SPARTA News January 2007

January 2007

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Welcome to 2007 and one of the warmer winters since I moved to North Carolina 21+ years ago. I hope that everyone enjoyed the November presentation from our own Jim Horne of Lowe's about performance management. 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.

The last two months have been very busy for us at LabCorp. With the startup of the United Health Care work, we've been keeping a close eye on system performance and utilization. While this is going on we are moving forward with our z/OS 1.7 implementation. We have it up and running in one LPAR on the Burlington system and have just gotten it running in one LPAR of the RTP system. Now we will have the fun of validating all the vendor software that is not licensed on the Burlington system. The End-Of-Support date for z/OS 1.4 (March 31st) is coming up very fast.

I've had to put my DB2 hat back on for a little bit since we haven't filled the open DB2 Systems Programmer position that was vacated last September. We have had two DB2 crashes in December and found that our bufferpool definitions were way too high. This was making the xxxxDBM1 address space blow the 2 Gig limit. We ran through a month's worth of DB2 SMF data and resized our bufferpools to correct the situation. We've also setup a step in our daily SMF processing that will allow us to track bufferpool utilization.

In tracking events that happen at other LabCorp sites, we had an interesting one occur at our Louisville, KY site. They had lost network connectivity (both voice and data) due to a cable cut. Investigation found that is was a little more than that. It seems that someone cut and removed a 60 foot section of 2600/pair cable. What some people will do for copper these days! It took about 5 days to get everything back up. We were able to bring the site up on wireless T1 hardware while the phone company did their repairs.

This month our speaker will be Kay Adams from IBM to talk to us about "Sub-Capacity Pricing on z/Series". I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp in RTP on the 30th.

P.S. Fried chicken, drinks, and dessert will be provided.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)

Jan. 30 - Update about Sub-Capacity Pricing on z/Series by IBM
Feb. 27 - 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 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 LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the November 28th, 2006 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.

•Twelve (12) people were present; eleven (11) 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 October 2006 meeting were accepted as published in the November 2006 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of November 15, 2006, the balance is $1428.73. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the November 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)

January 2006 NC ITS (?)

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

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

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

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

•Please remember to invite others to the meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 8:05 p.m.

•Jim Horne of Lowe’s gave a presentation about how he uses SAS and spreadsheets to analyze RMF and SMF data for Capacity Planning and Performance Management.

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for January 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1324.11 as of January 13, 2007.

Financial Report
3/01/2006 through 1/13/2007

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Jan. 30 - Fried Chicken
Feb. 27 - Subs
Mar 27 - BBQ
Apr 24 - Pizza
May 22 - Chicken
June 26 - Subs
July 31 - BBQ
Aug. 28 - Pizza
Sept. 25 - Chicken
Oct. 30 - Subs
Nov. 27- BBQ

Readings for January Speaker Topic

contributed by Ed Webb

Midrange Workload License Charges for IBM z/VSE V4

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/swprice/mwlc.html

IBM System z New Application License Charges

http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/swprice/znalc.html

Daylight Saving Time Change in 2007

contributed by Duane Reaugh

IBM has launched a new website for alerts regarding cross platform issues. The URL is http://www.ibm.com/support/alerts/us/ and the first alert is regarding the Daylight Saving Time change in the U.S. next year. IBM is thinking this as a mini-Y2K issue. There are actually more changes than you would think. You may have to add both software and microcode changes to support the new DST dates. This first alert has different sections for the different Operating Systems, tapes, printers as well as storage devices and Hardware Management Consoles (HMCs). At this point, the details are changing rapidly.

The good news is most applications programs will be unaffected. The bad news is it may be difficult to do extensive testing since many of the fixes are at such a low level. With Y2K, there was software to fool application programs with a fake system date. With this problem, it is the operating system and hardware that must be "fooled" and that is much harder. You might want to be in town on the 2nd Sunday in March around 2 am. Being sober is optional.


New IBM Migration Checker available for download

contributed by Ed Webb

A new set of tools to automate some z/OS release-to-release migration checking is now available as an web download at http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/downloads/#mchecker. Originally designed to help with migration from z/OS R7 to R8, it is very helpful if you are jumping from an earlier release to R8.

The Migration Checker makes no changes to your systems but produces very helpful migration suggestions for various system components. Download and try it today!


Redbooks: All Worth A Look

contributed by Ed Webb

Drafts

Communications Server for z/OS V1R8 TCP/IP Implementation Volume 3: High Availability, Scalability, and Performance
Published: December, 14, 2006
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247341.html

z/OS Version 1 Release 8 RACF Implementation
Published: December, 15, 2006
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247248.html

Redbooks

Introduction to the New Mainframe: Large-Scale Commercial Computing
Revised: December 29, 2006 ISBN: 0738496626 228 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247175.html

IBM System z9 Enterprise Class Technical Guide
Revised: December 28, 2006 ISBN: 0738497142 320 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247124.html

Communications Server for z/OS V1R8 TCP/IP Implementation Volume 1: Base Functions, Connectivity, and Routing
Published: December 29, 2006 ISBN: 0738494569 294 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247339.html

Communications Server for z/OS V1R8 TCP/IP Implementation Volume 2: Standard Applications
Published: December 28, 2006 ISBN: 0738494577 426 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247340.html

Redpaper

ICF Catalog Backup and Recovery: Catalog RecoveryPlus Update
Published: December, 13, 2006
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/abstracts/redp4212.html

Humor

Odds and Ends

contributed by Duane Reaugh

Birds of a feather flock together and crap on your car.

A penny saved is a government oversight.

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

He who hesitates is probably right.

Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are "XL."

If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.

If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.

The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

There's always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it. For example I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt.

Did you ever notice: When you put the 2 words "The" and "IRS" together it spells "Theirs."


Things You Should Know But Probably Don’t

contributed by Chris Blackshire

1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

3. The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle".

4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino.

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.

12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).

14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.

16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the ‘upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time, hence, multi-tasking was invented.

18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!

21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver.

22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.

25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.)

26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless).

27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

32. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.

34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart . "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O. J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her fanny off to jail."


And They Ask Why I Like Retirement ?

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Question: How many days in a week?
Answer: 6 Saturdays, 1 Sunday

Question: When is a retiree's bedtime?
Answer: Three hours after he falls asleep on the couch.

Question: How many retirees to change a light bulb?
Answer: Only one, but it might take all day.

Question: What's the biggest gripe of retirees?
Answer: There is not enough time to get everything done.

Question: Why don't retirees mind being called Seniors?
Answer: The term comes with a 10% percent discount.

Question: Among retirees what is considered formal attire?
Answer: Tied shoes.

Question: Why do retirees count pennies?
Answer: They are the only ones who have the time.

Question: What is the common term for someone who enjoys work and refuses to retire?
Answer: NUTS!

Question: Why are retirees so slow to clean out the basement, attic or garage?
Answer: They know that as soon as they do, one of their adult kids will want to store stuff there.

Question: What do retirees call a long lunch?
Answer: Normal.

Question: What is the best way to describe retirement?
Answer: The never ending Coffee Break.

Question: What's the biggest advantage of going back to school as a retiree?
Answer: If you cut classes, no one calls your parents.

Question: Why does a retiree often say he doesn't miss work, but misses the people he used to work with?
Answer: He is too polite to tell the whole truth.

My favorite one:
QUESTION: What do you do all week?
Answer: Mon. to Fri. Nothing, Sat & Sun I rest!

Look what we have to look forward to!!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, January 30, 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: Fried Chicken, Drinks, Dessert

Program:

Sub-Capacity Pricing Update

Speaker:

Kay Adams of IBM

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



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