Softlanding Turnover Consultant - will change-manage for food

Posted by NickLitten on Monday, 29 April 2013
java wakes the brain on project implementation day

"will change-manage for food" - is that a verb?

In this crazy world of IT acronyms and dilbert cubical terminology the art of Software Change Management and Program Deployment is one of the few terms that means exactly what it says. Unlike the most annoying leverage!

managing change can cause headachesAnyway I digress, I'm in the last couple of weeks of this freelance role helping my customer to configure TURNOVER and promoting a major LMS7.1 Hotel application across 4 seperate IBM Power Systems running IBMi (or AS400's in 1990's speak). It's been a fun contract working with some great people. The downside of doing my job is that if I do it right... then everything will work... and if everything works... then I'm not needed anymore  ;)

So, hopefully this weeks major implementaion will flow smoothly and I will be looking for a new contract in a couple of weeks.

Welcome to my little corner of the Cloud

Hello, my name is Nick Litten and I'm a technology addict, nerd, geek and Propeller Head!

In case your wondering, I'm an IT Consultant with a technology addiction - show me anything from a smartphone to a touch-screen fridge and I immediately get all jittery. Playing with Drupal on this website is just one way for me to let off steam. Nick Litten Dot Com is a mixture of blog posts that can be serious, playful and down-right pointless all in the space of a day.

Enjoy your stay, feel free to comment and in the words of the most interesting man in the world: Stay thirsty my friend.

IBM i #IBMiStepUp

Posted by NickLitten on Tuesday, 5 February 2013
i am ibm i and ibmi is who i am

I've been working with a new customer recently which means I'm once again, finding myself in the i-vangelist pulpit.  I was about to say that I'm tired of responding with "Huh? You said AS400? Do you really still have one of those old machines? I thought IBM stopped making those in the nineties..." but a little secret part of me quite enjoys the sarcastic bluster of it all, and if I'm honest - gets a kick out of it    ;)

The IBM Power System is still being referred to as either (a) an AS400, (b) the 400 or (c) an iSeries. The Dinosaur developers need to be educated and reminded that our lovely box has been through some changes in the last ... fifteen... years! Yes, it really is that long since the AS/400 was replaced with the iSeries. How can IT professionals have failed to notice that the AS/400 no longer exists?

Mr Trevor Perry has long been a proponent of the IBM i moniker and tries hard to educate the masses via his excellent blog at http://blog.angustheitchap.com/

What does IT Consultant really mean?

Posted by NickLitten on Monday, 12 November 2012
Zombie programming for IT Consultants

I am not a fan of the 'IT Consultant' moniker because its kind of generic, but thats the industry standard so I'm stuck with it. I tend to describe myself as a Programmer in the same way that a person who is a Butcher, Dentist, Mechanic or Carpenter is clearly defined. So I suppose being an IT Consultant means I am a software developer, RPG and Drupal enthusiast, software change management evangelist, early adopter, proponent of open source and hopeless web addict.

My main fields of expertise are