IBM i Pops Up on eHow.com

Just when I thought I'd seen it all (well okay, not everything), a Google Alert shows up in my inbox with an IBM i article from, of all places, eHow.com. You know, that website that pops up when you Google "how to make paper mache" (don't even ask—or at least, don't try to hurry the drying process by putting it in a warm oven!).

Seriously, in regards to IBM i (or more commonly on eHow.com, the iSeries) you can learn:

How to Install, Upgrade or Delete i5/OS & Related Software, which really looks like an article on how to connect to a server running IBM i from a PC.

How to Create XML From an iSeries File, which describes how to turn data files stored on an i system into XML files.

How to Restore an iSeries on Another System, which looks like how you might put the contents of a single database stored on an i system onto a diskette.

How to Restore From an iSeries Tape, which sounds like it might really work, except that the author's maple syrup has won awards in competition, leading me to believe that then again, maybe it won't.

How to Remove an iSeries Password Cache, which sounds like few too many instructions to do something complex, but the author has a degree in computer science.

How to Print From iSeries to Ricoh, which seems like basic info.

At first I thought this was a totally cool phenomena, that IBM i had claimed a decent presence on a mainstream website. But now I'm not so sure. Most of these instructions are written in 3 to 5 steps and most are by authors whose backgrounds have nothing to do with technology, which leaves me wondering:

Are there SMBs (or dare I say, enterprises) out there that have some form of an i system sitting amongst their Wintel servers with no clue about what to do with it? And suddenly a day comes when they want to take some data off it and put it on a Wintel system but have no one in-house who knows how to do that and so ventures to the web where they find these instructions on eHow.com?

Naw.

Seeing as how most entries are written by self-proclaimed writers, and that eHow.com offers $15 to $20 per hour to folks willing to write 3 or so entries in that hour and offers fame and glory on a website with high hits as a benefit, I'd have to guess that these writers are covering everything and anything to make a buck.

—Rita-Lyn Sanders, Senior Industry Editor

The article was originally published on the SystemINetwork website