Hashes 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 […]
ArticlesThe History of Business Computing Part 1: Counting the Benefits
December 20, 2021
How did we go from the joy of the freedom that personal, commodity computing brought us, to unidimensional cynicism about industrial-strength computing, valuing everything by gross costs without a consideration of the nature and amount of what was being delivered? For that matter, how did we get to a place where requests for proposals (RFPs) […]
ArticlesAre Containers on Mainframes Safe?
December 20, 2021
Let’s just start with some basics: What is a container? A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all of its dependencies, so the application runs quickly and reliably in different computing environments. In effect, this container can be taken from one computing platform to another, and it will still […]
VideoLearning AIX and IBM i: Courses, Tracks and Certifications
December 7, 2021
IBM Champion Rob McNelly on courses, tracks or certifications you can use for developing IBM i and AIX resources internally
ArticlesEvil Mainframe Brings Ethical Hacking to the Forefront
August 26, 2021
When it comes to hacking, there are courses that can teach you to break past the security of almost anything. However, learning how to hack a mainframe usually isn’t one of them. That’s why Chad Rikansrud and Phil Young created Evil Mainframe, the first mainframe penetration testing class. “The IT world at large has benefited […]
How to Use JSON in Your z/OS Program
July 7, 2021
First created in 2001, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) has become the preferred way of creating structured data. Not limited to JavaScript applications, JSON formats can be found in web requests and responses and NoSQL databases. So, it makes sense that we will want our traditional z/OS programming languages (COBOL, PL/I, Assembler, C and REXX) to […]
ArticlesMainframe Connectivity: What’s Missing?
June 21, 2021
We can, perhaps, all remember a time when a simple 3270 terminal emulator was all we needed to access the mainframe without needing a directly-connected terminal. And we were really pleased that we could work from anywhere using this simple solution to our communication problem. It worked and our expectations were not very high. Next, […]
ArticlesNode.js on z/OS: How Real Is It?
May 24, 2021
Node.js is a popular environment to allow JavaScript to run outside of a browser. A 2020 Stack Overflow survey saw 50% vote Node.js as the most popular framework, library or tool. Anyone working with the open-source mainframe framework Zowe will be familiar with Node.js: it’s needed for both the Zowe server and Zowe CLI. But […]
ArticlesWhy AIX Admins Should Know vi and ksh
February 1, 2021
We may bash one another with our opinions, but every AIX admin needs to know vi and ksh
Podcasts‘Mainframe Mike Myers’ on IBM Z System Programming
February 27, 2020
Reg Harbeck: Hi, this is Reg Harbeck and today I'm here with Mike Myers, the mainframe Mike Myers, who has been involved with the mainframe basically since the very beginning. Mike, maybe if you could introduce yourself to us and tell us, how did you end up on the mainframe? Mike Myers: Well it's […]