• Talking System Architecture With The Frank Soltis

  June 21, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In a very funny way, the System/38 and its AS/400 and following progeny are the product of coincidence and brilliance. In 1962, had Frank Soltis taken that summer job at an aerospace company that he wanted to work for in Southern California, first of all, he might have ended up with a tan, and second of all, whatever followed the System/34 almost certainly would not have had single level storage, much less the architecture that we still know today, in modified form, as the IBM i platform.

  Lucky for us that Frank’s father, who ran a parts distribution operation for …

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• We Are Filling Our Talent Pool Because Yours Is Going To Drain

  June 21, 2023 Ron Venzin

  Back in the early days of corporate computing, when it was called data processing, the people who managed and programmed what became known as IT systems came from all walks of life. More times than not, the VPDP – that’s Vice President of Data Processing, a title that predates the concept of Manager of Information Systems and was decades earlier than the idea of Chief Information Officer – often came from the accounting department. But the people who worked for the VPDP were a hodge-podge of smart and curious people looking for something new and interesting to do.

  Here …

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• What IBM i Turning 35 Means to Me

  June 21, 2023 Alex Woodie

  I started my first AS/400 writing job in the summer of 1999. I already had two part-time writing jobs at the time, for an insurance magazine and as a stringer for a local newspaper, but I wanted a full-time gig, so I did what every job seeker did back in those days: I answered a want ad in the newspaper, of course. I had no idea it would turn into a 24-year career (and counting).

  I still remember the job interview I had with Jenny Thomas, who was then known as Jenny Delroy and who was the editor of AS/400 …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 21

  June 21, 2023 Jenny Thomas

  Today is the official first day of summer. Depending where you live, it may not feel like it, or you may think summer is already in full swing. But summer isn’t measured by temperatures and sunshine, it is considered to be the first day of summer in astronomical terms, as today is the summer solstice. In terms of daylight, this day is 4 hours, 19 minutes longer than the December solstice. In most locations north of the equator, the longest day of the year is around this date. But before you head out to enjoy those extra daylight hours, catch …

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• Rocket Software Supports IBM i with New Data Intelligence Offering

  June 21, 2023 Alex Woodie

  You’ve probably seen it before: Two departments in the same company have different numbers in their BI reports, when the numbers should be the same. Tracking down these data discrepancies can be very difficult, especially when they touch systems like IBM i or System z mainframes. But with a new release of its Data Intelligence offering, Rocket Software thinks it has found a simpler way.

  Rocket Software has been selling its Data Intelligence product since it obtained it with its ASG Technologies acquisition back in 2021. The software was designed to help organizations track down data problems that surface as …

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• Happy Coral Anniversary, System/36 And System/38!

  June 19, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  The AS/400 is the product of the marriage of the System/36 and the System/38 that had its first child delivered on June 21, 1988. So, to one way of thinking about it, the AS/400 is not just celebrating its 35^th birthday this week, but the System/36 and the System/38 are celebrating their Coral Anniversary. The rules of etiquette say that we have to send IBM Rochester something carved in jade to celebrate.

  The AS/400, which lives on as the IBM i platform running on Power10 hardware, is neither stuck on a coral reef nor jaded, but just going …

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• How To Celebrate IBM i Turning 35 This Week

  June 19, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The balloons will drop and the champagne will flow this week as the midrange community takes some well-deserved time to party like it’s 1988 and celebrate the 35th anniversary of the IBM i platform.

  Not every computing community gets to celebrate 10 years of success for their platform, let alone 35, as backers of the venerable IBM i server will have the honor of doing this week. Many of the folks who work on IBM i today were just starting their IT careers back when IBM launched the AS/400 on that hot June day in 1988, so this week will …

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• Guru: Comparing IFS Directories Using SQL

  June 19, 2023 Mike Larsen

  I use SQL almost every day at my job. It may be just a query in ACS, or it may be embedded SQL in an RPG program. A few days ago, I needed to compare the contents of one IFS directory to another. Combining a few different table functions, I was able to develop a nice solution.

  Note: The code for this article can be downloaded here.

  In this example, I have a directory that has five text files in it. I have a second directory that has three text files in it, and they are the same documents …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 25

  June 19, 2023 Doug Bidwell

  Happy 35^th birthday to the AS/400! We hope that you take a moment and commemorate this wonderful platform that has given us so much over the years, and that we all have given so much to.

  It is one of those mercifully quiet weeks, so enjoy.

  The news this week is that Navigator will now use Java 17 if available (on 7.4 and 7.5).  Install Java 11 or Java 17 and latest Java group PTF to run Navigator with these versions of Java. Details on Java at: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6437873

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release …

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• A Peek Inside Fortra’s Cybersecurity Catalog, And Its Cyber Future

  June 12, 2023 Alex Woodie

  The evolution of Fortra, formerly HelpSystems, from a small IBM i systems management and monitoring provider from the Minneapolis area into one of the top 10 cybersecurity solution providers with an estimated $800 million in annual revenue is an interesting story, and one that we have already written. But what, exactly, does Fortra do in the security realm?

  The cybersecurity space is changing quickly at the moment, as hackers look to exploit vulnerabilities in software and human processes. Lots of security software vendors are trying hard to keep up with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, so where does …

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