1. Values: It's All in the Feet

Leaders must continually communicate the organization's ethical expectations. Written by Jack Beach Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from the book Leadership in My Rearview Mirror, published by MC Press.   Just before Thanksgiving 1969,

2. IBM i Growth Up, Escape the Family with New Redbook on IBM i 7.1

The product of more than 100 people, the latest IBM Redbook dissects IBM i 7.1 into a thousand bite-sized pieces. Written by Chris Smith The Great Recession may have put a crimp in many people's lifestyles, but apparently it has only renewed intere

3. What Do You Need to Know to Turn an Idea for an Article or Book into a Published Work?

The answer to that question is right here! Written by Roger E. Sanders According to a 2003 survey conducted by Jenkins Group, Inc., a Michigan publishing services firm, 81 percent of Americans would like to write a book. And, although it appears th

4. What Do You Need to Know to Become DB2 9.7 Certified?

The answer to that question is right here! Written by Roger Sanders Shortly before my book DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows Database Administration: Certification Study Guide went into a second printing (which was in May 2009), IBM invited me to

5. Is Corporate Tunnel Vision Blocking the Next Generation of RPG Programmers?

Efforts by Young i Professionals to find affordable access to the IBM i platform may bear fruit too late to engage today's young programmers and entrepreneurs. Written by Chris Smith I wrote back in 2007 that, after a 10-year absence from covering

6. New Digital Communications Etiquette Manual a Must-Read for the Upwardly Mobile

Did you offend a member of your professional "twibe" when you meant to tweet your sweet? Written by Chris Smith A "twibe" on Twitter, for the uninitiated, is a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic.   Next week is National Business

7. COMMON Certification Program Builds Momentum

After three years of work, the COMMON Certification Steering Committee introduces a second certification exam while work continues on the curriculum. Written by Chris Smith When you think of what an education today can cost, those of us who emerged

8. Seminars and Training Key to Embracing Change in IT

OCEAN's 17th Annual Technical Conference focused on modernization and the need to keep abreast of new technologies. Written by Chris Smith Looking back on the recent OCEAN Technical Conference this summer, it's clear that PHP is one of the core tec

9. Can Corrective Thinking and Good Ideas Lead Us out of Recession?

Jobs are a product of growth, so let's think about growing jobs. Written by Chris Smith In discussing whether or not Denmark was a type of prison, Hamlet asserted to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor actors in the Shakespearian play named aft

10. Don't Think About Whom You Have Been. Who Are You Now?

OCEAN members get briefing on AJAX technologies by author Jeff Olen; board sets date for this summer's technical conference. Written by Chris Smith The room was filled with RPG programmers, and the question on the minds of many was: Where do we go fr

11. What Is the Role of Open Source in a Down Economy?

Making contributions to the common good is fine if you have a job, but what if you don't? Written by Chris Smith Sometimes I wonder if the government shouldn't just give programmers a free pass and, in the interests of developing more open-source sof

12. Employment (and Unemployment) Take Center Stage at OCEAN

With California's unemployment rate at nearly 12 percent, finding a job means sharpening up your technical skills and knowing how to present yourself during an interview. Written by Chris Smith As usual, the OCEAN User Group meeting Wednesday night w

13. Leverage Your Staff's Skill Sets

A good leader knows his employees' strengths and plays to them! By CJ Rhoads Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the January/February 2008 issue of JDEtips Journal and is reprinted with permission from Klee Associates, Inc. Is y

14. The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

The U.S. is in a recession, massive layoffs are occurring at an alarming rate, and the trend will continue into 2009. So it's time to party like it was 1999. Right? No! By Maria A. DeGiglio In early December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statist

15. What Is Social Networking, and How Do You Use It to Achieve Business Objectives?

If you think social networking is just for finding lost classmates or announcing your favorite bands, boy, are you wrong. By Christopher Jones "Baby, check this out. I've got something to say." That's probably the mantra that fir

16. Build Real Teamwork in a Virtual Team

If your virtual team is spread far and wide, how can you help them to be a real team? By Colleen Garton Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Managing Without Walls, published by MC Press.   Virtual teams are a growing phenomenon in tod

17. Does "Monitoring the System" Mean Checking Our Mental Health?

The breakdown of San Francisco's network administrator Terry Childs serves as a warning sign to us all. By Chris Smith Reading about the fall of network administrator Terry Childs in San Francisco sends a chill down my spine.   Chil

18. AS/400/iSeries/System i/IBM Power System Skills: What Was Needed Then and What Is Needed Now

How is an organization or an ISV supposed to keep up in these challenging times? By Mark Duignan The IBM Power System marketplace is in decline.   Some in the IBM i user community petition and plead with IBM to "market th

19. Could Your Productivity Use a Boost?

Old habits can be hard to break, but sometimes it's worth the effort. By Susan Gantner Are you as productive in your programming as you could be? If you're still using the same toolset you used five or 10 (or more) years ago (i.e., PDM,

20. Book Review: SOA for the Business Developer

If you want to know how SOA works in the real world, this is your book. By Phil Law There's a lot of hype and fanfare surrounding service-oriented architecture (SOA), but the authors of SOA for the Business Developer have obviously gotten thei

21. MC Press Online Celebrates Launch of Redesigned, Feature-Rich Web Site

MC Press Online is pleased to announce the launch of its completely new Web site designed to help System i professionals be more productive on the job and get more out of their career. Rest assured that the site still contains all of the conten

22. Education Is Your Responsibility

Quit whining about the fact that your company isn't educating you. Educate yourself!   As I write this article, I realize that this will be the final installment in MC Press Online's iApplication Designer for 2007. I can't beli

23. Training the Cross-Platform Team

In these days of multiple languages and architectures, how do you cohesively train a group of people with very different development goals?   "We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." &md

24. Book Review: The Modern RPG IV Language, Fourth Edition

This book isn't a training manual; it's a reference book. The Modern RPG IV Language, Fourth Edition by Robert Cozzi, Jr. is the latest version of a book that has enjoyed a long history of popularity in the RPG community. With this book, M

25. Book Review: Managing Without Walls

I really loved this book! Over the years, I have managed satellite developers in England, France, India, Australia, and Canada (I'm currently in Southern California). I wish I had read Managing Without Walls years ago, before I started managing remot

26. Rejuvenate Your IT Career

Job got you feeling stressed, bored, tired or trapped? Discover enjoyment and growth in your information technology career.

27. Introducing the New RPG Developer

The new RPG language is not your father's RPG, and the industry needs a new publication devoted to this new language and to the new generation of programmers using it.

28. Filling the Skills Gap: It's Academic

The IBM Academic Initiative for System i is increasing platform awareness in the education arena and filling a real need for System i skills.

29. Knowledge Management and Collaboration: Listening to Your Users About Corporate Collaboration Needs

Involving business users in practically every step of a technology's implementation is essential to the project's success.

30. Instigating Change Within IT

Use these practical approaches to introduce new development technologies into your IT organization.

31. Upgrading Business Management Systems

All at once or in phases, integrated document management is the next big thing for better business performance.

32. The Keyboard Is Mightier Than You Think

Urban legend has it that IT professionals cannot string two coherent sentences together. The time has come to debunk this myth; here's how.

33. Open New Doors

Maybe you'll stay employed if you take the initiative to learn about the industry you're in.

34. Collaboration: Working with Non-IT Personnel in Building Technical Solutions

Overheard from frustrated programmer: "Boy, I really messed that project up. I gave them what they asked for. Now I have to give them what they want."

35. Managing Without Walls

By going "virtual," many companies are reshaping their business models to guarantee higher revenues, better profit margins, and faster time to market.

36. The System i Academic Initiative

Where have all the students gone (and are they coming back)?

37. Fall 2006 Job and Career Trends for IT Professionals

What's really going on in the IT job market?

38. IBM System i Initiative for Innovation

Accelerate your growth and invest in your future.

39. Women in IT Speak Out

Two successful women share their stories.

40. How to Lead, Manage, and Motivate Corporate Programmers

You'll need more than instinct to become the best manager you can be.

41. Local User Groups: Out of Date or Coming of Age?

Depending on who you talk to, local user groups (LUGs) are either crumbling away or going strong. What's the real story?

42. IT Hiring and Salary Trends for 2005

What are the chances your IT career will survive?

43. The Virtue of Virtual Employees

Low-cost, broadband networking can make geography irrelevant to work and workers, thereby reducing costs and improving productivity, but only if you do it right.

44. Should You Hurry Up or Should You Wait?

Is your negative behavior or someone else's risking the success of your project?

45. The Best Resume Gets the Interview

If you really, really want that interview, the first step toward it is a top-notch resume.

46. Make Your Career Shockproof

Actively managing your career can help to protect the continuity of your employment even in the face of turbulent labor conditions.

47. PM Certified: To Be or Not to Be?

"When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the life of another." (Helen Keller)

48. 10 Questions Every Interviewer Should Ask

"It's the question that drives us."

49. IT Project Lessons from Titanic, Part 2

History can teach us much about project management.

50. Tangled Technology

New tools and technologies all claim to save us time and effort, but does that really translate to a business benefit?