Google Saves The Day

I am guessing that a number of visitors to this blog have the need to man a booth from time to time. If so, I thought you would enjoy this story:

We are exhibiting at a conference in Dallas, Texas. We wanted Internet access at our booth. When we were informed that it would cost $1,400....I promptly said "NO THANKS!"

I pulled out my droid (Google) phone and connected to the Internet. We then tethered laptops to the phone. Great performance and saved us $1,400! Thank you Google!

Contract Guardian | Contract Management Software | Risk Mitigation | Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian | Contract Management Software | Risk Mitigation | Contract Guardian New Site for Contract Guardian (LANSA Based Contract Management)

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Integration of Google Search Appliance & LANSA

We are experiencing amazing client results when we integrate the Google Search Appliance with our custom LANSA WAMS. We trigger searches from our LANSA code and integrate the results back to the LANSA WAM working lists. Below is a little video about some of the New GSA Features.

Installation of LANSA V12.0 - my personal experience

I've just finished installing the new LANSA V12.0 onto both a "Master" I-Series and a "Slave" Windows XP workstation as a fresh new LANSA install.

There are a number of improvements. Firstly, all of the numerous CD's of the LANSA software have now been combined into one single DVD disk... Nice... Secondly, the installation DVD comes with a much newer, nicer, and improved Visual C++ engine wrapper.... So just working with the new software and documentation is much improved.

However, the largest changes and improvements ( that I have run into thus far... and I am still exploring ... ) are in the VL IDE workstation installer upgrades...

As most of you know, LANSA V12.0 is where LANSA introduces the change from running on the older Sybase SQL Anywhere SQL platform to running on the newer Microsoft SQLServer 2008 Express SQL database platform. That alone is a major change ( Make sure you follow the documentation on this on upgrades...)...

The installer, however, has a whole new look and feel and some improved dialogs too to go along with the new SQL database platform. You can relax though as many of the dialog questions remain the same as before... although there are some changes too...

The installation process ran very smoothly.... I did have to go through one "normal" reboot, but the installer just picked right back up again without so much as a single touch...

Starting the VL IDE for the first time caused the Partition Initialization to kick off and this set of dialogs has been changed into a nice neat little checklist.... so you can actually tell exactly where you are at, what is done, and what is left to do...

My first start of the VL IDE crashed, so I was a little disappointed at first... I called LANSA Support and they were very fast to respond... There was a small registry path error that me and my "fat fingers" had apparently introduced while answering all of the new dialogs... Once we had that ironed out, then the VL IDE came right up and ran like a champ... So, I'm chalking that one up to me and my "fat fingers"...

All in all - aside from my "fat fingers" episodes - the new LANSA V12.0 installation ran very smoothly and seems to include a lot of nice improvements...

I'm going to be back to exploring LANSA V12.0 next and then maybe try a little LANSA install upgrade action later on once I get a little more comfortable...

Meanwhile, I would definitely recommend that everyone give the New LANSA V12.0 a try...

Eclipse or Studio Plugin for LANSA

Allow me to ask everyone this question? Is it time for LANSA to provide a plugin for Eclipse or Microsoft Studio? (Maybe both!) Perhaps this might trigger some conversation at the Summit.

LANSA 2010 Solution Summit

Looks like the folks from LANSA are going to provide a teas of things to come.

Preview the LANSA Solution Summit at a Sneak Peek Webinar!

Thursday, February 19 - 1:00 p.m. ET

Register for the "Sneak Peek Webinar" by contacting Sherry Barnvos at 630.874.7071 or sherryb@lansa.com.

Nice Video Overview of aXes from LANSA

Are you still using IE 6.0?

If you are still using IE 6.0, you should take note of a notification from Google. It might have an impact on your users.

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

LANSA Cuts Cost of IBM i Web Enablement with aXes

Yesterday I read that LANSA has released a new version of aXes. We have had the pleasure of playing with a beta version of the product and have been very pleased. For those of using RAMP, I strongly suggest you jump on this approach vs New Look. It is much quicker for development and the speed of feature delivery by LANSA is almost Googleish.

LANSA is clearly leveraging the best of the open source world and incorporating those features into aXes.

Below is a before and after shot of the IBM i Main System Menu.

Lansa Integration with Portals becomes more secure

Lansa Integration with Portals becomes more secure

The Lansa WAM integration for Essential Enterprise Portal has had a security boost. New security features include:

• Support for Triple DES and AES encryption.
• Data passed between portal and WAM is encrypted.
• Encryption/Decryption libraries written for Lansa Integrator help secure both sides of the communication.
• Session timeouts now customizable through properties in Lansa.

With security on the web being an issue of ever increasing performance, these security enhancements will help to ensure that Rippe & Kingston's portal and Lansa integration keeps up with modern security models and technologies, while continuing to provide a smooth integration between two distinct services. (This was originally posted by Brad Gardner on the Portal Talk Blog.)

Full Circle with LANSA

We just received our copies of LANSA Review and it is great to see development work with LANSA go full circle and become success stories for our clients. Three clients that use our services are featured:

CHRISTUS Health - uses our Contract Guardian System

THE HILLMAN Group - LANSA Professional Services (Development)

Agilysys - LANSA Professional Services (LANSA Infrastructure)

LANSA was also kind enough to reprint one of my blog postings in LANSATALK about LANSA & Cloud Computing

Thanks LANSA and congratulations to our clients for their success!

Maybe LANSA Can Borrow Some Ideas from Google Chrome

Google Chrome has an experimental site that shows you just how far one can take JavaScript. These experiments were created by designers and programmers from around the world using the latest open standards, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and more. Their work is making the web faster, more fun, and more open. "Hey LANSA - take a look and see if there might be some idea to borrow or at least entertain."

Link To Experiments

One of my personal favorite is http://physicsketch.appspot.com/

Take a couple of minutes rest from developing real world applications and let your mind stretch and relax!

ps If you missed the LANSA technology briefing today you catch the replay at http://elearning.lansa.com/images/elearning/webinar/webinar.html.

When Is Crud a Good Thing?

Hearing the word crud usually triggers visions of something you wish to scrape off the bottom of your shoe. However, in other circles like our friends at LANSA it is a thing of beauty.

Create, read, update and delete (CRUD) are the four basic functions of persistent storage, a major part of nearly all computer software. LANSA delivers the answer to this ever present challenge with a very slick Wizard. A brief dialogue with the wizard and you will generate a very professional developed WAM. It does not just deliver the basics. Included in the solution is a selection of themes, colors and styles to suite your own needs. Yes, you can use your own custom theme as well.
Other impressive features include unlimited drill down capability, automatic search mechanisms based on your selected views and calendars for your date fields to name a few. The AJAX / WEB 2.0 feel further enhance the experience.

How easy is it to use? I generated several web applications without reading any of the documentation. Amazingly, I was quite successful. FYI: I could do even more by reading!

By the way, it is free from LANSA. You do not have to purchase a third party add-on and hope it will work in the future. The team in the LANSA Labs are busy waving their wands to deliver numerous enhancements to this magical tool!

Congratulations LANSA

RAMP from LANSA Named 2009 IBM Beacon Award Finalist for

Outstanding Enterprise Application Solution by an ISV

The IBM Beacon Awards recognize the best solutions IBM Business Partners deliver across the industry and around the world. Winners of these distinguished awards -- extending across all hardware and operating platforms -- set the standard for business excellence, unique and innovative solutions, ingenuity and customer satisfaction. CONGRATULATIONS LANSA!

Should we pay attention to iFusion.net from LANSA

One basic statement from LANSA always ring true in my ears, "It is the data!"  What that means is that you need to apply the same definition, business rules and regulations for your data regardless of developer, programming language, platform and database.  Most importantly, do it in one place--the LANSA Repository!

In the pure LANSA world  this has always been true.  However, the real world is that not everybody is going to use the LANSA RDML for their development all the time (even though I think they should).  They are going to leverage their existing skill set wherever possible.  

Now with iFusion.net from LANSA others languages are going to enjoy the joys of the LANSA Repository.  It will also eliminate some internal aggressive discussions that often occur within most shops on what tool to use.  No matter how often the underlying technology changes, there are no changes necessary to the business logic.  Therefore, the answer is YES...pay attention to iFusion.net.  Learn more by attending one of LANSA's webinars or visit http://www.ifusion.net/

Google Chrome works great with LANSA

If you have not already started using Google Chrome (latest version and not the early early release) you should! There are some great features that are well illustrated in these selected videos. Speed & Flexibility without the crashing of IE!

LANSA expands Modernization Portfolio with acquisition of aXes

WOW....LANSA has done it again!  They continue to amaze me.  When many organizations are hunkering down to weather the economic storm, others like Oracle and LANSA charge forward!

 

Quick recap: The aXes eBusiness suite consists of three software modules:

 

•  aXes Terminal Server provides web enablement of 5250 applications with the automatic generation of a highly customizable graphical user interface (GUI).
  
• aXes Data Explorer Server provides an easy way to extract and then publish live DB2/400 data in a browser or to send query output to desktop applications like Microsoft Word and Excel.
• aXes Spool File Server provides point-and-click access to output queues and spool files, with print-ready documents available in PDF, XML, HTML or Text formats.  See complete story and take the product for a spin.

 

Mike Albers of our firm has been having a more in-depth look and thinks several vendors (to be named later) should be very nervous about now and the future direction this suite provides LANSA.

R&K Partners with Google

Rippe & Kingston is pleased to formally announce that we are a Google Partner. This partnership allows Rippe & Kingston to help businesses of any size take advantage of Google's cloud computing-based office productivity suite.

For the past two years we have been providing deploymnet, development, integration and training service for Google Apps to our existing clients and has been exciting to see the productivity improvements and cost savings realized.

Learn more about our Google Offering.

LANSA on Android (GOOGLE)?

It's not new that Microsoft will get Windows 7 out as fast as possible this year. What was news to me was the article I read in the March 9th issue of Computerworld that shared the fact that Android (From GOOGLE), the Linux-based phone operating system was determined late last year that it was an excellent operating system for netbooks.

"So what" was my initial reaction. After a little more thought, I looked at the facts:

1. Netbooks are growing at a 20% clip while the rest of the industry is in a flat at best scenario.


2. Netbooks are cheap and Linux along with a wide array of open-source software could drive significant opportunities.


3. Google's Chrome Web browser and its wealth of web-based applications would be deployed.


4. LANSA had the foresight to make LANSA deployable on the Linux operating system.

My Conclusion: This might be a great opportunity, particularly for those "between projects" independent consultants to generate a new business opportunity. One might also reclaim existing LANSA applications for the netbooks. Good Luck!

Are You Bullish on PaaS?

I am curious about the LANSA community and who is bullish on PaaS. It would be an interesting departure for LANSA to participate in the model. Imagine developers using free programming tools offered by LANSA to create applications and deploy them in the cloud.

This development model is radically different from traditional approaches, where programmers install commercial tools on their local systems, write code, then deploy and manage the applications on their own infrastructures. But the PaaS model is gaining traction.

There has been a flurry of activity in this area that includes:

• SAP purchase PaaS Vendor’s Intellectual Property (Coghead)
• Telcos being pulled toward PaaS (See Article)
• Predictions of IDC for Asia include: the resurrection of SaaS and the increasing adoption of Platform-as-a-Service (Paas);
• And of course Amazon, Google and Salesforce.com have had have had PaaS for some time

If you are starting to explore this model, let me know. I would enjoy chatting with others about this subject. Perhaps, we can present a model to LANSA that makes business sense for them and delivers the technology to the world.