SPARTA News January 2006

January 2006

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Welcome to 2006 and we start with a rollercoaster ride of changing weather. Is it going to be warm or cold today? Your guess is a good as mine or the weatherman’s! I hope that everyone enjoyed our November presentation at the IBM briefing center in RTP. Now that we are starting a new year I want to remind you that we will be collecting our annual dues starting this month. Please see Tommy Thomas to renew your membership.

December and January have been a very busy time for the mainframe group at DHTS. We’ve had to plan and install a new z/890 system to replace our overworked z/800. We were able to have Mainline set us up for a push/pull upgrade instead of an upgrade in place. This allowed us to reduce our downtime from an estimated 8 hours to about 4 hours. In reality, with the planning and prep work we did before shutting the our production system, we were able to complete the cutover in 2.5 hours! This made our group look very good to the entire Duke Health management.

We had a few little changes during this outage for the upgrade. First was our 2074’s were replaced with OSA-ICC’s. Second was the old OS/2 HMC was replaced with a new Linux-based HMC which changed the user interface a bit and took a while to get used to. Third was the new HMC is Ethernet based instead of Token-Ring. So after the upgrade was completed, we no longer have any OS/2 systems to support and the last Token-Ring in the datacenter has been retired.

At DDA I’ve been busy setting up the system logger for CICS/TS 2.3. As shipped from IBM the ADCD systems don’t have any logs defined for CICS and install a group routing all CICS logs (DFHLOG, DFHSHUNT, DFHJxx) to a DUMMY logstream. This means that you must always INITIAL start the CICS regions. DDA’s Materials Management product use CICS journals for audit trails and recovery purposes. I’ve had to work on setting up a few regions with the proper log definitions for testing and development purposes. Now DDA has standard CICS definitions and can warm start regions.

This month our speaker will be Bob Spitz from Vanguard to talk to us about “Using Vanguard productions to manage compliance requirements”. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp in RTP on the 31st.

P.S. Chicken, drinks, and dessert will be provided.

Time to pay your $20 annual dues!

Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Jan. 31 - Meeting Compliance Requirements by Bob Spitz of Vanguard
Feb. 28 - What’s New by Bill Pfieffer of LRS

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 Ron Pimblett 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.

July 2005 CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V469 (dated July 17, 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 November 29th, 2005 Meeting

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

•Fifteen (15) people were present; thirteen (13) were members.

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

•The minutes of October 2005 meeting were accepted as published in the November 2005 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of November 16, 2005, the balance is $1540.41. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the November 2005 newsletter.

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 keep the conference room clean.


NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

January 2006 RACF by Vanguard
February 2006 Bill Pfeiffer of LRS
March 2006 SHARE Conference overview


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

•The January 31st, 2006 SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the January meeting will be chicken, drinks and dessert

•There was no other new business.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:40 p.m.

•David Houston of IBM spoke about running Linux on System z9.

Some of the topics discussed:

-Mainframe Charter: Delivering New on Demand Capabilities

Innovation

Value

Community


-Why open standards and Linux?


-IBM System z9 and eServer zSeries

Unique value for Linux applications

The meeting ended at 8:25 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for January 2006

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1502.41 as of January 16, 2006.

Financial Report
3/01/2004 through 01/16/2006

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2005

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Jan. 31- Chicken
Feb. 28 - Subs
Mar. 28 - BarBQ
Apr. 25 - Pizza
May 23 - Chicken
June - Subs
July - BarBQ
Aug. - Pizza
Sept. - Chicken
Oct. - Subs
Nov. - BarBQ

SHARE is Coming in Early March - Register Now!

contributed by Ed Webb

SHARE comes to Seattle March 5-10, 2006. There’s still time to register at www.share.org. Go for it!


24-bit Mode is Alive and Well

contributed by Duane Reaugh

DTS has a new PC GUI product called SCC-Explorer that obtains information from z/OS by creating a started task under our address space to gather the information and return it to the PC GUI. In order to make sure the PC user does not do something he/she is not authorized to do, we create a ACEE using the RACROUTE macro and put that in the ASXBSENV field of the started task’s ASCB. Since we are running in 31 bit mode, the RACROUTE macro obtains the storage for the ACEE above the line.

However, in z/OS 1.7, this causes an abend S0C4 in IEFIB600. This works fine in z/OS 1.6 and lower. The customer reported the problem to IBM and was told that the ACEE must be a 24 bit address. We have changed the parm to the RACROUTE macro to LOC=BELOW and that appears to work.

I just have two questions: if the ACEE must be a 24 bit address, why does the RACROUTE have a LOC=ANY|ABOVE|BELOW option and I thought everyone was trying to get to 64 bit mode? Why does it work in z/OS 1.6?

Oh wait a minute, that was three questions.


Redbook, Drafts of Interest, A CICS Migration article

contributed by Ed Webb

UNIX System Services z/OS Version 1 Release 7 Implementation
Published: January, 19, 2006 More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247035.html

Communications Server for z/OS V1R7 TCP/IP, Volume 1
Published: January, 13, 2006 More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247169.html

Communications Server for z/OS V1R7 TCP/IP, Volume 2
Published: January, 13, 2006 More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247170.html

Communications Server for z/OS V1R7 TCP/IP, Volume 4
Published: January, 13, 2006 More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247172.html

Redbooks

System Programmer's Guide to: Workload Manager
Published: January 19, 2006 ISBN: 0738494356 310 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246472.html

CICS TS V3 Migration Considerations from Mainframe EXTRA’s December 2005 issue.


Humor


Turn Back the Clock to the Year 1905

contributed by Chris Blackshire

THE YEAR 1905

This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1905. One hundred years ago!
What a difference a century makes!

Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1905:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California. (Wish they still were.)

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year. A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education. Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and Influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read or write. (Not sure we have improved on this one.)

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores! Back then pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health." (Shocking!)

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

And I forwarded this from someone else without typing it myself, and sent it to you in a matter of seconds! Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years. It staggers the mind.


Medical Insurance Explained

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Q. What does HMO stand for?
A. This is actually a variation of the phrase, "HEY MOE." Its roots go back to a concept pioneered by Moe of the Three Stooges, who discovered that a patient could be made to forget the pain in his foot if he was poked hard enough in the eye.
---------------------------------------------
Q. I just joined an HMO. How difficult will it be to choose the doctor I want?
A. Just slightly more difficult than choosing your parents. Your insurer will provide you with a book listing all the doctors in the plan. The doctors basically fall into two categories--those who are no longer accepting new patients, and those who will see you but are no longer participating in the plan. But don't worry, the remaining doctor who is still in the plan and accepting new patients has an office just a half-day's drive away and a diploma from a third world country.
---------------------------------------------
Q. Do all diagnostic procedures require pre-certification?
A. No. Only those you need.
---------------------------------------------
Q. Can I get coverage for my preexisting conditions?
A. Certainly, as long as they don't require any treatment.
---------------------------------------------
Q What happens if I want to try alternative forms of medicine?
A. You'll need to find alternative forms of payment.
---------------------------------------------
Q. My pharmacy plan only covers generic drugs, but I need the name brand. I tried the generic medication, but it gave me a stomach
ache. What should I do?
A. Poke yourself in the eye.
---------------------------------------------
Q. What if I'm away from home and I get sick?
A. You really shouldn't do that.
---------------------------------------------
Q. I think I need to see a specialist, but my doctor insists he can handle my problem. Can a general practitioner really perform a heart transplant right in his/her office?
A. Hard to say, but considering that all your risking is the $20 co-payment, there's no harm in giving it a shot.
---------------------------------------------
Q. Will health care be different in the next century?
A. No, but if you call right now, you might get an appointment by then.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

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:

Meeting Compliance Requirements

Speaker:

Bob Spitz of Vanguard

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



First Class Postage

Phillips Software