IBM MQ FixPack 8.0.0.6 Released

February 6, 2017 Roger Lacroix

IBM has just released FixPack 8.0.0.6 for IBM MQ
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21995100

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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1st Place in Innovative Design at Ontario Engineering Competition

February 3, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Richard Lacroix (son #1) and Jolien van Gaalen won 1st place in the Innovative Design category at Ontario Engineering Competition held last weekend in Ottawa, Canada.

You can read about it here:
http://www.eng.uwo.ca/news/2017/OEC_2017_Winners.html

First, Richard and Jolien won the Western Engineering Competition for Innovative Design on January 13-15, 2017. Now they have won the provincial engineering competition for Innovative Design. Next, they get an all expensive trip to Calgary, Alberta for the Canadian Engineering Competition at the University of Calgary on March 2-5, 2017.

This will look good on his resume. Oh wait, the boy is already got a job waiting for him at Google. 🙂 Go knock ’em dead in Calgary!!!

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Who me? IBM Champion for Cloud!

February 3, 2017 Roger Lacroix

A few months ago, Morag Hughson said she wanted to nominate me to be an IBM Champion. I was honored and said sure.

Well, IBM approved my nomination and officially made me an IBM Champion for Cloud! You can read all about it here: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/Introducing_the_2017_IBM_Champions_for_Cloud?lang=en

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

IBM MQ 2 Comments

Pres. Trump says gov’t agencies need better security – MQ security too?

February 3, 2017 Roger Lacroix

The other day, U.S. President Donald Trump said:

the government agencies need to better protect their networks.

Most of the U.S. government agencies use IBM MQ for their messaging middleware. Application messages that traverse their MQ environment contain confidential and highly secure information.

As many of you know,

A basic setup of IBM MQ Server potentially allows any user to freely access any message in any queue.

Over the years, IBM has taken some basic steps to have more security after a default install of MQ but it is still up to the MQAdmin to do a LOT more work. It is up to the MQAdmin to implement tighter rules and/or add OAM permissions and/or create security exits and/or purchase MQ security solutions and/or purchase SSL certificates, etc.

Capitalware specializes in MQ security. We already help a U.S. government agency protect their MQ environment and we help other government agencies from around the world to protect their MQ environment. We will gladly help any government agency protect their MQ environment.

I would think it is far better to get ahead of the situation rather than be called out by President Trump!!

Capitalware is a different kind of software company. When you purchase one of our MQ security products, you will never again pay for the software, so long as you are current on your Yearly Maintenance Fee. The Yearly Maintenance Fee includes new releases of the software, patches, updates, maintenance and support.

Please feel free to contact us ( support@capitalware.com or sales@capitalware.com ) regarding your MQ security needs. We offer FREE 60-day (or longer) trials of all of our MQ security products which includes FREE support. All of our trials are ‘no strings attached’. We do our best to offer an effortless MQ security solution and provide the very best support.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Call for Speakers for MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7

February 1, 2017 Roger Lacroix

We are looking for speakers on any product/service that uses IBM MQ (aka WebSphere MQ & MQSeries) for “MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7” (MQTC). The sessions are to be technical in nature and on any subject so long as it relates to MQ.

We offer speakers the conference fee for free and we also pay for your room at Kalahari Resorts. Note: Breakfast and lunch plus snacks & drinks during the breaks are included for all attendees and speakers.

If you are interested please contact me at callforspeakers@mqtechconference.com

MQTC is a premier event that brings together IBM MQ professionals from across the mid-west and the world. MQTC will offer 70 technical sessions and 15 vendor sessions that are designed to enhance the skills of IT professionals who are using IBM MQ on AIX, HP-UX, IBM i (OS/400), Linux, Solaris, Windows and z/OS.

MQTC is the largest conference in the world solely dedicated to IBM MQ.

More information on MQTC can be found at http://www.mqtechconference.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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LibreOffice 5.3 Released

February 1, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Document Foundation has just released LibreOffice v5.3.
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/02/01/the-document-foundation-announces-feature-rich-libreoffice-5-3/

LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free. There is a large base of satisfied LibreOffice users worldwide, and it’s available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, …).

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7

January 31, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Capitalware would like to announce MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7 (MQTC). MQTC is an event that will educate attendees on current practices, methodologies, administration, problem determination, security best practices and technology trends for IBM MQ. MQTC will offer 70 technical sessions and 15 vendor sessions that are designed to enhance the skills of IT professionals who are using IBM MQ on AIX, HP-UX, IBM i (OS/400), Linux, Solaris, Windows and z/OS. Since we have 5 session rooms at MQTC, there will be 5 concurrent MQ sessions at any given time.

MQTC is the largest conference in the world solely dedicated to IBM MQ (aka WebSphere MQ & MQSeries).

Date: September 25 to September 27, 2017
Location: Kalahari Resorts in Sandusky, Ohio
Duration: 3 Days

Early-bird Price: $399.00 until June 25th, 2017
Regular Price: $449.00 from June 26th to September 10th, 2017
Group Price (5+ people): $379.00 until August 25th, 2017
Late/Onsite Price: $499.00 after September 10th, 2017

For more information, please go to: http://www.mqtechconference.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Mozilla Firefox 51.0 Released

January 24, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Mozilla Firefox has just released Mozilla Firefox v51.0.
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. To display web pages, Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine, which implements most current web standards in addition to several features that are intended to anticipate likely additions to the standards

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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WebSphere MQ Fix Pack 7.1.0.8 Released

January 20, 2017 Roger Lacroix

IBM has just released FixPack 7.1.0.8 for WebSphere MQ
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21993831

Don’t forget, the end of service date for WebSphere MQ v7.1.0 on distributed platforms (Linux, Unix, Windows and IBM i) is April 30, 2017. The official announcement can be found here:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg3c741503j17231u61

That’s in 3 months!!! So, suck it up buttercup, its time to get off WebSphere MQ v7.1.0.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Speeding Up Channel Exits for MQ on z/OS

January 20, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Tony Sharkey of IBM has an excellent write up on how to improve the loading times of channel exits written in C for MQ on z/OS.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/messaging/entry/Do_you_use_channel_exits_written_in_C_on_your_z_OS_queue_manager

All of Capitalware channel exits are written in C. Therefore, any customers using the following channel exits, I strongly suggest you read Tony Sharkey’s article.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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