Month: May 2023

​As I go to write this month’s newsletter, I realized that our first newsletter was in December 2007, wow, that was over 15 years ago.  Where did the time go?  We grew from 2 people at iTech Solutions, to 35 people, to now part of the 900+ Service Express team.  What started out as a way to inform our customers about what was happening in the IBM i community and at iTech, has morphed into a monthly newsletter that now reaches 16,000 people each month.

Let me tell you, I am extremely proud of all the articles that the team and I have written over the years.  Customers, non-customers, competitors, and IBMer’s all enjoy the monthly newsletter.  I can’t believe that with over 180 issues, this is our last iTech newsletter.  We will be communicating in a different way, as we merge into one company with Service Express.  As you may remember, last July I sold iTech Solutions to Service Express, and we have spent the last 12 months working hard to integrate and become a better resource for both of our respective customers.  We are making great progress towards that goal.
Our signature tagline “If my IBM i could talk, it would ask for iTech Solutions”, was what I truly felt my IBM i would say if it could talk.  We had the best of the best of the best, technical resources, marketing, and sales.  As you have heard me say, we knew what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. We ate, drank, and slept IBM i.  Yes, when we first started using the phrase, it was “If my AS/400 could talk, it would ask for iTech Solutions”, and as more people started using the new name, we changed it from AS/400 to IBM i. At conferences people come up to me all the time, and repeat the phrase, I always give them a huge smile, as I know they enjoy the newsletter and have been getting something out of them if they took the time to remember the line when they saw me.
In the beginning, it was just me writing the intro and the technical articles, and as we grew I got help from the team.  The team wrote some great articles, that I know helped many people leverage their investment in their IBM i.   I would read every article, not …
The post May 2023 Newsletter first appeared on iTech Solutions Group. Read More 

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​I use the SQL scalar function TO_CHAR all of the time to format numbers, inserting thousand separator characters. I can also use it for formatting timestamps.
In the following examples I am going to show how easy this, and it appears to duplicate a lot of the functionality of the EXTRACT scalar function.
In these examples I am going to show what I can do with a timestamp column, TIMESTAMP1, in a SQL DDL table, TESTTABLE.
Let me show you some examples of what I can do.
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​The most important step in crafting any successful IBM i security strategy is identifying the practices and tools that will serve as the foundation for your security efforts.
– Why building your IBM i security foundation is so important Read More