SPARTA News February 2008

February 2008

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

It's February and the water restrictions are getting tighter and tighter for those of us who live in Raleigh. Makes me wonder if I should replace the dying azaleas in my yard with cactus plants! Our January meeting at SAS brought us a visit from Bill Bloemeke who talked to us about the Fraud Management product that SAS produces. He explained how it is integrated into a large banking environment and is using z/OS as the key platform for the product’s execution. A very good example of how z/OS continues to be a viable platform in today's IT world.

Here at LabCorp we are planning for a CPU upgrade of our z9 system. Right now it could become a z9-705 (plus 1 zIIP) or a z/(whatever is announced on 2/26). We've managed to get our current box maxed out with the addition of some more web based applications accessing DB2 on z/OS. With diligent work we've managed to hold off this upgrade from last fall, but you can only tweak and tune so much.

We've had some fun with our conversion to DB2 V8. It seems that some of our key tables have reserved words as column names. Some of these are PARTITION, SEQUENCE, and TYPE. We had converted one subsystem on our QAAD lpar, but had to drop back to V7.1 when BINDs for COBOL code failed. Our Cool:GEN code was fine since it puts double quotes around all column names so DB2 won't try to parse then as words. Since so much data is already loaded in these tables, it looks like we will have to visit all the COBOL code (and copybooks) to place double quotes in the SQL statements. I see a large number of recompiles coming our way soon.

Well, I've found another healthy DB2 Systems Programmer. It took a while, but he will be starting with us soon. It has been quite a journey finding and hiring a good candidate for this position. I hope I don't have to go down this road again soon.

Because several of our members are attending SHARE in Orlando when we normally have our meeting, we've decided to push our meeting date out one week to March 4th, 2008. Our speakers for this meeting will be some of our members reporting on SHARE. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp in RTP on the 4th.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Mar. 4 Special Date: SHARE Conference Reports
Mar. 25 Hurricanes Ice Hockey game at the RBC in Raleigh

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 January 29, 2008 Meeting

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

•The meeting was held at SAS Institute in Cary, NC.

•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 and recent happenings at work.

•The minutes of November 2007 meeting were accepted as published in the January 2008 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of January 13, 2008, the balance is $1040.35. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the January 2008 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)

February 2008 SHARE Reports (meeting moved to March 4, 2008)
March 2008 - Ice Hockey at the RBC
April 2008 - eJES from Phoenix
May 2008 - Omegamon updates

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

•The February SPARTA meeting will be held on March 4 at LabCorp in RTP so that SHARE reports can be presented. Directions will be e-mailed to our membership.

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

•Thanks to Ed Webb for hosting the meeting.

•Jim Horne (a SPARTA member) is giving a presentation at SHARE. If you are attending SHARE, please support Jim by attending his presentation.

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

•William Bloemeke from SAS Institute talked about SAS Fraud Management.

The product is used by financial institutions to assist in preventing and detecting credit card fraud. Topics that William talked about were:

On Demand Scoring Engine
Solution Value
The Solution
SAS Fraud Management
What does this give a bank?
Solution Architecture - Message Oriented
Background
HSBC Project Objectives
HSBC - 10/31/2007 Press Release
Mainframe Components
Host Component Schematic
OSE Controller - Components
Terminology
RAPTPARM
Architecture
OSE Controller - Transaction Flow
OSE Address Space
Commands
OSE Monitoring Agent
RAPTISP - ISPF interface
RAPTISP - Screen shots

•The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for February 2008

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 995.69 as of February 16, 2008.

Financial Report
3/01/2007 through 02/16/2008

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2008

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Mar. 4 - Chicken
Mar 25 - RBC Hockey
Apr 29 - BarBQ
May 20 - Pizza (May 27 = Memorial week)
June 24 - Chicken
July 29 - Subs
Aug. 26 - BarBQ
Sept. 30 - Pizza
Oct. 28 - Chicken
Nov. 18 - Subs (Nov. 25 = Thanksgiving week)


Get a Head Start on SHARE

contributed by Ed Webb

Many of the presentations that are given at SHARE in Orlando during the week of Feb. 24-29, 2008, are now online. Check out this webpage at share.org: http://shareew.prod.web.sba.com/proceedingmod/index.cfm?conference_id=17 . Of course, my favorite page at SHARE is the JES2 Project’s page at http://www.share.org/Volunteer_Center/programs/jes2_project.cfm. I’m the project’s webmaster.

Register for IBM’s CICS Newsletter

contributed by Ed Webb

The CICS eNewsletter is a useful document and rich source of the latest information relating to the entire CICS family of products. To register for the newsletter, just go to: http://www.ibm.com/cics/enews/register


Young Mainframer’s Group Gains Momentum

contributed by Ed Webb

By Chris Kanaracus

January 31, 2008 (IDG News Service) zNextGen, an organization aimed at young mainframe programmers, has gained significant momentum since it was created roughly two years ago through IBM and its user group, Share, according to its leaders.

The organization started out with an informal gathering "in a bar with 30 or 40 people there, and we now have over 350 members from over 100 different enterprise systems companies in 12 countries," said Kristine Harper, zNextGen's project manager and an assembler programmer at Neon Enterprise Software in Sugar Land, Texas.

As a young woman in her 20s, the University of Arizona 2005 graduate doesn't fit the archetypal mold of a big iron lifer. But she entered that world at birth: Her parents have both worked as mainframe programmers.

"Basically, I'm a nerd at heart, to begin with. It definitely takes a certain kind of personality to work on mainframes," she said, adding, "It's in my blood and I got an early start. I pretty much was not exposed to all the stigmas around mainframes."

Harper said the raw power a mainframe possesses holds far more interest for her than Web programming, for example. "You get to learn something new every day ... it's really nice to know I'm in a career where I can walk into work and never say I know everything."

Justin Bastin, 27, another zNextGen member, studied computer science in college but wasn't lying awake at night, dreaming of a life at the helm of a System z. "I knew I wanted to go into IT, but what platform, I didn't know."

After putting out resumes for a while, he heard from a professor that The Sherwin-Williams Co. was looking for a mainframe programmer, and eventually landed the job.

"You really are always learning something new," he said, in agreement with Harper. Bastin added that the stakes are also high with a mainframe -- the proverbial beating heart of a company's IT infrastructure.

"If you have a problem, with the mainframe it's not as simple as you just reboot. You cannot reboot in the middle of the week. Once you figure that problem out, it's very rewarding," he said.

IBM, of course, is interested in preserving its lucrative System z business -- something that would prove difficult if the supply of new programmers dries up.

"Bringing new people to the platform is a big part of the mission ... keeping the skills pipeline full is important to IBM," said Michael Todd, an IBM Academic Initiative System z adviser who works with the group. "It's been a concern for a few years, and we heard that from our customers."

There are a number of zNextGen-related tracks planned for Share's conference in Orlando in February.

IBM, Share and zNextGen are also rolling out a new recruitment tactic -- a document containing photos and profiles of zNextGen members, which will be distributed to university students.

Its contents are telling of the need zNextGen is trying to fill: There are plenty of twentysomethings featured, but a fair number of older people as well -- veteran mainframers who help foster the program.

Harper, for one, does not seem daunted. "I'm definitely very happy and pleased by the growth of our group. It's grown significantly but not so fast we can't handle the growth rate," she said.


Three Things

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Three things in life that, once gone, never come back
1. Time
2. Words
3. Opportunity

Three things in life that can destroy a person
1. Anger
2. Pride
3. Unforgiveness

Three things in life that you should never lose
1. Hope
2. Peace
3. Honesty

Three things in life, that are most valuable
1. Love
2. Family & Friends
3. Kindness

Three things in life, that are never certain
1. Fortune
2. Success
3. Dreams

Three things that make a person
1. Commitment
2. Sincerity
3. Hard work


Humor


Wrong E-Mail Address

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Lesson to be learned from typing the wrong email address:

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter.

They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years before.

Because of their hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules.

So, the husband left Minneapolis and flew to Florida on Friday, and his wife was flying down the following day.

The husband checked into the hotel, and unlike years ago, there was a computer in his room, and he decided to send an email to his wife.

However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without noticing his error, sent the email to the wrong address.

Meanwhile....somewhere in Houston ....a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory after suffering a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends.

After reading the first message, she screamed and then fainted.

The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and then glanced up and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife
Date: Friday, October 13, 2004
Subject: I have Arrived!

Dearest Love:

I know you are surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now, and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I have just arrived and have been checked in.

I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow, and look forward to seeing you then.

Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

PS ....... Sure is hot down here!!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Special Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2008
7 p.m.

Location: LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: Fried Chicken, Drink, Dessert

Program:

SHARE Conference Reports

Speakers:

Several SPARTA Members

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



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