Universe - A Global Village

Farewell - Ripper Of A Farewell E-Mail

2007-08-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Co-Workers and Managers,

As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type "Today is my last day."

For nearly as long as I've worked here, I've hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful Saroj Hariprashad: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake - it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.

Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects - an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, "meets expectation." That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks Trish!

Best Break- Off Letter

2007-08-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

A soldier stationed in Afghanistan recently received a letter from his
girlfriend back home. It read as follows:

Dear Mike,
I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is
just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice, since
you've been gone, and it's not fair to either of us.
I'm sorry.
Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.
Love, Jenny..............

The soldier, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow soldiers for any
snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters or
ex-girlfriends.In addition to the picture of Jenny, Mike included all the
other pictures of the pretty gals he had collected from his buddies. There
were 57 photos in that envelope.... along with this note:

Dear Jenny,
I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who the hell you are.
Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.
Take Care,
Mike

Legal - Logic

2007-08-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

After having failed his exam in "Logic and Law", a student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: "Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?"

Professor: "Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!"

Student: "Great, well then I would like to ask you a question. If you can give me the correct answer, I will accept my mark as is and go. If you however do not know the answer, I want you give me an "A" for the exam. "

Professor: "Okay, it's a deal. So what is the question?"

Student: "What is legal, but not logical, logical, but not legal, and neither logical, nor legal?"

Even after some long and hard consideration, the professor cannot give the student an answer, and therefore changes his exam mark into an "A", as agreed. Afterwards, the professor calls on his best student and asks him the same question.

He immediately answers: "Sir, you are 63 years old and married to a 35 year old woman, which is legal, but not logical. Your wife has a 25 year old lover, which is logical, but not legal. The fact that you have given your wife's lover an "A", although he really should have failed, is neither legal, nor logical."

KNOW THYSELF AND EVERYTHING IS KNOWN TO YOU .

Few IT Definitions

2007-08-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

These definitions are bit old but very true :)

*Project Manager* is a Person who thinks nine women can deliver a baby in
One month.

*Developer* is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a
Baby.

*Onsite Coordinator* is one who thinks single woman can deliver nine
babies in one month.

*Client* is the one who doesn't know why he wants a baby.

*Marketing Manager* is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if
no man and woman are available.

*Resource Optimization Team* thinks they don't need a man or woman;
they'll produce a child with zero resources.

*Documentation Team* thinks they don't care whether the child is
delivered, they'll just document 9 months.

*Quality Auditor* is the person who is never happy with the PROCESS to
produce a baby.

*Tester* is a person who always tells his wife that this is not the Right
baby .

*HR manager* is a person who thinks that a donkey can deliver a human
baby if given 9 months

21 Proven Motivation Tactics

2007-08-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

If you want to make things happen the ability to motivate yourself and others is a crucial skill. At work, home, and everywhere in between, people use motivation to get results. Motivation requires a delicate balance of communication, structure, and incentives. These 21 tactics will help you maximize motivation in yourself and others.

1. Consequences - Never use threats. They’ll turn people against you. But making people aware of the negative consequences of not getting results (for everyone involved) can have a big impact. This one is also big for self motivation. If you don’t get your act together, will you ever get what you want?

2. Pleasure - This is the old carrot on a stick technique. Providing pleasurable rewards creates eager and productive people.

3. Performance incentives - Appeal to people’s selfish nature. Give them the opportunity to earn more for themselves by earning more for you.

4. Detailed instructions - If you want a specific result, give specific instructions. People work better when they know exactly what’s expected.

5. Short and long term goals - Use both short and long term goals to guide the action process and create an overall philosophy.

6. Kindness - Get people on your side and they’ll want to help you. Piss them off and they’ll do everything they can to screw you over.

7. Deadlines - Many people are most productive right before a big deadline. They also have a hard time focusing until that deadline is looming overhead. Use this to your advantage by setting up a series of mini-deadlines building up to an end result.

8. Team Spirit - Create an environment of camaraderie. People work more effectively when they feel like part of team — they don’t want to let others down.

10. Recognize achievement - Make a point to recognize achievements one-on-one and also in group settings. People like to see that their work isn’t being ignored.

11. Personal stake - Think about the personal stake of others. What do they need? By understanding this you’ll be able to keep people happy and productive.

12. Concentrate on outcomes - No one likes to work with someone standing over their shoulder. Focus on outcomes — make it clear what you want and cut people loose to get it done on their own.

13. Trust and Respect - Give people the trust and respect they deserve and they’ll respond to requests much more favorably.

14. Create challenges - People are happy when they’re progressing towards a goal. Give them the opportunity to face new and difficult problems and they’ll be more enthusiastic.

15. Let people be creative - Don’t expect everyone to do things your way. Allowing people to be creative creates a more optimistic environment and can lead to awesome new ideas.

16. Constructive criticism - Often people don’t realize what they’re doing wrong. Let them know. Most people want to improve and will make an effort once they know how to do it.
17. Demand improvement - Don’t let people stagnate. Each time someone advances raise the bar a little higher (especially for yourself).

18. Make it fun - Work is most enjoyable when it doesn’t feel like work at all. Let people have fun and the positive environment will lead to better results.

19. Create opportunities - Give people the opportunity to advance. Let them know that hard work will pay off.

20. Communication - Keep the communication channels open. By being aware of potential problems you can fix them before a serious dispute arises.

21. Make it stimulating - Mix it up. Don’t ask people to do the same boring tasks all the time. A stimulating environment creates enthusiasm and the opportunity for "big picture" thinking.

Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates: Who's Most Powerful

2007-02-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. He is currently the largest shareholder at Disney and, as a result, a member of Disney's Board of Directors. He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft, the world's largest software company. Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last thirteen consecutive years.Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both are considered as the icons of the world of computing.

But who is most powerful?

Wired.com also posted an article last year Jobs vs. Gates: Who's the Star?

BBC 2 aired a program in 2003 on both which looks into both of these computer icons life from their childhood. This documentry is now hosted freely on Google Video.

Exhausted from watching above about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs? Go ahead and watch this video. It’s hilarious.

English language

2007-02-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

“Me fail english? Thats unpossible.”~Ralph Wiggum

English, a West Germanic language originating in England, is the first language for most people in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language throughout the world, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations, such as in India or South Africa, as well as in many international organizations.Modern English is sometimes described as the world lingua franca. While Mandarin Chinese – and perhaps Hindi and Spanish – have more native speakers, English has considerably more influence or geographical reach than any of the three

According to a survey conducted by DIHK (Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer) a good command of the English language is the second important skill for young German school graduates. The ability to communicate in English is even higher rated than an a good knowledge in the field of business and economy.

English as a global language
Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "global language", the lingua franca of the modern era. While English is not an official language in many countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. Some linguists believe that it is no longer the exclusive cultural sign of "native English speakers", but is rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it continues to grow. It is, by international treaty, the official language for aerial and maritime communications, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union, the United Nations, and most international athletic organisations, including the International Olympic Committee.

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, the Science Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

If you want to learn English on internet then there are few websites which might help you in improving your competency in English langage

Why Learn English?

All Skills

http://eleaston.com/biz-write.html
Resource center for Business English– All skills Listening, Speaking, Reading Writing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
Resource center for British English – All skills Listening, Speaking, Reading Writing

http://esl.about.com/
Articles, exercises – All skills – Listening, Speaking, Reading Writing

http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/default.htm
Practice exercises for all skills

http://www.pbs.org/speak/
Information on American English

Writing

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
For Grammar and Writing skills

http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/
Writing skills for scientists and engineers

http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/LangHelp/Writing/
Resource center for writing links

http://www.better-english.com/exerciselist.html
Business English Exercises

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
For Grammar and Writing skills

http://www.nonstopenglish.com/
Interactive exercises for English vocabulary and grammar

http://www.idiomconnection.com/
English idioms and quizzes

http://www.business-letter-writing.com/
For effective business writing

Listening

http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm
Interactive listening exercises

http://alt-usage-english.org
For English dialects – Audio resources

http://www.ku.edu/~idea/index.htm
Audio resources – International dialects of English

http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/
Interactive listening exercises links

http://www.eviews.net/library.shtml
Audio resources – for Listening comprehension – multiple accents

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/lcra_index.html
Interactive listening exercises

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/
Audio resources for different dialects

http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/
Audio collection of British English dialects

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/default.stm
BBC News – Business – multiple accents

Dictionary

http://m-w.com/
Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

http://dictionary.com/
Online Dictionary

http://www.dict.org/
Online Dictionary Database

http://dicts.info/dictlist1.php
All free English dictionaries

Business English Certificate

http://cambridgeesol.org/
For information and resources about Business English Communication Certificate

“I have traveled more than any one else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent” ~ Mark Twain

GTalk - Away Mode

2007-02-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Gtalk has become quite popular in very short time since its launching. There are many good features like chat save in your mail box, very simple interface,File Transfer,Voicemail, support to open standards etc..

Having so many features still I find one feature missing which I feel should be there in all messengers. Setting up away mode as per your convinience. Even I am available if I don't want to talk to someone for a while then I should be able to set away mode. Also I should be able to receive messages from others. This feature is available in Sametime which is a product of IBM for corporate segment and not available for open chats.

If you have more than one browser installed then you can do so. All we know Gmail has in-built messenger. Logon to GTalk using Gmail in any browser for example Firefox and keep it minimized. Now logon to Gmail from another here IE and logoff from GTalk. Keep the chat history of your mail box open. You can see in chat history if someone has dropped you a message on GTalk.

Snap Preview - New Feature and small Tweaks

2007-02-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

The are some small tweaks you can do to make snap preview much better and as you want.
After generating the code for your site as mentioned in previous post your code will be generated something like this

All marked in blue can be customized
&link_icon=on&preview_trigger=icon - This one is really interesting. It is not officially released. I noticed it on TechCrunch. I tried the same what Techcrunch have done but didn't work for me. I contacted snap team and got the clue which is not officially released.

If you on Snap preview will not be displayed when hovering the mouse on the link. Snap preview will generate a small image which will show the snap preview of the link. If you off it then it will not display the small image and link itself will show the snap preview.
Update*
Snap.com has officially launched this feature now.

si=1 - Possible values for si is '0/1'. 1 is to enable snap preview for internal links and 0 for not showing internal links.

sb=0 - Possible values for si is '0/1'. 0 is to remove search box in the snap preview image and 1 is to display the search box also.

&es=none - If you are not happy with snap preview because its making your site slow then add this value. Possible options are :
&es=all (All html elements will be checked for snap_preview or snap_nopreview. This is the slowest option.)
&es=none (None of the html elements will be checked for snap_preview or snap_nopreview. This is the fastest option.)
&es=default (Only div and span elements will be checked for snap_preview or snap_nopreview. This is the default option.)

There are more things that you can customize and all are given in the FAQs. These small tweaks might help those ones who have some issues like as mentioned by one of the blogger on performancing.com his blog-post

Link to my prevous post: Snap's Preview Anywhere

Software Piracy - Poor Criminal

2007-02-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

Alexander Ponosov a high school principle of a a school in a tiny Russian village of Sepych, about 1,000 miles from Moscow has been accused of using pirated software.
When he took delivery of 16 computers for his school, he must have felt it was a real accomplishment for . It never occurred to him that on that day in August 2005 he became a criminal. Ponosov did not know that the Microsoft software installed on the computers was pirated. Now, the bewildered principle is facing up to 5 years in prison and more than $10,000 in fines for copyright violation.

"It is a classic Russian mentality. They do not touch the oligarchs because oligarchs have got money and can bite back. They go after someone poor and toothless, like us." Alexander Ponosov says

The school head has been officially charged with violating copyright law and using pirated software. His case has already drawn a wide public outcry and even made some political forces step in and support the beleaguered teacher.

"A rural high school teacher can hardly be considered the main intellectual pirate in this country," says Mikhail Seslavinsky, head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications. "Once you start punishing users (of pirated software) half of the country’s population, including the law enforcers themselves, may end up behind bars.

" A Microsoft representative speaking with CBS News did not sound bloodthirsty: "I had to attend the hearings as it is required by the law – I was summoned to the court by the investigators in order to assess the damage incurred by Microsoft," said Alexei Potapov. "I had to give a retail price of the legal versions of the Microsoft products, installed on the school computers in Sepych, which was slightly over $10,000."

Microsoft has decided not to file a civil lawsuit against Ponosov "because we understand well he is just an ordinary school master and he runs an ordinary Russian school," said Potapov. "However, no one has the right to break the law."

The hearings resume on February 12. The outcome of this case will eventually determine whether millions of pirate software users in Russia could be considered criminals.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, asked Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Monday to help a Russian teacher facing prison in a Siberian labor camp for buying pirated Windows software for his students

"Show leniency and drop claims against the principal," Gorbachev and billionaire Alexander Lebedev wrote in a letter posted on Gorbachev's Web site. "This teacher, who has dedicated his life to educating children and earns a pitiful wage compared with even the lowest-ranking people at your company, now faces imprisonment in a Siberian penal colony."

Even Gates foundation is a philanthropic organization, Bill Gates should step in and provide support to the school, teacher and students.

Do You Have Office 2007 File Converters?

2007-02-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

If you are not planning to buy Office 2007 or arrange it by other means(;-)) in near future you might be face some problems in editing some documents which are in new office 2007 format.

Microsoft has introduced new document formats (pptx, docx, xlsx ...) with Office 2007. Office 2007 introduced a new file native file format -- Open XML -- which the suite's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications save to by default.
Microsoft has provided the backward compatiability in Office 2k7 with old versions document formats. But old office versions can't open/read/edit Office 2k7 formats which are defaults.

So what's the solution?
Microsoft-made converters should be deployed, so that Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 applications are able to open and save the Open XML formats used by Office 2007. The converters are available from the Microsoft download site.

Even Gartner has recommended that enterprises should either upgrade their office to Office 2007 or download converters.

"Whether you adopt Office 2007 or not, your organization will be affected by the new document format it introduces, because you can't control the format in which users outside your organization will send documents to users within your organization," said Michael Silver in a research note posted to the Gartner Web site. Silver also warned companies some workers might themselves install Office 2007 on company-owned systems -- laptops, presumably --to muddy the format waters.

More information:Microsoft Releases Open XML Translator

Snap's Preview Anywhere

2007-02-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Few days back came across snap preview anywhere by snap.com which enables snapshot of links on your blog/site.

What is Snap Preview Anywhere?

Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a glimpse of what other sites you're linking to, without having to leave your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted "trips" to linked sites.

How can it be added to your blog?

Go to snap.com add the script generated for your blog/website and it starts working...

You can go through the FAQs to know more about it including some tweaks like enabling it for internal links and hiding the search bar etc...

In the very first instance it looks impressive but

for everything in this world there are Pros and Cons, good and bad, some people choose it and some reject it.

Here are the views of few of the famous people on web2.0

We like it and why!

"SPA is an efficiency tool - it saves time for the reader, and that's a good thing for the publisher. I like it so much I put it on TechCrunch."— Michael Arrington, Editor, TechCrunch.com

"We initially offered the Snap Preview Anywhere enhancement to a group of test users and, after an overwhelmingly positive response, we've opened up the service to the entire WordPress.com network."— Matt Mullenweg, Founder, WordPress/Automattic

"Its really helpful in deciding if you want to click through or not. Since were really into imagery at Laughing Squid, I think this only adds to the overall experience."— Scott Beale, Founder, LaughingSquid.com

We dislike it and why!

Nick Wilson a blogger on performancing.com has given 3 resons in his blog to dislike it.

These are the reasons

1. Accidental triggers: When scrolling, or just moving from one element (maybe a link, maybe a photo etc) to another, the unintentional triggering of the SPA popup is distracting, at best. It draws the eye away from the task at hand, and causes annoyance, and loss of concentration -- if you're actually selling anything, pay close attention to this point!
2. Click stalling: Quite often, when trying to click a link that features the Snap abomination, I have to click several times to get the damn thing to work. This is too much effort. If your site is that hard to use, you can bet I wont be back, and neither will others.
3. I trust you: No, really I do! Im at your blog, despite like everyone else being really busy, im at your blog! I just want to follow the fucking link ok? Dont crowd me like some over-eager second hand car salesman trying to sell me a dodgy link, just let me see that its a link, read the anchor text and decide if I want to click it. I dont care what the bloody site looks like, if you're linking to it, that's good enough for me -- really, get out of my face.

I find it worth trying so I adopted it in my blog and enabled its many tweaks. I can see that there is some small performance issue but still I am sticking to it at the moment.

I would say its worth trying.

The Genographic Project

2007-02-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

Every single man in the world is descended from ONE man, who lived in Africa some 60,000 years ago…and every woman from one woman around 140,000 years ago

Why, and when, did some leave? How did we get from there to here?

‘Stones and Bones’ can answer a lot of questions, but new tools reveal more than we ever thought possible…

The Genographic Project, a research partnership between IBM and National Geographic, has literally been around the world collecting DNA samples to map how human beings have populated the earth.

Launched in April 2005 in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the Genographic Project aims to map the migratory history of mankind by studying variations in DNA patterns over time. As part of the study, over 180,000 individuals are contributing their own DNA samples by purchasing a Participation Kit and sending in a cheek swab— and learning about the journey their own ancestors took through time and across the planet.

What the Genographic Project Hopes to Accomplish
•Develop scholarly research about new revelations in genetic anthropology derived from Genographic data, co-authored by all principal investigators and project director Dr. Wells

•Create a virtual atlas of human history online – nationalgeographic.com/genographic

•Provide tangible benefits for traditional peoples through educational, cultural and linguistic preservation efforts

•Increase overall awareness of the challenges facing indigenous communities worldwide

•Highlight human unity and connectedness while celebrating cultural diversity and individuality

•Establish a large public database of anthropological genetic information, which will be made available to the global research community and the general public for further study

To know more about this project you can visit National Geographic

Are you Interested to know your ancestors then click here to get more details for participation. Your results will tell you your haplogroup - your 'branch' on the human family tree.

There are many questions arised

Does all of humanity trace back to Africa?
When did modern humans enter North America?
What role did the Silk road play in genetic lineages?
How can we account for the remarkable linguistic diversity in South America?
How can modern technology shed light on these and other age-old questions?

To know more: Frequently Asked Questions

Phone Etiquettes - Do it Right

2007-02-03T14:12:00.000-08:00

"Two Pillars of Communication are : SPEAKING and LISTENING "

Working with Extended Teams sitting 1000 miles away , we feel the barriers exists..

What are these Barriers ??

We Face	Customer Face
Communication Only Through Phone	Lack of Clarity
Lack of Planning task and time	Unfamiliar Accent

Phone being the medium of communication , effective pitching over the phone is what we need to take care of.
Always display Positive Attitude on phone by
* Projecting Confidence
* Thinking Positive
* Using Positive Language
* Being Enthusiastic
* Conveying Speed or urgency
* Taking Ownership and Accountability
* Being Courteous

Its not that tough as it looks. We Just follow this simple cycle -
Think ---> Plan ---> Execute

Think -
What is your Objective of call
What is the customer's objective for the same call

Plan -
The Agenda and Objective
Pitch Layout

Execute -
Introduce yourself
Specify the Agenda and Objective
Review Agenda Points
Be Clear and Concise in your pitch.

Always take care that -
- You check for Understanding.
- Question whenever required
- Listen
- Reflect and Affirm your Understanding
- Summarize the Action Points
- Communicate clearly and crisply

How does it feel when you are talking and you get a feel that others are not listening... BAD !!!

Some simple ways by which you can show your customers that you are listening actively are
* Verbal Nods (eg. OK/ Right/ I see)
* Paraphrasing( Listening, Understanding and Reconfirming)
* Questioning

Few pointers towards effective pitching -
* Listen and then Speak
* Speak slowly and clearly
* Acknowledge by responding in "Yes"
* Use Positive Language with Crisp short sentences. Use Phrases in right context.
* Use appropriate language when requesting/agreeing/refusing/making suggestion or offering help.
* Take Notes. Don't rely on your memory
* Summarize
* Close the call nicely.

Always listen what others is saying. Listening plays a vital role in communication
- Pause when required.
- Allow other person to speak. Don't Interrupt.
- Listen for facts and big picture.
- Listen to the tone. They signify a lot.

In a nutshell
Think Before you speak
Think and talk positively
Concentrate on what you can do
Go the Extra Mile
Every difficult situation is a challenge.. Embrace It !!

Five Innovation - Video @ ABC7 News

2007-02-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

As we we provided the details of IBM's The Next Five innovations here is the news of the same on ABC 7 channel.

The details of original post Original The Next Five in Five . Seven thousand employees are engaged in building these products with the collaboration with customers.

Sitemap

2007-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

All Post Titles and Links

21 Proven Motivation Tactics

English language
GTalk - Away Mode
Snap Preview - New Feature and small Tweaks
Software Piracy - Poor Criminal

Do You Have Office 2007 File Converters?
Snap's Preview Anywhere
The Genographic Project

Phone Etiquettes - Do it Right

http://xtremeleverage.blogspot.com/2007/02/five-innovation-video-abc7-news.html

Fun With Google Adsense - Simple Tweak
The 7 Quality Control Tools
The 5 Ss of Japanese Efficiency
Escalation - A Look Beyond The Word

The Next Five in Five
COBOL - The Future Is Shining
Top 10 Qualities of an Excellent Manager management
Interviewing - Tips and Techniques
Negotiating Skills
Interview Questions
India Poised
Additional Principles of Interpersonal Skills
Improve Your communication Skills
Static Vs Dynamic Calls
Seven Habits of People with Excellent Interpersonal Skills
Business Emails – some tips
How to connect two computers using internet?
SQL Query Best Practices
Multiplication in different ways
Quick Tip For Renaming VSAM datasets
Mainframe: COBOL Question Bank
Presentation: Six ways to make an impact
What is ...?
Mainframe: JCL Question Bank
DB2 Basics: Fun With Date And Time
JCL Sort Utility
Dangling Pointers in C Language
20 Things One Might Not Know About Windows XP Windows
Play online Nokia snake game
World big cities time and World Time Zones Clocks
Cool digital analog clocks for your website
The power of human mind
Interesting facts
Origin of some words
BullShit Bingo
Tom & Jerry: New Vs Old
My Ebooks Collection
Love Quotes Quotations
Google Search Tips
Murphy's Laws
10 Rules to manage your boss
Chanakya Niti
Open Courseware by Indian Institutes
Golden Rules for Career Success
Good Quotations
XML Ceritification Links
Great Quotations By Famous People

Fun With Google Adsense - Simple Tweak

2007-02-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Have you bored with the same kind of display of google adsense ad display on your website, blogs. You want to different options like size background color, border color, format, text, image, link units etc.
You can simply modify the javascript generated by google adsense for you.

Below is an example where I have used random number generator. Depending on its value bgcolor,border,type(image/text), size of the google ad will be generated.

google_ad_client = "pub-0000000000000";
google_ad_channel = "";
google_color_link = "FFFFFF";
google_color_text = "FFFFFF";
google_color_url = "FFFFFF";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

You can tweak this Javascript as much as you can imagine. For example you can also display combination of link units/text/image etc. Instead of Random number you can try some other variables also or some other conditions.

I am not sure how much this will help you in making your blog/website attractive and how much it will help you in increasing revenue from adsesne. I tried it out just for fun and it works.

A word of Caution: Modifying Adsense generated code is against Adsense TOS, Either you can try it out at your own risk or you can take the permission from google adsense if it can be allowed.

Post a comment if you find it intersting

The 7 Quality Control Tools

2007-01-31T06:34:00.000-08:00

The Japanese began applying the thinking developed by Walter Shewhart and W Edward Deming during the 1930s and 1940s. Japan's progress in continuous improvement led to the expansion of the use of these tools. Kaoru Ishikawa, the then head of the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE), thus, decided to expand the use of these approaches in Japanese manufacturing in the 1960s with the introduction of the seven quality control (7QC) tools.
7QC tools are fundamental instruments to improve the quality of products. They are used to analyse the production process, identify major problems, control fluctuations of product quality and provide solutions to avoid future defects. These tools use statistical techniques and knowledge to accumulate data and analyse them. They help organise the collected data in a way that is easy to understand. Moreover, by using 7QC tools, specific problems in a process can be identified.

Check sheet
The check sheet is a simple document that is used for collecting data in real-time and at the location where the data is generated. The document is typically a blank form that is designed for the quick, easy, and efficient recording of the desired information, which can be either quantitative or qualitative. When the information is quantitative, the checksheet is sometimes called a tally sheet.
A defining characteristic of a checksheet is that data is recorded by making marks ("checks") on it. A typical checksheet is divided into regions, and marks made in different regions have different significance. Data is read by observing the location and number of marks on the sheet.

Ishikawa diagram
An Ishikawa diagram, also known as a Fishbone diagram or cause and effect diagram, is a diagram that shows the causes of a certain event. It was first used by Kaoru Ishikawa in the 1960s, and is considered one of the seven basic tools of quality management. Because of its shape, an Ishikawa diagram can be known as a Fishbone Diagram. It is also known as a cause and effect diagram.
A common use of the Ishikawa diagram is in product design, to identify desirable factors leading to an overall effect. Mazda Motors famously used a Ishikawa diagram in the development of the Miata sports car, where the required result was "Jinba Ittai" or "Horse and Rider as One". The main causes included such aspects as "touch" and "braking" with the lesser causes including highly granular factors such as "50/50 weight distribution" and "able to rest elbow on top of driver's door". Every factor identified in the diagram was included in the final design.

Flowchart
A flowchart (also spelled flow-chart and flow chart) is a schematic representation of an algorithm or a process.
Examples include instructions for a bicycle's assembly, an attorney outlining a case's timeline, diagram of an automobile plant's work flow, the decisions to be taken on a tax form, et cetera.
Generally the start point, end points, inputs, outputs, possible paths and the decisions that lead to these possible paths are included.
Flow-charts can be created by hand or manually in most office software, but lately specialized diagram drawing software has emerged that can also be used for the purpose

Control Chart
The control chart, also known as the 'Shewhart chart' or 'process-behaviour chart' is a statistical tool intended to assess the nature of variation in a process and to facilitate forecasting and management. A control chart is a more specific kind of a run chart.

Scatter Diagram
A scatterplot, scatter diagram or scatter graph is a graph used in statistics to visually display and compare two or more sets of related quantitative, or numerical, data by displaying only finitely many points, each having a coordinate on a horizontal and a vertical axis.

Histogram
In statistics, a histogram is a graphical display of tabulated frequencies. A histogram is the graphical version of a table which shows what proportion of cases fall into each of several or many specified categories. The categories are usually specified as nonoverlapping intervals of some variable. The categories (bars) must be adjacent.

Pareto Chart
A Pareto chart is a special type of bar chart where the values being plotted are arranged in descending order. It is named for Vilfredo Pareto, and its use in quality assurance was popularized by Joseph M. Juran and Kaoru Ishikawa.
Typically the left vertical axis is frequency of occurrence, but it can alternatively represent cost or other important unit of measure. The right vertical axis is the cumulative percentage of the total number of occurrences, total cost, or total of the particular unit of measure. The purpose is to highlight the most important among a (typically large) set of factors. In quality control, the Pareto chart often represents the most common sources of defects, the highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer complaints, etc.

The 5 Ss of Japanese Efficiency

2007-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

5S is the acronym for five Japanese words, seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke, which signify order, cleanliness, purity and commitment.
The 5S philosophy focusses on effective workplace organisation, helps simplify the workplace environment and reduce waste, while improving quality and safety.
Seiri (sort) means to put things in order. Seiton (systematise) means proper arrangement. Seiso (clean) implies keeping things clean and polished in the workplace. Seiketsu implies purity and focuses on maintaining cleanliness and perpetual cleaning. Shitsuke is commitment.
This is a typical teaching and attitude towards any undertaking to inspire pride and adherence to standards established for the four components.
The principles underlying a 5S programme appear to be common sense -- and they are. But until the advent of 5S, many businesses ignored these basic principles. There is an order and logic to how 5S is carried out, which is:

1. Seiri or sorting
Seiri means sorting through everything in each work area. It requires keeping only what is necessary.
Materials, tools, equipment and supplies that are not frequently used should be moved to a separate, common storage area. Items that are never used should be discarded. This makes it easier to find the things needed and frees up additional space.
"Tagging" items is a common approach when deciding what is to be thrown away. An area is targeted; items likely to be disposed off are tagged with a red tag and a date. If the item is not used after a certain period of time, say, between one and six months, it is disposed of. Practising seiri at Sona Koyo, for instance, led to the freeing up of an 8x6 ft by removing unwanted rakes.

2. Seiton or systematise
This is the next step. It requires organising, arranging and identifying everything in a work area for efficient retrieval and return to its proper place.
Commonly used tools are readily available; storage areas, cabinets and shelves are properly labelled; floors are cleaned and painted to make it easier to spot dirt, waste materials and dropped parts and tools; spaces are outlined on the floor to identify work areas, movement lanes, storage areas, finished product areas and so on; and shadows are drawn on the tool boards, making it easy to quickly see where each tool belongs.
In an office, bookshelves are provided for frequently-used manuals, books and catalogues.
There are two important parts to systematic organisation -- putting everything in its proper place and setting up a system so that it is easy to return each item to its proper place. The second part is where labelling and identification practices are important.

3. Seiso or shining
Once everything from each individual work area to the entire facility is sorted and organised, it needs to be kept that way.
Regular cleaning and inspection makes it easy to spot lubricant leaks, equipment misalignment, breakage, missing tools and low levels of supplies. When done on a regular, frequent basis, cleaning and inspecting does not take a lot of time and, in the long run, actually saves times.

4. Seiketsu or standardise
Seiketsu ensures that the first three steps of the 5S programme continue to be effective. The good practices developed in the first three steps need to be standardised.
Therefore, organisations must develop a work structure that will support the new practices and turn them into habits.

5. Shitsuke or self-discipline
This implies continuous training and maintenance of standards. The organisation must build a formal system for monitoring the results of the programme. A follow-up is a must for the above four steps to continue to be practise.
There will have to be continuous education about maintaining standards. When there are changes that will affect the 5S programme -- such as new equipment, new products or new work rules -- it is essential to make changes in the standards and provide training.
A good way to continue educating employees and maintaining standards is to use 5S posters and signs.

Link to real story: reddif.com by Surinder Kapur

Escalation - A Look Beyond The Word

2007-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

"BAD News early is GOOD"

" You didn't just Say that !! " --- How often do we cringe at this statement??

Escalation !! The moment we hear this word, the thing that strikes our mind is something
- Unpleasant
- Counterproductive
- Time Consuming

Here a paradigm shift is required. Escalation is not a wrong deed or is something to be terrified of. On the contrary the ESCALATION PROCESS is a consistent model for solving problems rapidly and efficiently. This model defines triggers for the escalation process as well as the roles and responsibilities of members of the escalation team.

Escalation means getting the right people involved at the right time to solve a problem.

Do you think Escalation means just raising the alarm and your is work done??

- If YES, then it's high time to change your perception.
- Escalation is to really ratchet up the action without losing the focus of the target.
- Escalation is not about delegating the responsibility. It's about being proactive and taking the ownership and getting the things resolved before the problem explodes.

Why do I need to Escalate??
The problem is small and it will go away itself…STOP …. It wont Period!!!

Don't sit on the problem and wait for it to explode before you take any action. Don't procrastinate, take Ownership and involve the right set of people to ensure that it's taken care off.

There are three basic parts of "Escalation"
- Background
- Role playing
- Outcome (what we do and what actually happened).

The background section presents information and explanation to understand the context of our decisions. The outcome section explains what we do and what actually happened. This allows us to compare our decisions and decision-making process to that used at the time. The role-play section is the heart of the simulation. It's the part that is interactive — what we get depends upon what we do.

Benefits of Escalation
· Rapid problem resolution
· Improved communication
· Realistic expectations
· Minimal customer downtime
· Increased customer satisfaction
· Better customer cost control

After Escalation
The Escalation Team develops the action plan and agrees it with the customer. All action plans include:

· Actions required to solve the problem
· Who is responsible for each action
· Timing for each action
· Why a specific action will be performed
· lternate plan if the desired results are not achieved

Behind escalation is the dynamic of pressure, and how people respond when under its spell. Pressure comes in many forms including the elements of Time and Timeliness.Time and Timing are central to the effectiveness of escalations because they focus the mind with the threat of consequences.

"When you are at the end of the cliff - Progress is a step back "

The Next Five in Five

2007-01-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

Five Innovations, Five Years
Amazing things are happening in IBM labs. IBM researchers and consultants are working feverishly behind-the-scenes to improve how people live and work in the future.

Below we highlight five innovations that will change how consumers interact with businesses, medical providers and the environment over the next five years. They're calling them "The Next Five in Five."
Imagine:

* If your cell phone could tell you what items are on sale as you walk past a store,
* If you could purify water anywhere in the world,
* If you could talk to someone in Japan on the phone and automatically have what you say translated into Japanese,
* If you could try clothes on that fit your measurements in a virtual online environment,
* If you could have doctors monitor your health without visiting the doctor’s office.

The core technology for these ideas has been invented. Though we won't manufacture any new household gadgets, IBM is working with clients and partners to bring them to fruition

Access healthcare remotely
Enhanced communications and medical tools are helping to monitor chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease remotely and at a lower cost. In turn, security advancements are ensuring that personal health information is transferred safely and confidentially. Here are just a few IBM technologies on the horizon for healthcare:

Bracelets equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology give clinicians access to critical patient information. At Miami Children's Hospital, newborns wear the bracelets to ensure they're not moved far from their mothers.

Virtual check-ups ensure regular monitoring of chronic conditions in a convenient manner. With remote monitoring devices, patients can check their blood pressure, blood sugar etc. from home and then send results electronically to a clinician.

Doc in a box gives people access to expert diagnosis and treatment — even in the most remote places. Without elaborate or expensive equipment, doctors can transmit medical images and data instantly to major medical institutions thousands of miles away. There, specialists assist in diagnoses and treatments that otherwise may have taken days, weeks or months to obtain

Get ready for mind-reading mobile phones
In five years, mobile devices will be able to sense and adapt to your preferences and needs. IBM is building out powerful new components and testing systems that track location and preferences to achieve more useful and intuitive consumer experiences. Simultaneously, mobile phone providers are investing more in next-generation infrastructure. Some examples:

* IBM and Norway's biggest telecom group Telenor are testing technology to allow mobile devices and networks to learn about users' whereabouts and preferences as they commute, work and travel. Telenor plans to improve service and automate routine operations by applying this knowledge of where customers are located.

* IBM’s India Research Lab recently announced a presence-enabled technology called Business Finder that allows a consumer to locate and connect to the nearest reputable and available service provider such as a plumber or doctor. India has many micro-businesses who deliver valuable services to rural populations. Business Finder is a matchmaking vehicle for one-man operators.

Real-time speech translation will become the norm
As globalization spreads, IBM real-time translation technologies are helping to overcome language differences. Eventually, real-time translation technologies and services will be embedded into mobile phones, handheld devices and cars — facilitating communication between people around the world. In particular, two IBM technologies stand out:

MASTOR, a bidirectional English to Arabic translation software was designed to improve communication between U.S. military personnel and Iraqi forces and citizens. MASTOR provides simultaneous translation. It is available in two-way English to Iraqi Arabic, English to Modern Standard Arabic and English to Mandarin Chinese. Additional languages are planned.

TALES (Translingual Automatic Language Exploitation System) software provides real-time monitoring and translation of broadcast media and email alerts for organizations that require up-to-the-minute news about their company, the market, customers and competitors. TALES software allows users to search, view or listen to news from foreign language broadcasts and websites around the world.

The internet will go 3-D
Popular online destinations like Second Life and the World of Warcraft may evolve into the 3-D Internet as Darpa, AOL and Prodigy evolved into the World Wide Web.

Partnering with others, IBM is bringing decades of experience in supercomputing, visualization and gaming (leveraging our leadership with Microsoft's XBOX 360, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3) to help build out the next-generation Internet. With increased realism and immersive technologies, the possibilities are endless. Lifelike graphics will prove beneficial in diagnosing diseases, finding new sources of energy, building more reliable cars and much more. Here are some of the things IBM has done so far:

Circuit City : IBM helped this electronics retailer open a virtual store, making it our first client on Second Life.

Sears : IBM helped Sears open an early prototype store, showcasing how virtual shopping can transform the consumer experience. Consumers can experiment with the color scheme of their virtual kitchens, explore home theater set-ups and organize their garage by virtually customizing storage accessories.

The action at last year's Wimbledon was, for the first time, replicated in a virtual tennis court built by IBM in Second Life. While the game was played out in reality, spectators could sit with their friends or even walk on the court to view the game, and see the actual shot-by-shot movement of the ball from any angle.

Addressing areas of environmental importance
This year, IBM will shape a new research effort for emerging environmental opportunities, such as advanced water modeling, filtration via nanotechnology and efficient solar power systems.

Advanced water modeling, distribution and management systems: With the ubiquity of IP-based tools today, it is possible to envision a 'smart' end-to-end water distribution system – from reservoirs to pumping stations to pipes to holding tanks to intelligent metering where users could monitor and manage consumption responsibly. The water distribution system would serve as a grid, much like a utility grid, at multiple levels – federal/central, regional, state, country, city/town and even a single residence or commercial establishment level. It would involve business processing, decision-making, optimization/utilization, diagnostics, and remote sensing/monitoring type applications.

Water desalination using carbon nanotubes: Filtering water at the molecular level can potentially remove the salt and impurities with less energy and money per gallon than currently possible. Current methods to desalinate water are expensive and hard to maintain. IBM will research various forms of water purification technologies through the use of carbon nanotubes.

Efficient solar power systems: High costs, an unstable fuel supply, and worries about global warming have increased interest in solar energy. Given that photovoltaic cells are based on silicon technology, IBM's unique expertise in semiconductors, raw materials, nanostructure fabrication and testing, and packaging technology can be applied toward more efficient, cost-effective, and flexible solar power production.

COBOL - The Future Is Shining

2007-01-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

Few months back I came across this article and found it very inspiring and positive for the Mainframe programmers.
This article will definitely raise the moral of those Mainframe programmers who are little bit scared of Mainframe future. Also it tells us how important it is to learn Dinosaur and its technologies by the younger generation along with all new technologies.

Here is the article by Lou Washington
I remember a day during junior high school when we spent a few minutes with our guidance counselor to discuss our ambitions for the future.

Student: I wanna fly jets!
Counselor: You gotta know trig.
Student: I wanna be a movie star!
Counselor: You gotta study English literature.
Student: I wanna be a doctor!
Counselor: You gotta know biology and chemistry.
Lou: I want to be a lawyer!
Counselor: You gotta know Latin.

Almost everyone I spoke to about my curriculum for that year had the same reaction. They all asked why I would want to study Latin; it was, after all, a dead language.

COBOL Cobbled?
People are saying the same thing about COBOL. Don't waste your time COBOL. If they put you into a COBOL project, your career will be over.

COBOL is for geezers. It's a ... dead language.

Let's put a couple of things to rest right now.

First, the status of Latin and COBOL are quite similar. Neither is really dead, both are deeply ingrained, intertwined and embedded in our contemporary world. The former in many of our written and spoken languages, and the latter is the underpinning of much of the world's existing data systems.

If you ignore Latin, you risk losing the ability to understand the derivation, and hence a full understanding, of many words in many modern languages. If you ignore COBOL, you run the risk of failing to understand how your enterprise actually works. It is impossible to fully understand the processes within your organization without understanding the systems that support them. Grace Hopper didn't just invent a programming language; she invented the concept of business rules.

Hundreds of Miles of COBOL Code
Gartner has estimated that there are 180 billion lines of COBOL code in use around the world. Imagine that you printed out all of the COBOL code on your laser printer. Let's say you get 50 lines per page in landscape mode. Copy paper comes in two-inch reams with 500 sheets per ream. That figures out to a 227-mile-tall printout. OK, so you print on both sides of the paper; then it's 113 miles tall.
Gartner estimated in 2003 that there were 90,000 COBOL programmers in the United States . These guys are all looking for something to do, so let's have them handle the conversion.

Let's see, 180 billion lines of code and 90,000 programmers works out to about two million lines per programmer. Surely a decent COBOL programmer can translate 20 lines per hour. At that rate, each programmer will only require about 100,000 hours to complete the conversion. That works out to about 13,300 workdays. If we figure 250 workdays per year, these guys should be done in about 53 years.

An Inconvenient Truth
Oh, I forgot to mention, the use of COBOL is growing ... by about a billion lines per year. And, those 90,000 COBOL programmers? They are all out buying fishing boats, Winnebagos and Hawaiian-luau shirts.
There is only one reasonable course of action: COBOL must be embraced, it must be taught and it must become cool again.
Rather than running away from COBOL, we need to look for ways to integrate it more fully into our new development processes.
Our institutions must teach the use of COBOL as a basic requirement in the IT curricula. It doesn't matter how much Java you know; it doesn't matter if you can Web-enable your kid's Etch-a-Sketch in your sleep.
It will all be for nothing if the legacy systems in use in your enterprise aren't effectively tied into the snazzy new systems you want to deploy. If these two worlds don't play well together, your enterprise will be imperiled.
I can't imagine why anyone interested in programming would not jump into this area like a big wet dog jumping on a white couch. Companies will be begging for COBOL-literate people for years to come, and based on current trends, there will be fewer and fewer people with this expertise. That means the price per head will be going up.

An Action Plan
Meanwhile, how do companies free up the people to handle this body of information? Start looking at alternative programming strategies.

Let's say you have a staff of 50 programmers and none of them wants to work on geezer code.
Going outside is no good because your business is complex, and knowledge of the systems requires knowledge of the business itself. Here's a plan for redeploying your human assets to maximize their effectiveness.
First, you take 25 percent of your programmers and start them on learning COBOL. This may be done outside your corporation; it may be done with private contractors teaching onsite. Whichever way you go, one out of four of your programmers will be knowledgeable in COBOL in six months.
Next, you take another 25 percent and you get them proficient in one of the newer languages such as MANTIS, Visual Basic or Java. Within a single week, your people will be productive programmers turning out apps 90 percent faster than their COBOL counterparts.
At the conclusion of six months, you make whatever adjustments you need to make as far as getting people into their "happy" zone. Now you have a crew of programmers who are well able to take on all of your systems, support all of your code and create new apps as needed with assurance that they are properly interfaced with your legacy systems.

Your future will be secure and COBOL will be cool again.

Link to the article: COBOL: The New Latin By Lou Washington
More articles : What does the future hold for COBOL? By Builder Australia

Top 10 Qualities of an Excellent Manager

2007-01-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

By Jan Gordon

An excellent manager taps into talents and resources in order to support and bring out the best in others. An outstanding manager evokes possibility in others.

1. Creativity
Creativity is what separates competence from excellence. Creativity is the spark that propels projects forward and that captures peoples' attention. Creativity is the ingredient that pulls the different pieces together into a cohesive whole, adding zest and appeal in the process.

2. Structure
The context and structure we work within always have a set of parameters, limitations and guidelines. A stellar manager knows how to work within the structure and not let the structure impinge upon the process or the project. Know the structure intimately, so as to guide others to effectively work within the given parameters. Do this to expand beyond the boundaries.

3. Intuition
Intuition is the capacity of knowing without the use of rational processes; it's the cornerstone of emotional intelligence. People with keen insight are often able to sense what others are feeling and thinking; consequently, they're able to respond perfectly to another through their *deeper understanding. * The stronger one's intuition, the stronger manager one will be.

4. Knowledge
A thorough knowledge base is essential. The knowledge base must be so ingrained and integrated into their being that they become *transparent, * focusing on the employee and what s/he needs to learn, versus focusing on the knowledge base. The excellent manager lives from a knowledge base, without having to draw attention to it.

5. Commitment
A manager is committed to the success of the project and of all team members. S/he holds the vision for the collective team and moves the team closer to the end result. It's the manager's commitment that pulls the team forward during trying times.

6. Being Human
Employees value leaders who are human and who don't hide behind their authority. The best leaders are those who aren't afraid to be themselves. Managers who respect and connect with others on a human level inspire great loyalty.

7. Versatility
Flexibility and versatility are valuable qualities in a manager. Beneath the flexibility and versatility is an ability to be both non-reactive and not attached to how things have to be. Versatility implies an openness this openness allows the leader to quickly *change on a dime* when necessary. Flexibility and versatility are the pathways to speedy responsiveness.

8. Lightness
A stellar manager doesn't just produce outstanding results; s/he has fun in the process! Lightness doesn't impede results but rather, helps to move the team forward. Lightness complements the seriousness of the task at hand as well as the resolve of the team, therefore contributing to strong team results and retention.

9. Discipline/Focus
Discipline is the ability to choose and live from what one pays attention to. Discipline as self-mastery can be exhilarating! Role model the ability to live from your intention consistently and you'll role model an important leadership quality.

10. Big Picture, Small Actions
Excellent managers see the big picture concurrent with managing the details. Small actions lead to the big picture; the excellent manager is skillful at doing both: think big while also paying attention to the details.

Interviewing - Tips and Techniques

2007-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

WHAT IS AN INTERVIEW?
Definitions
- Purposeful conversation between an employer or delegated interviewer and a prospective employer
- A dynamic and mutual exchange of information between professionals.
- Meeting between an employer who needs to get a job done and a worker who is prepared to do the job

Employer View
Why are you here? What can you do for us?
What kind of person are you?
Can we afford you?

Candidate View
What do you want them to know?
What do you want to know about them?

“What Color is Your Parachute?” - Richard Nelson Bolles

Ten Steps to Success

STEP 1 - RESEARCH YOUR TARGET
It is important to make the effort to research your target organization.
Research will provide:
- Information to help you decide whether you’re interested in the organization
- Important data to refer to during the interview

Find Out About The Organization
- Who do you know in the organization?
- What have you read or heard recently about the organization?
- What are the organizational goals, structure, and characteristics?
- What are the organization’s product lines or services?
- Who are the customers?
- What are the geographical locations and relocation policies?
- What is the growth potential of the organization?
- Are there restructuring possibilities?
- Who is the hiring manager?
- What are the key things this manager tends to look for in a successful candidate (technical knowledge, skills, style)?
- What key problems/issues is the organization currently wrestling with?
- What kinds of skills and capabilities are they looking for to address these issues?
- What are the major strategic changes this group is attempting to drive?
- What qualifications and attributes are they seeking to drive these strategic changes?

STEP 2 - KNOW YOURSELF
In an interview your job is to sell yourself . . . so you need to know precisely what you’re selling.
You’re selling both your skills and yourself as a person.

According to Tom Peters in his article, “The Brand Called You,” individuals need to create a
brand image - something that makes them stand out from the crowd.

Your BRAND YOU Commercial(30-60 seconds)

PRESENT (15-30 seconds)
Recent Career History
Overview of Work Type/Skills Used
Functional Area
For the past 5 years at XYZ, I have worked in information design and development.. Most recently, I was primarily responsible for the cross-product library strategy that addressed three projects and two operating system platforms.

REASON FOR LOOKING FOR WORK (5-10 seconds)
Be Brief, Matter-of-fact
As you may be aware, my area is in the process of reorganizing and as a result, I’m looking for a new position.

FUTURE (10-20 seconds)
Target Position, Function, or Roles
Skills you want to use
I'd like to continue my career in the area of web design and development. Having initiated the idea of having information about our department on the intranet, I created and am currently maintaining the departmental web site. The site has been so well-received that it is being used as a division-wide prototype. With my strongbackground in technical writing, I can immediately contribute to your group’s web projects.

STEP 3 - PLAN
Handling the logistics ahead of time reduces stress as you approach the interview.

Get All the Interview Details
- Exact starting and ending times, date, location (building and room)
- Travel arrangements and expense reimbursement
- Availability of parking
- Appropriate dress
- Name and title of interviewer(s)

Gather Materials for Interview
- Position description
- Resume (several copies on high-quality paper)
- Questions for the interviewer
- Professional-looking folder or portfolio

STEP 4 - PREPARE
Taking the time to prepare for your interview pays big dividends in your confidence and how you are perceived by your employer.

Prepare Answers to Potential Interview Questions
Write out questions that you might be asked and your answers. What specifically do you want them to know? YOU choose what YOU share.Write out your answers in the form of BAR stories.

BAR Approach
B - What is the BACKGROUND of the skill/accomplishment you are showcasing?
A - What ACTION did you take?

R - What were the RESULTS of your actions -- the BENEFITS to the organization?

Prepare Questions to Ask the Interviewer
Usually at the end of an interview, you’ll be asked if you have any questions. HAVE SOME!!! what do you want to know about the job itself and about the organization?

STEP 5 - PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
Practice answering and asking interview questions to prepare for being in the “hot seat” of the actual interview. [Note: Sample interview questions to answer/ask in the last]
- Mock interviews, with someone you trust to give constructive criticism
- Mirror - immediate feedback on how you look
- Videotape - feedback on how you look and sound
- Voice recording - feedback on how you sound

STEP 6 - MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION
What you look like and how you say something are just as important as what you say. Studies have shown that most of the conveyed message is nonverbal. Gestures, physical appearance, and what you wear are highly influential during job interviews.

First Impressions
- Arrive a few minutes early, find a rest room for last minute check on appearance
- Be polite to all people you meet from the time you arrive until you leave
- Dress appropriately and comfortably
- Always be neat and clean
- Shake handsfirmly
- Take your directions from the intervieweras to where to sit
- Try to relax and be yourself

Behaviors
Good eye contact Good choice of words Active listening
Appropriate body language Be enthusiastic Be friendly and personable
Appropriate voice tone Positive nonverbal clues Be professional and focused

STEP 7 - BE ALERT TO THE PROCESS
Being aware of the process of the actual interview allows you to manage your
expectations and control your responses.

Interview Structure
Opening - icebreaker, setting the stage, making the candidate feel comfortable
Body of the interview - candidate evaluation, selling of organization, question-answer
Close - questions from the candidate, final summation, 30-second commercial, ask
about decision process and time frame for selection

Interview Formats
- Traditional Interviews
Hypothetical or theoretical questions often asked; interviewer does most of talking
- Behavioral (Competency-based) Interviews

Questions about specific examples of past performance; actual skills demonstration
- Situational Interviews
Similar to behavioral interviews, evaluating how you might behave in given situations
- Screening Interviews
Often conducted over telephone; screening for minimum qualifications/skills/background
- Team Interviews
To improve chances of good hires; meeting with whole team or one-on-one in a series
- Stress Interviews
Unusual settings; deliberately confrontive, difficult situations or interviewers

Interview Surroundings
- Do the people seem happy?
- Are they enthusiastic about their work? About the organization?
- Are they friendly? Do they seem helpful?
- Do YOU feel welcome?
- Do you like the people? The facilities? The management style?
- Does this seem like a good place to work?
- Do you feel comfortable with the people and the facilities?

Behavioral Interview Questions
Behavioral interviewing is based on Mornell’s Maxim: “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior”. What qualities or skills are the following questions attempting to assess?
- Give me a specific example of a time when you didn’t meet a deadline.
- Tell me about a time you had to handle multiple responsibilities. How did you organize the work that you needed to do?
- Give me a specific example of a time when you had to deal with a difficult person.
- How did you handle the situation and what was the outcome?
- Give me an example of a time you had to persuade other people to take action? Were you successful?

STEP 8 - ANSWER WELL
Aconcise, brief answer makes a better impact than a lengthy history of your experiences. Limit your answers to 2-3 minutes per question unless asked for more. Listening carefully is as important at talking.

Guidelines
- Be honest in a ‘best foot forward’ way
- Take every opportunity to sell yourself
- Describe your past accomplishments, rather than reciting job descriptions
- Think and talk about the company’s needs, not yours
- Tell your BAR stories
- Stress how you can help the company accomplish its goals
- Reply quickly and honestly to all questions
(take time to think through your response)
- When asked a “yes/no” question, elaborate
- Use action verbs and confident language
- Help the interviewer through the process

STEP 9 - THE CLOSE
This is very important. If two equally qualified candidates, one asking for the job,
one not, which one would you choose?

At the close of the interview:
- Ask any of your unanswered questions
- “I am really interested in the this job and would like to be a member of your team”
- Find out about the next steps in the selection process and their timeline for decisions

STEP 10 - FOLLOW UP
Your interview is not over after the final handshake and you walk out the door. You still have work to do.
- Post Interview Evaluation
- Thank you (Follow-up) Note

- Interview Journal

INTERVIEWING RESOURCES

Sample Questions an EMPLOYER Might Ask
- Write out questions that you might be asked and your answers. What specifically do
- you want them to know? YOU choose what YOU share.
- Tell me about yourself.
- What are the reasons for your success in this profession?
- Why do you want to work here?
- Describe how this job relates to your overall goals.
- What aspects of your job do you consider most crucial?
- What do you like/dislike about your last job?

- What have you learned from jobs you have held?
- How long would it take you to make a contribution to our group/company?
- What would you like to be doing five years from now?
- What are your qualifications?
- What are your biggest accomplishments?
- How do you organize and plan for major projects?

- What is your greatest strength? (Prepare at least three)
- What is your greatest weakness? (Prepare at least three)
- What interests you most about this job?
- What can you do for us that someone else cannot do?
- Describe a difficult problem you’ve had to deal with.
- How do you handle tension and stress?

- In your current job, what are some of the things you spend most time on?
- In what ways has your job prepared you to take on greater responsibility?
- How do you think a former employer or manager would describe you?
- What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?
- Why should I hire you?In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to this organization?

Sample Questions YOU Might Ask
Research their WEB SITE and talk to people you know in the area. What is it you want to
know about the job? What is ESSENTIAL, NEGOTIABLE, NICE TO HAVE for you?

Find out about the person who held the job before
- What has been your experience with people who have done this job before?
- What have you liked about the way they did the work?
- What would you like to see done differently?

What does the employer want in the future
- What would you like to see happening in the future?
- Where do you see this organization going from here?
- What are your objectives for this division/area/department?
- What are some of the challenges you see this organization facing in the next year?

Success criteria and expectations
- How do you expect the person in this position to benefit your organization?
- What objectives do you expect to achieve with this person’s help?
- Six months from now, when you’re evaluating the success of the person you select, what factors will you consider? What do you want them to have accomplished?

Questions about the decision process
- What is your selection process?
- When can I expect to hear back from you?
- When would you want me to begin?

The employer’s decision criteria
- How much importance do you put on (specific skill) in choosing someone for this position?
- What are some of the qualities or abilities you’re looking for in the person you hire for this position? What other traits or abilities are important for success in this kind of work?

Others being considered
- How many other people are you interviewing for this position?
- What concerns do you have about my achieving the objectives you’ve set for this position?

General questions to ask the interviewer
- What is management style/organization culture here?
- What is your department’s mission?
- What is senior management’s vision for this area in the future?

- Would you say that this organization is customer-focused? How?
- Who are the organization's primary customers? What customers would I be working with?
- What new products or services have you recently introduced to serve your customers?

- How are employee suggestions and innovations received?
- What principles or beliefs have influenced your management style?
- What training opportunities are available?

Negotiating Skills

2007-01-12T03:22:00.000-08:00

“Negotiating is an exercise in joint problem solving”
“Negotiating is the art of letting someone else have YOUR way”
Getting Past No, William Ury
“ Negotiation is all about RISKS, REWARDS, and COURAGE

Things to Remember about Negotiating
- We do it everyday - much of our time is spent trying to reach agreement with others who
share the same interests and others who oppose them
- The goal of any negotiation is a mutually satisfactory agreement
- YOU are the product; Managers and team members are your customers. Know what
you can deliver in tangible terms
- Your willingness and ability to negotiate for yourself demonstrates your personal effectiveness

Career-Related Negotiable Situations
- Improving current work environment to incorporate your career needs
- Projects using motivated skills
- Education and training -- costs and time. External tuition reimbursement. Classroom vs. distributed learning/online
- Additional resources/equipment
- Mobile home office
- Flextime, part-time, leave of absence
- Others’ knowledge -- some say 90% of knowledge is trapped in people’s heads or PC’s
- A release date, when appropriate
- New job offer- Compensation package --- salary, vacation, stock options . . .

Negotiation Preparation Steps
1. Define goals and objectives
Be clear about the PURPOSE - define goals and objectives prioritized in order of
importance to you. Be clear about what you need to achieve.
2. Clarify the issues
Identify the issues from different perspectives, with supporting framework and present them
concisely. Be aware of the significant differences between negotiating parties.
3. Gather information
Research who you will be negotiating with, personal style, ego needs, power etc.
Consider the business implications of your issues. Focus on the advantages.
4. Identify barriers and roadblocks
Focus on personal power you can use constructively. Any hot buttons which trigger
your emotions or past history with the negotiating parties.
5. Negotiating climate
Set a win/win negotiating environment, open and non defensive, maintain eye contact in
person, be assertive. Read body language, listen for voice tone
Listen to the other point of view, reframe and educate on your position -emphasize the
benefits, as if you were presenting a business case.
6. Closure
Summarize objectives and your understanding of what you heard was agreed to
(perception is reality) Document where necessary.
Clarify approval process and timeline, next steps for both parties.
End positively-keep all bridges in tact.

Critical Mistakes - check those you need to avoid
- Inadequate preparation
- Ignoring win/win - all parties need to feel a gain
- Use of intimidating behavior -persuasion is usually more effective than dominance
- Impatience - take time for proposals to be discussed
- Loss of temper -negative emotions inhibit cooperation and creative solutions
- Talking too much, listening too little
- Arguing instead of influencing or educating
- Ignoring conflict - it is the substance of negotiations and needs to be resolved
- Not having a back-up or walk away plan

Tips for Negotiating a Job Offer
Negotiation is working out a mutual agreement about terms and conditions which must be
present before doing business together

Begins informally at first meeting and when positive signals emerge:
- Interview runs longer than planned
- Called back for more in-depth interview, to meet team, go through testing program
- Interviewer begins to sell you on organization or job
- Decision maker starts discussing compensation package
- Talk about references

Ask questions and clarify what you hear, but avoid details UNTIL you get job offer -
then clarify details on role, responsibilities, performance, expectations, measurements, and
specifics of the offer

Take your time and be aware of your essential and negotiable needs to use as a template to
check the offer

Know your VALUE - do research and benchmark before discussions
Know your LIMITS and focus on mutual gains

Manage the Message
- Prepare, practice, prepare. Negotiations are won/lost before the interaction begins
- Prepare to negotiate face to face, or long distance by phone or Internet
- Successful negotiators have a solution and a back-up plan, or a walk away alternative
- LISTEN: The best negotiators turn out to be the best listeners as well
- Impossible to listen and speak at the same time
- Observe both verbal and non-verbal cues
- Tools: email, phonemail, “facemail”

Be a Star Negotiator
- Recognize that career negotiations are different. When the negotiations are over, you’ll have
to work with the person with whom you are negotiating
- Have the courage to take the necessary risks to gain a reward. Have business savvy to
gauge potential gains and losses before negotiations start
- Be creative. Look for different ways to achieve your objectives. Be willing to make tradeoffs
- Focus on Win-Win so that all parties feel satisfied they have reached a good deal
- Know when to quit bargaining. There comes a point in every negotiation when you’ve
achieved everything you could have reasonably expected to gain

NEGOTIATING IS ALL ABOUT RISKS, REWARDS, AND COURAGE

- Helen Crompton

Interview Questions

2007-01-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here are 10 questions that can help you pinpoint flexibility and character. Including these questions in your interview should add only about 20 minutes to your current routine and will tell you a great deal about each candidate.

1. Can you work this weekend?
This is a great question to ask early in the interview. Watch closely for an initial reaction. Obviously the candidate will be surprised. You haven't even offered the job and now you want to know about this weekend. Since most help desk analysts have to work odd hours, you want the candidate's first response to be a resounding yes. Something like "I've actually already promised to work at my current job for some of this weekend." "When exactly do you think you need me?" is good, too. What you don't want to hear are excuses that explain why the applicant isn't available.

2. Tell me about your current job. What do you like about it? What do you dislike?
This is another good question for weeding out those applicants who just won't want to deliver. While "heads down" programmers are great, the help desk needs analysts who enjoy talking to users. Avoid candidates whose favorites have more to do with the systems than the users. Good answers indicate that the applicant enjoys talking with users or investigating tough problems.

3. What kind of people are your current users? Do you like them?
This sounds like a dumb question. Who's going to say they hate their current users because they're terrible people? Actually, I've known that to happen. The applicant had little patience for needy users and didn't mind telling people. Patience is a virtue desperately needed on a help desk.

4. What was your best subject in high school?
Don't let cliché questions put you off. Just because people expect a question doesn't mean you can't learn a lot from their answers. Obviously the applicant wants to impress you and may say something like "computer class." That's not a bad answer, but people who liked math should be quite good at problem solving even non-math problems. Also, applicants who admit to liking English will have the communications skills you seek.

5. What operating system do you prefer and why?
You probably don't really care what operating system anyone prefers. However, you do care that anyone you hire knows about operating systems and is able to articulate why one or another is preferable.

6. What role do you think computer support analysts should play in the company?
There are a lot of good answers to this question. The important thing here is that the candidate mentions the needs of the users in his or her answer and not just the systems.

7. Assuming you have to work for a living and all jobs pay the same, describe the job you want (don't say this job).
Question seven is similar to question two in that you're looking for an answer that includes people. Support analysts must deal with users day in and day out. The job is a lot easier for someone who actually likes to work with people.

8. I would like to set up a second interview with our evening supervisor. Can you come back this evening at 7:00?
Once again, this is not about the evening supervisor. The answer should help you judge how flexible the candidate is and how well he or she handles less-than-ideal situations. Obviously, you should only ask this question if you are giving second interviews and you have someone available at 7:00.

9. Write a paragraph explaining how DHCP works.
This task is good for both experienced and inexperienced candidates. It seems like a test of knowledge, but actually it's a test of communication skills. If the candidate admits no knowledge of DHCP, explain it to him or her and then request the paragraph. If the candidate returns a well-written explanation, this person could be a good support analyst.

10. Complete the following word problem.
At 7:00 A.M., a train leaves Palo Alto, CA, carrying 30 passengers with laptop computers and a lot of work to complete before they are due at their respective offices. At 7:15 A.M., the train arrives at the San Jose station (20 miles away). During that time, eight passengers completed their work. Of the remaining 22, 10 completed 40 percent, eight completed 50 percent, and four completed 80 percent. How much further must each group travel before they have enough time to complete the work they each have due?

And the answer is...
Not a lot of people are going to be able to answer question 10 correctly, but that's not really important. The point is for the applicant to see the humor in being asked a train question on a job interview. Not being ruffled and giving the correct answers would be great as well, but not any more important. In case anyone needs to know, group one only completed 40 percent of its work and must travel 30 miles further. Group two completed 50 percent and must travel 20 more miles and group three completed 80 percent and have five miles to go.

Ask away
Obviously each manager is going to have his or her own interviewing technique that shouldn't be replaced. These questions should be used in addition to those that you have developed over the years. The combination and a lot of patience should make the search for the newest member of your team a great success, and maybe even a little fun. To share your thoughts about this article, please post a comment below.

India Poised

2007-01-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

Times of India has recently launched a new anthem on the occasion of 60th anniversary year of Independence of India and named it as INDIA POISED. The booming voice to this campaign has been given by none other than great Amitabh Bachchan who doesn't need any introduction. There is a video picturised on Amitabh which is being shown on almost all the channels. The anthem is very inspiring and have spirits which shows the new face of India.

Here is the text of India Poised anthem

India v/s India

There are two Indias in this country.
One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us.
The other India is the leash.
One India says, give me a chance and I 'll prove myself. The other India says, prove yourself first and maybe then you'll have a chance.
One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the scepticism of our minds.
One India wants. The other India hopes.
One India leads. The other India follows.
But conversions are on the rise. With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side.
And quietly, while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging.
An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure.
An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that make them instead.
History, they say, is a bad motorist. It rarely ever signals its intentions when it is taking a turn.
This is that rarely-ever moment. History is turning a page.
For more than half a century, our nation has sprung, stumbled, run, fallen, rolled over, got up, dusted herself and cantered, sometimes lurched on.
But today, as we begin our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of time's great precipice.
And one India - a tiny little voice at the back of the head - is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating.
The other India is looking up at the sky and saying , it's time to fly.

and here is the video picturised on Amitabh

Additional Principles of Interpersonal Skills

2007-01-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

1. Prefer positive to negative statements. Instead of “John didn’t finish coding the system,” say “John got 90% of the coding done.” Instead of saying something is bad, say it’s good but could be made even better. Instead of saying someone “failed” to do something, just say he didn’t do it.

2. Don’t speak when you’re angry. Cool off. Don’t feel you have to answer a criticism or complaint on the spot. Instead, say “Let me give it some thought and get back to you ... is tomorrow morning good?” This prevents you from saying things you’ll regret later or making snap decisions.

3· Don’t use value judgments to make colleagues feel bad about past mistakes. Avoid the implication that errors in judgment, which are temporary and one-time, are due to character and intelligence flaws. Don’t say “that was stupid”; instead say “We can’t ever let that happen again.” Focus on preventing future repetitions of the mistake rather than assigning blame.

4· Be courteous, but don’t overdo humility. Be pleasant and personable, but not fawning. Treat other people with respect, and in return, insist they do the same with you. If a person is clearly technology phobic, don’t falsely flatter them with malarkey about how quickly they’re catching on ... unless they really are.

5· Empathize before stating an opinion. Don’t seek out argument; argue only when necessary. And make the conversation collaborative rather than adversarial. Say “I understand” when the other person gives his or her opinion. “I understand” doesn’t mean you agree; it means you heard what they said and considered it in forming your own opinion, which you’re now going to present.

6· Apologize completely. Apologies should be unconditional -- “I was wrong,” not “I know I did X but that’s because you did Y.” Don’t try to bring third parties or external factors into the equation. The bottom line is: It was your responsibility. Admit your mistakes and move on.

Improve Your communication Skills

2007-01-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

Poor communication is another barrier to working effectively with others. For techies, communicating with nontechies is particularly problematic and frustrating.
But it doesn’t have to be. Realize you know the technology and jargon and they may not. Why should their lack of technical knowledge annoy you? Again, if they knew every technical detail, we might not have a job.

Here are steps you can take to get your message across so everyone understands, and neither you nor them is frustrated by the communication process:

1. Listen and make sure you understand. Listening is a skill that requires your full attention. Don’t have a conversation while you’re checking your e-mail or searching Web sites. Do one thing at a time and you will do each thing well.

2. Prove you understand - feed it back to them. When the other person asks a question or makes a statement, repeat it back to them in your own words, and ask whether that’s what they meant. Often what they said -- or what you heard -- is not exactly what they were trying to get across ... and the two of you need to try again.

3. Never underestimate the (technical) intelligence of the average user. Nontechies lack technical background, data, and aptitude -- not I.Q. Explain technical concepts in plain, simple language. Avoid jargon, or at least define technical terms before using them. A “T1 circuit” may confuse your boss, but everyone understands the concept of a “telephone line.”

4. Talk to users at their level, not yours. In addition to keeping things simple, focus on what’s important to the other person, which is not necessarily what is important to you. For example, a graphic designer I know goes into elaborate explanations of kerning and fonts when all I want to know is whether to make the headline bigger.

5. Make sure they get it. Nontechies often don’t ask questions for fear of being perceived as stupid. Encourage the listener to stop you and ask questions if they don’t understand. Ask them questions so you know whether they got it. If not, find out what they don’t understand. Then make it clear to them.

6. Don’t assume. The old joke goes, “When you assume, you make an a-- of u and me. If you want someone to run a simulation on Windows 95, for example, make sure they have Windows 95 installed on their PC and know how to use it.

7. Don’t let your annoyance and impatience show. Sure, it can be frustrating explaining technical topics to people who don’t have the background. But if you act annoyed, lose your patience, or become arrogant, your listener will be turned off -- and you’ll make an enemy instead of an ally.

8. Budget communications time into the schedule. Part of the frustration techies feel explaining technical topics to nontechies is the time it takes, which they could be spending on their “real” work. The solution is to accept that communication is a mandatory requirement on every project, and budget communications time into your schedule accordingly.

9. Use the 80/20 rule. The most effective communicators spend 80% of their time listening and only 20% talking. Many of us like to lecture, pontificate, or explain details of no interest to the other person. Instead, let the other person tell you what they need and want, then give it to them.

10. Make a friend. If there is chemistry or camaraderie between you and the other person, let it flow and grow naturally. You shouldn’t force a connection where there is none, and you don’t have to be a social butterfly when you’re not. But as a rule, people prefer to deal with people they like. So make it easy for the other person to like you. Or at least don’t give them reasons to dislike you.

Static Vs Dynamic Calls

2007-01-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

Static CALL
In COBOL, you normally call a subroutine like this:

CALL 'A' USING arguments

The static form of the CALL statement specifies the name of the subroutine as a literal; e.g., it is in quotes.

This is the static form of a subroutine call. The compiler generates object code for this which will cause the linker to copy the object module A.obj into your executable when it is linked.

So, if you modify "A" and recompile it, you must also relink all of the executables that call "A", because the each of the executables contains its own copy of "A".

Dynamic CALL
In COBOL, the dynamic form of a subroutine call is coded like this:

01 SUBROUTINE-A PIC X(8) VALUE 'A'.

CALL SUBROUTINE-A USING arguments

The dynamic form of the CALL statement specifies the name of the subroutine using a variable; the variable contains the name of the subroutine to be invoked.

The difference is that the name of the subroutine is found in the variable SUBROUTINE-A. The compiled code will cause the operating system to load the subroutine when it is required instead of incorporating it into the executable..

Override Defined CALL
some compilers let you set options that will override the calling mechanisms shown above. Therefore, even if your program is coded to call a program statically, the compiler can convert it to the dynamic form of CALL if you set (or don't set) the correct compiler options(i.e thru DYNAM option in jcl)

Compiler options

If compiled as NODYNAM:
CALL 'literal' is a static call
CALL WS-label is a dynamic call

If compiled as DYNAM:
CALL 'literal' is a dynamic call
CALL WS-label is a dynamic call

Pros ‘N’ Cons
As is the case in most programming choices one must evaluate the "tradeoffs" involved.

Statically linked modules:
accumulate virtual space on disk - bad. See Note 1 below
execute with a branch to the entry point - good (fast).
if 1 changes all must be relinked - bad.

Dynamically linked modules:
don't accumulate virtual space on disk - good.
execute with system assist & ohead - bad (slow). See Note 2 below.
if 1 changes only it must be relinked - good.

Note 1- If main mod is 10K and each of the 100 subs is 5k the combined static load mod is 510K. The dynamic is 10K, but will use only 15K. As I recall you issue a CANCEL after each use of a submod to get a fresh copy of the code; if you need totals already accumulated, you'd want to avoid the CANCEL.

Note 2 - When each dynamic mod is CALLed memory is 1st searched for a useable copy. If none is found loadlib is searched and the mod is loaded (that means reads are done against the load PDS) and control is then passed to the called mod.

To Summarize:
If storage is of main concern, then we can go for "Dynamic call" as module will be loaded to main memory only when it is called/needed.

If speed is of main concern, then we can go for "Static Call" as all modules will be link-edited together into the calling module during compilation process only.

Seven Habits of People with Excellent Interpersonal Skills

2007-01-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

We all know people with great “people skills,” and sometimes wonder, “How do they do it?”
It’s simply a matter of knowing the basics of how to deal with other people, and then making a conscious effort to put those basics into practice. Here are seven habits of people whom others view as having great interpersonal skills.

1. They present their best selves to the public. Your moods change, but your customer -- external or internal -- doesn’t care. Make a conscious effort to be your most positive, enthusiastic, helpful self, especially when that’s not how you feel. If you need to vent, do it in private.

2. They answer phone calls promptly. Few things annoy people more than not having their phone calls returned. Get back to people within 2 hours. If you can’t, have your voice mail guide them to others who can help in your place. If you’re really uncomfortable with someone and don’t want to talk with them on the phone, answer their query through a fax or e-mail. Or, call when you know they won’t be there and leave the information on their voice mail.

3. They call people by their names and ask questions about their lives. Take the time to learn and use everyone’s name, especially secretaries. Most people don’t. You don’t have to glad-hand, but if you see a child’s picture on someone’s desk, they’d probably appreciate your asking, “How old is your daughter?” Establishing some common bond makes the other person more receptive to working with you.

4. They meet people halfway. Sometimes we’re right and the other person is wrong, but many techies I observe seem to enjoy going out of their way to rub it in the other person’s face. Implement the correct technical solution without making the other person feel stupid or ignorant, e.g., “That’s a good idea, but given the process variables, here’s another approach that would avoid contamination problems downstream....”

5. They listen carefully before speaking. A sure sign you are not listening to the other person is that you can’t wait to say what you want to say, and as soon as the other person pauses, you jump in and start talking. Even if you think you know the answer, listen to the other person. Their knowledge and grasp of the situation may surprise you. If not, listening shows you considered their opinion and didn’t just steamroll over them.

6. They keep eye contact. When you’re talking with someone, look them in the eye at points in the conversation. If you’re explaining something while typing on a keyboard, take your eyes away from the screen now and then to look and talk directly at the other person. After all, it’s a PC, not a car; you won’t crash if you take your eyes off the road.

7. They are not afraid to admit when they are wrong. Techies are afraid that nontechies will think they are incompetent if they admit to being wrong. The opposite is true. Andrew Lanyi, a stock market expert, explains, “The more you are willing to admit that you are not a guru, the more credibility you gain.” No one knows everything, and everybody knows people make mistakes. If you refuse to admit mistakes or pretend to know everything, people won’t trust you when you are right and do know the answer.

Business Emails – some tips

2006-12-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

Using e-mail professionally -Ask these questions before you write.

Is this message related to business?
Is the information important enough to send?
Does everyone in the To, CC, and BCC fields need to see this message?
Does the message contain references to religion, politics, sexual orientation, or race?
If you’re forwarding a message, have you checked it for hoaxes, scams, urban legends, or false virus alerts?
Might recipients think of this message as an imposition or their time?
If your message is urgent, are you sure the recipient will read it immediately?
Do the addresses welcome e-mail messages?
Do you have the addressees’ permission to send from the addressee to do so?
Is the attachment necessary and related to business?
Would anyone mind if the content of this message became public knowledge?
Do you have permission to forward a copyrighted message?
Is the purpose of your message clear?
Does your message conform to company policy and list rules?
Is e-mail the most effective way to communicate this particular message to this particular recipient?

Formatting so they get what you send

Set your options to use Plain Text, not HTML.
Set lines to wrap automatically at 65 to 75 characters.
Choose a common, easy-to-read font set in regular style and at 11 or 12 points.
Don’t use colors (except the blue that automatically appears in links)
Use decimals instead of fraction, especially for mixed numbers.
Write out all internet addresses completely, including the http:/ , in the body of your message and in your signature file.
Don’t begin lines or paragraphs with the word ‘From’.
If your e-mail includes attachments, in the subject line and again at the beginning of your message tell how many files are attached.

Use the parts of your e-mail to create a pleasing whole.

Does everyone in the To field need to get this e-mail?
Are the CCs necessary for business or legal purposes?
Don’t send proprietary information or trade secrets to outsiders.
Will names in the To or CC fields violate privacy?
In replying to messages from lists, do you need to click on ‘Reply All’ or would an individual reply be just as effective?
Fill in the Subject field of every original message.
Do not use ‘Re’ in the subject lines of original messages.
Does your subject line relate specifically to the content?
Word your subject lines to spark interest among customers and clients and encourage them to open your message.
Does the subject of your reply still fit the content, or should you write a new subject line?
Use the same level of formality in your salutation as you would if you met the recipient face –to-face.
Keep the body of your message short, with each line no longer than 75 characters.
In replies, include only the pertinent parts of the original.
Use a closing that matches your salutation.
Include an appropriate signature.

Rules for Writing Business E-mail

Don’t SHOUT. Don’t use all capital letters.
Begin sentences with capital letters.
Begin proper nouns (names of particular people, places, organizations, or events) with capital letters.
Capitalize the first person singular pronoun (I).
End sentences with appropriate punctuation.
Spell words in the conventional way; don’t use shortcuts.
For international mail, spell out dates.
Proofread message for accuracy before clicking the send button.
Be sure your message fits the medium.

Compiled from:

Lisa A Smith Business E-Mail -How to make it professional and Effective.

How to connect two computers using internet?

2006-12-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

You can connect two computers over the Internet and use a given computer's drives just like you'd use local drives -- run programs, copy, get a list of files, etc. Here's how:

* Make sure that both computers (computer A and B ) have "TCP/IP" and "NetBEUI" protocols installed and properly functioning.

* Make sure that the "Remote Access Serives" are setup and properly functioning.

* Find out the IP address of computer A.
You can do this by going to the network icon in the "Control Panel"

For example, let's assume that "205.159.67.4" is the IP address of computer A.

* Enable file sharing and share a path of your choice on computer A.

For example, share "C:" as "INTERNET_DRIVE"

* Log both computers on to the Internet (dial and connect to your internet service provider for example). If you're on an Intranet, you don't have to connect to the Internet.

* Go to computer B's "DOS/Command Prompt" and type:

NET USE X: 205.159.67.4INTERNET_DRIVE

If you get an user name/password or logon error, use the following command instead (after replacing uname with the actual user name and pword with the matching password):

NET USE X: 205.159.67.4INTERNET_DRIVE /USER:uname pword

This will map computer B's drive X to computer A's shared path INTERNET_DRIVE, which is computer A's C: drive.

Now you can use drive X over the Internet just like any other drive on your local computer

SQL Query Best Practices

2006-12-22T05:38:00.000-08:00

Avoid use of functions in the where clause. Consider, we have an Employee table with index on column Firstnme and want to retrieve the information of the employees whose name begins with ‘J’.
Following Explain illustrates the difference between use of LIKE operator against use of Function.

Note : If wildcard character ‘%’ is used at the beginning of a sarg (search argument), then entire index will be scanned.

Avoid Dynamic SQL as far as possible. This is because the optimizer needs to create a query plan for the query each time the SQL is executed.

NULL values in the column should be avoided as far as possible during the table creation , especially so for Numeric values. Define default values for Numeric columns which need to be defined as NULL.

Always use a column list when selecting or inserting from a physical table. This prevents any mishap occurring at the Query level if the underlying table structure undergoes a change.
e.g. SELECT * FROM TAB1
should be written as
SELECT X,Y,Z,NAME FROM TAB1
where X,Y,Z and Name are the columns of tab1.
Always check for NULL columns in queries which involve column arithmetic.
e.g. SELECT X*Y+Z FROM TAB1
should be written as
SELECT COALESCE(X,0)*COALESCE(Y,0)+COALESCE(Z,0) FROM TAB1
Check for division by zero or NULL for numeric columns.
e.g. SELECT X*Y/Z FROM TAB1
should be written as
SELECT COALESCE(X,0)*COALESCE(Y,0)/ Z FROM TAB 1 WHERE Z <> NULL OR Z <> 0
Create covering indexes as far as possible on those columns which are repeatedly used in queries which select less than 20% of the table data.
This improves performance significantly as the index can be used to retrieve the data directly without looking up the data pages of the table if all the columns required in the select query are a part of the index.
Avoid large deletes or inserts in a single query. This can lead to serious lock contention as well as rapidly fill up the log files.
Referential integrity should be enforced at the table level by using integrity constraints instead of through triggers.
Incase of a Long running query which involves tables with large amounts of data , ensure that the table and index statistics are update for all the tables involved in the query by executing RUN STAT
Access tables in the same order in all transactions and stored procedures to avoid deadlocks.
Incase of a query involving multiple UNION operators replace all except one UNION operator with UNION ALL. This ensures that the query plan uses just a single sort to eliminate duplicates.

Multiplication in different ways

2006-12-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

I still wonder how many different ways we can do mathematics. If we have to multiply two numbers, we can add the first number second number of times or vice versa, we can use the common multiplication method or we might use some shortcuts also to do this.

For example its very easy to find the result when you multiply any number with 11 instead of following the conventional way. Similarly it is also easy to multiply two numbers divisible by 5 without doing it by conventional multiplication.
There are plenty of ways to do it.

I came across this graphical way of multiplication which is very logical and quite interesting.

Similarly another Graphical Multiplication way to multiply numbers by means of drawing. You only have to draw circles and lines following an easy method.

Lattice Multiplication
Lattice multiplication was introduced to Europe in 1202 in Fibonacci's Liber Abaci.
It is a method of multiplying large numbers using a grid. Digits to be carried are written within the grid

Refer Wikipedia for more information.

Russian Multiplication
There is another interesting way of multiplying 2 numbers in Russia. The following picture explains that.(Click on the picture to see it clearly)

Try out your hands with different numbers...

Quick Tip For Renaming VSAM datasetsD

2006-12-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

1) Display the datasets you need to rename using option 3.4 or DSLIST.
2) Enter SHOWCMD ON on the command line. This will allow you to modify commands entered on the Dataset List panel before they're executed.
3) Tab down to the line with the dataset you want to rename, type the following and press Enter:
ALTER / NEWNM(/)
Example:
---------------------------------------------------------- DSLIST - Data Sets Matching VTSUL.VTCMH Command ===> Command - Enter "/" to select action Message ----------------------------------------------------------
alter / newnm(/) CMH.VT1001CT.NEWTICKT.MSTR VTSUL.VTCMH.VT1001CT.NEWTICKT.MSTR.DATA VTSUL.VTCMH.VT1001CT.NEWTICKT.MSTR.INDEX ----------------------------------------------------------
4) When the expanded command is displayed, overtype the new dataset name in the NEWNM parameter field with your changes, and press Enter to execute the ALTER command. Example:
------------------------------------------------------------------ Data Set Name. : VTSUL.VTCMH.VT1001CT.NEWTICKT.MSTR Command before expansion: ALTER / NEWNM(/) Command after expansion: ===> ALTER 'VTSUL.VTCMH.VT1001CT.NEWTICKT.MSTR' NEWNM('VTSUL.VTCMH.V T1001CT.NEWICKT.MSTR') ----------------------
Remember, each component of a VSAM Cluster (DATA, INDEX, etc.) must be renamed individually.
5) Repeat the command for the remaining datasets and/or components using the '=' command.

Mainframe: COBOL Question Bank

2006-12-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Q1) Name the divisions in a COBOL program ?.
A1) IDENTIFICATION DIVISION, ENVIRONMENT DIVISION, DATA DIVISION, PROCEDURE DIVISION.

Q2) What are the different data types available in COBOL?
A2) Alpha-numeric (X), alphabetic (A) and numeric (9).

Q3) What does the INITIALIZE verb do? - GS
A3) Alphabetic, Alphanumeric fields & alphanumeric edited items are set to SPACES. Numeric, Numeric edited items set to ZERO. FILLER , OCCURS DEPENDING ON items left untouched.

Q4) What is 77 level used for ?
A4) Elementary level item. Cannot be subdivisions of other items (cannot be qualified), nor can they be subdivided themselves.

Q5) What is 88 level used for ?
A5) For condition names.

Q6) What is level 66 used for ?
A6) For RENAMES clause.

Q7) What does the IS NUMERIC clause establish ?
A7) IS NUMERIC can be used on alphanumeric items, signed numeric & packed decimal items and unsigned numeric & packed decimal items. IS NUMERIC returns TRUE if the item only consists of 0-9. However, if the item being tested is a signed item, then it may contain 0-9, + and - .

Q8) How do you define a table/array in COBOL?
A8) ARRAYS.
05 ARRAY1 PIC X(9) OCCURS 10 TIMES.
05 ARRAY2 PIC X(6) OCCURS 20 TIMES INDEXED BY WS-INDEX.

Q9) Can the OCCURS clause be at the 01 level?
A9) No.

Q10) What is the difference between index and subscript? - GS
A10) Subscript refers to the array occurrence while index is the displacement (in no of bytes) from the beginning of the array. An index can only be modified using PERFORM, SEARCH & SET. Need to have index for a table in order to use SEARCH, SEARCH ALL.

Q11) What is the difference between SEARCH and SEARCH ALL? - GS
A11) SEARCH - is a serial search.
SEARCH ALL - is a binary search & the table must be sorted ( ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY clause to be used & data loaded in this order) before using SEARCH ALL.

Q12) What should be the sorting order for SEARCH ALL? - GS
A12) It can be either ASCENDING or DESCENDING. ASCENDING is default. If you want the search to be done on an array sorted in descending order, then while defining the array, you should give DESCENDING KEY clause. (You must load the table in the specified order).

Q13) What is binary search?
A13) Search on a sorted array. Compare the item to be searched with the item at the center. If it matches, fine else repeat the process with the left half or the right half depending on where the item lies.

Q14) My program has an array defined to have 10 items. Due to a bug, I find that even if the program access the 11th item in this array, the program does not abend. What is wrong with it?
A14) Must use compiler option SSRANGE if you want array bounds checking. Default is NOSSRANGE.

Q15) How do you sort in a COBOL program? Give sort file definition, sort statement syntax and meaning. - GS
A15) Syntax: SORT file-1 ON ASCENDING/DESCENDING KEY key.... USING file-2 GIVING file-3.
USING can be substituted by INPUT PROCEDURE IS para-1 THRU para-2
GIVING can be substituted by OUTPUT PROCEDURE IS para-1 THRU para-2.

file-1 is the sort (work) file and must be described using SD entry in FILE SECTION.
file-2 is the input file for the SORT and must be described using an FD entry in FILE SECTION and SELECT
clause in FILE CONTROL.
file-3 is the out file from the SORT and must be described using an FD entry in FILE SECTION and SELECT
clause in FILE CONTROL.
file-1, file-2 & file-3 should not be opened explicitly.

INPUT PROCEDURE is executed before the sort and records must be RELEASEd to the sort work file from the input procedure.
OUTPUT PROCEDURE is executed after all records have been sorted. Records from the sort work file must be RETURNed one at a time to the output procedure.

Q16) How do you define a sort file in JCL that runs the COBOL program?
A16) Use the SORTWK01, SORTWK02,..... dd names in the step. Number of sort datasets depends on the volume of data being sorted, but a minimum of 3 is required.

Q17) What is the difference between performing a SECTION and a PARAGRAPH? - GS
A17) Performing a SECTION will cause all the paragraphs that are part of the section, to be performed.
Performing a PARAGRAPH will cause only that paragraph to be performed.

Q18) What is the use of EVALUATE statement? - GS
A18) Evaluate is like a case statement and can be used to replace nested Ifs. The difference between EVALUATE and case is that no 'break' is required for EVALUATE i.e. control comes out of the EVALUATE as soon as one match is made.

Q19) What are the different forms of EVALUATE statement?
A19)

EVALUATE
WHEN A=B AND C=D
imperative stmt
WHEN (D+X)/Y = 4
imperative stmt
WHEN OTHER
imperative stmt
END-EVALUATE

EVALUATE SQLCODE ALSO FILE-STATUS
WHEN 100 ALSO '00'
imperative stmt
WHEN -305 ALSO '32'
imperative stmt
WHEN OTHER
imperative stmt
END-EVALUATE

EVALUATE SQLCODE ALSO A=B
WHEN 100 ALSO TRUE
imperative stmt
WHEN -305 ALSO FALSE
imperative stmt
END-EVALUATE

EVALUATE SQLCODE ALSO TRUE
WHEN 100 ALSO A=B
imperative stmt
WHEN -305 ALSO (A/C=4)
imperative stmt
END-EVALUATE

Q20) How do you come out of an EVALUATE statement? - GS
A20) After the execution of one of the when clauses, the control is automatically passed on to the next sentence after the EVALUATE statement. There is no need of any extra code.

Q21) In an EVALUATE statement, can I give a complex condition on a when clause?
A21) Yes.

Q22) What is a scope terminator? Give examples.
A22) Scope terminator is used to mark the end of a verb e.g. EVALUATE, END-EVALUATE; IF, END-IF.

Q23) How do you do in-line PERFORM? - GS
A23) PERFORM ... ...

END-PERFORM

Q24) When would you use in-line perform?
A24) When the body of the perform will not be used in other paragraphs. If the body of the perform is a generic type of code (used from various other places in the program), it would be better to put the code in a separate Para and use PERFORM Para name rather than in-line perform.

Q25) What is the difference between CONTINUE & NEXT SENTENCE ?
A25) They appear to be similar, that is, the control goes to the next sentence in the paragraph. But, Next Sentence would take the control to the sentence after it finds a full stop (.). Check out by writing the following code example, one if sentence followed by 3 display statements (sorry they appear one line here because of formatting restrictions) If 1 > 0 then next sentence end if display 'line 1' display 'line 2'. display 'line 3'. *** Note- there is a dot (.) only at the end of the last 2 statements, see the effect by replacing Next Sentence with Continue ***

Q26) What does EXIT do ?
A26) Does nothing ! If used, must be the only sentence within a paragraph.

Q27) Can I redefine an X(100) field with a field of X(200)?
A27) Yes. Redefines just causes both fields to start at the same location. For example:

01 WS-TOP PIC X(1)
01 WS-TOP-RED REDEFINES WS-TOP PIC X(2).
If you MOVE '12' to WS-TOP-RED,
DISPLAY WS-TOP will show 1 while
DISPLAY WS-TOP-RED will show 12.

A28) Can I redefine an X(200) field with a field of X(100) ?
A28) Yes.

Q29) What is the LINKAGE SECTION used for?
A30) The linkage section is used to pass data from one program to another program or to pass data from a PROC to a program.

Q126) Describe the difference between subscripting and indexing ?
A126) Indexing uses binary displacement. Subscripts use the value of the occurrence.

Q31) What do you do to resolve SOC-7 error? - GS
A29) Basically you need to correcting the offending data. Many times the reason for SOC7 is an un-initialized numeric item. Examine that possibility first. Many installations provide you a dump for run time abend’s ( it can be generated also by calling some subroutines or OS services thru assembly language). These dumps provide the offset of the last instruction at which the abend occurred. Examine the compilation output XREF listing to get the verb and the line number of the source code at this offset. Then you can look at the source code to find the bug. To get capture the runtime dumps, you will have to define some datasets (SYSABOUT etc ) in the JCL. If none of these are helpful, use judgement and DISPLAY to localize the source of error. Some installation might have batch program debugging tools. Use them.

Q32) How is sign stored in Packed Decimal fields and Zoned Decimal fields?
A32) Packed Decimal fields: Sign is stored as a hex value in the last nibble (4 bits ) of the storage.
Zoned Decimal fields: As a default, sign is over punched with the numeric value stored in the last bite.

Q33) How is sign stored in a comp-3 field? - GS
A33) It is stored in the last nibble. For example if your number is +100, it stores hex 0C in the last byte, hex 1C if your number is 101, hex 2C if your number is 102, hex 1D if the number is -101, hex 2D if the number is –102 etc...

Q34) How is sign stored in a COMP field ? - GS
A34) In the most significant bit. Bit is ON if -ve, OFF if +ve.

Q35) What is the difference between COMP & COMP-3 ?
A35) COMP is a binary storage format while COMP-3 is packed decimal format.

Q36) What is COMP-1? COMP-2?
A36) COMP-1 - Single precision floating point. Uses 4 bytes.
COMP-2 - Double precision floating point. Uses 8 bytes.

Q37) How do you define a variable of COMP-1? COMP-2?
A37) No picture clause to be given. Example 01 WS-VAR USAGE COMP-1.

Q38) How many bytes does a S9(7) COMP-3 field occupy ?
A38) Will take 4 bytes. Sign is stored as hex value in the last nibble. General formula is INT((n/2) + 1)), where n=7 in this example.

Q39) How many bytes does a S9(7) SIGN TRAILING SEPARATE field occupy ?
Q39) Will occupy 8 bytes (one extra byte for sign).

Q40) How many bytes will a S9(8) COMP field occupy ?
Q40) 4 bytes.

Q41) What is the maximum value that can be stored in S9(8) COMP?
A41) 99999999

Q42) What is COMP SYNC?
A42) Causes the item to be aligned on natural boundaries. Can be SYNCHRONIZED LEFT or RIGHT. For binary data items, the address resolution is faster if they are located at word boundaries in the memory. For example, on main frame the memory word size is 4 bytes. This means that each word will start from an address divisible by 4. If my first variable is x(3) and next one is s9(4) comp, then if you do not specify the SYNC clause, S9(4) COMP will start from byte 3 ( assuming that it starts from 0 ). If you specify SYNC, then the binary data item will start from address 4. You might see some wastage of memory, but the access to this computational field is faster.

Q43) What is the maximum size of a 01 level item in COBOL I? in COBOL II?
A43) In COBOL II: 16777215

Q44) How do you reference the following file formats from COBOL programs:
A44)
Fixed Block File - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL. Use RECORDING MODE IS F,
BLOCK CONTAINS 0 .
Fixed Unblocked - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL. Use RECORDING MODE IS F, do not use BLOCK CONTAINS Variable Block File - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL. Use RECORDING MODE IS V, BLOCK CONTAINS 0. Do not code the 4 bytes for record length in FD ie JCL rec length will be max rec length in pgm + 4
Variable Unblocked - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL. Use RECORDING MODE IS V, do not use BLOCK CONTAINS. Do not code 4 bytes for record length in FD ie JCL rec length will be max rec length in pgm + 4.
ESDS VSAM file - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL.
KSDS VSAM file - Use ORGANISATION IS INDEXED, RECORD KEY IS, ALTERNATE RECORD KEY IS RRDS File
- Use ORGANISATION IS RELATIVE, RELATIVE KEY IS
Printer File - Use ORGANISATION IS SEQUENTIAL. Use RECORDING MODE IS F, BLOCK CONTAINS 0. (Use RECFM=FBA in JCL DCB).

Q45) What are different file OPEN modes available in COBOL?
A45) Open for INPUT, OUTPUT, I-O, EXTEND.

Q46) What is the mode in which you will OPEN a file for writing? - GS
A46) OUTPUT, EXTEND

Q47) In the JCL, how do you define the files referred to in a subroutine ?
A47) Supply the DD cards just as you would for files referred to in the main program.

Q48) Can you REWRITE a record in an ESDS file? Can you DELETE a record from it?
A48) Can rewrite (record length must be same), but not delete.

Q49) What is file status 92? - GS
A49) Logic error. e.g., a file is opened for input and an attempt is made to write to it.

Q50) What is file status 39 ?
A50) Mismatch in LRECL or BLOCKSIZE or RECFM between your COBOL pgm & the JCL (or the dataset label). You will get file status 39 on an OPEN.

Q51) What is Static and Dynamic linking ?
A51) In static linking, the called subroutine is link-edited into the calling program , while in dynamic linking, the subroutine & the main program will exist as separate load modules. You choose static/dynamic linking by choosing either the DYNAM or NODYNAM link edit option. (Even if you choose NODYNAM, a CALL identifier (as opposed to a CALL literal), will translate to a DYNAMIC call).
A statically called subroutine will not be in its initial state the next time it is called unless you explicitly use INITIAL or you do a CANCEL. A dynamically called routine will always be in its initial state.

Q52) What is AMODE(24), AMODE(31), RMODE(24) and RMODE(ANY)? (applicable to only MVS/ESA Enterprise Server).
A52) These are compile/link edit options. Basically AMODE stands for Addressing mode and RMODE for Residency mode.
AMODE(24) - 24 bit addressing;
AMODE(31) - 31 bit addressing
AMODE(ANY) - Either 24 bit or 31 bit addressing depending on RMODE.
RMODE(24) - Resides in virtual storage below 16 Meg line. Use this for 31 bit programs that call 24 bit programs. (OS/VS Cobol pgms use 24 bit addresses only).
RMODE(ANY) - Can reside above or below 16 Meg line.

Q53) What compiler option would you use for dynamic linking?
A53) DYNAM.

Q54) What is SSRANGE, NOSSRANGE ?
A54) These are compiler options with respect to subscript out of range checking. NOSSRANGE is the default and if chosen, no run time error will be flagged if your index or subscript goes out of the permissible range.

Q55) How do you set a return code to the JCL from a COBOL program?
A55) Move a value to RETURN-CODE register. RETURN-CODE should not be declared in your program.

Q56) How can you submit a job from COBOL programs?
A56) Write JCL cards to a dataset with //xxxxxxx SYSOUT= (A,INTRDR) where 'A' is output class, and dataset should be opened for output in the program. Define a 80 byte record layout for the file.

Q57) What are the differences between OS VS COBOL and VS COBOL II?
A57) OS/VS Cobol pgms can only run in 24 bit addressing mode, VS Cobol II pgms can run either in 24 bit or 31 bit addressing modes.

I. Report writer is supported only in OS/VS Cobol.
II. USAGE IS POINTER is supported only in VS COBOL II.
III. Reference modification e.g.: WS-VAR(1:2) is supported only in VS COBOL II.
IV. EVALUATE is supported only in VS COBOL II.
V. Scope terminators are supported only in VS COBOL II.
VI. OS/VS Cobol follows ANSI 74 stds while VS COBOL II follows ANSI 85 stds.
VII. Under CICS Calls between VS COBOL II programs are supported.

Q58) What are the steps you go through while creating a COBOL program executable?
A58) DB2 precompiler (if embedded SQL used), CICS translator (if CICS pgm), Cobol compiler, Link editor. If DB2 program, create plan by binding the DBRMs.

Q59) Can you call an OS VS COBOL pgm from a VS COBOL II pgm ?
A59) In non-CICS environment, it is possible. In CICS, this is not possible.

Q60) What are the differences between COBOL and COBOL II?
A60) There are at least five differences:
COBOL II supports structured programming by using in line Performs and explicit scope terminators, It introduces new features (EVALUATE, SET. TO TRUE, CALL. BY CONTEXT, etc) It permits programs to be loaded and addressed above the 16-megabyte line It does not support many old features (READY TRACE, REPORT-WRITER, ISAM, Etc.), and It offers enhanced CICS support.

Q61) What is an explicit scope terminator?
A61) A scope terminator brackets its preceding verb, e.g. IF .. END-IF, so that all statements between the verb and its scope terminator are grouped together. Other common COBOL II verbs are READ, PERFORM, EVALUATE, SEARCH and STRING.

Q62) What is an in line PERFORM? When would you use it? Anything else to say about it?
A62) The PERFORM and END-PERFORM statements bracket all COBOL II statements between them. The COBOL equivalent is to PERFORM or PERFORM THRU a paragraph. In line PERFORMs work as long as there are no internal GO TOs, not even to an exit. The in line PERFORM for readability should not exceed a page length - often it will reference other PERFORM paragraphs.

Q63) What is the difference between NEXT SENTENCE and CONTINUE?
A63) NEXT SENTENCE gives control to the verb following the next period. CONTINUE gives control to the next verb after the explicit scope terminator. (This is not one of COBOL II's finer implementations). It's safest to use CONTINUE rather than NEXT SENTENCE in COBOL II.

Q64) What COBOL construct is the COBOL II EVALUATE meant to replace?
A64) EVALUATE can be used in place of the nested IF THEN ELSE statements.

Q65) What is the significance of 'above the line' and 'below the line'?
A65) Before IBM introduced MVS/XA architecture in the 1980's a program's virtual storage was limited to 16 megs. Programs compiled with a 24 bit mode can only address 16 Mb of space, as though they were kept under an imaginary storage line. With COBOL II a program compiled with a 31 bit mode can be 'above the 16 Mb line. (This 'below the line', 'above the line' imagery confuses most mainframe programmers, who tend to be a literal minded group.)

Q66) What was removed from COBOL in the COBOL II implementation?
A66) Partial list: REMARKS, NOMINAL KEY, PAGE-COUNTER, CURRENT-DAY, TIME-OF-DAY, STATE, FLOW, COUNT, EXAMINE, EXHIBIT, READY TRACE and RESET TRACE.

Q67) Explain call by context by comparing it to other calls.
A67) The parameters passed in a call by context are protected from modification by the called program. In a normal call they are able to be modified.

Q68) What is the linkage section?
A68) The linkage section is part of a called program that 'links' or maps to data items in the calling program's working storage. It is the part of the called program where these share items are defined.

Q69) What is the difference between a subscript and an index in a table definition?
A69) A subscript is a working storage data definition item, typically a PIC (999) where a value must be moved to the subscript and then incremented or decrements by ADD TO and SUBTRACT FROM statements. An index is a register item that exists outside the program's working storage. You SET an index to a value and SET it UP BY value and DOWN BY value.

Q70) If you were passing a table via linkage, which is preferable - a subscript or an index?
A70) Wake up - you haven't been paying attention! It's not possible to pass an index via linkage. The index is not part of the calling programs working storage. Those of us who've made this mistake, appreciate the lesson more than others.

Q71) Explain the difference between an internal and an external sort, the pros and cons, internal sort syntax etc.
A71) An external sort is not COBOL; it is performed through JCL and PGM=SORT. It is understandable without any code reference. An internal sort can use two different syntax’s: 1.) USING, GIVING sorts are comparable to external sorts with no extra file processing; 2) INPUT PROCEDURE, OUTPUT PROCEDURE sorts allow for data manipulation before and/or after the sort.

Q72) What is the difference between comp and comp-3 usage? Explain other COBOL usage’s.
A72) Comp is a binary usage, while comp-3 indicates packed decimal. The other common usage’s are binary and display. Display is the default.

Q73) When is a scope terminator mandatory?
A73) Scope terminators are mandatory for in-line PERFORMS and EVALUATE statements. For readability, it's recommended coding practice to always make scope terminators explicit.

Q74) In a COBOL II PERFORM statement, when is the conditional tested, before or after the perform execution?
A74) In COBOL II the optional clause WITH TEST BEFORE or WITH TEST AFTER can be added to all perform statements. By default the test is performed before the perform.

Q75) In an EVALUTE statement is the order of the WHEN clauses significant?
A75) Absolutely. Evaluation of the WHEN clauses proceeds from top to bottom and their sequence can determine results.

Q76) What is the default value(s) for an INITIALIZE and what keyword allows for an override of the default.
A76) INITIALIZE moves spaces to alphabetic fields and zeros to alphanumeric fields. The REPLACING option can be used to override these defaults.

Q77) What is SET TO TRUE all about, anyway?
A77) In COBOL II the 88 levels can be set rather than moving their associated values to the related data item. (Web note: This change is not one of COBOL II's better specifications.)

Q78) What is LENGTH in COBOL II?
A78) LENGTH acts like a special register to tell the length of a group or elementary item.

Q79) What is the difference between a binary search and a sequential search? What are the pertinent COBOL commands?
A79) In a binary search the table element key values must be in ascending or descending sequence. The table is 'halved' to search for equal to, greater than or less than conditions until the element is found. In a sequential search the table is searched from top to bottom, so (ironically) the elements do not have to be in a specific sequence. The binary search is much faster for larger tables, while sequential works well with smaller ones. SEARCH ALL is used for binary searches; SEARCH for sequential.

Q80) What is the point of the REPLACING option of a copy statement?
A80) REPLACING allows for the same copy to be used more than once in the same code by changing the replace value.

Q81) What will happen if you code GO BACK instead of STOP RUN in a stand alone COBOL program i.e. a program which is not calling any other program.
A81) The program will go in an infinite loop.

Q82) How can I tell if a module is being called DYNAMICALLY or STATICALLY?
A82) The ONLY way is to look at the output of the linkage editor (IEWL)or the load module itself. If the module is being called DYNAMICALLY then it will not exist in the main module, if it is being called STATICALLY then it will be seen in the load module. Calling a working storage variable, containing a program name, does not make a DYNAMIC call. This type of calling is known as IMPLICITE calling as the name of the module is implied by the contents of the working storage variable. Calling a program name literal (CALL

Q83) What is the difference between a DYNAMIC and STATIC call in COBOL.
A83) To correct an earlier answer: All called modules cannot run standalone if they require program variables passed to them via the LINKAGE section. DYNAMICally called modules are those that are not bound with the calling program at link edit time (IEWL for IBM) and so are loaded from the program library (joblib or steplib) associated with the job. For DYNAMIC calling of a module the DYNAM compiler option must be chosen, else the linkage editor will not generate an executable as it will expect u address resolution of all called modules. A STATICally called module is one that is bound with the calling module at link edit, and therefore becomes part of the executable load module.

Q84) How may divisions are there in JCL-COBOL?
A84) SIX

Q85) What is the purpose of Identification Division?
A85) Documentation.

Q86) What is the difference between PIC 9.99 and 9v99?
A86) PIC 9.99 is a FOUR-POSITION field that actually contains a decimal point where as PIC 9v99 is THREE- POSITION numeric field with implied or assumed decimal position.

Q87) what is Pic 9v99 Indicates?
A87) PICTURE 9v99 is a three position Numeric field with an implied or assumed decimal point after the first position; the v means an implied decimal point.

Q88) What guidelines should be followed to write a structured Cobol prg'm?
A88)
1) use 'evaluate' stmt for constructing cases.
2) use scope terminators for nesting.
3) use in line perform stmt for writing 'do ' constructions.
4) use test before and test after in the perform stmt for writing do-while constructions.

Q89) Read the following code. 01 ws-n pic 9(2) value zero. a-para move 5 to ws-n. perform b-para ws-n times. b-para. move 10 to ws-n. how many times will b-para be executed ?
A89) 5 times only. it will not take the value 10 that is initialized in the loop.

Q90) What is the difference between SEARCH and SEARCH ALL? What is more efficient?
A90) SEARCH is a sequential search from the beginning of the table. SEARCH ALL is a binary search, continually dividing the table in two halves until a match is found. SEARCH ALL is more efficient for tables larger than 70 items.

Q91) What are some examples of command terminators?
A91) END-IF, END-EVALUATE

Q92) What care has to be taken to force program to execute above 16 Meg line?
A92) Make sure that link option is AMODE=31 and RMODE=ANY. Compile option should never have SIZE(MAX). BUFSIZE can be 2K, efficient enough.

Q93) How do you submit JCL via a Cobol program?
A93) Use a file //dd1 DD sysout=(*, intrdr)write your JCL to this file. Pl some on try this out.

Q94) How to execute a set of JCL statements from a COBOL program
A94) Using EXEC CICS SPOOL WRITE(var-name) END-EXEC command. var-name is a COBOL host structure containing JCL statements.

Q95) Give some advantages of REDEFINES clause.
A95)
1. You can REDEFINE a Variable from one PICTURE class to another PICTURE class by using the same memory location.
2. By REDEFINES we can INITIALISE the variable in WORKING-STORAGE Section itself.
3. We can REDEFINE a Single Variable into so many sub variables. (This facility is very useful in solving Y2000 Problem.)

Q96) What is the difference between static call & Dynamic call
A96) In the case of Static call, the called program is a stand-alone program, it is an executable program. During run time we can call it in our called program. As about Dynamic call, the called program is not an executable program it can executed through the called program

Q97) What do you feel makes a good program?
A97) A program that follows a top down approach. It is also one that other programmers or users can follow logically and is easy to read and understand.

Q98) How do you code Cobol to access a parameter that has been defined in JCL? And do you code the PARM parameter on the EXEC line in JCL?
A98)
1) using JCL with sysin. //sysin dd *here u code the parameters(value) to pass in to cobol program /* and in program you use accept variable name(one accept will read one row)/.another way.
2) in jcl using parm statement ex: in exec statement parm='john','david' in cobol pgm u have to code linkage section in that for first value you code length variable and variable name say, abc pic x(4).it will take john inside to read next value u have to code another variable in the same way above mentioned.

Q99) Why do we code S9(4) comp. Inspite of knowing comp-3 will occupy less space.
A99) Here s9(4)comp is small integer ,so two words equal to 1 byte so totally it will occupy 2 bytes(4 words).here in s9(4) comp-3 as one word is equal to 1/2 byte.4 words equal to 2 bytes and sign will occupy 1/2 byte so totally it will occupy 3 bytes.

Q100) The maximum number of dimensions that an array can have in COBOL-85 is ----------- ?
A100) SEVEN in COBOL - 85 and THREE in COBOL - 84

Q101) How do you declare a host variable (in COBOL) for an attribute named Emp-Name of type VARCHAR(25) ?
A101)
01 EMP-GRP.
49 E-LEN PIC S9(4) COMP.
49 E-NAME PIC X(25).

Q102) What is Comm?
A102) COMM - HALF WORD BINARY

Q103) Differentiate COBOL and COBOL-II. (Most of our programs are written in COBOLII, so, it is good to know, how, this is different from COBOL)
A103) The following features are available with VS COBOL II:
1. MVS/XA and MVS/ESA support The compiler and the object programs it produces can be run in either 24- or 31-bit addressing mode.
2. VM/XA and VM/ESA support The compiler and the object programs it produces can be run in either 24- or 31-bit addressing mode.
3. VSE/ESA support The compiler and the object programs it produces can be run under VM/ESA.

Q104) What is PERFORM ? What is VARYING ? (More details about these clauses)
A104) The PERFORM statement is a PROCEDURE DIVISION statement which transfers control to one or more specified procedures and controls as specified the number of times the procedures are executed. After execution of the specified procedures is completed (i.e., for the appropriate number of times or until some specified condition is met), control is transferred to the next executable statement following the PERFORM statement. There are 5 types of PERFORM statements:
a) Basic PERFORM
b) PERFORM TIMES
c) PERFORM UNTIL
d) PERFORM VARYING
e) IN-LINE PERFORM

Q105) How many sections are there in data division?.
A105) SIX SECTIONS 1.FILE SECTION 2.WORKING-STORAGE SECTION 3. LOCAL-STORAGE SECTION 4.SCREEN SECTION 5.REPORT SECTION 6. LINKAGE SECTION

Q106) What is Redefines clause?
A106) Redefines clause is used to allow the same storage allocation to be referenced by different data names .

Q107) How many bytes does a s9(4)comp-3 field occupy?
A107) 3Bytes (formula : n/2 + 1))

Q108) What is the different between index and subscript?
A108) Subscript refers to the array of occurrence , where as Index represents an occurrence of a table element. An index can only modified using perform, search & set. Need to have an index for a table in order to use SEARCH and SEARCH All.

Q109) What is the difference between Structured COBOL Programming and Object Oriented COBOL programming?
A109) Structured programming is a Logical way of programming, you divide the functionalities into modules and code logically. OOP is a Natural way of programming; you identify the objects first, and then write functions, procedures around the objects. Sorry, this may not be an adequate answer, but they are two different programming paradigms, which is difficult to put in a sentence or two.

Q110) What divisions, sections and paragraphs are mandatory for a COBOL program?
A110) IDENTIFICATION DIVISION and PROGRAM-ID paragraph are mandatory for a compilation error free COBOL program.

Q111) Can JUSTIFIED be used for all the data types?
A111) No, it can be used only with alphabetic and alphanumeric data types.

Q112) What happens when we move a comp-3 field to an edited (say z (9). ZZ-)
A112) the editing characters r to be used with data items with usage clause as display which is the default. When u tries displaying a data item with usage as computational it does not give the desired display format because the data item is stored as packed decimal. So if u want this particular data item to be edited u have to move it into a data item whose usage is display and then have that particular data item edited in the format desired.

Q113) What will happen if you code GO BACK instead of STOP RUN in a stand-alone COBOL program i.e. a program which is not calling any other program ?
A113) Both give the same results when a program is not calling any other program. GO BACK will give the control to the system even though it is a single program.

Q114) what is the difference between external and global variables?
A114) Global variables are accessible only to the batch program whereas external variables can be referenced from any batch program residing in the same system library.

Q115) You are writing report program with 4 levels of totals: city, state, region and country. The codes being used can be the same over the different levels, meaning a city code of 01 can be in any number of states, and the same applies to state and region code so how do you do your checking for breaks and how do you do add to each level?
A115) Always compare on the highest-level first, because if you have a break at a highest level, each level beneath it must also break. Add to the lowest level for each record but add to the higher level only on a break.

Q116) What is difference between COBOL and VS COBOL II?.
A116) In using COBOL on PC we have only flat files and the programs can access only limited storage, whereas in VS COBOL II on M/F the programs can access up to 16MB or 2GB depending on the addressing and can use VSAM files to make I/O operations faster.

Q117) Why occurs can not be used in 01 level ?
A117) Because, Occurs clause is there to repeat fields with same format, not the records.

Q118) What is report-item?
A118) A Report-Item Is A Field To Be Printed That Contains Edit Symbols

Q119) Difference between next and continue clause
A119) The difference between the next and continue verb is that in the continue verb it is used for a situation where there in no EOF condition that is the records are to be accessed again and again in an file, whereas in the next verb the indexed file is accessed sequentially, read next record command is used.

Q120) What is the Importance of GLOBAL clause According to new standards of COBOL
A120) When any data name, file-name, Record-name, condition name or Index defined in an Including Program can be referenced by a directly or indirectly in an included program, Provided the said name has been declared to be a global name by GLOBAL Format of Global Clause is01 data-1 pic 9(5) IS GLOBAL.

Q121) What is the Purpose of POINTER Phrase in STRING command
A121) The Purpose of POINTER phrase is to specify the leftmost position within receiving field where the first transferred character will be stored

Q122) How do we get current date from system with century?
A122) By using Intrinsic function, FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE

Q123) What is the maximum length of a field you can define using COMP-3?
A123) 10 Bytes (S9(18) COMP-3).

Q124) Why do we code s9 (4) comp? In spite of knowing comp-3 will occupy less space?
A124) Here s9(4)comp is small integer, so two words equal to 1 byte so totally it will occupy 2 bytes(4 words).here in s9(4) comp-3 as one word is equal to 1/2 byte.4 words equal to 2 bytes and sign will occupy 1/2 byte so totally it will occupy 3 bytes.

1. What are two of the common forms of the EVALUATE STATEMENT ?
2. What does the initialize statement do ?
3. What is the reference modification.
4. Name some of the examples of COBOl 11?
5. What are VS COBOL 11 special features?
6. What are options have been removed in COBOL 11?
7. What is the file organization clause ?
8. What is a subscript ?
9. What is an index for tables?
10. What are the two search techniques ?
11. What is an in-line perform ?
12. What is CALL statement in COBOL?
13. When can the USING phrase be included in the call statement ?
14. In EBCDIC, how would the number 1234 be stored?
15. How would the number +1234 be stored if a PIC clause of PICTUREs9(4) comp-3 were used?
16. What is Alternate Index ? How is it different from regular index ?

Presentation: Six ways to make an impact

2006-12-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

No slides. We're serious. The best public speakers know that they are the focus of any speech. That's why they don't use charts or slides. They command the undivided attention of audiences through their spoken words and messages, not through A/V support.

Less is more. Okay, so you're not Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln. If you must use slides -- and, realistically, most of us do -- use them judiciously. Let them emphasize and underscore key messages. Evoke understanding or a desired response. But don't confuse a thick slide deck with clarity.

Make eye contact. With the audience, that is. (Not your charts or your script!)
Believe it. Confidence shows. You'll win over the audience if they can see and hear excitement and conviction in your voice. You've been chosen to speak for a reason -- you're the subject matter expert. Use that leverage to drive home your key messages.

Know the material. Your notebook runs out of juice. Your notes are in the hotel room. Can you still deliver your talk? If you're familiar and comfortable with your material, you'll be better positioned to shine and genuinely connect with the audience. But if you're counting on words on a slide or in an unread script to get you through, it'll show.

What's the point? Try summing up your presentation in a simple sentence or two. The best presentations are built around a clearly defined message and set of objectives. If you can't capture your main argument in a single thought, you're probably not ready to speak. Keep working on it until you nail it.

What is ...?

2006-12-12T07:30:00.000-08:00

Understanding some common technology terms

Is social bookmarking a new way of accepting party invitations? Not exactly. So what is social bookmarking, Mashup and IP IMS? We have some of the answers for you.

Getting the most out of the Internet

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a Web-based service to share Internet bookmarks. The sites are a popular way to store, classify, share and search links through the practice of folksonomy techniques on the Internet or an Digg.com.

What is Social bookmarking Del.icio.us Digg

Web 2.0

“Web 2.0 is a term that captures the widespread sense that there’s something qualitatively different about today’s Web.” — Tim O’Reilly, Founder, O'Reilly Media.

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly" Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable.

Open standards bring together diverse technologies to interact seamlessly. Web 2.0 is doing the same thing for the Web, bringing together diverse applications and their users to create new and useful Web content. A concept as hard to pin down as Web 2.0 cannot really be supported by a single standard, although many of the technologies that enable Web 2.0 are based on open standards.

What is Web 2.0?

VoIP

VoIP uses the Internet and a company’s internal data network to carry voice communications. Telephone calls, faxes, and voice mail are converted to IP (Internet protocol) data, so they can travel throughout the company and to employees and clients around the world in the same way as e-mail or Web pages. These voice communications can be protected by the same firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs) that secure other types of data, and they can be sent to the same devices — desktops, notebooks, PDAs and even cell phones. VoIP does everything that a traditional phone system can do, and it gives companies new ways to keep employees connected and productive.

What is VoIP? How stuff works: VoIP

AJAX

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications. The intent is to make Web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change.

What is AJAX?

Mashup

A mashup is a Web site or Web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party through a public interface or API. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and and JavaScript.
Many people are experimenting with mashups using eBay, Amazon, Google, Windows Live and Yahoo's APIs.
What is a Mashup? ProgrammableWeb: Mashup Dashboard When Companies do the Mash

Making the best use of hardware

Power Architecture

Power Architecture is an instruction-set architecture that spans applications from consumer electronics to supercomputers. IBM introduced the Power Architecture — a multichip RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) design — in early 1990. By the next year, the first single-chip PowerPC derivatives (the product of the Apple-IBM-Motorola AIM alliance) were available as a high-volume alternative to the predominating CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) desktop structure. PowerPC is a single-chip implementation that is based on the POWER design and includes most of the POWER instruction set.

What is Power Architecture?

IMS

Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), is an open, standardized architecture for next generation Internet Protocol (IP) services. IBM BladeCenter servers provide a single, open-standard based architecture that can be deployed in the data center or central office. With a large ecosystem of IBM solutions, BladeCenter provides flexible, cost effective platform upon which to build IMS based services.

What is an IMS?

ASIC

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is an integrated circuit (IC) customised for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed solely to run a cell phone is an ASIC.

What is an ASIC?

LAN

A computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most LANs are confined to a single building or group of buildings. However, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves. A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN).

What is a LAN?

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Storage Area Network (SAN) is a network of storage devices that are connected to each other and to a server or cluster of servers that act as an access point to the SAN. In some configurations a SAN is also connected to the network. Special switches, which resemble normal Ethernet networking switches, act as the connectivity points for SANs.

What is a storage area network?

Mainframe: JCL Question Bank

2006-12-09T05:39:00.000-08:00

JOB CONTROL LANGUAGE(JCL)

The following are the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) :

Q1) What is a Generation Data Group (GDG)?
A1) Generation Data Group is a group of chronologically or functionally related datasets. GDGs are processed periodically, often by adding a new generation, retaining previous generations, and sometimes discarding the oldest generation.

Q2) How is a GDG base created?
A2) A GDG base is created in the system catalog and keeps track of the generation numbers used for datasets in the group. IDCAMS utility is used to define the GDG base.

Q3) What is model dataset label(Model DSCB)?
A3) A model dataset label is a pattern for the dataset label created for any dataset named as a part of the GDG group. The system needs an existing dataset to serve as a model to supply the DCB parameters for the generation data group one wishes to create. The model dataset label must be cataloged. The model DSCB name is placed on the DCB parameter on the DD statement that creates the generation data group.

Q4) How are GDGs concatenated?
A4) Generation Data Groups are concatenated by specifying each dataset name and the generation number for all generations of the generation data group. Otherwise to have all generations of a generation data group, omit the generation number. The DD statement will refer to all generations. The result is the same as if all individual datasets were concatenated. If generations are not on the same volume, this will not work.

Q5) How is a new GDG coded?
A5) A new GDG is coded as (+1) after the dataset name as follows: DSN=JAN.DATA(+1). This will cause all generations to be pushed down one level at the end of the job.

Q6) When should DISP=MOD is used?
A6) DISP=MOD is used to either extend an existing sequential dataset or to create a dataset if it does not exist. If the dataset exists, then records are appended to the dataset at the end of the existing dataset. If the dataset does not exist, the system treats MOD as if it were NEW, provided that the volume parameter has not been used. If the volume parameter is used, the system terminates the job and does not create the new dataset. MOD can be used to add to a dataset that extends onto several volumes. Always specify a disposition of CATLG with MOD for cataloged datasets, even if they are already cataloged, so that any additional volume serial numbers will be recorded in the catalog.

Q7) How is a dataset passed from one step to another?
A7) A dataset is passed from one step to another based on what is coded on the DISP parameter. The dataset can only be passed to subsequent steps if PASS was used on the disposition parameter.

Q8) How are datasets concatenated?
A8) Datasets are concatenated by writing a normal DD statement for the first dataset and then adding a DD statement without a DDNAME for each dataset to be concatenated in the order they are to be read. The following is an example of three datasets concatenated:
//YEARDAT DD DSN=JAN.DATA,DISP=SHR
// DD DSN=FEB.DATA,DISP=SHR
// DD DSN=MAR.DATA,DISP=SHR

Q9) What is the difference between the JOBLIB and the STEPLIB statements?
A9) The JOBLIB statement is placed after the JOB statement and is effective for all job steps. It cannot be placed in a
cataloged procedure. The STEPLIB statement is placed after the EXEC statement and is effective for that job step
only. Unlike the JOBLIB statement, the STEPLIB can be placed in a cataloged procedure.

Q10) Name some of the JCL statements that are not allowed in procs.?
A10) Some of the JCL statements which are not allowed in procedures are:
JOB, Delimiter(/*), or Null statements
2. JOBLIB or JOBCAT DD statements
3. DD * or DATA statements
4. Any JES2 or JES3 control statements

Q11) What is primary allocation for a dataset?
A11) The space allocated when the dataset is first created.

Q12) What is the difference between primary and secondary allocations for a dataset?
A12) Secondary allocation is done when more space is required than what has already been allocated.

Q13) How many extents are possible for a sequential file ? For a VSAM file ?
A13) 16 extents on a volume for a sequential file and 123 for a VSAM file.

Q14) What does a disposition of (NEW,CATLG,DELETE) mean? - GS
A14) That this is a new dataset and needs to be allocated, to CATLG the dataset if the step is successful and to delete the dataset if the step abends.

Q15) What does a disposition of (NEW,CATLG,KEEP) mean? - GS
A15) That this is a new dataset and needs to be allocated, to CATLG the dataset if the step is successful and to KEEP but not CATLG the dataset if the step abends. Thus if the step abends, the dataset would not be catalogued and we would need to supply the vol. ser the next time we refer to it.

Q16) How do you access a file that had a disposition of KEEP? - GS
A16) Need to supply Volume Serial Number VOL=SER=xxxx.

Q17) MOD, DELETE; What does a disposition of (,DELETE) mean ?
A17) The MOD will cause the dataset to be created (if it does not exist), and then the two DELETEs will cause the dataset to be deleted whether the step abends or not. This disposition is used to clear out a dataset at the beginning of a job.

Q18) What is the DD statement for a output file?
A18) Unless allocated earlier, will have the following parameters: DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE), UNIT , SPACE & DCB

Q19) What do you do if you do not want to keep all the space allocated to a dataset? - GS
A19) Specify the parameter RLSE ( release ) in the SPACE e.g. SPACE=(CYL,(50,50),RLSE)

Q20) What is DISP= (NEW,PASS,DELETE)?
A20) This is a new file and create it, if the step terminates normally, pass it to the subsequent steps and if step abends, delete it. This dataset will not exist beyond the JCL.

Q21) How do you create a temporary dataset? Where will you use them?
A21) Temporary datasets can be created either by not specifying any DSNAME or by specifying the temporary file indicator as in DSN=&&TEMP. We use them to carry the output of one step to another step in the same job. The dataset will not be retained once the job completes.

Q22) How do you restart a PROC from a particular step? - GS
A22) In job card, specify RESTART=PROCSTEP.STEPNAME where PROCSTEP = name of the JCL step that invoked the PROC and STEPNAME = name of the PROC step where you want execution to start

Q23) How do you skip a particular step in a proc/JOB? - GS
A23) Can use either condition codes or use the jcl control statement IF (only in ESA JCL)
Q24) A PROC has five steps. Step 3 has a condition code. How can you override/nullify this condition code? - GS
A24) Provide the override on the EXEC stmt in the JCL as follows:
//STEP001 EXEC procname, COND.stepname=value
All parameters on an EXEC stmt in the proc such as COND, PARM have to be overridden like this.

Q25) How do you override a specific DDNAME/SYSIN in PROC from a JCL?
A25) // DSN=...

Q26) What is NOTCAT 2 - GS
A26) This is an MVS message indicating that a duplicate catalog entry exists. E.g., if you already have a dataset with dsn = 'xxxx.yyyy' and u try to create one with disp new, catlg, you would get this error. the program open and write would go through and at the end of the step the system would try to put it in the system catalog. at this point since an entry already exists the catlg would fail and give this message. you can fix the problem by deleting/uncataloging the first data set and going to the volume where the new dataset exists(this info is in the msglog of the job) and cataloging it.

Q27) What is 'S0C7' abend? - GS
A27) Caused by invalid data in a numeric field.

Q28) What is a S0C4 error ? - GS
A28) Storage violation error - can be due to various reasons. e.g.: READING a file that is not open, invalid address referenced due to subscript error.

Q29) What are SD37, SB37, SE37 abends?
A29) All indicate dataset out of space. SD37 - no secondary allocation was specified. SB37 - end of vol. and no further volumes specified. SE37 - Max. of 16 extents already allocated.

Q30) What is S322 abend ?
A30) Indicates a time out abend. Your program has taken more CPU time than the default limit for the job class. Could indicate an infinite loop.

Q31) Why do you want to specify the REGION parameter in a JCL step? - GS
A31) To override the REGION defined at the JOB card level. REGION specifies the max region size. REGION=0K or 0M or omitting REGION means no limit will be applied.

Q32) What does the TIME parameter signify ? What does TIME=1440 mean ?
A32) TIME parameter can be used to overcome S322 abends for programs that genuinely need more CPU time. TIME=1440 means no CPU time limit is to be applied to this step.

Q33) What is COND=EVEN ?
A33) Means execute this step even if any of the previous steps, terminated abnormally.

Q34) What is COND=ONLY ?
A34) Means execute this step only if any of the previous steps, terminated abnormally.

Q35) How do you check the syntax of a JCL without running it?
A35) TYPERUN=SCAN on the JOB card or use JSCAN.

Q36) What does IEBGENER do?
A36) Used to copy one QSAM file to another. Source dataset should be described using SYSUT1 ddname. Destination dataset should be described using SYSUT2. IEBGENR can also do some reformatting of data by supplying control cards via SYSIN.

Q37) How do you send the output of a COBOL program to a member of a PDS?
A37) Code the DSN as PDS (member) with a DISP = SHR. The DISP applies to the PDS and not to a specific member.

Q38) I have multiple jobs ( JCLs with several JOB cards ) in a member. What happens if I submit it?
A38) Multiple jobs are submitted (as many jobs as the number of JOB cards).

Q39) I have a COBOL program that Accepts some input data. How do you code the JCL statement for this?
( How do you code instream data in a JCL? )
A39) //SYSIN DD*
input data
input data
/*

Q40) Can you code instream data in a PROC ?
A40) No.

Q41) How do you overcome this limitation ?
A41) One way is to code SYSIN DD DUMMY in the PROC, and then override this from the JCL with instream data.

Q42) How do you run a COBOL batch program from a JCL? How do you run a COBOL/DB2 program?
A42) To run a non DB2 program,
//STEP001 EXEC PGM=MYPROG

To run a DB2 program,
//STEP001 EXEC PGM=IKJEFT01
//SYSTSIN DD *
DSN SYSTEM(....)
RUN PROGRAM(MYPROG)
PLAN(.....) LIB(....) PARMS(...)
/*

Q43) What is STEPLIB, JOBLIB? What is it used for? - GS
A43) Specifies that the private library (or libraries) specified should be searched before the default system libraries in order to locate a program to be executed. STEPLIB applies only to the particular step, JOBLIB to all steps in the job.

Q44) What is order of searching of the libraries in a JCL? - GS
A44) First any private libraries as specified in the STEPLIB or JOBLIB, then the system libraries such as SYS1.LINKLIB. The system libraries are specified in the link list.

Q45) What happens if both JOBLIB and STEPLIB is specified ?
A45) JOBLIB is ignored.

Q46) When you specify mutiple datasets in a JOBLIB or STEPLIB, what factor determines the order? - GS
A46) The library with the largest block size should be the first one.

Q47) How to change default PROCLIB?
A47) //ABCD JCLLIB ORDER=(ME.MYPROCLIB,SYS1.PROCLIB)

Q48) The disp in the JCL is MOD and the program opens the file in OUTPUT mode. What happens ? The DISP in the JCL is SHR and the program opens the file in EXTEND mode. What happens ?
A48) Records will be written to end of file (append) when a WRITE is done in both cases.

Q49) What are the valid DSORG values ?
A49) PS - QSAM, PO - Partitioned, IS - ISAM

Q50) What are the differences between JES2 & JES3 ?
A50) JES3 allocates datasets for all the steps before the job is scheduled. In JES2, allocation of datasets required by a step are done only just before the step executes.

Q51) What are the causes for S0C1, S0C4, S0C5, S0C7, S0CB abends ?
A51) S0C1-May be due to 1.Missing or misspelled DD name 2.Read/Write to unopened dataset 3.Read to dataset opened
output 4.Write to dataset opened input 5.Called subprogram not found
S0C4-may be due to 1.Missing Select statement(during compile) 2.Bad Subscript/index 3.Protection Exception
4.Missing parameters on called subprogram 5.Read/Write to unopened file 6.Move data from/to unopened file
S0C5-May be due to 1.Bad Subscript/index 2.Closing an unopened dataset 3.Bad exit from a perform 4.Access to I/O
area(FD) before read
S0C7-may be due to 1.Numeric operation on non-numeric data 2.Un-initialize working-storage 3.Coding past the
maximum allowed sub script
S0CB-may be due to 1.Division by Zero

Q52) What are the kinds of job control statements?
A52) The JOB, EXEC and DD statement.

Q53) What is the meaning of keyword in JCL? What is its opposite?
A53) A keyword in a JCL statement may appear in different places and is recognized by its name, eg. MSGCLASS in the JOB statement. The opposite is positional words, where their meaning is based on their position in the statement, eg. in the DISP keyword the =(NEW,CATLG,DELETE) meanings are based on first, second and third position.

Q54) Describe the JOB statement, its meaning, syntax and significant keywords?
A54) The JOB statement is the first in a JCL stream. Its format is // jobname, keyword JOB, accounting information in brackets and keywords, MSGCLASS, MSGLEVEL, NOTIFIY, CLASS, etc.

Q55) Describe the EXEC statement, its meaning, syntax and keywords?
A55) The EXEC statement identifies the program to be executed via a PGM= program name keyword. Its format is //jobname EXEC PGM= program name. The PARM= keyword can be used to pass external values to the executing program.

Q56) Describe the DD statement, its meaning, syntax and keywords?
A56) The DD statement links the external dataset name (DSN) to the DDNAME coded within the executing program. It links the file names within the program code to the file names know to the MVS operating system. The syntax is // ddname DD DSN=dataset name. Other keywords after DSN are DISP, DCB, SPACE, etc.

Q57) What is a PROC? What is the difference between an instream and a catalogued PROC?
A57) PROC stands for procedure. It is 'canned' JCL invoked by a PROC statement. An instream PROC is presented within the JCL; a catalogued PROC is referenced from a proclib partitioned dataset.

Q58) What is the difference between a symbolic and an override in executing a PROC?
A58) A symbolic is a PROC placeholder; the value for the symbolic is supplied when the PROC is invoked, eg. &symbol=value. An override replaces the PROC's statement with another one; it substitutes for the entire statement.

Q59) What is RESTART? How is it invoked?
A59) RESTART is a JOB statement keyword. It is used to restart the job at a specified step rather than at the beginning.

Q60) What is a GDG? How is it referenced? How is it defined? What is a MODELDSCB?
A60) GDG stands for generation data group. It is a dataset with versions that can be referenced absolutely or relatively. It is defined by an IDCAMS define generation datagroup execution.

Q61) Explain concatenating datasets?
A61) Datasets can be grouped in a DD statement one after another, eg. in a JOBLIB statement where the load module can exist in one of many datasets.

Q62) What is the difference between specifying DISP=OLD and DISP=SHR for a dataset?
A62) DISP=OLD denotes exclusive control of the dataset; DISP=SHR means there is no exclusivity.

Q63) What is MOD and when would you use it?
A63) DISP=MOD is used when the dataset can be extended, ie, you can add records at the end of an existing dataset.

Q64) What are the keywords associated with DCB? How can you specify DCB information? What is the OS precedence for obtaining that DCB information, ie. where does the system look for it first?
A64) The keywords associated with the DCB parameter are LRECL, RECFM, BLKSIZE and DSORG. The DCB information can be supplied in the DD statement. The system looks for DCB information in the program code first.

Q65) How do you designate a comment in JCL?
A65) The comment statement is //* followed by the comments.

Q66) What is the meaning of the EXEC statement keyword, COND? What is its syntax?
A66) COND specifies the conditions for executing the subsequent job step. The value after the COND= is compared to the return codes of the preceding steps and if the comparison is true, the step is bypassed. (If this answer confuses you, welcome to the club - memorize it and don't ask questions!)

Q67) What is the improvement to COND= in the latest version of MVS?
A67) MVS now allows for an IF bracketed by an END IF around any job step to replace the COND= syntax. Again, if the IF statement is true, the step is bypassed.

Q68) What is the purpose of the PARM keyword in the EXEC statement?
A68) The value after the PARM= specifies control information to be passed to the executing program of the job step.

Q69) What is the purpose and meaning of the REGION keyword and what JCL statement is it associated with?
A69) REGION specifies the maximum CPU memory allocated for a particular job or job step. If REGION is in the JOB card, it relates to the entire job; if in the EXEC statement, it relates to the job step.

Q70) What is the purpose and meaning of the TIME keyword and what JCL statement is it associated with?
A70) TIME specifies the maximum CPU time allocated for a particular job or job step. If TIME is in the JOB card, it relates to the entire job; if in the EXEC statement, it relates to the job step.

Q71) What is the meaning of data definition name (ddname) and dataset name (dsname) in the DD statement?
A71) Data definition name is the eight character designation after the // of the DD statement. It matches the internal name specified in the steps executing program. In COBOL that's the name specified after the ASSIGN in the SELECT ASSIGN statement. Dataset name is the operating system (MVS) name for the file.

Q72) How is the keyword DUMMY used in JCL?
A72) For an output file DUMMY specifies that the output is to be discarded. For input it specifies that the file is empty.

Q73) What does the keyword DCB mean and what are some of the keywords associated with it?
A73) DCB stands for data control block; it is a keyword for the DD statement used to describe datasets. Keywords associated with it are BLKSIZE, DEN, LRECL and RECFM.

Q74) What is the difference between BLKSIZE and LRECL?
A74) LRECL is the logical record length , where as BLKSIZE is multiples of LRECL

Q75) Can you execute a PROC from another PROC?
A75) I did not know the answer and my interviewer said NO. Later I tried and executed PROC from a PROC, three levels deep. Manuals do not state any limit on PROC calling PROC, or nesting.

Q76) What will happen if you attempt to restart a job in the middle of a JCL // IF .... // ENDIF?
A76) Job will fall through to the ENDIF (not executing any steps), then resume execution with the first step AFTER the // ENDIF.

Q77) How many positional parameters are there in job statement?
A77) There are two position parameters in job statement.

Q78) What are three parameters you can specify on Job statement as well as on exec stmt ?
A78) Time, Region and Cond parameters

Q79) How can you trap abends in the JCL?
A79) Use IF ABEND statement in the JCL.

Q80) How do you restart a step in JCL?
A80) Use RESTART=step name.

Q81) How do you pass parameters to the program as the job is being executed ?
A81) By using 'parm' parameter in exec statement. the value mentioned here should be declared in linkage section in the program and process thru procedure division. this technique is very useful when you do not know the parameters at the time of coding the programs.

Q82) Why do you use a control card?
A82) A control card can be a member of a pds or a sequential dataset and is used for storing the date fields, Definitions of VSAM files....etc. You use control card because you cannot use a instream procedure in a procedure. Generally you will be calling a Proc from your Jcl and you cannot code instream procedure in the Proc and so you will point to the dataset which is called control card.

Q83) How do you submit JCL via a Cobol program?
A83) In your JCL define as //JOBA JOB 1111, JOB1 //STEP01 EXEC PGM=PROG1 //ddname DD SYSOUT=(*,INTRDR)....and your COBOL(PROG1) should look like this SELECT JCL-FILE ASSIGN TO ddname. Open this file and write the JCL statements into this file. E.g. MOVE '//TESTJOB JOB 1111,VISVEISH' TO JCL-REC.MOVE '//STEP01 EXEC PGM=IEFBR14' TO JCL- REC and close this file. Then TESTJOB will be submitted.

Q84) How do you submit a JCL under CICS environment ?
A84) Pass all the jcl codes to a COBOL variable(should be declare using OCCURS clause) and the write the line one by one to the spool using CICS commands like SPOOLClose SPOOLOpen SPOOLWrite . For more help reffer CECI of CICS or CICS manual

Q85) What is the parameter to be passed in the job card for the unlimited time , irrespective of the job class ?
A85) TIME=1440

Q86) Definition of COND parameter in JCL
A86) COND is a condition parameter, consists of 2 sub parameters, 1st - return code from the previous step, 2nd - condition. If COND is true, the step on which COND is coded will be BYPASSED.

Q87) What is meant by S0C7 system abend code?
A87) S0C7 - Data exception error - you will get it whenever you are trying to move the low values or spaces into the numeric field, or compare the numeric fields with low values, or try to do some arithmetic operations on the low values. To avoid this you have to always initialize the numeric fields otherwise they will contain the low values.

Q88) How to pass the temp dataset form one JOB step to another?
A88) By specifying the DISP as PASS for the temp dataset

Q89) What is a COND parameter in JCL?
A89) COND means condition parameter. It is compared with system return code of previous step.//step1 exec pgm=abcd//step2 exec pgm=xyz, cond=(4,lt)step2 will be executed when system return code of step1 is less than 4.

Q90) Write a jcl to execute a job by 7 a.m on Jan 20,1986 ?
A90) THE code IS : //*MAIN DEADLINE=(0700,B,012086)

Q91) How many types of libraries are there in JCL ?
A91) Libraries are of three types.1.Sytem Libraries: SUCH AS SYS1.LINKLIB2.Private Libraries: SPECIFIED IN A JOBLIB OR STEPLIB DD STATEMENTS.3.Temporary Libraries: CREATED IN A PREVIOUS STEP OF THE JOB.

Q92) What u mean by include statement in JCL ?
A92) An include statement identifies a member of a pds or pdse that contains. This set of JCL statements is called an include group. The system replaces the include statement with the statements in the include group.

Q93) The maximum number of in-stream procedure you can code in any JCL is ?
A93) Fifteen(15).

Q94) What you mean by skeleton JCl?
A94) Jcl which changes during run time i.e. the values for the jcl such as pgm name , dd name will change .ie same jcl can be used for various job, equivalent to dynamic sql...

Q95) How do you submit a JCL under CICS environment ?
A95) Edit the JCL in Extra partition TDQ and submit the same using some system command (not sure) under CICS subsystem. This is what i think, please clarify....

Q96) What is JCL ?
A96) JCL is Job Control Language and is used for Batch processing. The startup procedures of OS and standard products like CICS etc are written in JCL. It is interface between operating system(MVS) & application program. when 2 related programs are combined together on control statements is called job control language

Q97) What is the max blocksize for a Tape file?
A97) It is 32,760.Based on that we can calculate efficient number of Records in a Block

Q98) What are the basic JCL Statements for a Job?
A98) JOB : Identifies a job and supplies accounting info
EXEC : Identifies a job step by indicating the name of the program to be executed.
DD : Identifies a data set to be allocated for the job step
Delimiter(/*) : Marks the end of an in-stream dataset
Null(//) : Marks the end of a job
Comments(//*) : Provides Comments
PROC : Marks the beginning of a procedure
PEND : Marks the end of a procedure
OUTPUT : Supplies options for SYSOUT processing.

Q99) What does the statements: typrun=scan and typrun=hold do in a JCL statement
A99) typrun=scan checks the JCL for errors, typrun=hold holds the job until further notice.

Q100) Which is the most widely used batch performance monitor for DB2?
A100) DB2PM

Q101) What is QSAM error usually when it is occurs?
A101) Usually it is occurs at the time of job submission.

Q102) What is the purpose of include statement in a JCL?
A102) It is used as an alternative for STEPLIB. When we specify the dataset name in include ,it will search in all the datasets specified in the include dataset.

Q103) What does S0C4 error mean?
A103) This error is faced when we execute the COBOL program. The main reason for this error is that a variable is defined with less characters and we are trying to move data which is larger than the actual storage space.

Q104) In which table PLAN is registered in ?
A104) RCT

Q105) What is GDG?
A105) GDG - group of dataset that are logically or chronologically related, referred by name and a relative generation number - an integer which identifies the generation of a dataset and is coded in parentheses after dataset name. Absolute GDG name - GxxxxVyy, where xxxx-absolute gen. number, yy-version number. Can be sequential, direct, partitioned. (VSAM - no). Must always be cataloged. Advantage - all datasets have the same name and system keeps track of adding new and retaining previous generations and deleting oldest successive generation. To create a GDG we create a GDG index in the system catalog with IDCAMS utility and then a model (prototype, DSCB) on the same volume to supply DCB information. Empty - when limit is reached all members are removed from the index, otherwise-only oldest. Scratch-removed members are uncataloged & deleted, otherwise - removed & uncataloged, but remain in the system (not members of GDG any more). GDG number is updated at the end of the job. If number is not specified all generations will be processed from the beginning

Q106) what do you mean By spooling? Expand SPOOL?
A106) This is managed by JES. This is used for Queuing the Outputs that are intended for Printing and are first stored in SPOOLDASD. This can be managed Using

Q107) For how long a job can be executed continuously in a mainframe ?
A107) 248 DAYS

Q108) Max. No of DD statements in a job ?
A108) 3273

Q109) How much space OS allocates when you create a PS or PDS?
A109) 56 KB

Q110) Min no of member’s (PDS) in one directory block?
A110) SIX(6)

Q111) The maximum number of steps in a job?
A111) 255

Q112) How much is memory space involved, when we code BLOCKSIZE,TRK & CYL ?
A112) One block constitutes 32KB of formatted memory/ 42KB of Unformatted memory,6 blocks makes one Track & 15 Tracks makes one cylinder.

Q113) What is DSNDB06 ?
A113) This is the Place where DB2 Catalog resides

Q114) What is the use of DSNDB07 ?
A114) This is the area where sorting takes place in DB2

Q115) What is DATACOM db?
A115) It is a database used with VSE.

Q116) What is a Dummy Utility and what it does ?
A116) IEFBR14 is a Dummy utility and it is used for the sake of EXEC PGM= .... statement in JCL[when used it wouldn't perform any task]. e.g. While Allocating a dataset you don't have to run any utility [this could be done by giving disp=new inDD statement]. But for a PGM name must be given in EXEC statement, it is used.

Q117) What 3 guidelines do we have to follow when concatenating DD statements?
A117) Datasets must be of the same type (disk or tape), All datasets must have the same logical record length, The dataset with the largest blocksize must be listed first.

Q118) On the DD statement, what is the main difference between creating a new sequential flat file and a partitioned dataset?
A118) SPACE=(n,m) for a sequential file, SPACE=(n,m,p) for a PDS where n, m, and p are numbers. The p designates how many directory blocks to allocate.

Q119) What is the difference between IEBGENER, IEBCOPY and REPRO in IDCAMS utility?
A119) IEBGENER -- This is a dataset utility for copying sequential datasets which produces a PDS or a member from a
sequential dataset.
IEBCOPY -- This is a dataset utility for copying one PDS to another or to merge PDSs.
REPRO -- This is for copying sequential datasets. More or less same as the IEBGENER.

Q120) How do you submit JCL via a Cobol program?
A120) Use a file //dd1 DD sysout=(*,intrdr)write your JCL to this file. Pl some one try this out.

Q121) How to execute a set of JCL statements from a COBOL program ?
A121) Using EXEC CICS SPOOL WRITE(var-name) END-EXEC command. var-name is a COBOL host structure containing JCL statements.

Q122) What is the difference between static call & Dynamic call ?
A122) In the case of Static call, the called program is a stand along program, it is an executable program . During run time we can call it in our called program. As about Dynamic call, the called program is not an executable program it can executed thru the called program

Q123) What is the difference between catalogue procedure and In-Stream procedure?
A123) In Stream procedures are set of JCL statements written between JOB and EXEC statements, start with PROC and end with PEND statement. Mainly used to test cataloged procedures. Cataloged procedure is cataloged on the procedure library and is called by specifying the procedure name on the EXEC statement.

Q124) What do you feel makes a good program?
A124) A program that follows a top down approach. It is also one that other programmers or users can follow logically and is easy to read and understand.

Q125) Can we browse or edit the GDG dataset if it is a tape entry?
A125) No, You can’t edit or browse the GDG if it resides on tape.

Q126) What are the maximum and minimum sizes of any CONTROL AREA (VSAM datasets) ?
A126) Minimum Size : 1 track Maximum size : 1 cylinder

Q127) How to get cursor position from system in CICS environment ?
A127) Get it from EIBCURPOS !

Q128) How many parameters are there to a DISP statement and what are their uses ?
A128) There are three(3) parameters. Parameter 1: current data set disposition(new, shr, old, mod) Parameter 2: normal close action for data set (catlg, keep, delete) Parameter 3:abend action for data set (catlg, keep, delete).

Q129) What is the error code SOC01 indicate ?
A129) Operation exception error For e.g. a dataset open error

Q130) What is a procedure?
A130) A set of precoded JCL that can be modified through the use of parameters or override cards. Note: Procedures can be catalogued or instream.

Q131) What is the difference between specifying DISP=OLD and DISP=SHR for a dataset?
A131) OLD specifies exclusive use of a dataset, SHR allows multiple jobs to concurrently access the dataset Note: When updating a dataset, you would normally use OLD.

Q132) What are the three basic types of statements in a jobstream?
A132) JOB(one per jobstream)EXEC(one or more per job)DD(one or more per jobstep)

Q133) What does SYSIN * indicate?
A133) Instream data follows this card and is terminated when followed by a card containing // or /* in columns 1 and 2.

Q134) What are three major types of JCL statements? What are their functions?
A134) JOB - indicates start of jobstream to the operating system and through parms coded on it, certain details about the
job (time, region, message level, job accounting data).
EXEC – indicates the start of execution of a particular job step, be that step a program or a proc.
DD - is a data definition, which is used to describe the attributes of a data set (name, unit, type, space,
disposition).

1. Distinguish between positional & keyword parameters

2. How can you omit positional parameters ?

3. How do u define the identifier field for a delimiter statement ?

4. List some valid operation codes .

5. What is the purpose of the MSGLEVEL parameter ?

6. What is the function of the following parameters :
I) MSGLEVEL=(0,0)
ii) MSGLEVEL=(2,1)
iii) MSGLEVEL=(1,1)

7. What is the purpose of the MSGCLASS parameter ?

8. What are the parameters used with COND ?

9. List down the different types of comparison operators & their meaning .

10.What is the function of the TYPRUN parameter ?

11.What are the subparameters that can be used with TYPRUN?

12.What is the function of the TIME parameter?

13. What is the purpose of the EXEC statement ?

14. What are the additional keyword parameters used on the EXEC statement?

15. What is the difference between the following statements :
I) step#1 exec PGM=accpay
ii) step#1 exec tbalance

16. What is the error in the following JCL statements :
I) //step#three exec pgm=hkbc762
ii) //step#3 exec pgm = hkbc762
iii) //step#3 exec pgr = hkbc672

17. Name the system library from which modules are retrieved at execution time .

18. What is the purpose of the JOBLIB statement ?

19. If JOBLIB & STEPLIB statements are both included in a job , then which statement would overide .

20. What is the purpose of the PARM parameter ?

21. What is the pupose of the DD statement ?

22. How would u specify the device for a dataset in a DD statement ?

23. What is the function of the following DD statement //ddname DD *

24. What is the purpose of the SYSOUT Parameter in the DD statement ?

25. What are the two ways of specifying Temporary Data Sets ?

26. What are the advantages of coding the DISP parameter with MOD rather than NEW ?

27. Explain the function of the following Statement : //ddname DD DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE)

28. What is the default value of the third DISP subparameter ?

29. What is Backward Referencing ?

30. What is the purpose of Concatenating Data Sets ?

31. What is the result of a READ operation on a Dummy Data set ?

32. What are the functions of the following ddnames : SYSUDUMP , SYSABEND , SYSMDUMP

33. What are GDGs ?

DB2 Basics: Fun With Date And Time

2006-11-22T14:02:00.000-08:00

Introduction
This short article is intended for those who are new to DB2 UDB and wish to
understand how to manipulate dates and times. Most people who have worked
with other databases are pleasantly surprised by how easy it is in DB2 UDB.

The basics
To get the current date, time, and timestamp using SQL, reference the appropriate
DB2 registers:

SELECT current date FROM sysibm.sysdummy1 SELECT current time FROM sysibm.sysdummy1 SELECT current timestamp FROM sysibm.sysdummy1

The sysibm.sysdummy1 table is a special in-memory table that can be used to
discover the value of DB2 registers as illustrated above. You can also use the
VALUES keyword to evaluate the register or expression. For example, from the
DB2 Command Line Processor (CLP), the following SQL statements reveal similar information:

VALUES current date VALUES current time VALUES current timestamp

For the remaining examples, I will simply provide the function or expression without repeating
SELECT ... FROM sysibm.sysdummy1 or using the VALUES clause.
To get the current time or current timestamp adjusted to GMT/CUT, subtract the current timezone register from the current time or timestamp:

current time - current timezone current timestamp - current timezone

Given a date, time, or timestamp, you can extract (where applicable) the year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, and microseconds portions independently using the appropriate function:

YEAR (current timestamp) MONTH (current timestamp) DAY (current timestamp) HOUR (current timestamp) MINUTE (current timestamp) SECOND (current timestamp) MICROSECOND (current timestamp)

Extracting the date and time independently from a timestamp is also very easy:

DATE (current timestamp) TIME (current timestamp)

You can also perform date and time calculations using, for lack of a better term, English:

current date + 1 YEAR current date + 3 YEARS + 2 MONTHS + 15 DAYS current time + 5 HOURS - 3 MINUTES + 10 SECONDS

To calculate how many days there are between two dates, you can subtract dates as in the following:

days (current date) - days (date('1999-10-22'))

And here is an example of how to get the current timestamp with the microseconds portion reset to zero:

CURRENT TIMESTAMP - MICROSECOND (current timestamp) MICROSECONDS

If you want to concatenate date or time values with other text, you need to convert the value into a character string first. To do this, you can simply use the CHAR() function:

char(current date) char(current time) char(current date + 12 hours)

To convert a character string to a date or time value, you can use:

TIMESTAMP ('2002-10-20-12.00.00.000000') TIMESTAMP ('2002-10-20 12:00:00') DATE ('2002-10-20') DATE ('10/20/2002') TIME ('12:00:00') TIME ('12.00.00')

The TIMESTAMP(), DATE() and TIME() functions accept several more formats. The above formats are examples only and I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to discover them.

Warning:
From the DB2 UDB V8.1 SQL Cookbook by Graeme Birchall (see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Graeme_Birchall).
What happens if you accidentally leave out the quotes in the DATE function? The function still works, but the result is not correct:

SELECT DATE(2001-09-22) FROM SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1;

Answer:

====== 05/24/0006

Why the 2,000 year difference in the above results? When the DATE function gets a character string as input, it assumes that it is valid character representation of a DB2 date, and converts it accordingly. By contrast, when the input is numeric, the function assumes that it represents the number of days minus one from the start of the current era (that is, 0001-01-01). In the above query the input was 2001-09-22, which equals (2001-9)-22, which equals 1970 days.

Date functions
Sometimes, you need to know how the difference between two timestamps. For this, DB2 provides a built in function called TIMESTAMPDIFF(). The value returned is an approximation, however, because it does not account for leap years and assumes only 30 days per month. Here is an example of how to find the approximate difference in time between two dates:

timestampdiff (<n>, char( timestamp('2002-11-30-00.00.00')- timestamp('2002-11-08-00.00.00')))

In place of <n>, use one of the following values to indicate the unit of time for the result:

1 = Fractions of a second
2 = Seconds
4 = Minutes
8 = Hours
16 = Days
32 = Weeks
64 = Months
128 = Quarters
256 = Years

Using timestampdiff() is more accurate when the dates are close together than when they are far apart. If you need a more precise calculation, you can use the following to determine the difference in time (in seconds):

(DAYS(t1) - DAYS(t2)) * 86400 + (MIDNIGHT_SECONDS(t1) - MIDNIGHT_SECONDS(t2))

For convenience, you can also create an SQL user-defined function of the above:

CREATE FUNCTION secondsdiff(t1 TIMESTAMP, t2 TIMESTAMP) RETURNS INT RETURN ( (DAYS(t1) - DAYS(t2)) * 86400 + (MIDNIGHT_SECONDS(t1) - MIDNIGHT_SECONDS(t2)) ) @

If you need to determine if a given year is a leap year, here is a useful SQL function you can create to determine the number of days in a given year:

CREATE FUNCTION daysinyear(yr INT) RETURNS INT RETURN (CASE (mod(yr, 400)) WHEN 0 THEN 366 ELSE CASE (mod(yr, 4)) WHEN 0 THEN CASE (mod(yr, 100)) WHEN 0 THEN 365 ELSE 366 END ELSE 365 END END)@

Finally, here is a chart of built-in functions for date manipulation. The intent is to help you quickly identify a function that might fit your needs, not to provide a full reference. Consult the SQL Reference for more information on these functions.

SQL Date and Time Functions
DAYNAME	Returns a mixed case character string containing the name of the day (e.g., Friday) for the day portion of the argument.
DAYOFWEEK	Returns the day of the week in the argument as an integer value in the range 1-7, where 1 represents Sunday.
DAYOFWEEK_ISO	Returns the day of the week in the argument as an integer value in the range 1-7, where 1 represents Monday.
DAYOFYEAR	Returns the day of the year in the argument as an integer value in the range 1-366.
DAYS	Returns an integer representation of a date.
JULIAN_DAY	Returns an integer value representing the number of days from January 1, 4712 B.C. (the start of Julian date calendar) to the date value specified in the argument.
MIDNIGHT_SECONDS	Returns an integer value in the range 0 to 86 400 representing the number of seconds between midnight and the time value specified in the argument.
MONTHNAME	Returns a mixed case character string containing the name of month (e.g., January) for the month portion of the argument.
TIMESTAMP_ISO	Returns a timestamp value based on date, time or timestamp argument.
TIMESTAMP_FORMAT	Returns a timestamp from a character string that has been interpreted using a character template.
TIMESTAMPDIFF	Returns an estimated number of intervals of the type defined by the first argument, based on the difference between two timestamps.
TO_CHAR	Returns a character representation of a timestamp that has been formatted using a character template. TO_CHAR is a synonym for VARCHAR_FORMAT.
TO_DATE	Returns a timestamp from a character string that has been inter-preted using a character template. TO_DATE is a synonym for TIMESTAMP_FORMAT.
WEEK	Returns the week of the year of the argument as an integer value in range 1-54. The week starts with Sunday.
WEEK_ISO	Returns the week of the year of the argument as an integer value in the range 1-53.

Changing the date format
A common question I get often relates to the presentation of dates. The default format used
for dates is determined by the territory code of the database (which can be specified at database creation time). For example, my database was created using territory=US.
Therefore the date format looks like the following:

values current date 1 ---------- 05/30/2003 1 record(s) selected.

That is, the format is MM/DD/YYYY. If you want to change the format, you can bind the collection of db2 utility packages to use a different date format. The formats supported are:

DEF	Use a date and time format associated with the territory code.
EUR	Use the IBM standard for Europe date and time format.
ISO	Use the date and time format of the International Standards Organization.
JIS	Use the date and time format of the Japanese Industrial Standard.
LOC	Use the date and time format in local form associated with the territory code of the database.
USA	Use the IBM standard for U.S. date and time format.

To change the default format to ISO on windows (YYYY-MM-DD), do the following steps:
1. On the command line, change your current directory to sqllib\bnd.
For example:
On Windows: c:\program files\IBM\sqllib\bnd
On UNIX: /home/db2inst1/sqllib/bnd
2. Connect to the database from the operating system shell as a user with SYSADM authority:

db2 connect to DBNAME db2 bind @db2ubind.lst datetime ISO blocking all grant public

(In your case, substitute your database name and desired date format for DBNAME and ISO, respectively.) Now, you can see that the database uses ISO date format:

values current date 1 ---------- 2003-05-30 1 record(s) selected.

Custom Date/Time Formatting
In the last example, we demonstrated how to change the way DB2 presents dates in some localized formats. But what if you wish to have a custom format such as 'yyyymmdd'? The best way to do this is by writing your own custom formatting function.
Here is the UDF:

Create function ts_fmt(TS timestamp, fmt varchar(20)) returns varchar(50) return with tmp (dd,mm,yyyy,hh,mi,ss,nnnnnn) as ( select substr( digits (day(TS)),9), substr( digits (month(TS)),9) , rtrim(char(year(TS))) , substr( digits (hour(TS)),9), substr( digits (minute(TS)),9), substr( digits (second(TS)),9), rtrim(char(microsecond(TS))) from sysibm.sysdummy1 ) select case fmt when 'yyyymmdd' then yyyy mm dd when 'mm/dd/yyyy' then mm '/' dd '/' yyyy when 'yyyy/dd/mm hh:mi:ss' then yyyy '/' mm '/' dd ' ' hh ':' mi ':' ss when 'nnnnnn' then nnnnnn else 'date format ' coalesce(fmt,' <null> ') ' not recognized.' end from tmp </null>

The function code may appear complex at first, but upon closer examination, you'll see that it is actually quite simple and elegant. First, we use a common table expression (CTE) to strip apart a timestamp (the first input parameter) into its individual components. From there, we check the format provided (the second input parameter) and reassemble the timestamp using the requested format and parts. The function is also very flexible. To add another pattern simply append another WHEN clause with the expected format. When an unexpected pattern is encountered, an error message is returned.
Usage examples:

values ts_fmt(current timestamp,'yyyymmdd') '20030818' values ts_fmt(current timestamp,'asa') 'date format asa not recognized.'

JCL Sort Utility

2006-11-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

SORT

The SORT program in JCL on mainframe is used to sort data into a certain sequence or to merge from 2 to 100 previously sorted input data sets into 1 output data set.

//STEP10 EXEC PGM=SORT
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSUDUMP DD SYSOUT=*
//SORTIN DD DISP=SHR,DSN=<< INPUT FILE NAME >>
//SORTOUT DD DSN=<< OUTPUT FILE NAME >>,
// DISP=(MOD,CATLG,DELETE),
// DCB=*.SORTIN,
// SPACE=(CYL,(5,5),RLSE),
// UNIT=SYSDA

//SYSIN DD *
//************** INCLUDE SORT STEPS HERE

1) TO SORT ON POSITIONS say for eg. 1 to 7
SORT FIELDS=(1,7,CH,A)
Where
Sort fields = (position ,length ,format ,sequence) or
Sort fields = (position ,length , sequence..),Format = CH/BI/PD/ZD

Where CH=Character, BI=Binary, PD=Packed Decimal (COMP-3), ZD=Zone Decimal.

NOTE :-
Instead of using JCL to perform SORT operation , there's one simple alternative,
For eg:- Open a Flat file in edit mode. On the command line type (say) SORT 1,7
and press ENTER, the file will be sorted on positions 1 to 7 bytes.

2) TO COPY ALL THE RECORDS FROM INPUT FILE TO OUTPUT FILE
SORT FIELDS=COPY

3) TO COPY THOSE RECORDS WHICH SATISFY A PARTICULAR CONDITION.
SORT FIELDS=COPY
INCLUDE COND=(38,10,CH,EQ,C'57071509',OR,36,10,CH,EQ,C'57105779')

4) TO OMIT THOSE RECORDS WHICH SATISFY A PARTICULAR CONDITION.
SORT FIELDS=COPY
OMIT COND=(19,1,CH,EQ,C'S',OR,19,1,CH,EQ,C'S')

5) TO SKIP CERTAIN NO OF RECORDS
SORT FIELDS=COPY,SKIPREC=1000

6) TO STOP AFTER COPYING CERTAIN NO OF RECORDS
SORT FIELDS=COPY,STOPAFT=5000

7) SKIPREC AND STOPREC CAN BE USED IN COMBINATION
SORT FIELDS=COPY,SKIPREC=1000,STOPAFT=5000

8) TO REMOVE DUPLICATES FROM THE FILE USING SORT
SORT FIELDS=(1,7,A),FORMAT=CH
SUM FIELDS=NONE

Dangling Pointers in C Language

2006-11-20T14:55:00.000-08:00

Dangling pointers

A dangling pointer is a pointer to storage that is no longer allocated. Dangling pointers are nasty bugs because they seldom crash the program until long after they have been created, which makes them hard to find. Programs that create dangling pointers often appear to work on small inputs, but are likely to fail on large or complex inputs.

As the world's leading example of an object-oriented programming language that does not rely on garbage collection, C++ makes it easy to create dangling pointers. Here are a few examples of the most popular techniques.

Note: These examples use C-style strings because we've been using an old version of Gnu C++ whose strings do not conform to the new standard.)

delete [] s1; delete [] s2; return f (s1, s2); // s1 and s2 are dangling pointers

This code will probably appear to work unless f or one of the functions that are called during the activation of f happen to allocate heap storage. When the bug does show up, it will probably look like a bug in f or in one of the functions that f calls.

typedef Foo_ * Foo; Foo newFoo (char * x) { Foo_ tmp(x); return &tmp; }

This is the classic technique for creating a dangling pointer in C.

typedef char * Foo; Foo newFoo (char * x) { Foo tmp = new char [strlen (x) +1] ; strcpy (tmp, x); delete [] x; return tmp; }

Here newFoo creates a dangling pointer by deleting the client's C-style string.

typedef char * Foo; Foo newFoo (char * s) { return s; }

If newFoo is supposed to return a Foo whose lifetime is independent of the lifetime of its argument, then a dangling pointer will be created when a client deletes the C-style string that was passed to newFoo. The bug might appear to lie in the client code, but newFoo would be the real culprit.

class Foo { public: Foo (char * x) : len(strlen(x)), name(x) { } private: int len; char * name; }; Foo newFoo (char * s) { return Foo(s); }

Once again, a dangling pointer will be created when a client deletes the C-style string that was passed to Foo or newFoo.

class Foo { public: Foo (char * x) { len = strlen (x); name = new char[len + 1]; strcpy (name, x); } virtual ~Foo () { delete [] name; } private: int len; char * name; }; Foo newFoo (char * s) { Foo foo = Foo(s); return foo; }

This code fixes the previous bug by introducing three new bugs. The most obvious is that the compiler inserts an implicit call to foo.~Foo() when newFoo returns. This implicit call deallocates foo.name. Hence the Foo that is returned by newFoo always contains a dangling pointer.

The other bugs are illustrated by the following client code:

Foo f1 = newFoo ("hi there"); Foo f2 = f1; Foo f3; f3 = f2;

Since no copy operator is defined, the compiler will implicitly define a copy constructor that makes Foo f2 = f1 roughly equivalent to
Foo f2; f2.len = f1.len; f2.name = f1.name;

Thus f2.name becomes the same pointer as f1.name.

Similarly, no assignment operator is defined, so the compiler will implicitly define an assignment operator that makes f3 = f2 roughly equivalent to
f3.len = f2.len; f3.name = f2.name;

Thus each of f1, f2, and f3 contain exactly the same pointer. When they go out of scope, that pointer will be deallocated not once, but three times.

A storage leak would be created if we were to remove the destructor or to remove the call to delete, so those are not good alternatives. What we need is a copy constructor and an overloaded assignment operator.

class Foo { public: Foo (char * x) { len = strlen (x); name = new char[len + 1]; strcpy (name, x); } virtual ~Foo () { delete [] name; } Foo (const Foo & foo); // copy constructor const Foo & Foo:operator= (const Foo &amp;amp;amp;); // assignment operator private: int len; char * name; }; // copy constructor Foo::Foo (const Foo & foo) { len = foo.len; name = new char [foo.len]; strcpy(name, foo.name); } // assignment operator const Foo & Foo::operator= (const Foo & rhs) { delete [] name; name = new char [rhs.len + 1]; strcpy(name, rhs.name); return *this; // so x = y = z will work } Foo newFoo (char * s) { Foo foo = Foo(s); return foo; }

This code still contains a bug. Consider the client code

Foo f1 = newFoo ("hello"); Foo f2 = newFoo ("goodbye"); f1 = flag ? f1 : f2;

The assignment represents an implicit call to f1.operator=(flag ? f1 : f2). Suppose flag is true, so the value of the right hand side of the assignment is a reference to f1. The code for f1.operator= begins by deleting f1.name. It then passes the dangling pointer f1.name as both arguments to strcpy. Following the assignment, f1 contains a dangling pointer. When f1 goes out of scope, and its destructor is called, the delete [] operator will be called on f1.name for the second time.

The solution for this problem is to make the assignment operator check whether this is equal to the right hand side:

const Foo & Foo::operator= (const Foo & rhs) { if (this == &rhs) { delete [] name; name = new char [rhs.len + 1]; strcpy(name, rhs.name); } return *this; // so x = y = z will work }

20 Things One Might Not Know About Windows XP

2006-11-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

20 Things One Might Not Know About Windows XP

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care ― some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it ― just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can make it show everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file / windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the software and you can now uninstall it.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options.

6. XP has IP version 6 support ― the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run… (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType ― Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology ― but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your friend's real IP address ― they can find this out by going to http://www.whatismyip.com/ ― and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As… and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might go insane before that point, run Regedit, go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run… from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2′, which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options… and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By… Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks ― if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. Windows XP secretly KNOWS that the average user has no idea what they are doing. Therefore, it doesn't let you do really stupid things like deleting the windows directory (at least not without spending several hours convincing it that you REALLY want to do this). Oh yeah, and internet explorer kinda sucks, get Firefox.

Play online Nokia snake game

2006-11-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Here you can play online the old famous Nokia mobile snake game.

Press [home] to reset game and [space] to pause.

You can also play it here at the actual site snake game.

World big cities time and World Time Zones

2006-11-18T00:40:00.000-08:00

World big cities time

World Time Zone

Cool digital analog clocks for your website

2006-11-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

You can add any flash movie in your blog anywhere by inserting a small piece of code.Add the following code in your blog where you want to display the flash movie.

quality="high" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="100" height="180"

name="myMovieName" align=""

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

</embed>

</object>

You need to change above is src="/support/flash/ts/documents/myFlashMovie.swf" to your swf location and adjust other stuffs like width, height, background color etc as per your choice and blog template

Here are some cool digital clocks which you can use in your website.

Digital clock in hand writing mode with date

Round Digital clock like wall clock

Human Digital Clock

Digital 12 hours clock

Analog clock with date and sound

Digital clock with sound

Play with clock

The power of human mind

2006-11-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch codnutced at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are tpyed, the olny
iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
oedrer. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Interesting facts

2006-11-15T16:31:00.000-08:00

1) If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side

2) If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3) Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4) Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5) The Mercedes-Benz motto is 'Das Beste oder Nichts' meaning 'the best or nothing'.

6) The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7) The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8) The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9) Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune
system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

10) The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

11) Dalmatians are born without spots.

12) Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

13) The 'v' in the name of a court case does not stand for 'versus', but for 'and' (in civil proceedings) or 'against' (in criminal proceedings)

14) Men's shirts have the buttons on the right, but women's shirts have the buttons on the left

15) The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids

16) The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it's already been
digested by a bee

17) Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks

18) The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

19) Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

20) Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

21) The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt
blood 30 feet!!

22) When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red

23) When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red

24) The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor

25) The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named Volney

26) Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros

27) Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan

28) It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it

29) The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples

30) There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower

31) The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

32) Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

33) It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body

34) The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets

35) Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game

36) The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

37) Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.

38) In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it is smiling.)

39) Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself."

40) The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.

41) Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair

42) The average person laughs 13 times a day

43) Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil)

44) Women blink nearly twice as much as men

45) German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog

46) Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump

47) Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound

48) Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.

49) If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause

Origin of some words

2006-11-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'.

POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after
Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped.

NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S.

AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural
Marketing'.

JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day'
during each Day's business.

QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people was
waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest.

TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt
service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which
was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.

JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World
War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose
Vehicle (GP)'.

BullShit Bingo

2006-11-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Bullshit Bingo is a way to change all of that!

You are sitting in a meeting and you are trying very hard to listen to that boring speaker. The only thing keeping you awake is to mark all the useless phrases on your Bullshit Bingo sheet.

Example phrases:
Backward Compatible, Data Mining Multitask[ing], Eyeballs, Skill set ,Deliverabl[s] ,Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Knowlodge Transfer Tailwind[s], Portfolio,Core Competency, Vertical Market Resource[s], Robust Diversity,Milestone, Solution(s), Ball Park, New Economy, Aggregate

How to play:
Before each meeting, visit Bullshit Bingo and print one copy of this game card for each player, refreshing the page before each print, or have the players print their own BS Bingo cards. These instructions will not be printed, but you can select 'card only' version of this page when playing on line, or with a PDA.
Check off each block when you hear these words during a meeting, seminar, or phone call. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout BULLSHIT!!

You can also play here : http://www.hjsv.com/games/bingo/bingo.html

An excellent humorous commercial for a fictional game to be played during corporate meetings.

See more here : http://www.lovelyjane.btinternet.co.uk/bullshit.htm

Tom & Jerry: New Vs Old

2006-11-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here is Vintage cartoon featuring the original Tom & Jerry in 1930s without cat and mouse

Keep watching the cartoons, The entertainment comedy TV shows online free

Here is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's world-famous cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry.
Keep watching the cartoons, The entertainment comedy TV shows online free

Love Quotes

2006-11-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

What greater thing is there for two human souls that to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

~ George Eliot

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing.

~ Mignon McLaughlin

For one human being to love another that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof; the work for which all other work is but preparation.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.

~ Mother Teresa

Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another's heart, or its flame burns low.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love.

~ Henry Drummond

Treasure the love you receive above all.

It will survive long after your good health has vanished.

~ Og Mandino

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.

~ Pearl S. Buck

Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.
~ Marguerite De Valois

All love that has not friendship for its base,
is like a mansion built upon the sand.
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time:
effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end.
~ Germaine De Stael

Love is the history of a woman's life; it is an episode in man's. ~ Germaine De Stael
The loving are the daring.
~ Bayard Taylor

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible.
~ Mother Teresa

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts,
Of kindness and of love.
~ William Wordsworth

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.
~ Robert Browning

Love is a thing, well, its kind of like quicksand:
The more you are in it, the deeper you sink.
And when it hits you, you've just got to fall.
~ UB40

Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion
that each include the other,
each is enriched by the other.
~ Felix Adler
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine.
~ Steve Winwood
Love is an electric blanket with somebody else in control of the switch.
~ Cathy Carlyle
Love does not consist in gazing at each other
but in looking together in the same direction.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.
~ Benjamin Disraeli
Find the person who will love you because of your differences and
not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.
~ Leo Buscaglia
Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes.
There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.
~ Henry Kissinger
To laugh often and love much... to appreciate beauty,
to find the best in others, to give one's self...
this is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
~ Lao Tzu
The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.
~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel
Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed:
our love to others, and others' love to us.
~ Thomas Trahern
Love is always bestowed as a gift --
freely, willingly, and without expectation....
We don't love to be loved; we love to love.
~ Leo Buscaglia

It is best to love wisely, no doubt;
but to love foolishly is better than
not to be able to love at all.
~ William Thackeray
Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery.
~ Fulton J. Sheen
We find rest in those we love, and we provide a resting place
in ourselves for those who love us.
~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.
~ Elbert Hubbard
The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable.
~ Victor Hugo
There is no instinct like that of the heart.
~ Lord Byron
We are all born for love...
it is the principle existence and it's only end.
~ Disraeli
To fear love is to fear life,
and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
~ Bertrand Russell, Earl Russell
We can only learn to love by loving.
~ Iris Murdoch
May no gift be too small to give,
nor too simple to receive,
which is wrapped in thoughtfulness
and tied with love.
~ L.O. Baird
Spread love everywhere you go:
first of all in your own home.
Give love to your children, to a wife
or husband, to a next-door neighbor.
~ Mother Teresa
The dedicated life is the life worth living.
You must give with your whole heart.
~ Anne Dillard
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
You come to love not by finding the perfect person,
but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
~ Sam Keen
What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
Love doesn't make the world go 'round.
Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
~ Franklin P. Jones
The truth [is] that there is only one terminal dignity-love. And the story of a love is not important-what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.
~ Helen Hayes

Google Search Tips

2006-11-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

Advance Searching

Advance Search Tips from Google

Search the Universe

~ Songs/Entertainment

“parent directory ” MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

?intitle:index.of? mp3

?intitle:index.of? mp3 britney - Change britney with the artist you want.

~ Applications

“parent directory ” /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

“parent directory ” Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

~ Ebooks

+(”index of”) +(”/ebooks””/book”) +(chmpdfziprar) +apache

ebook intitle:”Title” filetype:pdf ~ Change the Title according to your Need.

To Search Megaupload and Rapidshare

To see all video files available on MegaUpload...

google: avimpgmpegwmvrmvb site:megaupload.com

To see all music files available on MegaUpload...

google: mp3oggwma site:megaupload.com

To see all archives and programs available on MegaUpload...

google: ziprarexe site:megaupload.com

Want some pdf ebooks?

google: pdf site:megaupload.com

For example, if you want to see a bunch of 50cent songs (available for you to freely download)...

google: +inurl:wmamp3ogg site:rapidshare.de cent

To see all video files available on rapidshare...

google: +inurl:avimpgwmv site:rapidshare.de

To see all archives and programs available...

google: +inurl:exerarzip site:rapidshare.de

To see all music files available...

google: +inurl:wmamp3ogg site:rapidshare.de

This should show all files available...

google: .* site:rapidshare.de