In
Flight Magazine - August 2002
In
Flight Magazine - August 2002
We've just got back from Interaction 2002 in Melbourne where we had a great
time introducing people to the fact that PKZIP runs
on more platforms than just t
he
PC - 15 platforms, in fact, at the last count. They include OS/390, VSE, VM,
OS/400 and a load of Unix flavours.
So, what's new in PKZIP? First of all, it's not exactly new but did you know that PKZIP-Pro for MVS is able to zip files of more than 4Gb? It uses GZIP technology to do that so you will need a copy of PKZIP-Pro on the PC you are sending the file to. You can get PKZIP-Pro for PC from www.pkware.com. You may not want to do it very often but when you do, believe me, you really notice the difference in transmission times.
What's coming up? 128 bit encryption: as an add-on to PKZIP-Pro - we are implementing a 128 bit encryption key for truly secure data transmission. It will be more effective (and a heck of a lot cheaper) than hardware data encryption devices. We expect to have 128 bit encryption on the street in October this year.
There are some very popular uses for PKZIP as well as some that are less obvious.
Shipping reports for printing - if you send a lot of printed output to a printing bureau (bank statements, invoices etc), PKZIP will compress those reports by around 90%. That means they get to the printer earlier, the invoices get in the mail quicker and the cheques start rolling in a day sooner. You also stand a far better chance of your reports getting sent first time and arriving intact with PKZIP.
Compliance - various governments require that huge amounts of financial data be kept for 10 years or even longer. That translates to a heck of a lot of disk, tape and / or silo space. By zipping the files, you can reduce the cost of compliance by 70% or more and stop your data centre taking over the entire building. When you do need to get at a file that is in an archive of hundreds of files, you only need to extract the single file you need rather than extracting the whole archive. For more detail on the experiences of a company that has done this, check out www.pkware.com.
I'm building a backlog of whinges but they tell me I'm allowed only one per
magazine so here goes: airport security. I'm all for it, of course - I don't
want to share my plane with any raving nutter, thanks. But are the right things
being prevented from getting on board? I've had a cheap pair of nail scissors
confiscated myself and fair enough, too (though why they couldn't be put in
a box in the hold so I could pick them up when I arrived beats me). There are
two things that do worry me, though. The first is that you are expected to arrive
3 hours before your flight. On a recent flight home from Sydney, I arrived at
the check-in 3 hours and 10 minutes before the flight to be told that check-in
didn't open for 10 minutes. So presumably that means the airlines expect all
400 people to arrive exactly 3 hours in advance and that they will all then
be checked in instantaneously. I live for the day.
Of far greater concern is the things that don't get confiscated. I can have
my scissors taken off me and then walk into a duty free shop and buy a bagful
of glass bottles full of inflammable liquid (such as over-proof rum) and walk
onto the plane. Now, I'm no expert in dirty fighting but, given the choice,
I'd go for a broken off rum bottle against a pair of nail scissors any old day.
A case of economic considerations taken precedence over security, perhaps?
This one comes from Justin McMurry of illustro
Inc of Arlington TX (jmcmurry@illustro.com). Besides being the developers
of z/Web-Host for web-enabling
mainframe
applications, they are an endless source of useful VSE tips via their newsletter
but this one is a particularly helpful one on regaining some of that valuable
below-the-line memory…
Until VSE/ESA 2.4, the VSE supervisor used CCW Fast Translate support by default for handling all I/O requests. This generally required a large BUFSIZE value in the SYS command during IPL; the default was 1500, and many users had 2000 to 3000 specified. With each buffer being 72 bytes long, and the buffers being allocated in the supervisor area, a large amount of 24-bit shared area was used.
Beginning with VSE/ESA 2.4, however, CCW Fast Translate support was removed from the system. One effect of this is that the number of CCW translation buffers allocated by the BUFSIZE parameter can usually be significantly reduced, freeing up considerable 24-bit space for other use, such as 24-bit SVA. Note that the IBM-supplied value (and the default value) for BUFSIZE is still 1500 as of VSE/ESA 2.6.
You can easily check your buffer usage by issuing the SIR command on the console. Be sure that you do this only after the system has been used heavily. Look for the line starting with COPY-BLKS, and compare the HIGH-MARK value (the most buffers ever used since the most recent IPL) to the MAX value (the value you specified at IPL or the default of 1500). If HIGH-MARK is much less than MAX, and it probably will be, you have more CCW translation buffers allocated than needed.
To reduce the number of buffers, update your IPL proc and reduce the value specified in the SYS BUFSIZE command, or add a command if it does not exist. You should probably specify a value of 200 to 300 more than the HIGH-MARK value to allow for unexpected additional system I/O activity. A re-IPL is required to activate the new setting.
While you are at it, you might want to review the other information provided by the SIR command to see if there are other areas you need to examine more closely. And you should do this on a regular basis, like once a month, to ensure that your definitions continue to be appropriate.
Why do people with email addresses such as suzy13798@hotmail.com think that I would want to use their services in getting a mortgage, a credit card or life insurance? And what kind of twit does get those services from someone who can't be contacted? Replies, please, to cheapmortgages123@mycroft.co.nz.
Our next public appearance will at the CMGA conference in Sydney on 12th & 13th September. Please call in and say "Gday" (or "Wotcha" if you're a pom). Get all the latest guff on PKZIP, Aperture and Vital Signs as well as our famous debugging software.
We've introduced a new way of licensing our Aperture Technology Documentation
and Facilities Management software. Previously, it has been licensed on a "backsides
on seats" basis. This tended to lead to a lot of false economies with people
trying to manage a 5,000 square metre data centr
e
with a single copy of the software.
Our new licensing plan is based on the size of the facility that you are using Aperture to manage. It gives an unlimited number of people access to the project. Naturally, you have control who has what sort of access - you can make it available only to those people you want to have access and you can pin individual users or groups of users down to just parts of the project. You can give a user "read-only" access so that they can look at information and drawings but not change anything. That's very useful for outside contractors, your customers (perhaps) and managers from other departments. Included in the package is the SmartPictures web interface so that you can see your project from a browser - being read-only as well as password protected, SmartPictures is completely secure from prying eyes and poking fingers.