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FormaServe & NC Communications Join Forces to Publish PowerWire

FormaServe, a leading provider of IBM i training and consultancy services, and NC Communications, a specialist in IT events and media production, have announced a strategic partnership to publish PowerWire, the IBM Power newsletter. PowerWire is a monthly online publication that covers the latest news, trends & insights on IBM

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A screen a story – IBM i Startup Program QSTRUPPGM?

Although it is possible not to use a Start-up program, finding a customer who does not use one, is like finding a needle in a haystack. Please allow me to use another expression which, when finishing reading this article makes sense for you: “if it ain’t broke don’t

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Language Comparisons Continued …

In my previous article, I explored a range of functions and delved into how syntax varies across different programming languages. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, I highly recommend giving it a read. You can find the article right here. As a quick reminder,

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Language Comparison's

As the landscape of programming continues to evolve, many of us IBM i developers find ourselves exploring a diverse array of languages beyond those with which we began our coding journey. As more and more of us get involved with different languages I thought it would be a good idea

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A screen a story – WRKACTJOB?

One of the commands used by every system administrator is WRKACTJOB. I think it if fair to say that this command is in their top 10 most often used commands. It might for some be the rock solid number one of all time. In order see what is happening on

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A screen a story – the system value QSECURITY

You may wonder what the screen below has to do with the system value QSECURITY. A change in this system value was part of the announcement of IBM i 7.5, which had a strong focus on security. Level 20 is no longer supported and a new system is shipped

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Generating PDFs

Those of you that took a look at my updating of open source packages on IBM i, will know that I have always been one for recommending the conversions of Spool files to PDFs when ever possible. My open source updating article can be found here https://powerwire.uk/open-source-updates/

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A screen a story – Sometimes a question mark is not enough

By now you must be getting used to seeing a new version of IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) every time a new Technology Refresh (TR) is released – you are keeping your ptf’s up to date aren’t you?!  In the official announcement letter we can read what is

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RPG Data-Gen Operational Code

Looking back at when I first started writing articles for PowerWire.eu nine years ago, I was bought onboard to cover RPG articles.  Looking back over the last few years I have failed miserably in this task and maybe got too carried away in the ‘open-source’ frenzy. In this anniversary

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Eclipse AI Chat Integration

My good friends at Remain Software have just released an AI chat integration feature for Eclipse and Rational Developer for i . According to their website, ‘This tool leverages the power of AI to provide contextual suggestions, code snippets, bug checking and documentation proposals.  Empowering you to write code faster and

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A screen a story – A User Reporting Slow ODBC Performance

In my last article I wrote: “IBM i Services allows a modern system administrator to move away from having to use 5250 emulation, not because you should, but because using IBM i services is quicker in getting the job done. In my next episode of a screen a story I

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A screen a story – The Contact Information National language version

Recently Scott Forstie created an SQL script allowing you to create a procedure with which it is a piece of cake to review the special instruction PTFs. What the link is between the contact information and the PTF cover letters is something I will explain later on. Please allow me

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Environment Variables

The IBM i operating system is highly dependent on environmental variables, which can have a significant impact on its performance. In this article, we will dive into the various environmental variables and their effects on the IBM i. What are environment variables? Let me start at the beginning, what are

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A screen a story – The Run SQL Scripts bottom bar

If IBM is following the same schedule as it has in previous years it is fair to say that a new version of IBM i Access Client Solution (ACS) is waiting just around the corner. In the past April was the month in which a new ACS version was released

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DB2 for i Multisystem

In this article I will be taking a look at a feature we should all be installing, and using, on our IBM i servers. As I mentioned in a recent article I wrote on the advance job scheduler (which can be found here), IBM announced in May 2022 that half

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A screen a story – What does “move active records” mean?

The latest Technology Refresh (TR) for IBM i 7.4 and 7.5 has something new within them for reorganizing a file. If you have lost count of the TR levels IBM i 7.4 is at TR7 and IBM i 7.5 is at TR1. Every time a new

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Node-RED & Security

I gave a quick demonstration of Node-RED to a client recently and I didn’t get the response I was expecting. On bringing up the Node-RED browser interface, the first question I got asked was why doesn’t Node-RED use a TLS (Transport Layer Security), or SSL (Secure Socket Layer)

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Node-RED & Bank Holidays

In a recent training course I gave to a UK bank, we were covering web-services and I showed how we can get information from a reliable source and then store it in our database.  They informed me that they still manually input UK Bank Holidays into a table.  This was

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A screen a story – What does this button do? Part II

In my last article A screen a story – What does this button do? The SQL button was used to retrieve SQL statements which I then tweaked to get the job done. The purpose of it all was to build an SQL script to automate changing the object owner of a

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Node-RED & IBM i

In my last article I wrote about the hoops we had to jump through to get the DB2 for i Node-RED adapter installed. In this article, we will be taking a look at how we use that adapter and also how we can run IBM i commands from within our

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Node-RED & DB2 for i Connector

I know I said in my last article that was the end of my little project on the Raspberry Pi with Machine Learning talking to the IBM i.  Well since my last piece I have found how to correct a couple of the moans I had with Node-RED on the

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A screen a story – What does this SQL button do?

When working in the IT business we all appreciate it if we are being helped by the operating system. For that purpose in the New Navigator for I IBM created the SQL button. Should we all start to use the name Navigator for i or keep it short, like I

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A screen a story – Not our problem anymore

Last week I ran into an issue, which did teach me something new about the command WRKPRB. After checking a test LPAR after having applied the latest group PTFs for IBM i 7.4, I noticed the following when checking the apply: When looking at the joblog of QSYSCOMM1 spoolfiles

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Raspberry Pi and Machine Learning

In my last article, I demonstrated how I used Machine Learning on the Raspberry Pi to determine if a photograph contained a bird.  This article can be found at https://powerwire.uk/raspberry-pi-and-machine-learning if you missed it. In this follow-up article, we will be using the Raspberry Pi to send

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Shield Advanced Solutions - new Messaging and Monitoring solutions

September 2022 – Toronto As Shield Advanced Solutions celebrates the significant milestone, 25 years of providing Availability for the IBM i (and predecessors), our customers are raving about the new Messaging and Monitoring solutions. Many of Shield’s long-standing HA4i – high availability for IBM i customers have taken up EM4i – message