Updated: April 17, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

He's gone!

Nothing left in the lab but a few screws and two large tape drives but FrankieIII himself is missing! Discovered in the back yard were tire tracks apparently made by a truck with dual wheeels. Where could he have gone?

Oh, one more thing found on the floor:

Updated: April 8, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

The mystery continues...

FrankiIII is now completely dissasembled. Additional casters appeared under the rolling Frankenbase and every cables in the lab is coiled and boxed. The lab's guard dogs Shadow and Checkers have been heard barking at the door at the rear of the lab.. Hmmmmm.

More if it happens.

Updated: April 1, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

More happenings in the lab...

Pallets were discovered in the Frankenlab yesterday along with strapping tape. FrankieIII has removed all network cables and stuffed them in a box. Tape drives are now dark and stacked on the floor. Survelance cameras show nobody in the area..

More as it happens.

Updated: March 29, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

Strange happenings in the lab...

Activity has picked up in the Frankenlab in the last few days. It seems that FrankieIII has begun dissasembling himself. Many disk units have been discovered in boxes and a large number of cables are no longer connected.

Stay tuned for more on this wierd story.

Updated: March 29, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

Facebook recants - a little.

Social neetworking site facebook has restored Dr Franken's access to it's pages. While they still claim that he was 'spamming' they have at least decided to allow him access while they 'review the case'. What a bunch of strong armed tactics that could be easily cleared up by reviewing the actual content and where it was posted. Oh well, nobody said such sites had common sense.

Updated: March 13, 2009 via FrankenNews Service

Dr Franken 'booted' from Facebook.

The popular social neetworking site facebook apparently has some 'issues' with it's 'spamming detection' software. While in the process of creating a group the Dr experienced technical problems with his network connection which caused the updates to the group to fail. After a few attempts to get it to 'stick' a message was issued which loosly translates to 'yer done'. Attemps to reach the FB staff have fallen on deaf email accounts.

The text of the 'warning' email (sent after the account was disabled) indicates that 'repeatedly posting the same content to multiple groups is spamming and violates our Terms of Use. (But them keeping your pictures forever is OK?) However in this case it was ONE group that the post was posted to and the group consists (at least as far as I know) of exactly one person, the Dr. So is it spamming to repeatedly post content to yourself?

According to their Q&A under 'misusing the site for spam'. "It is a violation of Facebook's Terms of Use to repeatedly send the same message or to make the same post. Facebook prides itself in protecting users from spam, and we take this standard very seriously. If you have been warned, please do not send or post anymore messages with the same or similar content. Spamming on Facebook will lead to your account being permanently disabled."

No option, no grace, no 2nd chance. C-ya.

Those of you who were friends of the Dr on Facebook will be glad to know he's fine and availabe by email, the contact us links to the left, and by phone.

Strange that a site with so much popularity has such a simple thing broken.

Updated: November 20, 2008 via FrankenNews Service

It's Official, IBM Chief Scientist Dr Frank Soltis to retire December 31, 2008.

It's public now as posted on Maxed Out. Chris Maxcer's Blog on SystemiNetwork As mentioned here over a week ago Dr Frank Soltis is in fact ending his official career with the IBM Rochester works and the BEST computing system ON THE PLANET, the system now known as IBM i.

Recently Dr Soltis has enjoyed touring the globe and meeting with the close knit user community of the platform. This included last year's world tour with Frankeni's own DrFranken which included a stop at the OCEAN users group in southern California.

It is hard to overestate the brilliance of the architecture of IBM i. Recently this Dr. was asked by an inquiring Windoze admin "OK You're running like 20 system on that machine, just exactly how in the he** can you run it for a YEAR without so much as a reboot?" Door opened, explanation on. The rest of the next half hour was punctuated with 'REALLY!" and "SERIOUSLY!" and similair words. At the end the comment we've all heard entirely too often: "Why doesn't IBM tell anyone about this?" Well we all know that Dr. Frank tried and in is own right did a fantastic job but even Dr. Frank is just one man.

As his retirement becomes reality, the Frankeni team would like to be amoung the first to wish Dr. Frank all the best in his retirement from IBM. As the Webmunster commented recently on the midrange.com discussion list, Dr Frank has many opportunities to enjoy that may even include racing at Indy! (Heck I'd love to go 235 MPH myself... just not in the Old Red Dodge..)

Dr. Frank has indicated that he would like to remain connected to the IBM i community in the future. As one way to do that the Frankeni team would also like to offer the prestigious position of Chief Scientist at Frankeni to Dr Frank. While the position doesn't pay much, it offers endless opportunities to discover even more ways to utilize the hardware and softare he created over the years. Besides we're pretty sure he'd be able to clue us in on a lot of stuff we're puzzled about!

The team has compiled all the handouts we have received over the years from Dr Frank's presentations and have posted them here. Please alert us to any discrepancies you may notice.

In honor of Dr. Frank's contributions to the System i, the Frankeni team would like to propose that on December 31 at the momenet of his official retirement from IBM, 5PM CST all S/38, AS/400, iSeries, System i, and IBM i systems and partitions world wide be shut down for one hour. Well,.... maybe not. The world would miss us!

Stay tuned to Frankeni.com for updates to this important story and the status of our offer to Dr Frank. - DrFranken

Posted: October 24, 2008 via FrankenNews Service

See DrFranken & WebMunster at iSeries DevCon 2008!

DrFranken and the WebMunster will be speaking at iSeries DevCon 2008 NEXT WEEK in Orlando, Florida. The conference runs October 27-29 with jumpstart sessions on Sunday the 26th.

While the pair will present separately for most of the conference, they'll team up on Wednesday for another presentation of the COMMON Gold Medal winning session "Pimp My i."

See the Hear the Team Speak page for other upcoming events.

Posted: April 04, 2008 via FrankenNews Service

Frankeni mourns loss of a friend.

The news hit the team like a medicine ball to the chest: Longtime COMMON speaker, contributor, mentor, and friend Al Barsa Jr. passed away at what became his final COMMON conference last evening.

Despite a fall a week ago that left him with 150 stitches and a broken nose, Al presented all his sessions, a total of 7 session hours, at the 2008 annual conference in Nashville TN. When first seen with his black and blue eye and nose before the conference got started, Al told DrFranken: "The other guy was the chairman of HP!"

Al was seen at all the iSocial events as well, speaking to many attendees throughout. At the close of the Wednesday event DrFranken enjoyed a joke told the way only Al could tell it and laughed when Al poked fun of COMMON staff members as he often did.

The team extends our deepest sympathy to Al's family and Friends.

A Pillar of the IBM i community Al will be sorely missed. The frankeni team suggests contributsions to the COMMON Education Foundation (CEF) in his memory.

Posted: March 31, 2008 via FrankenNews Service

Awards presented at COMMON Opening

We reported a few months ago that DrFranken & WebMunster won gold speaker medals and Best New Session for "Pimp my i" at the Anaheim conference. The awards were officially presented during Sunday's Opening Session here in Nashville.

Chris Maxcer over at his "Maxed out" blog on System i Network had a summary of the Opening Session and made mention of the awards which were given out.

Sure, Chris was just summarizing the session, but heck, pretty much any time you can see your name in "lights" so to speak is a good thing. He had this comment on the Best New Session award:

"Judging by audience reaction, though, more than a few attendees appreciated Best New Session - 2007 winners Larry Bolhuis and Kevin Mort, who delivered, "Pimp My i, Extreme System i Engineering"."

Pretty cool stuff.

Posted: January 30, 2008 via FrankenNews Service

New Feature: The Team Speaks!

Ever wonder where you can hear members of the team speak about all things i? Wonder no more! Now you can find us around the country by checking out the newest section on Frankeni.com: The Team Speaks It's updated as our schedules change. If you'd like to hear us speak click the 'Contact Us' link on the left and drop us a note.

Posted: December 26, 2007 via FrankenNews Service

New Feature: FrankenWeather!

Ever wonder why the Dr. is in his lab working on Frankie and friends? Well he lives in MI and the weather isn't always perfect! Check out the weather at the lab coutesy of the Dr's Christmas present, a weather station, here: FrankenWeather It's updated automatically.

Posted: November 27, 2007 via FrankenNews Service

The Dr's Blog.

Haven't seen Dr Franken in print in a while and wondering what he's thinking? Check out his opinions at The Dr's Blog Be sure to check back regularly for updates.

Updates: November, 2007 via FrankenNews Service

Dr. Franken and iGor LIVE at iSeries Devcon.

iGor and the Dr. presented "Pimp My i - Extreme System i Engineering" at iSeries Devcon in Las Vegas, NV on October 31st. The presentation was to a nearly packed house and drew rounds of applause from the audience. It may have even generated a few donations to the cause!

DrFranken meets Dr Frank Soltis when he presents "Pimp My i - Extreme System i Engineering" at OCEAN in Southern California on March 18, 2008

Posted: October 22, 2007 via FrankenNews Service

Dr. Franken & WebMunster Go GOLD at COMMON,

"Pimp My i" Earns Best New Session!

The Franken i Team announces that Dr. Franken and the WebMunster have earned gold medal speaker awards for "Pimp My i - Extreme System i Engineering", presented at the COMMON Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

The session was also named "Best New Session" at the conference.

The Franken i Team would like to thank all of our contributors, friends and supporters, as well as everyone in attendance for helping to make this happen.

Dr. Franken and WebMunster also give a special "shout out" to iGor for his contributions to the session.

We'll be back in action for the 2008 COMMON Annual Meeting & Expo in Nashville, TN - March 30-April 3.

Posted: April 28, 2007 via FrankenNews Service

Dr. Franken Honored...

COMMON Annual Conference - Anaheim, California, USA

At the Opening Session at COMMON's Spring 2007 conference in Anaheim California Frankeni.com's own DrFranken was awarded COMMON's Highest Honor, the Distinguished Service Award. The award is given "For long-term commitment and leadership in the development and delivery of COMMON's Education Curriculum."

Congratulations DrFranken!