Adam Gartenberg's Blog

IBM Data Management and Social Marketing

Carl Tyler: Sametime Wallpaper

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 24, 2008
  • Category:  Sametime 

Hats off to Carl Tyler and Epilio on the very cool Sametime Wallpaper plugin.  Head on over to his site for all the details.

And since I haven't yet found a cool picture for my own background, here's Carl's:


Link:  Free Sametime Wallpaper plug-in

New IDS e-book: Exploring IDS 11

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 24, 2008
  • Category:  Informix  IDS 

IBM Database Magazine is presenting a new IDS e-book by Lester Knutsen:  Exploring IDS 11

Informix guru Lester Knutsen explains how to get IDS 11 up to full speed using the Sysmaster database to monitor server status and performance. This downloadable e-book includes an overview of IDS 11 features, plus an in-depth look at what new and improved Sysmaster tables can tell you about your IDS system.


Download it here.  (Registration required)

Do you agree with these database taglines? What would yours be?

LewisC, over on his IT Toolbox blog posts a humorous look at some potential database taglines.  

Do you know what a tag line is? It's those nifty phrases that come after a product or brand to get your attention. Like "Quality is job 1" or "Have it your way". Some of those tag lines really become part of the universal meme. Here are a few tag lines I'd like to see.


As always with things like this, it's always funnier when it happens to the other guy - I was laughing at the Oracle ones, while wincing at the DB2 and Informix ones.  You should head on over and leave comments on his site if you've got any others to suggest, but more importantly, I'm curious about any that you think hit a little too close to home.  

What should our taglines be, and what do you think we should be doing to turn them into reality?  I want to hear the answers to that on my site.

Link:  New Database Taglines

Quoted

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 23, 2008
  • Category:  Miscellaneous 

"OK, first off, he's 17 now.  Which makes you and me really old."
-- npr, speaking of Spencer Elden, the baby on the cover of Nirvana's "Nevermind"

> More






DB2 9 and Major League Baseball team up to prevent counterfeits

It's great to see DB2 out of the back office and onto the ball field.  IBM announced last week that we would be working with Major League Baseball on several initiatives, one of which is designed to prevent counterfeiting in what is now a multi-billion dollar memorabilia business.  Larry Bowden, Vice President for Portals and Mashups, explained how it works:

"The balls have a hologram on them," he explained. "At the All Star Game they had authorized security personnel who could watch the person catch the ball, and then come up to them and with their handheld device they would register the person who caught the ball, scan that particular hologram. Then that person's information goes into a database to record that they are the person who owns this ball."

That information is then wirelessly uploaded to MLB's IBM DB2 9 data server. If the lucky fan then puts the ball up for sale on eBay, potential buyers with be able to check the database to ensure that they are dealing with the rightful owner of the authentic ball hit by this player in this game on this date.



MLB is also using IBM WebSphere Portal software to provide Umpires with a consolidated view of everything from current weather conditions to historical data on players prone to fighting.

MLB is using IBM collaboration software to provide improved intelligence and historical data directly to umpiring crews. With MLB's Umpire Desktop, powered by IBM Portal software, officials gain advanced insight into players' behavior, based on historical issues or likely tendencies. Within the Umpire Desktop, you can also see Google Gadgets at work, mini-objects that can be placed on an internal Web page to offer more dynamic, real-time content. This way, umpires can get up-to-the-minute weather views from Google Gadgets, along with statistics and other key information.


Links:
SearchSOA:  Web 2.0 at the old ball game
Press Release:  Major League Baseball Hits Home Run With All Star Line-Up of Web 2.0 Technology From IBM

Home and Away: "When the kids see the headset, they know..."

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 22, 2008
  • Category:  miscellaneous 

My newspaper just started carrying "Home and Away" as a guest comic strip, and the first strip I saw definitely caught my attention:

Image:Home and Away: "When the kids see the headset, they know..."

Looking through the site, I see, ohhhh... one or two other themes to which I can relate.  How about you?


Image:Home and Away: "When the kids see the headset, they know..."
Link:  http://www.gocomics.com/homeandaway/2008/07/21/

Image:Home and Away: "When the kids see the headset, they know..."
Link: http://www.gocomics.com/homeandaway/2008/07/22/

Disaster recovery: Are YOU prepared?

Disaster Recovery is a topic that's always been close to my heart, ever since I joined a bank out of college that was six months into what would eventually be a 18-24 month cleanup from two natural disasters that they got hit with in short order.  One of the projects I worked on during during that period was to help put disaster recovery plans in place.  

And as much as it pained me to see 200 PCs sitting idle in a building across town, when I had to fight tooth-and-nail to get approval to purchase just one more production PC, I knew why it was important that we have an off-site facility ready in case anything should happen again.

What's bringing this up now is a series of posts by Charles Robinson on a disaster he's in the midst of recovering from.  It sounds like the plans he and his manager put in place have made things so much better than they would have been, even if they were not as prepared as they might have wanted to be for the fire that knocked them out of their building (although I don't think anyone can ever be "fully" prepared for something like that).  

It's always easy to pretend that the monthly backup you do (overwriting the same tape again and again, and stored in the office), is "good enough," or even "the best we can do with all of our other priorities."  Trust me (and trust Charles), the other priorities can wait.  Start getting things in order.  Today.

(And Charles - I'm so sorry you've had to go through this, and thank you for sharing your experience with us.)

Links:
Charles Robinson:  We had a fire at work
Charles Robinson:  Disaster Recover: Knowing what you know
Charles Robinson:  Disaster Recovery: Planning for failure

I’ve updated my blog to include Data Mgmt links and podcasts

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 22, 2008
  • Category:  DB2  blogging 

I'm wrapping up preparation for an internal "Blogging 201" session today to help my colleagues who are interested in blogging get up and running with a blog.  (And if you're not an IBMer but are interested in starting a blog, feel free to drop me a line and I'd be glad to help out, too.)

One of the pieces of advice I'm giving is to link to other relevant bloggers in your blogroll, and it hit me that I had never properly updated my blogroll with all of the blogs I read on a regular basis related to Data Management.  Oops.  

Fortunately, this is a problem that's easily remedied.  I think I've captured everyone I read on a regular basis (although it's hard to tell for sure, since I also subscribe to Planet DB2.  If you don't see your name there and you think it should be, please drop me a note!

Also, while I was making updates to the sidebar, I saw a post from Rav about the "Voice of DB2 Community Podcast" widget, and immediately went and added that, too.  Thanks, Rav!

developerWorks Live events: IBM vs. Microsoft and Oracle

Image:developerWorks Live events: IBM vs. Microsoft and Oracle

If you want to learn more information about how IBM's information solutions deliver more value and better meet your needs than Microsoft and Oracle, look for one of these developerWorks Live events, coming to dozens of cities around the world (and virtually in online-only sessions).  They are geared for a technical audience, and will include a number of demos.  

Visit the event website for additional details on the event, to download the presentations for the event (which look like they are available already), and to register for a local event or the online version.

Experience the Power of Information On Demand Solutions
See firsthand how IBM Information Server compares to Microsoft® SQL Server Integration Services and Oracle Warehouse Builder and Data Integrator.  
Live demonstrations include real-world scenarios that demonstrate the value of IBM Information Management solutions.  IBM experts will explain how IBM
can help improve your business flexibility and responsiveness.

AGENDA
Introduction
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
DB2 9.5 Server Foundation
9:15 AM - 9:50 AM
New Types of Data
9:50 AM - 10:30 AM
BREAK
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Effective Use of Data (Deliver Federated Data)
10:45 AM - 11:40 AM
Effective Use of Data (Business Optimization)
11:40 AM - 12:00 PM
LUNCH
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Effective Use of Data (Business Optimization) cont
1:00 PM - 1:40 PM
Enterprise Content Management and Search
1:40 PM - 2:50 PM
Summary and Q&A  
2:50 PM - 3:05 PM


Demos
Some of the products demonstrated include:
  • IBM Information Server (including multiple modules)
  • Dynamic Warehousing Solutions -- DB2 Data Warehouse Edition & Alphablox
  • Enterprise Content Management – FileNet P8 Content Management, FileNet P8 Business Process Manager, and OmniFind
  • DB2 9 Development Center and pureXML™
  • DB2® 9

Link:  developerWorks Live:  Experience the power of Information on Demand solutions

Pre-order now: Administering Informix Dynamic Server, by Carlton Doe

  • Author: Adam Gartenberg
  • July 17, 2008
  • Category:  Informix  IDS  IBM 


As pointed out by Susan Visser, Amazon is now taking preorders for Carlton Doe's forthcoming book:  "Administering Informix Dynamic Server:  Building the Foundation"

Geared towards database server administrators who need to get a server up and running in a short amount of time, this guide focuses on the basic skills required to administer and maintain the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) data server. Each of the major functional areas of the database server are reviewed, including designing, initializing, monitoring, building availability layers, securing data, and the data processing environment. This book reviews how the IDS works, how to install it, how to configure a database environment, back up, recovery, and includes an introduction to monitoring instance operations, making it useful to current IDS users who need to upgrade from earlier versions of the data server as well as those who have never used IDS before.


Head on over to Susan's blog for more details on the book, or Amazon to preorder.

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