Sparks powers down 3000, opens Windows Connect user group president takes final steps away from MPE Steve Davidek, the president of the Connect user group and a veteran of 28 years on the HP 3000, has announced Independent HP 3000 Information November 2012 that his employer, the City of Sparks, Nev., has taken its last HP 3000 application offline. Initial freeware “It is with extreme sadness that I inform you that the City of Sparks, Nevada has powered off our last HP users enjoy first peeks 3000,” he said. “The last payroll has been processed, the last report has Early download impresses experts Watch the NewsWire’s blog for been printed and all relevant data has before revision for MPE pruning specific details on where to download been archived. the freeware. Stromasys officials said “This HP 3000 (a 969KS-220) went For less than 24 hours during the they will share that link for the FTP online September 22, 1996. Its second weekend of November, a servers which, during that November last day of use was July WIRE personal freeware release of weekend, were serving up files 6, 2012; powered down S .CO EW M the long-awaited ranging from 2GB to less than 500MB, October 10, 2012.” N / 0 B HPA/3000 emulator was depending on configurations. “In all these years 0 L 0 O available for download. The full commercial emulator is we only lost one 3 G Even though the not only available and fully tested, but power supply and for emulator performed installed at a reference customer site in one system board 3 above expectations on Australia. Product Manager Paul Taffel 0 G (lost when that power 0 the desktop PCs of two of Stromasys assisted in that install, one supply failed). Our 0 O early downloaders, the which appears to be the first instance N L first HP 3000 was E /B Personal Freeware files of the emulator working in a production- installed in September W M S O went offline before the class enterprise. (See our interview with 1980, a Series III. I’ll miss WIRE. weekend ended. Stromasys the manager at the customer site on this reliable and trustworthy was revising the download page 20.) system. My 28 years managing our package as this issue went to press. See Freeware peek, page 8 HP3000s have been the best.” The cut-away from the 3000 began amid cutbacks at the city. Just before Sparks started cutting things it signed New MPE software checks for a new financial system to get off the HP 3000. “Not that we wanted to, but we had to move forward,” Davidek said two years ago. He had been managing 3000s for PCI regulations HP 3000s which were supposed to be Allegro also offers iOS app to monitor servers on a subscription basis, offline in 2010, but homesteading has including a plan for moving to monitoring MPE/iX a way of occupying more of the future than companies expect. Allegro Consultants has released the latest in its lineup of HP 3000 software tools. Davidek made an early mark on the PassPCI2 is software which scans HP 3000s for unencrypted credit card numbers. 3000 community handling advocacy But to return to that lead for a moment: This is new software which runs on MPE/ issues for the Interex user group, iX. That’s a item all by itself. The 3000 has become a highly stable environment to use then moving his talents to Encompass in business computing. But part of that stability flows from the lack of change to the after Interex expired, and finally to system’s ecosystem. We haven’t seen a new app in awhile. the Connect group when that last Security and audits drive PassPCI2. Allegro’s president Steve Cooper said the product organization formed a few years ago. grew up from a customer’s need to pass audits on a 3000, security inventories which are For all of the devotion and experience needed to protect credit card numbers in IMAGE . Davidek admits for the 3000, it’s now The latest PCI2 compliance requirements demand that credit card numbers reside time for his shop — where he started in one of two states on a 3000: encrypted, or off the server completely. “There are lots as an operator and now manages a of ways to do encryption on the HP 3000,” Cooper says. The new product ensures that everything in every field of every record can be scanned for the 13-to-16-digit signature See Sparks, page 7 See Fresh MPE software, page 8 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 November 2012 Changing Five Initial freeware emulator users enjoy first peeks — An early release of the Stromasys HPA/3000 Personal Freeware edition impressed a few experts in a first peek weekend before the download package was pruned and refined — 1 Things keeps us Sparks powers down 3000, open Windows — The president of the Connect user growing stories group and a veteran of 28 years on the HP 3000, has announced that his employer, the City of Sparks, Nev., has taken its last HP 3000 application offline — 1 For the past 11 years I’ve written a New MPE software checks 3000s for PCI regulations — Allegro Consultants story during the month of November has released the latest in its lineup of HP 3000 software tools. PassPCI2 is software about the greatest natural disaster your which scans HP 3000s for unencrypted credit card numbers — 1 community experienced. It’s shameful A New Media for a New Millennium, by Brian Edminster — If you get over the and inappropriate to compare the end belief that backups must be on a different type of media, disks make sense — 6 of 3000 futures at HP, announced on November 14, 2001, as anything like Intel aims Itanium at Xeon’s chip standards — As it introduces the 9500 Superstorm Sandy. Lives haven’t been Itanium chips, the chipmaker says there will be shared technology between Itanium lost. But livelihoods have been, at least. and HP’s own industry standard for processors, the Xeon family — 9 More than a decade after that business- HP flies its Fink just as Poulson pokes up — The departing head of the embat- only decision, we all are suffering tled Business Critical Systems unit takes over as the leader of HP Labs — 10 through the changes HP dished out — 28 years ago, I found wood-pan- during that fall. First 3000 steps: Chasing the Mighty Mouse As it turns out, fall was also the season eled walls around a desk with no terminal, no keyboard, and no clues about a new when we launched the 3000 NewsWire. HP 3000 coiled and ready to change the system’s reach into offices — 12 The mashup of creation memories with Moving Migration Data: Crews and Tools — Outsourced expertise and 3000 what HP’s always called “end of life” veterans helped serve up Arby’s data onto a new flavored platform — 14 makes for a complicated time. The same NorCal Transit will run its 3000 route again — No timetable to end its run — 14 energy, change, gave the community our printed publication as well as HP’s exit It’s About Time, by Gilles Schipper — Time changes are seasonal skills — 15 announcement just six years later. Application Portfolio Management, by Birket Foster — HP 3000 sites can use But we have survived along with you, the strategy to earn a place at the company’s boardroom table — 17 although the suffering metaphor to An Emulator to Speed, Protect and Serve — IS manager at the first production powerful climate change storms will stop install of the Charon emulator reports on the performance and risk benefits — 20 right here. It was scary and uncertain in those first months after a surprising The Wide World of the Web — 22 announcement that wasn’t a surprise to some skeptics. Now we all are crossing We thank the following sponsors of The 3000 NewsWire whose support of the into our 12th year beyond Nov. 14. And HP 3000 community has made this issue possible. Support them to support us. this month we are watching a virtual Phone Page 3000, the HPA/3000, take its first steps into even more years to come. Adager...... 208-726-9100 ...... 24 However, we used to mark our Fresche Legacy ...... 514-747-7007...... 7 newsletter’s anniversary with our Genisys Corporation ...... www genisyscorp. com...... 12 October printed issue. Within five years Marxmeier Software AG ...... www m. arxmeier com. /eloquence ...... 5 of the HP exit plan, our printed editions MB Foster Associates ...... 800-ANSWERS ...... 23 evolved to quarterly products, rather MPE Support Group...... www mpesupportgroup. com...... 11 than monthly. We have sponsors and Pivital Solutions ...... www pivit. alsolutions com...... 4 readers who prefer to read this vehicle in Robelle ...... 888-762-3553 ...... 19 print. Amazon sells a lot of paper, even ScreenJet...... www screen. jet com...... 9, 14 in 2012. But the trend is toward online the Support Group inc...... www supgrp. com...... 2 reading. It’s why we moved our reporting How to contact the 3000 NewsWire toward the news blog more than seven years ago. By the time you read this, we Editor ISSN 1521-124X will be crossing the milestone of 2,000 Ron Seybold ([email protected]) 512-331-0075 The 3000 NewsWire is published Twitter: @3000newswire • Skype: ronseybold four times yearly, plus electronic stories reported on the blog. That’s Publisher updates, by 3000 NewsWire LLC. happened in less than half the time the Contents of this publication may Abby Lentz ([email protected]) not be reproduced in any form NewsWire has published. Homesteading Editor: Gilles Schipper without express permission of the Just like many of you remain connected At-Large Editor: Birket Foster publisher. Non-bylined articles are written by the editor. Publisher to using the HP 3000 as a mission- News blog with business-day reports: 3000newswire.com/blog believes all information printed critical tool, we remain devoted to print. here to be true, but cannot assume My partner Abby and I cut our publishing Archived news & tech articles: 3000newswire.com/searchnw.html responsibility for errors. © 3000 Voicemail, alternate e-mail: 512.331.0075; [email protected] NewsWire LLC. All rights reserved. teeth in an era where paper and ink were Deliveries & mail: 11702 Buckingham Road, Austin, TX 78759 Printed in the U.S.A. See Changes, page 4 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 3 evenings, my writers often prefer to buy 5. People are not loving and loyal all Changes e-books. the time. Change is one of the great forces for Many of us are moving into the third (Continued from page 3) good in the world, and so we can embrace act of our lives by now, so it’s a good time the only means to spread news. Outside of it and be happy in the growth it promotes. to turn pages and see how these Five our offices, a massive mailbox still stands But it takes an open mind and instruction Things have already applied to the lives next to the curb. It’s large enough to hold to adopt such an advanced skill. One we’ve led together, as co-owners of an a dozen tabloid-sized trade pubs. We had printed book sitting on my nightstand is HP business computer without peer, or nothing else but paper, which deserves The Five Things We Cannot Change, and as a storytelling writer and editor and his an honorable place in our business plan, the Happiness We Find Embracing Them. readers across more than 17 years. even in 2012. This paper still breaks news Control and predicting are two skills I’ve Every computer ever made will change, that subscribers read first, even before often found in our community’s members. and its lifespan will someday end. Yours the blog. They’re a natural for a journalist. But did change, and it will end. Like you, we’re cutting against the grain those things stand in the way of growing. Things do not always go according to by sticking to some print. In Detroit and It’s important to know the Five Things. plan, like the Powerpoint slides you saw New Orleans, daily papers are no longer 1. Everything changes and ends. and believed in August of 2001, charts daily in printed versions. Newsweek just 2. Things don’t always go according to predicting the future. Or the plans that chose to stop printing, taking its news plan HP worked at, with some gusto, to make services completely online. Even at the 3. Life is not always fair the 3000 a good alternative to the endless writing workshop sessions I lead in the 4. Pain is a part of life fixing of Windows and business servers. There’s the fact that investing in 3000 skills and servers during Y2K was unfair, in the light of seeing that server abandoned by HP less than two years later. The end of HP’s 3000 plans inflicted pain on paychecks, on company budgets and survival. Perhaps hardest of all, we’ve all learned that people are not always loyal all the time. Or their loyalties shift away from ours, while they protect their jobs. So knowing all this, there are graces that flow from the Five Things. From endings and change, things renew themselves and evolve. We can sense a larger plan at work when smaller ones fail. We remain committed to fairness, as unfairness helps us defend that. We expand our powers by enduring pain. And even in the face of not getting the loyalty we deserve, we don’t have to stop our own loyalty, or the love of what we adore. Nothing can take away your capacity for loyalty and love. These are higher ideals, but you can see how they apply to a community whose greatest stories are still to be written. There’s a memoir series afoot to celebrate the 3000’s roots. There’s the rise of an emulator to eliminate any need for a vendor’s good business sense. There is also a compassionate and ever-wiser font of vendors and consultants, to aid in your evolution to whatever is next. This month will not be the last time we recount the story of how the 3000’s future changed. We cannot change that day, but there are many other things we’ll change because of it. We’ll evolve because we still can count on good roots. Abby and I are delighted to have chronicled them for these years of change and transition. Thank you for your devotion and attention. We’ll see you again in print in 2013. — Ron Seybold 4 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 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] A New Media for a New Millennium By Brian Edminster on a tape media, and as a cold boot/OS Why? Because of advances in backup Applied Technologies load medium. software. Once you get over the deeply ingrained MPE/iX has always had (by Second in a series belief that backups must be on a different comparison) a relatively sophisticated type of media, this starts to make sense. backup/restore tool baked in. These That’s right. I’m not going to be Really, backups are nothing more than familiar tools are STORE and RESTORE. discussing CD or DVD technology, nor a point-in-time copy of your important If you were willing to pay extra, you Magneto-optical devices, although files — in a way that is recoverable. could buy a version of STORE that had they were really cool when they came Doing backup to tape isn’t the only way additional capabilities, like: backup of out — and MPE/iX even supported one to achieve this goal. open files (online backup), compression, (check out the help text for STORE)! The Back in the days of 16bit MPE, it was and the ability to do store-to-disk. reason why I won’t be covering them is even possible to configure a disk drive as This last capability — store-to-disk the same reason that Magneto- a ‘Serial Disk’ — and write to it — is where STORE would use the Posix optical devices aren’t in general like it was a very fast tape! The facilities in MPE/iX to write to one or use today — in the HP 3000 Series 3x and 4x families of HP more disk files, each a maximum of 4Gb shops that remain: It wasn’t a 3000s also were available with a per ‘chunk’ — by appending a numeric surviving/enduring technology. It’s 8-inch floppy drive configured as digit suffix on second and subsequent not ubiquitous. I’ll bet that many a serial disk, and it could be used chunks, in order to make the backup. As didn’t even know it was ever an to boot the system, or do (very) long as you had enough free space on option. small backups. Somewhere, I still the target volume set, you could do your This is not what I’d call a media for the have a 10 diskette set containing MPE/V backup to disk. new millennium. used to boot up the first MPE based Effective with MPE/iX 6.0 and 6.5, this What is turning out to be the new system I owned — an HP 3000 Series important store-to-disk feature was made media of choice for backups — is almost 30. And yes, on rare occasion I would available as part of the FOS via way of counter-intuitive. I remember thinking, use the floppy drive serial disk to backup patches from HP. In versions 7.0 and 7.5, “you’re going to be backing up all your small files (usually individual source store-to-disk has been included in the disk files — to, to... disk? You’ve gotta be files). base release. crazy!” The MPE/iX message catalogs still In our next installment, we’ll discuss Yes, that’s correct. I now believe that have a section for Serial Disk errors, best practices in using this new before long, tape/DDS will only be used implying that it does support serial disks, capability: to make your backups execute as a transport medium between systems or at least — did at one time. I’ve never faster, and to completely automate your that are NOT connected via a network heard of anyone configuring a late-model backups. (i.e., a latter-day sneaker-net), for SCSI drive as a serial disk. And truth be Imagine never never having to change retrieval of archive/backup files already told, it’s really not necessary anymore. a backup tape again!

city’s finances. app launched in the late ‘70s. That 3000 Sparks “Back then, the finance department was turned off in 2010. That year the city decided they wanted a new system that was accessing a 3000 “almost daily, just (Continued from page 1) didn’t involve IT. But what they picked for history. They’ll do that until we’re off staff that handles hundreds of PCs and out couldn’t handle the job of General the 3000s totally, about 18 months from several dozen Windows servers — to Ledger. We ended up going back to the now,” Davidek said. move into the world 3000 after being off “I watched us go from terminals to of Windows. I watched us go from it for a year with GL. where we are today. It’s moving forward, Davidek has It was still running and you’ve got embraced change terminals to where we are payroll. to keep moving with a sense of “As HP was forward. You can’t humor about today. It’s moving forward, slowly ramping down, block modern setbacks, and in a and you’ve got to keep we realized that technology just 2010 interview with we needed a more because it might him, he chuckled moving forward. You can’t modern system,” be hard to manage. repeatedly while Davidek said in his That’s always been my thing: what’s the telling stories block modern technology interview. “Plus, next step that can make our jobs easier?” of revisions of just because it might be finances are really But even while the migration plans management plans important to the were at full throttle, Davidek was full of “We were hard to manage. city. Bi-Tech quit praise for the architecture and ability of supposed to be off developing on us 10 the citys fleet of 3000s. the 3000 five years ago,” he said. “We years ago. They were like others; if HP “Let me tell you — you just can’t beat did another upgrade to our financials, wasn’t going to support the 3000, they the way the HP 3000 runs. You can do Bi-Tech, something we’ve been running weren’t going to move forward.” so much more with the MPE operating for 18 years. We realized after we got The city’s system to handle its courts system. It’s so much more robust than going that the system couldn’t handle the was once running on a 3000, an in-house people ever realized. 6 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog Sparks (Continued from facing page) “But you can’t just keep looking at that. The city manager wants to use his iPad, connected to our network. We can’t just tell him no. We’ve got to look at the future, these handheld devices. You have to be able to look at your data from that level and at the desktop, laptops or whatever but look at it securely. The plan was to leave the 3000 connected for historic lookups, but the hardware hasn’t been cool about that idea. “We thought the We’ll make sure your I.T. 3000 would just be sitting here for history until we didn’t legally is still next generation have to keep the data around,” he said. “We were hoping to do that, but the box itself is making this two generations from now. difficult as it keeps overheating.” The HP 3000 IMAGE data has now In the tech world, 10 months ago may as well be 10 years. So if you’re still on been copied to an SQL database the HP e3000, it’s time to join the rest of us here in the future. and inquiries have been written to access the data. At Fresche Legacy, formerly known as Speedware, we can help. We understand As for the prospects of links how important it is to pass IT audits, open your applications to new systems between unmigrated community members, and assistance from and ultimately, grow your business. Our experts have done more than 700 HP the Connect user group, Davidek e3000 migrations and have worked with more than 200 different technologies. sounded hopeful. We have the tools and professionals to manage your legacy applications from “I think Connect can be a place initial analysis to complete modernization or provide outsource application where they can help each other. support services and beyond. And our beyond does much more than just Especially if they’re looking at migration issues. Or even keeping support your applications. We transform your applications as we support them things running, I’d love to have and make them ready to support your business for generations to come. That’s face to face meetings with 3000 business value the Fresche way. users like the ones we had in the OpenMPE meeting back in our Las No matter which option you choose, we can partner with you to future-proof Vegas conference in 2010.” your IT infrastructure. And do it right. Every time. That’s 100% referenceability. We’re the only legacy management company that can guarantee it. Automate notices Contact us today at www.freschelegacy.com to learn more. of 3000 news I.T. can make you smile. Links to reports on our NewsWire blog can arrive in your in-box, thanks to the reach of Twitter or the Emma email service. An automated feed of stories and news items arrives via Twitter. The tweets also include news links related to HP enterprise computing. From the Twitter website, follow us at 3000newswire. In addition to Twitter, several times a month a summary email can arrive in your inbox, carrying capsules of the latest stories with a link to each. Sign up for this reminder of our week’s news, with easy unsubscribes, with a “Mail news” email subject, directed to [email protected]. The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 7

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 the standard defines compliance elements which are not entirely Fresh MPE software certified. Major consulting firms like the Big Six (or really the Big Four, due to consolidation) promise PCI certifications. (Continued from page 1) However, these scans for cards are relatively new. If there’s of a credit card. Encryption is a matter for other tools. Removal of been no tools for a 3000, at least now there’s something to use the numbers from the 3000 is a more likely resolution. so a company can “complete and obtain evidence of a passing After a scan of the 3000, the Allegro software identifies any vulnerability scan with a PCI SSC Approved Scanning Vendor field that has a string of digits which produce a valid checkmod (ASV).” Allegro points that “While there are currently no known number, a figure recognized by credit card providers such as Visa. ASVs for the HP 3000, Allegro Consultants is in the process of You can look at a specific group, or account, or system-wide, applying for this certification, using our PassPCI2 product.” Cooper says, or all KSAM records or all databases. Allegro has also released what appears to be the first iPhone/ “We’ll go through looking for these strings of digits,” Cooper iPad app which will monitor any servers running HP’s Unix, Sun’s said, “which look like credit card numbers. Then we report our Solaris, Linux or the Mac OS. iAdmin has a few more operating findings at several levels.” PassPCI2 gives reports on which fields environments that it will touch, according to Allegro’s Stan Sieler. are discovered. The program searches disk drives for numbers “Of course, we’re working on adding MPE/iX support, as well as stored in files or databases — which if found, would put a 3000 in Windows,” said Sieler. violation of PCI2 compliance. iAdmin is an app that allows you to view the status of your Credit card compliance rules have been identified as a possible servers from anywhere your iOS device has connectivity. At trigger to starting a migration off a 3000. Encryption programs the moment, you can view your disk space utilization, drilling have been devised for MPE/iX, but this is the first product that down through your file systems and directories, to see where leads a search to finding these numbers. your disk space has gone, and also, get a glimpse into your CPU The PCI regulations have been both relentless and malleable performance. all at once. Relentless, because auditors cannot pass a system Allegro has designed iAdmin as a subscription service. “We which runs afoul of them. Any computer used in ecommerce or charge $9.99/month per system, with a discount for a longer credit card commerce must abide. But PCI is also fuzzy, because term,” Sieler says. “The first system is free for one month.”

7.5. Those two files require that a user conservative, I think. Freeware peek have a supported Linux environment “It booted up pretty speedily,” Scott (virtual or otherwise). Then you need added, “and seems to be quite zippy. (Continued from page 1) to install and configure the emulator You might get the VM to run on a 4GB The personal freeware edition had its and associate the disk file with it. The machine, though it would probably bumps during its first rollout to the 3000 2GB download has all of this done for take over most of the machine and community. Limited to 2 users and with you via a virtual machine that performance might not be as good dialed-back horsepower, the download contains Fedora 16, plus the installed especially if you’re running other included an MPE/iX disk image along and configured emulator which starts up programs simultaneously. But a 6GB with files to run in a VMware Player to when the virtual machine boots — to the machine seems fine, and the host disk enable an unzip-and-load experience. ISL> prompt, where you just need to type space is only around 11GB for the full VM Taffel said that early peek at the START.” (even though it’s got a virtual 20GB disk).” freeware included some MPE/iX ancillary Stromasys tech manager Peter ScreenJet’s Alan Yeo also was able software such as TurboStore and COBOL Ljungberg passed along hardware to download the freeware edition, but II which are not covered in blanket requirements for using the freeware. wondered how the users of non-7.5 freeware licensing. After releasing the • Intel i7/i5 or Xeon CPU with SSE4.1 subsystems like TurboStore would be download addresses for publication support; 2 GHz minimum, 3GHz or above able to work with the included MPE/iX by the NewsWire, Stromasys moved recommended; 8 GB RAM minimum. disk image. quickly to turn off the FTP addresses However, Scott tested the freeware on “Most people who may be interested while it worked on creating a download a PC with 6GB of RAM. He said it’s a Dell won’t be on 7.5,” he said. “They are more file that would remain within licensing T-7500 Precision Workstation with two likely to be on 6.0 or 6.5. So I have a restrictions. quad core hyperthreaded CPUs from 2-3 licensed HP 3000 running 6.5 and I want But during the few hours when the years ago. “It’s pretty beefy, but probably to try the emulator, and they ship a bare- freeware was alive, it impressed a pair not even as fast as a modern inexpensive bones 7.5 MPE, the more interesting of development veterans of the 3000 single CPU Quad core would be for this question is — how do they think I can community. Gavin Scott of Allegro application,” Scott said. use or move my 6.5 subsystem software was the first to report on the speed “I was a bit worried about their onto a 7.5-qualified emulator?” and functionality of the freeware. He minimum specs, but it turns our their VM Yeo performed the install but learned compared its speed to a much more is only configured for 4GB of RAM, so my that he “had to shut everything down advanced marker than a Series 918. 6GB system was able to launch it without and reboot before it would work.” He “I was able to get networking working, any problems,” Scott said. “I opened was connected to the emulator via and I can now upload and download files it in VMWare Workstation 8.0.3. You Attachmate/WRQ’s Reflection. to do things like performance tests.” could also use the free VMWare player, “The freeware ships with an Scott said. “The performance of the according to their instructions. HPUSERLIMIT = 2,” he added. “That’s a emulator appears to be similar to that of “With the VM up and the virtual read-only variable it can’t be changed. an original HP A-Class running MPE/iX, 3000 booted up completely, my system But they have done exactly what I think which is quite impressive.” is still only using a total of 5.11GB of is required for HP to ignore what they Scott said that the download was RAM for everything I have running. So have or haven’t included in the freeware “indeed a Charon virtual disk with MPE their hardware requirements are quite version, which I think is quite a lot.” 8 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog Intel aims Itanium at Xeon’s chip standards Future HP-UX chip models architecture. With the Intel 9500 customers was wearing thin. Oracle will share design, sockets with announcement, the chipmaker added tried to prove as much in its attempted industry standard that there would be shared technology pullout from Itanium development, but a between Itanium and HP’s own industry judge ruled against that ideal. However, HP has introduced a new generation of standard for processors, the Xeon family. the evidence submitted for the lawsuit Integrity servers powered by the Itanium Future generations of Intel Itanium trial showed HP’s Project Redwood 9500 chips, computers which will start processors will adopt an innovative documents were aimed at shoring up to ship in December. For the HP-UX “Modular Development Model” that Intel’s Itanium interests. The project was adopter of migration platforms, the enables deeper commonality between proposed before Oracle bought Sun, Integrity systems have been high-value, Intel Itanium and the Intel Xeon and Itanium sales have gone nowhere high-performing, and high-attraction processor E7 family, from shared but down since then. Those sales have computers. The servers are blazing fast silicon design elements to full-socket the advantage, however, of still being and a good value for a high transaction compatibility. This will provide a far more profitable than all of HP’s PC box (something crucial to 3000 more sustainable path for Itanium business. migrators). They’ve also been attractive development and greater design This “but it’s profitable” perch provided as in sticky. Because taking steps down flexibility for Intel’s partners. no safety for HP’s 3000 plans during the HP Unix path has meant treading the HP itself calls the Xeon server 2001. The 3000’s sales and installed tar-pit of Itanium. No other processor business Industry Standard. When base were not growing to ’s will run HP’s Unix. Intel starts to talk about taking steps satisfaction. And so the customers were However, Intel is starting to take to sustain Itanium development, it’s a given an “end of life announcement.” its own steps to open up the Itanium sign that the future being sold to HP See Itanium-Xeon, page 11 Imitation, the sincerest form of Philately?

See HP beats Oracle, next page

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 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 9 HP flies its Fink just as Poulson pokes up Departing GM of Business Critical a standard. HP calls the successful part Itanium, as well as the development of Systems unit takes lead tech role of its enterprise lineup the Industry technologies like digital photography Standard Servers. that launched new businesses for HP. Martin Fink because a lightning rod Poulson is not a standard, not any more Under his leadership, the lab played an among HP enterprise users over the past than its predecessors were. It might not integral role in transforming HP from an year. The former general manager of the be the final generation of Itanium, but instrument- and hardware-based company Business Critical Systems unit, which it could be the last one that will get a to one focused on software, systems and has led the HP enterprise sales slide for chance to win a new customer or two services. the last five quarters, was bumped into for HP enterprise datacenters. Adoption This was a period, however, when HP HP’s top engineer spot this month. HP of HP-UX in new sites is running close Software and Services didn’t change named the man who’d battled Oracle to nil, and so the denizens of VMS and the landscape the way those chips and over Itanium, and won, the leader of NonStop lands (where there is least environments had. HP’s tech word turns HP Labs and the company’s CTO. Those scant growth) are left to add customers away from very wide research, because are two positions which have never to Itanium ranks. Like the user groups by 2007 the Labs and HP R&D spending been combined at HP until this month. and HP marketers insisted all through has been eviscerated by CEOs Carly Personnel moves at HP can spark head- the previous decade, technologists don’t Fiorina and . So HP Labs gets scratching in 2012, but this one baffles hold sway over the industry anymore. the message to stop inventing things that me in a way that says something about This is why Fink will go to lead the Labs will change and direct alliances by putting the HP Way. following a far more technical set of Hewlett-Packard in a tech-leadership Fink took the reins of HP’s R&D predecessors. role which others want to follow. By empire just as Intel rolled out its latest Just in our era covering HP, here’s the 2007, the Labs are headed by a “serial — and maybe the last — upgrade to the list. entrepreneur.” Itanium chipset. Poulson arrives as the 1984-1986 Joel Birnbaum: A pioneer Unlike his forebears, Prith Banerjeee Itanium 9500 Series for Mission-Critical in the development of distributed (2007-present) became Labs leader as Computing. Way back in the history of HP, computer system architecture; real-time soon as he joined HP. He was “charged the HP Labs once worked on the keystone data acquisition, analysis and control with reorganizing HP Labs to better align of VLIW architecture, which it once called systems, and its research agenda with HP’s overall HP Wide Word. That work was turned Reduced Instruction business goals.” And since those goals over to the Intel Labs while the two Set Computer now deferred operating environments companies partnered. Of late, the HP (RISC) architecture. and computer architectures to outside Labs output runs to the world’s greatest Birnbaum joined HP companies, HP-UX and Itanium became device fans (and I’m not kidding about the Labs in 1980 and minimized players in the tech world. greatness) and experimental designs for became director Linux, Windows, Intel’s Xeon — all were chips that couldn’t be built in 10 years of in 1984. He was a preferred by the Board of Directors as continued research and design. top-flight director enterprise choices. To create, the Labs Although Fink’s unit will likely spill Martin Fink plucked from IBM’s went even further afield of what its even more sales blood in the figures to Director, HP Labs R&D efforts at RISC. everyday customers needed in research. be released at the start of Thanksgiving 1987-1991 Instead, Labs delivered “breakthroughs Week, he’s the man that HP’s Board of Frank Carrubba: An inventor of Reduced such as memristor research, sensing Directors has assigned to lift up R&D Instruction Set Computer (RISC) solutions (CeNSE), optical connections in the company. The CEO architecture. Led work on the first single- (photonics) and nanostores.” has spent much of 2012 saying HP ought chip implementation of HP’s Spectrum Whether any of that work makes its to be building tech instead of buying it. precision architecture, which powered way into product lines might be Fink’s Perhaps, since Fink’s line of business HP 3000s and HP 9000s for the next two challenge. The emphasis on software and relied upon a chip and an OS that were decades. cloud technology will doubtless occupy built out of HP’s wizardry, he’ll get the 1991-1999 Joel Birnbaum: Under his his plans. How HP promoted a general budget to demonstrate a new R&D gusto ‘84-’86 guidance the company further manager of a skidding business unit, with required for enterprises. developed PA-RISC, the first commercial some unit-level R&D management, into But to start off, he’ll want to backpedal RISC processor, and the client-server a storied position of HP’s DNA could be on one of his 2011 predictions on HP architecture. In this later term of service, considered mind-boggling. You can say technology development. It may not be an Birnbaum returned as senior VP of this much: winning that Oracle lawsuit HP Labs-caliber project, but you’d think research and development. Researchers didn’t hurt. But since software is now he’d head for his engineering throne with developed the architecture and much of HP’s first love, and the customers Fink’s a mission to make HP-UX run on Intel’s the technology for pervasive computing, left behind at BCS could really use an Xeon chips which power the ProLiant as well as the Wide-Word architecture HP-UX port, perhaps he’ll have an easy series. In other words, to make HP’s that became the basis of a partnership and early success at he called a $147 Unix an industry standard product. Long with Intel. million project in furtive emails about before Fink grew into a GM, HP-UX was 1999-2007 Dick Lampman: After 35 Oracle’s Itanium boycott. touted as a standard by Hewlett-Packard. years at HP, Lampman took over the It was a non-starter just year ago by A migrating HP 3000 site would do a lot Labs to manage key research efforts as his reckoning. “At this point there are no better with a Unix investment if it became PA-Wide Word, which was the basis for See Fink leads HP Labs page 21 10 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog needs and work hard to understand base that uses Xeon systems. Those Itanium-Xeon the HP roadmap, and work to put are computers which HP is also selling those together in a way that makes the to its migrating 3000 customers: HP’s (Continued from page 9) most sense for our customers and the ProLiant systems. By working on a In every company’s product line, all business” he said. “If an element of that melding of Itanium and Xeon, those products die one day — at least a death is delivering an HP 3000 on a PA-8900, software vendors may not be forced to of manufacturing. Then there’s some then that would be something we would choose between resources for Itanium loose cannons that cook up an emulator, obviously do. It’s a little early to talk (HP-UX) and resources for Xeon (Linux, and heaven knows when the 3000 will about availability of the 3000 with that Windows). see an end of life. [processor]. Watching is exactly what Make no mistake about who is Even if Itanium growth continues we’re doing: what happens in the overall acquiring whom in this tech merger. Xeon to decline, Intel’s fresh plans will market, and what happens in the HP is the larger entity and so will dole out its let the chipmaker keep developing product roadmap. tech essentials to the Itanium designers. new iterations of Itaniums. However, By 2005 a Unix user could finally adopt Don’t expect that socket compatibility to they’re likely to be more incremental an Itanium box that could outperform be an adoption of the Itanium designs, than innovative. Innovation requires even the 8900 PA-RISC server. or the shared silicon designs to promote marketplace growth. In HP’s world, as Itanium’s nuances on top of a Xeon well as Intel’s, growth is Xeon’s speciality. Easier for partners and vendors empire. The whole Intel enterprise will Yes, there are bona fide technical However, when you tease apart that keep HP from being forced to commit advantages to the Itanium designs. These Intel announcement of the Itanium to a port of HP’s Unix to Xeon, perhaps. are what make the processors a value for 9500 chip line, you’ll see a reference to That’s $147 million estimated by HP that an HP customer who’s all-in on Itanium. partners. That’s software partners as it will save, and maybe drive into Project It’s a chip family that’s been competitive in app builders, and hardware partners Odyssey. But the end result of Odyssey is for about seven years by now. It took including Itanium in servers. Instead of Linux environments, secured better and Itanium three years just to come even needing to maintain a separate software hosted on Xeon-based hardware — with with the performance of PA-RISC chips, design team for Itanium and Xeon (we’re all of your favorite characters from the the ones which powered HP’s ultimate looking at you, Oracle), developers might world of HP-UX. Now that HP’s promised edition of MPE/iX iron. The 3000s never reduce the amount of one-off work they the best of HP-UX in Odyssey, Intel’s gone got the PA 8900 chips that landed in HP’s do for an HP Unix application. Whenever and promised the best of Itanium in the Unix servers. Intel gets to “full-socket compatibility,” Xeon family. Twelve years ago, HP was not yet then the Itanium chips have a chance — These facts about the future are announcing Itanium IA-64 plans for the not a very big one — to find their way enough make a customer believe, if 3000. At that time there wasn’t even a into the higher ends of non-HP product they’re a HP Unix user who’s migrated clear case inside the vendor’s 3000 labs, lines. Because when you get out of the custom code to an Integrity box, that led by Dave Wilde, to get an 8900 into an HP and NEC product lines, it’s the rare there’s a migration waiting out there. MPE/iX box. Itanium chip to be found on a system’s We’d guess anytime after 2016, with We asked Wilde did he think he’d get motherboard. a 10-year “end of life” countdown to a PA-8900 processor in an HP 3000. As part of Intel’s announcement of the for HP-UX. MPE/iX got a nine-year At the time it was the last generation 9500, it mentioned 15 years of alliance countdown of that soft. For every product anybody’s willing to talk about in a with NEC on the chip’s designs. Software will see an end of life on a vendor’s price slide. Would HP need all that PA-RISC partners in the release were Oracle, SAP, list, after all. Perhaps its best elements headroom as IA-64 took shape? SAS and more. But these companies live on in emulation, or integration with “We try to understand our customer also develop for a much larger customer newer architecture. 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 • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 11 First 3000 steps: chasing the Mighty Mouse By Ron Seybold than 150 of these Mighty Mice among know they had one embedded in their its hundreds of stores in the Western systems, to the HP 9000 still running Twenty eight years ago I took my first US. At that time a was a Unix OS that writers of the day were steps into the world of Hewlett-Packard. strictly a device for personal computing, calling an experiment which needed I stepped from the workdays of a small rarely networked with anything. standards to become significant. town newspaper editor to the monthly HP wanted businesses to purchase The HP 3000 community was the one I quest for news of bits, segments, and HPWORD, running on the 3000 for office could call upon, literally. I didn’t know mice. When I walked into the Austin automation, and HP DeskManager for enough about what we’d call enterprise office of Wilson Publications, creators the 3000 to tie workers together with computer systems to contribute of The Chronicle (we didn’t dare to use internal mail and document exchange. much analysis, but I wanted to earn “HP” in the title) I found wood-paneled Thousands of dollars worth of software, my keep with interviews and editing. walls around a desk with no terminal, piled on top of that $20 grand. A comprehensive technical paper, no keyboard, and no clue about a new Just outside the door of my paneled printed out on tractor-feed paper, lay HP 3000 coiled and ready to change the office in Texas, we ran a Columbia PC in the in-basket, written by Adager’s system’s reach. with a 300-baud modem and WordStar, Alfredo Rego. I tore into it with a red The new Series 37 Mighty Mouse was plus PC 2622 software to make that pen, thinking I was improving it. But revealed to me and managing editor micro behave like an HP terminal. We misguided economy of English yanked the John Hastings about two weeks after I’d dialed up to timeshare with a 3000 at paper away from Alfredo’s intentions and assumed the reporting and writing for Futura Press, where our stories were set accuracy. Within six weeks he traveled that monthly tabloid, just eight issues and then delivered back to us in galleys through Austin and gave the local user old at the time. We opened the mail on which we waxed up and pasted for group entertainment and enlightenment, September 13 to learn of a all while telling me that leaving good covered by our arch-rival, the Interex technical work unmarred would have user group’s InterACT magazine. We’d served everyone better. never seen a Mighty Mouse, and neither Alfredo was gracious in his corrections had InterACT’s Sharon Fisher. But that afternoon, because it seemed InterACT got a pre-briefing on the first important to both of us to get things business computer HP ever built that right from the beginning. Once my ears needed no computer room or operators. and cheeks stopped burning I took a Being scooped in your first issue is closer look at the relations between tech a humbling way to start a news job. The HP 3000 writers and an editor still learning HP But as a dewy lad of 27, I chalked it 3000 landmarks. HP was fighting hard up to the lack of newsroom practices Memoir Project against the tide of IBM and at Wilson and began to lift my wings micros which were landing in businesses onto the radar of Hewlett-Packard. HP tabloid layout. It would be another year for less than half of what a Mighty Mouse was a company so small at the time before we’d even get Compuserve to link cost. That $20,000 price tag was for a that its total quarterly sales were less us to the rest of the computing world. system with 512K of memory and 55 than today’s profits from 2012’s last Like a lot of businesses, Wilson MB of disk. Oh, and “HP’s usual 90-day quarter. The $6.4 billion company had and The Chronicle relied more on the warranty.” The cost of support for the a total of five US PR contacts to cover steel filing cabinets the Mighty Mouse system was nowhere to be seen in that every product in the lineup. It also had mimicked in size. We had phones and InterACT article. several thousand products and more transcription machines, though, and HP dubbed its Mighty Mouse part of software than it knew how to nurture I had the fortune to mess up editing “a plan called the Personal Productivity and improve. But that Mighty Mouse a story which brought me closer to a Center that will integrate HP’s 3000 and was a shot across the bow of the fleet of preeminent community creator. Mistakes, personal computer products.” The latter personal computers already riding the hubris and getting bested will make was called HP 150, running a variation waves of change. HP said the Series 37, a perfectionist spend longer hours of CPM instead of the widely popular priced at under $20,000 in bare bones, trying to learn to avoid subsequent MS-DOS. It was a touchscreen computer was an alternative to what we called embarrassments. with little but HP software which could . Hewlett-Packard didn’t think much use the touch capabilities. When we “It can operate in a normal office of any other environment for its got one into the Chronicle offices it was environment. It looks like a two drawer business computing on that August a marvel — but the KayPro portable filing cabinet sitting beside a desk. No afternoon. Its HP 1000 RTE environment micros were where our stories got air conditioning, special temperature was focused on real-time controller banged out, doing work that created less control, or unusual electrical computing. Its HP 9000 Unix servers noise than the IBM Selectic used when requirements are needed. It can be were workstations serving scientific and I’d written for that small town paper. placed in carpeted rooms. Moreover, it’s research customers, mostly, plus the labs The rich resource I didn’t expect on very quiet; HP claims it makes even less connected to the major manufacturers that hot wood-paneled afternoon was the noise than a typewriter.” running HP 3000s. But The Chronicle ardor of the 3000’s experts, developers Longs Drug, I learned by reading my had me covering it all, from RTE so and user group leaders. They hadn’t competition, was going to install more buried that some customers didn’t even been interviewed in newspaper style and 12 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog were glad to help a cub reporter learn government reporter just moved into something about MPE/V, enough IMAGE a small town, I had to earn the trust to make his eyes glaze over, and the of both luminaries like Alfredo as well jungle thicket of peripheral hardware as the steady attention from officials needed to link computers together and at HP. It was like the first weeks of get them backed up and printing to dot covering a county seat in Texas, where matrix devices. HP’s LaserJet was just the county clerk and the city clerk out by that summer, but laser printing become your lifeline to news as well was a novelty few businesses used at as contacts. The 3000 was scampering the time. into the realm of PCs with the Mighty The Series 37 was new, but scarcely Mouse, as the vendor assumed that as fast as the Series III which HP had a smaller mini or mainframe would released more than six years earlier. satisfy small businesses. HP went for small and less costly The Mighty Mouse did satisfy the rather than improving power; it had 3000 customer who wanted affordable its Series 68 powerhouses to do the models, those with a data processing high-transaction and forest-of-terminals staff instead of office managers. But work. But the Series 37 drew a fraction orders of magnitude more managers of a 68’s electricity and didn’t need were choosing IBM and Compaq PCs raised flooring or special cooling or for their offices in the middle ‘80s. heavy-load wiring. Whether it needed Compaq and ATT, not Hewlett-Packard, an operator, as HP claimed it did not, got the business for office computing depended on how much a business did at The Chronicle. We relied on the with it. At the Longs stores, the 37s community’s developers, user group were confined inside mesh cabinets A cover from the SuperGroup Magazine gave the leaders, experts and vendors to teach with just a slot open for backups to the first HP office computer a real identity our readers how to automate and cartridge tape drive. Administration was administer. Those HP Mighty Mice taken care of at the Walnut Creek data processing HQ. of 1984 were going to be caught by HP’s Spectrum servers What made the Mighty Mouse a breakthough was the way in about four years’ time — when I could place a reporter that a large company like Longs could rely upon the uniformity in HP’s next press conference which introduced a computer of the 3000’s environment. A senior tech analyst Tom Combs breakthrough that HP wasn’t shipping yet. told InterACT nothing but a 3000 was going to work to serve what’d eventually be hundreds of stores. “Combs explains that it’s difficult to find computers small and cheap enough to run in multiple stores that will also run the same software as larger models. Not all IBM computers, for example, use the same operaing system. Personal computer were not considered for the same reason. When different models all run the same software, he maintains, software development and support becomes easier.” And Longs, like so many large customers using this smallest system, had its own software developed for managing its business. Relying on IMAGE everywhere and MPE/V that was backward compatible eventually became the differences which let those Microsoft-based PCs, then Unix, get into the hearts and minds of cost-sensitive businesses. But the IMAGE and MPE distinctions with industry standards didn’t matter in 1984. Getting everything from one vendor working together, reliably, was the miracle that filtered down to that magic $20,000 entry price tag. At SuperGroup Magazine, an article that best explained the system got itself scooped by my own fledgling story of six months earlier. But D. David Brown reviewed the box as a systems manager would, and he understood that HP had sneaked in a big-style computer inside a compact box with the Mighty Mouse. “This toy-like box is really no toy at all. It’s a serious, down- to-business mainframe, and at the same time a painless entry point to the HP 3000 world for a small user. The upward growth path is virually unlimited. HP reports that as of April 1985, 2,000 Mighty Mice had been shipped, beating HP’s projections by 20 percent. HP has finally gotten the small business user what he really wanted: A genuine HP 3000!” The fall of 1984 was a time of serious transition for both HP’s business computing as well as my own journalism. Like a The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 13 (Continued from page 13)

Moving Migration Data: Crews and Tools Outsourced expertise puts Arby’s are the enlisted operators that ride in easier. We just said, ‘this field is the one data onto a new flavored platform the back of the plane. The guy standing on the HP system, and this field on your on the left is our Crew 13 Aircraft layouts is equivalent.’ We just matched Arby’s sandwich chain turned off some Commander. The aircraft is an S-2E them all up. We had some where we HP 3000s recently, but moving its data Tracker Carrier Based Anti-Submarine could say ‘forget about that field, we stocked a restaurant menu’s worth of Warfare Navy aircraft. It has a large won’t need it.’ “ practices and tools. Based on a report propeller attached to a 1500hp Wright But the transition to Oracle, as from Paul Edwards, the journey worked R1820-82 engine — one of two on the performed by a team that was supposed smoothest when expertise could be plane.” to be experienced in the database, was outsourced or tapped. Some of the not so easy. The Oracle contractors Edwards described part data moves at “had absolutely no clue about how to do of the project as a move Arby’s went to migrations,” Edwards said. “They’d never to Oracle’s databases, Oracle, he reports. done any before.” facilitated by Robelle’s “They were using The migration of data from a Suprtool and Speedware’s Oracle for part of well-polished, longtime set of 3000 software. The former their operations. applications is just as crucial as moving supplier has retained its Using Speedware code, selecting a replacement app, or name for 35 years by now. with Oracle was testing what’s been moved. And it’s not as The latter has become interesting. Most of easy as it might seem to find contractors Fresche Legacy, but that was dumping who’ve done a migration, especially any DBMotion as well as AMXW data with Suprtool who know MPE. software is still available or Speedware, Plenty of systems for data transfers. In the then formatting it from other vendors photo above, the veteran in the layout they haven’t been worth Edwards is in motion wanted.” Suprtool the time to migrate. himself, flying on a 1968-69 has been guided The HP 3000, with US Navy tour on the USS and developed by its lengthy lifespan, Hornet. He figures he’s been Neil Armstrong at often sports apps that are decades old. working with 3000s half Robelle for nearly Almost as entrenched as Armstrong has his life, which would give him enough two decades. He recently marked his been at Robelle. time in to witness Robelle’s entry into the 20th year with the vendor, according to The avid racing cyclist has completed market, as well as the transformation of the Robelle newsletter. 20 years’ worth of “helping to make Infocentre into Speedware, and then to Arby’s also took its payroll application Qedit and Suprtool great products,” Fresche Legacy. off the 3000, “and it went off to a Robelle reports in its newsletter. “I’m standing on the right,” he said. service bureau. We had the file layouts “Neil worked at one of our customers “The two young guys kneeling down that bureau wanted, and so it was a lot See Arby’s, page 18 NorCal transit will run its 3000 route again Bus company has no defined terminus serving the public or working in private firms. Keeping these for use of its HP 3000s two servers online 24x7, including holidays, is going to demand that a winning bidder can prove they know the 3000 and Anyone who wonders where HP 3000s are hanging on can grab MPE. Things being the way they are in California municipal a rider strap on the Alameda-Contra Costa transit service. The government, this contract starts its period of performance three public entity AC Transit recently opened up a one-year contract days before the bids are due. We’d bet they’re going to approve a to maintain its two HP 3000s, along with the applications. support supplier pretty quickly. The systems under maintenance are a Series 957 and a Series The minimum requirements sound like they could be from any 987. If you’re scoring at home, these are servers built and sold HP four-hour response contract. during the 1990s — still powering a California organization • The Contractor will provide a toll-free telephone number, with duties to ferry 191,000 riders daily with a fleet of 584 staffed during typical local business hours, to allow one or more buses. The District’s service area extends from western Contra AC Transit contacts to report all service requests. Costa County to southern Alameda County, and the organization • The Contractor will provide unlimited telephone employs 1,863 employees. consultations for both 957SX and 987SX systems during AC As if that’s not enough, this contract has a provision for Transit business hours. extension. The district isn’t sure when it will be able to stop • The Contractor is responsible for all parts, labor, travel, using those 9x7s. testing equipment and phone consultations on covered “At the sole discretion of the District, the contract may be equipment and necessary on-site visits. extended up to 12 additional months in increments of three • The Contractor shall provide staff to make at least one months. This is to accommodate the uncertain end date for the weekly on-site visit to manage the tape backups and perform a District’s use of these HP 3000 computers.” physical systems health check. There are many 9x7s — well, more than you’d think — still See Transit, page 18 14 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 It’s About Time Two clocks, two times for every HP 3000 make seasonal skills a must for managers By Gilles Schipper the TZTAB file, it behooves to set the and software clocks - without requiring a GSA Associates variable TZ to its appropriate value, for system boot. The SETCLOCK command example: permits us to do exactly that. The With this season’s end of Daylight :setvar TZ, EST5EDT (appropriate for SHOWCLOCK command will directly Saving Time (DST), it’s an appropriate the Eastern Time Zone, which, during show you the value of the “SOFTWARE” time to think about implementing some Eastern Standard Time, is 5 hours west clock (contents of SYSTEM TIME). best practices associated with “Clock of Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT). The value of the “HARDWARE” clock is Maintenance” for the HP 3000s that you shown indirectly with the combination of administer. Two Clocks, Two Times SYSTEM TIME and TIME ZONE. To refresh your memory, beginning Each HP 3000 contains two separate In the preceding example, the value of in the year 2007, DST was extended clocks, commonly referred to as the the “HARDWARE” clock is MON, SEP 3, by approximately one month for most hardware clock and the software clock. 2012, 6:25:01 PM — which is the value time zones in the US and Canada. Typically, the hardware clock is set at of the SOFTWARE clock plus 4 hours Consequently, for most locations, DST system boot time, with the ISL CLKUTIL (TIMEZONE of 4 HOURS WESTERN now begins at 2:00AM the second command. This clock should be set to HEMISPHERE). (If the TIMEZONE value Sunday every March, and ends at 2:00AM coincide with the GMT. showed EASTERN HEMISPHERE, the the first Sunday each November. The software clock can be set at the corresponding TIMEZONE value would be The rules for specific time zones are ISL START NORECOVERY dialogue. This subtracted from the SOFTWARE clock to contained in a file named TZTAB.LIB.SYS, clock should be set to the actual local arrive at the HARDWARE clock.) whose exact format and interpretation time in effect. For those whose system clocks are will be shown in detail later in this If both hardware and software clocks generally quite accurate and properly series. Suffice it to say, this file is largely are set properly the system’s TIMEZONE maintained (and I will show you how to irrelevant for the normal operation of the setting will reflect the difference between ensure that later), the command you will HP 3000. the two. need to invoke twice annually is: But it is relevant and important for This can be checked with the command :setclock timezone=W5:00 (First various software products that are :showcloc Sunday in November, at 2:00AM, common to the HP 3000 environment, SYSTEM TIME: MON, SEP 3, 2012, assuming Eastern Timezone) including, among others, products by 2:25:01 PM and Nobix, IBM/Cognos, and Speedware — CURRENT TIME CORRECTION: 0 :setclock timezone=W4:00 (Second but surprisingly not by a very useful SECONDS Sunday in March, at 2:00AM, assuming utility, NTPDATE, which I describe TIME ZONE: 4 HOURS 0 MINUTES Eastern Timezone) in detail on the NewsWire’s website WESTERN HEMISPHERE These commands can be launched at 3000newswire.blogs.com/3000_ by a job stream that executes, say, newswire/2012/10/marking-time-with- The SETCLOCK command once a week— such as a full backup, mpes-tztab-file.html. There are occasions when it’s desirable for example — by simply utilizing And for those products that do utilize to modify one or both of the hardware See About Time, page 16 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 • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 15 :setclock ;date=mm/dd/yy;time=hh:mm;now (the date/time About Time should correspond to your desired “software” clock - ie, the actual location-specific date/time.) (Continued from page 15) Be careful if the above command sequence will result in system date variables to calculate whether the following the clocks being adjusted backwards that could affect any Sunday is either the first Sunday in November or second scheduled jobs or any running application that is date/time Sunday in March, and then stream a job that Sunday at 2:00AM sensitive. which modifies the TIMEZONE with the appropriate SETCLOCK If the timezone is correct and you wish only to adjust your command. software clock, you can simplify by: However, there may be occasions when less granular :setclock ;correction=no-of-seconds (plus or minus) modifications to your system clocks are necessary. One such occasion could be when your HP 3000 experiences the Regular Clock Maintenance following conditions/events: Now that you’ve set your system clocks appropriately, 1. It shuts down (ungracefully) due to a power failure, and just like any nice-looking grass lawn, they need regular 2. It is unprotected by a UPS system, and maintenance to stay nice-looking — or accurate. 3. Its internal battery is no longer functioning From my experience, HP 3000 system clocks are woefully The internal battery is what maintains the hardware clock. inaccurate if left to their own. They tend to lose time over A non-functioning battery will cause your system to lose its periods of time — notwithstanding power failures combined proper clock value and typically boot up with a value of January with non-functioning main-board batteries and UPS’s, in which 1, 1972 - or some ridiculously erroneous value like that. case the magnitude of clock discrepancy would be much larger. Incidentally, this battery is easily replaceable - at least it The System Administrator can solve the clock maintenance is on my model 928. The battery it uses is a 3-volt lithium, problem in two ways: Panasonic BR2325, obtainable at most camera supply stores 1. Manually, by checking the system clocks at regular — but hurry, because camera supply stores, like the HP 3000, intervals with the SHOWCLOCK command, and, when is a dying breed). If the Panasonic is unavailable, a suitable necessary, issue the appropriate SETCLOCK command to effect replacement would be a 3-volt lithium RENATA CR2325. adjustments, or The battery is located on the main system board - the 2. Automagically, by utilizing an available utility, called one containing the CPU, which you can also identify with NTPDATE, scheduled to run at regular intervals to adjust your its included black toggle switch donating “normal” when system clocks to the correct time. positioned to the left, and “service” when positioned to the Naturally, being a suitably lazy SysAdmin, I prefer option 2. right. To remove that board for battery replacement, you will Since this utility works extremely well when used modestly, I need to remove the metal plate that covers the disabled RJ-45 choose to execute it once daily - at most. (Depending upon how and AUI ports of the board. inaccurate your system clock is and your tolerance for clock variances, you can choose to run it weekly or Changing system clocks From my experience, monthly) for more than TIMEZONE The NTPDATE utility should be available Your system clocks can be inaccurate HP 3000 system from whoever is currently maintaining the either because they are out of sync with each old Interex contributed , or an echo of other (ie. wrong TIMEZONE setting) or they clocks are woefully the old HP Jazz site. It comprises a single simply contain the wrong time, or both. If your inaccurate if left to program, called NTPDATE and can be located problem is an incorrect TIMEZONE (as shown in PUB.SYS or whichever group/account you by the SHOWCLOCK command) you can their own. They tend wish having PM capability. easily and quickly correct with the SETCLOCK To execute, simply TIMEZONE= command. to lose time over :ntpdate.pub.sys “pool.ntp.org” Keep in mind that if this command periods of time — This will synchronize your software clock would normally result in a backwards time with the time servers at pool.ntp.org and adjustment, the change will take place notwithstanding power according to the value of your TIMEZONE gradually such that the system clocks will failures combined with setting. You can follow the ntpdate command never go back in time.(This default behaviour with a showclock command to see if any can be overridden with the ;NOW option of non-functioning main- adjustments were necessary. You can replace the SETCLOCK command). If the SETCLOCK pool.ntp.org with any suitable time server command results in a time advancement, the board batteries and that you prefer and have access to. advancement takes place immediately. UPS’s, in which case Placing this command in a regularly Again, you can use the SHOWCLOCK executing job stream will keep your system command to see the current time, timezone the magnitude of clock clocks accurate and worry-free while you as well as the pending time correction in work on other things. seconds. If you are experiencing both a discrepancy would be In that complete article on the NewsWire timezone problem and clock accuracy issues, much larger blog, I cover the special nuance for MPE that’s another matter. administrators that is the TZTAB file. It’s code If you are experiencing both a timezone problem AND a clock that turns out to be important to third-party and independent accuracy issue, you can effect a correction as follows: software on your system. :setclock timezone=w5:00 :setclock ;cancel (which cancels any pending gradual Gilles Schipper is founder of the system support sup- changes and permits the subsequent setclock command to plier GSA Associates and Homesteading Editor for the 3000 succeed.) NewsWire. 16 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog Application Portfolio Management HP 3000 sites can use the strategy to earn a place at boardroom tables

By Birket Foster many kinds of budgets to consider. For Getting started CEO, MB Foster most companies, the IT budget is set at toward boardrooms an operations level and does not include Information Technology leaders find a lot of capital, except for infrastructure APM helps CIOs, IT Directors and IT it increasingly difficult to obtain a seat (hardware/network/storage/OS) Managers assess the value of application at the boardroom table. Information refreshes. assets. To begin, you’ll need to take an technology budgets need to follow the Studies show that 80 percent of IT inventory of all your applications and business direction and be aligned to budgets are attributed to maintaining clearly understand the current business service the business. An Application current assets like Windows and desktop and technology fit for each application. Portfolio Management (APM) strategy applications, leaving a paltry 20 percent A business fit is how well the ensures there’s a good business fit for for innovations. application supports the needs of the all of a company’s applications and their If there was a need to do anything business and gets determined from environments. radical to an application server that is characteristics such as management For smaller companies which are a running the business like the HP 3000, needs versus what is available for typical size of the HP 3000 customer, such as a migration, IT could run into management reporting and measurement their IT managers find they can’t get real issues, and consequently overrun its of KPIs and goals. Consider how a seat at that boardroom table. Their budget. Just as any facilities department operational users interact with the assets are just as important as any other must budget for capital and major work system and how easy the system is to in the company, too. Different assets in beyond day to day operations, so should use; what they like, what they dislike, your company are at different stages of an IT department be prepared when a what is missing, how well documented their lives. APM is a tool to help decide major renovation needs to take place. the system is; how new users get trained when these assets no longer hold their This new tactic, one that treats on the system, be sure to look at all value they once did. And part of that for applications like they are corporate stakeholders: technical programmers and IT management is risk mitigation. assets, will deliver valuable benefits to operators and business users. Assess, It’s not just about the HP 3000 or any help a company using HP 3000s or other inventory and document an application single legacy system anymore. Like a legacy systems move forward and put IT change wish list and describe how facilities manager, an IT manager has and its portfolio into the boardroom. See APM, page 18 • Lost your Suprtool expert? • No expertise in house? • Can’t remember what the script was supposed to do? • Too busy putting out fires? Contact Robelle for our NEW Scripting Service

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The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 17 Arby’s Transit (Continued from page 14) (Continued from page 14) in Ontario, then worked for us in British • The Contractor must provide staff that can physically attend to these Colombia, then worked for us in Alberta. systems and operate independently 24x7x365 with or without a District At one point Neil moved to Anguilla in the Information Services escort once an appropriate District security badge has Caribbean to work on Robelle software with been provided. Bob Green, our president. Lastly, he moved • The Contractor is required to demonstrate proficiency in HP 3000 system back to Canada and works on Suprtool and support by compiling a checklist for AC Transit review and approval. The Qedit near Niagara Falls. He is currently selected contractor will employ this checklist daily to determine and report on our Software Architect, chief systems the hardware and software health of both systems. programmer and a big help for difficult • The Contractor must have access to a local facility that stocks good-order technical support questions.” hardware equipment in a location such that needed parts have been tested Armstrong has been quick to the pedals for and are delivered and installed within four business hours of the incident as long as I’ve known him; as a fellow cyclist, opening for priority 1 and priority 2 incidents. he rides at a rate I can only dream about. Whoever takes on the maintenance “will create and employ a 24 hour/7 day But his work in Suprtool — especially in automatic alert system that will alert them to a hardware failure on the Series recent years getting it to Linux, and soon to 957SX and/or the Series 987SX.” That’s far from commonplace. There are Windows — must have been as steady and plenty of businesses that don’t have auto-alert failure systems. careful as a rider navigating a busy, two- All this by console “via a dedicated workstation with a serial connection to lane, no shoulders road. That’s a tool that each of the two HP 3000 computers.” It doesn’t sound like networked remote began its life in the 1970s, when Edwards console access, but that wasn’t a big part of the 9x7 experience anyway. IT at was still in the Navy Reserve and working at AC Transit calls the shots on application maintenance requests. HP as an SE. Imagine what’s been changed It’s not a static system, by the looks of the bid. Item 7 calls for a contractor in Suprtool over those decades to get it to to “Perform ‘software application support’ allowing I.S. staff to make program Suprtool Open. or application changes. These changes would require that the affected Sometimes great care to advance a product application have no user access while the changes are being made.” unveils its rewards when it’s compared to There were 37 pages of this RFP, but some even do a good job of outlining other migration methods. It helps if you can the base competencies for any 3000’s management. It’ll be interesting to call on some military precision during critical see what AC Transit eventually replaces those 9x7s with — and when — transits, too. At Arby’s, Edwards and the IT considering it’s got such a customized app suite on its hands. There’s 12 staff seemed to be glad Suprtool was on the months of work there, and probably more, for a persistent bidder. Got to keep migration menu. the buses running. Yeah, buses: as fundamental a technology as a Series 9x7.

get the right funding to renovate when required. APM Summary (Continued from page 17) The APM strategy solves more than just one business changes will impact business requirements, and how well it will problem. It offers a whole new way of strategically looking support the different departmental workflows. at IT as an enterprise asset; increasing stakeholder visibility; A technology fit covers the system and should include the improving business alignment and value; managing risk; application lifecycle for each application and a roadmap that providing ongoing governance, plus numerous cost reduction will indicate evolution requirements for the infrastructure. and saving opportunities. Whether custom built or Commercial Off The Shelf applications Once implemented, an APM will have a profound effect for need a technical environment that is documented and decision making. It will continually be leveraged not only with sustainable. Staffing requirements, skill existing investments but also with any sets and succession planning will also future investments. IT will be visible and play pivotal roles. The net result of your Starting an Application at the boardroom table to advise on the information gathering and inventory enables investment required and the risk to be the development of a continual improvement Portfolio Management mitigated. plan and a calculated Total Cost of Ownership, project begins managing MBFoster is hosting an APM Webinar including required operating and capital costs. at 2PM Eastern time on Wednesday, By starting an Application Portfolio a budget with the December 5. See our website at mbfoster. Management project, you have effectively com, or the NewsWire blog, for more started managing a budget with the objective of objective of aligning information on how to attend this free event aligning business needs with IT’s, with options business needs with — to get your questions answered and your for the 3Rs of applications — Remain, Replace, IT assets onto that boardroom table. Re-host. By internally publishing the application IT’s, with options for portfolio that now supports business needs, IT MB Foster delivers applications and data to plans and budgets, you’ll have communicated the 3Rs of applications match business needs for HP 3000 custom- the involvement required for each application — Remain, Replace, or ers making a migration or homesteading. and you’ll be visible to the management team Its certified specialists have been migrating and get included at the management table and Re-Host data since 1985. 18 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog First November wasn’t a-happening for 3000 First model shipped off dock, washed up 3000 to most of its earliest adopters. It’s what led McCracken dead in waters of 1972, but buoyed later by IMAGE to bundle the database with the computer — an unprecedented strategy at the time. HP intended for a November of 40 years ago to be the debut But by the ‘80s McCracken had become the GM of what HP month for the HP 3000. But delays swept the 3000’s stage called the Business Computer Group. He saw “the market has entrance more than a year farther into the future. One of the key changed dramatically in the last four or five years. Now almost players during that year was one of the system’s best advocates, every customer is really interested in a complete solution.” Ed McCracken. That meant letting third-party software companies, building He was charged with un-selling HP 3000s as his first job in applications as well as tools, into the HP 3000 strategy, in public related to the system. According to Tom Harbron’s Thinking addition to software sold by HP. Machines, the month of November 1972 was the final month that In that November of 1972, it looked to HP like it would be HP tried to keep that inevitable postponing of the system at bay. enough to release an HP 3000 with programming languages The future was obvious by December at Anderson College, where and a database management system. A decade later bundling Harbron was leading a push to put the first 3000 between the the database and selling the customer a range of HP-written Rockies and the Applachians into the college’s datacenter. apps and tools wasn’t going to satisfy the majority of customers. “During the period from April to November, 1972, we What’s more, the Not Invented Here attitude HP had taken continued to learn of delays. COBOL and IMAGE were pushed toward partners was supposed to be on the wane. back from December 1972 to June 1973. We also wrote the But new independent software companies could 1620 simulator during this time, using HP’s only be lured to the HP 3000 if the vendor had an new language called System Programming open architecture, one that relied upon similarities Language or SPL (not to be confused with with other vendors’. HP, and the 3000, needed to SPS on the 1620). SPL was essentially Algol become less of an island, McCracken said. with some machine dependent extensions.” “I think we used to be somewhat arrogant By February of 1973, McCracken “was about our capability to survive as an island in the going about the country, visiting customers, computer industry,” McCracken said. “We’ve come and unselling the 3000,” Harbron wrote in his to realize that an open-architecture philosophy is book. At the time McCracken was only the fundamental to a successful strategy. Market Manager for Government, Education, He went on to explain that HP was changing and Medical Markets. Within a few years The HP 3000 the architecture of the 3000 to offer a single he became essential to putting the IMAGE Memoir Project design for all of its computing platforms. This was database on every 3000. It was a move that PA-RISC, which McCracken explained was “to have most of the community’s veterans consider the turning point for one architecture that spans the applications from personal your server’s survival in the markets of the 1970s. computing to real-time control of machines to commercial About 10 years later, McCracken was on his way toward machines.” That would become HP’s Series 100 PC efforts, the becoming the CEO of Silicon Graphics, but still working in HP RTE real-time platform of the HP 1000, and the HP 3000. Oh, as a VP. InterACT, the magazine of the Interex users group, and a commercial role for the HP 9000 — which had a head interviewed him about HP’s business server strategy in the start on an architecture similar to other vendors’ because it was spring of 1984. McCracken called the earliest days of the 3000 based upon Unix. a time when customers were buying a database machine to McCracken left HP in 1984 to become CEO of Silicon create their own applications. He was taking note of a shift in Graphics, a company whose workstations powered the hottest the enterprise computing market space that would make outside graphics and lifted SGI to rock-star status. For eight straight software companies essential to 3000 success. years every movie, such as Men in Black, nominated for the According to Chris Edler’s Early History of the HP 3000, Oscar for Achievement in Visual Effects was built on SGI someone in the HP 3000’s birthplace lab had devised the clarion systems. But unlike McCracken’s advice for HP, SGI used call that “November is a Happening” to spur on the platoon of proprietary MIPS processors and fostered its own ecosystem of lab engineers. software suppliers — even while basing its OS on the not-quite- “In the weeks prior to the release of the first HP3000, dozens similar Unix. of the ‘November is a Happening’ posters were placed all over Similarity became so prized at the Hewlett-Packard which the factory floor. The posters showed an HP 3000 going out McCracken left that 18 years after the Happening November, the the shipping dock door, ostensibly to its first customer, the company attempted to pry IMAGE loose from the HP 3000 by Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. un-bundling it — simply to encourage wider-installed database “HP installed the machine, turned it on, and discovered — companies to select MPE and the 3000 as a supported platform along with the customer, of course — that the 3000 could only and kick start sales. What had made the 3000 a winner for the accommodate one or two users before falling to its knees. It was 1970s HP was now being viewed as an island in 1990. immediately returned.” Those participating software suppliers McCracken noted IMAGE, the database which would win an award from in 1984 were not about to let HP cast away such a bundled Datamation when stacked up against other system vendors’ database target market, though. Most of them report that software, was not a part of that November failure. It wasn’t IMAGE made the 3000 as good as it was for a high-value ready until 1974. The earliest success of the system matched business platform. That’s high-value as in one which is capable a profile of a customer “looking for a generic database of lasting through many Novembers. And at some companies of management tool to adapt to his own particular environment,” as large as $5 billion yearly revenues, this November continues according to the InterACT article. IMAGE literally was the HP to be a month with 3000s in place, its computing a-happening. The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 19 Reports from the Field: Charon HPA/3000 An Emulator to Speed, Protect and Serve The first HP 3000 manager to take an emulator into the Series 947’s disks.” production moved the services of very old iron onto a very new VMware hosts the virtualized partition where the HP 3000’s MPE/iX platform. IS Manager Warren Dawson’s company was emulation resides. “We’ve taken the Stromasys software and using a Series 947 server which was more than 20 years old to moved it to its own VMware environment. It’s by itself, so take care of mission-critical operations. That 3000 had 112 MB nothing will impact it there. It’s running really smooth.” of memory. Now it’s working on the HPA/3000 Charon emulator with 2 GB of memory. “We’ve really increased our speed, our Software allies memory and our disk,” Dawson said. The third party vendors have come on board and made “I was testing the emulator over the last 10 months, and efforts to ensure their software works. “One was a little I was most impressed with the speed gains,” he said.” The slow in doing so, so we made a workaround, and I made it a gains on month-end processes on the emulated 3000 system permanent workaround. I didn’t know when they would come slashed the time from almost 10 hours to 65 minutes. “That on board. They came on just before we went live, and we’d was phenomenal, and it was on the main database. The guys at already decided to move away from their product.” Stromasys were very pleased to hear some of the statistics I was In the case of the switch in backup processes, Dawson’s churning out. They could emulate, procedures now back up twice as much but couldn’t have someone hit it data, using HP’s standard STORE and every day, and hit it hard.” RESTORE programs — in less than when “The users are very happy. the backup was done using the third party They’ve notice their reports are software on the 3000 box. coming up a lot quicker. Instead of The change from using HP’s native 15-20 minutes, in a few minutes iron to emulation have reinvigorated some it’s done. Performance gains are of Dawson’s MPE software vendors. bigger in some areas than others. “I’ve even gotten better support The lowest performance gain I’ve from some of our vendors now that found is in backup itself.” we’re emulating. They see that there’s Justifying the cost of the an extended life in the system, and so a emulator became simpler because couple of them have made efforts in that the HP 3000’s disks kept failing regard. We’ve been paying support for on a regular basis. The HPA/3000 years, and for some software we’d hadn’t eliminated the difficulty of asked for support in 10 years. They’ve replacing that type of hardware. come back to our requests to help us and “Because you’re not dealing been very good about it. with physical devices, it’s now One backup software solution didn’t made it a lot easier to consider make the transition from 3000 hardware even expanding what we have. We and storage devices to the emulated had a failure of the HP 3000 box system. DAT tapes presented an extra every one or two years, and it’s been effort. Dawson used a utility to copy the really hard to source parts here in Warren Dawson tapes to disk, “and for some reason when Australia. The last failure we had Assistant IS Manager I did that, it didn’t work properly in the was an LDEV 2 disk, and so that backup software. There was some sort of became a SCSI disk with an adapter.” In another instance, an SCSI issue which was at Stromasys’s end, and they’ve since internal cable for a tape drive failed. Parts supply remains an resolved that issue. But the vendor said initially they weren’t issue throughout the country, Dawson said, since there are supporting the emulator, so we worked something else out. few 3000s still running there. But he added that the company The Quiz reporting tool from Cognos is part of the software searched around the world for that cable. “The best we could set that’s made the step onto the emulator. The company buys get was a two-week wait for it, and we could not wait two and maintains its Cognos licenses through a reseller, and that weeks for something as critical as that.” partner has handed the relicensing of Quiz onto the emulator. Over the years of moving drives in and out, the cable was “I haven’t dealt directly with Cognos for a long time,” Dawson pinched and then broken, and “we could not source another said. cable. We ended up making our own.” Minisoft’s ODBC drivers run on the emulated system, since The company has turned off its HP 3000 production part of the application’s project is to extract data. Since the machine. “In the end, we had the confidence to do that,” databases and the application have been emulated, Dawson’s Dawson said. We’ve gone to modern hardware we can get at remains able to use Visual Basic programs, using the ODBC the drop of a hat, We can almost go into the shop and saying drivers, to do reports as well as updates. However, the that one and that one, and one in blue. It removes the need for complexity of moving toward Windows 7 has raised issues having specialized spare parts.” that Minisoft has been helping to solve. Dawson singled out Emulation created a new range of storage space. The the company as taking extra time to help make the emulation company had a project to split its database, due to legal succeed. requirements. To do the split, they needed to duplicate the “Minisoft’s been the most helpful, because that reporting database, and “we wouldn’t have had the space to do that on system started out being the most troublesome. We’ve been 20 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog having a VB 6 program issue, where They’d already addressed that.” drivers creates a mirrored version of the those programs ran under Windows XP Support issues with timezone database in SQL Server. but are an issue under Windows 7. These differences haven’t presented a problem. Even while the company has programs were written 10 years ago, One key Stromasys engineer bridges the eliminated the risk of hardware failures, and the people who wrote them are long gap between Australia’s workday and the challenge of finding replacements for since gone. They explained how I could the one in the US headquarters, Dawson its 3000-savvy talents remains the same. run their software in different ways, with said. The Stromasys labs include ops in “COBOL programmers here are few and the old driver under VB 6 on XP versus a Moscow as well as North Carolina. far between,” Dawson said. “In terms of new driver for .NET on Windows 7.” my own job security, it’s cemented that Crucial to the process was the support Migrate vs. emulate somewhat — great for me, but from the from the creators of the HPA/3000. Migration was a prospective strategy company’s point of view it’s an issue. It “I’ve been very pleased with Stromasys at the company, but will be an issue to get themselves, because it didn’t pan out for someone to replace the any issue I raised, they the application. “We The company has skills in COBOL, because fixed it as fast as they were rewriting our turned off its HP 3000 that’s what we mainly could,” he said. “I was software in a VB and use.” unaware that any of my .NET version, but production machine. The parent company issues had already been in the end it turned has been talking about raise, because they way out to be taking too “In the end, we had an adoption of the they treated me was long and being too the confidence to do corporate system, “but that anything I said was costly,” he said. “In the that’s at least five years important to them, even if they’d heard it meantime we’d tied that,” Dawson said. away. So even with a 947 before. Not saying they’d already heard it, down the migration with failing hardware, but saying, “Tell me about this, and let’s of the databases into We’ve gone to modern it was still well worth go through it.” SQL databases, so that hardware we can get going with the emulator.” “The biggest issue I had which I was was already running By making the solution asking them about was the security key smoothly. Now they at the drop of a hat.” a keystone in the that’s got to be connected into the host use those databases company, Dawson feels PC. We were planning disaster recovery, for other applications. We’ve done that like he’s retained the best part of the but we didn’t have a key to replace that migration, but our main system is still 3000 computing experience. “I’ve found one. They said they’d give us a temporary the TurboIMAGE/SQL system. A nightly that it’s not the hardware that I liked, it’s key we could use for a number of hours. extract through the Minisoft ODBC the operating system.”

HP,” said Whitman. “Martin will ensure that our research Fink leads HP Labs and development activity is aligned with our steady focus (Continued from page 10) of anticipating and delivering on the future needs of our customers.” plans,” he said “and I predict that it will never happen. The big Fewer memristors, and more engineering that will become problem is the software support and the ISV support for the distinguishing products. That’s the best that the migrated 5,000 current HP-UX ISV applications. The better model is to customer now on HP-UX can hope for from a director who bring the HP-UX capabilities to Linux, rather than port HP-UX to graduated with an EE degree from Canada’s Loyalist College. x86.” And what in the world will happen to those HP-UX ISVs? By 1995 he’d made his way out of HP Canada and “a variety They’d better be porting to Linux, starting about last year. of positions in hardware and software support, consulting and HP’s press release says that Fink will report directly to telecom sales. In ‘95 he moved to HP’s Ft. Collins, Colo., site his CEO, and “as part of his role, Fink will be responsible to work in HP OpenView telecom, where “he managed small for looking holistically at how innovation is created and business startup activities for HP OpenView telecom.” Here’s commercialized at HP.” some R&D management in his CV: Verifone Software Business, It’s not your father’s Hewlett-Packard anymore, but that’s and then the R&D manager in the Customer Solutions not news for a 3000 community which might recall moments Organization, “with responsibility for HP-UX, Linux and the like Birnbaum’s in 1987: When the Spectrum Series 930 3000 patch program.” and MPE/XL was way overdue, Birnbaum stood in a circle of HP reported on the current bio page for Fink — which was industry reporters and said that bugs and failures of the new- still listing him as BCS chief after the announcement of his gen 3000s “will yield to engineering discipline.” And not a word Labs appointment— that he’s co-inventor on two patents was said in reply after that, because HP’ers and even jaded related to online e-commerce and is the author of The Business reporters heard the resolve in his voice. Birnbaum was an and Economics of Linux and Open Source. If a customer had IBMer before he served HP. any doubts about what software research in HP Labs might Fink doesn’t arrive with zero HP experience like his lead toward, the title of that book would give a clue. predecessor Banerjeee. He’s 27 years along on Hewlett- The company could use more R&D for enterprise Packard assignments, but his battle scars trying to sell Itanium customers, but not necessarily another boost of Realism and in a Xeon world are part of what his CEO likes about him in Domestication. It’s a different world for technology creators this research role. that the one which Birnbaum, Carruba and Lampman led. But “Martin’s experience on the front lines with customers in the face of the WebOS flameout of just last summer, the combined with his experience in the business units will be need for software superiority seems more likely to revive HP invaluable as we work to focus our innovation agenda at than integrating inventions with commercial craving. The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog 21 Fall 2012 Articles — Only on the Blog Migration Catalog to dotcom to dash: Ecometry path Nov 8, 2012 Manufacturing Projects with HP Cloud Nov 2, 2012 Taking Care of Too-Great Expectations Oct 26, 2012 CAMUS meeting to examine cloud ERPs Oct 25, 2012 On the front page of this issue we report on a snarl that sprang Changing Engines, or Cars? It Depends Oct 17, 2012 up when a company tried to give away 3000s over the Web. Not Fresche biz for Speedware: LA’s AS/400s Oct 2, 2012 the actual hardware items, of course. These were the freeware Migration planning by application fits better Sep 17, 2012 you can download and install onto commodity computers. Best practices on legacy modernization Aug 15, 2012 A file full of HP’s add-on software got slipped into the package, one that didn’t seem to meet the plans to introduce this virtual computer’s licensing plans. Homesteading In the old days before the Internet, when we had only paper and Voting for Security, Obscurity and Propriety Nov 6, 2012 land line phones and a fax machine, this might have been a lengthy Never Happy, Even With the Advances Oct 23, 2012 crisis. The mailboxes would have been full of DAT tapes, or even Marking Time with MPE’s TZTAB File Oct 22, 2012 9-track reels, even the small ones that indie software vendors Emulator freeware license needs hobbyists Oct 8, 2012 shipped out. You’d be expected to wait on the postman to deliver How about an MPE hobbyist’s advocate? Oct 5, 2012 something a vendor had to re-manufacture, both in coding as well as How LTO Tape Support Won’t Matter, Soon Oct 4, 2012 the writing of bits onto mylar sense. It might have taken weeks. App design changes induce homesteading Sep 25, 2012 But now it’s nearly 2013, so this kind of snarl becomes a bump Stromasys unplugs emulator field testing Sep 20, 2012 in the road. A better version of the freeware is being coded today Porting to Posix on the HP 3000 Aug 28, 2012 and it’s my belief people can download it before we can even get our paper issue into the mails. Unlike paper, or tapes, the same delivery time News Outta HP will be available to South Asia as to HP flies its Fink just as Poulson pokes up Nov 9, 2012 South Dakota. State of HP license transfers alive, kicking Oct 16, 2012 Mistakes are a part of creating and Emulators transfers immediate, HP reports Oct 15, 2012 learning, but recovery time from them Now arriving: Calls for an HP breakup Oct 9, 2012 has been reduced because we’re so HP reports new job cuts as computers slip Sep 10, 2012 much better connected. The curve of HP’s migration target gets Oracle green light Sep 5, 2012 connection keeps bending us together. Red-ink hawks circle HP’s quarterly news Aug 20, 2012 During our last US election the thrum HP Services takes lumps, posts losses Aug 14, 2012 of Twitter was only starting to mount. Last week the newly elected President Tweeted, while another one had to yank Newsmakers down a transition website that appeared 3000s can beat fiery, flooding disasters Oct 31, 2012 before all the votes had been counted. Ron Seybold, Editor Is There a Glacier in the 3000’s Future? Sep 26, 2012 And even though that website was Virtualizing MPE/iX? Check. Sep 19, 2012 only up for a matter of minutes, it was captured so everyone could Stromasys names ex-HP exec as new CEO Sep 13, 2012 connect with the details of the story, re-reported and trumped and The Actual Size and Start of the 3000 World Sep 12, 2012 harrumphed and spun. The Security of a Slenderizing Supplier Aug 27, 2012 Where does an HP 3000 stand in such a connected world? I would HP support veteran joins workforce for hire Aug 24, 2012 offer it a position of honor and Remembering Your Secured Passwords Aug 23, 2012 grace, since it still holds the Securely Storing Passwords Aug 22, 2012 answers to questions which are asked over the Web. In a little while new software will let Users & Reports handheld iOS devices monitor Accepting Irregular Statistics Nov 5, 2012 newswire.com/blog the status of HP 3000s. That will Personal 3000 iron offered for shipping cost Oct 30, 2012 mean that the iPad Mini which Speeding Along Migration’s Silver Linings Oct 24, 2012 came to my door, earlier than expected, could be carried easily in COBOL You Know, vs. COBOL You Don’t Oct 11, 2012 one hand to track the status of a computer conceived in the late When HP’s SUSAN Won’t Say Enough Oct 1, 2012 1960s. From 70-plus pounds of console to 7.9 inches and a matter of grams of glass, we’re reducing while we’re better connecting. Your System’s History There must be something in our DNA that keeps us linking more My Life with HP, Top to Bottom Oct 29, 2012 closely. I like to believe that it’s represented in A Machine with an 3000’s cells seem simpler to retrained vets Oct 12, 2012 Old Soul, a prospective title for the book that will flow from the 3000 Core memories spark a cold start for 3000s Sep 6, 2012 Memoir Project. Your computer family was created to remember what’s important. Connecting that data in every way possible, safely, What’s Overlooked or Lost: Test Disciplines Aug 29, 2012 just improves its powers to bring us together. Like on that Tuesday evening this month in the US, we experienced our future together all at once. Anything that aids the art of community is worth preserving. Get first notice of news on Twitter: @3000newswire 22 The 3000 NewsWire • November 2012 • 3000newswire.com/blog we remove

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