Short Takes

I used to be subscribed to Paul Thurott's daily newsletter on Windows. Every Monday he opened with some 'short takes' and as I just seemed to have some short bits of information on various subjects, I suddenly remembered his newsletter. Yes, the strange behaviour of the human mind. I haven't got enough time anymore to read his newsletter, but as I checked it out, he still has the 'short takes'. I'm sure he won't mind my borrowing his title. And if I can return a favour : I'm no expert on Windows, but Paul Thurott's Supersite for Windows is the first site I turn to when I want some information on a specific Windows version. He always writes great reviews on new releases, beta versions ... and usually with lots of screen shots. Here's e.g. a review on the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. But I'm way off base now, let's get back to the short takes I had in mind.

• I mentioned Corneel's blog some posts ago. Well, as he indicated in a comment, he has just written the second part of his 'Uncertain future of CICS' called 'Happy Cows' : how (un)happy are CICS people and for what reasons. The link with the cows : just go and find out, it's definitely worth reading.

• I just saw that Willie Favero is (finally) continuing his 'Brief History of DB2'. He stopped at DB2 2.1 some time ago, but now he's added DB2 2.2 and DB 2.3. Definitely worth reading too.

• I mentioned the new IPLA pricing mechanism for some Websphere Products last week. There's not much about the real pricing mechanism behind it in the actual announcement, but Thimothy Sipples (IBM) gives an elaborate explanation of it in the IBM-Main list. Here's the archive reference to his post. Do check out the replies to it as well, as Al Sherkow a.o. is giving some useful additional information. I know I'm generalizing when I try to summarize this : these IPLA Websphere products are generating the necessary SMF records that can be used by the SCRT report. If you report 1% of the used LPAR capacity (e.g. WS reports 2 MSU and z/OS reports 200 MSU) then you only pay 10% instead of the full 100% up to now. For a reported usage of 5%, you pay 50%. So as long as you're under 10%, there's a benefit for the customer.

Well, that's it for now.