RE: Another One Bites The Dust -- MIDRANGE-L

I know what you are talking about Robert, we moved over to the Netherlands 
because the contract work dried up in the UK. Permanent jobs were just about 
all in London or on such a salary that I would have been hard pushed to afford 
the trailer park option. The cost of living in the Netherlands compared to the 
UK was such that I could afford to take the permanent job, which lasted 18 
months before I got so bored and had to move on, the last job I had are also 
getting rid of their iSeries, mainly because the parent company in the US has 
an Oracle based system. 

Why they are changing here is a mystery, all the people on the shop floor here 
like the green screen option, they are just keying in a few numbers, or using 
handheld scanners, and a few still have dumb terminals so they could still work 
the 3 times the network went down in the 6 months I have been here. I am told 
the only outage they have had with the iSeries over the past 15 years was once 
during a powercut. 

Still the bloke in charge wants it so he knows best, right?

Steve



-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]Namens Robert W. Munday
Verzonden: maandag 11 december 2006 13:22
Aan: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Onderwerp: Re: Another One Bites The Dust 


Steve,


<<<  I was informed here on Friday that the AS400 (iSeries) will be replaced 
in the coming year by I think it is an Oracle based system  >>>

I don't know why these folks want to replace the iSeries with "something 
better".  A few years ago, one client hired some Java programmers because a 
higher-up heard the buzzwords "Java" and "Websphere" and wanted to convert 
every application to Java.  Java is a slug compared to RPG and the concept 
only lasted a few months.  The Java folks were let go and the client is a 
solid RPG shop now.


<<<  one of the main reasons that the guy gives (although I feel it is just 
one excuse he can point to) is the lack of skilled programmers.  >>>

As a skilled programmer, I find that there is a serious lack of iSeries 
shops in which to work.  There is no work in my home town and almost none in 
my home state.  In the past three years I have had to work in Nebraska, 
Indiana, South Carolina and Ohio because those were states where I could 
find programming work.  I have been in Ohio for over a year with at least 
nine months to go.  I'd like to go home but I have a famliy to support and 
if I desired to toil twice as hard for one-fourth of the pay, I'm sure I 
*could* find a job at home.  It would mean downsizing our lifestyle... we'd 
have to move out of the double-wide and get a single. That would also put us 
in a section of the mobile home park I really want to avoid.


Robert Munday
Munday Software Consultants
Montgomery, AL
on assignment in Dublin, OH