SPARTA News October 2008

October 2008

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Welcome to October and fall (and I don't mean the stock market). Leaves are starting to turn colors and the days are cooling off. Had to finally break down and turn on the heat in the house this past weekend. Last month Duane Reaugh and I gave you all our report from SHARE 111 in San Jose. Like always it is a large amount of information to fit into on small session. We always run a little long on these nights. The big highlights were 3390 EAV volumes (up to 233GB) and z/OS 1.10 Hyperdispatch. For a lot more detail on all the SHARE presentations, visit http://www.share.org/.

Well we've gotten z/OS 1.9 out to three LPARs now. We tried to move z/OS 1.9 to our QAAD LPAR and had to back off due to local issues with SCLM and Breeze. With all of our local modifications to make Breeze behave like the old Endevor product, the group that maintains those modification didn't bother to do much testing while we were running on our TECH LPAR. They're moving now so we hope to try again this coming weekend.

We also had a little bit of fun with DB2 and Omegamon on our PROD LPAR. We had a DBA using Omegamon and the monitor task crashed with a S0D6 abend. When the Omegamon task was restarted, one of our production DB2's crashed and the other started getting repeated S0C4's and had to be shutdown (rather hard). Seems that module DGOVRM01 needs to be in the LINKLIST and not just the started task steplib. So we took down Omegamon/DB2 and then restarted both production subsystems and ran without Omegamon monitoring until our monthly production LPAR outage this past Saturday. Now we are running with monitoring again. We did let the IBM/Tivoli folks know how "Happy" we were with this outage.

Now we're being told to work on CPU upgrades again. Since the z10-BC announcement has come out, we are looking at one of these for the Burlington system and a z10-EC for the RTP system. Let's see how well this flies with the corporate folks in downtown Burlington now. More to come later.

This month Bob Neill of IBM will be giving a presentation on IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE on z/VM and Linux. I look forward to seeing you all there are the 28th at LabCorp.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Oct. 28 Omegamon XE for z/VM and Linux by IBM
Nov. 18 Mainview by Janet Sessarego, Director R&D for BMC Mainview
Dec. 30 No Meeting. Happy Holidays!

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.

2008-2009 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 Sept. 30, 2008 Meeting

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

•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.

•Seventeen (17) people were present; fifteen (15) were members.

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

•The minutes of August 2008 meeting were accepted as published in the September 2008 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer gave the Treasurer's Report. As of September 20, 2008, the balance is $1285.77; motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the September 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 page is available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

October LINUX tools
November TBA
December No Meeting
January Innovation DP - Overview of FDR
February TBA
March SHARE Conference Reports

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

•The October SPARTA meeting will be October 28 at LabCorp in RTP.

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

Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

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

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 8:10 p.m.

•Duane Reaugh of DTS Software and Brad Carson of Labcorp presented SHARE August 2008 Conference reports.

Duane talked about the following:
Hot Storage APARS
z/OS 1.10
EAV (Extended Address Volumes)
What is EAV?
When is EAV?
What can I do today?

Brad talked about the following:
Expectations
Attended session summary
Key information learned
What we can or should do
Thoughts and comments
Handout information

Handouts from the SHARE August 2008 Conference are available on the SHARE website: www.share.org
Also get handouts on request from Brad Carson after he receives the DVD with the handouts.

- Meeting ended at 9:45 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for October 2008

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1214.64 as of October 19, 2008.

Financial Report
3/01/2008 through 10/19/2008

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2008

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Oct. 28 - Chicken
Nov. 18 - Subs (Nov. 25 = Thanksgiving week)
Dec. 30 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


IBM Announces z10 BC, Enhanced z10 EC, Updated DS8000 and TS7700

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM System Storage DS8000 series (Machine type 2107) delivers new functional capabilities (zHPF and RMZ resync) for System z environments

IBM System z10 Enterprise Class - The future runs on System z10, the future begins today

IBM System z10 Business Class - The smart choice for your business. z can do IT better

IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 is designed to bring efficiency to tape operation and offer versatile models that support
attachment to tape libraries


Humor


Just Thoughts

contributed by Chris Blackshire

I was thinking about how a status symbol of today is those cell phones that everyone has clipped onto their belt or purse. I can't afford one. So, I'm wearing my garage door opener.

You know, I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people didn't like me anyway.

I was thinking that women should put pictures of missing husbands on beer cans!

I was thinking about old age and decided that old age is 'when you still have something on the ball, but you are just too tired to bounce it.'

I have gotten that dreaded furniture disease. That's when your chest is falling into your drawers!

I know, when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, 'Oh, have you got a cat?' Just once I want to say - 'No, it's for company!'

Employment application blanks always ask 'who is to be notified in case of an emergency.' I think you should write - 'A Good Doctor!'


Japanese Banking News

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Uncertainty has now hit the Japanese banking sector:

In the last 7 days, The Origami Bank has folded.

Sumo Bank has gone belly up.

Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks.

Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank, where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal!


New Stock Market Terms for 2008 and Beyond

contributed by Chris Blackshire

CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
7 p.m.

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, Drink, Dessert

Program:

Tivoli Omegamon XE on z/VM and Linux

Speaker:

Bob Neill of IBM

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



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