SPARTA News October 2006

October 2006

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

October and the leaves are starting to change and things are getting busy (if that's possible) here at LabCorp. I enjoyed the presentation last month from IBM about the goings on in RACF. I just wished we could have had a better turn out at SAS for the meeting. Like Ron Pimblett asks at every meeting, if any of us has an idea for a topic or speaker that you would like to have come to SPARTA, please contact him.

We are planning for one of our semi-annual DR tests here and will be recovering our Production LPAR to the system in Burlington. This will be our first time using Capacity Backup (CBU) on the z9-BC system. I'm looking forward to being able to turn off the CBU without doing a POR. I've also had some fun getting everyone used to the new Linux based HMC's and SE's on both systems. Looks like when they installed the Burlington system nobody cabled the HMC to the corporate net so we couldn't use remote access. Once that was done we found that someone else had used the IP address we had reserved for the HMC.

The other big thing I've been working on is related to our recently signed contract with United Health Care. We are planning on a change in our capacity model and then working on what type of hardware and/or software changes that need to be made to our systems and infrastructure. So it has been an interesting second month at LabCorp.

This month our speaker will be Shirley Barborak from IBM to talk to us about the latest in IBM tape technology. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp on the 24th.

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


Future Speakers
(subject to change)

Oct. 24 - Tape Technology Update by Shirley Barborak of IBM
Nov. 28 - CMG Presentation by Jim Horne of Lowes

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.

2006-2007 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294

Burlington, NC 27215

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 e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-L Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-L Group is maintained by Mike Lockey at (336) 641-6235; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Mike.

February 2006 CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V471 (dated February 28, 2006) 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 September 26th, 2006 Meeting

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

•Ten (10) people were present; all were members.

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

•The minutes of August 2006 meeting were accepted as published in the September 2006 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of September 17, 2006, the balance is $1540.65. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the September 2006 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 URL: 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)

October 2006 IBM Tape Technology

November 2006 CMG paper from Jim Horne of Lowes

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

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

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

•Thanks to Ed Webb of SAS Institute for hosting the meeting.

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

•Mark Nelson of IBM spoke (via Webcast) about the recent changes in RACF.

•Mark spoke about the following topics:

z/OS Version 1 Release 5
Dynamic RACF Templates
Multilevel Security
RACF Support for DB2 Version 8
PKI Services
Packaging

z/OS Version 1 Release 6
Common Criteria
Dynamic Class Descriptor Table (CDT)
Password Enveloping and LDAP Change Log Support
Multilevel Security Auditing

z/OS Version 1 Release 7
USER-related enhancements:
Mixed-case passwords
Detect or Prevent password recycling
Maintain revoke date when resuming users
Improve SETR INACTIVE processing for new users
Support for the IBM Health Checker for z/OS
Automatic RVARY SWITCH to backup for some errors
R_admin enhancements: New functions to extract USER, GROUP, and CONNECT information
Nested ACEEs
XML output for SMF Unload
Several PKI Services enhancements

z/OS Version 1 Release 8 **Preview**
Support for RACF pass phrases from 14 to 100 characters is length
Significant improvements to Identrus-certified support for digital certificates, included SCEP and multiple certificate authority (multiple-CA) support
Improvement for tape data set protection using RACF or another external security manager
Support for Advanced Encryption Standard for AES for IPSec
Support for SAF Identity Tokens
Support for virtual key rings
See announcement letter 206-039 for more information

•The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for October 2006

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1478.80 as of October 16, 2006.

Financial Report
3/01/2006 through 10/16/2006

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2006

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Oct. 31 - Subs
Nov. 28 - BarBQ

Southern CMG Meets in Raleigh in late October

contributed by Ed Webb

Early registration is open for the next Southern CMG meeting on Oct. 27 at First Citizens Operations Center in Raleigh. Here’s the details:

http://regions.cmg.org/regions/scmg/fall_06/raleigh/meeting_10_27_06.htm


Redbooks: All Worth A Look

contributed by Ed Webb

Drafts

Server Time Protocol Planning Guide
Published: October, 10, 2006
More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247280.html

DB2 for z/OS: Data Sharing in a Nutshell
Revised: October, 2, 2006
More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247322.html

Redbooks

ABCs of z/OS System Programming Volume 10 (zArchitecture, zSeries hardware)
Published: September 19, 2006 394 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246990.html

IBM Virtualization Engine V2.1 for System z
Published: September 15, 2006 771 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247276.html

z/OS Parallel Sysplex Configuration Overview
Published: September 26, 2006 334 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246485.html

Sysplex eBusiness Security z/OS V1R7 Update
Published: September 27, 2006 326 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247150.html

IBM z/VM and Linux on IBM System z: Virtualization Cookbook for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
Published: September 22, 2006 232 pages Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247272.html

Introduction to the New Mainframe: Networking
Revised: October 12, 2006 406 pages
Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246772.html

A Structured Approach to Modernizing the SNA Environment
Published: October 12, 2006 132 pages
Explore the book online at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247334.html


Humor

20 Lame Puns

contributed by Chris Blackshire

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says:" A beer please, and one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to t he other: "Does this taste funny to you?"

7. "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'"
"That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
Well, "It's Not Unusual."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning."
"I don't believe you," says Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident.
He shouted, "Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!"
The doctor replied, "I know you can't - I've cut off your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, "Dam!".

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.
"But why," they asked, as they moved off.
"Because", he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet.
He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.
This made him ..(Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good)..... A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh.
No pun in ten did.


How Job Classification Is Done ....

contributed by Chris Blackshire

See one that fits you?

Directions:

1. Put 100 bricks in some particular order in a room with a window.

2. Send 2 or 3 candidates into the room and close the door.

3. Come back after 6 hours and analyze the situation.

If they are counting the bricks, put them in Accounting.

If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.

If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.

If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.

If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.

If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

If they say they have tried different combinations yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

If they have already left for the day, put them in Marketing.

If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

Last but not least, if they are talking and bragging to each other and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, October 24, 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: Subs, Drinks, Dessert

Program:

Tape Technology Update

Speaker:

Shirley Barborak of IBM

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



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