It's the Christmas season and this is our last blog of the year, which means it's our last chance to extend seasons greetings to our readers. In particular thanks to those of you who have contributed to the blog via your comments. It's always nice to know that some of you find the posts interesting enough to join in the discussion.
In the spirit of the season a little reminiscing is in order. Some of you may have already seen this but we got a real chuckle out of it and thought we'd pass it along. It is a 1960s (i.e., Mad Men era) impression of Google. Give it a test drive here. It's a lot of fun. When we fed in our own names some of the images of Susan were recognizable but Jon's--well, not so much. Jon's Google hits are always a bit odd anyway because a young rock and blues artist has the same name. For those of you too young to remember, it's a pretty darn good impression of what a '60s version of Google might have been like. Assuming there had been an Internet for Google to search, of course.
Our Naughty and Nice List Winners for 2012
Santa will shortly be on his way and we thought we'd just let him know via this blog who are our personal naughty and nice champions this year.
Naughty: Software companies that treat their existing customers badly. There's a certain purveyor of accounting software (you know who they are Santa) whose software we use on our Macs to do our bookkeeping. Every year they come out with a new release. And every year we get the same email.
"As a loyal customer ... we are pleased to offer you this special upgrade rate of only $..."
Only one problem. The "special rate" is invariably at least 20 percent higher than the cost of a brand new copy of the same software at any number of local computer retailers--and that is their normal price not a special sale offering. So for being a "loyal customer" we get to pay 20 percent more. Thanks but no thanks.
Nice: IBM Rational Software for removing the charges from Open Access. We were very critical of Rational's handling of Open Access so it only seems fair to offer kudos to them for making the right decision, reversing their position, removing the charges and incorporating it into the compiler.
Now that it has been liberated we are beginning to see more articles on the topic and people sharing their own ideas for handlers. Hopefully we'll see some collaborative open-source projects in the future and then, as Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit), the voice of our GPS, would say, "Let's see what this baby can do!"
We hope you all have a wonderful festive season--no matter how or where you celebrate it.
In the spirit of the season a little reminiscing is in order. Some of you may have already seen this but we got a real chuckle out of it and thought we'd pass it along. It is a 1960s (i.e., Mad Men era) impression of Google. Give it a test drive here. It's a lot of fun. When we fed in our own names some of the images of Susan were recognizable but Jon's--well, not so much. Jon's Google hits are always a bit odd anyway because a young rock and blues artist has the same name. For those of you too young to remember, it's a pretty darn good impression of what a '60s version of Google might have been like. Assuming there had been an Internet for Google to search, of course.
Our Naughty and Nice List Winners for 2012
Santa will shortly be on his way and we thought we'd just let him know via this blog who are our personal naughty and nice champions this year.
Naughty: Software companies that treat their existing customers badly. There's a certain purveyor of accounting software (you know who they are Santa) whose software we use on our Macs to do our bookkeeping. Every year they come out with a new release. And every year we get the same email.
"As a loyal customer ... we are pleased to offer you this special upgrade rate of only $..."
Only one problem. The "special rate" is invariably at least 20 percent higher than the cost of a brand new copy of the same software at any number of local computer retailers--and that is their normal price not a special sale offering. So for being a "loyal customer" we get to pay 20 percent more. Thanks but no thanks.
Nice: IBM Rational Software for removing the charges from Open Access. We were very critical of Rational's handling of Open Access so it only seems fair to offer kudos to them for making the right decision, reversing their position, removing the charges and incorporating it into the compiler.
Now that it has been liberated we are beginning to see more articles on the topic and people sharing their own ideas for handlers. Hopefully we'll see some collaborative open-source projects in the future and then, as Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit), the voice of our GPS, would say, "Let's see what this baby can do!"
We hope you all have a wonderful festive season--no matter how or where you celebrate it.
That Google60 link totally rocks!
Posted by: Scott Klement | December 18, 2012 at 11:33 AM
We are wishing you all a wonderful holiday season, and looking forward to meet again with you in the new year !!
The Xmas spirit comes to our Community... http://ibm.co/WGttKV
:) Un cordial saludo desde Barcelona
Posted by: Help400 | December 18, 2012 at 01:02 PM
I’m wondering if the New and Improved Windows 8 is going to be one of those sending the naughty email to their loyal customers. I was on the “Purchaser of IBM PC’s” web site and saw a note that had something to do with 20% discount on subscription fee . . . for the life of me, I cannot find that web page again nor can I find anything else on it. But, I can upgrade my old laptop for $40.00! Hum. . I think MS had talked about this once before on Win7 or something. . .!
Posted by: Dean Hall | December 18, 2012 at 05:15 PM
I can't believe that I didn't see that Google60 before! That made me year! :-)
If the world doesn't end tomorrow (December 21) - as predicted - have a safe & happy Holiday season! :-)
Posted by: Dan Devoe | December 19, 2012 at 08:21 AM
Merry Christmas and Happy holidays...
All the best from sunny New Zealand
Cheers Murray
Posted by: Murray Crofskey | December 20, 2012 at 04:08 PM
Google60 got me thinking about the design of Twitter/400, an app (exercise) that has crossed my mind. What would "the best" design of an RPG green-screen app that provides twitter-like messaging for users of a IBM i? My app would be limited to a few features but be (hopefully) designed so additional features could be added later. Primary features would be (1) allow a user to select who's messages he sees, omitting others messages from his screen, (2) allow a user to create a 140 char message and (3) app will send an update to user's screen when a new message is available (QMHSNDPM and/or FRCDTA may be required). And, a 4th design requirement is design to minimize DB IO.
For the 4th design requirement, the idea is that when a user refreshes his screen in response to a message displayed on his screen that "more tweets are available" (or for any other reason), the application should not need to access the DB to retrieve the info that is already on his screen.
I've tried to minimize the scope of this application so that it will be easy to discuss and get the primary features right. I believe that green-screen app design is still important even in the web era and it is something we can all benefit from. Minimizing DB IO is an important criteria in new app development in some shops. Beyond the requirement for minimal IO, the DB design may be non-trivial. Using data storage other than the relational DB is an option.
Beyond the scope of our requirements for this exercise are including another networked IBM i, any admin features, searching one's tweets, retweeting, direct (private) tweets or accessing the real Twitter. The user's AS400 id will be the id used in this app.
I hope this idea has provided food for thought.
Jon and Susan, I've enjoyed reading your blog and your articles in 2012. Keep up the good work!
Greg
Posted by: Greg Helton | December 22, 2012 at 11:02 AM
>That Google60 link totally rocks!
Wow, this is stuf from the past. Checked it (from memory) and no errors found :-)
Except.. I don't remember the ">>" punch combinations.
Strange... one can remember things back in the '60 - but not all PW's of today =:-)
Posted by: Leif Guldbrand | December 24, 2012 at 08:20 PM