EXEC I/O

It's Almost Time!

Reg Harbeck — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:06:00 GMT

Some important things are about to happen, and I'm hoping you're getting ready for them. Of course, as you'll recall from previous blogs I've written, I'm a big fan of SHARE, which happens twice a year. And, the next SHARE is coming up in the second week of August - I'll be there, and I hope to see you there too. There's something else that's even...

TLA

Reg Harbeck — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:51:00 GMT

Today I feel like an abbreviated rant. About ambiguity for the sake of brevity. What do SMS, SMP and TSO have in common? They're all ambiguous mainframe TLA's! What's a TLA? Why a Three-Letter Acronym of course! That is, unless you wish to point out that it's not an acronym if it doesn't form a word, in which case it's a Three-Letter Abbreviation....

The Business is the Computer

Reg Harbeck — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:11:00 GMT

Scott McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems, famously asserted that, "the network is the computer." In its time, this was an important and insightful statement, as islands of computing joined together to form the Internet. Indeed, we tend to think of computing as something accessible anywhere in the world from our own interface, be it a workstation, a handheld, a laptop, or some...

What a Mainframe is Not

Reg Harbeck — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:08:00 GMT

"Tron" - remember that? If you do, you're definitely old enough to be a mainframer. Then again, pretty soon, the average mainframer may be so young they won't even remember Y2K. And that's OK. As the first generations of mainframers pass the torch to the next generation, the important thing is that the new generation inherits something that...

Mainframe = Kicking Technology??

Marcel Hartog — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:46:00 GMT

In an New York Times article of March 28th, the words of Steward Alsop, who predicted that the last mainframe would be unplugged in 1996 were put in context. The mainframe was use as one example how “old” technology proved to be a strong survivor together with Radio, railways and the most modern one, print media. All these “old” technologies were supposed to be replaced by new ones like...

The Invisible Mainframe

Reg Harbeck — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:53:00 GMT

"Housework is something nobody notices unless you don't do it." "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." "Out of sight, out of mind." What do all of these quotes have to do with the mainframe? Two words: It works. Who'd have ever thought that would be a problem? Just think: over four decades of building and refining...

Mainframe Community, Ecosystem and SHARE

Reg Harbeck — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:24:00 GMT

Well, it's been about a week and a half since I returned home from SHARE in Orlando, Florida, and I think I've recovered enough to collect my thoughts and impressions. And my first thought on the matter is: SHARE is one very important mainframe user community and conference! It's interesting to think about the fact that SHARE was actually founded in 1955, nine years...

Going Green

Reg Harbeck — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:22:00 GMT

Greetings from SHARE! It's been a great week here in Orlando, meeting other mainframers, learning new and interesting things, and finding out about the latest and neatest in technology. I'll plan to talk more about SHARE in a future blog, but I had to share this insight with you now rather than waiting until I returned home. And that is: the mainframe is...

Title: zIIP-a-Dee Doo-Dah

Reg Harbeck — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Imagine, if you will, a luxury sports sedan with a V8 engine, plus an extra row of cylinders, designed especially for long-distance driving, that used almost no fuel. When driving around town, or accelerating out of a traffic light, or performing other day-to-day tasks, you'd use the V8 and expect normal fuel economy. But when departing for long business trips or vacations,...

Re: Generation

Reg Harbeck — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:48:00 GMT

For the past few years, and over the next decade, we're hearing about the retirement of the Baby Boomers, and in the world of mainframes, the even more imminent retirement of the majority of the mainframe technical workforce. In both cases, right now it feels pretty theoretical - the impact has not yet begun to be seriously felt. In fact, in the case of the Baby Boomers, it...

What is “Valued Today. Essential Tomorrow.”?

Reg Harbeck — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:28:00 GMT

Every so often, a performing artist comes along and takes the world by storm after years of obscurity. We often joke about such a person that they "took decades to become an overnight success." How does this happen? Personally, I think it's a combination of quality and maturity - kind of like a fine red wine that reaches its peak as it ages - or like the mainframe. After all, the...

Why Large Businesses Using Mainframes Have a Huge Advantage

David Liff — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:27:00 GMT

The history of computing is well-documented, as is the is age old adage that those who forget the mistakes of history are destined to repeat them. Computing as a tool to enable a business to manage vast numbers of transactions, (some complex, some simple, always incredibly repetitive and absolutely consistently) is one of the most fundamental functions of computing in business, science,...

Moby Mainframe

Reg Harbeck — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:25:00 GMT

Call me an enthusiastic mainframe nerd. It’s time for me to admit it. After all, I’ve been working on mainframes for 20 years, and for the number one mainframe ISV for ten of those years. And, I expect the mainframe to be a significant part of the rest...(read more)