SPARTA News April 2003
April 2003
SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner
- by Brad Carson
April, the month that everything in North Carolina turns yellow! There are so many pine trees next to the LabCorp RTP center that when the wind blows it looks like a yellow dust storm outside. At least that means that spring is finally here at last. We shouldn't have to worry about an ice storm for about nine month now (whew).
We've managed to get OS/390 2.10 running on all but our PROD LPAR. We should be done there by Mother's Day. Relatively easy migration on our part, but the user acceptance testing can be a bear. Right now on our QA/AD LPAR every little error/abend is being blamed on OS/390 2.10, so we're spending a bit of time having to prove that it isn't. I can't wait for us to migrate 2.10 to PROD, it should be an interesting week for whoever is on call.
We also now have our EMC 8730's running with PAV (Parallel Access Volumes) active (including WLM management). This went in well, but we did have two problems 1) WTO shortage by having the device address for the PAV devices (3390A) in our IECIOSxx member. 2) The IPL address of our PROD LPAR was relocated. We corrected those errors and are running fine with our EMC 8730's defined as 2105's.
This month we will have a presentation on “Mainframe Industry Futures” by Ed Scott of Circle Computer Corp. I look forward to seeing you all on the 29th at LabCorp RTP. A deli tray, drinks, and dessert will be provided.
Remember: Dues for 2003 are payable at the April meeting! Thanks to those who have already renewed for 2003.
Future Speakers
(subject to change)
April 29 Mainframe Industry Futures by Ed Scott of Circle Computer
May 20 or 28 - TBA
We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Duane Reaugh by phone or e-mail as noted below.
2002-2003 SPARTA
Board of Directors
Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 919-361-7270
1912 Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Duane Reaugh - Vice President
DTS Software 919-833-8426
2913 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609-7841
Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-412-6235
201 N. Eugene St. 336-227-2021 (Home)
Greensboro, NC 27401
Tommy Thomas - Treasurer
LabCorp 336-436-4178
231 Maple Ave, Koury Ctr 3rd Fl. 919-361-7267
Burlington, NC 27215
Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive 919-362-0232 (Home)
Cary, NC 27513
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.
Mar. 2003 CBT Tape Online
The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V458 (dated March 9, 2003) are available from www.cbttape.org.
If you need a complete tape, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).
Minutes of the March 25th, 2003 Meeting
•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•Fourteen (14) people were present; all were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job function.
•Minutes of the February 2003 meeting were accepted as published in the March 2003 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer’s report. As of March 25, 2003, the balance is $1026.32.
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.
•You can access the SPARTA Web site, just point your Web browser to this URL: www.netpath.net/~mlockey/sparta.html. Please send any comments or suggestions about the SPARTA website to Mike Lockey (mlockey@netpath.net). Be sure to check our website every once in a while to see any new or changed information.
•Mike Lockey will contact GoDaddy.com to register a domain name for the SPARTA web site and have them host the SPARTA web site. It costs $8.95 per year to register a domain name. The cost of hosting the SPARTA web site is $5.95 per month.
•Annual dues of $20 are to be paid now.
NEW BUSINESS
•Future Speakers and Topics:
April 2003 - Jim Horne - MVS Limitations
May 2003 - Dan Myers - IBM
June 2003 - TBA
Other ideas:
- New release of IOF - Triangle Systems
- CMG Conference - Jim Horne of Lowes
If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Duane Reaugh.
•The list of nominees for the 2003-2004 SPARTA Board of Directors is:
Brad Carson President
Duane Reaugh Vice President
Tommy Thomas Treasurer
Mike Lockey Secretary
Ed Webb Communications
If you are interested in being on the board, see Brad Carson or any current chapter officer.
•Food for the April 2003 meeting will be deli tray, sodas, and dessert.
•The April SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.
•Thanks to Brad Carson of LabCorp for hosting the March meeting.
•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:40 p.m.
•Several of our members attended the recent SHARE conference and gave presentations about the conference. Presentations were given by Chris Blackshire, Ed Webb and Duane Reaugh.
Chris talked a little about the ice storm that occurred during the conference. He also shared some thoughts about Linux under VM.
Ed talked about the following:
Highlights of SHARE
WebSphere Application Service V5
JES2 1.4 sessions
Big changes when migrating to DB2 V8
Console Availability feature for z/OS 1.4 (included in z/OS 1.5)
30th anniversary of IBM's withdrawal of OS/MVT
IBM License Manager (ILM) is dead, only Sub Capacity Reporting
Tools (SCRT) is available to track product and price usage
Shop zSeries and SMP/E RECEIVE FROMNET are strategic product
and service delivery ordering tools
Coupling Facility level 12 reintroduced in March 2003
Sysplex Timer 9037-1 at end of service on 12/31/03; 9037-2 supported
RMM APAR OA02094 enhances reporting
If using FDR; use RTC=YES for full volume backup
IBM health checker for z/OS can be downloaded from www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/downloads
OS/390 R10 is orderable until June 2003 via IBM SystemPac for a fee
RACF facility class rule governs RENAME/DELETE without ENQ and ISPF honors this rule
Improvements in z/OS service
DB2 V8
GA - end of 2003
DB2 V8 catalog now stored in UNICODE
must migrate to V8 from V7
WLM review
3174 replacements
IBM 2074 - OS/2 NetFinity box
Visara ESCON-2x box
Duane talked about the following:
Overall Impressions of SHARE
Keynote speaker John Patrick
Catalog Address Space
Cheryl's Hot Flashes
Bit Bucket X'19'
•The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM.
Treasurer’s Report for April 2003
contributed by Tommy Thomas
The balance in the account is $ 1082.46 as of April 18, 2003.
Financial Report
2/01/2003 through 04/18/2003
INCOME
Opening Balance 672.90
Dues 420.00
Misc. 0.00
TOTAL INCOME $1092.90
EXPENSES
Food 126.58
Petty Cash 0.00
Bank Service Fees 0.00
P.O. Box 0.00
TOTAL EXPENSE $126.58
BANK BALANCE 966.32
PETTY CASH($160) 116.14
TOTAL CASH $1086.32
Items of Interest
New and Clarified Terms and Conditions from IBM
contributed by Duane Reaugh
Effective July 1, 2003, IBM has changed some of the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) for S/390 and zSeries hardware and software. IBM is dropping partial month billing and going to quarterly billing for MLC charges.
If your fiscal year does not end on Mar, Jun, Sep or Dec, you can contact IBM as a special need. IBM is withdrawing no charge test period for all recurring charge software (but SAS and DTS still have free trial periods). If you currently have software in on a no charge trial period, you are okay.
Sub-Capacity Report Tool (SCRT) reports are now required every month by the ninth or you get to pay the full Full Capacity charge. Previously, they were only required quarterly if there was no MSU change.
Lastly, there are some changes in the feature where you could run older versions of a software product at no charge if you were licensed for the more current version. For example, you didn't have to pay for two version of the COBOL compiler as long as you were licensed for the most current version. Both version now have to be on the same CPU, licensed under the same customer number and the customer has to be in the process of migrating from the older one to the newer one. There is also a 12 month time limit but I am not sure if that is a change.
SHARE Proceedings from February 2003 Now Available to Members Only
contributed by Ed Webb
Dallas Proceedings of SHARE are now available Online, but only to registered Members. You can access the session presentations from SHARE in Dallas at http://www.share.org.
SPARTA Food Menu for 2003
contributed by Chris Blackshire
Apr - Deli tray (something different for the sub rotation turn)
May- BarBQ,
June -Pizza
July - Chicken
Humor
Stella Awards
contributed by Chris Blackshire
It's time once again to review the winners of the annual "Stella Awards". The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.
Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonalds, the teens who allege that eating at McDonalds has made them fat, was filed after the 2002 award voting was closed. This suit will top the 2003 list without question.
The following are this year's winners:
5th Place(tie): Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.
5th Place(tie): A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
5th Place(tie): Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days.
He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.
4th Place: Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.
3rd Place: A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.
2nd Place: Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.
1st Place: This year's run away winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motorhome. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.
Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Location: LabCorp in the RTP
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.
Free Food: Deli Tray, Drinks, Dessert
Program:
Mainframe Industry Futures
Speakers:
Ed Scott, President of Circle Computer
SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194
First Class Postage
Phillips Software
