Four Hundred Monitor, September 20
September 20, 2023 Jenny Thomas
In June, NPR published an analysis of the existential threat artificial intelligence poses to humanity. Hopefully IBM is heeding that warning as it puts into motion its plans to train 2 million people in AI technologies in the next three years. Readers of Monitor know we have been keeping a watchful eye on IBM and how AI is playing a role in its strategy moving forward. We recently shared articles about IBM hiring freezes and layoffs that were attributed to the adoption of AI, and we continue to keep you in the loop on more developments, as you will read about in our Top Stories. We also keep our feet planted in the IBM i ecosystem, and have lots of resources to share below.
Top Stories From Around The Jungle
(NPR) A dire warning about the risks of AI.
(IBM Newsroom) IBM has a bold plan to train 2 million people in AI by 2026.
(CIO Magazine) Wondering what everybody is using AI to do? This list reveals the top 12 uses of AI in enterprises today.
(CRN) Closing the gap between security and data storage is a priority for IBM.
(Simply Wall St) Is there hesitancy around IBM stocks?
Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, Podcasts, and Other Resources
(System i Developer) This video from our friends at SiD offers a look at “essential skills for today’s RPG developers,” and how they map to the ongoing ½-day Summit Deep Dive Workshops for IBM i developers. See Calendar below for details
(ServiceExpress) This article explains what the reliability bathtub curve means for your hardware refresh cycles.
(i-UG IBM i UserGroup) i-UG is having a membership drive. Join the community and discover real information to assist in key decision-making about IT and business in general. There are three membership levels to choose from.
(Rimini Street) CHG Healthcare shares how leveraging Rimini Support led to stability, growth, and innovation for their IT department in this video.
(Manta Technologies) Save 20 percent during Manta’s Back-to-School Combo-Pack Sale! In addition to the complete IBM i Training Library, the following combo packages are on sale: Operations Combination Pack, System Administration Combination Pack, RPG Development Combination Pack, COBOL Development Combination Pack, and Program Development Combination Pack. Sale ends October 31.
Chats, Webinars, Seminars, Shows, and Other Happenings
September 21 – Webinar – The modern IBM i is more than DevOps. It’s modernizing RPG, Database, Fields, and SYNON. Which is the topic of this webinar from ARCAD Software. This webinar will help you get started on the path to IBM i modernization no matter where you are starting. From modern processes with DevOps to modernizing the backend – RPG fixed- to free-format, moving from DDS to DDL, field expansion, and if you’re SYNON, modernizing code that was created in the 70s with a code generator.
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 4 – Webinar – Join ServiceExpress and its IBM Champions for a live Q&A on all things IBM Power and IBM i. Submit questions in the chat for live answers, and expect to cover: options for moving to Power10, end of support for Power8, end of service for IBM i 7.3, the IBM i and IBM Power roadmap, and end of support for TS3100 tape libraries.
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 – Virginia Beach, Virginia – Join COMMON at Virginia Beach for an exclusive one-day event! The IT Leadership Summit will allow you to be part of the conversation to discuss strategies to address challenges that all organizations face today.
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 16 – Webinar – The inaugural event for a new IBM i user group – iMUG, IBM i Midrange User Group – will be held online and will feature three-time IBM Champion for Power and IBM i developer Simon Hutchinson who will present: “Simon’s Top 10 SQL Favorites.” The webinar will begin at 6 p.m. Eastern standard time, and you can get more details at this link.
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.
