SPARTA News

July 2016

SPARTA President’s Corner

contributed by Randy Springs

Now that the summer heat wave has set in, my wife and I decided to sell our 2-story home and purchase a one-level ranch home. Working from home, my knees just can’t take the stairs any longer.

In the span of three weeks, we viewed several possible homes, put in an offer on one contingent on our home selling first, signed a contract for that home (5 miles from our current home), staged our present home for showing, placed it on the market last Friday, and received an offer Friday night that we accepted.

Now we begin the process of eliminating items that we no longer need or want to move to the new place. One item in my garage is a 14-platter enclosed HDA for an IBM 3350. I looked up the capacity, and it is 147 MB (not a typo). If anyone has an idea on a museum where I might be able to donate this item, please let me know. My wife will appreciate it immensely.

Our IBM speaker for July had to cancel at the last minute, but we are fortunate to have Ed Webb from SAS to give a presentation on migrating IBM HTTP servers to the Apache platform.

Plan to come at 6:15 for subs and dessert at LabCorp on Tuesday, July 12.

Randy Springs
BB&T

Future Speakers

(subject to change)

July 12, 2016 (Special Date) - IBM HTTP Server Migration by Ed Webb of SAS

August 2, 2016 - TBD

August 30, 2016 (Special Date) - Durham Bulls at the DBAP

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.

2015-2016 SPARTA

Board of Directors

Randy Springs - President

BB&T (919) 745-5241

3200 Beechleaf Court, Suite 300

Raleigh, NC 27604

Ron Pimblett - Vice President

MDI Data Systems 919-426-6518

866-634-3282

Raleigh, NC 27609

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.

Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director

SAS Institute Inc. 919-531-4162

SAS Campus Drive

Cary, NC 27513

Meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the first Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in January), 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 T.W. Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building (1912 T.W. Alexander Drive). 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-RTP Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-RTP Group is maintained by Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.

July 2016 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V491 (dated July 6, 2016) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the June 7, 2016 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Randy Springs, the SPARTA President.

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

•Eleven (11) people were present of which Eight (8) are 2016 members.

•The Presentation was given by Ed Jaffe, (E)JES More With Less For Less (see notes below).

•The Ed Jaffe webinar presentation ended at 8:20 PM and Ed was excused.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions or their job hunting challenges.

•The minutes for the May meeting were approved as published in the June 2016 newsletter.

•The Treasurer's report was read by Tommy Thomas. The current balance of $486.59 was approved as read.

OLD BUSINESS

•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you want 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 at http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web site every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Tommy reminded everyone to leave the LabCorp conference room clean.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

Date	Company	Speaker	Topic
July 12, 2016 Special Date	SZS	David Wilson	4HRA Peak
August 2, 2016	EMC	Mike Fishman	Architecting Data Protection
August 30, 2016 Special Date	Baseball night	Tommy’s Spit Ball	Fun at the Park
Oct 4, 2016	Various	SHARE Attendees	Share Atlanta Information
November 1, 2016	TBD
December 6, 2016	TBD

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett (919-833-8426).

•The next SPARTA monthly meeting will be on Tuesday, July 12, 2016 at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the July 12 meeting will be Subway subs and cookies.

•The 2016 dues are due ($30) starting in March 2016. Please pay Tommy Thomas.

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

•There are currently 66 people on the SPARTA-RTP email list (no change from April).

•Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA-RTP Listserv. You will be added by the moderator (Chris = SPARTA-RTP-owner@yahoogroups.com) sending you an invitation to Join the list.

• We need to start planning for a new meeting place when Tommy retires in 2017.

NEW BUSINESS

•Election of the 2016-2017 Officers (motion made, seconded, and voted) as follows:
- President - Randy Springs of BB&T
- Vice President - Ron Pimblett of MDI Data Systems
- Secretary - Mike Lockey of Guilford County Information Services
- Communications Director - Ed Webb of SAS Institute
- Treasurer - Tommy Thomas of LabCorp

PRESENTATION

• (E)JES More With Less For Less by Ed Jaffe of Phoenix Software International, Inc.

• Agenda

• Background: Phoenix Software International, Inc.
- In business since 1978 supporting mainframe software
- Our support is top rated: 5 out of 5

• What's meant by “More with Less for Less

• Cool technology we've leveraged over the past decade+

• We focus on providing the best possible user experience

• z/OS interface modernization is important to us

• The (E)JES Solar System

• The (E)JES “Galaxy”

• Benefits of zIIP redirection

• Traditional multisystem client/server request/response model

• (E)JES multisystem client/server request/response model

• Some highlights of (E)JES tabular displays

• Some highlights of (E)JES native browsers

• A powerful EXTRACT facility can copy scrollable information to classic MVS data sets, SYSOUT data sets, or z/OS UNIX file systems

• Application programming interfaces enable powerful scripting and custom programming

• The Customer Application Infrastructure (CAI) is an integrated framework for TSO/ISPF that allows REXX-based plug-in applications to extend the capabilities of (E)JES for local environments

• Installation via Chorus Software Manager from CA Technologies

• Flexible “Common Sense” Licensing

• Highlights from the (E)JES V5R4 and V5R5 press releases

• Even our documentation and doc interfaces are exemplary

• (E)JES Web Structure

• (E)JES Web Characteristics

• (E)JES Web Tries to Simplify, Not Complicate

• Display Examples
• Pause for Live Demo

• Clarification: What is our business model with (E)JES?

• Questions

The presentation is posted at the SPARTA website http://www.spartanc.org The recorded presentation is at http://www.phoenixsoftware.com/contact.htm

• Contact Information
Ed Jaffe
Chief Technology Officer
Phoenix Software International, Inc
831 Parkview Drive North
El Segundo, CA 90245-4932
(310) 338-0400

Website: www.phoenixsoftware.com
edjaffe@phoenixsoftware.com
sales@phoenixsoftware.com

John Brayman
Office Phone: (919) 841-4545
johnbrayman@phoenixsoftware.com

• The business portion of the meeting ended about 9:00 P.M.

Treasurer’s Report for July 2016

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $405.89 as of July 4, 2016.

SPARTA Financial Report
3/01/2016 through 7/04/2016

INCOME
Opening Balance	97.47
Total Deposits
Donation	0.00
Other	29.55
Dues	530.00
TOTAL INCOME	$657.02

EXPENSES
Food	170.43
Web Site	0.00
Petty Cash	200.00
Bank Service Charge	0.00
TOTAL EXPENSE	$370.43

BANK BALANCE	286.59
PETTY CASH	119.30
TOTAL CASH	$405.89

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2016

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

July 12, 2016 - Subs (avoid July 4 holiday)
Aug 2, 2016 - BarBQ
Aug 30, 2016 - Durham Bulls (your choice of food at the game)
Oct 4, 2016 - Pizza
Nov 1, 2016 - Chicken
Dec 6, 2016 - Subs

SHARE Atlanta Agenda and App Are Ready for Use

contributed by Ed Webb

SHARE will be in Atlanta for its summer meeting July 31 through August 5, 2016. Great training and eduction at a low cost. Save $200 if you register by June 17, 2016.

The Technical Agenda for Atlanta is ready for your review here. Note: You need a profile (name, e-mail, password) to access the agenda, separate from your SHARE userid and password. See the all of the Atlanta registration and hotel details at the SHARE Atlanta website.

The SHARE App has just been updated for the Atlanta meeting. Search the App Store and Google Play for "SHARE, Inc.". Let's hope it's better than the San Antonio version.

5 Things to Know About IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services ....

contributed by Ed Webb

"During visits with CxO clients over the past years, we have been often asked "How can I quickly detect and fix issues occurring in my infrastructure as soon as they happen?" To address such concerns, IBM Global Technology Service designed and developed IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services. IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services takes traditional automation to a new dimension. By using analytics and virtual engineer technology, it identifies potential problems in IT environments and automatically fixes them before they become critical. IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services is an end-to-end solution from event capturing through automation to measurement and continuous improvement. IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services is based on the GTS dynamic automation capabilities and it has been integrated into enterprise IT environments worldwide, automating the response to millions of incidents on nearly 300,000 devices and counting.

The IBM Redguide publication IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services: Dynamic Automation in the Age of Cognitive, Dynamic Learning and Self-healing Systems provides an overview of IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services, its benefits and the journey that organizations go through to adopt IBM Enterprise IT Automation Services and the continual services improvement process they follow after the initial implementation."

Read this article at IBM developerWorks for more information.

SMF Records: Preparing for the New Frontier

contributed by Ed Webb

"There is an old saying, "One man's junk is another man's treasure". I think that is very appropriate in relation to SMF records. The SMF record types deemed important vary from site to site. However, the wealth of information available in SMF records is constantly evolving. Have you adjusted your SMF definitions to keep pace with those changes? In this final installment in the series of articles about SMF, we discuss which SMF records you should collect, which you should keep, and how long you should keep. We'll finish with a glimpse at the next frontier in SMF. We can promise you the future will not be boring."

See Cheryl's Watson and Frank Kines discussion of SMF Record futures at Enterprise Tech Journal.

4 Things You Can Do On a Mainframe

contributed by Ed Webb

" Remember when you got your driver’s license? That was a pretty big day. Now imagine that as the person at the DMV handed you your card, he or she also slipped you permits to operate a boat, drive a motorcycle and fly the Space Shuttle. Sounds crazy, right? Yet it’s happening in the world of mainframes every day thanks to new tools that make it possible to program and manage big iron in just about any language and on any platform.

Even five years ago it would have been inconceivable for this to happen. If you wanted to use a mainframe, you had to know COBOL. That’s all fine and good—if you graduated from college in 1978. But what about the next generation of mainframers? How were they supposed to use computers that required users to know a language that wasn’t even taught in most computer science programs anymore?

This skills gap is one of the biggest challenges organizations that rely on mainframes face, but it’s rapidly evaporating—and not because COBOL is suddenly cool again. Instead, new interfaces are making it possible to program a mainframe and even integrate with COBOL programs without actually knowing COBOL. That means users can use R, PERL, Python, PHP and other languages that are in common use today. All they need is a user ID and password on the mainframe."

See the rest of the Enterprise Systems article here.

Humor

Grass

contributed by Chris Blackshire

One afternoon a lawyer was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road-side eating grass.
Disturbed, he ordered his driver to stop and got out to investigate.
He asked one man, "Why are you eating grass?"
"We don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.
"We have to eat grass."
"Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I'll feed you, " the lawyer said.
"But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree."
"Bring them along," the lawyer replied.
Turning to the other poor man he stated, "You may come with us, also."
The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!"
"Bring them all as well," the lawyer answered.
They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine was.
Once under way, one of the poor fellows turned to the lawyer and said, "Sir, you are too kind."
"Thank you for taking all of us with you.
The lawyer replied, "Glad to do it. You'll really love my place.
The grass is almost a foot high."

Come on now...you really didn't think there was such a thing as a heart-warming lawyer story...did you????

Life's Demerit System

contributed by Chris Blackshire

...In the world of romance, one single rule applies: MAKE THE WOMAN HAPPY!
Do something she likes, and you get points.
Do something she dislikes, and points are subtracted.
You don't get any points for doing something she expects.
Sorry, that's the way the game is played.
Here is a non-exhaustive guide to the point system:

SIMPLE DUTIES
You make the bed. (+1)
You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillows. (-10)
You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets. (-3)
You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) in the rain (+8)
But return with Beer. (-5)

PROTECTIVE DUTIES
You check out a suspicious noise at night. (+1)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing. (0)
You check out a suspicious noise, and it is something. (+5)
You pummel it with an iron rod. (+10)
It's her pet Schnauzer. (-30)

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS
You stay by her side for the entire party. (+1)
You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with an old school friend. (-2)
Named Tina (-10)
Tina is a dancer. (-20)
Tina has breast implants. (-40)

HER BIRTHDAY
You take her out to dinner. (+2)
You take her out to dinner, and it's not a sports bar. (+3)
Okay, it's a sports bar. (-2)
And its all-you-can-eat night. (-3)
It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted the colours of your favourite team. (-10)

A NIGHT OUT
You take her to a movie. (+1)
You take her to a movie she likes. (+5)
You take her to a movie you hate. (+6)
You take her to a movie you like. (-2)
It's called 'Death Cop.' (-3)
You lied and said it was a foreign film about orphans. (-15)
YOUR PHYSIQUE You develop a noticeable potbelly. (-15)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)
You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy Hawaiian shirts. (-30)
You say to her, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-80)

THE BIG QUESTION
She asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5)
(Yes, you lose points no matter what)
You hesitate in responding. (-10)
You reply, "Where?" (-35)
You give any other response. (-40)

COMMUNICATION When she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression. (+2)
You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)
You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV. (+500)
She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep. (-4000)
This list is for all of the gentlemen and ladies you know to refresh them on the point system.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 (Special Date)

7 p.m.

Location: LabCorp in RTP

Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto 1912 T.W. 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. Use 1912 TW Alexander Drive, Durham, NC 27703 in your map app.

Free Food: Subs, Sodas and Tea, Dessert

Program:

IBM HTTP Server Migration to Apache

Speaker:

Ed Webb of SAS

SPARTA News

P.O. Box 13194

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

First Class Postage

SPARTA Corporate Sponsors: