Since getting my (utterly fantastic) Motorola Droid X mobile phone a few months back, I've been seeing QR codes everywhere.

QR Codes are weird little box shaped bar code type things. You;ve probably seen them online, or in book shops or occasionally just stuck to shop windows allowing you to scan your phone and log into that location for services like Four Square or Facebook Checkin. They are used to easily retrieve information with your mobile device.

I just used the very cool free QR generator at http://www.qurify.com/en/ to make this little QR code which I have just added to my business card.

Chicago, IL – COMMON user group president Randy Dufault has expressed concern at the increasingly low quality of people joining COMMON. He has decided to implement a new entrance exam required for all new applicants for membership into the group in hopes to weed out the undesirable. The exam questions are as follows:

1. What is twice the half of 1 3/7?
2. How many cubic feet of earth are there in a hole measuring 3’wide by 4’ long by 5’ deep?
3. Do you know how long cows should be milked?
4. Where was Queen Cleopatra’s temple?
5. In what month do Americans eat the least?
6. How many marbles can you put in an empty bag?
7. The produce manager at the local supermarket stands 6’ tall, has a 46” chest and wears size 13 shoes. What do you think he weighs?
8. If a duck came paddling down the Nile, where would it have come from?
9. How long will a seven-day grandfather clock run without winding?

Answers:

1. 1 3/7
2. There is no earth in a hole.
3. The same way that short cows are milked.
4. On the side of her forehead.
5. February; it has fewer days
6. One; after that it is not empty.
7. Apples, pears, potatoes, bananas, etc.
8. An egg.
9. Without winding it will run for no time at all.

No, blekko is not the name of some obscure Polish Microbrewery beer, it’s a new contender in the search engine arena. And, I’m delighted to say, Blekko is causing quite a stir amongst the online community. I don’t know if its pitching itself as a contender to take the crown from King Google but for us Techies and Web-Geeks it’s a godsend. For regular surfers its just one more place people can go as Google and Bing battle it out.

So what makes Blekko so interesting?

Within a few minutes of surfing around Blekko I had gotten used to the interface. It lets you refine your searches using ‘slashtags’ – basically a way of cutting down all the spammy crap that has to be sifted through to find real information. blekko is a better way to search the web by using slashtags. slashtags search only the sites you want and cut out the spam sites. Use friends, experts, community or your own slashtags to slash in what you want and slash out what you don't.

Spam

The boys’n’girls at blekko are taking the fight against spam up a notch. Blekko actively excludes websites from its search index if they have been marked as containing lots of spammy content. The really nice things is that it’s us searchers that have the power to mark things and blekko keeps a spam clock that counts how many spam pages are on the web.

Social Media

Once you’ve logged in, you can mark a search link as spam. Your friends will know its spam. Cool huh? You can even share your search results with friends or a group – planning a ski-holiday? Imagine how cool this would be co-operatively selecting a snowy mountain somewhere. It’s just plain geeky cool.

Blekko’s web search bill of rights

1. Search shall be open
2. Search results shall involve people
3. Ranking data shall not be kept secret
4. Web data shall be readily available
5. There is no one-size-fits-all for search
6. Advanced search shall be accessible
7. Search engine tools shall be open to all
8. Search & community go hand-in-hand
9. Spam does not belong in search results
10. Privacy of searchers shall not be violated

From my perspective I love, love, love the link data and SEO information. It’s a very cool and casual way of looking at website information that I used to log into Google Webmaster or Bing Adcenter to investigate.

I'm just watching the Tuesday Webinar from Wordtracker (Link Building) and some of these excellent points are worth sharing

One of my customers asked me "Why should I bother with LINK-BACKS?"

The answer is really quite simple. Your website is more important to Google, for example) if you have links back into your website from many other related sources. Obviously this shows there is something good about your site. So here is a simple list of three main areas to focus on while thinking about link building.

What you say doesnt mean much but what other people say is important! so it ranks higher.

After nearly three years of intense community collaboration by nearly a thousand contributors, Drupal 7.0 is today officially released and ready for download!

Drupal is dead, Long Live Drupal.

After nearly three years of intense community collaboration by nearly a thousand contributors, Drupal 7.0 is today officially released and ready for download!

Drupal is dead, Long Live Drupal.

As 2011 New Years Eve came and went I spent a long time considering what my core personal resolutions should be: Eat Less, Exercise More, Speak Less, Think More.

Obviously I have my slightly more extravagant resolutions which are bound to fail: Take up Aikido, Become a Wine Connoisseur, Learn how to write Android & iPad Apps, Climb a Pyramid, Switch from Cigarettes to Cigars, Learn how to prepare a killer Chilli.

As I think about my new Years resolutions I also ponder what resolutions I should be applying to my professional role as an ‘AS400 Techie’. So here is resolution nbumber one:

Perform a system wide AS400/IBMi Security Cleanup

All of these tasks should be performed on a frequent basis but if your shop is a little more relaxed then maybe these pointers will assist in setting up an annual New Years Security Policy. Traditionally I always find the Christmas and New Years period is an ideal time for these kind of security cleanups - just after year end processing and the system has been fully backed up. Everyone is suffering from Hangovers and too many mince pies.

So lets get onto a list of things to do:

Dave's new 2011 PRINCE2 Primer is his latest version, and since it's release in 2006, his Primer has been bought by over one and a half thousand folks!

This is a fully downloadable preparation and pass aid for folks who need to sit for the challenging PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner exams. It features an impressive full-motion coaching video library Reference Library, numerous exercises and exam questions and answers, and detailed Module Workbooks

For a limited time only, Dave is offering his best-selling Association of Project Manager's (APM) Introductory Certificate Primer free of charge for those investing in his PRINCE2 Primer. It's the perfect companion qualification to build your project management skills and credibility.

Even better, you can download his free PRINCE2 Step-By-Step Guide.

Last night I was asked what the differences between RPG versions were. IBM have gone out of their way to make the version naming and releases differences so quirky, dirty and convuluted that I'm not even sure they know what to call the current incarnation of this beautiful programming language.

Anyhooo, here's a quick splurge and some code examples of  RPG3, RPG400 and RPG4 (FreeFormat)

RPG3 looks like this:

So, even though Advertising has changed a lot of the years the basic principles remain the same.

Here's a friendly, detailed(ish) list of the some of the main factors affecting Google, Bing, Yahoo! and the other search engines.

It's a loose guide to what are the nice things to do and also, which things are a bit naughty.

Obviously this is the tip of the iceberg but its a useful brain stimulator none-the-less:

I’ve been playing with the totally marvellous Google Voice app this weekend. Setting up Google voice Numbers for the Litten minors, Nathan and Teagan, we selected very cool name based phone numbers for them Teagans is xxx-xxTIGGY which she loves (more on that in another blog - Check back tomorrow). So, with new phone numbers in hand I guided them through updating their contact information in Facebook to replace their cell-phone numbers with the Google Voice numbers. Just the spam-call blocking features of Google Voice make this an essential upgrade for all your family's internet available numbers...

As part of my testing routines for the new IBMi Data Distribution commands (DSTDTA and DSTSPLF) I was creating and testing all kinds of documents in the integrated File system.  Taking any file from the good ole AS400 and converting it to TXT, PDF, XML, TIF, CSV and plopping a copy into the IFS or DLS, then sending it as a very saucy looking email to the users... It works beautifully now but "whats that got to do with malformed file names" I hear you mutter.

So, while I was writing these programs I had a brain-fart and accidentally create IFS objects with completely invalid file names... its possible to actually call a file '\this\is\a\file.txt' (with slashes as part of the file name) and as you can imagine Windows Explorer just completely gets its knickers in a twist. trying to figure out what folder that is in... Not Good.

It's actually very easy 

I've long been a follower of Mr Aaron Bartell - a nice guy and one of the most dynamic IBMi developers I have come across for a while.

His company, Krengel Tech, have some neat functions that simplify getting good old AS400 data (yes, I know its an iSeries or IBMi but sometimes I just like to type the old names :) )  out there to the Internet Super Web Highway Thingie...

In simplistic terms, RPG-XML Suite essentially is an RPG service program that allows RPG programmers the ability to compose, transmit, and parse XML along with many other supporting subprocedures. These three capabilities fully equip an RPG programmer to offer (or provide) web services on the iSeries as well as call (or consume) web services on remote machines.

So, as part of an IBMi project which is rebuilding a bunch of source libraries on the development machine, I always think backup before touching. Obviously an offline backup is first and foremost and then I thought "Wouldnt it be nice if I could copy all this source code to the IFS for easy referencing with NOTEPAD?"

The answer was YES... in true Projex style this turned into a command and CPYSRC2IFS was born.

Ever wanted to extract some data out of an IBMi/AS400 file using SQL and then email that data to someone as an Excel Spreadsheet?

Now you can… all from one IBMi command without having to write any CL code to do it.

I added this new function to the PROJEX400 - Distribute Data command last night – so it can now take a bite of selected data using SQL and send it as a TXT, CSV, XML or PDF as EMAIL.

Huge timesaver for me and has been on my wish-list for ages.

Example:

I’ve been playing with the IBMi Integrated File System over recent weeks. The IFS allows us to use and share data with Windows/Linux clients. It basically shares native IBMi (AS400) data with the windows world so that it looks just like a normal windows network drive.

You may read about AS/400 IFS and QDLS. It can be confusing for people. The QDLS folders were orig created for OfficeVision, a discontinued product, but can (and have been) used for other purposes. These folders are DOS-compatable and therefore use DOS style name (8.3 format). Directories (as sometimes called folders) not under QDLS are Unix compatable - long filenames and case-sensitive.

I was just in a demonstration of a file transfer application called AXWAY Tumbleweed which someone compared to both FTPS and SFTP. Which made me scratch my head as I knew they were both very different things and only one of them was actually 'Secure FTP'.

So, as much as a memory jogger for me as anything else:

FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol.  It's used for transferring data, generally files, between one computer and another. It's one of the oldest forms of file transfer mechanisms and traditionally allows you to upload/download a file to a server. Its not encrypted. Data is sent over the wire just as it is. FTP is a fantastically versatile protocol and virtually every computer system supports it.

I love programming (RPG, JAVA and CL) on the IBMi Server range... but it feels like IBM are trying to stop me. Aaaaargh!!!!

"But Nick, whats the problem old Chap?" I hear you ask

Here I am - a huge advocate of IBMi technology. I've grown up through the ranks of IBM System 3x systems and evolved alongside IBM through the AS400 years. I've excitedly played with the quiet, yet groundbreaking changes in hardware and software that came with the iSeries/eServer range of Servers. I've scratched my head slightly at the i5 branding. I've shook my head at the weirdly blurred focus on Linux. I've cheered at the Power5 Processor range and final (hopefully) name consolidation of the Power Server Hardware and IBMi software. I own 2 iSeries myself, courtesy of the internet beast known as eBay, and suspect there are not a lot of iSeries running in peoples houses just for their own amusement. 

I acquired my iSeries for developing PROJEX400 and learning new stuff which I can’t necessarily play/learn/experience when working on IBMi at client sites. I recently bought the second iSeries specifically to load IBMi 5.4 (unfortunately the iSeries Model 220 can’t run the latest v6 of IBMi).

But, three months after buying my iSeries machines, they're still sitting there trying to find anyone who can supply me with IBMi v5.4 for less than the price of preowned family car.

I am an IBMi Consultant, RPG Programmer, Web Enthusiast, Blogger and Advocate for IBM technology and business solutions. But, I am most definitely not an advocate of IBM's customer support policies. Not this morning anyway.

I'm really starting to get so pissed of IBM's derogatory view of me as an individual 'AS400 Programmer' - Yes, I really had to describe myself as that to an IBM Customer Representative on the phone because she didn’t understand when I said I was a freelance IT Consultant who wanted to buy a personal copy of IBMi Version 5.4  :/

Let me take a breath and review how I got here.

I've been working on the new version of PROJEX400 V5.x over the last couple of months. It's running very well on one of my IBM Servers at home (the other one is sitting there waiting for me to source a copy of IBMi V5R4 from somewhere) and at least one client site.

I'm super busy working on various client projects at the moment so my spare time for Projex Development is strictly limited... But, it's basically ready for publishing and distribution all compiled at my current home server OS version of i5OS V5R1M3.

Now, I've just got to decide on a method:

• Do I publish source code and make users upload source and compile?
• What a REX procedure to do it automatically?
• Do I stick with my current v5.1 OS400 or upgrade to IBMi v5.4 and recompile prior to release?
• Do I simply package it up in a *SAVF and allow users to FTP it onto their IBM System-i?

Decisions, decisions!

While I'm waiting for my whirling dusty mental matter to coalesce into a solid decision I'm waiting for IBM to finally give me a price for IBMi Version 5.4 for Tom and Jerry (Tom and Jerry are my two iSeries Servers queitly humming away down in the "Projex Bat Cave")