SPARTA News July 2011

July 2011

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

It’s July and our nation is another year older and we’ve had one big heat wave hit us here in the Triangle area. Hope everyone’s air conditioning was up to the task of 100+ degree heat. During my morning walks around our neighborhood, I’ve heard a few of the A/C units making some very strange noises that sound like they are going to be expensive to repair. Our unit at home has handled it well.

Last month Larry Green from IBM Tivoli came to speak to us about the new version of Netview that was released in May. For those of us that are using System Automation for System/z, Netview is a required product. IBM has made a number of improvements to Netview with this release and I look forward to us installing it with our next z/OS order. If your site has (and can afford) Netview they have added a number of IP supporting monitors and applications. Something to take a look at if you can.

On the DB2 V10 migration here at LabCorp, we converted the first QA DB2 (subsystem DBI) to compatibility mode. So far all Web-based testing (which uses this subsystem) has been uneventful (thank heavens). We are still fighting with the BMC DB2 utilities but things are finally started to stabilize. I still feel like we are in a beta environment with BMC on this DB2. I’ve been told that we are BMC’s only client right now going from DB2 V8 to DB2 V10. It seems most of their other clients are moving from DB2 V9 to V10.

On the SCLM REXX changes needed for package binds in our environment, I have completed the work needed for COBOL applications and am now working on the updates for Cool:Gen (or CA:Gen as its current name is). Just getting this code cleaned up and putting some good rexx code in there has reduced the size of the code by about 400 lines! I just need to find more time to get the rest of this done. I have to handle Easytrieve programs after I get the Cool:Gen work done.

This month Tom Schwartz from Luminex will talk to us about Mainframe Virtual Tape. Unfortunately I will be unable to attend this meeting. My sister is having major surgery on the 26th and I am taking my Dad up to Virginia so we can be there for her. I look forward to seeing everyone for our Durham Bulls night in August.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


July 26 Mainframe Virtual Tape by Tom Schwartz of Luminex
Aug. 30 Durham Bulls baseball game at the DBAP
Sept. 27 SPARTA Conference Report by Ed Webb of SAS

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.

2011-2012 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
MDI DataSystems 919-426-6518

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
3060 S. Church St. 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 Brad Carson; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Brad at 336-436-8294.

June 2011 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V482 (dated June 23, 2011) 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 June 28, 2011 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.
•Sixteen (16) people were present of which all thirteen (13) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.
•The minutes of the May 2011 meeting were approved as published in the June 2011 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's Report. As of June 12, 2011, the balance is $1,163.37. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report.

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 based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

- July 26 IBM Shared File System (tentative)
- Aug. 30 Durham Bulls
- Sept. 27 SHARE Updates, Presenters TBD
- Oct. 25 TBA
- Nov. 29 (at SAS) TBA
- Dec. 27: No meeting

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

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.
•The July SPARTA meeting will be July 26 at LabCorp in RTP.
•Food for the July meeting will be BarBQ.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to LabCorp for hosting the meeting.
•If you have any Listserver issues, contact Brad with any e-mail address changes.
•CBT Tape V482 is now available; the GNU C Compiler (GCC) is included.
•Brad Carson is looking for others with current experience with BMC Support. Brad would like to discuss any issues with BMC Support others may have. Contact Brad Carson for more information.
•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:50 PM.
•Larry Green of IBM gave a presentation on Tivoli NetView Update.

•Topics included:

NetView for z/OS V6.1

Agenda
Smart Packet Collection
Packet Trace on Demand
Expanded Log Browse
Simplified Installation
Enterprise Integration
- MultiSystem Manager Updates
- Discovery Library Adapter
Serviceability
GDPS Active/Active
More Information

• Meeting ended at 8:40 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for July 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1079.28 as of July 15, 2011.

Financial Report
3/01/2011 through 07/15/2011

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

July 26 - BarBQ
Aug. 30 - Durham Bulls - buy your own
Sept. 27 - Pizza
Oct. 25 - Chicken
Nov. 29 - Subs
Dec 27 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays!


z/OS R13 Books Now Online

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM has posted the R13 version of its z/OS manuals online at the z/OS Internet Library site. Follow this link to jump right to the new pubs including the Migration book.

z/OS R13 and z/OSMF R13 debut on September 30, 2011. Here are the recent announcement letters: ENUS211-252 and ENUS211-242.


SHARE 2012 Schedule

contributed by Ed Webb

SHARE has announced its 2012 Schedule here.

The “winter” SHARE will be in Atlanta March 11-16, 2012 using the Omni CNN Center.

The “summer” SHARE will be in Anaheim August 5-10 at the Anaheim Marriott.

Update your 2012 budgets and education plans with this information. SHARE is still the best source of z/OS and zSeries training and personal networking available.


IBM Announces The zEnterprise 114, A “baby” z196

contributed by Ed Webb

Information Week headlines the z114 as the “Lower Cost $75,000 Mainframe” here.

The MainframeZone provides some additional details at the Big Iron Blog.

Or you can read the dry announcements linked off this summary of July 12, 2011 Announcements.


Work Technology: It’s not yours to keep

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Bruce Clarke (president and CEO of CAI Inc.) provides a heads-up in this article from the News and Observer from Sunday, July 10, 2011.

“Somebody needs to tell you this, so here goes.

Employer-provided computers, software, information, data, customer lists, phones, phone numbers, hard drives, jump drives, backups, storage cards, file servers, pricing, and work-related electronic or hard copy information belong to the employer. Even though you did the work and entered the data (for which you were paid), and even if you use some personal equipment to store or use the data, it belongs to the employer.

There are lessons for both employee and manager as technology blurs the lines between work and home.”

See the article for how Employers and Employees need to address these issues.


Humor


Oh Our English Language

contributed by Chris Blackshire

You think English is easy??

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends.

And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.

People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.

In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

Now it's UP to you what you do with this information.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, July 26, 2011
7 p.m.

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: BarBQ, Drink, Dessert

Program:

Channel Gateway: Mainframe Virtual Tape

Speaker:

Tom Schwartz of Luminex

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

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