System i

Jul 18 2008   7:38AM GMT

IT Job Flexibillity - Josh Barr

Posted by: David Vasta
Employment on System i, IBM i, IBM News, i, Salaries on System i, System i

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.”"

Jun 22 2008   2:48AM GMT

New Site is coming

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i for business, i on Power, IBM i, AIX on Power, Domino on System i, i, Linux in System i, System i, Apple, SUN, Linux, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Lotus, Linux on POWER, Lotus News, OpenSolaris, POWER Systems

I am working on a new site, so between work, this site, writting for Search400 (which I hope they change the name of soon) and family, I have also found little time to start building a new site that will in the end be a hub for all things POWER based. I have to bring the community together under one web site.

So with that said, I am going to need people to provide content for the site. I need really dedicated insane people to help build the community from all parts of this equation. IBM i, AIX, Linux on Power, and POWER hardware. We need to come together in a big way and share. I am also going to cover Lotus, Ubuntu, OpenSolaris, OpenSuSE, FreeBSD and other things that interest me that I think are changing the way IT does IT.

Please send me an email and I will get you in on the fun, and if you know Joomla that would be great too…I am no expert on that CMS kit.

Jun 13 2008   12:49PM GMT

IBM i Power Blades not selling….YET?

Posted by: David Vasta
IBM i, David on System i, i on Power, i, IBM POWER Blades, AIX on Power, System i, News, Linux, POWER Systems

COMMON 2008 announced the POWER platform. Which is of course just brilliant. The IBM i is now just an OS, and to beat all that IBM released some new blades that are POWER based, so in fact you could run any of the the greatest OSes on the face of the earth on them, IBM i, AIX, or Linux, so why are they not selling. I think it’s just a matter of time and IBM doing what they don’t do best, marketing.

I have tried everything to get the company I work for to replace some older System i units with Power Blades but they have the same fears that is pointed out by this article by Mark Fontecchio.

I would urge anyone who has a need for 515 and 525(520) based server to really take a long hard look at blades. I think over time you will see the blades are actually cheaper.

Jun 5 2008   2:40PM GMT

IBM Eye

Posted by: David Vasta
Other Blogs, David on System i, i on Power, IBM News, i, System i

I found this blog the other day and find it interesting. I just wanted to share it with you and hope you all enjoy it too.

LINK - IBM Eye 

May 29 2008   8:23PM GMT

What’s in a name? More from the front to change the name

Posted by: David Vasta
i for business, i on Power, i, System i, POWER Systems

After what has been a pretty quiet week, and a few weeks of nothing much from IBM about anything at all and more over not much in the way of the i. I was reading around the web and found a nice little article about “Becoming a System-i-Vangelist”, at least the name is catchy.

I like the part about learning the cheer!

“It’s the Power and the i, stupid! Bid a fond farewell to “AS/400″ and “iSeries” and even “System i.” It’s IBM Power Systems. It’s IBM i (”for Business”), not OS/400 or i5/OS. (Okay, V5R4 and earlier are still i5/OS, but you get the idea.) The more unified your terminology is, the stronger your message is. (By the way, IBM swears it won’t change the name again.)”

I think it’s important to be able to make the corner IBM is all asking us to make, but in order for it to work you have to stay on the ball and not call it the AS/400 please.

I was of course dissappointed that Trevor Perry Angus the IT Chap was mentioned and not yours truly. I would think that if you are passonate about the i and you want to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions about it I would recommend you start a blog or something that people out there can find. Trust me they are looking and the hits go up everyday for people looking for one of the most stable, hard working server platforms in IT right now! the i running on POWER.

“Don’t hide IBM Power Systems under a bushel. The worst thing you can do is make them a “black box” to those around you. In my experience, the biggest job protection comes from sharing information and growing the footprint and value of IT in your firm. The companies in the most danger of having the platform pushed away are those in which the Power Systems people build a wall around their “strange practices.” That is the road to ruin.”

May 20 2008   1:11AM GMT

What do you call your AS/System iSeries 400 in your IT shop?

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i for business, i on Power, i, System i

I like every one still call the i all kinds of things. Which is of course bad but I like others in the industry want to know the following things?

1. What do you call the i now?
2. What do you call the i in conversations with peers?
3. What do you call the i in conversations with executives or senior level staff?
4. What do you call the i in private?
5. What do you call me in private?
6. Is the name change to i a good one?
7. Do you like the idea of one price on box?
8. Do you also run AIX in your IT shop?
9. Does it make you crazy when others call it the AS/400?
10. Does it make you crazy when others call it the iSeries?
11. Do you get a warm felling when someone says I still have a System/36?

I can go ahead and get the ball rolling:

1. i
2. i or System i
3. i or AS/400 - Most of them still call it the AS/400 so when in Rome…..I try to say AS/400 or i and then always say i
4.  My little treasure
5. David
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. I have and would if I could YES!
9. YES - CRAZY!
10. Not Really but YES
11. Of course - but not like if they said Macintosh Classic II

May 20 2008   1:03AM GMT

2008 IT Leaders Forum in Denver, CO

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i for business, i on Power, IBM News, i, System i

Link to Site

Make sure you reserve your place at the 2008 IT Leaders Forum in Denver. If you are in Denver, and I know some of you are, this would be a great place to meet other IT Leaders from around the country. It looks like it will be a blast and has some really great speakers too.

“Combine business with pleasure at the 2008 IT Leaders Forum in beautiful Colorado! Enjoy the unmatched scenery and summer activities and learn from the industry’s top experts.”

May 16 2008   2:45PM GMT

Slow Tech Week

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i, System i, Linux, Ubuntu, Just Blogging

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. It’s been a slow boring tech week for me here and I have been pondering what I should post about all week and I have a big empty bag of nothing to post about. At least not much in the POWER or i arena.

I am now living in Charlotte, NC and it’s kind of the home of NASCAR now and this week has been ALL-STAR week so not much going on here with that either. Sadly the city does not seem to give two winks about placing some local hype around the fact that the largest sporting event in the US right now is having it’s ALL-STAR weekend and you live here right next to all the fun,  maybe you should come on out. Instead we get nothing. I think Charlotte has mis-managed the presents of NASCAR int he area and forgets it brings over 1 Billion dollars to the state every year.  Once again local cities and state governments ignore the people. So that has nothing to do with tech but I thought about it all week and I read and searched for any information about NASCAR in Charlotte this week.

I did happen to find an old Navy buddy of mine this week after searching for him for over a decade (My Listing). He is just a few hours away. It was one of the highlights of my week. Stew and I spent our first three commands together and I really missed just cutting up with Stew. He is a blast most days and pretty easy going. If you have been in the service go check out Together We Served. They have one for each branch of service so it should be an easy way to connect up with others. ARMY NAVY AIR FORCE MARINE. For a small annual fee you get to be a full member and I think it’s well worth the cost.

The OLPC project I think is way over-rated. Way to much press on it and I think it all depresses me. I had the opportunity to use one recently and was not impressed with it and think while the idea is good and it’s nice it’s not vapor wear  but I don’t think it’s making it to the hands of the people who need it. I have nothing to support that only there are no big stories about thousands of kids in far off places getting big shipments of OLPCs? I could be wrong.

Ubuntu 8.04 is out and you all knew that but what I have not done is installed it on my PC at home. I have a pretty nice gaming rig, it has an ASUS mother board AMD 6000 64bit Dual Core CPU, 2 GB or RAM, 2 MSI nVidia 8600 GTS Over clocked Video Cards in SLi mode and some other stuff. I like to play America’s Army, COD4, and a few other games. It’s a nice rig and plays them all really well without glitches. I use XP as my OS on that machine. Ubuntu 7.10 and 7.04 would work once I installed the the second video card and placed the SLi strap on it. Ubuntu just was angry about that arrangement. So I had given up in it. I would run Ubuntu Server on a VM on my Mac and call it a day.  So I installed Ubunut 8.04 and you know what, it didn’t die or not work. Ubuntu 8.04 works, and i have the nVidia driver loaded and all seems well. I didn’t have some trouble with the boot loader but fixed it after a few minutes of working on it. The average user would have been stumped but there is a Super GRUB kit that helped me fix it. So me and Ubuntu are pals again.

I mostly tinker on Ubuntu as MacOSX is my main computer on my MacBook PRO but I have to use Linux for some things and I like to help out other Linux people from time to time so Ubuntu is working good for me most days. I considered moving to OpenSuSE but still don’t like what they have done with KDE. It’s ugly and to confusing. KDE 3 is a huge mess and I have not played with KDE 4 yet in hopes they get the ugly out before I see it.

Top Gear is my new TV addiction. I don’t watch that much TV but I have just fallen head over heals for the BBC program called TOP GEAR. I have watched in the past and have always enjoyed it but lately I have just really gotten into the show and even made a purchase from the web site to let people know “I AM NOT THE STIG”

I seem to spend a small amount of each day keeping up with my “peeps”, and one of the site where I like to keep track of people is LinkedIN. If you are not on LinkedIN please go sign up today. It’s a great site to help you find your way around and seek out new people who you can interact with on a business level.

Well that is all for me right now. I hope this makes up for not posting much. I am sure I will get a stern talking to by the HEAD BLOGGER about not posting. It was just a pretty boring week for me in IT, and I tried and tried to find something to share but could not bring myself to think anything was interesting. IBM did some releases this week with the i and I think they approved LTO4 for the i, but that is boring too in that it should have been out months ago when the LTO4 was released. Oh well….see nothing exciting.

May 2 2008   1:20PM GMT

i Disagree with your post Mark Fontecchio

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i on Power, IBM News, AS/400, System i

So I don’t really disagree with Mark, I just disagree with his post and wanted to post his name on my blog to steal hits away from his. See tons of people daily good for “Mark Fontecchio” and I want to bathe in the light he warms himself in just a little bit.

I don’t know who this is: “an IT employee from an Arizona-based general contracting company”, but all I do know is he is pretty funny and not right on. LINK TO POST HERE.

I think the name, i , is fine. The more important part of the name change the POWER part. While the name will always get attention both positive and negative but the fact that there is one platform is huge. The best think IBM has done in a long time.

May 2 2008   2:05AM GMT

IBM really not ready for the letter i

Posted by: David Vasta
David on System i, i on Power, AS/400, Common - A users group, System i

While in Nashville at COMMON I mentioned to IBM that someone and maybe more than one person needs to work on taking out all the old System i, iSeries, and eeeek AS/400 terms out of the OS and the IBM.com web site.

I hate to report it but it’s not happening like I would like it to. If this were Apple they would have had this all done while we were in the session but IBM’s web site has always been a tangled mess in much need of a comb.

Take this set of pages for instance. LINK 

And how the heck do I find the i from the main page? What gives IBM? Why is it so dang hard to find what you do? Wht do you hid it all from the customer and not just the now customer what about the next customer? If I can’t find it and I have been a customer for over 18 years how is “Johnny College Student” or “New IT Guy” going to find out what the hell Power is and what I can run on it. MAKE IT SIMPLE. I am starting to fall on the side of the old AS/400 guys who think you could not market water to people stuck in an oven…….COME ON!