SPARTA News November 2000 Page #

November 2000

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

- by Chris Blackshire

As a follow-up to last month’s article about IBM’s new zSeries 900 announcement, I ran into a very interesting article about what Amdahl/Fujitsu is going to do.

After three decades of competing against IBM Corp., Amdahl Corp. has decided to end development of its IBM-clone mainframes. The next jump in mainframe technology, to the 64-bit z/OS operating system is one that the company it is not going to make. Contrary to press reports, the company, which was founded by Gene Amdahl, the original designer of the System/360 mainframe back in the 1960s, is very much interested in selling its existing 2000-C and 2000-E clones of IBM’s 31-bit 9672 mainframes, and will continue to do so until the end of 2002. They have also committed to maintaining the systems for 5 years after that.

In the meantime, Amdahl’s considerable expertise in selling enterprise servers and in integrating networks of Servers and storage will be brought to bear in a joint effort with its parent company, Japanese computer giant Fujitsu to sell its Unix, Linux and Windows 2000 servers. Fujitsu is going to take the money that it might have otherwise spent on developing a zSeries 900 clone and pour it into making its RISC Unix and Intel-based server lines more reliable.

Amdahl has no intention of walking away from the high-end server business. Amdahl is one of Sun Microsystems’ biggest server resellers in North America and Europe and Fujitsu is a big Sun reseller in Japan. Together, Amdahl and Fujitsu are Sun’s biggest reseller worldwide and have been since Sun started selling the “Starfire” Enterprise 10000 servers three-and-a-half years ago. Amdahl, Fujitsu and Siemens are also working together to peddle the Primergy line of Unix servers that are engineered by Fujitsu and Siemens as part of their Fuji-Siemens alliance. Fujitsu has been the main foundry for CMOS chips used by both Amdahl and Siemens prior to that alliance, which was announced last year.

Going forward, Amdahl will not be doing any of the engineering work, but will rather focus on integrating technologies, setting up competency centers and selling equipment as the value-add that they bring to the market table.

Please note that our November meeting returns to the last Tuesday of the month on November 28th at LabCorp. We will be having subs, drinks, and dessert.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)

Nov. 28 OS/390 Tech Conference by John Bryant
Dec. 26 No meeting. Merry Christmas!
Jan. 30 TBA


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 October 24, 2000 Meeting

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

•Nine (9) people were present; seven (7) were members.

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

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

•Duane Reaugh, the SPARTA treasurer, was not able to attend the meeting. The Treasurer’s report will be given next month. The latest reported 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:

November 2000 - TBA
Other ideas:
- TDMF - Ken Frump
- WLM Goal Mode - Jim Horne
- Service Update Facility - Ed Webb
- UNIX Services for OS/390
- IBM New Announcements
- CICS Web Bridge

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

•The November 28th meeting will be at LabCorp in the RTP.

•Food for the November 2000 meeting will be subs and sodas.

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

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

•Tom Ogburn of IBM spoke about High Availability Computing. Some of the topics he discussed were:

Introduction
Terms
Availability
Systems Failure
Fault Tolerance
High Availability
Continuous Operation
Continuous Availability
A Structured Approach
Goals/Tradeoffs
Determine Business Requirement
Business Impact Analysis - impact of unplanned outages
Business need to extend service hours
Define Information Technology Requirements
Converting business requirements into IT terms
Service Level Objectives/Agreements
Availability Management Analysis
Component Failure Analysis
Scheduled Service Downtime Analysis
Map Business Requirements to Applications and Data
Define Service Level Agreements
Design Solution
Design
Costing
Hardware
Software
Maintenance and Repair
Select Products to Match the Design
Product selection is not part of design effort
Product knowledge is needed
Testing for Continuous Availability
Cost the solution
Justify to management
Goals/Tradeoffs
Implement Solution
Remain in project scope
Develop Recovery Cookbook
Keep Solution Up-to-date
Systems Management
Maintenance - stay current
Be aware of new products, new functions/features
Close
Big Effort
Obtain Management involvement early
Can be expensive
Plan your work/work your plan
Stay current

High Availability web page
http://www.ibm.com/services/its/us/highavail2.html

Related redbooks
SG24-2085 Continuous Availability Systems Design Guide
SG24-2086 Continuous Availability S/390 Technology Guide
SG24-2073 Getting the Most Out of a Parallel Sysplex

Tom Ogburn can be contacted at tbogbur@us.ibm.com for any questions or more information about Continuous Availability.

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for October 2000

contributed by Duane Reaugh

No updated report. The previously reported balance in the account is $329.08.


Items of Interest

SMP/E Solves SMPPTS Space Problem

contributed by Ed Webb

Good news!
See this IBM Flash for details about how SMP/E solves the SMPPTS space problem with multiple SMPPTS data sets. PTFs provide function for SMP/E releases back to OS/390 R5. Toleration PTFs are available for pre-R5 releases of SMP/E.

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/PubAllNum/Flash10048

Enhanced CBPDO Available via ShopS390

contributed by Ed Webb

Hi Ed,

ShopS390 support (for selective service function for Service-Only CBPDO) will be available on Nov. 10. If you can wait until then, I recommend you use this method for ordering.

The ordering via the normal configurator is not intuitively obvious which is why we hope most customers go thru IBM to place orders using that route. I didn’t know you could get to the configurator via OrderLink so I learned something from you. Basically, you go thru and select the PDO offering but don’t select any products and continue thru the panels until you get to a screen that allows you to select the OS/390 releases you want. When you get to the end, the configuration will show no products but the 7xxx feature code for the selected OS/390 service.

Thanks,
Lucy Miller (IBM Software Manufacturing)


Interesting Thoughts

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm

contributed by Chris Blackshire

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; “7” was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. “UP” indicated the direction of the bubbles.

Mosquito repellents don’t repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they don’t know you’re there.

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 Feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

American car horns beep in the tone of F.

No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.

The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.

A Boeing 747’s wingspan is longer than the Wright brothers’ first flight.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.

Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

Betsy Ross is the only real person to ever have been the head on a Pez dispenser.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

Adolf Hitler’s mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor. (Another good argument for pro-choice).

Marilyn Monroe had six toes.

All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn’t like being seen wearing them in public.

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.

Humor

2000 World Series Unresolved

contributed by Chris Blackshire

NEW YORK (AP)--The New York Mets announced today that they are going to court to get an additional inning added to the end of Game 5 of the World Series.

The batting, pitching, and bench coaches for the Mets held a press conference earlier today. They were joined by members of the Major League Players Union.

“We meant to hit those pitches from the Yankee pitchers,” said the Mets batting coach. “We were confused by the irregularities of the pitches we received and believe we have been denied our right to hit.”

One claim specifically noted that a small percentage of the Mets batters had intended to swing at fast balls, but actually swung at curve balls.

It was clear that these batters never intended to swing at curve balls, though a much higher percentage were not confused by the pitches.

Reporters at the press conference pointed out that the Mets had extensively reviewed film of the Yankees pitchers prior to the World Series and had in fact faced the Yankees in inter-league play earlier in the year.

“The fact remains that some of the pitches confused us and denied us of our right to hit,” said the Mets batting coach. “The World Series is not over yet and the Yankees are celebrating prematurely.”

Major League Baseball has reviewed the telecast of all the World Series games and recounted the balls and strikes called by the umpires of each game.

“While some of the strikes called against the Mets were, in fact, balls, there were not enough of them to change the outcome of the World Series,” the commissioner said.

Another portion of the Mets legal claim stated that, based on on-base percentage, the Mets had actually won the World Series, regardless of the final scores of the games. “It’s clear that we were slightly on-base more often than the Yankees,” said a Mets spokesman. “The World Series crown is rightly ours.”

The manager of the Mets has remained in relative seclusion, engaging in some light jogging for exercise. He has stated that he believes “we need to let the process run its course without a rush to judgment.”

AP Survey on this Breaking News:
Do you support this effort?
[_] Yes.
[_] No, I really want to vote for algore!
[_] I’m from Florida, I’m confused.