SPARTA News August 2007

August 2007

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

August is here and that means it's time for SHARE! I had a good time out in San Diego and will be talking about that at our upcoming meeting.

Last month we had a visit from our own Tom Schwartz of SUN-StorageTEK to talk to us about their latest tape offerings (both real and virtual). Since we are a big user of STK equipment, it's always good to see what is available (even if you're not allow to purchase it).

I've been wearing two hats this past month. My manager hat trying to keep everything running, and my DB2 sysprog hat. I've managed to upgrade one of our TECH DB2 subsystems to V8 new function mode (i.e. Catalog converted to Unicode). Now I'm working on getting all the add-on products running on V8, things like QMF, High Performance Unload, File-Manager/DB2, and others. Sounds like fun (to someone, not me).

We are also working on setting up ThruPut-Manager/AE from MVS Solutions. Looks like an interesting product to help manage your JES2 batch processing. We are beta site number 5 for MVS Solutions on this product. I'll keep you all informed on how this goes for us.

I want to state again that LabCorp is looking for a Sr. DB2 Systems Programmer. So if any of you know of someone who would fit this position, please contact me at LabCorp.

This month our presentation will be from Duane Reaugh, Ed Webb, and myself on our trip to SHARE 109 in San Diego. I look forward to seeing you all on the 28th at LabCorp in the RTP.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Aug. 28 - SHARE Conference Reports
Sept. 25 - CICS Knowledge Engineers
Oct. 30 - DB2

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.

2007-2008 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
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 July 31, 2007 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 and recent happenings at work.

•The minutes of June 2007 meeting were accepted as published in the July 2007 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of July 21, 2007, the balance is $1437.43. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the July 2007 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)

August 2007 SHARE Update
September 2007 CICS Knowledge Engineers
October 2007 DB2

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

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

•Food for the August meeting will be BarBQ, drinks, and dessert.

•Brad asked who is going to SHARE; several members said that they were.

•Brad reminded everyone to invite others to the SPARTA meeting.

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

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:45 p.m.

•Tom Schwartz from Sun Microsystems Storage Group talked about mainframe storage products offered by Sun. Tom provided an overview of mainframe storage products from Sun Microsystems under the StorageTek brand.

Topics Tom discussed were:

Enterprise Disk
Sun's Commitment to the Mainframe
Sun Mainframe Disk Portfolio

Sun Mainframe Disk
Sun StorageTek SVA (V2X4f/V2X2)

SVA Recent Product Enhancements

Sun StorageTek 9900 Series

ST9985 Hardware Structure
ST9985 Hardware Specifications

ST9990V Overview
Sun StorageTek 9990V Enhancements

Where Should Storage Virtualization Reside?

Sun StorageTek Tape Portfolio

Virtual Storage Manager

VSM - Scalable Architecture

SL8500 Enterprise Tape Library

Tape Drives and encryption feature

Two Kinds of Enterprise Tape
Sun StorageTek T9840C Access Tape Drive
Sun StorageTek T9940B Capacity Tape Drive

Sun StorageTek T10000 Tape Drive
T10000 Functionality and Reliability Features
T10000 vs. IBM TS1120

Storage Encryption Methods
Advantage of Encryption in the Storage Device

New innovative low cost storage solutions from Sun

Low Cost Virtual Tape Solution
X4500 "Thumper" Data Server

Low Cost DASD Solution

FICON extenders, switches and directors

Professional and Data Center Services

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for August 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1381.23 as of August 19, 2007.

Financial Report
3/01/2007 through 8/19/2007

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Aug. 28 - BarBQ
Sept. 25 - Pizza
Oct. 30 - Chicken
Nov. 27- Subs


The Straight Story: Solaris on Mainframe

contributed by Ed Webb

Here’s an interesting development for server consolidation: IBM will offer Solaris on the mainframe. Check out this article.


Mark Your Calendar for the SCMG Fall Conference

contributed by Ed Webb

Friday, September 28
Capitol City Club
411 Fayetteville St Mall #2100
Raleigh, NC

Registration information is available now for Southern CMG in Raleigh at http://regions.cmg.org/regions/scmg/index.html..

Frank Bereznay will be presenting his Mullen Award winning paper "Using Statistical Techniques to Interpret Service and Resource Metrics" at this meeting. See the complete agenda at http://regions.cmg.org/regions/scmg/fall_07/raleigh/meeting_09_28_07.htm.


Hot Topics - The z/OS Newsletter for August 2007

contributed by Ed Webb

Check out the latest from IBM z/OS in the August 2007 Hot Topics newsletter at http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/e0z2n180.pdf.


IBM to Consolidate 3900 servers onto z Servers

contributed by Ed Webb

The savings in energy and space are amazing as IBM proceeds to consolidate 3900 (of its 16000) servers onto z boxes. Check the details of IBM’s “greening” efforts at http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid80_gci1266438,00.html?track=NL-576&ad=599055&asrc=EM_NLT_1902877&uid=567195


Data breaches start at the gas station, analyst says

contributed by Ron Pimblett

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service, 06/26/07
Sponsored by:


Using a credit card at a gas station could pose more of a risk for data theft than shopping online, as point-of-sale terminals have emerged as a weak link in the security chain, according to a Gartner Inc. analyst.

When a card is swiped, point-of-sale (POS) terminals often collect and store the data held in the magnetic stripe on the back of a credit card, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst. Retailers are often unaware that their POS applications collect so much information.

In the hands of sophisticated hackers and counterfeiters, the data collected from the magnetic stripe is enough to create a replica card. "It's almost more dangerous to go to the gas station than it is online," Litan said at Gartner's Identity and Access Management Summit in London on Monday. "The data is just sitting there. No one even thought about what data is on a POS controller."

Retailers' network configurations are partly to blame. Many are using the Internet to transmit data in place of dial-up networks, and many have incorporated wireless access points into their networks using WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), Litan said, which is not considered a strong form of encryption.

Hackers lurk in parking lots looking for weak networks to penetrate. Since the POS terminals are linked via IP, once a hacker has accessed a network they can try out neighboring IP addresses until they locate a
store of data, Litan said.

Data breaches that occur off-line are common. Of 160 breaches investigated for one major credit card brand, 128 took place in the brick and mortar world where the card was physically present for the transaction, rather than being used online or over the telephone, according to Gartner.

To strengthen security, card brands such as Visa and Mastercard are pressuring retailers to comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, a code of best practices created by the card industry. The standard forbids the storing of magnetic stripe data on POS terminals, and Visa plans to start fining retailers in the coming months if they don't comply, according to Gartner.

Implementing security is cheaper in the long run than having a data breach, which can be expensive and hurt a company's reputation. Gartner calculates that a data breach costs companies around US$300 per exposed account because of investigations, fines and lawsuits. On the other hand, beefing up security costs around $16 per account for the first year, and that cost falls over time, according to Litan.

The short-term forecast for POS security doesn't look great, however. Gartner predicts that by next year, most attacks against retailers will be directed at their POS terminals, and only 30 percent of POS software will be compliant with the prevailing security standards by 2009.

"The thieves always find the path of least resistance," Litan said.

/The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

/All contents copyright 1995-2007 Network World, Inc.
http://www.networkworld.com


Your Car Keys Could Save Your Life

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain.

It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break in your house, odds are the burglar or rapist won't stick around.... after a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won't want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there.... This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or prevent a sexual abuse crime.

This is being sent to everyone because it is a fantastic idea. It could also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can't reach a phone.

My Mom has suggested to my Dad that he carry his car keys with him in case he falls outside and she doesn't hear him. He can activate the car alarm and then she'll know there's a problem


Humor

Blowing In The Wind

contributed by Duane Reaugh

(Ed. note: First sung at SHARE in San Diego in August 2007 to the famous tune Blowing in the Wind)

How many dumps does it take ‘til they know that there just might be a bug?
Yes ‘n How many loads does it take ‘til you know, it’s time that you pull the plug?
Yes ‘n How many nights do you work way too late before you won’t get a hug?
The answer my friend is IBM Main, the answer is IBM Main.

How many times do you run out of space, before you get to buy tools?
Yes ‘n How many jobs abend at you site before you make larger pools?
Yes ‘n How many No’s does management make before you see them as fools?
The answer my friend is IBM Main, the answer is IBM Main.

How many hours must a batch job waste before we can fix the J-C-L?
Yes ‘n How many blades do we add to the rack before it becomes “Server Hell”?
Yes, ‘n How many Gigs do we give to DB2 before it starts running well?
The answer my friend is IBM Main, the answer is IBM Main.


North vs. South

contributed by Chris Blackshire

North vs. South

The North has coffee houses,
The South has Waffle Houses.

The North has dating services,
The South has family reunions.

The North has switchblade knives,
The South has Lee Press-on Nails.

The North has double last names,
The South has double first names.

The North has Indy car races,
The South has stock car races.

The North has Cream of Wheat,
The South has grits.

The North has green salads,
The South has collard greens.

The North has lobsters,
The South has crawfish.

The North has the rust belt,
The South has the Bible Belt.

FOR NORTHERNERS MOVING SOUTH:

In the South: If you run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in a four-wheel drive pickup truck with a tow chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help them, just stay out of their way. This is what they live for.

Don't be surprised to find movie rentals and bait in the same store....do not buy food at this store.

Remember, "y'all" is singular, "all y'all" is plural, and "all y'all's" is plural possessive.

Get used to hearing "You ain't from round here, are ya?"

Save all manner of bacon grease. You will be instructed later on how to use it.

Don't be worried at not understanding what people are saying. They can't understand you either. The first Southern statement to creep into a transplanted Northerner's vocabulary is the adjective "big'ol" truck or "big'ol" boy. Most Northerners begin their Southern-influenced dialect this way. All of them are in denial about it.

The proper pronunciation you learned in school is no longer proper.

Be advised that "He needed killin" is a valid defense here.

If you hear a Southerner exclaim, "Hey, y'all, watch this," you should stay out of the way. These are likely to be the last words he'll ever say.

If there is the prediction of the slightest chance of even the smallest accumulation of snow, your presence is required at the local grocery store. It doesn't matter whether you need anything or not. You just have to go there.

Do not be surprised to find that 10-year olds own their own shotguns, they are proficient marksmen, and their mammas taught them how to aim.

In the South, we have found that the best way to grow a lush green lawn is to pour gravel on it and call it a driveway.

AND REMEMBER: If you do settle in the South and bear children, don't think we will accept them as Southerners. After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, we wouldn't call 'em biscuits.

Send this to four people that ain't related to you, and I reckon your life will turn into a country music song 'fore you know it.

Your kin would get a kick out of it too


A Slightly Distorted View of North Carolina

contributed by Chris Blackshire

1. Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.
2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in NORTH CAROLINA.
3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in NORTH CAROLINA, plus a couple no one's seen before.
4. If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.
5. "Onced" and "Twiced" are words.
6. It is not a Shopping cart, it is a buggy.
7. Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.
8. People actually grow and eat okra.
9. "Fixinto" is one word.
10. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.
11. Ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!
12. Backards and forwards means, "I know everything about you."
13. The word "Jeet" is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"
14. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you' re done or it's too dark to see.
15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
7 p.m.

Location: LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: BarBQ, Drink, Dessert

Program:

SHARE Conference Reports

Speaker:

Duane Reaugh of DTS Software, Brad Carson of LabCorp, and Ed Webb of SAS

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



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