SPARTA News June 2005

June 2005

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Our May meeting brought us a visit from Cisco Systems and a discussion on Storage Area Networks (SAN) and Networking. With the number of servers out there (and here at DHTS), the need for a high capacity SAN and SAN Network is a major task for anyone. Cisco showed us what they have available to help out in the SAN connectivity world. With most SANs running on Fibre Channel or Mainframe FICON, the need to dynamically manage the storage back-end and processing front-end is quite complicated. Cisco's long background in data networking has brought a lot of knowledge to the table on storage networking. It was an interesting presentation for all.

The DHTS z/OS 1.6 migration is scheduled to go live on July 17th. It would have been sooner but we have to wait for fiscal year-end to finish first. All of our testing has gone very well and we don't expect that many issues after we go live, we'll just be wearing the blame target (I didn't change anything so it must be your OS upgrade) for a while. Our LE migration has been making some headway too; we've had to help track down a few items in some subroutines, but the testing has been going good. We haven't had any big show stoppers so far and haven't had to recompile many programs. Whew! We are planning on converting all the test CICS regions early next month and the production regions in August. Batch is being handled on a job by job basis.

The DDA z/OS 1.6 migration has been completed for their main system. Everything is working quite well. There have been some major changes to Infoprint Server that required a little work on my part, but now it no longer needs to have a JES FSS to run. It has been converted to use the SAPI interface and can talk directly to HP Jet Direct cards without using the LPR/LPD protocol. Still have some work to left to do on getting V5 of Debug Tool running properly; there have been some major changes from the old release.

This month our speaker will be from Triangle Software to provide an overview of their products (they do have other software besides IOF). I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp in RTP on the 28th.

P.S. Be sure to ask for Tommy Thomas when you arrive at LabCorp. Subs, drinks, and dessert will be provided.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


June 28 - Product Review by Triangle Systems
July 26 - 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 as noted below.

2005-2006 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
Duke Health Technology Solutions 919-668-0545
2424 Ervin Road, Suite 9000
Durham, NC 27710

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
Dignus, LLC 919-676-0847
8354 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC 27615

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St.
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
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.

Feb. 2005 CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V468 (dated Feb. 14, 2005) are available from www.cbttape.org.

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

Minutes of the May 24th, 2005 Meeting

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

•Thirteen (13) people were present; eleven (11) were members.

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

•The minutes of April 2005 meeting were accepted as published in the May 2005 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of May 16, 2005, the balance is $1838.95. 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 site is available. To access the SPARTA Web site, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web site to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the site every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Brad Carson reminded everyone to leave the conference room clean.


NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

June 2005: Computer Associates
July 2005: TBA

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

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

•The June 28th SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in the RTP.

•Food for the June meeting will be subs, drinks and dessert.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:50 p.m.

•Mark Mazzone of Cisco spoke about Storage Networking.

Some of the topics Mark discussed were:

- Storage Networking Evolution
Homogenous "SAN" Islands (Isolated SANs and DAS)
Intelligent Storage Network (Storage and Server Administration)
Storage Utility (Network Hosted Storage Applications)
- Intelligent Services
Switching
Storage
- Cisco MDS 9000 Family
Next Generation SANs - today
Multilayer Directors
Multilayer Fabric Switch
- MDS 9000 Hardware Roadmap Agenda
- MDS 9000 Multilayer Directors and Fabric Switches
MDS 9500 - Redefining the director class
MDS 9200 - Modular Fabric Switching
MDS 9100
- Using SAN Islands to Address Storage Needs
- Introducing Virtual SANs (VSANs)
- Using VSANs to Scale Fabrics
- Using VSANs to Enhance Availability
- INCITS 7.11 Standards Status
- Inter-VSAN Routing
- Intelligent Network Services - Multipath Forwarding and PortChannel
- "Legacy Switch" Interoperability Mode
- iSCSI Adds to Connectivity Options
- FCIP - Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol Point to Point
- Issues that face SAN extension
- Write Acceleration
- Traffic Management Quality of Service (QoS)
- Secure Storage Networking FC-SP, Port Security, IPSec
- Cisco Fabric Manager
- Industry-first Diagnostics Minimize Downtime and Improve Performance
- MDS 9000 Family FICON Feature
FICON Intermixing Leveraging VSANs

The meeting ended at 9:05 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for June 2005

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1739.47 as of June 16, 2005.

Financial Report
3/01/2004 through 06/16/2005

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2005

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

June 28 - Subs
July 26 - BBQ
Aug. 30 - Pizza
Sep. 27 - Chicken
Oct. 25 - Subs
Nov. 29 - BBQ


View Draft of New MVS Diagnostics book

Contributed by Ed Webb

IBM is working on a new book titled z/OS Diagnostic Data Collection and Analysis. Review it and pass on your thoughts and ideas at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247110.html .


Humor


Dark and Stormy Night Contest Winners

contributed by Duane Reaugh

For lovers of good writing, here are the 10 winners of this year's Bulwer-Lytton contest --AKA "Dark and Stormy Night Contest"-- wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel. The winners are:

10) "As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it."

9) "Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens."

8) "With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."

7) "André, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: 'André creep... André creep... André creep.'"

6) "Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved."

5) "Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eeking out a living at a local pet store."

4) "Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do."

3) "Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."

2) "Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word 'fear'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."

AND THE WINNER IS.....

1) "The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"


For Twisted Minds Only

Contributed by Chris Blackshire

1. Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.

2. A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

3. Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.

4. Practice safe eating - always use condiments.

5. Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

6. A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.

7. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

8. Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

9. Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

10. Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

11. Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.

12. When two egoists meet, it's an I for an I.

13. A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two tired.

14. Definition of a will: A dead give away.

15. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

16. In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.

17. She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.

18. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

19. If you don't pay your exorcist, do you get repossessed?

20. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

21. When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

22. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.

23. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.

24. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.

25. Every calendar's days are numbered.

26. A lot of money is tainted - It taint yours and it taint mine.

27. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

28. A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

29. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

30. Once you've seen one shopping centre, you've seen a mall.

31. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.

32. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

33. Acupuncture is a jab well done.

BLESSED ARE THE CRACKED; FOR IT IS THEY WHO LET IN THE LIGHT


COBOL Forever!

Contributed by Ron Pimblett

Jack was a COBOL programmer in the mid to late 1990s. After years of being taken for granted and treated as a technological dinosaur by all the Client/Server programmers and website developers, he was finally getting some respect. He'd become a private consultant specializing in Year 2000 conversions.

Several years of this relentless, mind-numbing work had taken its toll on Jack. He began having anxiety dreams about the Year 2000. All he could think about was how he could avoid the year 2000 and all that came with it.

Jack decided to contact a company that specialized in cryogenics. He made a deal to have himself frozen until March 15th, 2000. The next thing he would know is he'd wake up in the year 2000; after the New Year celebrations and computer debacles; after the leap day. Nothing else to worry about except getting on with his life.

He was put into his cryogenic receptacle, the technicians set the revive date, he was given injections to slow his heartbeat to a bare minimum, and that was that.

The next thing that Jack saw was an enormous and very modern room filled with excited people. They were all shouting "I can't believe it!" and "It's a miracle" and "He's alive!". There were cameras (unlike any he'd ever seen) and equipment that looked like it came out of a science fiction movie.

Someone who was obviously a spokesperson for the group stepped forward. Jack couldn't contain his enthusiasm. "Is it over?" he asked. "Is the year 2000 already here? Are all the millennial parties and promotions and crises all over and done with?"

The spokesman explained that there had been a problem with the programming of the timer on Jack's cryogenic receptacle, it hadn't been year 2000 compliant. It was actually eight thousand years later, not the year 2000. Technology had advanced to such a degree that everyone had virtual reality interfaces which allowed them to contact anyone else on the planet.

"That sounds terrific," said Jack. "But I'm curious. Why is everybody so interested in me?"

"Well," said the spokesman. "The year 10000 is just around the corner, and it says in your files that you know COBOL".

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

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: Subs, Drinks, Dessert

Program:

IOF and ISFManager Product Review

Speakers:

Jim Walker of Triangle Systems

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











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