watson developer community lives here. Getting started tutorials, finding tools, resources, documentation, and a question and answer forum—it’s all here.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
September 6 & 7 — Rochester, Minnesota – COMMON and IBM are hosting an educational event featuring Watson and IBM i as the cognitive platform for business. It includes the IBM Bluemix cloud platform and focuses on solving problems and driving business value with applications, infrastructure and services. Cognitive capabilities include language translation, text-to-voice, cognitive searching and Watson analytics. All can be added to existing RPG applications and DB2 for IBM i data. All sessions will be taught by IBM professionals. Registration fee is $299.
September 14 — Wauwatosa, Wisconsin – Open source subject matter expert Mike Pavlak will be presenting two sessions at the monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association. The first session is an introduction to Python on IBM i and the second session explores PHP and MVC application architecture. The meeting will be held at Mo’s Irish Pub located at 10842 West Bluemound Road.
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. IBM i experts on the speaker list include Tim Rowe, Scott Forstie, Barbara Morris, and Pete Massiello. The conference will be held at the IBM Schaumburg offices.
September 19 — Costa Mesa, California – The OCEAN User Group meeting will feature the annual State of the IT Job Market presentation by Bob Langieri, director of IT recruiting at Excel Technical Services. Langieri monitors the market for IBM i jobs, particularly in Southern California, where positions are limited compared to 10 to 15 years ago and are likely to be temporary and filled by contractors or freelancers. He provides advice for both job seekers and employers. The meeting location is National University located at 3390 Harbor Boulevard. It begins at 5:30 p.m.
September 21 — Burlington, Vermont – The Vermont Midrange User Group will host its 13th Annual Technical Conference from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The list of speakers includes Alison Butterill, offering manager for IBM i; Doug Mack, DB2 for i consultant for IBM Lab Services; Aaron Bartell, director of IBM i innovation for Krengeltech; and Paul Tuohy, CEO of Comcon. A conference registration discount is available through August 28. The event will take place at the DoubleTree Burlington hotel.
September 27-29 — Virginia Beach, Virginia -The Mid-Atlantic Group of IBM i Collaborators (MAGIC) IBM i User Conference is a three-day event with sessions and hands-on labs and is highlighted by three presentations by IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will. Topics for the lab sessions include PHP, .NET, RDi, Git, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. A complete list of all sessions, speakers and vendors is available online. MAGIC supports the IBM i users in the Mid-Atlantic area: Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Eastern Pennsylvania. Registration is $320 for MAGIC members and $400 for non-members.
September 27 — Westbury, New York – Scott Forstie, the DB2 for i Business Architect, will be the guest speaker at the Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting. Forstie will present three sessions on SQL: SQL Views for Dummies at 3:30 p.m., SQL for the Security Officer at 5 p.m., and DB2 for i Tools at 8 p.m. In between sessions two and three, there will be time for networking, cocktails, and dinner. LISUG meetings are held at the Westbury Manor located at 1100 Jericho Turnpike.
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.
