Re: MAKEMONEY cmd

http://www.training.ibm.com/ibmedu/spotlight/as400.html = IBM education on 
the AS/400 ... there is also a 1-800 # to get a catalog of all courses 
offered, and directories of which classes being held in your region, and IBM 
fax back service can give anyone what the curriculum is of any given class, 
maps to class sites, etc.  The Manager of any AS/400 facility should know 
about this, but if not, a call to your hardware supplier will give it to you.

> From: pike4@ix.netcom.com (Phil  Kestenbaum)
>  
>  It still comes down to a lack of advertising. 

Or being on the circulation list of publications that have the advertising.
Every AS/400, that IBM sells, comes with a gratis copy of the AS/400 magazine 
from IBM which we can subscribe to for free & every issue of that magazine 
has a calendar of upcoming IBM education.

http://www.as400magazine.com

When we converted from S/36 to AS/36, IBM included a lovely poster, which is 
now on the wall in our computer room, with URLs for accessing the manuals & 
anything you might want to know about the AS/400 - some of them may no longer 
be relevant URLs, but the principle here is that if you are involved in the 
hardware side of setting up an AS/400 there is a wealth of contact 
information.

If you are involved in getting the software, it is very difficult to avoid 
getting on the mailing lists of places like Midrange Computing Showcase 
advertising add ons for the AS/400 & I do not know how we found out about 
News/400, but I think any AS/400 professional who is not subscribing to it, 
is a fool or is too poverty stricken to understand that you need to spend 
some money to try stay current on how it can be used.

If you get either publication, you know that they have both classes in AS/400 
stuff, and on-line forums and resources like we are now on.

http://news400.com/
http://www.midrangecomputing.com/forums/

Whether you get the dead tree editions, the e-mail newsletters, or visit the 
URLs ... your access to such information means a constant flood of 
educational opportunities - I must admit I do not have any of the RPG text 
books, other than what came in RPG classes, because RPG changes too rapidly 
to heavily rely on such a source, and that might be why advertising for them 
is weak.

IBM also has some forums & lists & news & etc. resources - here is one I 
found from an earlier thread here
http://www.as400.ibm.com/db2/db2main.htm

This thread reminds me somewhat of 20 years ago at a Science Fiction 
Convention when I realized that a lot of Science Fiction fandom activities 
are a secret from many Science Fiction Fans ... if all you do is read the 
novels, watch the movies, etc. you are totally oblivious to the world of SF 
music & SF humor & SF poetry & SF art & etc. & even if you stumble across one 
of these cons by accident, you still are lost.

I can understand computer users who are on some system other than IBM, not 
knowing about the specifics of IBM solutions, and I can understand users of 
one IBM hardware not knowing about other IBM solutions, but it is really sad 
when people are on a particular platform & not know much about it.

So here we have users of AS/400 who are oblivious to AS/400 resources, but  
advertising of those resources are much more pervasive to AS/400 sites than 
SF cons are within SF product packaging.  Is this the norm or the exception 
to the rule?  I suspect the problem is that we so rarely need to call AS/400 
tech support, that some people forget it even exists, except for those paying 
the bills & approving the contracts.  PCs break down so often & are so 
user-hostile, that the support organizations are much more ever presently 
obvious to all users.  A parallel is that I have a 1-800 # to call for auto 
support & have a hard time finding the card in my wallet when I need it 
because many years between cases of using it.  The AS/400 is like that to 
most of its end users.

>  I remember the Access fellow asked if he
>  should learn RPG, because he saw how important this was. 
>  None of us knew what to tell him, or where to steer him. 

Another question is which language will replace RPG, like SQL or Java ... 
which  to learn next.

>  From ddi@datadesigninc.com (nina jones)

>  what people want are reliable computers that are easy to use.  

Except that end users are buying CHEAP PCs that have lots of problems.
When people buy their SECOND computer, have they learned anything from their 
first buy, or do they just go with more of what they are now accustomed to?  
Advertising for alternatives to an uninformed purchase needs to reach people 
ready for an upgrade replacement choice.  That's where advertising 
alternatives to Y2K risks were totally obliterated by the sky is falling 
mantra.

>  i still think a series of ads, with one harried exec with a network and
>  another with an as/400, comparing budgets, down time, etc would get
>  these peoples attention.  companies are switching to networks because
>  they have been lead to believe it's cheaper and easier. 

IBM corporate would never approve AS/400 Division doing advertisements that 
make sense.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor

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