• Top Priorities in 2024: Security and AI

  January 17, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Two sometimes opposing forces will be at play in 2024: the threat of cybersecurity breaches on the one hand and the promise of tech disruption thanks to AI on the other. Tech leaders, including IBM i professionals, who chart a course through these obstacles will be well-positioned to help their companies and their careers in the years to come.

  First, let’s cover security. It’s no secret that cybercriminals have been ramping up their game over the past few years. Since the Covid-19 pandemic gave online activity a turbo-boost four years ago, cybercriminals have been having a field day with people’s …

  Read more

• Four Hundred Monitor, January 17

  January 17, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  Pew Research Center recently conducted a study to get an idea if there really is growing public concern about the role of artificial intelligence in daily life. Overall, it found that 53 percent of Americans say AI is doing more to hurt than help people keep their personal information private. Only 10 percent say AI helps more than it hurts, and 37 percent weren’t sure. (You can read more about this study in the Top Stories below.) For this ecosystem, there is no escaping AI. The best we can do is help you stay abreast of the latest developments and …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 2

  January 17, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  As odd as it may seem, this week there are HIPER and security patches available for IBM i 7.2, which has long since been off standard and now extended maintenance.

  First, there is a defective PTF for IBM i 7.2, which was noted on January 10.

  • LICENSED PROGRAM = 5798FAX
  • APAR NUMBER: SE81023
  • RECOMMENDATION: Apply fixing PTF xxxxxxx when it becomes available, or remove PTF SI85576, or use the SNDFAX command instead of the SBMFAX command.

  There is also an IBM i 7.2 Group HIPER, level 240, which is SF99719 and which you can find out more about here, …

  Read more

• IBM i Community Shares 2024 Predictions

  January 15, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Spaceship Earth has completed another trip around the Sun, which means one thing: Time for 2024 IBM i predictions! Hopefully you enjoy this year’s predictions, which seem to sport a good mixture of optimism and realism.

  The future for IBM i is wide open – open source, that is, says Liam Allan, the creator of Code for IBM i and a software developer for IBM i.

  “My prediction is pretty simple. Businesses will continue to invest in themselves through the power of open source,” Allan says. “Whether it be using dev tools, open source runtimes like Node.js, or even newer …

  Read more

• Thoroughly Modern: How IBM i Shops Can Navigate The AI Landscape In 2024

  January 15, 2024 Marc Hunter

  AI continues to have an influence on us in 2024, and beyond. Implementing AI in a tangible way will require IBM i leaders to navigate diverse problems, capabilities, opinions, and experiments. It will pave the way for evolving our strategies, and possibly even developing an entirely new set of approaches.

  Think of it in terms of making pizza: We have many recipes that make good pizza, we know what toppings work together, we know how much seasoning we need. When a revolutionary new ingredient is introduced, we need to reevaluate every recipe going forward – is this an ingredient that …

  Read more

• Guru: Using Mixed Lists To Add “Data Structures” To CL Commands

  January 15, 2024 Ted Holt

  I can’t remember the last time I worked on an RPG program that had no data structures, but it was probably on a System/34. Everybody uses data structures, and with good reason – they are as handy as a pocket. When writing CL commands, it is possible to include parameters that are formatted as data structures. IBM calls them mixed lists. In the following paragraphs, I show how this is accomplished.

  You may not realize it, but you have used IBM-supplied commands that have mixed-list parameters. For example, the Copy File (CPYF) command has several such parameters: FROMKEY, TOKEY, INCCHAR, …

  Read more

• End Of Support Announced For IBM Power Middleware Releases

  January 15, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Last year, Big Blue moved its current and archived announcement letters as well as its sales manuals and other systems such as PRPQ tracking from the ancient IBMLink system (which used to run on its own mainframes for the many decades that we have used it) to a new system called IBM Documentation. The latter of which may perhaps have a better look and feel, but which has a much more difficult way of trying to keep track of what IBM is doing on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis.

  The new IBM Documentation system does not allow you to …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 1

  January 15, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Well, there are two new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i stack, as we report elsewhere in this issue of The Four Hundred. And there is also an update to the System Planning Tool. Let’s do the latter first and the former last.

  The System Planning Tool, version 6.23.340, is now available for download at this link. The System Planning Tool is used by customers and business partners to build valid system configurations for Power Systems machines and their software stacks. You can look at the release notes for various SPT generations here.

  Now on to the …

  Read more

• IBM i Chief Architect Will Gives N2i Some Platform Pointers

  January 10, 2024 Alex Woodie

  It’s hard to find someone more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the IBM i platform than Steve Will, who holds CTO and chief architect titles at IBM. So when Will accepted an invitation from COMMON’s N2i (New to IBM i) group to speak to IBM i newcomers this week, it was a good chance to pick up something new.

  One of the first things that IBM i newcomers will notice about the IBM i is that it’s an unusual platform, in several regards. For starters, it’s older than many platforms, being able to trace its lineage back to …

  Read more

• IBM Patches a Slew of Security Vulns in Db2 Web Query

  January 10, 2024 Alex Woodie

  If you haven’t started your migration off Db2 Web Query, you might want to accelerate your planning, as IBM last week disclosed a slew of security vulnerabilities in the soon-to-be-discontinued product, two of which are the critical variety and four of which have high severity ratings. IBM has issued patches for all of the flaws for the product running on IBM i 7.4 and 7.5.

  On January 3, IBM disclosed a total of eight security vulnerabilities in Db2 Web Query, the IBM i-based data warehousing and business analytics tool that it OEM’ed from TIBCO’s Information Builders subsidiary, and which …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles