Re: 'green screen' not sellable --> WE(?) are the problem -- MIDRANGE-L

Hi John

Not dogging you by my reply, I hope!!!

I've had a connection to a free use of a machine in Germany for several years - before that, to something provided by John Ross, to whom I may have paid a few shekels. His site was www.netshare400.com - this was 11 years ago now, and I'd just lost a job.

I found these by googling for something like "as/400 timeshare" = yes, that was that long ago.

There've also been several threads in these lists about this over the years - and I've been here about 20 years now - I know, ridiculous!!!

This feels a little like the stuff I'm reading about creativity - part of it is being in the right place at the right time - Mainline, is that Mainline Information Systems? They might not have a compelling reason to know about these offerings. If they're a development partner, they might know about the virtual loaner program, which is not available to civilians such as I am now.

Anyway, I guess I'm saying the information has been out there - and that maybe you just didn't have the luck or whatever to see it.

Larry's question is germain - how do we get the word out? For whatever it is we do on this platform.

Regards
Vern

On 6/8/2015 3:20 PM, John R. Smith, Jr. wrote:

Since I feel I am being dogged for my comments...

I heard there were places where you could rent a "machine" but I couldn't
find any and my cohorts did not know of any either. I even asked some sales
reps at Mainline and they didn't know of any. I finally gave in and broke
down and BOUGHT a small iSeries to the tune of $26K for a single user
license so I could develop software that I wanted to market. I would have
been much happier spending $1200/year if I could have ever figured out what
to Google to find you.

As an added grouch point, since it was a single user license, I called about
adding a second user so a cohort could do some work on my machine and it was
an another $5K per user.

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
DrFranken
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 3:53 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: 'green screen' not sellable --> WE(?) are the problem

And if you think Pete and I and Jim and ... have invested ONLY $50 a month
in the stuff we play with you would be off by 'a significant margin' :-) :-)

I spend Waaaaay more than that per month just POWERING the stuff!

This is all above and beyond the stuff we use for our commercial ventures.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 6/8/2015 3:39 PM, Pete Massiello - ML wrote:

There are many costs for every profession. You don't have to invest in

yourself, you don't have to invest in your skills....if you eventual wish to
be forced into retirement.

Let's say 15 years ago, you were the best S/36 RPG II programmer in the

world, and you said "$50 a month, are you crazy. I am not going to invest
that in my career". Guess what, you are probably STILL the best S36 RPG II
programmer in the world, except now you are unemployed and out of a job. No
one wants to hire someone with outdated skills. Secondly, do you know what
is even worse? Being hired by someone who is looking for outdated skills.

Fast forward, 15 years to 2015. Don't learn Linux, don't learn Free form

RPG, don't learn SQL (because DDS works fine), don't learn mobile
development, don't learn web development, etc, etc, etc. Well, I hope you
plan to retire by 2016, because it's the same pattern. As IT professionals,
we have to constantly invest in ourselves, because the world is constantly
moving. $600 a year is pretty small dollars to keep having a paycheck over
the next 10 to 20 years. In addition, it's going to conferences like
COMMON, local user groups, System i Developer, IBM, or being on this list
that continue to expose you new ideas and concepts.

Yes, the examples may be extreme just to point out that investment in

yourself is necessary.

Pete

Pete Massiello
iTech Solutions
http://www.itechsol.com
http://www.iInTheCloud.com

Office: 203-744-7854

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Mark D
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 3:06 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: 'green screen' not sellable --> WE(?) are the problem

On 06/08/2015 02:55 PM, DrFranken wrote:

<vendor>
Stop whining, It's YOUR Career. For $50 a month you can have access.
For
$100 you can have your own private partition. Many of you spend more
than that on your Cable or Satellite service!
If your passion is:
Hiking you buy good shoes, yes?
Biking you buy good wheels, tires, and bikes, yes?
Cooking you buy good knives and pans, yes?
Fishing you buy good lures and poles and a BOAT, yes?
IBM i you get access to the new stuff, right?????
So shut up and invest in yourself already!! (Sorry I'm cranky today.)
</vendor>

Whiiiiile I'm inclined to agree with this, it's just one of many costs for

an independent consultant. I have to deal with replacing my laptop every
year or two because it either is too slow to run 6 vm's or can't handle
being moved so much (though my current MSI GS70 is pretty much awesome
except the screen), visual studio licenses, insurance and other bits.

Spending $50/mo for experimentation is where I draw the line. And I
only spend $30/mo on satellite tv :-P

So where I'm at is that $50 well could be worth it... or not. But
that
$700 visual studio license will *definitely* be worth it to me.

If I can tinker on a Linux/Windows VPS for for $8/mo... or do it on EC2

on demand for cents... to play with things I am 100% sure will pay off...
Versus $50/mo for something that mayyyyybe will pay off if I encounter an i
shop who forces me to work on the i rather than with the i.

Kind of puts you in a crappy position as a hoster who no doubt charges

what you need to charge but that is the reality for the little guys. If I
was a career RPG dev I'm sure the equation would be a LOT different.

Thanks,
Mark

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