So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish

[Shane Ginnane]

Shane ...

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Tech museum reps

[Shane Ginnane]

Anybody with Amdahl equipment please ping me back off-list.

Shane ...

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Re: S00C Slip trap for any Stc

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 18 Dec 2015 08:51:08 -0500, Peter Relson wrote:

>>Can I set slip trap for abend s00c for any failing Address space ?
>
>To be unhelpful, the answer is "yes"

Peter, I can not (ever) recall an unhelpful answer from you - or Jim.
Some other respondents - now, that's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish.

Shane ...

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Re: Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:14:37 -0600, Brian Westerman wrote:

>I have both the original and the newer version.  One at work, the other at 
>home and I still refer to them both several times a year.

Thanks Brian, that is good to hear. Mine is the second edition - after I've had 
a quick read for old times sake, I'll send it off to a better home. Lucky it 
didn't get tossed out with all my other old stuff as I've had to purge my home 
office after some rain got into one of my bookcases.

Shane ...

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Re: Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 11 Dec 2015 13:43:42 +, Bob Shannon wrote:

>I have a copy of "Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces" by Carmen 
>Cannatello for sale for $60 which includes shipping (USA only). It's in good 
>shape with a few light coffee stains. The cheapest one on ebay today is 
>$176.00.

I can't believe there is still this sort of demand for this book. Made me go 
look for mine - gawd knows how many years I since I imported it.
Hiding in a drawer covered in clear contact, never been used in anger. No 
coffee stains so probably not as valuable as Bobs    ;-)

Might be time for some light reading whilst watching the cricket this season.

Shane ...

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Re: IBM z Systems Development Blog

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 4 Dec 2015 07:34:25 -0600, John McKown wrote:

>​too true. I may even start playing the state lottery, even though that's
>not really a good idea. I understand enough statistics to know that. ​

Don't do that.
I was listening to the BBC overnight a few weeks back, and they must have been 
amending their lottery to have more numbers so the ultimate prize was bigger.
They had a maths/stats prof on - he said for the current lottery, if you stood 
in line for six and a half minute waiting for a ticket you had more chance of 
dying in that 6.5 minutes than winning the money.
They added more numbers, so the time delta went down accordingly.

Sobering   ;0)

Shane ...

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Re: IBM z Systems Development Blog

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 4 Dec 2015 06:43:23 -0600, John McKown  wrote:

>I've bookmarked that in my browser. Thanks.

Me too.
Pity the z business here has gone so far down the toilet I've had to wind up my 
company and wander off into retirement..
Interest only now.

Shane ...

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Re: IBM Automatic (COBOL) Binary Optimizer Now Availabile

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 30 Nov 2015 22:43:37 +, Gibney, David Allen,Jr wrote:

>And it doesn't stick you with the requirement for the loadlib to be PDS/E...

;0)
I wonder if this hasn't been such an impediment to V5 take-up that it enabled a 
business case to be built to release the ABO.
So, what could possibly be the basis of the funding for this - maybe a future 
enforcing of a "ABO or latest version" policy so that the compiler folks can 
issue a restricted support statement like BCP ?.

Cynical ??? ... me ???

Shane ...

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Re: IBM Automatic (COBOL) Binary Optimizer Now Availabile

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 30 Nov 2015 16:05:43 -0800, Charles Mills  wrote:

>But in order to take advantage of those new instructions, two things have to 
>happen: (a.) IBM had to release a dramatically improved COBOL compiler (they 
>did) and (b.) Mr. CIO has to recompile everything. But Mr. CIO has either lost 
>the source code, or does not know if his source code corresponds to his 
>production loadlibs, or Mr. CIO has laid off all the programmers and there is 
>no one to re-compile and re-test.
>
>Enter the ABO ...

This is fun.
S ... let's extend this a little.
Why must the ABO (or the compiler for that matter) emit object code ?. Why not 
java byte-code ?. Then you'd *know* that all the latest mickey-mouse 
instructions were being used. By everybody.
And you could ship it off to a ZIIP. Save Mr. CIO even more money for nothing.

Absolute no-brainer. Must be under development in some skunk-works corner of 
IBM right this minute ... 

Shane ...

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Re: WLM and Dispatching Priority

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 26 Nov 2015 21:08:28 +, Martin Packer wrote:

>I'm puzzled: Why do you think those dispatching priorities are 
>inconsistent with the WLM goals

DP are (almost ?) *never* inconsistent with sane WLM goals. PI is usually a 
better indicator of out-of-whack goals.

> (and your technical business goals)?

Tran based goals, once active, make the region goal irrelevant.
As already mentioned, running high priority tasks in a velocity class is 
pointless. John Arwe expounded on the vagaries of velocity years ago.

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS and hiperspaces

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 11:39:19 +, Rob Scott wrote:

>For MVS/ESA and upwards, dataspaces were great for expanding the virtual 
>storage available horizontally

Which I always thought was a monumental kludge - especially as IBM was peddling 
the corporate myth that "our platform" didn't need 64-bit.
I note the 2.1 manuals (at least) still refer to expanded memory usage for 
hiperspaces. Hmmm.

> 64-bit memory objects offer so much more.

Now it does - took a long time to get here. The initial implementation didn't 
even have SMF support.

Shane ...

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Re: Fastest way to read OLDEST GDG entry

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 18:20:34 -0600, Paul Gilmartin wrote:

>On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 17:57:46 -0600, Paul Gilmartin wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 03:06:10 -0700, Lizette Koehler wrote:
>>>
>>>Is there another process that could be used to identify the OLDEST GDG for 
>>>Input
>>>and then delete that GDG?  Or is there another way to handle this situation? 
>>> I
>>>was going to see if the LISTC could be faster than CSI.
>>> 
>Naively, I'd expect that LISTCAT use CSI, or something very similar.

Been a while, but the samples I looked at were just that - and did need some 
cleaning up. Mark Z will have a bunch of good examples for sure.
LISTCAT using generics was awful - I seem to remember some fixes for that a 
while back - but CSI when properly constructed was awesome. Done in assembler 
more so, as expected.
It looks like it finds *everything* - including the connector records for cats 
that have been disconnected. I found myself running through mastercats I 
shouldn't have been even able to see. Like I said, if you are careful, CSI is 
awesome.

Shane ...

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Re: Stop GPMSERVE ?

[Shane Ginnane]

Why ?.

I'm a bit (?) old-school, but I always try to insist that DDS is active. I 
would use RMF III all the time, but having a web page with all that data (and 
more) available with a simple URL is a boon.
And doesn't the z/OSMF plugin require it ?.

And the price is pretty damn good.

Shane ...

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Re: Premature SYMBOL substitution in SYSIN?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 13 Nov 2015 22:05:19 +, J O Skip Robinson wrote:

>Where and how would appropriate substitution take place? In a several open 
>forums over the years, attendees (customers) often disagreed on the 'right' 
>place and method to do it.

Yep, be careful what you wish for.
Most of the old wrinkleys must remember those debates.

Shane ...

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Re: Fortran, assembly programmers ... NASA needs you – for Voyager • Job For Shane?

[Shane Ginnane]

I wonder if they have a massively parallel collection of (modern) GPUs on board 
?. If so and they can wait just a little while longer they may be in luck.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/llvm-to-get-fortran-compiler-that-targets-parallel-gpus-in-clusters/

Shane ...

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YAFWS

[Shane Ginnane]

It ain't just NUCLEUS the system will run happily without.

One day a fellow (senior) sysprog wandered over and asked if I knew the system 
would continue to run without the master cat.
Never thought about it. Guessed he was talking about our sandpit. Nope, he had 
the Prod system set online and ...

Hmm - all looked ok, not that anyone was about to try defining a new alias or 
whatever. We found the ondisk space it had occupied and re-defined it at the 
same absolute address. Everybody, and I mean *everybody* in the team was 
on-site for the next Prod IPL.

Shane ...
(yet another Friday war story)

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Re: Releasing Orphan Storage without IPL

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 4 Nov 2015 21:16:42 -0800, Steve Beaver wrote:

>... the system will survive without your intervention,

s/will/may/

Shane ...

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Re: Fortran, assembly programmers ... NASA needs you – for Voyager • Job For Shane?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 3 Nov 2015 09:30:38 -0800, John Mattson wrote:

>This is just too sweet. Decisions decisions, retire and spent lots of time
>in Italy, or code assembler for NASA. Hmmm let me have a glass of Pinot
>grigio and some pasts and think about it. zzz

I've no desire to go to Europe, and I prefer wine with a bit more body (a 
decent "big" Aussie Shiraz let's say), but I can certainly empathise with the 
general train of thought.
Let me also cogitate on it whilst I chuck a stick into the surf for the mutt to 
chase ...

No contest.

Shane ...

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Re: Opportunity for Mainframers

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 3 Nov 2015 00:58:03 +, David Mingee wrote:

>I know of an opportunity to be an instructor for a z/OS Boot Camp class(7 
>weeks) in Panama City, Panama.It is with a reputable training company.

Good to hear such things (still) exist - hopefully you will get some-one 
suitable to stand in.
I can imagine some potential for expense claims being not insignificant   
;-)

Shane ...

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Re: (External):Re: RE-IPL for the Daylight to Standard time conversion?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sat, 31 Oct 2015 18:31:30 +, J O Skip Robinson wrote:

> These so-called Victory Gardens were deemed more manageable by working stiffs 
> if there were still some daylight left at the end of the job day.

Yep - this is why we've never done daylight saving.
All that extra sunlight at the end of the day will eventually fade the curtains 
and/or carpets. Where's the benefit in that ?.

Shane ...

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Re: Releasing Orphan Storage without IPL

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2015 13:48:08 +0530, Jake Anderson wrote:

>Is it possible to release the Unused Storage without IPLing ?

Of course.
But you'd better be right.


Junior sysprog was using a well-known monitor that showed a bunch of "unused" 
shared storage. He decided we could use it, so decided to free it.
Despite the said monitor warning *twice* that the segment to be freed had 
changed.
Then went to lunch.

Those of us still at our desks starting seeing really weird JES2 abends. We had 
a JES expert in-house, and I had a look at a couple of dumps, but we had no 
idea, so eventually pulled the pin (development system) and IPL'd to get a 
SADump. Still scratching our heads when afore-mentioned junior returned and 
wanted to know what all the kerfuffle was 


Shane ...

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Re: File Placement Utility

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2015 07:30:26 +, Gibney, David wrote:

>I still maintain that ADRDSSU will "just do it"

Dave, why do you presume the OP has already existing datasets to copy ?.
If this is just allocating new datasets, sort the files by size, or whatever, 
and knock up some rexx to generate the JCL. Quicker than waiting for the list 
to to suggest it.

Personally I would let the storage subsystem(s) handle it - that's what you pay 
the vendors boatloads of money for. Give Ron and his ilk something to do.
Fiddling around trying to balance access across mod-3s is just so 90's.

Shane ...

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Re: IBM PDFs (was: SK3T-4271-28)

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 06:58:29 -0500, Paul Gilmartin wrote:

>What tool did you use to create the index?

Nothing - doesn't look like I've even unrolled the zip.
When I said "Other than that I just download all the pdfs per release, and 
create an index page."
I meant for other releases, I download the pdfs individually and create a html 
index for myself.

Shane ...

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Re: SK3T-4271-28

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 4 Oct 2015 08:37:17 +, Robert Prins wrote:

>I'm trying to find the full (~5GB collection) of z/OS 1.12 manuals,
>does anyone know if the above (.zip) is still around anywhere. Tried
>changing URL's, but to no avail...

Can't help with 1.12, but I have sk3t-4271-31.zip for 1.13. I don't recall a 
zip earlier.
Other than that I just download all the pdfs per release, and create an index 
page.

Shane ...

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Watching paint dry ....

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 05:33:14 -0400, Richards, Robert B. wrote:

> For any sailing enthusiasts, America's Cup is there in 2017 and they are 
> already gearing up for it. If interested, accommodation reservations should 
> be made NOW as they are going to go fast as the year approaches. And those 
> that don't go fast are going to be *very* expensive in 2017.

I was in SF after Boston Share, and saw some of the final challenger series for 
that Cup.
Boring.

18 footers might be exciting for multi-hulls, but not these big fellas. Just 
didn't click for me. Nice harbour, but just didn't do it.
Dunno about Bermuda, might have to take Bobs word for it ...

Shane ...

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Re: Watching paint dry ....

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 08:01:24 -0400, Richards, Robert B. wrote:

>Even if you don't like sailing, the beaches there are some of the best in 
>world due to the finely-grained pink coral.

lol ... 
I can drive to several of the best beaches in the world in less than an hour. 
And if I see more than about 10 people I keep going to the next one.
People still go from here to there, but I'm buggered if I can figure out why.

Each to their own I guess.

Shane  ;-)

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Re: T-Mobile Data Hacked

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 2 Oct 2015 05:54:40 -0400, Aled Hughes wrote:

> But blaming mainframes is the choice of these journalistic experts isn't it?
>
>Sad.

Careful fella, this business may make you cynical.

Shane ...

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Re: More "ageing mainframe" (bad) press.

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:31:13 +0800, David Crayford  wrote:

>CentreLink is a 26,000 MIP customer
>http://www.techworld.com.au/article/303153/centrelink_ups_it_reform_keeps_model_204_legacy_/?pp=2.
>Phew, that's going to be a big blow for big blue when they move off.

Nope.
At that time (2009) Centrelink might (might ?) have been. It is now an 
amalgamation of Medibank and sundry others. Bigger and badder by large.
We as a community can not afford to lose this puppy. It was Amdahls trumpeted 
catch (along with quaint-arse) and look what happened to them.
If this goes, there is *NO* future for z/OS in Aus - simple as that.

Shane ...

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Re: OS/390 hard wait

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 25 Sep 2015 01:43:41 -0400, Jim Mulder wrote:

>  Thinking about such things is more productive with stand-alone dump
>at which to gaze.

My recollection of SADump at OS/390 2.10 (and z/OS 1.1 for that matter) in 
64-bit is less than happy. Me-thinks we had a discussion about memory not being 
dumped ... ?

As it happens I have a set of 2.10 CDs (yep real sparkling disks that work a 
treat for keeping the birds off the tomatoes) - updated for 64-bit even.
Not much of interest in the Planning for Install - standard PARMLIB updates, 
including ARCHLVL. Some notes re compatibility for those unfortunate enough to 
have a z900 - so I would also reckon a z10 might be a stretch given the manuals 
are dated December 2000.

Shane ...

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More "ageing mainframe" (bad) press.

[Shane Ginnane]

http://www.itnews.com.au/news/the-top-five-green-screen-systems-that-run-australia-409614

Some large (by Aussie standards) mainframe customers that may be no more in the 
foreseeable future.

Shane ...

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Re: More "ageing mainframe" (bad) press.

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 25 Sep 2015 08:00:37 -0600, Jack J. Woehr wrote:

>Seems like actually only one of the apps actually going away, the rest being 
>Web front-ended, which is entirely appropriate.
>
>And as we all know, some of these conversions never succeed and they're forced 
>to drop back on maintaining the mainframe
>app.
>
>I'm more sanguine about this as I catch up on the architecture. The last time 
>I studied the physical mainframe, it was
>ES9000.
>
>The z13 is a truly amazing machine.

The largest of the sites mentioned is z13 already - multi-CEC, multi-site. 
Running Model 204 (yep, just them and the CIA left in the whole world 
apparently)
Ain't going to survive like that, flashy GUI front ends or no.

They have a lot of smart people, and a lot of smart tech, but they are fighting 
a Government that has snorted the tea-leaves. They have survived a big 
outsourcing push a few years back, and sundry departmental amalgamations, but 
they are in a barbed wire canoe paddling against the current..

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS pricing question (and Single Version Charge)

[Shane Ginnane]

What a bloody schmozzle.
Imagine if something like this was foisted on Ubuntu customers with the 
LinuxONE. Wouldn't get a single taker I imagine.

Any news on that licensing model ?.

Shane ...

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Re: Current market share breakdown for EACH of the three z/OS ESM products: RACF, CA-ACF2 and CA-Top Secret

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 9 Sep 2015 08:47:27 -0500, Steve Harner  wrote:

>(a) When SKK was sold in 1986, ACF2 had a 60% market share while IBM’s RACF 
>and CA’s Top Secret split the other 40%; and (b) Currently , RACF has 75% 
>market share while ACF2 and Top Secret from CA share the other 25 percent.

Does anyone, other than reputedly CA itself, actually use T/S ?. Never seen it 
in a customer site.
When I first saw ACF2 (prior to the buyout), it was the ducks nuts - RACF was a 
slug in comparison. Seems IBM has won that battle though.

Shane ...

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Re: Current market share breakdown for EACH of the three z/OS ESM products: RACF, CA-ACF2 and CA-Top Secret

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 9 Sep 2015 20:40:49 +0300, Itschak Mugzach  wrote:

>The market is is split between TSS & RACF. I know of only one ACF2 site,
>but they droped the mainframe...

Interesting - as I said I have never seen TSS in any shop in Aus. Just never 
got a foothold here. That includes major banks and government departments.
When CA acquired ACF2 there was a concerted push for ACF2 over TSS - almost to 
the point of discouraging (maybe not encouraging) adoption of TSS.

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS Upgrade 1.13 to 2.2

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 14:25:33 -0500, Jerry wrote:

>The z Channel, an online user group, is hosting a two-part presentation by 
>Marna Walle (IBM) titled "Migrating to V2.2" on Monday, September 14, 2015 at 
>2 pm EDT (Part 1) and on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 (Part 2).

Hmmm; 14:00 American Eastern <==> 04:00 Aussie Eastern (currently). Think I'll 
wait for the DVD   ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: Setting up Sublime Text to edit PDS members

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 21:11:41 -0500, Paul Gilmartin wrote:

>>Hipster kids all seem to be using Atom which I must admit is very slick.
>>It's amazing what you can do with HTML and Javascript these days.
>>
>I'll check it out.

Unlike (apparently) gil, I'm not at all sure I fit the demographic, but I may 
see how it copes with navigating a kernel source tree with ctags.
Like I need (yet) another editor - about as much as I need (yet) another 
"language".

Shane ...

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Re: Smaller Private Area in DR

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 3 Sep 2015 00:27:17 -0400, Jim Mulder wrote:

>  The first thing I would do, using a dump of PROD and a dump of DR,
>is for each dump, under IPCS, do
>
>IOSCHECK ALLUCBS
>FIND 'UCB AT 00' ALL
>
>  This will count the number of UCBs in SQA below 16MB.

I wonder how many other people routinely ensure they have a usable dump 
available back at the office after any test day.
Barbara maybe ...   ;-)

As a last resort I used to find that if CICS was in the mix there was a fair 
chance a dump would be available, one just had to make sure it was saved.

Shane ...

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Re: IPCS Magicians (was: Smaller Private Area in DR)

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 3 Sep 2015 15:58:16 +, Cannaerts, Jan  
wrote:

>In my preliminary research that I started just now some of the SHARE 
>presentations have been valuable.
>I'd love to make it out to a SHARE event one (or more?) time(s), but as a 
>European working for a small shop I challenge you to convince my boss to send 
>me out there.

When I first turned up at share I had the opportunity to chair the IPCS talk 
for Jerry Ng - he had done it several times prior and I had always downloaded 
it for reference. Paper only, way before the interactive sessions.
The IPCS manuals are handy references, but hardly instructional - have a look 
at the Diag Tools ans Service Aids for some IPCS/dump intro. Getting the right 
data is as important as analysing it.
When I started at Amdahl I was able to sit in on customer classes for no fee if 
and when they were being run out here - MVS Internals and Diag Techniques were 
what I jumped at. Several others on this list probably did likewise in the 
"old" days. These days you'll have to just pull bits together where-ever you 
can find them and spend some quality time getting up to speed.
Is your manager prepared to invest in your time ?. Hopefully so.

Shane ...

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Re: TRUSTED attribute for IBM tasks

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 23 Aug 2015 03:04:35 +, J O Skip Robinson wrote:

 The idiot should have been fired, but I'm still here. 

Luckily for your shop.
All too often the old knowledgeable incumbents are let go, and the outsourcers 
minions have no bloody idea of the history of the shop. What happened, how to 
fix it ...

Shane ...

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Re: Linux Without Limits: IBM Launch LinuxONE Mainframes

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 22:47:07 -0600, Mark Post wrote:

That has never been the case.  We have always supported installing on z/VM or 
in an LPAR.

Hmmm - I was sure I had a migration doc that said z/VM was now required for the 
install scripts (rather than just recommended).
My bad maybe.

Shane ...

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Re: Linux Without Limits: IBM Launch LinuxONE Mainframes

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 11:54:24 -0600, Mark Post wrote:

It appears their KVM offering also comes with some monitoring capability, 
although I haven't seen any details there.

Oh joy, ILM for Linux   :(
Given this:
quote IBM now has three strategic virtualization platforms: IBM z/VM®, IBM 
PR/SM™, and KVM for IBM z Systems. /quote
are we to assume KVM runs on the bare hardware ?. As it should.
Last I looked (a while ago admittedly) SuSE required z/VM (running on PR/SM) 
for the packaged installer. Fedora for z has been usable on Herc, so presumably 
it will fit ok.

Been waiting for this to happen for years - I do wonder about (re-)configuring 
the machine though. Even UEFI stirred the hornets in the other universe, 
dropping something like stand-alone IOCP on them is gunna be fun to watch.

Shane ...

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Re: Limit number of frames of real storage per job

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 7 Aug 2015 10:59:00 +1000, Andrew Rowley wrote:

There can also be performance advantages from GC.

Were one to be slightly nefarious, one might suggest that if the JVM was doing 
its (GC) job properly, there would be very little code left to run.
Not an intrinsic shortcoming of the language, just lame implementations foisted 
on the users. Reminds me of 14 year old kids writing VB for businesses years 
ago.

But back to the thread - what do you reckon containers might offer z/OS ?. No 
I'm not just think of docker, but cgroups.

Shane ...

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Re: SYSTEM KEY Programming Was: IVSK and SPKA

[Shane Ginnane]

Two threads in a couple of weeks re the inability of people to learn MVS 
principles properly these days.
Terrible indictment of the OCO decision years ago that public lists like this 
are now the proxy mentor that some of us were fortunate enough to have had when 
we needed one.

Enough from me - hooroo.
Shane ...

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Re: Forbes: IT Professionals Don't Have What The Tech Industry Wants

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sat, 4 Jul 2015 13:34:58 -0400, John Clifford wrote:

   Most companies are strictly bottom-liners, IMO, and will always go with the 
 cheapest option.
...
 Just venting a bit.

No harm in venting.
We have an analogue to the H1B - sell your soul, then bleat about all those 
unemployed people ... bloody asinine politicians (tautology ?)
One of the very few z customers left in this town was outsourced by IBM not 
that long ago. All the support immediately went to China - along with a few of 
the displaced people for a few months to train their replacements. I would have 
told them to stick it up their collective arses, but I guess that would affect 
their payoff - er, payout.

No doubt the deal was trumpeted by IBM, but it's another site that will be ex 
soon. How does that build the platform ?.

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS DASD: Way to gather DASD Response Time ?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 2 Jul 2015 10:38:31 +0100, Toni Cecil wrote:

Hi Shane,
it might sound strange to you, but we need to demonstrate to one our
clients that moving data from mod3, or mod9 to mod27 didn't cause any dasd
performance problems for their applications.
That's a living.

No, not strange at all - customers ask for the damnest things. These sort of 
questions belong to the days of real spinning DASD, not modern storage 
controllers.
If your clients are prepared to accept that as evidence, well and good.

I stand by my previous post.

Shane ...

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Re: Funny learning curve for various, UNIX, editors

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 2 Jul 2015 13:27:27 +, Cannaerts, Jan wrote:

Wow, anyone that touches Vi is instantly proficient and insanely productive 
with it! 

;-)
editing in vi is easy - getting out of the session is the challenge.
As for emacs, the origin should be somewhere above the proficiency level of vi.

Shane ...

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Re: Leap Second today!

[Shane Ginnane]

The people most concerned were (automated) equity traders. Bloomberg reports 
1.4 million trades per second. And, of course, they only count (continental) 
USA.
That's a lot of capital that can go missing. And it was a trading day, not like 
2012.

Different parts of the world managed this differently ... trading houses in our 
part of the world apparently smeared the update over several hours, similar 
to sysplex timer adjustment.
Who's taking bets that the traders beat the scientists, and leap seconds get 
banished ?.

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS Systems Software Developer Position

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 30 Jun 2015 22:37:04 -0500, Kirk Wolf wrote:

I do not claim to have deep knowledge of z/OS system internals, but since
when is source code required to obtain it?

I don't believe that the best Windows hackers have the source code...the
very best don't even bother with disassemblers :-)

What, like the folks at MIT with CodePhage. To quote Ron Weasley:
You're a little scary sometimes, you know that? Brilliant... but scary. 

How many non-vendor employers these days allow their staff to flounder around 
learning code that would require a recovery routine, let alone how to institute 
the latter - and pay them for the pleasure.
Not many I trust.

So the cabal in the know becomes ever more incestuous. 

A very enlightened former contributor to this list and I have had this 
discussion till late at night. As have others I'm sure.

Shane

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Re: z/OS DASD: Way to gather DASD Response Time ?

[Shane Ginnane]

I've decided to use RMF:
DINTV(2400)

That's like asking for the average speed for all the taxi drivers in a company 
over an entire day.
It might be the one number you may have been asked for, but it's useless.
You need to educate your users/managers.

Shane ...

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Re: z/OS DASD: Way to gather DASD Response Time ?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:02:42 +0100, Toni Cecil wrote:

Hello,
can you pls tell me what is best (and easiest) way to gather dasd response
time values by StorageGroup?? We need to have a DASD PERFORMANCE picture
for 2 weeks and by storageGRoup.

The data are all there in the report - by default RMF reports by LCU; you have 
the option of requesting it report by SG. See the Report Analysis manual.

Shane ...

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Re: How is CAMASTER started?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 21 Jun 2015 11:05:34 +0200, Barbara wrote:

Scott,
...
am I correct in assuming 

Barbara, do you still get to the European z conferences?.
Scott was at Boston. I'm sure he'd be in Europe as well.
Take him out to get (at least) one of those excellent German beers, and find 
out in person. Much better way to get a definitive answer ...  :0)
Just my opinion of course, not related to reality in any way.

Shane ...

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Re: How is CAMASTER started?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:59:48 -0500, Scott Fagen wrote:

 Does anyone know?

Yes.  


oooh yeah, I bet he knows   ;-)
No-brainer decision really given the emphasis on known attack vectors. IBM just 
had to provide an API.

Shane ...

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Re: Network Switch Refresh

[Shane Ginnane]

*NEVER* trust the network folks when they have a small change going in.
This little oops in Malaysia, as innocuous as it seems, disrupted all of 
Oceania for a couple of hours, not just their customers:

https://www.tm.com.my/OnlineHelp/Announcement/Pages/INTERNET-SERVICES-DISRUPTION-12-June-2015.aspx

Shane ...

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Re: Why major financial institutions are growing their use of mainframes

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:15:59 -0400, Tony Thigpen wrote:

Good story, but my BS meter is pegged on this one.

And not just on that bullet point.
The big banks are moving off-host here. I just got locked out of internet 
access to my business account because my bank is in the process of moving to a 
new core system that was outsourced to Oracle in India.
A few weeks before end of financial year (June 30 here)   :(
What a bunch of dorks.

Shane ...

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Re: Share IODF in different sysplex same CPC

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2015 03:37:48 -0500, Jorge Garcia wrote:

 I've found more information about GRS configuration between systems outsite 
 GRS complex: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1II14297

The information APAR says there is a possible GRSRNLxx configuration. I 
suppose is not dangerous. It's a IBM APAR.

Suppose again.
That APAR is *very* specific to catalogs and the way they are processed. It is 
*NOT* generic for sharing outside a GRSplex.

Shane ...

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Re: Address location

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 14 Jun 2015 01:32:26 -0400, michelbutz wrote:

Given address how I can I tell whether this is SQA LSQA PVT, or CSA

GDA.

Shane ...

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Re: Webcast about mainframe Agile Development

[Shane Ginnane]

Join us June 18 at 11 a.m. ET for the webcast

Hey Sam, long time no hear. Hmmm,  that would equate to 01:00 Eastern for us 
poor souls.

Shane ...

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Re: DFSORT - How to select last 8 bytes in variable length records

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2015 14:11:30 -0500, Bill Godfrey wrote:

That would mean there could be end-of-line characters and hex 00 characters in 
a record, which would mean sed would not work.

sed won't (shouldn't) care about the nulls, but won't like newlines (yes, I 
noted your careful language given the recent other thread re this) in the midst 
of records.
How does ocopy deal with this ? - I'm unable to test on z at present.

Shane ...

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Re: Fault Analyzer experts?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 4 Jun 2015 08:11:31 -0500, Elardus Engelbrecht wrote:

Of course. An IBMer who is an Fault Analyzer expert was very ACTIVE on 
IBM-MAIN last week. (26 May 2015 for example)

Jim Mulder ?.
I'd describe him more as an expert at analysing faults  ... ;-0

The times I've had to deal with FA (the software) I've found it a pox to 
configure and maintain.
Each to their own I suppose.

Shane ...

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Re: AW: Re: JES2 Exit 23

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 2 Jun 2015 07:47:58 -0400, Ed Finnell wrote:

The toner bags were like
18x18x48 and  said when it hit the floor TNF spewed out like a volcano. The
hazmat crew spent  2 days decontaminating the room.

Dammit, Ed stoppit.
I'm trying to concentrate on watching a soccer game with a glass of red in 
front of a fire .

These stories should be playing in a bar, not a list ...   ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: Cache Fast Write (CFW) - Data in the CFW is *not* mirrored, is it?

[Shane Ginnane]

Where's Ron when we need him ?.

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Re: LPAR MOBILITY

[Shane Ginnane]

z/VM V6.2 release made available the Single System Image feature  and Live 
Guest Relocation,  which is the ability for a Linux guest to be moved from one 
z/VM system to another within the SSI cluster.

IBM is chasing smoke on this.
On the way back from Boston Share, I dropped in to the VMWORLD in Frisco. Quite 
an eye opener.
One of the speakers did a live migration of a running guest from the America to 
India. Real time in front of all of us. With IP monitors running. Pretty bloody 
impressive. As expected it knocked response times around during the move, but 
this was over a public switched network, not CTCs. Nearly two years ago.

Sahne ...

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Re: Slow storage creep in SYSTEM.SYSSTC

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 27 May 2015 13:51:23 +, Vernooij, CP wrote:

It is very tempting for sysprogs to give themselves absolute performance, just 
because they can, not because they need it. 

True 'nuff.
As I don't live in any site, I try to placate the troops. When I need to get in 
and fix things, I get my userid reset.
If the ops can't get in and reset me, there are bigger problems. Seen that too 
of course 

Shane ...

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Re: Slow storage creep in SYSTEM.SYSSTC

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 26 May 2015 23:25:42 +, Gibney, David wrote:

... I neither have nor really can control what falls into SYSSTC. It's all 
z/OS.

You can, and probably should at least look at some of your heavy hitters.
 
Just tossing it out here for thought on identifying the guilty software?

Grab a couple of (system) dumps a couple of weeks apart. Under IPCS run the 
VSMDATA with OWNCOMM SUMMARY. The Diag Reference has examples of what you'll 
get. You may be able to see from a quick eyeball where it's going.
You can run a getmain/freemain trace, but you really don't want to go there. 
Running GTF for weeks, then trying to process the output just ain't funny.

All else fails, flick me a return business class air ticket, and I'll come have 
a look. Washington can't be too bad this time of year   ;-)

Shane ...
(all the above presumes you have the DIAGxx member set up already)

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Re: z/OS Platform Software Products on ... Tape?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sat, 23 May 2015 20:45:26 +1000, Andrew Rowley wrote:

Who do you trust is the fundamental issue with digital certificates.

That's what key signing parties are for.
How about we combine them with a few frozen margaritas after a long day at 
Share - we could all vouch for the veracity of each other    g,d,r
That way we could probably even write it off as a legit business expense.

I could get to like this security stuff   ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: Is there a good EBCDIC IBM-1047 Emulator?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 20 May 2015 09:18:40 -0500, John McKown wrote:

​My response to Mr. Hansen would be to just use either digraphs or
trigraphs in his C code. ref:
...
In Ubuntu:
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/natty/man1/entrigraph.1.html

John you are a font of information. How the hell did you dredge that up ?.   :0)

Shane ...

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Re: Did I really need a CLIST???

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 20 May 2015 07:58:38 -0700, Tom Brennan wrote:

J O Skip Robinson wrote:
 Coding subcommands in reverse order just to save one letter in each REXX 
 command would be absurd.

Completely you with agree I, Skip.

Tom gets my vote for this years Yoda award.

Shane ...

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GIYF - **offlist **

[Shane Ginnane]

Google ???
... Friend 

You sick puppy.

Shane ...

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Re: GIYF - **offlist **

[Shane Ginnane]

or not.

Shane ..

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Re: Is there a good EBCDIC IBM-1047 Emulator?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 18 May 2015 10:36:41 -0500, Paul Gilmartin wrote:

 I don't pursue cosmetic changes to 3270.

The data sets I use are NFS exported.  I use desktop editors.  My
principal need for 3270 is for SDSF; lesser for DSLIST and DDLIST.

People who do real work on the host need 3270.
I'm with Dave - years ago I used to use x3270 when dialling in to a Dallas 
system; when it needed maintaining principally.
Day to day work needs something more well-rounded. I use Vista when I have the 
choice - usually I don't.

Shane ...
(interesting Tom commented on the PCI thread, but not this that I noticed ...)

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Re: PCI DSS compliance for z/OS

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 17 May 2015 11:39:25 -0700, Phil Smith wrote:

Warning: long post ahead, and of course it’s pushing the hammer that we sell

My eyes tend to glaze over when these threads arise, but I did at least learn 
that HP had acquired Voltage   ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: DFSORT and RACF

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 15 May 2015 06:51:45 -0500, Elardus Engelbrecht wrote:

This is what I try to tell our people. Protect the source and custodians 
(people), not the tools. So, this is why I'm asking to see what others think - 
is it practical to protect DFSORT keywords or not.

Nope.
As David said, let the Auditors provide their own tools. At one shop the Audit 
team had their own (JES3) spool partition - if they had a problem we couldn't 
help them as we couldn't see the jobs. Even simple JCL errors had to be 
printed, vetted, brought over to use to look at and then they disappeared back 
into the ether.
Further back in time (different shop), the Auditors would come into the 
computer room with their own print ribbons. Get the jobs run and 
printed/purged, pack up and leave again.

Both banks as it happened, but shows your folks just need to get properly 
motivated.

Shane ...

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Re: QAFF on JOBCLASS statement

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 14 May 2015 14:29:17 +0300, Mike Shorkend wrote:

My question is more on the philosophical side: Why did IBM choose to ...

Many a mind have pondered that.
Tread not that path ...  ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: [DB2-L] - ICF catalog management for a new DB2 subsystem

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 10 May 2015 11:26:54 -0500, Elardus Engelbrecht wrote:

What terrible? Are you referring to gazillion DB2 logs being spewed out or 
what?

GRS traffic - particularly for all the catalog accesses. Very noticable in a 
ring.

Shane ...

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Re: [DB2-L] - ICF catalog management for a new DB2 subsystem

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 10 May 2015 07:44:38 +, Anthony Thompson wrote:

Catalog performance generally isn't any kind of problem if you are using 
Enhanced Catalog Sharing, or, better, Record Level Sharing on the catalogues.

Been a while since you've used a multi-system ring Ant ? ;-)
DB2 is a classic example of the tail wagging the mutt. In a ring (even with 
IGGV2 converted) DB2 starts (particularly regions starting concurrently) spam 
the system something terrible.
There is a case for being careful.

Shane ...

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Re: For your weekend viewing pleasure on You Tube

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 7 May 2015 23:06:34 -0500, Ed Gould wrote:

Is it me or is his presentation off?

Nah Ed, it's just you.
.
.
.
;0)
Even an Aussie like me can understand him - except for the bloody zeee ...

Shane ...

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Re: Performance question - handling of max CPU % utilization

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 7 May 2015 06:51:42 -0500, Elardus Engelbrecht wrote:

If I combine these values for the day, they're sometimes over 100% which is 
undesirable or difficult to explain.

Don't.
Simple as that - I am constantly trying to disavow people of the notion of one 
number per day. RMF is a sampler - you get averaged numbers. (Re-)averaging 
those over a period like a day renders them effectively meaningless. And that's 
if you're using the correct metric(s).
Don't use the LPAR MVS busy numbers. Period. Go to the Partition Data Report 
and give those numbers to your boss. Nice graph, simple  stacked area graph 
with the CEC capacity as a big black line at the top.
Easy to see (lack of) white space available.

If your software doesn't give you this, get rid of it. The RMF Spreadsheet 
reporter probably does, but it's been too long since I managed to coerce it to 
behave. Or you can simply export the numbers to LibreOffice Calc and graph it 
yourself.

Shane ...

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Re: OT: If you think Daylight Savings Time or leap seconds are a bother...

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 7 May 2015 16:33:32 -0400, Gabe Goldberg wrote:

...read this. I wonder if any mainframes were affected.

Not likely.
A few years prior to that they changed the side of the road they drove on. 
06:00 one morning, they changed.
Now *that* would have made life interesting. Even banned grog sales in the 
leadup to try and keep a few more people alive.

And yes, it *IS* Friday here (and there) already.

Shane ...

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Re: OT: Fake Apple watch

[Shane Ginnane]

Knock-offs in Shenzhen, who'da believed that ?.

I wouldn't lower myself to buy anything Apple, much less a knock-off.
Now if there was a custom ROM for it ... hmmm, I have a copy of the Android 
Wear SDK somewhere ...

Shane ...

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Re: O/T Strontium atomic clock accurate to the second -- over 15 billion years --

[Shane Ginnane]

You would really hate to be more than a second late for being vapourized by the 
sun when it goes red giant.

Shane ...

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Re: Thoughts on DFSMShsm ABARS in today's environment

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 29 Apr 2015 13:46:00 +, Pommier, Rex wrote:

Re:  BTDTGTS, is that been there, don’t that, got (the) t-shirt or is it 
been there, got that, got the scars?

The latter - severe mental scars.
During a test IPL of our sandpit we found we had no ability to IPL *any* 
system. Including the supposed isolated sandpit at DR.
Easy - pull up a restore set and go find the problem. Wrong.
Scary ...

SADump and IBM found a clue for us before any of our loved systems fell over.
That might just have been the beginning of my hate-hate relationship with LE - 
not to mention shared master catalogs ...

Shane ...

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Re: Thoughts on DFSMShsm ABARS in today's environment

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 28 Apr 2015 11:00:48 -0500, Glenn Wilcock finished with:

So, when determining your backup strategy, first determine your recovery needs 
and then determine which backup technique will best fit those needs.

The elephant in the room is that there is no way to have complete confidence in 
backups - of whatever nature. They may be consistent (FSVO), but are they 
valid ?.
And if they are bad, there is no way to know how far back you need to go to get 
a good copy. And whether your business could survive going back that far.

BTDTGTS.

Shane ...

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Re: DUMP parm recommendation

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 27 Apr 2015 13:01:38 -0400, Richards, Robert B. wrote:

I am thinking of adding HCSAByASID,HCSANoOwner,HCSASysOwner.

Advice? Thoughts?

CSA by itself covers everything - above and below the bar. Your preferences 
will exclude data above the bar for ASIDs not in the dump.

Me, I always want as much as I can get in a dump - there's generally a reason a 
dump is taken, and it may not be reproducable. Unless you are having issues 
with the size of dumps, I say leave it as-is.

Shane ...

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Re: Ads in Redbookd.

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 17 Apr 2015 09:32:52 -0300, Clark Morris wrote:

Given what we pay for Redbooks, I can understand IBM wanting some kind
of revenue stream and find print ads easy to ignore.

And how long before we have sponsored authors - if you can't bring some 
bucks, you aren't welcome (F1 drivers come to mind).
Then what - product placement in the body of the text ?.

If the redbooks lose their balanced technical reputation, it's all down-hill. 
That'll cost IBM much more than they might make out of it.

Shane ...

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Ads in Redbookd.

[Shane Ginnane]

How long have we had ads (sorry, Promotions) in Redbooks ?.
Just pulled the z13 Tech Intro Ed posted about - can't be that long since I 
downloaded one, and I certainly don't recall included ads.
As bad as the bloody trailers on hired DVDs.

quote
Imagine the power of being seen by users who download
millions of Redbooks publications each year!
quote
H ... rather; imagine potentially pissing off all those users.

Shane ...

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Re: Preaching to the choir? A good article

[Shane Ginnane]

Undisguised airline magazine marketing fluff.

Shane ...

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Re: Catalog Recovery Software

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:37:33 -0700, Lizette Koehler wrote:

Side note:  The Catalog Recovery Plus  and TREX  are very similar.

..  :0)
I still have my little green dino somewhere from when they were first starting 
up. Talking to the devs really meant face-to-face.

Having been present whilst a customer extricated themselves from a very ugly 
situation, this genre of software if well worth the bucks spent IMHO.

Shane ...

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Re: IBM z/OS Service Survey

[Shane Ginnane]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will do some research to see 
if and how we can disable this message.

Cheers Iris, I doubt your survey partners will give a tuppenny damn about 
people (such as I) who disable js.
I'm happy to remain on the fringes, and ignored by the mainstream.

Shane ...

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Re: A New Perfromance Model ?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Wed, 8 Apr 2015 16:15:44 -0700, Lizette Koehler wrote:

A friend of mine that does contract work, was engaged to tweak a CICS 
transaction.  He could only shave .1 second off of the time.  1/10 sec
However, the transaction was called millions of times, saved the company from 
upgrading their hardware, reduced their 4hr rolling average which saved 
software costs.
And all for 1/10 second reduction in the CICS trans run time.  Tuning programs 
have benefits.

This is the hot spot analysis Lynn mentioned.
Now how about if customers could realise the lower end of the benefits he 
mentioned - say 15% ?.

No wonder the vendor(s) keep wanting to peddle the tuning is too expensive, 
no-one cares piffle. It has the potential to cost them their bonuses.
Good thing I've been able to resist this business making me cynical.

Shane ...

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Re: EXSPATxx member

[Shane Ginnane]

On Mon, 6 Apr 2015 03:48:07 -0400, Jim Mulder wrote:

  There is no way to specify endless spinning.

No doubt a good thing.
I do recall once placing a CPU in a hard stop - caused all the other CPUs to go 
into spin loops.
Back in the days of running on the bare metal. Fortunately I had the machine to 
myself    ;-)

Shane ...

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Re: Forbes: Nice Mainframe, How Do I Turn It On?

[Shane Ginnane]

Mark you gotta stop including the Thanks in (as part of) your posted links. 
You did it last month too   :o)

Shane ...

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Re: OT: Digital? Cloud? Modern And Cost-Effective? Surprise! It's The Mainframe - Forbes

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:45:53 -0600, Mark Post wrote:

IBM has been investing a lot of money in developing OpenStack and related 
software to manage and run Linux on z Systems.  In addition to that they've 
been updating their various middleware products to capitalize on what they see 
as the growing market for mobile.

All good so far.

  In essence, it's going to be a combination of z/OS (since that's where most 
 of the data lives), z/VM for a hypervisor, and Linux guests.  Did you 
 seriously imagine it would be anything else?

Softlayer ?.
Bluemix ?.

What proportion of those run on z ?. Does IBM eat their own (z) dogfood ?.

Shane ...

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Re: Intermittent, not consistently reproducible problems with PDSEs on z/OS V2R1 (incl. infrequent S0F4-20 RSN 1C0752EE ABENDs)

[Shane Ginnane]

* USERS AFFECTED: IEBCOPY of a RECFM=F or RECFM=FB PDSE 
* results in a broken PDSE. The only members
* which can be accessed in the target PDSE
* are the empty members. 


Well that should restore everybodys faith in the robustness of PDSE. Version 2 
co-incidence ?.

Shane ...

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Re: $HASP311 jobname re-queued at end of memory and held

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 24 Mar 2015 09:02:49 +0100, Peter Hunkeler wrote:

So, the action taken at next warmstart will be determined by the setting of 
JOURNAL and RESTART on JOBCLASS. However, you could decide to release the job 
($AJ) or cancel it ($PJ) immediately.


... And an additional hint:

The job is requeued back for execution (per the $HASP311 message) since 
JOURNALing is active. You can confirm this by issuing a $DJOBCLASS(y),LONG 
where y is the respective jobclass of DB2A7417 and I would expect you find 
JOURNAL=YES. This is working as expected.

Thanks for the update Peter.
Sounds like a perfect opportunity for JES2 support to get organised and maybe 
set up a Health Checker to accommodate this scenario.
Or do they really expect us to schedule warmstarts regularly just for them ... ?
Too mundane a situation to bother JES2MON I guess.

Shane ...

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More big brother/big data

[Shane Ginnane]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-31916942

Gotta love the final sentence ...
The bottom line is, if it's free, you are the product and your privacy is the 
currency.

Time for a new sig methinks.

Shane ...

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Re: Need assembler trick to quickly get second and third DS qualifiers

[Shane Ginnane]

On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 15:12:50 -0700, Ed Jaffe edja...@phoenixsoftware.com 
wrote:

Poor TRT has become a casualty of modern hardware economics. It's a
complex instruction, with no analog on other platforms, that is no
longer used often enough to rate prime-location silicon chip
real-estate. It was demoted to millicode emulation years ago (with
z9?)

Thanks Ed - makes sense.
I started using SRST as soon as it became available for things like exits that 
had to parse for dsnames. Sorry to hear I was part of the cause of the 
relegation of poor old TRT ...
Oh well, onward and upward.

Shane ...

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Re: Knowledgecentre versus the library server

[Shane Ginnane]

On Thu, 12 Mar 2015 11:38:03 -0700, Charles Mills wrote:

What a sad comment that people have to write shell scripts and use browser 
plugins to make the z/OS documentation usable.

Perhaps, but at least we (currently) still have the option. I dread the day KC 
becomes the only option - I've tried to like it, but like Tony (I think) said, 
it's a crock.
I do similar to Kirk, but individually wget all the pdfs (scripted) so I can 
moderate the bandwidth usage. Then I scrape together an index page that looks 
like IBMs - familiar surroundings when ploughing through the manuals.

Shane ...

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Re: Economics of Mainframe Technology

[Shane Ginnane]

On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 15:36:30 -0500, Art Gutowski wrote:

Given the armies of sysadmins to support *nix and windoze platforms, I gotta 
believe labor costs on these platforms eclipse those of the mainframe.

As Lynn mentions, the move to cloud affects them too - maybe most of all.
The time of the Elves is over ...

Shane ...

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Knowledgecentre versus the library server

[Shane Ginnane]

Reading Kolosu's latest admonishment to gil, I trundled through the links for 
completeness.
The first (knowledgecentre) took minutes to load - yes *minutes*. The others 
just popped up.

Another great technological leap backwards.

Shane ...

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Re: (slightly) OT - developmentworks outage

[Shane Ginnane]

Of course that should be developerWorks   :(

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