Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

I think everyone is almost gone!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • I think everyone is almost gone!

    Scott Walker wrote: > Hi everyone that is still here. I remember the glory days when this > forum was hopping with questions/answers. Now several years later it > is dwindling away. Have most left the IT field? Is it really that bad > out there? Somehow I have managed to stay in the AS/400 admin field > for 11 years now. IMO the lack of participation on these boards has little to do with the IT field's condition. The big blow was the acquisition of Midrange Computing and it's subsequent dumping by the trucking company. Bill

  • #2
    I think everyone is almost gone!

    Scott, I've been in S/3/34/38, AS400, iSeries programming since 1982. I've been away from this forum for about 3 years. I'm returning to this forum because I've picked up my first AS400 contract in more than three years. In my area, the work is not in this platform. It is in Wintel servers. My programming has been in C++, SQL, VB, and MS Office scripting. There is more AS400 work coming up but it's not like it was before the Y2K frenzy. I also was installing and consulting QuickBooks, doing taxes between Jan. 15 and Apr. 15, and learning the real estate game. While doing server and QB work, I have been active on different forums than AS400. I think people are going away because the AS400 and iSeries are looked at by companies as "just another server". Servers are now commodities and the iSeries has some huge barriers to overcome. The primary ones are the perception of 99% of businesses that the iSeries is too expensive and is old technology. I've tried to talk-up the platform with no success. IBM doesn't help. The iSeries needs a native GUI, better GUI support tools than Ops Nav, and, easier installation. It also doesn't help that schools are turning out fewer tech. grads. and none who know the iSeries. If new machines are being sold, they are going to companies that already have the platform installed. This is the case locally. I don't know about other parts of the country. I go where the money is and for quite awhile, it wasn't in the iSeries. That may be coming back a little bit. Regards. Tom.

    Comment


    • #3
      I think everyone is almost gone!

      The vast majority of AS400 professionals never go to a conference; are not a part of a user group; do not particpate in fora; etc. As an independent going to many shops, this has become apparant over the years. It is not a new phenomenon. Dave

      Comment


      • #4
        I think everyone is almost gone!

        Also, go to www.midrange.com. That's where the active forums are. -Jeff

        Comment


        • #5
          I think everyone is almost gone!

          I'm still here. This was my favorite iSeries web site before the magazine was vaporized (in Aug 2001?). Chris

          Comment


          • #6
            I think everyone is almost gone!

            If I remember correctly, it was the last Thursday in July, 2001. I was sitting in my bedroom working on the mag when I got a call from the president telling us we were out of business. The owner had decided to shut down the mag. It was the 2nd time I'd had a job fall out from under me.

            Comment


            • #7
              I think everyone is almost gone!

              Yeah, and I spent a lot of time that weekend downloading source code from this web site because I figured it was going away as well. Chris

              Comment


              • #8
                I think everyone is almost gone!

                I was a frequent poster here years ago and did some writing for the magazine but have been away from the AS/400 since 2000. Still troll around the site to keep in touch with the platform and I guess because some habits die hard. Midrange jobs in my market have dried up significantly and I now develop exclusively in C++, C# and VB.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I think everyone is almost gone!

                  I tried to get out of this field. I started my own fishing charter company right after 9-11. Bad idea. It went under pretty quick. Nobody was traveling. So I stayed in the AS/400 admin work. I am finding it difficult to locate anyone who even knows what an AS/400 is anymore. I better get ready for retirement soon I guess (or learn new stuff). Scott

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I think everyone is almost gone!

                    As much as I hate to accept it, I have to agree with you Scott. In North Central Alabama it once was a booming AS400 community. No more. Lack of marketing from IBM lead most companies to move to Wintel. Prettier, cheaper employees(does not matter that you need 5 wintel people to do one as400 person's job). I lay the blame at IBM's feet. I spent two years in a mainframe shop, and was shocked at the outdated nature of the IBM MVS platform as compared to the AS400. I spent many days explaining to the CIO how he could eliminate 75% of the department. His response was, well I wouldn't be as important if I did have 75 people reporting to me. I soon departed that company. We have, I think, a good users group here in North Central Al and when I do go to the meetings I see fewer and fewer people. In fact, I think the meetings have stopped. Personnally, I think iSeries jobs will continue to dwindle. Only one school in Alabama ever offered an iSeries track. It was a private technolgy school in Mobile. They are gone. No web presence. Very sad that such a wonderful platform will never be what it could be. I guess Frank Soltis will be viewed by history as being his own worst enemy. "He conceived the greatest computer ever made" "Only problem was that IBM would not market it due to fact that once you sold it, you never could resell it" On the other hand, Gates will be viewed differently. "Bill Gates conceived the worst operating system however made it look good and every iteration required a repurchase. Thus making Microsoft/Intel the worlds strongest companies(financially speaking)". Oh well, I have to get back to listening to the Network admin tell me that we need six more wintel servers. Glad I own stock in INTEL and Microsoft...............

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I think everyone is almost gone!

                      Bill, some of your information is not accurate, so I will attempt to correct it for the record. Midrange Computing was never NEVER owned by a trucking company. There was another magazine with "Midrange" in its title that is, I believe, the magazine to which you are referring. That magazine was not Midrange Computing and that magazine was not technical in nature. That magazine was, in fact, owned by a company that also published magazines for the trucking industry. It went out of business in the mid 1990s. Midrange Computer, by comparison, was a magazine originally started as DataNetworks. It was started by Mark Fleming and later became Midrange Computing. Midrange Computing was originally aimed at the S/36 market, but later transformed to cover the AS/400. It was highly technical, with lots of "how to" articles. Ted Holt -- who posted to this thread -- was one of our prized and highly skilled authors. Mark sold Midrange Computing, as a company, in the mid 1990s to IIR which was a tech seminar company based in Europe. IIR, as an enterprise, had no particular skill or interest in publishing: Its focus as a corporation was setting up seminars. When the tech bubble began to burst and the seminar business dried up, IIR closed down Midrange Computing. This decision was very traumatic for everyone who worked for the organization as it happened quite suddenly and -- from the employee perspective -- without notice or justification. At the time that IIR shut Midrange Computing down, the magazine had the largest subscriber base of all AS/400 journals, a line of newsletters, books, CDs, seminars, videos, and other things. Everyone was thrown out of work, including the president of the Midrange Computing company, all authors, all personnel, etc. It was a tragedy. As soon as the company was shut down, a couple of the former employees decided that it was necessary to try to resurrect it. Over the next year they negotiated and bought the remaining assets -- including old articles and books and products -- from IIR and started MC Press Online. During that year of negotiation with IIR many of the full-time authors who had been employed by Midrange Computing were forced to take on full-time work back in the world of programming or IT. Others, who were involved in reporting on technology for the old Midrange Computing magazine, found or founded other publications for their work. We started MC Press Online as a way to rebuild the AS/400 community, and as a sounding board for issues relating to the midrange. All of the old authors of the books Midrange Computing published are still involved with us. Some of the old magazine's authors have helped us build the new publications, while others continue with their new-found publishers. Of course, we welcome new authors as well as former authors from Midrange Computing days. The demise of Midrange Computing as a printed magazine was not unique in the industry, and it isn't a reflection of the state of the iSeries or midrange technical market. Those who attended COMMON in Orlando heard IBM reiterate its commitment to the platform, offering new money and incentives to IBM BPs to sell the platform. IBM even went so far at COMMON as to say that the iSeries is, once again, a strategic box for IBM's server division. Sales in the first two quarters indicate that they are making real efforts and are succeeding. What's changed, within IBM, is how it is using its channels to market and sell the box. They have a significant plan of action in place and are beginning to deliver on their strategies. IMHO, the state of the iSeries IT employment market is a result of many complicated factors, including outsourcing to India and China, lack of iSeries-trained personnel coming out of colleges and universities, and the influx of industry-compliant software packages. These are but a few of the issues facing iSeries IT. But these are issues facing ALL of IT in the US. The problem is not the technical capabilities of the box, nor the desire of IBM to sell the box. The hottest markets for the iSeries today are Pacific Rim countries, and IBM has numbers to prove it. The problems are global in nature, and -- on the local level -- a legacy of market and support neglect by both IBM and the economic demands of its customer base. It is going to take years of effort to rebuild the iSeries base in the US. However, it appears that IBM has a plan and is beginning to deliver upon it. This plan includes local support, new products from ISVs, new educational efforts at the university level, and new technology iniatives for the box itself. If all this sounds familiar (as it must from the perspective of our long association with the box, IBM, and the midrange technical community) let me state simply what I see ahead. 1. The iSeries is at the BEGINNING of a new lifecycle. 2. The box is becoming strategic for all of IBM's hardware strategies. 3. IBM has committed to bringing the iSeries marketplace BACK into a growth profile, and has begun to see double-digit growth again. 4. IBM has the money to incent ISVs to port and develop applications for the platform, and has begun to spend that money liberally. 5. IBM has begun to develop a university-level curriculum for the platform, and has begun to solicit real interest by IT university dons. 6. IBM has created real incentives for business partners to fill-in the role of support on the local level, and many BPs are starting to take this opportunity seriously. I personally, am warily encouraged by these events. IBM has stopped selling "servers" and is now focusing on integrated "solutions" for IT. Customers may or may not buy into this strategy. We at MC Press Online -- as the legal and spiritual heirs of Midrange Computing Magazine -- fully intend to continue reporting on this rebirth of the community. We've got a bunch of new things coming in the months ahead. I encourage you to keep us on your radar. Thomas M. Stockwell Editor in Chief MC Press Online

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I think everyone is almost gone!

                        It's because my Newsreader can no longer reach the forums. I refuse to use this web based method so I guess it's see ya'.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I think everyone is almost gone!

                          Chuck, I noticed the midrangecomputing.com domain name expired recently. I wonder if that caused the failure based on settings in your newsreader. rd

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I think everyone is almost gone!

                            I will say the latest exec Shearer I believe sounded better in interviews than any I've read of AS/400 execs in a number of years. That was hopeful. On the other hand, his appointed sales exec says the problem with AS/400 sales is that sales people don't try hard enough to meet monthly quotas. I'm not making that up. I also read the same thing from Oracle recently. Must be the latest sales exec fad. In any event it's laughable. As for all the motion they're making in attempting to create the illusion of progress in building the AS/400 market, my opinion is that it's all Linux they're talking about if they were forced to be specific, which of course as marketing people they would never do. So all this talk of porting apps is to run on Linux or perhaps Java software running with Websphere, which is like, big whoopee, Linux and Java apps shouldn't even require porting. But here I am being negative again. I'm sure now that the monthly quota problem has been identified everything is hunky dory now. rd

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I think everyone is almost gone!

                              Well, I tried mcpressonline.com and that doesn't work either. I guess this will be the end for me.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X