SPARTA News October 2000 Page #

October 2000

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

- by Chris Blackshire

What does everyone think about IBM’s latest processor announcements? The zSeries 900 is the first IBM e-business enterprise server designed for the high performance data transactions needs of the next generation e-business.

Some new terminology: Intelligent Resource Directory, 64 bit architecture, copper technology, hyper sockets, and up to 640 processors. I really like the capacity upgrade on demand philosophy to manage the unpredictable workloads. The new operating system names are Linux, z/OS images, and z/VM images.

The Workload License Charges (WLC) is IBM’s newest software pricing model, designed to support next generation e-business. WL allows us to only pay for the software capacity that we need. The new pricing structure, designed around the leading edge technology and the concept of paying for what you need, means you can grow your workload easily as the business requires.

IBM License Manager (ILM) is a new function in the z/OS operating system that facilitates easy, granular, customer-managed growth. The IBM License Manager is based on the industry standard for license management, XOpen Software License Management (XSLM). ILM is a base element of the new operating system (z/OS) and also requires the new hardware. The new software pricing options for zSeries and z/OS means we will no longer have to pay for the whole capacity of the processor. When the IBM License Manager is available for use, we will only have to pay for the software capacity that we need.

I like that, at this time, there are no plans to withdraw G5 or G6 servers. G5s and G6s remain current products that can be upgraded to the z900.

The announcement was very, very interesting information.

Please note that our next meeting is not the last Tuesday but on the fourth Tuesday of this month, October 24th, at LabCorp. We are trying fried chicken this month along with drinks and dessert.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)

Oct. 24 Tom Ogburn of IBM: High Availability Computing
Nov. 28 TBA
Dec. 26 No meeting. Merry Christmas!


We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Please consider giving a presentation at a future meeting. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact John Bryant at the phone number or e-mail address below.

2000-2001 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Chris Blackshire - President
Perot Systems 919-992-4602
P.O. Box 13010
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Chris.Blackshire@nortelnetworks.com

John Bryant - Vice President
Glaxo Wellcome Inc. 919-483-9548
M/S D111; 5 Moore Drive
RTP, NC 27709 JEB33378@GLAXOWELLCOME.COM

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-412-6235
201 N. Eugene St. 336-227-2021 (Home)
Greensboro, NC 27401 MLOCKEY@netpath.net

Duane Reaugh - Treasurer
DTS Software 919-833-8426
2913 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609-7841 Duane@DTSsoftware.com

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive 919-362-0232 (Home)
Cary, NC 27513 EDWISTUO@aol.com

Meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the last Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in December), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Brad Carson. Brad will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter Mailings

The SPARTA chapter policy is to mail a copy of the monthly chapter newsletter to each SPARTA member, NaSPA national, each advertiser, persons who have requested a copy, and to other chapters who send us a copy of their newsletter. The newsletter is mailed about the 20th of each month so you can prepare for the meeting. The mailing list is maintained by Mike Lockey at (336) 412-6235; if you have corrections or problems receiving your newsletter, call Mike.

Latest CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V429 (dated Sept. 1, 2000) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need a complete tape, contact Brad at LabCorp (Brad_Carson@labcorp.com or 336-436-4065) or Ed Webb (see Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the September 26, 2000 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Chris Blackshire, the Chapter President.

•Eleven (11) people were present; all were members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.

•The minutes of August 2000 meeting were accepted as published in the September 2000 newsletter.

•Duane Reaugh, the SPARTA treasurer, gave the Treasurer’s Report. The balance is $329.08

OLD BUSINESS

•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don’t really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

•The SPARTA Web page is now available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: www.netpath.net/~mlockey/sparta.html. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey (mlockey@netpath.net). Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:

October 2000 - TBA
November 2000 - TBA
Other ideas:
- UNIX Services for OS/390
- IBM New Announcements
- Workload Manager
- CICS Web Bridge

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact John Bryant.

•There was a discussion on whether or not the October meeting should be moved from the 31st (Halloween) to the 24th. A motion made to move the meeting to the 24th, the motion was seconded and approved by everyone in attendance.

•The October 24th meeting will be at LabCorp in the RTP.

•Food for the October 2000 meeting will be chicken and sodas.

•Thanks to Brad Carson of LabCorp for hosting the September meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:30 PM.

•Tom Rydzewski of IBM spoke about Linux for S/390. Some of the topics he discussed were:
Linux momentum is growing
Linux vs. Sun Solaris
Cost of platform
Larger future pool of programmers
Salary demands are less
Linux runs on S/390 as native, LPAR or VM/ESA guest
Commercial “Linux for S/390” distribution partners
Middleware
Applications
Advantages of running Linux on S/390
More information at web site WWW.S390.IBM.COM/LINUX

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for September 2000

contributed by Duane Reaugh

The balance in the account is $329.08.


Items of Interest

SHARE Sessions Finally Online

contributed by Ed Webb

Most of the handouts from SHARE in Boston in July are finally available at the SHARE web site (http://www.share.org).

Amdahl to Leave Mainframe Business

contributed by Ed Webb

According to published (and unpublished) reports today (Wed., Oct. 18, 2000), Amdahl Corp. has decided to stop developing IBM-compatible mainframes and will discontinue sales of existing models by 2002.

Bye, Bye, Bus and Tag

contributed by Ed Webb

A careful reader of the eServer zSeries 900 announcement 100-323 (link below) found this statement: “The z900 will be the last family of servers to provide a hardware parallel channel card feature.”

http://www1.ibmlink.ibm.com/cgi-bin/master?xh=sZ7FrvVHAf471M1USenGnN9332&request=announcements&parms=H%5f100%2d323&xhi=usa%2emain%7cannouncements%5e&xfr=N

IBM Fault Analyzer and File Manager Challenge Abend-Aid and File-Aid

contributed by Ed Webb

Here’s the announcement letter (#200-246) for the IBM Fault Analyzer and the IBM File Manager for OS/390.

Enjoy!

http://www2.ibmlink.ibm.com/cgi-bin/master?request=announcements&parms=PN&xh=q05AfgZlcE%24bVK1USenGnN9332&n%240=200-246&n%241=&n%242=&n%243=&n%244=&n%245=&n%246=&n%247=&n%248=&n%249=


IBM OS/390 R10 Hidden Treasure in ISPF TSO ISRDDN

contributed by Ed Webb

I just discovered that the TSO ISRDDN function under ISPF on R10 has a PARMLIB command (similar to LPA) that exposes the logical PARMLIB concatenation for browse, edit, etc. Unfortunately the PARMLIB command is not available on R8 or R9 systems even with the latest service to ISRDDN applied.

CMG in Orlando in December

contributed by Ed Webb

Have you made plans to attend CMG 2000? The Computer Measurement Group conference is being held in Orlando, Florida, December 10-15, 2000. Cheryl Watson will be giving a session on “Interpreting RMF Reports.” For more information on the conference, please check out http://www.cmg.org.


Interesting Thoughts

Historical Trivia

contributed by Chris Blackshire

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are “limbs” therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg”.

As incredible as it sounds, we were informed men and women took baths only twice a year! (May & October) Women always kept their hair covered while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs. The wigs couldn’t be washed so to clean them, they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term “big wig.” Today we often use the term “here comes Mr. Big Wig” because someone appears to be or “is” powerful and wealthy.

In the late 1700’s many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board was folded down from the wall and used for dining. The “head of the household” always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Once in a while an invited guest would be offered to sit in this chair during a meal whom was almost always a man. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. Sitting in the chair, one was called the “chair man of the board.” Today in business we use the expression/title “Chairman of the Board.”

Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told “mind your own bee’s wax.” Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term “crack a smile?” Also, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt and therefore the expression “losing face.”

Ladies wore corsets which would lace up in the front. A tightly tied lace was worn by a proper and dignified lady as in “straight laced.”

Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the “ace of spades.” To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t “playing with a full deck.”

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV’s or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to “go sip some ale” and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times... ”you go sip here” and “you go sip there”. The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term “gossip.”

At local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart sized containers. A bar maid’s job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in “pints” and who was drinking in “quarts.” Hence the term “minding your “P’s” and “Q’s.”

Common Sense Died

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Today I am mourning the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense. Common Sense lived a long life but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools, hospitals, homes, factories and offices, helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness. For decades, petty rules, silly laws and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in out of the rain, the early bird gets the worm, and life isn’t always fair.

Common Sense lived by sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable teaching and parenting strategies (the adult is in charge, not the kid). A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends including feminism, body piercing, whole language and “new” math. But his health declined when he became infected with the “If-It-Only-Helps-One-Person-It’s-Worth-It” virus.

In recent decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal regulations. He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers and enlightened auditors. His health rapidly deteriorated as schools mindlessly implemented zero tolerance policies leading to reports of 6 year old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student.

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional sports. As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding questionable regulations for asbestos, low flow toilets, “smart” guns and mandatory air bags. Finally, when told of instances of homeowners association restricting exterior furniture only to that which enhanced property values, and prohibiting the flying of our flag, Old Glory, because the flapping disturbed some of the residents, he breathed his last breath.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers, Rights, Tolerance, and Whiner. Few attended his funeral, because so few realized he was gone.
-- Author Unknown