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Machine learning (ML) is a foundational step to building useful artificial intelligence (AI) applications. An overview of IBM's ML product helps show how such tools actually work.
By John Ghrist
ML is the process by which an AI app is trained to make decisions "on its own," which is to say without specific programing to carry out that function. Broadly speaking, an algorithm "training" to be an AI app is given sample data with which to build a "model," or a template of information against which the AI app will evaluate data given to it in the future.
Top reasons to look at performance before you leap to the cloud
By HelpSystems
Editor's note: This article introduces the May 2020 Webinar: IBM i Cloud Migration Considerations, which is On-Demand and available to download and view from the MC Webcast Center.
Imagine your boss says it’s time to migrate to the cloud. He’s excited about being the first on the block, plus it would look good to eliminate the capital expenditure (capex) of your on-prem data center. So, what’s it going to take?
Maybe these companies were able to pivot easily because IBM i doesn’t require the daily hand-holding required to keep other platforms working.
By Steve Pitcher
It’s easy to look at the year 2020 with contempt.
I’ve done it. Most all of us probably have. There’s no reason to do a recap of 2020. It started with a near-miss war with Iran, and it hasn’t let up since. I was joking the other week that the only thing we’re missing in 2020 is the equivalent of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. And we still have a couple of months for that to unfold.
Today’s topic is tricky, especially for people unfamiliar with the concept of indexes. Many of us use them implicitly when we create logical files, but do you really know what an index is and how to create one?
By Rafael Victória-Pereira
In the previous TechTip, I explained how views are similar and, at the same time, different from logical files (LFs): views are easier to define and change, but there’s something that LFs can have that views can’t: keys.
In this second and final part of this short series about mobile app dev, let’s talk about grids and glyphicons.
By Jan Jorgensen
In a previous article, I covered how the grid system in Bootstrap works, so in order not to bore you I will try not to repeat myself.
The grid system in version 4 is still based on a maximum of 12 columns! But even though the grid system seems the same from version 3 to 4, something has changed under the hood. In Bootstrap 3, the grid system was based on floats, but that changed in Bootstrap 4; it is now based on flexbox.
While IBM i was not the direct target, Carol discusses lessons the IBM i community can learn from the SolarWinds attack.
By Carol Woodbury
The full extent of the SolarWinds attack continues to unfold, but suffice to say that the breadth and the lengths to which the perpetrators went are, to put it mildly, stunning. I’m not going to describe the attack, but here are several websites that describe the details of the attack, and the SecurityWeek link is kept up-to-date as more details become available:
While I haven’t heard of any IBM i systems being affected, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that an IBM i was breached as a side effect of this attack. Regardless, this type of attack should make all of us sit up and take notice and determine if we have the practices in place to fend off this type of attack if one should hit our organization.
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Ghosts and witches—they’re kid stuff. But there really are other things to be afraid of.
By Victoria Mack
This being October, Steve Pitcher has a bit of a Halloween scare for you. But this goblin isn’t a fantasy. It’s real. IBM has announced end of support for the exceptionally popular POWER7 machines. Will IBM offer extended hardware maintenance? Who knows? It hasn’t happened yet. Read Steve’s article to see his perceptions of what some may consider a truly horrifying announcement.
The younger generations are coming into our world, enriching it with new ideas and perspectives.
By Steve Pitcher
It’s kind of a funny story. I was in one of my first onsite meetings at iTech Solutions back in the spring of 2017. We had the whole team in the boardroom going over strategies and discussing how we were going to achieve them. Back then, I was 38 years old. I remember coming up with an idea and the room fell silent. The next words from someone were “Wow! From the mouths of babes!”
Back then, I was the youngest person in the company. We’ve added quite a few younger people since. But I found it really interesting that someone like me, with close to 20 years’ worth of IBM i experience and definite strands of gray hair at the time (and many more now), could be a target candidate for that statement.
These days, consumers expect retailers to provide information tailored personally just for them.
In the industry’s current disruptive environment, retail and consumer product companies are competing with new business models and being forced to refresh their consumer experiences and brand engagements to be more relevant.
A new IBM study finds retailers' current strategies to deliver engaging brand experiences are not keeping pace with what customers’ expect and want out of their brick and click shopping experiences.
Do you realize how many of your personal or business devices are connected to the Internet? Let's talk about that.
By Jan Jorgensen
The Internet of Things (IoT): You've heard somebody talk about it; or you've read about it in a newspaper, in a tech magazine, or on a website; or you've attended a seminar or conference where somebody told you about the next big thing.
If you’re on older iron than POWER9 and IBM i 7.3 is your path forward, you need to read this.
By Steve Pitcher
On April 30, 2021, IBM i 7.2 goes end of service.
We’ve all heard about the carrot vs. the stick. The carrot is effectively positive reinforcement. You get a reward. The stick is negative reinforcement. You get punished.
A few short years ago, when IBM i 7.1 was going end of service in 2018, it seemed like I was doing an upgrade every single week. That’s actually not too far from the truth. 7.1 was released in 2010, and it was by far the most popular install base of IBM i at the time. Most customers were running POWER7 and POWER8 machines, so getting them to 7.2 or 7.3 wasn’t a hard stretch. And for the most part, there were a lot of reasons to get away from 7.1: the end of Java 6, poor cipher and protocol support, SMB1 being incredibly weak, the fact that the OS was eight years old.
IBM Notes Domino gets a new future with HCL Technologies.
By Steve Pitcher
On October 25, 2017, IBM announced (well, they blogged it) that they were entering into a strategic partnership with HCL Technologies to give the following products a new lease on development life: