The Master Terminal

It’s always good to stay current, so I thought I would post some of the links in my queue of things to read at the moment.  Mostly all zJournal articles but the first link is to Mike’s IT Consulting blog, which I found via google the other day.  It’s really great to see others blogging about CICS!  Also big thanks to Phyllis Donofrio (second link) for providing the MasterTerminal with some much appreciated linkage. Let us know if you are going to link to us on your site so we can return the favour.

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Before I begin, I should inform you that I am super-biased. I’m a CICSPlex SM developer and have been since I joined IBM almost 3 years ago now.  However, I really think this is a superb product, that does a horrendously hard job.  I like to think of CICSPlex SM as something that does all the painful, boring work so you just don’t have to.  Now to me, that is pure value!  So let’s get to it..

If you have CICS regions to manage or even just monitor, CICSPlex SM provides an ideal environment for getting your job done.  With CICS TS 3.2 it now has a much improved installation that is integrated directly with CICS, so it has never been easier to try it out.  Better yet, you don’t have to convince anyone to “show you the money” as it is bundled right there alongside CICS.

So why use CICSPlex SM?  What makes it so great?  Well here are 6 things, that I think makes CICSPlex SM a must have!

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Some of our EMEA based CICS Level 2 support colleagues were in Hursley last week. They managed to be caught on camera, so if you ever wanted to know what some of those people that you may deal with over the phone, or on the end of a ETR/PMR looked like …

From left to right we have, Thomas Braun, Bruno Simonet, Ulrich Seitz, Manuela Mandelli, Cees Den Odsten, Linda Pontermoli, Jim Harrison, Jutta Fels, Sandro Varges, Phil (‘Two-pots’) Lee, and Tony Fitzgerald.

Thanks to Tony for the photo.

Nick Garrod, the CICS TS marketing manager, has written a great, informative article on CICS TS and SOA. Well worth a read!

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/mayjune08/features/20324p1.aspx

Following a chat with a colleague about some of the heated discussions he gets into over CICS, I came up with the idea for some CICS knuckle dusters. Obviously I don’t condone violence to conclude any discussion, least of all one arising in the work place. Disclaimers out the way, I came over all Blue Peter and set to work with my stanley knife, some double sided sticky tape, cardboard and one of the large “I LOVE CICS” bumper stickers to craft two very nice knuckle dusters.

Here is a rather menacing photo of me sporting them:

When I was making these I noticed that the gap between the Cs is exactly the right space for my eyes to look through. Next project then, to make a pair of CICS Elton John style glasses. These were a little trickier to make (my IBM Thanks Award stanley knife blade was getting a little blunt by now, and I’m too much of a weakling to break the blade- I work with computers don’t you know…) Below is a photo of the resulting glasses. I think they make me look quite smart, don’t you?