drop down joomla login module

26
Thu, Dec
0 New Articles
  1. You are here:  
  2. Home
  3. Current Events & Commentary
  4. Commentary
  5. The iSeries: How Uncool Is That?

The iSeries: How Uncool Is That?

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

I recently asked the visitors to my RPGIV.com Web site what gadgets they could not live without on a day-to-day basis. The interesting thing is that the result of this survey leads me to believe that we iSeries professionals are workaholics.

With the exception of the top gadget you can't live without, every gadget can be applied to work or work-related activities. These were the second-, third-, and fourth-highest vote-getters on the gadgets list:

  • Your PC
  • High-speed Internet connection at home
  • Your cell phone

Does this tell me that you spend most of your free time browsing the Internet, text messaging via your cell phone, or downloading movies or music? Nope, it tells me that we work too much.

Apparently, you receive a work-related call on your cell phone, go over to your PC, launch your 5250 emulator or OpsNav, and connect to your shop's iSeries over your broadband connection. (Does your company reimburse you for that?) Once connected, you fix the problem at hand, and while you're in there, you fix up a small bug or two in that code you've been working on the last few days. My kids used to ask me "how much longer?" when I was working online on a piece of code (they would see the green-screen or CodeStudio loaded). I would reply to them with what has now become a cliché to some of the people I know: "Just one more compile."

Do iSeries professionals work harder than others in IT? Do they work longer and get things done faster and follow through on more things that need to be done than others in the IT industry?

I think you do.

Compared to other IT professionals, I think many iSeries programmers often feel powerless in their organizations, yet they seem to have a stronger work ethic and often try to do the best they can with the tools they have. Most non-iSeries professionals just "reboot the box" to "fix" problems—effectively deferring it until next time.

The most popular "gadget" that people said they could not live without is their car. I have to wonder if, with all this work-oriented focus, the reason your car is such an important gadget is because it gets you to and from work.

So what will it take to make this market cool? What gadgets should iSeries embrace to make it more attractive to a wider audience and appear cooler to be around—for both those of us who are already here and for the younger audience? And what can make it seem like the go-to solution for IT needs?

Look at all of the new media and hardware gadgets being introduced seemingly every week. Do any of them work with iSeries? No. Do any of them work with Linux, OS X, or Windows? Yes, yes, and yes.

I have to wonder if the new media technologies—such as podcasting, blogging, and Webcasting—are being largely ignored by our community because they don't intuitively work with iSeries. Even I made a business decision to move the growing video and audio library used for iSeriesTV.com to a lower-cost Linux box. The DASD costs on the iSeries are too high for video/photo/audio file storage—great for database, but not so cost-effective for media. There is certainly no technical reason that streaming video and audio and photo archives couldn't be kept on iSeries. There are only business reasons.

Many of the gadgets coming out today have more computing power in them than the original AS/400 models. For example, I've got this one gadget that I absolutely love. It's a small box with a 60 GB hard drive in it. It has an LCD screen and slots for virtually every type of memory card. When I travel, I take a lot of digital photos at the highest resolution my camera allows. At the end of each day, I insert the 2 GB SD memory card from my camera into this device. One press of a button and the photos are safely copied from the memory card to a new directory on the device's disk.

I can then reuse the SD card the next day and never worry about that infamous "camera full" message during a vacation. When I get home, I can attach the device to my PC or Mac via a USB drive and load my photos.

Cool, interesting stuff—and nothing to do with iSeries, right?

Not exactly. I often use my photos in episodes of iSeriesTV.com.

My current iSeries box (which is technically a "System i") has a USB port on it. I tried plugging in my USB photo device. Nothing. I tried plugging in a standard USB thumb drive. Nothing. Just for fun, I tried connecting one System i to another via USB. Nothing.

Unfortunately the USB port on the iSeries is apparently there to tease us. I can't use it to copy files to the IFS. I can't use it to back up files from the IFS or the database.

IBM can say, "Yes, System i has a USB port." And if I place my iPod on top of the box, I could say, "My System i has iTunes on it." Legally truthful, but not really true.

All this is too bad. Gadgets are important to the human experience, even when they don't necessarily make sense to the current bottom line.

Imagine plugging in your 60 GB iPod and backing up your important database or IFS files via the USB port on the System i. How many new gadgets would that capability enable for this market? One I can think of offhand is using System i for voting in the U.S. and then copying the voter files to a USB drive and moving that data someplace else for tabulation (not that the System i couldn't do that as well).

Think about the MP3 player market for a moment. The Sony Walkman beat the iPod to market by decades. It used magnetic tapes to store data/music. How cool/competitive would a cassette-based iPod be today? Next up is Zune from Microsoft (due any day now). It has a better screen than iPod and a 60 GB hard drive. Probably has a lot of Windows Mobile OS overhead on it too, but the jury is still out.

Without cool gadgets in the System i market, this market will never be cool. We often hear about encouraging younger people to get into this market. But if they want to plug in a 1 GB USB thumb drive to save their source code or if they want to restore something they got off the PC or Linux box, they can't. How uncool is that?

Bob Cozzi is a programmer/consultant, writer/author, and software developer of the RPG xTools, a popular add-on subprocedure library for RPG IV. His book The Modern RPG Language has been the most widely used RPG programming book for nearly two decades. He, along with others, speaks at and runs the highly-popular RPG World conference for RPG programmers.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: