SPARTA News April 2004

April 2004

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

- by Brad Carson

April is here and so is the pine pollen that turns everything yellow (including me). There has been so much pollen at GSK that is looks like a yellow haze when the wind is blowing. This is followed by a round of sneezing and coughing afterwards. Ahh, I just love Raleigh in the springtime.

At GSK, I've been updating the SA/390 automation policy to handle JES2 spool space (TGS) shortage/full conditions. With eight systems feeding one spool we've had a few of these conditions come up over the last few months. We've made SA handle the conditions by issuing a $CJQ,ALL,AGE>n command at specified intervals (15 minutes for spool short and 5 minutes for spool full). We start at 7 days old and work to 2 days old. Our target is 5% below the current JES2 TGWARN value (default is 80%). If SA can't get the spool down it will send out pages and e-mail to the systems staff requesting help. Isn't automation wonderful?

Meanwhile over at DDA I've finished getting IMS V7.1 running on the development system there. Now I need to get IMS running on their demo system. Always plenty to do there, just never enough time.

As some of you could tell by the e-mails that have gone to SPARTA-L we have a few members looking for work. If any of you hear or see anything that might help, please post a message to SPARTA-L@yahoogroups.com so we all can be informed.

Our speaker this month will be Tom Rydzewsk of IBM to talk about the IBM announcements that made on April 7th. I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday, the 27th, at LabCorp RTP. Be sure to ask for Tommy Thomas. Chicken, drinks, and dessert will be provided.

2003-2004 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
GlaxoSmithKline 919-483-2348
5 Moore Drive; D.111
RTP, 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 336-641-6235
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 usually 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 Tommy Thomas. Tommy 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.

February 2004 CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V464 (dated February 5, 2004) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Brad Carson at GlaxoSmithKline or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the March 30th, 2004 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.

•The minutes of February 2004 meeting were accepted as published in the March 2004 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report.

As of March 30, 2004, the balance is $906.42. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report.

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 available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Brad reminded everyone to continue keeping the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

April 2004 Jim Horne

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Duane Reaugh.

•The April SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.

•Thanks to Tommy Thomas of LabCorp for hosting the March meeting.

•Food for the April meeting will be chicken, soda and dessert.

•Tommy Thomas talked about the audit report he sent via e-mail. He asked if there were any questions about it; there were none.

•Brad reminded everyone that it is time to pay your SPARTA dues. Dues are $20.00.

•Brad mentioned that it was time to form the Nomination Committee for the SPARTA Board of Directors. After some discussion it was decided that the current Board of Directors would continue for one more year and that there was no need for a Nomination Committee. Any member that would like to be on the 2004-2005 SPARTA Board of Directors should contact Brad.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:55PM.

•Duane Reaugh of DTS Software and Ed Webb of SAS presented their SHARE Conference reports.

Duane talked about the following topics:

ICKDSF Release 17

Data Set Flash Copy

Transactional VSAM

z/OS DFSMS 1.5 Available March 26, 2004:

DFSMShsm Fast Replication

VTOC Security (VTOC name hiding option)

ABARS uses Catalog Search Interface (CSI) instead of SVC 26

JOBCAT/STEPCAT going away

File Sequence number > 9999

z/OS DFSMS 1.6:

Volume selection for PAVs

Storage Class PAVs Capability

ISAM code removed

SECLABEL

PDSE Availability

Questions

Ed talked about the following topics:

Highlights of SHARE sessions

Odds and Ends

Migrating to z/OS 1.5

ServerPac for z/OS 1.5

IBM Health Checker for z/OS

Console Availability

JES2 Futures (post 1.5)

IPv6 in z/OS

z/900/990 Trivia

Recommended APARs

The meeting ended at 9:00PM.

Treasurer’s Report for April 2004

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1015.91 as of April 18, 2004.

Financial Report
2/01/2004 through 04/18/2004

INCOME

Items of Interest

SPARTA Food Menu for 2004

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Apr - Chicken
May - Subs
June - BarBQ
July - Pizza
Aug. - Chicken
Sept. - Subs
Oct. - BarBQ
Nov. - Pizza


z890, New HMC, More April 7th News

contributed by Ed Webb

Here's the official z890 announcement and the HMC Closed Platform Statement of Direction.

------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware
------------------------------------------------------------

•104115 New Hardware Management Console, Trusted Key Entry Console, and Ethernet Switch for IBM eServer zSeries and select S/390 systems (14.1KB) http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=104-115

•104117 IBM eServer zSeries 890 -- A multipurpose server for an on demand world (248.4KB) http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=104-117

•104118 IBM enhances the IBM eServer zSeries 990 family of servers (121.0KB) http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=104-118

------------------------------------------------------------
Software
------------------------------------------------------------

•204056 EWLC Tiered Price Structure and zELC Pricing for the IBM eServer zSeries 890 server (285.1KB)
http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=204-056

•204057 IBM z/VM V5.1 extends zSeries on demand capabilities with Linux-related enhancements and introduces a new pricing model (149.8KB) http://www.ibm.com/isource/cgi-bin/goto?it=usa_annred&on=204-057


Instructions for Life

Contributed by Chris Blackshire

This is what The Dalai Lama has to say for 2004. Enjoy!

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's:
Respect for self,
Respect for others, and
Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.


Humor


Games For When We Are Older

Contributed by Chris Blackshire

1. Sag, you're It.
2. Hide and go pee.
3. 20 questions shouted into your good ear.
4. Kick the bucket
5. Red Rover, Red Rover, the nurse says Bend Over.
6. Musical recliners.
7. Simon says something incoherent.
8. Pin the Toupee on the bald guy

Things To Ponder

Contributed by Chris Blackshire

Can you cry under water?

When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping," now I just "chunkydunk."

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

If money doesn't grow on trees, then why do banks have branches?

Since bread is square, then why is sandwich meat round?

Why do you have to "put your two cents in"...but it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to? Taxes?

Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

If you drink Pepsi at work in the Coke factory, will they fire you?

Why are you IN a movie, but you are ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

How come we choose from just two people for President and fifty for Miss America?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

If a 911 operator has a heart attack, whom does he/she call?

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!

Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life we could simply press Ctrl Alt Delete' and start all over?

Stress is when you wake up screaming and then you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet.

If raising children was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

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 Tommy Thomas. Tommy will escort you to the conference room.

Free Food: Chicken, Drinks, Dessert

Program :

IBM’s April 7th Announcements

Speaker:

Tom Rydzewski of IBM

SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194












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