SPARTA News February 2009

February 2009

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Here we are in February and the roller coaster ride of weather is visiting us again. Up near 70 one week and around freezing the next. It’s been difficult trying to figure out what to wear and to keep from catching a cold. I hope everyone enjoyed the visit from Innovation Data Processing last month. They gave us a good look at what the FDR suite of products can be doing for a site.

Our z10’s are settling in and we have been gathering the new performance base line numbers for the billing application. We have been impressed by the z10 so far, our numbers are looking very good. We went from the 5-way z9 to a 4-way z10 and have not had any issues with production code. Having a faster zIIP for DB2 DDF access has also been a nice improvement.

During the past month we have been working on installing z/VM 5.4 on the Burlington z10. It was great being able to use the DVD drive in the HMC for the installation. No need to fight with the SUN-STK silo to get the tapes mounted to the VM LPAR. Only one DVD with all the features. Wouldn’t be nice if you could order your z/OS system this way, especially for those of us that are networked challenged at work?

For the product that is being presented this month, we were a beta site for MVS Solutions. We have ThruPut Manager running on all five of our z/OS LPARs, and the Automation Edition running on three. We hope to be moving Automation Edition to our QAAD LPAR soon.

This month Martin Wills of MVS Solutions will be giving a presentation on the features of ThruPut Manager Automation Edition. I look forward to seeing you all there are the 24th at LabCorp.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Feb. 24 ThroughPut Manager by MVS Solutions
Mar. 31 SHARE Reports by SPARTA members

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 January 27, 2009 Meeting

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

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

•Many people were present; most were members.

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

•The minutes of November 2008 meeting were accepted as published in the January 2009 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer gave the Treasurer's Report. As of January 17, 2009, the balance is $1036.47; motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the January 2009 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)

February MVS Solutions - ThroughPut Manager
March SHARE Conference Reports
April BMC Software - Mainview
May IBM - Omegamon for Storage

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

•The February SPARTA meeting will be February 24 at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the February meeting will be subs.

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

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

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:55 p.m.

•Thomas Meehan from Innovation Data Processing gave a presentation about the ongoing improvements in FDR, ABR, and other solutions for data preservation and backup.


•Meeting ended at 8:40 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for February 2009

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1127.85 as of February 16, 2009.

Financial Report
3/01/2008 through 2/16/2009

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2009

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Feb. 24 - Subs
Mar 31 - BBQ
Apr 28 - Pizza
May 19 - Chicken (May 26 = Memorial week)
June 30 - Subs
July 28 - BBQ
Aug. 25 - Pizza
Sept. 29 - Chicken
Oct. 27 - Subs
Nov. 17 - BBQ (Nov. 24 = Thanksgiving week)
Dec. 29 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


The LE PTF from Hell

contributed by Ed Webb

It seemed simple enough. I ran the usual APPLY CHECK for RSU0901 service against our z/OS 1.10 Test system already at RSU0812. Only 46 PTFs to APPLY - easy and quick!

A brief check of HOLDDATA revealed no actionable issues for us; one PTF cautioned that extra CPU time was required and that a large amount of output would occur. But the TIME parameter specified almost 30 minutes of CPU time - way above what was usually needed and the JOB statement already ignored any large output less than 1.3 million lines.

I went through my usual routine - shutdown everything on the Test system, then bring up just enough VTAM, TSO, and OMVS to run the APPLY. 75 minutes later on our z9 BC and I knew this APPLY was going to be different when the JOB failed with Abend S322 and more than 4 million lines of output (none for any dumps from the S322).

Muttering under my breath, slightly happy that 43 PTFs were applied successfully, I reviewed the SMPOUT listing and realized that one PTF appeared to be relinking all, yes, all, of the Language Environment (LE) component.

So I increased the TIME value to 50 minutes and resubmitted the JOB. Then I waited, and waited, and waited, and worried as the job crossed the 40 minute CPU mark when bam! Abend S878-10 - out of memory after creating 9.5 million lines of output. How could it be out of memory? The REGION on the EXEC for PGM=GIMSMP was 1024M (1 gigabyte!). There was good news - two more PTFs were applied but not the monster for LE. It was late, I was tired and upset, so I threw in the towel. IPLed CLPA and left the Test System running overnight.

The next day I prepared carefully, setting two SLIP traps - one for S322 and one for S878. With 60 minutes in the TIME parameter and 1536M in the REGION parameter, I resubmitted the RSU APPLY job. More than 100 minutes later, having consumed 46 minutes of CPU time, producing a staggering 14 million lines of output, the job quietly ended with a return code of 4. Another IPL CLPA and my nightmare was over and the Test system was running at the RSU0901 level.

So if you see a HOLDDATA caution about high CPU consumption and large output during APPLY and the HOLDDATA is for z/OS 1.10 LE PTF UK41392 for APAR PK75057, be forewarned. Believe the HOLDDATA! Clear your calendar and your SPOOL before APPLYing.


TCPIP Performance Tips

contributed by Ed Webb

Recently the z/Journal - The Resource for Users of IBM Mainframe Systems offered this article about improving TCPIP performance. Check it out.

http://zjournal.com/index.cfm?section=article&aid=329


Fun Computer Facts

contributed by Chris Blackshire

25 Random Facts About Computers

1. The first personal computer was the Berkeley Enterprises "Simon" which sold for $300 in 1950.

2. Seagate Technology was originally named Shugart Technology.

3. The precision quartz clock in a computer cannot keep accurate time.

4. Windows was originally named Interface Manager.

5. IBM which stands for International Business Machines, was an exaggerated name derived from NCR, National Cash Register.

6. Floppy disks in the late 1970s were 8 inches in diameter.

7. The VIC-20 computer from Commodore sold for $299 in 1980 with 5K of RAM.

8. The world's first one gigabyte disk drive was announced in 1980. It weighed 550 pounds and had a price tag of $40,000.

9. Many consider the Burroughs B-5000 (circa 1955) to be the single greatest computer ever designed.

10. IP means both Internet Protocol and Intellectual Property. Thus when you say a company is involved with IP, nobody will know what you are talking about.

11. The ticker symbol for Sun Microsystems was changed from SUNW to JAVA and the company has been struggling ever since.

12. SanDisk used to be called SunDisk.

13. Apple popularized the laser printer.

14. Adobe Photoshop was originally called Display, then ImagePro. It was not developed by Adobe, but licensed from a college student named Thomas Knoll in 1988.

15. Ink jet ink costs $5000 per gallon.

16. The precursor to today's GPS car navigation system was released in 1985. It was the ETAK Navigator and used a computer with a dead reckoning program to navigate.

17. Intel's first microprocessor was the 4004. It was designed for a calculator, nobody imagined where it would lead.

18. SCO, the company that sold a version of Unix, used to be called the Santa Cruz Operation.

19. Computers should be turned off at night.

20. Peter Norton of the fabled Norton anti-virus program once said that there was no such thing as a computer virus and considered the whole idea some sort of hoax.

21. "Modem" means modulator/demodulator. This referred to the modulation and demodulation of an analog signal to make it digital. By this definition the device called a cable modem is a misnomer. It should be called a network adapter.

22. Dell Inc. was originally called PCs Limited.

23. The Apple 1 was the first computer developed by Apple and was nothing more than a bag of parts. The Apple II was the first finished product sold by the company.

24. Lenovo means "new legend" -- "Le" for legend and "novo" for new.

25. In the 1950s computers were commonly referred to as "electronic brains."


IBM to build world's fastest supercomputer

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Triangle Business Journal

IBM has been tapped by the federal government to build the world's fastest supercomputer.

The computer, named Sequoia, would be faster than all 500 of the world's current fastest computers - combined. It would run at 20 petaflops, or 20 quadrillion calculations per second.

By comparison, the world's current fastest computer - also an IBM machine - runs at 1.05 petaflops.

IBM's contract is with the National Nuclear Security Administration, which would use the supercomputer for weapons research. Specifically, NNSA will be able to determine whether the U.S.' aging nukes are safe and functional.

"These powerful machines will provide NNSA with the capabilities needed to resolve time-urgent and complex scientific problems, ensuring the viability of the nation's nuclear deterrent into the future," NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino says in a written statement.

How fast is 20 petaflops? IBM (NYSE: IBM) and NNSA offer this tidbit: "If each of the 6.7 billion people on earth had a hand calculator and worked together on a calculation 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, it would take 320 years to do what Sequoia will do in one hour."

IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., employs about 11,000 people in the Triangle.


Humor


New Element Found

contributed by Tommy Thomas

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.
 
The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
 
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
 
Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.
 
Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.
 
This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.
 
When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.


“And Then The Fight Started”

contributed by Chris Blackshire

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, 'What's on TV?'
I said, 'Dust.'
And then the fight started...
------------ ---------

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.'
I bought her a scale.
And then the fight started...
------------ ---------

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive... so, I took her to a gas station.
And then the fight started...
------------ ---------

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.
She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.'
And then the fight started...
------------ ---------

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.
My wife asked, 'Do you know her?'
'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.'
'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'
And then the fight started...
----------- ---------

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.
"I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please."
He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?"
“Nah, she can order for herself."
And then the fight started...
------------ ---------

A woman is standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband, 'I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.'
The husband replies, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.'
And then the fight started.....
------------ ---------

I tried to talk my wife into buying a case of Miller Light for $14.95. Instead, she bought a jar of cold cream for $7.95. I told her the beer would make her look better at night than the cold cream.
And then the fight started....
------------ ----------

My wife asked me if a certain dress made her butt look big. I told her not as much as the dress she wore yesterday.
And then the fight started.....
------------ ---------

A man and a woman were asleep like two innocent babies. Suddenly, at 3 o'clock in the morning, a loud noise came from outside. The woman, bewildered, jumped up from the bed and yelled at the man 'Holy crap. That must be my husband!' So the man jumped out of the bed; scared and naked jumped out the window. He smashed himself on the ground, ran through a thorn bush and to his car as fast as he could go. A few minutes later he returned and went up to the bedroom and screamed at the woman, 'I AM your husband!'
The woman yelled back, 'Yeah, then why were you running?'
And then the fight started.....
------------ ---------

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, grabbed the dog, and slipped quietly into the garage.
I hooked up the boat up to the truck, and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour.
The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day.
I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed.
I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different anticipation, and whispered, 'The weather out there is terrible.'
My loving wife of 10 years replied, 'Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?'
And then the fight started
------------ ---------

I asked my wife, "Where do you want to go for our anniversary? "
It warmed my heart to see her face melt in sweet appreciation. "Somewhere I haven't been in a long time!" She said.
So I suggested, "How about the kitchen?"
And that's when the fight started....


Darn Women Drivers!

contributed by Chris Blackshire

This morning on the way to work, I looked over to my left and there was a woman in a brand new Cadillac doing 75 mph with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner.

I looked away for a couple seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane, still working on that makeup.

As a man, I don't scare easily, but she scared me so much that I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the donut out of my other hand.

In all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my cell phone away from my ear, which fell into the coffee between my legs, splashed, and burned big Jim and the twins, ruined the phone, soaked my trousers, and disconnected an important call.

Darn women drivers!!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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: Subs, Drink, Dessert

Program:

ThroughPut Manager

Speaker:

Martin Wills, Principal Architect, MVS Solutions

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



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