RE: OS400 release levels

Rob,

Thanks Rob, I knew I could always count on you for an incoherent
answer! As long as you exist there will be one wobbly iSeries
in use, broken, waiting for the next patch coming real soon.
Perhaps they will devote a wing of a museum to you, the last
AS/400 user.

My comments, of course:

> 1)  Unwillingness to work after hours to apply the upgrade.
        YEAH! I WANT OT!!!!! Did that SRC change? Why aren't the lights
        blinking? Why did the weekend support guy at IBM say he has
        never seen that one before?

> 2)  Illiteracy.  Failure to have read the terms of software subscription
        when there were sweet deals on it.
        1980? Please forward terms to me.

> 3)  Why fix something when it is broke the way I know it is?
        HEY be consistent, it is either better or worse, chances are IBM
will
        call your "broke" a feature. I know I would. If you actually track
        reported problems to their incorporation and release in IBM software
        releases you have tooooooooooo much time on your hands.

> 4)  Trying to get the platform to fail and get old so that they can get
        their other favorite platform in there.
        YOU BET, cheaper, better, more robust thy name is not iSeries. Get
me some
        of those new drives that never fail.

> 5)  IBM doesn't have the 1 or two feature that they want in the new
        release so let's cut off our noses to spite our face.
        Actually I want 3 features, so I would still be out of luck. But I
        do think the noseless look could come into vogue.

> 6)  Lookie what I can do with stone knives and bearskins!
        Fire was a powerful invention :)

> 7)  Dang, I am getting old.  Do I want to put something on here that them
        young whippersnappers can show me up on?
        Now that is unfair, most college grads would vomit in preference to
having to work  on an   iSeries!

> 8)  I don't want to give my customers any ammunition to go to their
        management and say we need to upgrade if we want to continue using
the
        software from vendor xyz.
        It does seem a good way to get rid of an existing vendor that
equates
        "enhancement" to "bug fix".

<Sigh> Back to work on my stoneage box. Gonna limber up by writing some sort
specs and some good ole RPG II code now. Gonna internally define some files
and maybe even do a direct file or two. Yeah thats the ticket! And you know
when our new box gets in I don't think I will even be able to get around
5.2.
It has changed so much I might not even be able to signon to it :(

Regards

Konrad