The annual COMMON conference will kick off Sunday, and indubitably it's a great time of year for the System i world. IBM and its Business Partners will take advantage of the event to show off new solutions, vendors will announce their latest and greatest, and many attendees will get a boost of adrenaline in the form of education and inspiration. For now, though, the System i world is in the eye of a hurricane, and it's eerily calm . . . there are just a few minor news items, such as the Lawson Conference and User Exchange (CUE) event that took place last week to the tune of 5,000 attendees, which far eclipses COMMON these days . . . does anyone not believe it's an application-centric world? *Read more... [1]