IT Job Flexibillity - Josh Barr

Mr. Barr writes a great article about the current IT Jobs and how we handle them as IT folks. It’s an interesting read, please take some time, you  might find yourself in the article.

Link to Post

“The IT community is a bit different from others — not just because IT workers are sun-deprived and physically pale, but because many IT workers are rarely, truly off duty. When they’re not in the office, they’re still on call. Glitches, bugs, and crashes happen. Tweaking on time and under budget requires long hours.

“The biggest issue with IT arrangements is the hours,” says William DiMase, a computer support analyst who works for a company with more than 100 locations in the New York City metro area. DiMase reports that when he was an intern using the System i platform, “the need for support was on an on-call basis for network, server, and AS/400 issues.”"

Boring IBM i Week

I have not posted anything this week as I think it’s been a pretty boring week in IBM i land. So while other IBM I news people have the inside scoop and time to call every vendor I am all alone digging for scraps of really meaningless information about the IBM i.

There is a set of articles coming from me to be posted on Search400.com about Linux. You can find all kinds of information about Linux and how to get started in Linux, but I was writing it for the IBM i people out there. I wanted to give you a quick and dirty on getting started with Linux on POWER.

The IBM i or AS/400 birthday party has come and gone. IBM didn’t invite yours truly and I still to this day don’t know why.

System i Network recently posted an article in the monthly magazine about being an i evangelist and didn’t mention me either. They did however mention Trevor Perry, but you can’t not talk able being an evangelist and not mention him. I would have thought the same went for me, but since I have in the past been very vocal with the System i Network magazine I think they still, or at least it the only way I can explain it, hold a grudge about me criticizing their publication.

To set the record straight, I think the System i Network is by far the best thing in print right now. The have a great staff and great writers. They have turned the magazine around, the web site and a huge, never-ending supply of IBM I and now POWER information and I think they are poised to be apart of the larger POWER community that is coming. Good Luck to the System I News and Penton Media!

I will find something to post about I promise.

Workplace Blackberry’s are considered overtime even if you are on a salary

I have worked in places before that every notice, email, and phone call came in on my Blackberry and I was expected to get up at 2AM and answer emails. I argued then that this is overtime and even thought I am a salary employee I thought I deserved some compensation. With one particular company, who shall remain nameless, they told me to stuff it and be happy I have a job. That was the pep talk I needed that day. The sun set on that company and I moved on to better things.

Now I am starting to see people & companies get smart about after hours work. I don’t think the time after I leave the office is anyplace for a company to barge in and call you , unless something crazy is going on. I think there needs to be a line drawn in the sand and when I leave work for the day, if you call me and expect me to work you need to compensate me. Know saying this I have exceptions in my own life right now. I don’t get called all that much and the after hours work is small and far between so I am pretty darned happy with my current situation, but I know some of you out there are not and are doing what I used to do. Every time that Blackberry goes off you wake up or run to it because something could be failing or needing your attention.

To cure this companies need to either tell employees that if you spend over 40 hours a week working, then we need to bonus you or compensate you somehow. It is the companies responsibility to come to the employee, not the other way around. If the employee has to ask then we might as well unionize IT and start demanding things. Employers need to make the first move to fixing this problem, either pay for the hours worked or figure out a way to cover the after hours problems with more staff.

“As employers hand out electronic devices to their employees at a greater pace, there are growing concerns that workers eligible for overtime pay, known as non-exempt employees, could begin suing their employers for overtime hours earned while tapping on their devices during after-work hours. As a result, lawyers are advising their corporate clients to update their policies and handbooks related to BlackBerry use and reconsider who gets a device.”

To let this fall by the wayside is foolish and eventually companies will lose valuable employees. I know some people who have been with companies for over 10 to 15 years. They hold the keys to the IT universe and sadly even though everything is documented, when it breaks or needs a checkup the best way is to asked the seasoned veterans. These veterans are also getting older and expecting to take it easy and are not as willing as they were in their youth to wake up and start debugging at 3 Am because the Blackberry woke them up. So companies who need round the clock support need to think about it and start addressing the situation. It just is the right thing to do.

“Another option is for employers to ask non-exempt workers to leave the device at the office at the end of their work day, says Howard Lavin a partner at Stroock and Stroock and Lavan who has advised his clients on these types of policies.”

Link to Article

Sync your Mac & your iPhone all with Lotus Notes - PocketMac

So you are a Mac user, and for that you’re smart, then you are being told to use Lotus Notes and as a Mac user that makes you crazy for all the right reasons. You can’t use Spotlight to search and I again know your pain. But the problem is you’re still on a Mac, you have Lotus Notes and your trusty iPhone is lost since you can’t sync the iPhone to anything in Lotus Notes, until now!

You need PocketMac GoBetween for Lotus Notes

You can also sync a few other devices other than your iPhone. So you are not limited to just the iPhone, there is a very heavy list of what you can sync with.

9 Reasons Why Application Developers Think Their CIO Is Clueless

Link to Article in CIO

“How Not to Be Clueless

“My CIO is clueless.” These are words you don’t want to hear if you want to earn the respect of your application development professionals. So how do you avoid being a clueless CIO? Steer clear of these behaviors:”

UGA VI- We will miss you - Go DAWGS!

I didn’t cry this week when George Carlin died, I just wondered if he got his chance to meet God and God got to tell him he was wrong. I didn’t get upset when Bo Diddley died either, but I made me listen to his music for a few days. I felt bad when Tim Russert passed away all of a sudden and really just thought that was sad, but I didn’t get really upset. In the past few weeks we have seemed to lose someone important in America and this weekend one of the most important icons to me passed away.

Kelly read it to me out of the paper and I think we both cried a little, and I was heart broken. See here is the issue, UGA holds a special place for anyone who grew up in Georgia. I still have the collectors Coke glasses my grandfather purchased went The Bulldogs had the greatest season ever. I still think Hershal Walker is a magical person, and that name alone makes me warm inside. But when you say UGA, meaning the bulldogs that Sonny Seiler owned UGA and lived in Savannah, GA, then and only then do you get my true and undivided attention.

UGA VI you will be missed.

If they would have had an open public funeral I would have packed up Peaches and been off to Athens. I know he and all the other UGA’s before him will be happy in that special place watching those special games, being the most admired mascot in all of college football. Not only is UGA a Bulldog, an icon, be he is also like me and Peaches a Savannian! and a great one at that!

I am a little wet around the eyes now thinking about it all, farewell to a great DAWG, I think this year UGA needs to romp and stomp like a Bulldog does and show UGA VII what college football like played the UGA way! While UGA VI may have been the winninnest UGA, I want UGA VII to help inspire Bulldog Football to be the most impacting and hard football the SEC has ever seen. I want to them have another 1981 all over again. I want to watch good Georgia Bulldog SEC football and I want the LSU Tigers to know, you don’t bring a Tiger to a DAWG fight, cause your going to get Bulldogged all afternoon. UGA VII the weight of the Bulldog nation is upon you and I stand up proud, never have been to Athens, never have seen a Georgia Game in person, knowing I am from Georgia, I am from Savannah, and I own a Bulldog and I love UGA Football! Go DAWGS!

Damon Evans, the university’s athletic director, called it a “sad day for the entire Bulldog nation.”

Link 1: Link 2 : Link 3

IBM i (AS/400) turns 20!

It was almost 20 years ago when I got into IT, and my first desktop PC was an IBM AS/400 e90…I think it cost $3 Million. I of course was sharing it with 700 other users, but what a great beast!

I just wanted to wish the IBM i (AS/400) a very Happy Birthday, next year we can all go out drinking!

Link to Chris Maxcer’s Blog about the Birthday and IBM 

-Oh I was not invited to the events in Rochester this week and to say I am hurt is an understatment. From the leading IBM i Blogger on the web to, some goofball at in Charlotte writting about technology. It’s a long fall!

Chris Maxcer - i and AIX: Not Exactly the Same on Power Systems

Chris makes an interesting observation - LINK

“There are still some differences in how IBM is rolling out its converged System i and System p server lineup — though it’s not so much the hardware that’s different as it is the availability of the operating system. In the IBM i world, we’d pretty much always rather be first, but is being first really that critical?”

IBM i and ZEND -

Link to the POST- Mike Pavlak

 Zend Blog

 ”I got the chance to attend the php|tek conference in Chicago last week and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. You see, the event was attended mostly by members of the PHP community supporting the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP…) stack. Since I was probably the ONLY i5 guy at the event I felt a little out of place. Aside from being over dressed (I wore a collared shirt) nearly everyone I talked to had not heard of the i5. And when Andi Gutmans, Zend Founder and CTO, gave the keynote and mentioned the i5 twice, nary a head was turning. But that’s OK. Maybe next year we will see a considerable improvement in the i5 community attendance, if you catch my drift.”

Great line from the post:

“Oh yeah, we got it easy…One of the sessions I attended was given by a network professional who specializes in clustering lots of little Intel boxes in order to scale PHP websites. I guess this is a cool thing for the Intel world. It involves a lot of complicated networking and servers and more. He went on and on about BGP and round robin DNS and all kinds of topics. The room was packed and the entire audience was absorbed! People really wanted to hear what this guy had to say. If only they knew. If only they were aware of the power of the Power systems like the IBM i. It was everything I could do to keep from shouting “Go get an i”! Maybe I should have. But, then again, I’d have to explain the benefit of scaling vertically vs. scaling horizontally. The benefits of having IBM on the speed dial and the fact that they can make a new machine appear out of thin air as long as your Business Partner completes the paperwork properly and on time”

Scott Klement Honored with Gary Guthrie Writing Award

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 ”At the recent System iNEWS annual editorial conference in Boulder, Colorado, Scott Klement, tech editor extraordinaire, was honored with the Gary Guthrie Award for Excellence in Technical Writing, for his October 2007 System iNEWS article titled “RPG Rules.” The award goes to writers who exemplify the best in technical writing, content, and service to the System i community. Scott’s young son, Alex, proudly helped Dad accept the award. Way to go, Scott!”

Way to go Scott, Gary would have agreed. I was lucky to work with Gary at REAL Solutions and he always loved to share, just like Scott does, the award could not have gone to a more deserving person. I am kind of choked up right now. Bravo Zulu!