Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2015-10-02.) The last post hit both the “Mainframe” and “Performance” aspects of this blog. This one is firmly in the “Topics” category.[1] You might’ve noticed a slew of announcements from Apple recently, and iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 “El Capitan” delivery. [2] I’d like to talk here about one feature of iOSContinue reading “Slide Over A Bit”

(Originally posted 2015-09-30.) DB2 Accounting Trace names are a(n endless) [1] source of fascination to me. As many of you know, bridging the gap between DB2 and callers and the environment is permanently an imperative for me. These names might be cryptic but they can usually be related to non-DB2 concepts. As I’m about toContinue reading “CICS and Batch DB2 Identifiers”

(Originally posted 2015-08-19.) In What’s The Latency, Kenneth? I talked about Coupling Facility Link distance and OA37826. The whole supposition was that you might want to know about really long links. A recent situation showed me that short distances might be a different and interesting matter. So what’s a microsecond or two amongst friends? Well,Continue reading “What’s The Latency Really?”

(Originally posted 2015-08-17.) In true IBM fashion this post features graphs without scales. [1] My aim is to share a rhetorical device I used in a recent customer workshop. I hope you find it useful. [2] The customer was worried about a piece of hardware whose responsiveness had deteriorated over the past year, but gotContinue reading “The Right Curves?”

(Originally posted 2015-07-10.) Numbers are key to what I do; They’re the basic data I use as evidence. Without them it’s often just supposition. And nowhere is this truer than when trying to reduce bad[1] habits and reinforce good ones. So a while back I invested a small amount of money in a very niceContinue reading “Tally Ho!”

(Originally posted 2015-06-22.) As a matter of chance, over the past few months I've been involved in a number of situations where IMS has been an important component of the customers' infrastructure (and I'm about to be involved in another one). Although I hope my customers don't think I think of them only as testContinue reading “IMS Though My Eyes”

(Originally posted 2015-06-02.) As most people know, I thoroughly enjoy conferences and learn a lot. The Dublin one 18 – 22 May was no exception. It was great to meet up with old friends, connect with potential new ones and have a couple of compromising 🙂 photos of myself and friends to prove it. 🙂Continue reading “z Systems Technical University, Dublin 18-22 May 2015, Slides”

(Originally posted 2015-05-15.) I’ve put off writing this post for a while. Largely because it might sound like boasting. The truth being I have very little to boast about. But here goes anyway. I’m a fitful [1] exerciser. It’s not that it’s painful but that it’s not interesting. I’ve never found a sport I enjoyedContinue reading “The Unfit Bit? :-)”

(Originally posted 2015-05-09.) Just a brief one this time. A customer recently asked me how to detect Sysplexes sharing Infiniband links. [1] It arose when discussing the information in the new(ish) Channel Path Data Section in RMF’s SMF 74 Subtype 4 record. The question really boils down to “how do I detect in RMF /Continue reading “Sysplexes Sharing Links”

(Originally posted 2015-05-04.) This post is one where I really don’t speak for IBM.[1] It’s also one that’s firmly in the “Topics” category of “Mainframe, Performance, Topics”, [2] being about the emergent fields of iOS Automation (and Web Automation). And, while I give Remember The Milk a “could try harder” score I’m actually a bigContinue reading “Remember The Milk: Automatic For The People?”