eZ-MPE opens new Windows for 3000 sites MB Foster products-service lineup provides familiar replacements for MPE MB Foster is announcing a hybrid of solutions aimed at making migrations Independent HP 3000 Information May 2013 off the 3000 easier. The company is calling its offering MBF eZ-MPE, and it’s aiming customers at the native Stromasys opens benefits of working in Windows once they make their transition. MBF eZ-MPE is a solution for HP 3000 sites that gateway in training event have a keen interest in transitioning to a Windows environment, while they Brewhouse social and all-day extensive demonstration of the HPA/3000 preserve their company’s competitive training demonstrate natural model of Charon in action. advantage and legacy applications. resting state for MPE apps Stromasys is one of only seven vendors Knowing the computing processes of who’ve made the server technology HP 3000 managers for more Stromasys announced cool list, just published this month. The than 35 years gives MB WIRE it’s just been named a company showed off a product lineup S .CO Foster the insight to build EW M Gartner Group Cool Server that includes a pair of implementations N / a complete ecosystem, 0 B Vendor for 2013, the designed to out-perform some N-Class 0 L said the company’s 0 O freshest part of the HP 3000 hardware. Driest said he’s seen sales and marketing 3 G news, plans and futures his software run on a cutting edge HP chief Chris Whitehead. for the company unspooled DL 380 server with a 4.4Ghz processor “What we’re 3 installed, a pre-release Intel server. 0 in its first North G really doing here 0 American Training and Work is underway in the labs to utilize is we’re mimicking 0 O extra cores on the processor for such N L Social event for 3000 the environment that E /B customers and allies. servers. With each 4-core set available W M everybody’s accustomed S O The room of the Computer in Intel chips, HPA/3000 could emulate to using,” Whitehead said. WIRE. History Museum on May 10 another HP 3000 processor. The 32-core “To get all those nuances, was full for the day-long briefing limits of today could yield an 8-CPU MPE/ you must have all the specific on company strategy, as well as an See Charon event, page 6 capabilities already there. With all HP 3000 sites they have some similarities. They have UDCs, file systems, KSAM that’s involved with MPE files. They all HP’s own expert witness have an IMAGE .” For example, the database environment mimics the IMAGE estimates Itanium’s end database, Whitehead said. A command line utility manages other functions and Oracle suit hearing includes calculation on HP-UX processor lifespan data types. The eZ-MPE solution evolved We return you to California’s Santa Clara County Superior Court, where the future of during the migrating of custom Itanium and HP-UX is already in progress. HP and Oracle continued their battle over code for customers into a Windows the future and value of Itanium this spring, with each side trying to wring dollars out of environment, the target environment their dispute over whether Itanium is finished at HP. The lawsuit’s final phase addresses for eZ-MPE migrations. For example, damages. Oracle hopes to prove HP’s public and partner MBF Scheduler has been replacing strategies cost them sales of Sun servers where Integrity had the features and comprehensive already lost the business. functionality of HP 3000 batch Oracle’s expert estimated the company lost $95 million in scheduler and job control software profits, working on the premise that HP lied about the future of including independently managed its only HP-UX processor line. The Integrity servers have been a queues and a “job fence”, mimicking a popular platform for Oracle’s database. A lawsuit that wrapped module which is embedded in MPE/iX. up in September forced Oracle to continue its development for the server line. The The company’s familiarity with the HP database vendor wanted to stop enhancing Oracle for HP’s platforms including HP-UX, all tied to the Itanium chip. See eZ-MPE, page 8 See Itanium End, page 6 The Support Group The Right Answer When Things Go Wrong

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Providing companies with peace of mind since 1994 800.798.9862 www.supgrp.com Contents May 2013 Stromasys opens Charon gateway in training event — Brewhouse social and all Old and grand, -day training demonstrate natural resting state for MPE/iX applications — 1 eZ-MPE opens new Windows for 3000 sites — MB Foster products-service line- worthy of salute up provides familiar replacements for MPE users, enters Windows world — 1 One week before my latest birthday I HP’s own expert witness estimates Itanium’s end — While toting up damages, was sharing hope about an aging icon. Oracle lawsuit hearings include calculation of HP-UX processor’s lifespan — 1 “She’s a tank,” I said to my sister Tina. We said this often to one another about Advice on reductions helps manage risks — Webinar outlines strategies on how my mom, who was 87 when she passed to cope with less resources without increasing risks — 10 away late last month. Death and perhaps Still patching a 3000 with HP’s ITRC help? — Insider’s code to get transferred to the afterlife comes to everything that HP’s MPE-aware support staff is still needed to acquire free OS patches — 11 is vital, endearing and revered. Ginny Enterprise fails to sell direct to user customers — People who use the products Seybold, born in the era before radio was and applications and environments don’t get to choose them for themselves— 12 king, died peacefully in her bed. She was vital in heart and mind until nearly the What triggers needs for new developer tools, By Alan Yeo — If you use COBOL end. All of us – brother Bob, Tina, older and are developing on the 3000, most available tools are all that you will need — 12 brother John, my bride and partner Abby Comparing Costs of Staying 5-10 Years — A CAMUS MANMAN RUG meeting — we all desired more years from mom. presentation makes a case with numbers for remaining on the 3000 — 14 But a few hours from now I will board How Ending Support Might Change a Platform — Will Oracle’s eventual depar- a jet to fly to Toledo, the place she gave ture from HP-UX have as little impact as the database’s departure from MPE?— 15 birth to us, and put on the black suit I reserve for occasions of joy (my kids’ HP hardware: A bargain, but needed by now? — Falling prices, under $2,000, weddings) and of sad times. I will give a for ultimate generation HP iron, now compete with virtual HP 3000 costs — 16 eulogy and certainly cry through it, just Fast searches speed new Eloquence — Database gains advanced indexing — 17 as I am at this very moment I’m creating Good tools making an impact, then and now, by Brian Edminster — Useful but words. My mom taught me to read, gave me the first words of countless ones that low-caliber tools remain on any HP 3000 which has Predictive Support — 18 I would learn to ride like fresh breeze Charon ’s days not so early after all — With customers already order- throughout my life and hers. For more ing license transfers, Adager sees the HPA/3000 arriving onto schedules — 20 than a decade I would work and tinker HP launches Moonshot, and its board chair, into orbit — After Ray Lane at a novel, while she was devouring steps away, super server restarts HP hardware with unique designs — 21 everything her Irish favorite Maeve Binchy wrote, until I could finally finish The Wide World of the Web — 22 mine and send it to her, just like the We thank the following sponsors of The 3000 NewsWire whose support of the hardbacks I’d buy because she wasn’t HP 3000 community has made this issue possible. Support them to support us. getting out to the as easily. Phone Page But when a novel would arrive, she’d Adager...... 208-726-9100 ...... 24 scamper through the book like she would Blueline Services...... 877-464-2583 ...... 13 dance across floors from the 1930s up Fresche Legacy ...... 514-747-7007...... 9 to her 80th birthday. My mom outlasted Marxmeier Software AG ...... www ma. rxmeier co. m/eloquence ...... 5 expectations of her vivacity. MB Foster Associates ...... 800-ANSWERS ...... 23 Since I am her boy, I can use a MPE Support Group...... www mp. esupportgroup co. m...... 11 comparison with a bold stroke. In that Pivital Solutions ...... www p. ivitalsolutions co. m ...... 4 outlasting, the push of the tank of her Robelle ...... 888-762-3553 ...... 19 heart, she resembled the computer I have ScreenJet...... www s. creenjet co. m ...... 9, 14 written about for more than half my life. Stromasys...... www s. tromasys co. m ...... 7 People expected the 3000’s demise many the Support Group inc...... www s. upgrp co. m...... 2 years ago. Now with an emulated version selling and shipping, for the 3000’s How to contact the 3000 NewsWire relations and disciples, Charon has Editor ISSN 1521-124X become the kind of tank that Tina and I Ron Seybold ([email protected]) 512-331-0075 The 3000 NewsWire is published marveled at when we visited mom in the Twitter: @3000newswire • Skype: ronseybold four times yearly, plus electronic Franciscan Care Center. Publisher updates, by 3000 NewsWire LLC. Contents of this publication may Tina found that resting place for Abby Lentz ([email protected]) not be reproduced in any form our mom, relentless and persistent in Homesteading Editor: Gilles Schipper without express permission of the locating a spot where Ginny could receive At-Large Editor: Birket Foster publisher. Non-bylined articles are written by the editor. Publisher the attention to both her heart and her News blog with business-day reports: 3000newswire.com/blog believes all information printed body. The former was strong in spirit, here to be true, but cannot assume Archived news & tech articles: 3000newswire.com/searchnw.html responsibility for errors. © 3000 the latter holding out as well as anything Voicemail, alternate e-mail: 512.331.0075; [email protected] NewsWire LLC. All rights reserved. Deliveries & mail: 11702 Buckingham Road, Austin, TX 78759 Printed in the U.S.A. See Grand Salute, page 4 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 3 whiles away time as you community had to learn Grand Salute remember why you loved compassion about the whatever or whoever you imperfections of the 3000’s (Continued from page 3) did, their perfection and creator. Even still, we had created before FDR became President. the parts that were very our memories that remain I think we all have someone older in human, very imperfect. beyond the death of the Bill our lives who we wish would last forever. Like you and your & Dave HP. The times that For some, this might not be a person community, I owe my Marc Hoff of HP, taken by they love as a friend or a member of mom a lot. She believed cancer, would give out his their birth family. People who die like in beginnings and taught home phone number on the Roger Ebert of the film world, or Steve me to question and back of business cards, or Jobs of our own industry, or Dr. Suess of debate and express my swear to eat a new MPE everyone’s childhood, they all leave holes imagination. Not always with the best release tape if it came out with a bug in in our hearts too. This is the first way I of examples. But as my counselor and it. The times that Bruce Toback or Wirt reply when everyone, so kind even if we friend Jim Hoadley says, “She was a Atmar would make us chortle or fume, don’t know one another well, tells me teacher, you know — she taught you how and then become richer and smarter they’re sorry for my loss. “I have a hole to show compassion.” through the miracle of the newsgroup, in my heart now,” I say. I tap my chest I know it’s not the same thing to love before they were claimed by heart and I can say no more at that moment. a computer’s ideals and elegance, to disease. For me, the quiet confidence Loss is like that, a fog that seeps in and revere the struggle of years when our and spark of revival from Danny Compton in Texas, who took a discarded Maestro software tool and created ROC Software – so many years after he got a death sentence at age 8, and then outlasted the forecast by more than 30 years to build a family, products, and then a company. For my own family in this sad week, I try to think of the joy that I saw in mom’s face, especially on the night of her 80th birthday party, one my bride created for a pip of a mother in law. Ginny was vivacious, at her very best. She was lively in her later chapters, like the night I saw her dance on roller skates at age 52 with us grown kids, or that night she banged a tambourine onstage in her new home in Vegas, 80 years old and smiling through way too many choruses of the Beatles’ “They Say It’s Your Birthday.” My mom, turning around to look at the cover band playing in that faux Irish pub inside a casino. Turning as if to ask, “Surely you must be done?” And the band looking back at this marvel of a pip, maybe saying, “Wow, I hope I can do that at 80.” There is so much more to write about endings and the afterlife, a life where I’m sure mom now dances on the legs that she lost in her final years. I only know that words fall short of feelings about long relationships of love. There is one word I will invoke at her service this Sunday, the first Sunday after everybody’s Mother’s Day. The word is pip, and my mom was one. A word with more than one definition, just like my mom. Pip, an excellent person or thing. Pip, a crack of a baby bird’s shell. Pip, a small, hard seed in a fruit. They say that a person never dies if they live in our hearts and minds forever. So I’ve got her in there, and deep inside me, too. Here’s to anything old that has become grand. As the British say in salute, pip-pip. — Ron Seybold 4 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog Eloquence – enhanced data protection

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Marxmeier Software AG Kasinostrasse 19 - 21 42103 Wuppertal, Germany Phone: +49 202 2 43 14 40 Fax: +49 202 2 43 14 20 [email protected] opportunities means, in summary, that Itanium End the engineering to bring Itanium closer to an assured position at Intel is halted. The Charon Event (Continued from page 1) HP-UX chip is still a unique design at Intel (Continued from page 1) HP’s expert Jonathan Orszag of the — which might be okay if Itanium sales iX machine. This is a configuration consulting firm Compass Lexecon had to were growing, or even maintaining market HP could never ship or officially counter by estimating the lifespan of HP’s share. HP says that’s not true. support while it built and sold its Itanium business. Orszag said the ending The Intel decision forces HP to gamble 3000 servers. The HP top-end was 4 date for Itanium looked to him like 2020. that the installed base of Itanium users will processors for its 750-Mhz. HP would have surely reviewed Orszag’s buy enough to maintain HP’s promises on General Manager Bill Driest made testimony before he offered it to judge the roadmap which Orszag used. Winning his debut in front of a HP 3000 James Kleinberg. HP’s expert witness in the new customers gets harder with every crowd during a morning session that damages phase of the suit said he based his improvement to Xeon which is denied to outlined where Stromays is heading testimony on Itanium road maps from HP as Itanium. from its current position as the only well its chip partner, Intel. virtualization solution in the PA-RISC If Orszag and Hewlett-Packard are on 3000 futures echoed space. One new wrinkle was the target, then 2020 would mark about two Hewlett-Packard was in a similar situation, announcement that Charon HPA/3000 decades of actual service to the enterprise with the then-fledgling Itanium designs, near has made the cut onto HP’s Worldwide computing customer. That’s a mark that the end of its HP 3000 futures. A few years Reseller Agreement. Stromasys HP’s initial chip family for the 3000 didn’t before HP’s MPE/iX “opportunities” ended, already has its product that emulate achieve. But the period of 1974-1989 was the 3000 division stood at the crossroads VAX and Alpha systems on that list. nothing like the 21st Century. For one of adopting what was called IA-64. First Worldwide Reseller Agreement gives thing, Intel didn’t have competing versions the division would design toward IA-64 with HP the right to resell a product from a of an enterprise business processor on future 3000s. Then it said it would wait, and software supplier. Companies as large sale during the ‘70s and ‘80s. That split make do with existing PA-RISC chip family. as security supplier McAfee have focus for Intel showed up again last month, The outcome of the California court’s entered into such a deal. HP now has when the chip maker announced a couple damages phase will result in a material the mechanism to sell Charon HPA to of downgrades to impact on the futures of the Business Critial customers who might want to remain Itanium’s future. Systems operation at as MPE/iX application users. Those futures If Orszag and HP are on HP. Just it won’t be The Gartner announcement was announcements enough. Even if HP wins a sneak peek at what Driest was looked like signals target, then 2020 would its $4.2 billion demand, describing as a way to earn its that Intel is shifting mark about two decades the money would only solution onto the Hype Cycle of its R&D resources provide $600 million a Virtualization, securing a spot in the away from the only of service to the enterprise year in lost profits for the Trigger, rising wave of the lifecycle. processor that drives computing customer. group. It would offset the “People like Gartner are talking to HP-UX applications. losses BCS will post as it us, and there’s been a fundamental Many migrated HP continues its spiral. HP sea change,” Driest said. “They’re 3000 sites are using HP-UX. Those who CEO said last month that BCS saying this: isn’t it conceivable that have a migration in their future, nearby or “was a big and profitable business, and you the end state of all legacy hardware otherwise, still have Itanium on their menu see that it’s declined by 24 percent year over is some kind of emulation or of choices. year. The good news is that we’ve got the virtualization?” Intel said in a modest post on a webpage best product lineup we’ve had in a long time Driest admitted that five years that that it won’t be re-engineering Itanium to in [the Enterprise Group.]” was “so much of an early adopter use the same sockets as the mainstream The bad news? HP’s CEO now refers to message. There’s a fundamental Intel chipset Xeon. HP’s partner added that BCS-Itanium business in the past tense. pause as we ask, ‘On what platform it will design and manufacture the Kittson Last year the entire Enterprise Servers, do you believe we’ll run the last MPE family of Itanium using the 32 nanometer Storage and Networking unit at HP — production environment?’ Do you architecture that’s in the current Poulson whose BCS-Integrity line is a fraction of the really think that it’s going to be on family. Intel has 28-nm designs in store for Xeon-based Linux servers, ProLiant sales, some refurb HP hardware?” Xeon. Both the smaller architecture and disk sales and networking products — The company was introducing a the socket-compatible design have been posted just $2.1 billion in profit. Whitman strategy of “Rebuild, or Revitalize?” withdrawn from Intel’s Itanium plans. noted that HP is making investments behind as the driver towards virtualization of Kittson will be manufactured on Intel’s the Enterprise lineup. the MPE-ready hardware. It referred 32-nm process technology and will be socket But those Hewlett-Packard and the customers and resellers and compatible with the existing Intel Itanium Intel roadmaps, plus the chip-maker’s support providers and consultants in 9300/9500 platforms, providing customers announcements, show the money is going the CHM meeting room to “Join the with performance improvements, investment elsewhere. Based on what Intel and that Revitalization Movement.” protection, and a seamless upgrade path for HP expert say about Itanium chip dies in According to Driest, analyst Andrew existing systems. The modular development the future, it looks like the final act has Butler of Gartner published a report model, which converges on a common Intel been scheduled at Hewlett-Packard. Is six this year that identifies Stromays as Xeon/Intel Itanium socket and motherboard, more years enough for today’s customers? a disruptive technology in the server will be evaluated for future implementation Probably so — if they don’t arrive on HP-UX market specifically. “Butler said that opportunities. with 3000-like expectations for investment Evaluated for future implementation protection. See Charon Event, page 13 6 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog Frustrated by your HP3000 system?

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The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 7 said. “You can retool, or go to a native thought we had for this customer, and eZ-MPE environment as part of a long-range plan.” eZ-MPE is more effective for them than (Continued from page 1) He said in the company’s engagements re-writing to a native port.” 3000 way of computing management is with enterprise clients, the sites want Software for migrating data, entire designed to set eZ-MPE apart from prior to leverage benefits of the new native , scripts and more has been in efforts to bring across 3000 customers. environment, not just migrate quickly. the MB Foster stable for several years. AMXW, built by Neartek at the start of Portions of the eZ-MPE package which Some of the solutions, like the data this century, as well as Ordina’s MPUX, Whitehead mentioned included a target migration products, have been working don’t deliver the full range of the MB database for Windows, VPlus screens in production environments since the late Foster product, said Whitehead. Lock-in converted and modernized, a file system 1980s. Lately, the company has begun with those other solutions is automatic. library similar to the 3000’s “but one to sell some of its software — previously There’s no easy way to embrace the best that specifically handles nuances and used only for services engagements — to of Windows or . translations between KSAM and itself.” sites for their internal IT use. The biggest nuance of eZ-MPE is its Utilities include other aspects of handling More recently, UDAExpress has been focus on custom code and surround code, implementations of items like sorting, developed to take the place of the 3000’s “to transition to a supportable platform merging, log-ins including UDCs, the job scripting ability. The other product with the least amount of risk. The value control language. “All of those things are which has had a standalone lifecycle and of MBF eZ-MPE is its collective ability to necessary within a 3000 environment has become a part of eZ-MPE is MBF mimic the HP 3000 environment — but — but as you transition, they’re also Scheduler. Both of those products work aiming the customer at the advantages of necessary in the Windows world.” exclusively in the Windows environment to the Windows environment. MB Foster is already working replace MPE capabilities. More recently, “It’s not only going to shorten the time with a customer using eZ-MPE, and the UDALink tool including reporting, to transition, but it’s also going to be of that customer has implemented the JDBC and ODBC access was migrated to extreme value long term,” Whitehead environment, Whitehead said. “It’s been work with HP’s Itanium servers in the Unix thoroughly tested. It was the original environment. Imitation, the sincerest form of Philately?

The forgery above represents 100+ man-years VPLUS experience, and a decade-plus doing screen migrations and conversions. EZV is ScreenJet’s third-generation VPLUS toolset, and enshrines the “lift and shift is best” principle. Retraining dozens, hundreds, or possibly thousands of users can introduce a level of risk and cost that can rapidly exceed those of major parts of the migration itself. With EZV we have recreated the VPLUS UI exactly, including all features, bugs, and eccentricities that applications rely on. The aim is that users should have no idea that the underlying hardware and have changed. Whilst keeping the UI the same, the underlying technology is based on “open” structured XML, and maintenance is via a new .NET EZV Designer formspec replacement product. We don’t “do” migrations at ScreenJet, so EZV has been designed to interface with any language, database or other migration technologies you choose. EZV is the only VPLUS migration technology that is also available for the HP3000, so you can test and prove it — before you migrate another line of code.

www.screenjet.com [email protected] + 44 1684 291710 Or speak to an HP Migration Partner 8 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog The vendor has no announced plans to deploy eZ-MPE to any Unix or Linux environments, including HP-UX. Most 3000 customers who are still on the move want Windows. “On most days, our clients are looking for a Windows-type of solution,” Whitehead said.” They feel the Windows environment is now stable enough and scalable enough. They’ve had enough exposure to that environment and the Microsoft suite of products. ” Even within any Unix environment, Windows servers will be part of the solution. eZ-MPE has a menuing system as a native part of its environment; this handles the operations of UDCs We’ll make sure your I.T. running on HP 3000s, as well as “VEsoft MPEX environments,” is still next generation Whitehead said. A system layer capability handles all system calls and translations. two generations from now. eZ-MPE manages the nuances of VPlus screens, controls access to In the tech world, 10 months ago may as well be 10 years. So if you’re still on applications, and uses its own file the HP e3000, it’s time to join the rest of us here in the future. system library for call management and translation between KSAM and At Fresche Legacy, formerly known as Speedware, we can help. We understand relational databases. Its IMAGE how important it is to pass IT audits, open your applications to new systems library converts TurboIMAGE calls to ODBC calls, and facilitates a move and ultimately, grow your business. Our experts have done more than 700 HP to a native environment as part of a e3000 migrations and have worked with more than 200 different technologies. site’s long-range plans. We have the tools and professionals to manage your legacy applications from The value of MBF eZ-MPE is more initial analysis to complete modernization or provide outsource application encompassing than simply screen support services and beyond. And our beyond does much more than just handling, file systems, and databases. support your applications. We transform your applications as we support them A typical in-house developed business application includes scripting, and make them ready to support your business for generations to come. That’s sorting, merging, logins, job control business value the Fresche way. (JCL), FTP services, and scheduling requirements. MBF eZ-MPE includes No matter which option you choose, we can partner with you to future-proof solutions for all of these as well. your IT infrastructure. And do it right. Every time. That’s 100% referenceability. It’s also aimed at 3000 sites which We’re the only legacy management company that can guarantee it. are not using packaged applications. By process of elimination, that is still Contact us today at www.freschelegacy.com to learn more. most of the HP 3000 customers who continue to use the platform. I.T. can make you smile. “Its real target is for organizations that have custom code, and want to preserve it,” Whitehead said, “and also want to transition to a supportable platform.” The MB Foster software, which is also tied to services such as an assessment of existing environment, offers more range than emulated solutions, according to Whitehead. “We’re not locking anybody into an environment,” he said. “We’re allowing the 3000 customers to modernize, change and grow and prosper — not only with the eZ-MPE environment, but slowly over time, to move away from it, to a native Windows environment too.”

The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 9

LOWE ROCHE 260 Queen Street West, suite 301, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1Z8 416 927 9794 Client: Fresche File Name: SPEE-P7090_Newswire_Newsp.indd Page: 1 Production Artist(s): IH Business Manager: Jonathan Daly Creative Team: Mike Greco/Ryan Speziale Production Contact: Beth MacKinnon. 254 Publication(s)/Description: Newswire Insert - Newspaper First Ins. Date: May 21 Order Number: N/A Second Ins. Date: N/A Order Number: N/A Third Ins. Date: N/A Order Number: N/A Ad #: SPEE-P7090 Final Trim/Ad Size: 5"W x 9.25"H Bleed: N/A Live/Safety: N/A Visible Opening: N/A File Scale: 100% Other Info: N/A Colours: Black Advice on reductions helps manage risks Webinar outlines strategies on the spreadsheets weren’t part of that IT concept, cloud, also harkens back to how to cope with less without system, they were part of what the user 3000 roots. “The cloud is a just a modern increasing risks base used,” Foster said. version of the service bureau, Foster A company is likely to be just one said. His partner in the webinars Chris Most managers of 3000s cope with the merger or acquisition away from doing Whitehead added that using the cloud same challenges seen on other platforms: more IT with less resources. The 3000 “is an effective way to mitigate some of fewer resources, layoffs and retirements, has built-in restrictions that can leave it the costs and fewer resources you will aging hardware. Yes, even in the serving more computing than intended: have if you’ve gone through a big round of marketplace of HP’s Itanium or Windows storage, memory, capability to connect layoffs.” Foster took note that using best servers, hardware gets older. Not like the with the latest of breed applications 3000s, those boxes which will, by this fall, peripherals. But One segment of the webinar connected through be at least one decade old. even a migrated held special meaning for the cloud still If the server is built well, if the budgets customer can demands you assign hold up, if the headcount doesn’t shrink, benefit from a plan the homesteading 3000 an “application of enterprise server owners won’t have to on risks. record” to each manage any risk. What’re the odds of For example, site. Complete plans on customer datafile. It that? Since you’d probably admit that Foster said a how to weather reductions could be shipping, you can’t dodge all of those, MB Foster company needs billing or a CRM held a Wednesday Webinar to outline the $100,000 on of resources include plans system, but you strategies for how to cope with less. average just must decide. Any special demands for the 3000 didn’t to deal with for aging hardware, using a One segment come up during the one-hour webinar. planning for the portfolio plan for cutbacks of the webinar held It didn’t need to be highlighted, because challenges related special meaning the elements of risk management are to a merger. An application portfolio for the 3000 site which is homesteading. universal. It’s just a matter of degree. Do plan, which starts with a professional Complete plans on how to weather you have an aging workforce, or is the assessment, can help a company reductions of resources include plans for company thinking of using younger IT determine not only what they should do, aging hardware. pros? There’s a career retirement trend out but what they can stop doing. “You can figure out what hardware can there for the professional who can afford “It gives people an opportunity to look at go away,” using a portfolio plan in an era it. Foster said 5,000 people born between all of the processes in their business,” of cutbacks, Foster said. The estimation 1945 and 1960 retire every day. That’s Foster said of a portfolio project. “It helps should be based on the hardware’s ages 53-68, standardize business practices, so the business fit, its stability and quality. Its probably the best ones maintainability. Mean Time to Recovery largest slice of move forward of Operations is “the other side of your 3000 managers. in a merger.” disaster plan, understanding the cost of The odds are One recovering. This helps determine how long stacked against newer trend a company could afford to be off-line if a implementing in business is system failed. change without analyzing key Mergers help define movement, but a complete plan. performance the rise of mobile computing also will Even an optimist indicators. tax aging resources. “You’ll have to think would shudder The HP about how mobile fits into your picture. at figures that 3000, or a Maybe some of your operations don’t have MB Foster’s replacement, to be done with a web browser. A shipper CEO Birket can be could look up a status over a smartphone. The odds are stacked against system migrations, delivering But that fishing pond, the reservoir that Foster shared unless the project has been planned well. According from the Standish data needed spills out of a classic data warehouse, to data from this Standish report, two thirds have to access delivers insights that can begin with 3000 Group. By that blown budgets or are canceled. group’s research, these KPIs. data. Any customer who’s thinking of 90 percent of the replacements of ERP “You pull that data out of your database moving off the platform will benefit from systems will finish over budget, behind and put it into a dashboard,” Foster said. creating ponds out of their oceans of data. schedule — or be scrapped altogether. You can get ready access to that data “There’s a real benefit of being able to That slender slice in the pie chart by using a data mart — or as Foster have replication of data that exists on represents the lucky companies who got said, “putting your data in a fishing pond an HP 3000 into a separate repository,” what they wanted, on time and in budget. instead of an ocean.” These data marts Whitehead said. “You can redirect all of Of the ones that finish, companies are are fed by an Operational Data Store, or a the users to that environment on say, averaging about half of the functionality data warehouse. Oracle or SQL Server, so they can do their they pursued with their change. Swapping Data warehouses are far from new reporting. It facilitates the transformation in an off the shelf app for 3000 application strategies. The 3000’s app family was if they do make the change in ERP — and could well overlook customizations for developed for warehouses as far back stops individuals from hacking away at the spreadsheet interfaces, for example. “And as the middle 1990s. But a much newer production environment, too.” 10 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog Still patching a 3000 with HP’s ITRC help? Insider’s code to get transferred to HP’s MPE-aware can be challenging to get past the initial call handlers. (“No… support staff is still needed for free patches my 3000 is not a printer…”) You’ll eventually get to the one (?) person still handling MPE patching requests.” We are told, by Allegro’s Donna Hofmeister, that “the magic HP solved the problems of the 3000 and MPE with patches, incantation when dealing with the Response Center folks is to revised software which Hewlett-Packard still distributes use transfer code 798. That’ll get you to an MPE person” today. Probably not as seamlessly as it did while the company MILNX10A is important enough to patch, especially on a supported the system. But just as inexpensively: MPE/iX is one 3000 that’s got databases that are still growing. One traditional of the only HP operating systems with free patches. advisory in the 3000 community is that “there are three The still-engineered and fully-supported OS lineup things that can happen when you apply a patch, and two requires an HP support contract to retrieve patches, of them are not good.” So that limits an administrator’s even the critical ones. gusto for patching — but this corruption problem was a Patches resurfaced in our reporting while we big enough deal for HP to label that patch critical. interviewed a consultant to a large site, one where The patch repairs access to any in-house applications 22 HP 3000s once ran altogether. Today it’s a couple that have used Large Files, or do a sort with a temporary of N-Class servers. He was feeling good about the file that can exceed 4GB. If your app has not been chances for a Stromasys emulator there, partly because modified since March 30, 2000, it’s safe. That’s when HP the customer is already running on MPE/iX 7.5. The final introduced the Large File feature. generation of the OS is required to run the emulator. Large Files has been engineering which HP worked to remove “We got away from using Large Files, from customers’ 3000s. A 2006 patch was too,” he added. “I think HP never did fix designed to turn off Large Files and get those that corruption bug in those.” That would The current magic files on the 3000 converted to Jumbo files, be the >4GB corruptor, discovered in 2006 incantation when much better engineered. Jumbos were at by Adager and finally fixed in ‘07 by HP’s work where our consultant was arranging an IMAGE/SQL labs. The repaired software dealing with the audition for the emulator. required a millicode patch, the first one HP’d Response Center folks MILNX10A is not stageable because it written for the 3000 in 16 years. You can get requires a installation job. It is most easily that patch via HP’s Response Center website. is to use transfer code installed by using HP’s autopat. Autopat, at its But that’s not how most 3000 managers are conclusion, will say “stream this.job.” A couple getting these patches today. 798. That’ll get you to of blinks later, milli.lib.sys (and friends) is The number of HP contract-holding 3000 an MPE person updated. administrators has dropped since the 2007 MILNX10A won’t be enough to fix this date of patch MILNX10A. Most people are calling into HP’s corruption problem. HP’s repair also requires MPENX11A. support line, then plowing through the confusion that arises Unlike the millicode patch, MPENX11A is not stageable, as it is when you ask for something related to HP and a 3000. a patch that requires a reboot. A manager can use Patch/iX to “If one has a functioning support center logon, then yes get the patch staged and schedule a reboot. — you can download the patch via the Web,” said one indie If you don’t know if you should apply this patch, contact your support provider. “I find most people need to call the support independent support provider for MPE/iX. If you’re patching, line. I always tell them to take their patience with them, as it pay attention to when you run ‘unpackp.’ Provide your enterprise with Premier support Across 50 states, support for your HP3000 server — 888-675-5275 plus sales and services for [email protected] your IT infrastructure and localized, specialized peace of mind MPEsupportgroup.com Meeting every company’s specific, unique business needs

The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 11 Enterprise fails to sell direct to customer People who use the products and applications and about enterprise-driven sales than Apple. And yet somehow the environments don’t get to choose for themselves company has made itself a permanent resident in the plans of corporate IT. BYOD proves that consumer sales work. You don’t talk for long about Apple’s culture without invoking MPE COBOL expert and 3000 veteran Bruce Hobbs shared Steve Jobs these days. It’s a lot like the Bill and Dave stories a story with us about a vendor selling straight to a product’s that once cradled any Hewlett-Packard business computing users. That’s the way HP 3000s moved into tens of thousands of discussions. The late, great Jobs had this to say about selling companies during the 1980s. Back in those simpler sales days directly to the user of any computing device. IT directors — we called them DP managers in the day — did “What I love about the consumer market, and what I always the selecting and purchasing of corporate computer assets. hated about the enterprise market, is that we come up with The sale happened in the office of the head computer honcho. a product, we try to tell everybody about it, and every person This person was the consumer, if you will, of the product being votes for themselves,” he said. “They go ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and if offered. More than anything, they wanted something that would enough of them say ‘yes,’ we get to come to work tomorrow. work and be a joy to use. (Joy being a relative term, considering That’s how it works. It’s really simple.” it was the 1980s and ENQ/ACK was still a big part of what we With the enterprise market, it’s not so simple. The people called datacomm. Not networking, which was an even deeper who use the products and systems don’t get to decide for black art.) themselves, and the people who make those decisions The story Mr. Hobbs shared was from the world of Apple, sometimes are confused, or distracted by the need to keep where a blogger took note of Why Nobody Can Copy Apple. In acquisition costs as low as possible. summary of that article, Apple wants to sell directly to the user We all have sad memories of colleagues at 3000-using of its computing solutions. The mobile arm of this vendor now companies who were hounded away from MPE by confused has a large footprint in corporations because of this. People are corporate purchasing departments. In the realm of the most Bringing their Own Devices to the office. This BYOD is enough price-driven organization, government, coming in just 8 percent of a phenomenon to trigger a recent webinar on the topic from lower in a bidding contest will earn a sale of something less MB Foster. worthy. However, current enterprise computing sales — the kind that So the fact that 3000 is different can sometimes earn its displaced the 3000 — take place in an office outside of DP owner — the technologist who still tends to it — unfair enmity. Departments (as we used to call them in the ‘80s). Corporate “Our HP 3000 lives on here, to the immense annoyance of all Purchasing began to buy systems, or the perhaps the selection those who do not understand and love it,” said one DP Manager happened in the Office of CFO. These officers were accountable who talked to us on background. “I am personally hated to the cost of what they purchased, more so than how reliable because of my association with it, and viewed hereabouts as a or flexible or value-driven systems behaved. This is what put dumb cluck with a degree in useless knowledge.” Intel PCs and Windows onto so many desks, long after the users But corporations don’t make products great. Consumers do curtailed all manner of love for these affordable choices. that, especially when they recognize what they need and delight This is the kind of technology selection that’s gotten in getting it. Even when it’s different, like Apple or the HP 3000. developers and IT administrators removed from decisions. Now It doesn’t take long to get onto the passion path then, those IT must present its applications as a portfolio of assets, just moments where the manager or consumer uses the word love to win a place at the boardroom table. No vendor cares less on an inanimate object. What triggers a need for new dev tools? Editor’s note: One of our 2013 projects is UI. If it’s got a UI, it’s either home-grown decided and led the choice of software exploring the range of development tools or VPlus, and none of the new tools are solutions ended 20 years ago. So there on the other side of a move off the 3000. going to buy you a lot more than existing has to be a business need to migrate or Alan Yeo, the founder of ScreenJet and a tools will for that stuff. implement something new. If a company provider of VPlus transition and modern- Some old tools did integrate with is in a mindset of going somewhere, the ization tools. He’s also offering a Transact source version control software — but protection of application assets by using for non-3000 platforms, TransAction. not a lot of people were doing that on new tools is an important point. What More than a decade ago, Yeo wired up the 3000. There’s a ton of tools you’ve got available to protect an interface from the Acubench COBOL for the 3000 that people never that app investment has value. suite into his ScreenJet software. used, because they could make Unfortunately, the terms do with the simple ones. They migrate/migration have been By Alan Yeo didn’t get into trouble; they mangled in their usage over were a lot more professional the last decade. To me, a If you’re developing on the HP 3000, because they could concentrate migration is when you take most of the tools that are available do knowledge in a smaller area. what you have and move it to a different just about everything that is needed. I don’t think a better development platform (maybe with some changes on They don’t need to be that much better. environment would trigger a migration. the way) or make a change in the base Remember, if you’re cutting code on the Who uses dev environments? Techies. technology as a result of the migration. 3000 it’s either batch code or it’s got a The days when the techies in companies Buying a different package/applications See Triggering, facing page 12 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog — all these things are part of the equation. Charon event Triggering As far as better tools for COBOL tools, (Continued from page 6) if you’re a COBOL shop, then moving to (Continued from facing page) a better toolset than just a line editor ‘Functions commonly thought isn’t a migration. makes a lot of sense. Something with a to be part of the underlying Sure, you may have moved some of the built-in debugger, for example. Would I part of the OS are being data. But it’s like buying a new phone and use something like the latest COBOL tools distributed to the server, to the transferring your old phone numbers. You to develop something new with a UI? No. hypervisor, to storage.’ People haven’t migrated from one phone to the next. Been there done that, and I’ve been locked are virtualizing everything. You have bought a new one, and binned the into proprietary products that go away. No, We’re almost re-inventing old one. COBOL is great for back-end processing, but what it means to deploy an However, having said that, is there a it isn’t a UI product, regardless of how many application.” business need to migrate, or a business need bells and whistles you hang on it. to junk what you have and get something And that’s from someone who still thinks Ecosystem entry, new? Then yes, what tools are available in COBOL is the best app development with allies on hand the new environment, what the applications language, especially for apps that need The meeting presented a new are written in, how easy are they to maintain, ongoing maintenance, development and and more extensive group of how easy to get people with the needed skills support. Stromasys executives to the 3000 community. CEO Ling Chang said the company “is proud to become a part of the 3000 ecosystem.” More than a decade after HP announced the 3000 would drop off Hewlett- Packard’s price list because of a declining ecosystem, that group has gained a member worthy of citation from Gartner. When Gartner first started tracking the Stromasys offerings three years ago, they called it processor emulation, Driest said. “We fit in on this little bubble called Processor Emulation. We are fitting in at the peak of their curve called Inflated Expectations. It says there’s a promise for this technology.” Hard questions came from one reseller who reported that he serves 135 companies using 3000s and had clients in the room from several California school districts. “Think about how you can help us help them,” he said. The reseller has been in the reseller business to service customers who manage K-12 schools using MPE/iX solutions. The product lineup showed the top-end product of this month being a N4040 virtualized system, running four processors at 250MHz — not the 750MHz rated for the 4-CPU HP hardware. An N4060 and N4080 models are not available this month. The latter runs at an estimated 61 HP EPUs — four times faster than the A520 Charon model. The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 13 Comparing Costs of Staying 5-10 Years At CAMUS MANMAN Regional User Group Meeting, numbers show a case to remain Last month’s CAMUS online-phone dollars on improving MANMAN,” Floyd at the least. programmers RUG meeting included a comprehensive said. But the cloud is not free, just a might be hard to find in the middle of exam of staying on MANMAN for at lot less costly. Estimating a 30-user nowhere, Floyd added. Lots of US-based least another five years. The proposal, implementation — plenty of the manufacturers using MANMAN operate outlined by Terry Floyd of the Support remaining MANMAN sites are small in such small towns, to keep labor costs Group, showed a cost exceeding $40,000 — he still came in at $6,000 a month. contained. a year to keep running an HP 3000 with That’s $72,000 against the $17,000 plus The counterpoint of all that expense the ERP application plus crucial support the expense of purchasing the 3000 and of working to stay on MANMAN? “The for hardware and all software. its storage devices. biggest cost of leaving MANMAN is data His estimation, for a Series 939 low- “You’re spending a heck of lot less than migration and implementation of the new end system with 30 users’ worth of that just for the electricity,” Floyd said of system,” Floyd said. You would retain the MANMAN (all numbers are annual) the cloud solution. cloud costs, the OS and vendor support Hardware support - $5,000 Of course, most companies running costs in this scenario — while the MPE/iX support - $2,000 MANMAN — or MANMAN site must pay for SAP, MANMAN application support - $10,000 nearly any other or Oracle, or some other ERP Support for vendors of third party application solution. software - $10,000, on average — have long When calculated with this much Electric power and cooling - $12,000 ago paid off detail, “It’s not a crazy idea to Including miscellaneous costs of capital costs for think of staying on MANMAN $3,000 yearly, that’s a total of $42,000 hardware. The another five or 10 years,” Floyd to stay on MANMAN each year. “That costs that remain said. Mobile connectivity will doesn’t even include salaries,” Floyd fixed are the OS demand bandwidth that might said. “These are costs directly related and application not exist. “MANMAN is cheaper to MANMAN.” One user pushed back on support ($12,000 to operate than either an the third party software support costs, in Floyd’s on-premises replacement or a saying the estimate was low. estimate) plus cloud-based replacement. Inertia One way to cut back on these costs the third party is the driver, especially if you’re would be to run MANMAN on the cloud, software support retiring in the near future.” Floyd said. This development, if it ever at $10,000. The companies using MANMAN emerges for the MANMAN community, Let’s see, aren’t retiring, of course. They would be via the Stromasys emulator, $22,000 plus face a cost to select, acquire and which sits in a Linux cradle. Linux is that $72,000 is implement and migrate data to even supported by the HP Cloud, a $94,000 yearly. a replacement ERP system from newcomer to the virtual server vendor You’re up in the cloud in this picture, “hundreds of thousands to millions of lineup. (HP-UX is not supported). The running a virtualized 3000 server. The dollars,” Floyd said. “Why did all those cloud reduces hardware-related expenses license for that virtualization software companies leave MANMAN? Ten years or and wipes out electrical, versus a cost of and its support fee varies, but nobody so ago, they might have had management $200 a month per user. is reporting much under $10,000. It’s with some high ambitions.” (Stromasys officials on the call said a big advantage when you consider the Or did they really leave because their they thought Floyd may have been emulated 3000 will operate many times users lacked a understanding of referring to one of the possible options faster than a Series 939. MANMAN, so relied on tribal knowledge for people wanting to migrate off So someone who stays by rising to the in the organization — “and then they the 3000. There’s been no testing or cloud will be up in the $100,000 annual forgot the way their were going things installations of the Charon HPA emulator range for five years, annually, using the way they were. And then a couple running from a cloud service yet.) the solution with the longest lifespan of really key users left. And you wonder So while looking at the numbers and (virtualized OS, virtualized hardware) how this stuff works, and why it works the state of 3000-based cloud options, with an application that’s just about the like it does. If you change the heck out of one of the larger points that Floyd most senior in your community. Factor MANMAN and didn’t leave a good trail, made in his review is that MANMAN, in the costs of purchasing MANMAN over there’s no way you could keep track of even today on current 3000 hardware, 10 years and you’d add $25,000 yearly. why you did that modification.” could remain a viable place to stay with (This is, of course, another cost that But after more than three decades in manufacturing IT — so long as the ERP most MANMAN sites have paid off long the field, there just aren’t many bugs left instance has up to date modifications ago.) in MANMAN. The 3000 sites that tracked for interfaces and integration, properly But even if you’re able to do computing their mods, can keep knowledge of their documented so they don’t become tribal from the cloud, “IT costs do not go implementation documented, can keep a knowledge. Plenty of MANMAN sites away,” Floyd said. “Even if you’re in the FORTRAN developer available somehow have modified their application. Mods cloud, for any manufacturing company, — these are the sites that have added are part of the MANMAN Way. better utilization requires an IT function.” up the costs to stay on an app that was “Interfaces and integration are That IT function is a programmer for first released in the 1970s, even it hasn’t certainly the best places to spend ongoing development of modifications, been changed in more than 15 years. 14 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 How Ending Support Might Change a Platform How will the Oracle departure from HP-UX compare to the database’s 3000 impact? If the above subject seems obvious, Yes, the end of this support did change IMAGE was included with every 3000. then the story of the HP 3000 and MPE the 3000’s future — at HP. In the early How could Oracle compete with that has had moments to refute it, as well as 1990s HP was hoping that IMAGE would value? It wasn’t like HP was reducing prove it. Hewlett-Packard considered the become the prices for end of its vendor-priced support to be the only one 3000s which ultimate change in 3000 ownership. If of several shipped with HP wouldn’t support MPE and the 3000, database no database. who’d use it? options for Enter, after That one is filed as a refute — several the servers, Oracle’s thousand companies have relied on and so it arrival on 3000s and MPE over the four-plus years tried to the 3000, since full HP support ended. Even as a unbundle the scheme government-required archival system, the custom- to unbundle the computer outlasted the end of HP tailored IMAGE — and support. IMAGE from the customers’ But in proof of ending support as a MPE. This revolt at trigger of change, we offer the case was meant a public of the disappearing database. No, not to make room for the likes of high-dollar roundtable over this strategy. IMAGE, still wired to this day with Oracle, or other databases which had not Oracle trod its path away from MPE after elegance into the MPE filesystem and made the port to the 3000. HP wished many versions of the database were built 3000s. No, we’re examining Oracle here. they would do so. Hewlett-Packard’s and rejiggered to try to match the IMAGE Many IT managers consider Oracle to be 3000 group pined for SQL Server on advantage: speed, and the compatibility the industry leader. So if its MPE. with the catalog of HP 3000 applications support drove off the 3000 But Oracle never was thrilled to and tools. cliff, and so dropped off for be part of the 3000 ecosystem. While that latter group of software MPE after Y2K, didn’t that There was so much more profit bled away — cut back by the vendor’s deal a crashing blow to the to be had in the Unix world, or forecast of an ailing 3000 ecosystem — user community? up on IBM mainframes. In 1985 Oracle updated Oracle/iX less and less One manager who wants I was reporting on rumors that frequently. to remain anonymous, but still tends to Oracle was moving to what we were still That might be the same situation a 3000, told us that he believes it was calling MPE V at the time. The Oracle VP HP’s other enterprise environment true. “I asked HP people at a trade show I reached had a question for me. “Why in will experience with the loss of Oracle if they had heard how Oracle, recently in the world would we do that?” support. Oracle didn’t want to continue court and in the news, began the demise About four years of market time with the successor to the 3000’s of MPE — when in a previous pre-Sun changed this approach, but in ‘85 Oracle hardware architecture, Itanium. The business decision, they announced end of wondered why in the world any vendor See Ending Support, page 16 support for Oracle on MPE?” would offer an MPE-ready database while YOU May be one of the few people in the world that this advert is targeted at! If you’re running TRANSACT or DICTIONARY/3000 we now have a lift and shift solution to other platforms. Transact has been reborn as TransAction. For further info just contact [email protected].

The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 15 gave us the opening.” Ending Support The ruler to measure change by: the critical nature of the (Continued from page 15) element whose support is ending. Oracle isn’t MPE, but it might as well be for any company that considers itself an Oracle courts forced this otherwise, but the last period of that game is customer first, with a few HP 3000s as outliers. As we can see yet to be played. today, support for IMAGE has not ended, thanks to independent Will the end of Oracle support for HP-UX change things? companies. Oracle on Of course. Will it be a fatal blow? More fatal than the Oracle HP-UX support — like evaporation from MPE. Few applications ever relied on Oracle Will the end of Oracle the 3000’s, without new on 3000s. It didn’t force a transition. Oracle never got traction development — might as a database for in-house apps. That is a different situation support for HP-UX trigger changes. than the reality for HP’s Unix servers. But one third-party change things? Will it How HP reacts software platform like Oracle never sinks an enterprise ship to the eventual Oracle on its own. It takes a vendor to deliver the coup de gras — and be a fatal blow? More departure this time even then, the demise can be years away. fatal than the Oracle around, compared to its However, for a company migrating to a new application, the reaction in the 1990s, existence of Oracle on that platform can be welcome news. evaporation from MPE. will determine how much Oracle administrators and developers are in rich supply. support can change Replacing one who quits to become a coffee cart owner or gun- Few applications things. The greatest shop salesman is easy. Oracle is everywhere, and thousands ever relied on Oracle change from ending of applications rely on it. In a 3000 migration situation, the support takes place in absence of Oracle support is more reason to change an support on HP 3000s. vendor-built environments application from something in-house to something else. “We which have receding always wanted to walk away from those old apps,” a MANMAN application ecosystems. What’s the trend for application vendor manager said in a user group. “HP ending support for the 3000 enhancements in your target environment? HP hardware: A bargain, but needed by now? Falling prices for ultimate generation HP iron now compete with virtual HP 3000s

By Ron Seybold the real HP iron, running tiny, 9GB LDEV 1 disks. The beefiest drive you can put in a 3000 is 146 GB. It’s an interesting time for 3000 hardware these days. Prices But I have to admit, I thought for awhile about that offer of have dropped severely for unlicensed HP iron. Meanwhile, an N-Class for under $2,000. It was a kind of a “get it while there’s a no-cost way to use a computer to run MPE/iX, thanks you can, the price won’t be better than this” sort of decision. to the Charon HPA/3000 emulator, Model A202, freeware For a production or a development shop, it’s likely to be edition. Times are plentiful for ways to run MPE software, if the different. A manager could figure that a five-figure cost to production-grade license is not much of an issue. acquire Charon emulator software, plus support for it, could The HP-brand hardware is flowing so freely that I had a be balanced against the cost to maintain a stable parts depot. reseller ask if I wanted to buy an N-Class at an astounding Emulation installs mean that hardware support goes way down, price. Not a price that the rest of the public couldn’t get off to about $100 a year for a typical Intel-Linux box. But adding eBay. However, in that kind of offer anyone would have to come any kind of 3000, emulated or iron, to our offices would be up with their own license for MPE/iX. news. Operating my own MPE system has never been a part of Nothing’s perfect this year about acquiring an MPE server. my 28 years of working in our community. On one hand you have the option of real HP iron, power-hungry People who know MPE very well might say they’re not but the genuine engine. However, the surprised. I have generous readers who HP-badged boxes need disks and memory correct the flubs in syntax that show up here. and components in reserve for real But in those decades of writing and reporting support, the kind of items that a system about the HP 3000, I have never worked for manager would scavenge from things like a company which owned one, including my an $1,800 N-Class. A support contract own company (since 1995). However, that for MPE, as well as the hardware, is part doesn’t mean that there haven’t been days of that equation. If you’ve got an MPE/iX when I felt I could make use of one. Just the license, let’s just say it’s about a $2,000 investment, plus the other day, Vladimir Volokh said “you wouldn’t have written that, ultra-important hardware-MPE support contract purchase. if you’d had a 3000 to use and test that command.” And you need that MPE/iX software support, no matter what As close as genuine 3000 iron ownership ever came, I think, you’re doing, unless you’ve got enough experience to be selling was when used 9x7s were everywhere and the Newswire was those services yourself. roaring along in the Y2K era. Our net.digest tech editor John The bottom line on an emulated, virtual HP 3000 is higher, Burke bought one of those 9x7s — for a song — and since he unless you’re freewaring it. You can expect there are nominal was an editor of ours at the time, that was enough for me. consultants — retired but available — who’d use the A202 to My first 3000 publisher, Wilson Publications, used dial- discover bug fixes and workarounds. The better ones will have See Bargain, facing page 16 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog Fast text searches speed new Eloquence Latest version of IMAGE workalike word files, repacking a database and DBCONTROL’s mode 800 and 801 database adds indexing speed improvements to replication manage- specify the FTS DBFIND behavior if no ment. records qualify Marxmeier Software AG has • Support for converting PCL output of MB Foster’s UDALink series of con- announced the Eloquence B.08.20 existing applications to PDF documents. nectivity software allows access to release candidate is available for down- Eloquence, a software solution more in Eloquence (and its new fast features) loading from the Eloquence web site. Testing was expanded for this IMAGE- workalike database, after a beta period during 2012, “and we incorporated cus- tomer feedback,” said company president Michael Marxmeier. The extra develop- ment time yielded some details and improved documentation. A B.08.20 production release of this replacement database for IMAGE appli- cations migrated to Windows, Unix or Linux, “is expected to be available short- ly and should be identical to the release candidate.” As we noted in our 2012 report, Eloquence 8.20 introduces new function- ality and enhancements in various prod- line with HP 3000 budgets than Oracle over HP-UX as well as Linux platforms. uct components. Most noticeable are or SQL Server, also has its own program- In the Eloquence design of FTS, text • Database full text search, adding fast ming language. The company said that fields, dates and numbers are indexed and flexible search engine capabilities to substantial improvements to the lan- so they can be found by keywords, have the Eloquence database. guage include syntax enhancements, sup- a search narrowed by date range, then • Various database enhancements, porting path to access files, class meth- just get the high-dollar transactions, for including support for protected pass- ods, external classes, and on-demand example. FTS also enables queries with loading of program code. just partial information, like “find William “Now is the perfect time to familiar- or Bill in Atlanta.” The searches are qual- Bargain ize yourself with the new release,” ified in seconds, based on the number of (Continued from page 16) Marxmeier said. “Download a copy and records found. try out new features or enhancements. “If you or your users feel the need for in timesharing access to a Series 42 We are happy to provide temporary speed, you can do fast retrievals built in 1984 to produce The Chronicle. The license keys to try out optional features.” right into Eloquence, without a table terminal access came via PC 2622, the The most sparkling enhancement to scan,” Foster said. Minor changes to software later known as Reflection. It this database is its FTS fast indexing architecture can produce big results, ran a typesetting program that generated power. Last summer, MB Foster led he added. One example is speeding the our printed galleys down at Futura workshops for programmers who wanted searches which would drive a call center. Press in Austin. But within four years to apply these fast indexes to a database. The innovation in FTS is that its search we worked on the bleeding edge of “They might do database architecture engine is implemented in the database. A desktop publishing, using tiny Macs and based on the kinds of retrievals they’d basic functionality level is included in the a LaserWriter and a 5GB shared disk that want to perform,” said CEO Birket Foster base product. Extended FTS is a licens- crashed as often as MPE/XL 1.0. And so at the time. DBFINDs, DBGETs, and ing option. the HP 3000 became a subject, rather DBINFOs in the Eloquence IMAGE com- This kind of fast indexing was once a than a tool we used ourselves. patibility module have extra commands third-party add-on speciality of compa- I am a little surprised that nobody has in 8.20. “If you have migrated and have nies like DISC, which sold Omnidex to yet picked up that N-Class 220, even this new database, we can help you take speed TurboIMAGE performance. The unlicensed, that Cypress Technology advantage of new features.” 8.20 Eloquence even has a separate offered via eBay. It seems quite the bargain Inside the new Eloquence library for library to integrate four of the most com- for somebody who wants genuine HP iron. IMAGE/3000: mon Omnidex ODX calls. But for a tinkering editor, or someone who DBFIND mode 1 may be used to Other features being explored in the wanted to check a command or syntax or ensure compatibility with existing appli- new version include database encryp- filesystem processes, the freeware A202 cations tion and item masking. The latter masks might do. New TPI DBGET modes obtain the Fast or blanks sensitive information upon I’d love to hear when that N-Class server Text Search results retrieval. Database managers can control sells. It’s the lowest price I’ve ever seen for DBGET modes 5 and 6 help you check user authorization for masking. These one of these ultimate 3000 models. Only compatibility with existing applications enhancements help secure sensitive something free — but unable to work in A TPI DBINFO has enhanced 8xx information to help meet the credit card production — could be less expensive. modes to support FTS PCI DSS requirements.

The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 17 Program toward legacy with legacy dev tool Popular Programmer Studio did not survive into he understood the software had not survived the HP purge. current era of 3000 development But for that matter, that kind of afterlife is where other 3000 software resides today. The developer of the Programmer Good tools don’t always survive bad times. When HP pulled Studio has moved on to other things, according to the Whisper its plug from the 3000 dynamo, popular development tools Technology founder Graham Wooley. In 2009 he said began to slide. One of our favorite COBOL legends and 3000 Unfortunately Whisper Technology is no more. As the consultants, Bruce Hobbs, was looking for ways to connect to developer, Greg Sharp had looked after Whisper and the legacy community for such a dev tool, Programmer Studio. Programmer Studio by himself for the last three years, but he “I have a vague recollection that you published something has now moved on to other things and the company has now awhile back regarding the demise of Whisper Technology, closed. and the situation for anyone now interested in using the The UK’s Whisper built and promoted the Programmer Studio Programmer Studio product,” Hobbs said. “Could you please PC-based toolset, then sold it as a development environment point me in the right direction?” which understood exchanges with the 3000, but could also be The genesis of Programmer Studio comes from the days used to create programs under Windows. Robelle responded when HP was still buying print ads for the HP 3000 in the promptly with a Windows version of Qedit, and for more than general computer industry trade press. Ads that astounded the five years the 3000 ecosystem had a lively competition for installed base — like the one at left — because they were so programming tools. rare, and resonated so well with the established consumers. Survival is one of the better measurements of quality, but The 3000 had giant corporations using it, something HP had to good technology sometimes has to succumb to business issues admit from time to time while it labored to create a business and investment strengths. Such was the case for HP’s business computing market for Unix. Whisper popped up often when we with the 3000 and MPE. Like Programmer Studio, MPE is no surveyed the legacy developer community in December. This longer supported by its creators. Unlike Programmer Studio, is unsupported software, but MPE has third party support, it’s still in use at the occasional as well as an emulation engine programmer’s bench, such as being sold this year. These things the one that Michael Anderson are markers of survival. operates at J3K Solutions. An experienced 3000 “I was never much developer like Hobbs probably for purchasing tools for won’t care much about support development. However, since for a programmer’s tool. Wooley’s the late ‘90s onward, I used company was a lively bed of 3000 Programmer Studio from ardor in the 1990s. At one point, Whisper Technologies as a he placed a bet with Adager’s “character based” editor. In Alfredo Rego. Wooley was so the latter years of working on concerned about HP’s treatment MPE, the languages I used also of the 3000 in 1993 that he included Java, Perl, and SQL. wagered with Rego that HP “To date I still use Programmer wouldn’t advertise the system — Studio to develop software on the mostly as a prod for HP to do so. HP 3000, HP 9000, and flavors Wooley lost his bet, happily, when of Unix including Linux. Now Hewlett-Packard put ads in both that I am using languages like US and European publications for JavaScript with HTML and CSS, the 3000 at the 11th hour of that Programmer Studio knows these, year. as well as COBOL, Suprtool and An abandoned but beloved Quiz.” product is usually passed along (In a bit of circular technology, from one user to another, with the Robelle programming tool for each exchange marking another the HP 3000, Qedit for Windows, step into the public domain. HP’s also knows a lot about Suprtool been vigilant about MPE to keep — since Suprtool is also a the OS out of this sort of drift. Robelle product.) People admire it in the same “But today I don’t use the In an era when HP was still placing ads like this one in way that Programmer Studio HP 3000 much any more, nor mainstream computer media, some tools had their heyday advocates praise that product. Windows,” Anderson added. “For The difference is that you’ll years Programmer Studio kept me tethered to Windows as still be able to buy support for MPE from independent my favored editor. Recently I’ve started using JEDIT on Linux. professionals, some of whom have a source code license for JEDIT doesn’t know how to access the HP 3000, so for that I the software. Adager is on that source code holder list. So are still use Windows along with Programmer Studio.” the indie support firms Pivital Solutions, Allegro Consultants, Authors and creators tend to dig in with their tools. Hobbs Beechglen Development and Terix. They are all eating their asked about Programmer Studio because of its reputation, but Wheaties, surviving into our new era. 18 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog Good tools making an impact, then and now By Brian Edminster Adager. This even allows transforming the data types, in Applied Technologies addition to adding new elements or sets. But there are still very useful tools that remain on any HP I was always jealous of shops that could afford good tools. 3000 which still has Predictive Support. Tools you might not Let me explain. Awhile back, I read about HP’s history of know you’ve got. trying to launch a successor to IMAGE. It was supposed The Predictive Support files in the SYS account include to be called HPIMAGE. It was supposed to be slicker two very useful tools. While auditing the content of a than... well, it was supposed to have all the ability to system, I found : dynamically index and/or restructure your data that a PSQUAD.PRED.SYS (yep, that’s a March 1992 ‘CM’ modern SQL relational database management system version of Quad, the customizable editor credited as allows, without being developed by Jim Kramer of Quest Systems and There are still very losing the speed Kenneth Stout of Summit Information Systems). It’s no and robustness QEDIT, to be sure. But Quad sure beats having to use useful tools that that makes TurboIMAGE EDIT/3000. famous. I can recall a There’s also PSUNLDDB.PRED.SYS and PSLDDB.PRED.SYS. remain on any HP few times that having Believe it or not, these are re-named versions of DICTDBU and 3000 which still has the ability to dynamically DICTDBL! restructure a database To use these, Predictive Support. (while it’s in production!) copy PSUNLDDB.PRED.SYS to DICTDBU.PUB.SYS, would have been handy. copy PSLDDB.PRED.SYS to DICTDBL.PUB.SYS, and Tools you might not (See: zero downtime) copy DICTCAT.PRED.SYS to DICTCAT.PUB.SYS know you’ve got, for Then again, a well Okay, perhaps moving these files is bordering on unintended designed database in use, and not considered kosher. In that case, set a file equation editing and low-caliber a stable application for the catalog (file dictcat.pred.sys=dictcat.pub.sys), and alter database management normally shouldn’t need file and group security so you can run the files as they sit. that sort of thing with any Either way, this gives you a tool that beats DBUNLOAD/ sort of regularity. Lately, I’m seeing the need to re-structure/ DBLOAD for database capacity maintenance and manipulation alter indexing as a symptom of not knowing your data’s — if should you be unfortunate enough to not have the proper demographics and/or designed usage patterns — especially as tools like Adager, or even DBGeneral. Every version of MPE the application’s data volumes grow. already has a licensed version of those OS tools anyway. This need to restructure is also a side-effect of trying to use a Applied Technologies consults on 3000 projects and special- single database both as an operational data store (current data izes in open source solutions for automation and homesteading. only, for day to day production), as well as for research/reporting data warehousing — where the data is relatively static, but may go back years. Again, that’s lazy What’s New at Robelle design. Don’t try to make a sports car • Suprtool & Qedit run on Stromasys Emulator have the hauling capacity of a truck. You’ll end up with neither. • Robelle introduces Suprtool scripting services What changes we did need to make, • SuprtoolOpen Linux has been shipped and were done with: demos are available 1) DBUNLOAD/DBUTIL, PURGE/ DBSCHEMA/DBUTIL, CREATE/DBLOAD • HP-UX/Open Suprtool supports 512 fields — if we were poor (and couldn’t afford • $SubCount function added to all versions Adager or other similar tools), or 2) DICTDBU/DBUTIL, PURGE/ of Suprtool DBSCHEMA/DBUTIL, CREATE/DICTDBL. • Extract has three new functions $first/$last This allowed unloading to a tape or disk file — so if we had enough free space, we and $all could skip using tape, and it was much • June 2013 Newsletter at faster! Also allowed simple re-structuring of the database. robelle.com/newsletter/latest.pdf We could do the adding, moving, deleting, and changing the type of For more information contact Neil datasets; and adding/removing paths, [email protected] or Tammy and/or re-arranging order of items in a set. Unfortunately, this was only present [email protected] if we were lucky enough to be users of Dictionary/3000, or the HP Customizer 888-762-3553 technology products like MM or HP’s Financial software. 3) Best and fastest of all, Model 2 robelle.com The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 19 Charon emulator days not so early after all With customers ordering license transfers already, “It’s to Stromasys credit they’ve been able to distribute this Adager sees the HPA version arrive on schedules news about it,” Woc said. “Our customers have made the decision to go ahead with it. It’s beyond testing. It’s between “It’s early days,” say more than a few community vendors decision and testing, and then putting it to work. We’ve gotten about the lifespan of the Charon HPA/3000 emulator. They point very encouraging signals, and not necessarily from hobbyists. to a lack of reference accounts. Some note that no third parties From actual companies that are at different stages. People have are engaged to teach and train and support the virtualization moved on from testing to ordering their license transfers [from solution. Even the vendor acknowledges the our company]. performance of this 3000-on-Intel magic “It’s just another MPE “People have called to order a trial needs to surpass the power of a 4-way N-Class Adager license” as a result of Charon system. machine,” Adager’s HPA/3000 testing, he explained. “At this stage But it’s not early according to Adager’s CEO Rene Woc reported. it’s taking off. As far as tangible results right Rene Woc. We tried out the accepted wisdom now, I think it has a good psychological effect. and found him pushing back on the popular “We’re treating the People feel comfortable knowing that they’re view. It’s misguided, by the reports he’s getting not facing a closed future.” from customers small, medium and very emulator just like HP Yogi’s comment about the future that “ain’t large. He reached out for a Yogi Berra quote 3000 hardware.” what it used to be” was a darkening one in the to guide his outlook. “The future ain’t what it old days of software and systems. A computer used to be,” Yogi said. That’s especially apt when customers fell out of product lineup, then the vendor ended support. are gathering license data for your software, to be used on The customers fled and the independent software community Charon. Or when they share their curtailed intentions, which is to keep MPE support. Now software running well into that the future future. How different that future is, includes many than it used to be. years of 3000 “These are customers getting production for information about our license these license- transfer plan. “It’s just another transferring MPE machine,” Woc reports. “We customers. are treating the emulator just And Woc said like 3000 hardware,” he said. As that customers well-chronicled by now, there’s include some no technical issues in complete very large emulation. “Our customers didn’t come across any issues,” Woc corporations, said. Given the reputation of the Adager labs — a tight-knit because A lineup displayed at the Training Day shows group that uncovered the last, corruptive bug in IMAGE and Adager has Charon has abilities starting to approach alerted HP to spark a repair — “no problems” means Charon always been N-Class power, as well as two models to bring runs as expected. in shops 6-way and 8-way 3000s to market soon. Adager charges a $975 license very large and very small. transfer fee to move Robelle is on the Stromasys software from one bandwagon too. These kinds of HPSUSAN number software products don’t make to another. The up applications off the shelf. software does not But to be honest, software cross check with off the shelf has not been the an HPCPUNAME, 3000’s specialty for a long so moving the time. Ecometry and MANMAN HPSUSAN to the aside, and a few dozen Amisys emulated server, sites, the 3000 keeps working plus that transfer on customer-written apps. fee, covers the Only these tool providers, extent of Adager’s like VEsoft and its MPEX operations. This — need to agree to licenses is one vendor that for Charon. The rest of the 3000 users don’t solution is code a customer have to work out a owns because they’re built it license with. One Stromasys brought executive resources to the Social and Training Event that themselves. of many who see were new to the 3000 community. At the Tied House brewpub social, General The emulator product “takes continuing business Manager Bill Driest expands on virtualization’s potential with a customer the pressure off in the sense coming out of prospect, while in the background, CEO Ling Chang talks market and tech that it refutes MPE cannot be emulated 3000s. details with veteran 3000 consultant Eric Sand of Sandsoft. continued,” Woc said. “It will 20 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog HP launches Moonshot and its chair into orbit By Ron Seybold sales fell $245 million, a decline that Back in 1990 I rode a tour boat into was led by the continuing troubles at the San Francisco harbor. As a reporter for HP CEO Meg Whitman told analysts Business Critical Systems (BCS) unit. The Chronicle, I was being hosted at the at its Q1 quarterly report briefing, “The “The Itanium challenges within BCS HP CIMinar, for Computer Integrated patient shows signs of improvement. We are still with us,” said CFO Cathy Lesjak. Manfacturing. Hewlett-Packard had a did better than we expected we would, “There are key challenges still out there.” press liasion, Charlie Preston, who told and I think we should be encouraged by When one analyst noted that the profit me the company pined for a day when it that.” Just a few weeks later, Hewlett- margins for the Enterprise Group have would manufacture little to nothing. Packard moved its chairman Ray Lane dropped for nine straight quarters, “It’s all in software and services, out of board leadership, if not completely Ron,” he said. The boat was having a off the board. Not long after that, a new hardware failure at the time, a total loss generation of servers lifted off. of power within sight of the famous San Lane was brought in to Hewlett- Francisco Embarcadero Pier. While we Packard’s board to refocus HP on the bobbed and HP kept filling our glasses, software marketplace. The company Charlie explained that the real power could see that its era of hardware of computing was in services and margins was fast declining, and all of the software. “In 10 years we don’t want highest hopes were aimed at the non- to be manufacturing much, including physical product. The actions to purchase computers,” he said. Palm for its WebOS, as well as Autonomy New board leadership will be launching for five times as much as Palm’s $2 HP’s new Moonshot 1500 server about the same time as the newest of HP billion, were the realization of a long- hardware, the Moonshot. time HP dream. But with the introduction Whitman laid the first pile of blame upon The servers are evidence HP R&D is of the new Moonshot series of hardware, Business Critical Systems, the unit where still striving to boost the company with the company may be rising back to its HP sold 3000s until it dropped the server proprietary advantages. The Moonshot natural waterline. 10 years ago. 1500 — yeah, half of the numeral used Even though HP halted its quarters of “The negative factor is the decline of for MPE/iX hardware — is driven by low- red ink at two — Q1 delivered a profit of BCS,” Whitman said. “It was a big and power, smartphone-caliber Atom chips, $1.2 billion, compared to the loss of $8 profitable business, and you see that it’s which usually go into mobile devices. billion in the previous quarter — the top declined by 24 percent year over year. A Moonshot is about the size of an management delivered a dire report on The good news is that we’ve got the best envelope, a supercomputer that can pack business server enterprises at HP. Sales product lineup we’ve had in a long time hundreds of servers into a single system. dropped company-wide by 6 percent in [the Enterprise Group.]” HP is building computing hardware again to $28.4 billion. Its Enterprise Group HP wanted to exit hardware long ago. that don’t mimic anything. Emulator’s Days (Continued from facing page) run on the latest and greatest Intel hardware.” He added that VMware, part of the solution, “is a fully supported product. From that point of view, I think people feel confident they have an option — knowing also that the [off the shelf] 3000 applications have very little development. The shops that depended on Ecometry and the like know they will still have an engine to keep running their business.” If the economy fully recovers, some of these emulator sites will move ahead with migrations. But that might be delayed, as has been the case for many years by now in the community. “We will see,” Woc said. The revitalization mes- “If they can still handle sage that Stromasys their business, even after kicked off at the Training that, they may just stay. Day and Social Event in If a new business model comes up, like mail Mountain View pitched order became ecommerce so many years the virtualized HP 3000 ago. It’s so hard to predict.” These days are as an improved version of early for some third party application users. the classic MPE/iX server, For others, it’s a matter of scheduling an where existing applica- emulator product that’s a small fraction of tions, layered surround the cost of a migration — both in capital code software tools, and cost, as well as a price of disruption of what the OS all experience no isn’t the future, but present day. changes. The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog 21 Spring 2013 Articles — Only on the Blog Migration How to Conduct a Security Assessment Apr 25, 2013 How app portfolios increase career value Apr 23, 2013 3000 endurance replaced easier than yours Mar 27, 2013 Review a plan for modernizing to migration Mar 26, 2013 People as old as most 3000 veterans can marvel at what the Modern COBOL awaits in migrations Mar 4, 2013 Web has brought since we began our careers. These days I talk A Thorough Chill of the OS Business Feb 28, 2013 to experts who started computing when modems were 110 baud, instead of the networked 18 gigabits that don’t even require Some version management required Feb 27, 2013 a modem. We upgraded our Internet speed pipe here at the Where Everybody Knows Your CPUNAME Apr 19, 2013 NewsWire, a company that has always called our house its home. Decommissioned data forgotten in migration Apr 3, 2013 For 18 years, our back two side-by-side bedrooms have bristled AcuCOBOL’s bench is a means to transition Mar 22, 2013 with wires strung between the rooms of our offices, added for one new device or scheme. We upgraded our infrastructure, as an IT Homesteading manager would say; much is wireless. But we’ve been doing much more, changes with a senior future in mind. Perhaps like you. Virtualization, Emulation and the Cloud May 15, 2013 Abby and I are doing our latest, largest renovation of our Who’ll Be Social and Train, and Why May 8, 2013 36-year-old house this spring. It’s a task with details, surprises, The Kind of License that Still Matters May 6, 2013 planning and delight in the results. This morning while I write, Value Hidden, and Uncovered May 2, 2013 we are watching new Ikea cabinets rise in a kitchen that was Why There are Always Parts Available Apr 16, 2013 gutted, but still working before the demo of tile countertops and Plug in Linux Appliances for 3000 backups? Mar 21, 2013 a stove and oven with many turkeys and pies in its history. We Freeware emulator user reaches for support Mar 15, 2013 have moved walls, painted and removed the antiquated ceiling popcorn, watched the Next weekend, it’s all in the 3000’s timing Mar 1, 2013 sculpture of drywall floating and mudding, Forms? Are we still talking forms in 2013? Feb 25, 2013 the art of tiling with glass. On and on The magic code for licenses HP never sold May 13, 2013 it goes, from a ‘70’s bathtub to a steam shower, from chipped and unforgiving floor Your System’s History tile to nature-friendly bamboo, to creating a space where my lovely yogini can practice HP’s 3000 virtualization was MOST-ly done May 14, 2013 her stretching arts in a guest room with a Goodie box delivers 3000 skills, tools May 3, 2013 Murphy bed to make a studio floor appear. Long ago my friend Birket Foster had his Newsmakers kitchen in his Chesterville home remodeled. This too was a house where a business Ron Seybold, Editor Who Will Come to the Emulator’s Party May 1, 2013 grew up. The basement of his first location Stromasys Social meets at historic brewery Apr 12, 2013 had 3000s networked into racks and employees who arrived at Stromasys to get social to train for Charon Apr 8, 2013 the kitchen door to sell and create software and follow a vision. After his remodel, Birket began to compare a big project like MPE’s Hidden Value migration or renovation to a remodel. You succeed, he always said, with a great plan and a good guide. Abby and I have been How to Shift a 3000 from FTP to SFTP Apr 30, 2013 lucky to have both of these, but the most important is our general SM for Everyone! Apr 15, 2013 contractor, designer and now Living a Privileged 3000 Life without SM Apr 5, 2013 friend, Kristi Copeland. She left the world of software at Convio Privileges litter the path to passed audits Apr 4, 2013 to follow her dream of building Change your clocks, all the time Mar 8, 2013 the dreams of others. It’s been newswire.com/blog more than four months since Users & Reports we started to work together. My mantra by now, when a cabinet doesn’t quite meet a ceiling or Socializing can lead to contained footprints May 9, 2013 a steam unit delivers Error Code 5 or the automatic closet light Hope floats today for a 3000 resurrection Mar 29, 2013 misbehaves — my confidence comes from, “Kristi will know.” Emulator connects to terminals, POC efforts Mar 20, 2013 I hope that even in this era of Web brilliance, when the sparkle Emulator earns exam for test databases Mar 6, 2013 of IT wisdom is a click away, you can find your own Kristi. She Where You Can Check for 6 and 7.x Feb 22, 2013 blazes through updates via email and texts and shops the Web with passion, so the Internet is making our transition possible on Web Resources our modest budget. Having someone who will know saves more than money, however. It saves relationships between partners. OpenMPE’s afterlife lives on a live server Mar 28, 2013 Abby and I do not need all the knowledge and experience so Searching for help in all the right places Mar 25, 2013 essential to transforming our office and home. We rely on our Fix- It-Chick, something you can find for your future, too. Get first notice of news on Twitter: @3000newswire 22 The 3000 NewsWire • May 2013 • 3000newswire.com/blog we remove

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