The Evolution of Mainframe Education
October 28, 2022
The average age of a mainframer is 58 years old. Yes, most of us have gray hair and wear Aerosmith tee shirts to work. The task at hand is how do we pass the baton of mainframe knowledge to the next class of mainframers that will support the massive mainframe ecosystem that runs our world […]
ArticlesCalling All Mainframers, Students, Open-Source Developers and DEI Advocates
September 15, 2022
On September 21-22, Philadelphia, PA, will become the hub for open source, mainframes and Linux on Z as students, engineers, developers attend the first-ever in-person Open Mainframe Summit. For those global attendees who can’t travel, the hybrid event includes a streaming option for all sessions and keynote presentations. This year will highlight security as it […]
VideoWomen of COBOL Episode 4: Creative Solutions for Closing the Mainframe Skills Gap
September 12, 2022
Misty Decker: Hi and welcome to this episode of Women of COBOL. Today we are talking about changing lives through COBOL. I’m so excited about this one; I hope you are, too. Let me introduce our two guests. Today we’re going to chat with Magie Hall, assistant professor of Strategic Business Analytics at WU Vienna. […]
PodcastsNot Your Typical Mainframer: Dr. Magie Hall on COBOL Training
August 22, 2022
Reg Harbeck: Hi, I’m Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Dr. Magie Hall, who is assistant professor of strategic business analytics at WU Vienna. Magie, welcome. You’re not a typical mainframer as such, but your role in the mainframe and legacy and business computing ecosystem is tremendously important, so we’re really thankful for this […]
PodcastsLen Santalucia on His Mainframe Journey and Career
July 21, 2022
Reg Harbeck: Hi. I am Reg Harbeck and today I’m here with Len Santalucia, my friend and colleague who is the chief technology officer at Vicom Infinity, a Converge company. And you know if you’re on the mainframe, if there is one person you’re likely to know, it’s probably Len. He seems to have the […]
Women of COBOL Episode 3: The Case for Modernization
July 14, 2022
Misty Decker: Hi and welcome to Women of COBOL, our third episode, today. We are going to be talking with Marianne Bellotti—the author of my favorite book, “Kill it with Fire”; if you don’t have it, you need it—and Susan Drennan, vice president of COBOL sales at Micro Focus. We’re going to be talking about […]
ArticlesWhy Git Is Valuable to the Mainframe
June 24, 2022
There was a time when mainframes were very isolated and writing code meant starting from scratch (probably in COBOL) or adapting some other code that seemed to do something similar. I say “seemed to” because whoever wrote the code probably didn’t bother putting in comments that would make it easy to follow. Real programmers didn’t […]
VideoWomen of COBOL Episode 2: Looking to the Next Generation
June 8, 2022
Misty Decker: Hi and welcome to Women of COBOL hosted by TechChannel. I’m your host, Misty Decker, and today I am pleased to be joined by two amazing women of COBOL. We’re going to chat about COBOL and getting young people involved and how to help them find really prosperous COBOL careers. So first let […]
PodcastsSeeing the World Via the Mainframe
April 4, 2022
Reg Harbeck: Hi, I'm Reg Harbeck, and today I'm here with my colleague and co-author Karl-Erik Stenfors, who has been in the mainframe space for a very good long time. Well Karl-Erik, let's start by telling us about how did you end up on the mainframe? Karl-Erik Stenfors: Well, a bit of a point. […]
ArticlesHashes and How to Create Them on z/OS
January 10, 2022
Hashes can be really handy. Want to confirm that a file was received intact? Compare sender and receiver hashes. Want to see if a file has been updated recently? Compare hashes generated over time. Want a fast key for a lookup table? Use a hash as the key. But what are hashes, and how can […]