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Highlights: VOTE for who you want on the IIUG Board, get into the Cheetah 2 Open beta program, Register for the 2008 IIUG Informix Conference and there is much more. Welcome to the International Informix Users Group (IIUG) Insider! Designed for IIUG members and Informix user group leaders, this publication contains timely and relevant information for the IBM Informix community. Contents:
Now. Turn the page... hit the 'pg dn' key... click down the page... whatever bangs your braces but read this issue of the IIUG Insider and then write me a note (david@iiug.org). Do it NOW. :) :) :)
Trev looked me up, the other day. I was, at the time, considering the nightmare scenario of Stu flipping burgers in a superman outfit in the lobby of the Overland Park Marriott Hotel in Kansas. He looked at me (Trev, that is), with a quizzical eye. "Don't like the name." he said. I had no idea what he was talking about and I told him so. "Cheetah 2" he said, "Bout as original as sheep shags in a shearing shed". I tried to imagine it. I failed. "Cheetah 2" he continued without caring that I was now lost in the thought of Stu flipping sheep burgers surrounded by a quartet of sheep baaaring all. "Why did they have to call it Cheetah 2?" he asked, starting to warm to his subject. "I mean... what's with the number 2?" When Trev starts like this you don't contradict the boy. "I dunno." I said. It was the best I could come up with under the circs. "Perhaps it is a binary thing". I said helpfully. Trev gave me a withering glance that had an 'imbecile' tone attached, which I somewhat objected to. He looked away then turned back. "I was talking to Norm" he said nonchalantly," and he suggested "Son of Cheetah," he paused, smiled and said quietly "But I got a better name." I was a bit afraid to ask... "What?" I mumbled, not really wanting to know. "Cheetah BABY!" He looked at me in a triumphant sort of way, sort of like a cross between a well fed cat and the business end of a charging elephant. Then he broke into a quiet song while drumming my desk with his fingers. "Cheetah baby... when you run you're running so fast Cheetah honey... Your gonna take the DB out of me, There were more verses, each progressively less rhythmic but, non the less, coherent, in a Trev sort of way. It all got a bit much. I asked him to stop. "Stop!" I said. "Enough with the singing!" I insisted. "Did you know that Cheetah 2 was out in Open Beta?" I was hoping to change the subject. "Yes," he replied. "It rocks... on-socs." He continued to hum. "Did you know that they are flippin Open Betas in Kansas" I said, starting to mix my metaphors. "Yes" he said again, comprehending, if not understanding, me. "I'll be there," he said. "Best Informix conference ever". And with that he turned and was gone. Well almost. "Don't forget to vote!" he tossed over his shoulder as he finally lurched out. "Who for?" I cried back... but I couldn't catch his reply. And I was left doing an Eartha Kitt imitation, singing "Cheetah Baby...it rocks" in my mind. Well. I don't know about you but Trev had a point or two (or three).
But there is more that that in this Insider. So... you had better head on in and take a look. Be outrageous. David Fraser President's Note: Once again the President gets to slip in a quick note in the Insider. I just want to call a few things to everyone's attention: As you all know the IIUG Conference is coming up in just under eight weeks. As of the writing of this paragraph we are just about 2/3 Full. Yes this could be the first conference that sells out. Our fire code limit is 325. Once we hit it, we close the doors to registration!! Also we are doing a video contest. The famous JGP is in charge of the video contest. With all the You-Tube hype out there why not share some fun on how you and/or your company uses Informix and IDS? And of course there is a second "serious" category for how you and/or your company uses Informix. The other day an email went out that had the submission deadline as March 1. Sorry, this was a typo. It is really April 1 (and what better day to have that funny video submitted?). Winners in each of the two categories will get two free passes to the 2009 IIUG Informix conference. And all submissions will be featured on the http://www.iiug.tv web site! On another note, I need to thank my two good friends, Kim and Angela, at IBM Database Magazine. Thank you to both of you for all your hard work on behalf of the Informix community. And yes the magazine has a new name. No longer will we refer to it as db2magazine, but rather IBM DATABASE MAGAZINE (http://www.ibmdatabasemag.com/). The first issue is available electronically in a link listed below or at their web site. Check it out. Lastly, it is election time for the IIUG Board of Directors. Our good friend David Fraser, who will be leaving the IIUG Board this year, is overseeing the election along with departing board member June Hunt and IBM IIUG Board representative Bruce Weed. So as the saying goes, vote early and vote often. Eight more weeks to the conference!!! Don't get shut out. Register now. I don't want to get emails or phone calls from people when we close the doors to registration. At this rate there will be no registration on-site as we will not have any space available. So register now at http://www.iiug.org/conf and oh yes, there is no truth to the rumor that Jerry Keesee, the IBM Informix Director of Development, lives at the special big house in nearby Leavenworth, but I am sure he will give you a tour! Stuart Litel
Vote for the new IIUG Board If you were an active IIUG member before the 1st of January 2008 then you can vote for the 2008 IIUG Board of Directors. You just have to stop reading and... vote: http://www.iiug.org/iiug/election/2008_ballot.html It will take less than 5 minutes. Have you voted????????? No???? Then do it NOW dude! Open Beta for Cheetah 2Yep. Calling all techos, propeller-heads, pony-tails and other varieties of geekatrons. Cheetah 2 is now out in Open Beta. This is play time dudes with the "Son of Cheetah". Go... see for your self, download it and do your bit to help make this version the very best ever. To download you have to go here: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ids/open-beta.html and follow the instructions. :) Get the latest IDS white paperAfter a bit of blah on Informix history this white paper discusses the capabilities that set IDS apart from the competition and distinguish it from other IBM RDBMS offerings (including DB2). It also shows how IBM has recommitted itself to IDS in terms of technology investment as well as sales and marketing effort, and how customers are deriving benefits from the product. To read it go http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/information/idc-ids.html. There you will find the link at the bottom of the page. Be warned... you have to register to download it, but it is worth it!! Training, certification, fun ... it's all happening at the IIUG Informix Conference!The IIUG Informix Conference 2008 is just around the corner. Just up the street from the IBM/Informix labs in Lenexa, Kansas, the Overland Park Marriott will be packed with attendees and the locals from IBM Tech Support and Development. As the Informix Administration and Performance Track Chair, I am excited about the outstanding technical content in this track. Some folks you have seen before and others are new, but none are strangers to Informix. All of the sessions are updated to the latest and greatest tips and tricks not found in any manuals. If you are an Informix DBA, you do not want to miss this opportunity to learn and advance your skills. Sunday starts with in-depth, half-day tutorials. The line-up includes:
More details about each on the Conference Registration website. As always FREE certification testing will be onsite. 
And the most important part of the conference, networking! The Welcome Reception will be held at the hotel Sunday evening. Monday the Informix developers and support staff from the Lenexa Labs will join us for a casual cookout, and Tuesday is the off-site party sponsored by Kazer Technologies. You may read about all of the details when you register. Space is limited and the price will go up March 1st. Time is running out so register today. http://www.iiug.org/conf/2008/iiug/register.php See you in Overland Park! Are you looking for in-depth Informix education, networking opportunities with peers and industry experts, and IBM certification testing, all for a great value? Visit http://AU08.idug.org/home to learn more about IDUG 2008 - Australasia where you will find all this and much more! Taking place next week, 5-7 March at the Cliftons Education Centre in Sydney Australia, IDUG will feature a stream of Informix content to help you advance as an Informix professional and grow the effectiveness of your organisation. Industry experts, including Scott Pickett from IBM Worldwide, William Byrne III from IBM Australia, Robert Clow from Datasync Consulting and David Fraser (not presenting thank goodness, just looking pretty) will all be present at this year's conference. Informix focused-content is new this year to IDUG and will be featured primarily on Wednesday, 5 March. To learn more about IDUG's Informix content, visit http://AU08.idug.org/Informix. Online registration is still available, so register for Wednesday's Informix-filled day or the entire conference by visiting http://AU08.idug.org/register. Need help justifying attendance? IDUG's easy-to-use, customizable justification toolkit will help you build a strong case to attend or send employees to IDUG. Check out IDUG's justification toolkit at http://AU08.idug.org/justify. Securing Your Data: Choosing the Right Platform - Webcast featuring Jonathon LefflerDate is the 4th March 2008. See http://www.iiug.org/webcasts/webcast_04mar08.html for details. The IIUG is running a Video ContestThe videos should illustrate Informix Dynamic Server in action. IIUG will display the videos on IIUG.TV. Videos can be informative, fun, hilarious, sad or dramatic, but please do not hurt any animals or databases in the shooting! You can pick your genre; anime, interview, Western... and pick any location; street-talk, dark data center, Paris' catacombs, Stuart's house (I can give the address if you need it)! If you need inspiration, visit http://www.IIUG.TV or YouTube at http://www.youtube.com (Informix search). IIUG will give away two passes to our 2009 Conference - this is a value of over $1000 per winner! We will announce results during the Annual IIUG General Meeting (AGM) at the 2008 IIUG Conference. Two categories:
There is one winner in each category. Each winner gets TWO free passes to IIUG Conference 2009. Rules:
Dates:
Finally, do not hesitate to contact me if you need any tips or simply to tell me you are in the running... Watch for further announcements! Jean Georges Perrin salutations á tout le Français amical (great French eh? - ed) The Proof of Technology (POT) will take place in Noisy-Le-Grand (Paris), the 19-20 March 2008. The purpose of this POT is to discover new features of IDS 11 with presentations and labs. All IBM customers and partners are invited to this event. The skills required to attend this POT are a good knowledge on Informix and Linux in order to get prepared to our labs on vmware Linux. If you want to participate to this event just confirm to eric.fleury@fr.ibm.com and/or laurent.valenza@fr.ibm.com. CONNX has been and continues to be a valuable tool for companies to access their HP-UX 11i data on HP Integrity servers and now extends that access to their applications. CONNX 10.5 SP3 gives companies the tools to enable HP-UX 11i applications running on Integrity to natively access off-platform enterprise data via JDBC or ODBC. "CONNX gives application developers for HP-UX 11i on Integrity the freedom to seamlessly access off platform relational and non-relational data from any web engine or programming language," said Larry McGhaw, the CTO & VP of Engineering at CONNX Solutions, Inc. CONNX Solutions continues to offer the same secure, real-time, read/write, SQL access, and seamless joins between most legacy and relational databases on Integrity servers running HP-UX 11i for: CONNX is available on HP Integrity servers running HP-UX 11i for the above data sources. Contact CONNX Solutions at 888-882-6669 for pricing information. "CONNX customers now have a clear path to migrate with HP from VAX and Alpha systems to new HP Integrity servers running OpenVMS. The CONNX client can now run on HP-UX 11i on Integrity servers," stated John Charpentier, Director of Marketing at CONNX Solutions, Inc. CONNX Support for IMS DLI (Batch) Interface With this new release, CONNX also offers access to IBM IMS data through both ODBA and DLI (Batch) Interfaces, providing greater flexibility in accessing IBM IMS data with CONNX. About CONNX Solutions, Inc. CONNX Solutions, Inc., located in Redmond, WA, is a leading provider of simplified data access, management and integration software solutions that allows users to directly access and manage vital enterprise information from virtually any data source (using open data access standards) including AdabasTM, RMS, Oracle® Rdb, Oracle® CODASYL DBMS, Oracle®, Microsoft® SQL ServerTM, Sybase®, IBM® DB2®, IBM® Informix®, IBM® C-ISAM, D-ISAMTM, Micro Focus®, IBM® VSAM, IBM® IMS, DataFlex® and Powerflex® databases. CONNX Solutions' products, CONNX, DataSync and InfoNaut have been used by over 3,000 organizations worldwide. Government and business entities use CONNX in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, education, healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, aerospace, and information technology. For Simplified Data Access, visit http://www.connx.com. CONNX Solutions and CONNX are registered trademarks of CONNX Solutions. All other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names, and company names mentioned herein are acknowledged as the property of their respective owners. Time and Date: March 6, 8:30 am - 12 pm We have something a little different planned for the next IUG meeting. Last October, IBM released it's next-generation database management and development tooling. The products are called IBM Data Studio and pureQuery. The interesting thing about these tools is that they support both DB2 and Informix Dynamic Server! Accordingly, for this occasion only we've decided to hold a joint session of the Informix and DB2 user groups to hear IBM's VP and CTO for Database Servers talk about these new tools. Curt has responsibility for both DB2 and IDS tools and APIs, so please be sure to come and wave your Informix flag! The doors open at 8:30, and the presentation starts at 9:00. We'll have coffee and pastries available as well. Also, be sure to invite your Java developers. They will be particularly interested in the pureQuery tool. Please RSVP to neil.williams@us.ibm.com if you plan on attending. The basic version of Data Studio is available as a free download. It's an eclipse-based product available for Linux and Windows. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/im/data/ Agenda
About Curt Cotner IBM Fellow Curt Cotner is an IBM Fellow, and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Curt is the chief technology officer for the DB2 family and Informix IDS database servers, and has both management and technology oversight responsibility for all the client software offerings used with DB2 and IDS. This includes the client runtime APIs (JDBC, .NET, CLI, J-LinQ, etc.) and the application development and administration tools offerings (IBM Data Studio). 
Prior to taking his current assignment, Curt was the Chief Architect for the DB2 for z/OS development team. The New IBM Database magazine launchesThe New IBM Database magazine (formerly DB2 Magazine) Q1 2008 issue now available online. http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cmp/ibmdatabase0208/ Read it folks. It has good Informix content. Call for Speakers at IBM IOD EMEA Conference June 08Call for Speakers Now Open for the IBM Information On Demand EMEA Conference June 3-6, 2008 The first ever IBM Information On Demand Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Conference will take place June 3 - 6, 2008 at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague, and IBM is looking for a few good speakers. Do you:
The Conference provides an ideal platform for you to share your experiences with other IDS Customers and Business Partners. With a targeted audience of over 2,000 attendees, we not only want you to avoid missing out, we'd like you to come along and speak out! REGISTER NOW AS A SPEAKER. Go to http://www.ibm.com/software/europe/data/conf to submit your name as a potential speaker before March 3, 2008. Informix success storyhttp://www.iiug.org/url/transunion.html Get it now. And check out the quote at the top of the page: "The Informix database has never failed to meet TranUnion's needs for the past 10 years of operation." - Warren Shum, Director, IT, Data Administration and Operations at TransUnion Ltd. Information means business for TransUnion Ltd.
Tutorials have been announced The IIUG Conference Planning Committee has announced the eight half day tutorials that will be available on Sunday April 27th, 2008. Sunday Morning Sessions:
Sunday Afternoon Sessions:
Full Descriptions available at: http://iiug.org/conf/2008/iiug/tutorials.php The tutorials cost $125 for one half-day session and $200 for two half-day sessions. For more details and to register, please go to the conference website. Morning session includes continental breakfast and afternoon session includes lunch. Free full day tutorials from Four J's and AGS
For more information on the tutorials visit: http://iiug.org/conf/2008/iiug/tutorials.php Highlighted Tech Sessions and SpeakersSpeaker: Ron Privett - SWG Client Support - Software Informix Advanced Technical Support Engineer, Lenexa KS Session: Engine Hangs, Debugging Methods and Diagnostic Tools Why would you want to attend this session?
Why do I love living in the Kansas City Area? Personally, I enjoy the KC area most - during the Spring and Fall. During these times there are many things to do outside — such as: Walking on one of the interconnected trails in Johnson County, KS, catching a Royals Baseball game, or spending the evening window shopping on the Plaza or in Westport. One the best museums in the country, is the Nelson-Atkins (http://www.nelson-atkins.org/) and offers free admission. And the barbecue in the KC area cannot be beat — the following are my favorites:
Oh... You want reasons to come to Kansas City besides a Great Informix Technical Conference? As part of the IIUG Conference Planning Committee AND a Kansas City resident, I decided that I would pick a interesting place to visit and highlight it in the Insider each issue leading up to the conference. This month's highlighted venues are: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (As mentioned above by Ron Privett) You are invited to discover some of the 34,500 pieces in the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. From ceramic objects found in ancient Chinese tombs to whimsical sculptures of badminton birdies, the Nelson-Atkins collection spans over 5,000 years of humanity. The Nelson-Atkins aspires to create a glorious environment--the ongoing experience which is in itself as compelling as a single "blockbuster" event. Each visit to the Nelson-Atkins brings different connections and unique experiences. Whether you are exploring the collection for the first time or the hundredth time, there's always something new. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Part of the Museums on 18th & Vine complex, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) recreates the look, sounds and feel of the game's storied past. Video presentations and memorabilia in the 10,000 square-foot multimedia exhibit chronicle the history and heroes of the leagues from their origin after the Civil War to their demise in the 1960s. The federal government recently designated the museum America's National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. HIGHLIGHTS:
Free IBM Informix certification will be offered at the 2008 IIUG Informix Conference in April during the following hours: Monday April 28th - 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM All IBM Information Management certifications will be offered AND there is no limit on the number of tests you can take. Each test is normally $150! Take four tests and you have paid for your conference fee! For a list of certifications available go to the IBM website: http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/dm_index.shtml
New articles in developerWorks These are two articles added to developerWorks in February:
Get the real oil on Informix from:
Board elections are here. If you have read this far then you should have voted. If not go back to the top of the page and start again. :).
In response to your input, we have created a page on the IIUG web site containing all the links we used to include. Please find it at: http://www.iiug.org/quicklinks.html
The International Informix Users Group (IIUG) is an organization designed to enhance communications between its worldwide user community and IBM. IIUG's membership database now exceeds 25,000 entries and enjoys the support and commitment of IBM's Data Management division. Key programs include local user groups and special interest groups, which we promote and assist from launch through growth.
For comments, ideas, information, more ideas, gossip, lies and general dudette type chatter, please send an email to david@iiug.org. |
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