Talsco Weekly: The IBM i in another 35 years

Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

IBM i Brief: The IBM i in another 35 years.
Career: The Importance of Making Mistakes.
AI: Revolutionizing Cybersecurity: Harnessing the Power of AI while Overcoming its Challenges.
Development: Node.js Best Practices.

IBM i Brief

The IBM i in another 35 years Retired IBM Chief Architect, Frank Soltis, was recently asked the following questions:

Will IBM move beyond 64-bit memory addressing for the IBM i platform?
What about the potential for quantum processors in the next three-and-a-half decades?

Another question that was asked: Why is this possible? Flexibility.

“One of the reasons the IBM i platform is still kicking 35 years after the launch of the AS/400 back in the summer of 1988 is its capability to incorporate new hardware without throwing all the software developed for it into disarray.”

In fact, Soltis goes even further than that, he calls the AS/400 and IBM i, invincible. This is a bold statement.

“What makes the AS/400 and IBM i invincible in a sense is . . . technology independence,” he said. “The hardware platform is independent of the upper-level technology. And that allows us to slip out the old and insert the new. And it’s, for all practical purposes, seamless.”

This makes me think about Gall’s Law.

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.” - Gall’s Law

Key takeaway: The IBM i is the base layer upon which other systems can plug into. That is: the perfect foundation for modernization, innovation, and digital transformation.

Career

The Importance of Making Mistakes The best developers are the ones who are not afraid of making mistakes.

“Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack of being wrong, we could never get anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as frequently as the right ones”

At the same time, it is important not to make the same mistake twice.

AI

Revolutionizing Cybersecurity: Harnessing the Power of AI while Overcoming its Challenges There is a lot of hype around AI, but what are the potential benefits and challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI) as it relates to cybersecurity? While the enterprise is looking for ways to leverage the power of AI, it can’t come at the expense of security. While AI has the potential to greatly improve cybersecurity by detecting and responding to threats more quickly and accurately than human analysts, there are also significant challenges to overcome, such as the risk of bias in AI algorithms and the potential for malicious actors to use AI for cyberattacks. The author here explores the role of human expertise in cybersecurity and the need for a collaborative approach that combines AI with human intelligence and decision making.

Development

Node.js Best Practices This article (repository) is a summary and curation of the top-ranked content on Node.js best practices. If you are an IBM i developer that is into Node.js. This one's for you.

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