Four Hundred Monitor, March 28
March 28, 2018 Dan Burger
The Monitor doesn’t often include videos in its “Top Stories From Outside The Jungle” section, but exceptions are made when videos are exceptional. This one, from the recent RPG & DB2 Summit, is in the category of balancing work and fun.
Last week, IBM hosted a conference it called “Think.” As you might expect, Watson was in the spotlight during many of the keynote addresses and sessions. Some of the reporters liked what they saw, and some were less than impressed. Also in Monitor this week are articles touting the benefit of agile development and warning of the dangers presented by cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.
Top Stories From Outside The Jungle
(YouTube) Just a few short years ago, IT Jungle‘s technical editor Ted Holt integrated his hobby of playing the guitar (sometimes banjo) and writing songs with his knowledge and experience as a programmer and trainer. “The Singing Guru” was an immediate hit with a small but appreciative group of IBM i advocates. At the RPG & DB2 Summit last week, Ted was joined “on stage” by IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will and members of the Seiden Group in a performance that must be seen and heard to be believed.
(TechCrunch) Who doesn’t like a rant about marketing? Doesn’t matter if the perspective is too much marketing (IBM Watson) or too little (IBM i). You can bet someone will have an opinion and there will be a crowd shouting “Yea” or “Nay.” IBM has stepped on the gas when it comes to Watson marketing. In the process, it may have stepped on something else.
(InformationWeek) Watson Assistant will be delivered via IBM partner devices such as electronics embedded in cars and apps branded by hotel companies. Beyond customer engagement and service, the real value to these partners will be in the data they collect about customers and how they use it to customize customer experience.
(CIO) Shifting to agile project management can greatly increase your project’s prospects for success. The methodology, which makes use of short development cycles to provide continuous improvement in developing a product or service, is being used across many industries due to its highly collaborative and efficient processes.
(CBR) A report from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security has accused Russia of undertaking a critical infrastructure cyber attack. Thought to begin in March 2016, hackers from the Russian government are said to have begun a campaign that sought to infiltrate US energy, nuclear, water, aviation, manufacturing, and commercial facilities.
Redbooks, White Papers, and Other Resources
(IBM) The Think conference may be over, but the opportunity to watch keynote addresses, innovation talks, and interviews remains for those who wonder what IBM and other IT leaders are thinking. Watson, cloud and IoT are prominent topics. There are dozens of videos to choose from.
(IBM) Data integration between systems of record and systems of engagement is the key to success for future business. This article explains how to develop and deploy web or mobile native applications quickly using Node-RED as the web application building tool. Node-RED is the open source that is contributed by IBM. You can build web applications using a graphical user interface (GUI) with drawing tools and minimize application code writing. Node Red provides a browser-based editor drawing tools and minimizes application code writing.
(IBM) A four-part blog series titled ‘What Reinventors Know’ is dedicated to reinventing enterprises with the help of IoT technologies. The series includes insights from the movers and shakers who are using artificial intelligence and the internet of things to uncover new opportunities and create new revenue streams.
(IBM) Full support for IBM i 7.1 will end April 30. What are the reasons for upgrading and why would you choose 7.3 over 7.2. Information on these topics can be found here.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
March 29 — Webinar – The Mid-Atlantic Group of IBM i Collaborators (MAGiC) will be hosting an online educational session on Rational Developer for i presented by Charles Guarino, a popular speaker on the topic. This presentation is available to all IBM i users, not just members of the local user group. It will take place between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
April 12 — Mequon, Wisconsin – The monthly meeting of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association will feature two sessions by guest speaker Erwin Earley, a consultant at IBM Lab Based Services Training. The first presentation on open source solutions begins at 4:30 p.m. The second presentation on Zend Server begins at 7:30. In between is dinner and networking with the members. The meeting will be held at Zarletti’s Italian restaurant located at 1515 West Mequon Road.
April 17 — Bloomington, Minnesota – Rich A one-day hands-on lab focused on free format RPG and RDi will be presented by Jim Buck. This combined lecture and lab will show attendees how to take a traditional subfile program and convert the disk I/O to SQL, then move the database I/O to a service program. This decoupling of the UI (5250 subfile) allows the service program to be used as a web service. The session will cover the process of developing an SQL/Service program-based CRUD application using free form RPG and RDi’s Remote Systems Explorer and Screen Designer. Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35 years. It includes instruction at the college level, IT positions in the manufacturing and healthcare industries. He’s a past president of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association and has served on several teams developing IBM and COMMON certification tests. He has also co-authored several IBM i books with Bryan Meyers that are used by many companies and in colleges worldwide. The deadline to sign up for this training is March 30.
April 18 — Westbury, New York – The Long Island Systems Users Group monthly meeting will include two presentations by Steven Wolk, CTO for PC Richard & Son. His first presentation is an introduction to Linux. The second session focuses on creating commands and program development for IBM i. LISUG meetings are held at the Westbury Manor located at 1100 Jericho Turnpike.
April 19 — Parsippany, New Jersey – Guest speaker Steven Wolk will discuss the development of leadership traits and techniques at the regular monthly meeting of the North Eastern Systems Technology Users (NESTU) meeting. Topics will include leading more effectively, motivation that improves results, and recognizing good leadership skills in others. The event begins at 5 p.m. and will be held at the Spice Grill located at 111 US-46.
April 23-25 – Framingham, Massachusetts – The Northeast IBM i User Group Conference features more than 70 educational sessions in seven skills categories. It offers the opportunity to learn about new technologies, engage with vendors to discuss packaged software advancements, hear IBM i executives and lead developers discuss products and roadmaps for the platform, and gain knowledge that can benefit your company and your career. The user groups that combine to organize this conference come from the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
May 20-23 — San Antonio, Texas – PowerUp 18 (formerly the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition) is the largest IBM i educational event of the year. It includes more than 300 sessions related to IBM i, as well as AIX and Linux. Open source, high availability, security, DB2, and application development are a few of the popular skill-building topics. The agenda includes all-day pre-conference workshops, open labs, and a wide variety of lecture-type sessions presented by subject matter experts. Pre-conference workshops (May 19) are also planned.
June 12 & 13 — Milton Keynes, England – The annual i-UG International i-Power conference features topics for everybody who works on or with IBM i and Power Systems. The topics include Web dev using open source tools, building IBM i LPARs, securable systems, GDPR compliance and many additional developer-themed sessions and workshops. IBM i development experts Susan Gantner, Jon Paris and Paul Tuohy are part of the stellar group of speakers. 2018 is the 30th anniversary for IBM i and the 25th anniversary for the i-UG. To celebrate, attendees, speakers and sponsors of the conference are invited to a free gala dinner, including entertainment, during the first evening of the conference.
