Mitch Hoffman

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA downtown city skyline on the Ohio River at dusk.

It’s a Beautiful Day in the (Modern) IBM i Neighborhood

Reflections from COMMON NAViGATE 2025 & New Friends Made I first understood the genius of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood not as a child, but as a parent growing up in the technology age. Born in the 1970s, I grew up on comic books, black-and-white television reruns, and face-to-face conversations. And of course, his airy, gentle, 30-minute […]

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USS Enterprise starship model representing IBM i modernization journey

To Have Boldly Gone: An Ongoing Mission of IBM i Modernization

“3rd officer’s log, Stardate 102783.9: Our ongoing modernization mission continues…”  I love Star Trek. A lifetime of watching every single episode, series, and movie (as well as short and very short treks) has allowed me to notice an unexpected parallel in the history of the IBM i platform. Both Star Trek and the IBM i

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Technology professionals collaborating around table with laptops demonstrating face-to-face networking benefits emphasized in IBM i user groups

IBM i User Groups: Why Local Tech Communities Still Matter in 2025

IBM i User Groups have been the backbone of the midrange computing community for decades. As technology increasingly pushes us toward virtual interactions, local user groups remain vital for professional growth, networking, and knowledge sharing. Local technology User Groups (aka Regional User Groups, or RUGs) have been the social fabric of the technology community since

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Pin by Pin: COMMON’s 30-Year Legacy of IBM i Conference Collectables

Completing collections is not only fun, but it also satisfies my OCD-like need to complete sets of things. Has anyone else experienced this and noticed that “pin collecting” is a low-cost, high-reward option? And if you’ve worked with the IBM i platform (maybe you’ve heard of the AS/400, iSeries, i5, or Power Systems?), perhaps you’ve

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