SPARTA News

May 2022

SPARTA President’s Corner

contributed by Randy Springs

North Carolina is yellow again as we anticipate the end of the pollen, which affects many people and forces us to wash our cars more often between rain showers. We are back to lawn mowing, soccer games, and making plans for summer getaways.

This month, we will again be holding our SPARTA meetings via Zoom format. With the removal of mask mandates in NC, we can consider going back to our in-person meetings if we can find an appropriate venue.

For our May meeting, join us for a presentation from IBM Fellow Rosalind Radcliffe of IBM on new developments in DevSecOps and the impact of hybrid cloud implementation. Invite your fellow systems programmers to join us for networking and information.

Please join your colleagues online at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 3, on Zoom. Watch for meeting connection information coming your way soon.

Randy Springs
Retired (Truist)

Future Speakers (subject to change)

May 3, 2022 - Pipeline for DevOps – Why It Matters to Infrastructure Teams as Well by Rosalind Radcliffe, IBM Fellow of IBM

June 7, 2022 - SHARE 2022 Dallas Report by Ed Webb of SPARTA

We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2021-2022 SPARTA

Board of Directors

Randy Springs - President

Retired (Truist)                  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Raleigh, NC 27604

Ron Pimblett - Vice President

MDI Data Systems

Land line 613 599 6970

Mobile 613 981 6919

190 Guelph Private

Kanata, ON K2T 0J7

Chris Blackshire - Secretary

Retired (Dell, Perot Systems, Nortel)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Durham, NC 27713

Randy Springs - (Acting) Treasurer

Retired (Truist)                  (919) nnn-nnnn

see Randy

Springs earlier

Ed Webb -  Communications Director

Retired (SAS Institute Inc.)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Apex, NC 27523

Mike Lockey -  Web Master

Guilford Co. Information Services  336-641-6235

201 N. Eugene St.

Greensboro, NC 27401

Meetings

Coronavirus Change: All meetings for the foreseeable future will be held online at 7 p.m. via the Zoom App. The link to meeting is sent to SPARTA Mailing list within 24 hours of the meeting time for security reasons. Stay safe.

Meetings are scheduled for the first Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in January), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings usually are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto T.W. Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building (1912 T.W. Alexander Drive). In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Bill Johnson. Bill will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-RTP Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-RTP Group is maintained by Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.

November 2021 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V502 (dated November 7, 2021) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Ed Webb (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the April 5, 2021 Meeting

• The meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Randy Springs, the SPARTA President.

• This Twenty-third (April 2020 to April 2022) virtual SPARTA meeting was held via the Zoom Software.

• Thirteen (13) people were present at the virtual meeting.

• The Presentation was followed by the business portion of the meeting.

• For the Roundtable, everyone introduced themselves, told where they worked, talked about working from home, and briefly described their job functions and what they've been doing at work and home.

OLD BUSINESS

• The minutes of the March 1, 2022 meeting as published in the April 2022 Newsletter were approved.

• The March 31, 2022 Treasurer's report (no March income or expenses) as published in the April 2022 Newsletter was approved. As of March 31, 2022, the current balance was $1,489.66.

• Call For Articles: Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don't really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

• The SPARTA Web page is available at this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

• 2022 meeting dates, Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

• The next SPARTA monthly meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

• The 2021 dues have been suspended (motion passed in the March 2021 monthly meeting).

• Thanks to Randy Springs for online hosting the April 5 meeting via Zoom.

• There are currently 90 people on the SPARTA e-mail distribution list.

• Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA distribution List. The SPARTA meeting notices are being sent via a simple distribution list maintained by Chris.

• Randy Springs is looking for a new Treasurer volunteer. He projects about 2 hours per month is needed.
- Contact Randy Springs if you are interested.

• LabCorp Meeting Place Update: No update needed from Bill Johnson.

• Mike Lockey will be sending the website bills to Randy for payment with an update in the next newsletter.

NEW BUSINESS

• There was discussion about a possible 2022 in person meeting, depending on vaccinations and room availability. Stay tuned.

• The Business portion of the meeting and the meeting itself ended about 9:15 P.M.

• Presentation Topic: z/OS Integrity Vulnerabilities

by Cynthia and Ray Overby of Key Resources, Inc.

• Agenda
- The Key Resources Team And Company Snapshot
- Mainframe Vulnerability Management
- Operating System Why The Gap?
- Why is the Operating System Layer Vulnerable?
- Why VAP? (Vulnerability Analysis Program)
- Case Study Using z/Assure VAP
- Metrics / Benefits
- Demo

• The Key Resources Team And Company Snapshot
- The Management Team
- - Cynthia Overby - President
- - Lou Losee - Director Services
- - Ray Overby - CTO
- Company Snapshot
- - 2 products Modernizing Mainframe Security - Code scanner and config scanner
- - 100+ Enterprise customers in US, Canada, and Europe
- - Services Launched in 1988
- - VAP launched in 2011
- - CAM for RACF launched in 2015

• The Demo
- By Ray Overby

The virtual presentation and demonstration ended at about 9:00 PM.

• Presentation Access
See the SPARTA webpage for all recent presentations including this one.

• Contact Info:
Key Resources, Inc.
36467 S. Nathan Hale
Lake Villa, Illinois 60046
Office: 1-800-574-1339
Website: Key Resources, Inc.

Cynthia Overby, President And Co-Founder
Email: Cynthia.Overby@krisecurity.com
Office: 1-847-219-9100
RayOverby, CTO And Co-Founder
Email: Ray.Overby@krisecurity.com
Office: 1-847-219-9100

Customer Support: support@KRIsecurity.com
Phone: 1-800-574-1339, Ext. 2

• The April 5, 2022 monthly meeting ended about 9:15 P.M.

Treasurer’s Report for April 2022

contributed by Randy Springs

The balance in the account is $1489.66 as of April 30, 2022.

SPARTA Financial Report
4/01/2022 through 04/30/2022

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2022

contributed by Chris Blackshire

May 3, 2022 - Pizza
June 7, 2022 - Chicken
July 12, 2022 - Subs (July 4 holiday is Monday before the usual July 5 meeting)
Aug 2, 2022 - BarBQ
Sept 13, 2022 - Pizza (Labor Day holiday is Monday Sept 5)
Oct 4, 2022 - Chicken
Nov 1, 2022 - Subs
Dec 6, 2022 - BarBQ

IBM z16 Technical Guide

contributed By Ed Webb

"This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the features and functions the latest member of the IBM Z® platform, built with the IBM Telum processor, the IBM z16™ (machine type 3931). It includes information about the IBM z16 processor design, I/O innovations, security features, and supported operating systems."

Here's a look at the new draft z16 Technical Guide.

SHARE 2022 Live Stream Recordings Now Available!

contributed By Ed Webb

"All SHARE Dallas live-stream sessions were recorded and are now available for attendees to watch on-demand until July 1, 2022."

This week SHARE notified attendees (in-person and online-only) about the availability of the recordings of the live-stream sessions. There's not a straight forward way to get to these recordings but start by logging in at share.org. Then hover over Events, select Technical Agenda, click the link to Access Virtual Event Platform Here and go from there. Registration and a profile are required to access these live-stream recordings.

"In the coming weeks all SHARE Dallas proceedings will be available for download on share.org."

Are You Ready for z/OS 2.5 ServerPac?

Contributed by Ed Webb

Many shops are in the process of migrating to z/OS 2.5 over the next year or so. To be sure you are ready to use z/OSMF ServerPac (Portable Software Instance) to install the z/OS 2.5 system, add the FIXCAT(IBM.DrivingSystem-Requiredservice) to your APPLY CHECK and APPLY SMP/E processes on your current z/OS 2.3 or 2.4 Driving System. The latest z/OSMF updates are identified with this FIXCAT so you can take full advantage of all z/OSMF has to offer to install the z/OS 2.5 instance from ShopZ.

To find any missing PTFs that should be on your Driving System before installing z/OS 2.5, use SMP/E REPORT MISSINGFIX command:

SET BDY (GLOBAL).
REPORT MISSINGFIX ZONES (ZOS24) FIXCAT(IBM.DrivingSystem-Requiredservice).

Humor

Funnies

contributed by Chris Blackshire

How do you console an English teacher?
There their they’re!!

If you boil a funny bone it becomes a laughing stock.
That’s humerus.

The proper name for older women should be “Queen-agers!!”

Once you understand why pizza is made round,
Packed in a square box,
And eaten in a triangle,
Then you will understand men!!

A cable repairman was on my street and he asked me what time it is.
I told him it is between 8 AM and 1 PM.

If we can just get through this month, we only have one more month to go before we need to get through another month.

Never iron a four-leaf clover because you don’t want to press your luck!

I love you from my head tomatoes!!

Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.

A pirate walks into a bar with a paper towel on his head.
The bartender says “Hey what’s with the paper towel?”
The pirate replies “Argh. I’ve got a Bounty on me head!!”

A lumberjack went into a magic forest to cut a tree.
Upon arrival, he started to swing his axe at a tree and the tree shouted “Wait. I’m a talking tree.”
The lumberjack grinned and said “And you will dialogue.”

Being a little older, I am very fortunate to have someone call and check on me every day.
He is from India and is very concerned about my car warranty.

No, I can't do Snapchat or Tiktok, but I can write in cursive, do math without a calculator, and tell time on a clock with hands.

My doctor diagnosed me with anxiety and constipation.
I’m scared shitless.

Quotes From Actual Performance Evaluations
* Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig.
* His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.
* I would not allow this employee to breed.
* This associate is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won’t be.
* He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.
* This young lady has delusions of adequacy.
* This employee should go far - and the sooner he starts, the better.
* This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.
* He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.
* One neuron short of a synapse.
* Takes him 2 hours to watch ’60 Minutes’.
* The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.

Trivia

contributed by Chris Blackshire

EIGHTY-EIGHT In the standard English counting system (so no googols, googolplexes or myriads included), every single number higher than 88 has an N in its name. So put another way, eighty-eight is the highest number spelled without a letter N. Incidentally, you’d have to count all the way to a billion before you’d need to use a letter B; and no matter how high you counted you’d never need a J, a K, or a Z.

What word contains three sets of double letters in a row?
BOOKKEEPER
Also Woolloomooloo, a suburb in Sydney Australia

In the South we say “HEY” and it stands for:
H = How are you?
E = Everything all right?
Y = You are special to me!!!

Thanks for teaching me the meaning of -plethoria-
It means a lot.

Today's work from home tip.
Blowing on the wine in the mug will help convince your zoom meeting that your tea is hot.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

7 p.m.

Location: Online

Information about access to our online meeting will be sent to our e-mail list by Tuesday, May 3.

Free Food before meeting: Your Food at Your Home

Program:

Pipeline for DevOps – Why It Matters to Infrastructure Teams as Well

Speaker: Rosalind Radcliffe, IBM Fellow, CIO DevSecOps CTO of IBM

SPARTA Corporate Sponsors: