02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Out of the Blue: Midrange Perspectives

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

The first thing you need to know about this article is that it was written in February. The next thing you'll want to know is that I was on the big island of Hawaii at the time. Having dispensed a hearty dose of island-envy, I can proceed to tell you that my host was a remarkable octogenarian known in these parts as Doc Boone. He is a multifaceted individual, but his life's accomplishments are eclipsed by a sobering and shriveling fact-he is surely the only man on the planet to have performed his own vasectomy.

Segueing from vasectomies to computers is not simple, but suffice it to say that para-dise is fully computerized in support of the transport, feeding, entertainment, and lodging of the tourist. The AS/400 is a popular tool for hotel management.

Gloria Krier is the reservations manager at the Kona Surf. She has lived on the Big Island for nine years. Originally from Minnesota, she worked as an integrated circuit designer in California before abandoning the high stress and high pay of high tech for the softer stresses of island life.

The hotel's room inventory system runs on a five-year-old AS/400. "Economy and reliability are important here," explains Krier. "Life is expensive in the islands, and tourism is the primary source of revenue both for residents and the government. The tourism industry is heavily taxed since public services have few alternate funding sources. So we watch our expenses."

Adds Krier, "We have no money for frills, and staffing is minimal. When we find something that works, we stick with it. The AS/400 has been great in that regard. It was inexpensive to buy, and I can't remember the system ever being down."

Krier's data processing staff consists of two part-time data entry clerks (one of whom also does the nightly backups), and a consultant. The consultant installs PTFs and performs minimal system management functions, acting as the replacement for the IBM branch office that was downsized out of paradise in January of this year.

But I'm on vacation, so enough business for the moment. I want to go snorkeling and Doc tells me about the Captain Cook Monument reserve. He says most people kayak across the mile-wide bay to reach the reserve, but he winks and tells me to swim instead. I am exactly half-way across, tiring, and plotting my revenge on the good doctor when the dolphins come.

While dolphins, too, have endured downsizing, they are not affected by the island's fiscal and technical frugality born of isolation. That singular factor inhibits island-based midrange users from exercising the full potential of their AS/400s. Krier, for example, runs monthly reports, then manually plugs data into a PC spreadsheet rather than employ the data sharing capabilities of the system. "We would like to automate the forecasting and monthly recap process," says Krier, "but can't afford the programming costs. Besides," she notes, "it really isn't very time consuming to do it manually."

Simplicity and economy are themes echoed by other AS/400 customers, particularly long-time residents of the islands. Newer arrivals, accustomed to the mainland's support-rich technical environment, talk wistfully about application backlogs and ideas for new development projects. Locals, by contrast, seem resigned, if not content, to work within geographic and economic constraints.

Gary, an employee of a dive shop (recommended by Doc for its night dives) and relatively new to the islands, has a novel idea for an AS/400 application. "The safety of our customers," he said, "is always our primary concern. Scuba divers are required by law to provide proof of certification before we can take them diving, or rent them equipment, or even fill their tanks. We've had divers come here from the mainland who forgot their certification cards. That makes for frustrated and unhappy customers and lost business opportunities."

Gary wants to establish a computer link with the two primary scuba certifying organizations, NAUI and PADI. A simple driver's license could then be used to match a customer's name against those in the certification database. The remote systems could provide the dive shop with verification of certification, and the local system could update the host with a transaction date and the number of dives contracted by the customer. Over time, dive shops would have access to a complete diver's profile, including date of last dive and total number of dives made by the customer. "That would help us identify those customers with little or infrequent diving experience who may need special attention but are reluctant to ask for it," said Gary.

Such an application could well be marketable to other dive shops, but the cost and complexity-which would be moderate on the mainland, explains Gary-made it prohibitive here. "The nice-to-have applications," he said, "seldom make it to the front burner."

I tell Gary about my swim with the dolphins, bullet quick, ballet graceful, gracious beyond human merit, and inquire about the night dive. He tells me it's an opportunity to watch mantas feed, close up. He explains that mantas, with their stealth-technology sleekness and six-foot wing spans, feed on plankton, which are attracted to light. Accustomed to divers and artificial light, the mantas gather, unafraid, to feed. I'm hooked. A few hours later, swaying on the bottom of the ocean, I watch enchanted as they glide past me, looping in slow, graceful spirals, mouths open, eyes ancient and wise, looking squarely into mine.

Back at Doc's, serendipity. Doc has a visitor, an archeologist from the midwest who first met Doc when she did research on the big island over a decade ago. She's here to dot the i's on a project that would transpose dry, lugubrious field work into multimedia computerized presentations for students. I ask what system she's using. PCs at the moment, she says, but her department is requisitioning an RS/6000. Have I heard of it?

She has my attention. The island, she explains, is basically a pile of lava. Over the centuries, newer lava flows cut underground channels called lava tubes through previously hardened lava. The island is honeycombed with them and ancient Hawaiians used these chambers to entomb their honored dead. Her plan is to remap earlier findings and, with computer graphics and video, to reproduce a "field experience" for desk-bound students.

That field experience, she tells me, will include a spectacular geological segment on how the island was-and still is-being formed. Lava, I'm told, still flows from the flanks of the Kilauea caldera some 16 miles to the sea. By day, the steam plumes created by the interaction of earth, fire, air, and water can be seen from 20 miles away. But the spectacle begins by night.

Standing by the ocean, I can see gashes of molten lava on the black hillsides. It flows, mostly unseen, cracking the earth's crust at irregular intervals, leaving red wounds on the nightscape. Slowly, inexorably, the crimson mass inches toward the sea, where it oozes and slides into the ocean; two primal forces locked in the sizzling combat of creation.

The students, I think, will not be disappointed.

Victor Rozek has 17 years of experience in the data processing industry, including seven years with IBM in Operations Management and Systems Engineering.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: