Getting into shape this year

In our newsletter:-

?? ? IBM Champions Announced ??? ? Help us Mainframerz get into shape ?? ? Southwest Airlines near $1bn Q4 loss was not mainframe related ?? ? Other Events - To Look out for ?? ?Just for Fun - Apple Lisa & Another Password vault attack ??

IBM Champions Announced

It's official what started with a small flurry of names being announced has turned into an avalanche of names and announcements as the IBM Champions were officially announced.

Congratulations to all the IBM Champions recognised in 60 countries this year.

?? ?? Join in the conversation and meet with the IBM Champions here:

Help us Mainframerz get into shape

???? If this is the first time visiting you can join our channel by clicking here:

Please don’t panic this is still the Mainframerz newsletter, when I suggest getting into shape for the year ahead it’s just my way of letting you all know that we are asking our audience how you would like to shape our event in the coming year.

We are keen to hear from all of you either directly, or through our Mainframerz slack channel on what you would like to see & hear at our upcoming Mainframerz Meetup Events this year, ideas for speakers, the duration of our event, would you like the event to start earlier/later, plus more.

We have lots of ways to help shape our event, if you are short of time you can click the link below and vote in polls for times, event themes, you can choose {quickly} from a list of choices available. If you want to to go into more depth you can define your own suggestions or category.

? ? ?? You can access the polling choices and offer your suggestions through the Mainframerz slack here:

But there's more....

We are looking at how we can help build our community feel, would you like to meet fellow mainframerz, connect or introduce yourself and to build on our community spirit.

What are your thoughts about our slack channel introducing any of the ideas below? Would you like to know more about how these work?

① ? Using Donut - joining a #virtual-coffee or #watercooler-chats

② What about a channel for those of you who would like to connect and share your details with others #introductions ?

③ ? We have already created a channel for you to post or share #job-opportunities unlike other places, we don't charge recruiters to place mainframe jobs available for the community in there.

④ ? At a previous event we introduced our channels for #training-resources and #learning-resources

Southwest Airlines near $1bn Q4 loss was not Mainframe related

One problem myself, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and others have run into is finding all of the information necessary to accurately report stories that may relate to the mainframe.

A story that interested many people in the mainframe community involved the NoTAMs system covered in the last edition. Without much information easily found, many people took the quote from Tim Campbell out of context and assumed that NoTAMS was a mainframe system.

?? ?? You can read more about Tim Campbell formerly of American Airlines and and his comments here:

Actually, the antiquated state of the NOTAM system is well known. Tim Campbell said, “So much of their systems are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable, but they are out of date,” and he added that there has long been concern about the FAA’s technology and not just the NOTAM system.

NoTAM (USA) used SPARC (a version of software similar to Unix) which is slightly older now that was considered very good for handling internet traffic when first built. The Sparc system helped to distribute the NoTAM information via the internet.

It appears when information is hard to come by, any sources of information can be taken as trusted. When you hear about mainframe problems just note this may not be accurate.

The next juicy story that caught the attention of the press (including CNN, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Reuters, among others) is the story of Southwest Airlines - some of the headlines you may have seen are below:-

?? 90% of all flights cancelled were Southwest Airlines

?? Between the 21st December to 31st December 16,700 flights were cancelled

???? Biden administration called for an investigation

???? At one point costs were estimated at almost $1bn combined loss in revenue and costs in Q4 at Southwest Airlines, reduced to $800m loss

?? Share values of Southwest Airlines dropped 15.6% for the month, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence

In short the story again was widely misreported and initials reports suggested that a mainframe problem may have caused a Q4 near $1bn loss at Southwest Airlines, whilst the amount was roughly correct the mainframe was never at fault.

? ?? A recent example was published on 25th January and is courtesy of Bloomberg UK, who have reported the "disastrous holiday season, thanks in part to a software bug that left crews out of place...". Unfortunately as this was the opening statement of the article it does create a false negative impression of the mainframe. You can read this article here:

?? ?? I have included a link this time to one of my own articles about the Southwest Airlines issue, aimed at setting the record straight and putting the mainframe in a positive light here:

Other Events - To Look out for

GSE

The GSE UK Region Virtual Conference takes place on 7-9 February!

?? ??The agenda and keynotes can be found here:

Advocacy, content creation & personal brand

A great event is coming up this week, so good in fact that I have brought forward the mainframerz newsletter this week to make sure I cover it.

Two of my good friends Shari Chiara (IBM Champions z Program Manager) & Laticia Carrow (new IBM Champion 2023) will be speaking at an all women event. Joining them will be Lella Violet Halloum (Dianna award winner) & Paolo Medrano (z student ambassador).

???? Link to register for the event which takes place on 1st Feb at 12PM ET is here:

Useful Links

?? ?? Details of past & upcoming Mainframerz Meetup Events are available through our meetup page here:

?? ?? Join in the conversation before, during and after our Meetup Events using our slack channel - look for #general to join the chat, here:

Just for Fun {non-mainframe stories included}

Apples Lisa turned 40

An article that caught my eye, whilst not mainframe related might appeal to the curious among you. In my previous edition I wrote about the Commodore 64 turning 40 years old.

I am this time sharing the story of the Apple Lisa which also turned 40 on the 19th January 1983 this was the first Apple computer released that had a mouse and GUI.

The Computer History Museum located in Mountain View, California, today released the Apple Lisa source code, including its system and applications software.

?? ?? You can find out more about this story here:

Another note of caution for Passwords vault users this time: Bitwarden and other password managers

In order to gain users' password vault credentials, Google Adwords phishing operations are targeting Bitwarden and other password managers.

Password managers are used to manage all of the passwords as businesses and consumers move toward using different passwords on every website.

?? ?? You can find out more about this story here:

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The mainframerz newsletters are designed to help you grow your skillsets, stay on top of industry news and keep you updated on our upcoming events.