Merry Christmas
Posted by Mike on Saturday, December 24, 2011 - 240 views
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11 (King James Version)
2011 at iTech-Ed Ltd
Posted by Trevor Eddolls on Monday, December 19, 2011 - 267 views
Well, as another year comes partying to an end, and everyone stops checking their e-mails on their smartphones or tablets and finally starts to let their hair down and enjoy a glass of something alcoholic, I thought I’d review the year through the lens of my company – iTech-Ed Ltd (www.itech-ed.com).
Sunk without (a) trace
Posted by Trevor Eddolls on Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 294 views
There was a time when using the trace facility was really the final strategy. You’d perhaps have tried everything else to find what was going wrong first. And when nothing seemed to have worked, you’d equip yourself with all the necessary manuals – and that could be quite a few – and run the trace and start the hard job of interpreting the results. And then try to fix the problem. Those days are long gone thanks to more modern software tools, but, to many people, the memories linger on!
The future – gamification and augmented reality
Posted by Trevor Eddolls on Monday, December 5, 2011 - 342 views
I remember many years ago saying to my children that one day, when they walked around London or any capital city, they’d be able to hold up their phone in front of a statue or building and information would appear on screen explaining what the statue commemorated, etc.
But how about if you could hold up your phone in front of the mainframe or some x86 server, and on screen would appear statistics about usage and performance? You could then take appropriate action to resolve hot spots and capacity issues. All just a dream? Apparently not.
Micro Focus releases PL/I migration kit
Posted by Mike on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - 354 views
Dating back to the 1960s, the idea behind PL/I was that it would provide a common programming language for business and scientific applications, allowing it to replace COBOL and FORTRAN. The language is largely, though not exclusively, associated with IBM mainframes.
While COBOL was commonly used to write commercial programs, some companies did adopt PL/I. The language is still offered by IBM, with support for z/OS®, VM, VSE/ESA, AIX, and Windows.
Micro Focus – perhaps best known for its COBOL compilers – has now released Micro Focus Server Enterprise Edition for PL/I to migrate IBM mainframe PL/I applications to Windows Server, Linux or Unix with minimal changes. The company claims a potential reduction in operating costs of up to 70%, without the risks involved in rewriting or replacing applications.
Managing expectations
Posted by Trevor Eddolls on Monday, November 28, 2011 - 318 views
Have you ever been out for a few drinks with friends. Maybe you’ve had more to drink than usual. What happens next? Well the answer seems to depend on which country you and the people you’re drinking with come from.
Mainframe skill shortage becoming a serious financial risk
Posted by Mike on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - 355 views
Seven in 10 businesses are now seriously concerned about the financial and operational impact of the worsening mainframe skills shortage.
Starsoft Develops Cross-Platform Applications with Veryant isCOBOL
Posted by Trevor Eddolls on - 297 views
Innovative application development methodology produces portable Web applications
CHICAGO, November 21, 2011 – Veryant, the COBOL technology innovator, today introduced a new customer, Starsoft, which chose isCOBOL Evolve to create a new cross-platform methodology for its traditional COBOL customers and enter the Unix/Linux open systems market, all while protecting its valuable legacy applications. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
