July 2005

• Industry Observer - Online Advertising Status Report; WDSc for iSeries Redbook Update; Technology Creates 911 Challenges; and more.
• Mark and Peter's Big Adventure - The author visits with iSeries execs Mark Shearer and Peter Bingaman and detects a genuine desire to do the right thing – to fix the iSeries' market perception and to establish a clear value proposition and market preference for the platform.
• iSeries Marketing — an Oxymoron? - By failing to market the AS/400-iSeries platform, IBM has turned "iSeries marketing" into an oxymoron along the lines of "jumbo shrimp"! However, this may change at last as IBM finally sets out to create a pull market for iSeries.
• Manufacturing Change: Major Integration Projects on the Way - If you're working with an iSeries in the manufacturing world, chances are you're floating in the middle of a sea of change. Meanwhile, the pressure to squeeze profit and satisfy on-demand consumers is getting worse every day.
• Training for Transfer - iSeries professionals can use these education principles to design training sessions that will ensure knowledge is applied where it counts — on the job.
• A Self-Serving Approach to HR Functions - Already in place at some larger enterprises, Web portals handle most HR functions, replacing traditional paper-based rituals. Bowstreet's Workforce Management Suite shows how this application genre can simplify your life.
• Today's EDI Delivery Options - Most companies that use EDI continue to use VANs. But many traditional EDI users are making the transition to using FTP and the Internet. Plus, new third-party service providers known as TDNs and WSNs have entered the market in recent years.
• iSeries General-Purpose Application Generators - Although the number of full-featured application generators for the iSeries is small, can play an important role in developing iSeries and Web solutions. If you're looking for this type of development toolset, here are some places to start.
• A Distribution Solution for Small Businesses - When the distribution side of its home giftwares business grew beyond its ability to control everything from a single shared workstation, Boston Warehouse automated its operations with Software Concepts, Inc.'s Distribution System/90.
• Paranoid on Purpose - Astro is worried about his master. Ever since Sean started an identity management blog, he's changed. Astro doesn't like to throw around the word paranoid, but check out Sean's activites and judge for yourself. You might just get paranoid, too, though!
• Hot New Products -
• Feedback -
• FAQs: iSeries Access Family -
• Tech Tips - Using iSeries Navigator to Create an Index (i.e., Keyed Access Path); Be Sure to Code Check Constraint Logic Correctly; XP SP2 and Incoming Remote Command; Embedded SQL in a Noncommit Environment
• Extracting Users from Domino Directory Groups - Pulling individual names from large groups, especially if those groups contain many nested groups, can be frustrating and time-consuming. Use this handy LotusScript routine to eliminate the legwork and retrieve individual user names with ease.
• 3 Easy Things You Can Do with Infoprint Designer - Who says that forms have to be boring? Check out these tips for taking your printed documents to the next level.
• A Beginner's Guide to Partitioning with Power5 - Power5 delivers lots of new and enhanced features for creating, configuring, and managing partitions, such as capped and uncapped processing, system profiles, and dynamic partitioning. Take this walk through the partitioning process using Power5.
• Collaborate Quickly with Wiki! - Have you ever wanted to fix typos, correct inaccurate information, or update data on your company's intranet or the Web? Well, with wiki you can. These step-by-step instructions walk you through the process.
• Enhancing Databases with Trigger Programs - Trigger programs are a useful way to add functionality to a database without making changes that could impact the rest of the system. And it's easy to add your own logic if your database already has trigger programs defined.
• Log4i — iSeries HLL Application Logging - Log4i, a logging framework for iSeries HLL apps, offers a way to put logging statements in your code and control which statements are enabled, what system and app info is included in log entries, and where the log entries are written.
• Regular Expressions and RPG - Regular expression processing isn't possible in RPG — or is it? Find out how a third-party Java library can bring regular expression processing to RPG.
• Maintainable Service Programs - Learn some straightforward guidelines for creating and managing service programs. When you become comfortable with service programs, you will enjoy the freedom from coding drudgery that they can provide.
• iSeries Application Modularization Options - Modular code is generally easier to maintain and modify, but several factors — such as complexity, code reuse, and performance — can influence your modular designs. Exploring these RPG and SQL modularization techniques may help you choose the best solution for your situation.
• f.y.iSeries -
• IBM Announcements -
• Improve Your Text Scores - Text search solutions that can mine unstructured data for business information are becoming more important. One new tool and several upgraded ones that work with the iSeries are worth some attention.
• Simplify Systems Management with VEC - With the Virtualization Engine console, you can harness your complex IT environment via a single Web-based UI, run tasks, view graphs, and work with details of your environment, regardless of whether you're managing i5/OS, Linux, Windows, or AIX.
• The Good, The Bad, The Ugly -
• Dr. I Doctor - Dr. I Doctor explains options for enabling Macintosh users access to Microsoft Outlook, and describes how to set up a stealth primary name server.