• Four Hundred Monitor, March 21

  March 21, 2018 Dan Burger

  RPG is in the palm of her hand. She’s Barbara Morris and she leads RPG development at IBM’s Toronto Labs. Her fingerprints are on all RPG enhancements, so if you are interested in the DATA-INTO feature that just became available, you can do no better than to hear about it from Barbara. Check inside Monitor for the link to her interview with Paul Tuohy.

  Also inside is a link to an IBM i security quiz. Find out quickly what you do and don’t know. Then check out the articles on IBM’s new microcomputer and the market pressure to make AI …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 14

  March 14, 2018 Dan Burger

  What does your IT budget say about your organization? Are you a comfortable fit in the status quo or are you budgeting for the future knowing that status quo and a one-dollar bill won’t even get you a cup of coffee?

  And if your vision of the IT future includes open source, start gathering information by reading articles linked to Monitor. This week we have advice on setting up an open source project office and a comparison of the top two containers for transporting applications between systems. IBM’s Watson CTO also talks about AI ethics and responsibility.

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 7

  March 7, 2018 Dan Burger

  RPG ILE has been enhanced with the addition of DATA-INTO functionality, which will become available March 16. DATO-INTO supports the parsing of multiple states types — JSON being the most important. It imports data from a data document into a data structure. For those familiar with XML-INTO and RPG Open Access, DATA-INTO can be grasped quite easily. Those needing a little help can look inside Monitor.

  Also inside Monitor this week, you’ll discover why system admins should be watching the open source news for helpful features, and you’ll be scrutinizing what AI (hello Watson) has in store for developers …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 28

  February 28, 2018 Dan Burger

  Was that a deer in the headlights look you gave your boss after he asked if you could integrate Salesforce with the IBM i? If so, you might ask for a do-over after you read this article. This might be one of those times when you’ll be surprised what an i can do.

  How about a simple user interface that makes things easy for the end user? Do you have one of those in mind? Chances are good some of you have a cramp in your development productivity due to a maintenance burden. What can you do about it? Monitor …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 21

  February 21, 2018 Dan Burger

  Artificial intelligence (AI) may be the goose that laid the golden egg, with promises of systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. But there are seldom talked about dangers that could cook your goose. Pay attention to regulatory compliance, law, privacy, and ethics as you integrate AI into your systems.

  Class action lawsuits are barking at the heels of Intel stemming from the handling of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. These stories, plus tips on communications skills that aid project planning, make it into …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 14

  February 14, 2018 Dan Burger

  Old code is today’s technical debt. New code is tomorrow’s technical debt. Maintaining code is the albatross around our necks. What can you do besides kick your tech debt down the road? Find some food for thought on that topic in Monitor this week.

  You’ll also learn a few things about where small to midsize businesses are spending the bulk of their IT budgets, which you can then compare to your own budget. And finally, an article that points out that CEOs are investing more in advanced technologies such as AI, but they aren’t planning to invest in retraining their …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, February 7

  February 7, 2018 Dan Burger

  Feedback on something you have written and published can warm your heart or give you heartburn. When his blog sparks some discussion among readers, Steve Will welcomes the dialog. Probably not 100 percent of the time, but let’s say more often than not. On this occasion, the topics are RPG and modernization. The discussion is still open. This would be a good time to makes some points of your own.

  Peek inside Monitor to pick up advice on cross-generational hiring and finding RPG programmers, tips on second and third programming languages to put in your skills toolbox, and warning signs …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, January 31

  January 31, 2018 Dan Burger

  It is important for all decision makers familiarize themselves with current and emerging IT landscapes. Now is the best time to be thinking through future scenarios. A favorite saying of one of my mentors is: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

  This week, Monitor hooks up readers with articles that cover important IT trends, the avoidance of training failures, the changing roles of CIOs, and the legal dangers that lurk within …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, January 24

  January 24, 2018 Dan Burger

  This week, Monitor connects you with an article that covers the latest version of RDi, IBM’s tool of choice for modern application development. Don’t miss the 60-day trial download from IBM.

  Also within reach are articles about an open source integrated development environment for IBM i created by the energetic and community-minded Liam Allan; today’s artificial intelligence reality and tomorrow’s expectations as an IT workhorse; and IBM’s haul of patents in 2017 that are well represented by AI intellectual property. Also look for the latest IBM i Marketplace Survey in the Resources section. Plus, updates to the events calendar worth …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, January 17

  January 17, 2018 Dan Burger

  Forward-looking RPG programmers are modernizing legacy systems and making it clear IBM i is not the dinosaur that some folks think it is. Along with modernized thinking, comes the need for education and training and learning the skills needed to build next-generation applications. Where does that skill set come from? How long does it take to be skillful? Hear what two insiders have to say on the subject.

  Other stories topics in Monitor this week include: the complexity of multi-cloud environments, the dismantling of IBM Global Technical Services, and the IBM i trends that indicate good things to come, as …

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