Four Hundred Monitor, May 24
May 24, 2023 Jenny Thomas
Before we head off on our much-needed pre-summer break this Memorial Day weekend, we must run through the latest news of the week, plus make you aware of the newest resources and events. First up, get used to AI being part of the news cycle when it comes to IBM. Big Blue made clear at its THINK event earlier this month that AI and quantum computing are the focus because it believes both will be essential to its enterprise customers. After you read the latest headlines, don’t forget to check our Calendar. We have added a ton of dates for new learning opportunities now and in the future.
Top Stories From Around The Jungle
(siliconANGLE) Generative AI is the focus for IBM moving forward.
(CNN) IBM has made a quantum supercomputer deal worth $100 million.
(PR Newswire) IBM plans to provide $5 million in grants to help address cybersecurity resiliency in schools.
(Study International) The c-suite employees with elite degrees have managed to avoid repeated layoffs at IBM.
(Yahoo!Finance) IBM stock is running at $127 U.S. Is it time to invest?
Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, Podcasts, and Other Resources
(System i Developer) Our friends at SiD have revealed the next series of Summit Deep Dive Workshops for IBM i developers. Choose from 13 interactive, half-day online workshops with Paul Tuohy, Susan Gantner, Jon Paris, or Mike Pavlak. Cement new skills in SQL, RPG, open source on IBM i, APIs/web services, Db2 for i and more. The Series begins September 19 and runs through October 31.
(Rocket Software) Rocket surveyed more than 500 U.S. IT professionals on the state of the mainframe today. Here are the results.
(COMMON) The IFS bootcamp consists of six video lessons and a complimentary set of session slides. It is free to COMMON members and available now.
(MiTEC) The Michigan IBM Power Systems Technical Education Conference is celebrating its 35 years of IBM i on June 5. Learn more about this year’s event here.
(COMMON) You may still be recovering from POWERUp 23, but the call for presentations for NAViGATE 2023 is now open. If you have an idea for a session on all aspects of IBM i programming or administration, COMMON would like to hear from you. The CFP closes on Monday, June 12. NAViGATE 2023 will be held October 9-11, 2023, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
May 25 – Webinar – Join Stephen Flaherty from Fresche Solutions for a live educational session about IBM i form modernization. Stephen will demo Formtastic, which transforms traditional pre-printed forms, checks and labels into professional documents that can be delivered electronically.
June 5 – Livonia, Michigan – The 15th annual Michigan IBM Power Systems Technical Education Conference is a one day education event that features more than 40 sessions led by industry experts. Have fun while networking with peers, renowned speakers, IBM developers, executives, and fellow members. Don’t miss the Vendor Expo. This event will power you into the future.
June 8 – Webinar – Whether you are currently running IBM i on-premise or considering migrating to a cloud-based solution, this webinar “Migrating IBM i from On-Premise to Power Virtual Server: Benefits and Best Practices” will provide valuable insights into the benefits and best practices of migrating to IBM’s Power Virtual Server, identifying potential roadblocks.
June 14 – Webinar – Seiden Group technical consultant and COMMON award-winning speaker Patrick Behr will be demonstrating the basics of web services, including HTTP, JSON, and RESTful principles, during this free webinar from OCEAN.
July 27-29 – Tustin, California – Join OCEAN for TechCon23, featuring keynote speaker IBM i chief architect Steve Will, plus a CIO summit, expert panel discussion, and outstanding tech and prof dev sessions.
July 18 – Online Workshop – RPG Free Form in a Nutshell. In this free online session, Susan Gantner will explain the syntax of RPG Free-Form code. After a brief refresher on free format logic, she will delve into more recent free-form declarations (i.e. the replacements for H, F, D and P specs) as well as the ability to use as many columns for your RPG logic as you need—starting in column 1 if you want!
September 19 – Online Workshop – Getting to a Modern Database on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, covers the design and definition of a modern database and the steps necessary to re-define an existing database with DDL — without having to make any program changes.
September 21 – Online Workshop – RDi Quick Start for PDM Fans, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner, helps you get started (or re-started) quickly using RDi’s new PDM perspective. This simplified interface includes a table that allows you to “work with members” (or objects or libraries) in a form that looks and feels much like PDM — but with many cool added features.
September 26 – Online Workshop – Data Structures & Arrays for Today’s RPG Apps, a half day online workshop with Jon Paris, covers Nested Data Structures, Multi-Dimensional Arrays, Dynamic Arrays, Templates, Modern Indicator usage, Data Structure I/O, and more.
September 28 – Online Workshop – Intro to Open Source on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, introduces you to the fundamentals of using Open Source Software on IBM i. Mike will cover concepts and terminology, how to install and manage open source tools, and survey several open source projects and languages.
October 3 – Online Workshop – Foundations in SQL on IBM i, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, covers SQL terminology and concepts, including basic syntax for Data Manipulation Language (DML) and Data Definition Language (DDL), as well as the many SQL functions and compare/contrast some of them with RPG built-in functions. We’ll look at accessing data from multiple tables using JOIN and UNION. We’ll look at the use of subselect (a SELECT within a SELECT) and the use of Common Table Expressions (CTE) to accomplish more complex data access.
October 5 – Online Workshop – RPG Procedures & SRVPGMs by Example, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner, covers how and why to use ILE procedures, modules, service programs, binding directories, binder language, and activation groups.
October 10 – Online Workshop – Python for RPGers, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, explores the implementation, syntax and application use cases of Python on IBM i.
October 9-11 – Virginia Beach, Virginia – Join COMMON for NAViGATE, which will feature more than 100 sessions presented by industry expert speakers, an expo of leading solution providers in the IBM i space, and limitless networking opportunities to connect with peers and experts to maximize your learning opportunities.
October 12 – Online Workshop – API Enable Your Application with Web Services, a half day online workshop with Jon Paris and Paul Tuohy, takes you step by step through the basics of creating and consuming web services using either RPG or SQL along with JSON or XML and HTTPAPI or IWS. Learn which approach is right for you.
October 17 – Online Workshop – A to Z of Embedded SQL in RPG, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, takes you from the basics of a simple SELECT statement, to using a cursor, to using a paging cursor, to using SQL to maintain your data, to wrapping SQL functions as RPG subprocedures, to accessing the web with SQL, to the proper use of dynamic SQL… and much, much more.
October 19 – Online Workshop – Is Code for IBM i Right for You?, a half day online workshop with Susan Gantner and Jon Paris, introduces you to Code for IBM i, an open source extension to Microsoft’s Visual Code Studio. This new IDE supports developers working on IBM i applications that use languages like RPG, COBOL and CL as well as PHP, Node.js, Python and other open source languages.
October 24 – Online Workshop – PHP for RPGers, a half day online workshop with Mike Pavlak, focuses on the fundamentals of PHP. It moves on to exhibit a simple use case for an application and then decompose the application with a LOT of nifty tools and features.
October 26 – Online Workshop – Coding a Modern RPG Application, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, takes you through the structure and code behind a modern RPG application, exploring the details of each of its many layers.
October 31 – Online Workshop – SQL Procedures, Functions and Triggers, a half day online workshop with Paul Tuohy, shows you how to use SQL to allow other languages (and platforms) to take advantage of existing IBM i code or to access SQL capabilities from RPG or COBOL applications.
