Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2005-11-14.) As many people know I’ve been a Queen fan since 1974. And us Queen fans all know how we feel about Freddie Mercury’s death and the subsequent retirement of John Deacon. So it was with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation that I saw Queen + Paul Rodgers live in Hyde ParkContinue reading “Queen: Return of the Champions DVD”

(Originally posted 2005-11-14.) At the weekend I went to see Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster and Sean Bean. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the suspense of disbelief element. But it is a bit far-fetched. To describe the plot – any further than the marketing material does – would be to totally spoil it for anyone whoContinue reading “A Movie You Might Like”

(Originally posted 2005-11-11.) This probably counts as my contribution to RMF for this decade. 🙂 RMF has long had the Software Model for a processor in SMF 70. Until z900 this was the same as the Hardware Model. With z900 you could have processors that were there but you hadn’t bought yet. With z990 itContinue reading “Hardware Model Support in z/OS Release 7 RMF”

(Originally posted 2005-11-11.) I’ve not really gotten into EWLM and ARM – yet. But I think this APAR will be of interest to those who have. And I expect I will get interested in it when it’s more fully established… PK11801 DDF FULLY-ENABLED EWLM ARM SUPPORT describes how the DDF support for EWLM / ARMContinue reading “DDF and EWLM”

(Originally posted 2005-11-11.) One of the cardinal rules for a successful blog has been to write often. Clearly I’ve not done that for some time. Indeed I missed writing about zSeries Expo in San Francisco in September. And all I can say is that you really wouldn’t want to know about the internals of writingContinue reading “I’m Back”

(Originally posted 2005-07-11.) This is perhaps fairly basic for those of you who’ve read the fine print on zAAPs and IRD, but I needed to see it in someone’s data: IRD Weight Management will feel free to vary the weight for the “Type 1” pool for a z/OS LPAR with zAAPs. But it will keepContinue reading “IRD and zAAPs”

(Originally posted 2005-07-11.) APAR PQ96908 accumulates updates to the DB2 for OS/390 and z/OS V7 and V8 IFCID flat files (DSNWMSGS) that occur in the last half of 2004 and the first half of 2005. DSNWMSGS documents all the fields in each of the DB2 SMF records (and other DB2 instrumentation sources). Personally I carryContinue reading “DB2 Instrumentation Changes – Documentation Updated”

(Originally posted 2005-07-05.) Periodically on IBM-MAIN I’m caused to revisit something. With the advent of z990/z890 and “supposedly abundant” 🙂 real memory it seems to be time to revisit paging subsystem design. You might perhaps think that in these days of zero paging you could skimp on paging subsystem design. And you’d be wrong. 😦Continue reading “Paging Subsystem Design”

(Originally posted 2005-06-29.) As a relative newcomer to the world of web programming I’ve been learning javascript. The reason I chose this language is (quite apart from already knowing java/swing) there is a very useful javascript tool called GreaseMonkey. Greasemonkey allows you to modify web pages you’re browsing. Such modifications include Inserting HTML into aContinue reading “GreaseMonkey”

(Originally posted 2005-06-15.) Yesterday we IBM “pioneer” bloggers had a conference call where we thought about enhancements to this blogging site. One that seemed to get some measure of support was the notion of a place where readers could make unsolicited comments and ask questions. I’m just writing about things I think are interesting. I’mContinue reading “Things I could write about”