information technology

A few weeks ago I picked up a Dell 400SC Poweredge server for the ridiculous price of $150 on Craigslist. It was being advertised by a chap who had inherited it from a business, wiped it and then installed Windows XP: Even though it's a server you can install XP on the 400SC relatively easy and most drivers work straight away. But it runs like a dog. A one legged one.

Shannon Elizabeth has nothing to do with this except I am watching her play Poker on Youtube at the moment and think shes lovely

So, aforementioned gentlemen thought it was a duff PC and advertised it on Craigslist hoping to offload it for a few dollars and to pass the headache onto someone else. The guy selling it thought he was selling a dud machine, and it turns out it was just his installation of a hooky copy of XP with forced drivers (the wrong ones) that was the problem. Nice.

Great opportunity for me - especially as I was looking for a cheap little Media Server for my home network. A little haggling and the Dell is in the back the car heading back to the house for a weekend of serious tinkering.

So what did I get for my money?

I got a Dell Poweredge 400SC Server with 2.4Ghz 320GB hdd, 1GB ram and a snappy 21inch flat panel... upgrade time straight away so I slapped in another 3GB of ram and a 500GB Drive in slot2. The integrated graphics card works OK but as there is an AGP slot in there thats empty:

• A Graphics Card on Ebay for $20 (RADEON 9600 XT AGP 256MB) - it's not a mind blowing card but it sure kicks the arse of the nasty 8mb thing that comes as standard.
• Some USB Speakers for $20 at BestBuy - these things are excellent. Just plug them into the USB, self powered and play nice and loud. double thumbs up.

Now it's time to play with it and see how I'm going to use it to store all my Music and serve my other media (pictures, movies etc..) into my home wireless network.

The IBM System i has a strong following, in part because companies have not generally been required to upgrade hardware or software on an arbitrary schedule. This means that many business are running legacy computer applications (for legacy read 'old fashioned') that have typically been running on green-on-black terminals for many years - "if it aint broke why fix it?"

Since the 1990's computer technology has been evolving at an incredible pace. Todays mobile phones pack in far more technology and firepower than a desktop computer from ten years ago. Even your family car with its engine computer and GPS/SatNav is doing these incredibly technological things that we now take for granted.

The IBM System i has been evolving at an equally exciting pace, now with fully integrated website support, FTP, email, support for just about every language and even integrated Windows/Linux Servers. The original programming language (RPG - Report Program Generator) has evolved into this incredibly powerful tool that can write/read websites, do incredibly complex maths and convert data to PDF's and emails and talk to just about any other language on any other platform.

So, "why isnt it being adopted by more business?" I hear you ask.

It's our own fault... speaking as a Software Developer it's definitely down to us.

RPG Programmers, in particular, fall into at least three camps

Camp 1 - The Dinosaurs
RPGIII programmers who write things in the same way they were writing them back in the early 90's. Code elegance is not important, nor is performance or any kind of visual stimulus to the user. The only important thing is getting the data off the System i (invariably referred to as the AS400 by this crowd) and giving it to the user in the form of reams of paper and query reports hundreds of pages long. Fully entrenched in green screen development, firmly in their careers twilight years and obstinately sticking to Compare-and-Branch programming style because "this is how we have always done it".