Jonathan Ross 's Practical Technologies

TV is not borderless or democratic .. so what?

2009-12-07T22:00:00.004+02:00

I have limited experience in the field of Television and its monetization but as I understand it there are two things that keep the money rolling; ratings and advertising.

Now if I get the basic business model primetime TV is the shows that attract the highest ratings and also are in the optimal timeslots for the specific days of the week which means more people see these shows and thus the advertising during commercial breaks and or implicit product placement in this show.

Okay. So what? Yesterday at Jeff Pulver's excellent #140conf TLV I discussed this with some new friends (you know who you are tweeps) and I explained my view of this.

If you are a follower of a particular TV show here in Israel or generally outside the US or UK then you tend to lag behind on hit shows like Alias, Lost, Heroes, Chuck, 24 etc. and your friends and family can be easily 1 or 2 seasons ahead; if you even have that show here on Satellite or Cable TV.

Again, so what? First, once again this lag inhibits hardcore fans of these shows from full social interaction of their favorite shows. The networks who own these shows either want the lag, or are charging for said hit, new show more than the local providers can or want to pay.

Cause and effect time folks... 1. Oh look there's this crazy peer 2 peer technology let's stuff it back in the box ... yes that worked so well for the music industry didn't it? 2. Oh darn we released it in DVD and they went and ordered it via one of those crazy sites like Amazon. We made some money on that didn't we (network exec)? 3. (Local fan) I know I'll have my folks in the States video it or copy their DVD and when they visit ... you see they were totally right to try to make it illegal to record music to tape and TV to video. Case closed.

Sarcasm aside about these recurring patterns every time a new media technology pops up. The idea is simple: people want to be entertained and then have the ability to discuss it in real time. They want to be up to the same place as their friends and not a year behind and either feel left out or have the big plotline spoilt for them.

Consumers will always find a way to keep up and technology will be the great equalizer whether it be Tape to tape Cassette Decks, VCR's, Bit Torrent or other tech. Instead of resisting and forcing these things to be illicit in some way perhaps something similar to iTunes for TV could be adopted.

Is this going to disfranchise the local content providers not if we look at the money model again... ratings and advertising. Right now if you try to watch TV shows from Network websites or 3rd party providers they detect your non-US IP address and block you. I know I would pay per show a reasonable amount to watch. The real zinger is that yes detect my IP address and then ensure you have purchased local ads to suit my location and screen those ads in the commercial break to me. The network will include in the price I pay the cost of buying those ads from the local network.

Is this perfect and the solution to world peace as well? No but I'm not a rocket scientist and I could figure this out, why can't they?

The author of this blog is not encouraging anyone to act in an illegal or unethical manner vis a vis the intellectual property of others. This post is simply an article defining a view of how things could be. (Network exec... ok call off the ninjas guys.)

Is Cable TV going to get personal?

2009-12-07T20:52:00.004+02:00

My Cable company http://hot.net.il is implementing UFI cable internet over the next year in Israel with speeds of up to 100Mb.

At the moment I have 3Mb the question is why do I need more?

Now they do specify that at certain speeds you may need to upgrade hardware (including wireless routers) and their main UFI page refers to this being a benefit for legitimate music download. Even at lower speeds the user will basically have real time download of music. However, with download speeds of 100 Mb (as usual when its new it can get expensive to have a service like this) are Cable companies going to allow TV and internet to converge?

What do I mean? Well imagine you switch on your TV or an interface from your Media/ regular PC and login with your Cable customer ID and password. Now you TiVO like program the shows you want to see and when you want to see them. Or simply you say I want to watch program xyz right now. You get up, put the kettle on and by the time your cup of tea is brewed you can watch the program you want at the time you want.

Yes, scheduled programming will become a thing of the past and perhaps even the concept of channels will too; instead I will have Channel Jonny and maybe part of this will be a Social Network that allows me to share my schedule with my Cable friends who are profiled with similar interests and then if we are free at the same time they can simply use my schedule.

Another alternative is computer games over the web. At speeds like this the multi user gaming experience truly will become real-time.

So if you have an in with the Cable company and no-one ever thought of this then feel free to take the idea and run with it. Let's make TV personal and social all over again.

Oh yes, and as the Missus reminded me right now, this will probably be the most positive thing to affect whether people continue to download shows and movies elsewhere.

QA, Testing and some of the challenges therein.

2009-12-01T21:09:00.008+02:00

My thanks to my interviewer today for a QA job for helping me get some ducks in a row about this...

Both my Missus and I have worked for several years now in QA. We have tested different products and worked for different companies but occassionally in the same buildings.

I stumbled into QA from GIS after testing some validation software my employer created for 3rd Party Geo-data suppliers. I discovered that I enjoyed the methodological, structured work and the challenge of ensuring that the customer/ end-user gets a stable, quality product that answers their original need. I think it all stems from being the little kid who stole his Dad's toolbox and tried to figure out why appliances didn't work properly by disassembling them.

However, QA is not without its own challenges; from the constant challenge of that one developer who cannot reproduce your bugs in a Dev environment, schedules that end up shortening due to prior commitments, delayed builds arriving late at night to test and so on.

Note please, I said challenges. Why? Because these are not negatives. These are things that as you progress you learn the best way to deal with for the particular company you are working at.

Each company has its own particular culture. This may be defined by the product, or new cutting edge technology, the need to be first to market or the amount of cash available. The work culture is also defined by the people. The employees have a huge part in how the work envinronment is and the nature of work between QA and R&D can be a challenge in its own right.

I have been lucky enough to be faced with these challenges and benefitted from some great bosses, leaders in their fields who have influenced me in many ways.

Some of the most fruitful days I have spent as a QA Manager have been hands-on testing, working with a Developer and gradually together finding the best way for us to work.

I have blogged several times previously about collaboration (tools and methods) and how only shared information is power (in fact empowering).

A QA Manager has to wear many hats sometimes you feel like a hostage negotiator but with all the satisfaction to be found in the management side nothing will replace the hands-on testing and work opposite Developers. Not just because its fun to work with smart people.

Locational .. part 3

2009-12-01T21:08:00.001+02:00

A shorty .. thanks to Martin for his comment in part 1 about a mistake I made in explaining this.

All true Martin and thanks!

Locational Services and your Mobile: Part 2

2009-11-26T21:15:00.002+02:00

Moving rapidly on ... we have established a relative location to the fixed position of several cellular antenas. This information changes as you move from the coverage of one cell antenna to another.

In the words of Q, Pay attention 007. If all this is true, then imagine visualizing the locations of all the cellular phones in a given region on a screen, where each cellular phone is a dot on the screen.

As the data updates in real time what if any patterns will begin to stand out and what other geo-data can we extrapolate from this imagery: -

If we see linear streams of dots travelling at proportional speeds to each other but faster than clusters or isolated dots in random or fixed positions then this probably represents cellular phones on cars travelling on roads. We have just extrapolated roads.
As this data updates we can estimate traffic speeds on these roads based on changes in position and subsequent traffic jams. We have just extrapolated basic traffic details.

That is just for starters. I am sure that you are already thinking of more extrapolations.

More to follow ... as and when it occurs.

Locational Services and your Mobile Device: Part 1

2009-11-26T21:07:00.000+02:00

Can I tell you a secret? Okay not such a secret but lean in .. I used to be a geographer. No stop! I don't know the capitols of every city. I studied all about cartography (making maps), GIS (Geographical Information Systems), GPS (don't get me started on GPS) and in addition Computer Science with some Psychology thrown in just to keep me sane I guess.

Now then, let me ask you another question. Did you know that the cellular phone in your pocket is yelling "yoo-hoo! I'm right here" to your network provider right this instant?

Your cellular phone is continually seeking the best reception from the nearest and strongest signals it can receive from at least two if not more cell antennas or towers.

Slightly oversimplified but basically now you know. Cellular phones are radios; they can transmit and receive in full duplex and most radio signals rely on line-of-sight to enable this process.

So what does this mean to you? It means that your cellular phone has a measure of knowledge of where it and thus you are. The network antennas are fixed positions i.e. the cellular provider and anyone with a map, GPS etc. has its coordinates/ location.

You however with your cellular phone have the unmitigated cheek to keep moving. This tends to make things complicated as you and every other cellular phone moves in 3 dimensions.

Really though the theory and practice of locating a phone is based on triangulation: -

To establish the distance from your phone to one cell antenna imagine using the simple formula time x speed = distance i.e. if it takes 2 seconds to ping an antenna with a signal travelling at 1km/ second then the distance from the antenna is 2km.
Do the same thing to another antenna and just to be sure a third tower.
Let's assume that we can establish the rough direction each antenna is from us and now if we were to draw a line that shows the distance calculated from each antenna then where the three lines intersect is the triangulation point of the cellular phone.

This is not exact or at least as exact as GPS but it works. More to follow in part 2.

Mutual Mentoring and Reciprocity

2009-11-23T01:06:00.004+02:00

Last week I had an interesting and thought provoking experience, I received a phone call from an acquaintance who like me is recently unemployed, in hi-tech and wants to find gainful employment.

We met up and discussed our respective situations having worked together for awhile in the past. During our chat I asked to see their resume and likewise my acquaintance politely asked to see mine.

We more or less at the same time began to offer suggestions and ideas to each other, brainstorming how we seek jobs, interview techniques, books and blogs we look at and people to network with.

Then it occurred to me that this kind of mutual mentoring, critiqueing resumes, cover letters, offering suggestions and guidance to each other was immensely beneficial.

I won't suggest this comes close to using a professional career or resume coach or benefiting from input and direction from a Headhunter/ Recruiter however our shared experiences and knowledge were certainly greater together than apart.

Simply put this was an application of a previous idea http://clanrossconcepts.blogspot.com/2008/12/shared-knowledge-or-skills-is-power.html that I had written of in this blog.

I want to expand on this idea and see if we can't build a strong and vital community/ network of professionals who even after they find their next job find a way to mutually mentor and contribute to others in this way. If you have ideas on the subject then do contact or comment. If you want to meet up then let me know too. Sometimes it might just be enough to help someone see things in a more positive light when the job search looks tough.

So now I one more thing to fit into my schedule but what could be better than an idea like this?

My Espresso Machine: Part 2 - A broken part

2009-11-22T21:51:00.002+02:00

Last week I was tamping the coffee grinds into the portafilter cup ... the aluminum cup with a black insulated handle that holds the grinds and the heated water passes thru under pressure to make the espresso; I had been a little ill and not paying attention to how I was applying strength to things.

I placed the filled portafilter cup and rotated it and a rather loud snap left me with the handle in my hand and the rest of the aluminum part locked in place.

Had I been alone my first response would probably have been to let rip with a string of vernacular to make a sailor blush but my Mrs and the little guy always seem to help me control that urge just by being there. One brief visit into the laundy room later I was expletive free and of a mindset to resolve this issue until I could get a replacement part.

Oh sure, just manage without the coffee machine until the part arrives. Wait who said that? I'm not sure if my MacGyver like skills come from a natural ability, inherited from several generations back or simple necessity.

First attempt was to repair the handle using epoxy resin. Aluminum apparently is no great friend of this compound. The Mrs was ecstatic I didn't glue my fingers together in a caffeine withdrawal frenzy. After she managed to stop guffawing, sorry it was more of a giggle, she's way to lady-like to guffaw (especially at me) she reminded me that in the Sparta-like society that is Israel the ER woul probably just hacksaw my fingertips apart and better to find another solution.

I wrapped my cerebellum around several other trials with less than success until I arrived at an almost perfect solution: an adjustable locking wrench from my toolbox.

This was one of my earlier purchases for my toolbox and as such it was cheap. It's a tool I have been meaning to replace when I have the chance with one that works better. I can use the espresso machine now but once in awhile the wrench springs open of its own volition to a hearty and poorly timed crash.

Oh well until I get the replacement part.

My Espresso Machine: Part 1

2009-11-22T21:23:00.004+02:00

For 7 months now I have had an Espresso machine at home. I know, you are thinking that my coffee consumption skyrocketed and I am mainlining caffeine.. nope actually the opposite, I savor my 2-3 cups a day. So thanks Mum and Dad for buying us this when you were visiting in the summer.

I have made it my business to explore the different coffee beans available here in Modiin and try each of them to see who gives me the best cup of coffee. There was a point where my wife was bringing me fresh ground beans back from an international coffee chain in Hertzliya where she works but frankly this coffee didn't stand up to my criteria.

Personally, its a balance of the following: -

Flavor - I like my coffee strong and rich; I'm an espresso drinker so it can't be insipid.
Not too strong - unlike some extended family members (u know who you are) I don't believe the coffee should be used for launching the shuttle, defibrillating heart attack victims or for stripping paint off the walls of the cellar when flood waters receed.
Caffeine - recent research has shown multiple therapeutic benefits for caffeine/ coffee; for allergies, asthma and the like .. duhh!!! I've had medical professionals scoff at me saying that coffee helps me more than steroids during allergy season for years .. hate to say it but I told you so. Note: coffee and all caffeine should be used responsibly. This works for me but I don't recommend it to anyone else. Caffeine can and will interact negatively with certain medications.
Strength - strong but not so strong you need to buy stock in antacid.

I'm kind of surprised that up until now there is no single social network out there solely based on a love of coffee.

Anyhow, for those of you familiar with Monty Python's Meaning of Life there are days when you might just find me in front of my Morphy Richards Espresso Machine chanting .. "Oh Espresso Machine, you are so big... you are so very great!"

If you didn't get it, this was a just a little bit tongue on cheek. lol.

Israeli Hi-tech, rapid exits, government and incentives

2009-11-16T17:55:00.001+02:00

Israel has long been famous for its hi-tech know-how. Many companies have flourished here and most have raced for the rapid exit.

This seems to fit a profile along with the persona that Israeli hi-tech personnel are known for .. super assertive, strong willed and not afraid to state their case. There are corporations who purchase Israeli companies who then add to their corporate websites articles to employees explaining the cultural background to this to ensure that employees from other countries aren't too shocked by all this.

However, it is the rapid exit part that concerns me. Every private company, its founders and investors are in business to make money and who can criticize that but, as a country surely we also need hi-tech companies that grow long term and flourish here in Israel.

I read this week that our govenrment and obviously (in this case) PM Netanyahu amongst them wants to offer incentives for just this.

As a country we can ill afford to allow all this know-how and technology to migrate so rapidly to the US particularly given the attitudes of the current adminstration to Israel and the increasing talk of offshore R&D being bad for US employment (this being a misrepresentation at best and ignorant naivete at worst).

For our country to flourish and progress, to offer greater employment opportunities and open satellite offices or parterships abroad we need to find the best ways possible to show that the rapid exit is not always best.

My thoughts on spam or, the guy on the bus starts whispering to you about ... WHAT!

2009-11-16T01:00:00.005+02:00

Having dealt with the issue of malware eating my C drive and reinstalling I took some time to clean my different email inboxes.

My webmail connected to this blog has been onset with spam comments (mainly in kanji) and a local Modiin politician who should really know better has repeatedly snubbed my requests for him to remove my Netvision email address from his mailing list.

1. If someone came up to you on a bus, train or in the street and started telling and selling this unsolicited stuff to you how would you respond? Those of you who know me well know exactly how I would respond to this.

2. Why do we have to put up with this? As consumers isn't it time we started yelling to the ISP's and anti-malware / anti-spam developers to create more offensive tools that allow us to fight back.

3. Why won't the ISP block specific email addresses or even domains on demand - there has to be money in it for them?

I remember installing my first antivirus and my first firewall and deleting my first spam mail.
I would like to remember after all this my first day where my mail is spam free and my web surfing is alert free, wouldn't you?

How malware ate my Desktop PC .. what I learnt.

2009-10-25T19:17:00.000+02:00

Like any of us if enough time goes by in peace and quiet we get complacent and don't follow our own established procedures. That's what happened to me two weeks ago. My PC was infected with a particularly nasty bit of malware.. due to my complacency and probably a tired click on the wrong link.

It was very late and I was tired, already a recipe for IT disaster :-) and the next morning I booted up my PC none the wiser. I had been running my Antivirus as part of Panda Internet Security regularly but since all was reasonably quiet I had not been running an additional anti-spyware program frequently enough.

I had Windows Defender installed and MalwareBytes but was only getting around to running them about once a month.

As I said I booted the PC and after typing my password went to get a cup of coffee. On my return Windows XP was reporting a problem with OS files having been overwritten and this was the first sign that something was seriously wrong.

I couldn't run Panda or either of the anti-spyware programs, no executables or OS folders could be found throught search, Explorer or via DOS either locally, over the workgroup and finally no Disk On Key Apps could be run.

So I tried a System Restore .. nope.

Then I tried a Repair from the Boot Disk .. my Administrator password was not recognized.

Several inappropriate words later I deciced to try backing up my data, PST etc to an external drive .. luckilly this worked. Then of course I opened my laptop and used it to scan the external drive as deep as it could go using Panda, Spybot Search and Destroy and MalwareBytes.

I decided to cut my attempts at repairing the damage short and just reformat and reinstall the OS and programs.

To cut a long story short, the PC is up and running better than ever with more stringent security; what did I learn?

Complacency is one step before disaster.
Backup, backup, backup.
Keep all your data on a separate partition and preferably sync it to a remote or network store.
Keep a list safe (hardcopy in this case) of all your license keys for all your software.
It's worth having a reminder for scheduled antivirus and antispyware scans.
If you even suspect that you clicked on the wrong thing or the PC is acting strange then run your security programs.

Cellular Hack *81

2009-08-25T14:57:00.006+03:00

Yesterday I saw I had a message on my Windows Mobile phone and half paying attention dialed *80 to access my voicemail.

Actually I had dialled *81 and I hung up after several seconds and redialled to discover that by dialling *81 I had activated voicemail recording from my phone.

So the next time you want to have a spy moment or you are in a meeting/ interview you want to keep a discreet record of, try dialing *81 and for the cost of the call you can record the proceedings to your voicemail box.

Now to test other * codes on the phone and see what they do.

Think outside the box? Ignore the box and just think.

2009-08-25T14:57:00.005+03:00

When confronted by a difficult or challenging problem we are encouraged to Think outside the box.

This concept is based on finding non-conventional, creative or more radical solutions that would not normally be used.

In software testing "the box" is the application/ component/ feature being tested and the categories of testing are Black - hands on (WYSIWYG) testing and White - automated and code level testing of the internals.

However with most problems the solution may require a blended or holistic approach. So, I have defined for myself to ignore the box, start with the solution you would like to arrive at and work backwards without limiting yourself from the initial phase of your thinking about the mechanics of the solution.

(In some ways this may be viewed as being requirements driven.)

The truth is that if you start with your ideal or desired endpoint it doesn't matter whether you think in or out of the box, just that you reach your intended "destination".

Making the testing cycle easier to swallow

2009-08-20T13:12:00.000+03:00

As a manager an consultant one of things I frequently encounter when I am hired to increase productivity in the test lifecycle is conflict.

Now there are contructive ways for conflict to flourish but with respect to QA/ testing one of the most common occurences in the Start Up arena is the need to get deliverables out of the door compromising the test cycle. Or unrealistic expectations on R&D creating a need for them to borrow testing time in the lifecycle which creates friction between the R&D teams and QA.

In a previous Start Up the VP of R&D would allow me as QA Manager to borrow back Developers to help with end-run testing. Whilst not optimal the extra hands did help but, there are a few things I learnt to do from this and other occurences:

1. Getting more hands to help if they are not guided doesn't necessarilly produce good results.

2. Developers shouldn't (except for Unit Testing) test their own code; the corollary to this is pairwise review which works well for testing too; you can team the developer with a QA tester or another developer.

3. Have the test cases mapped out and ready to distribute/ accessible to the extended testing team [yes, this is why we love Microsoft Team System] and ensure the same for the Bug Tracking.

4. Make it fun! Use Best Bug Awards and a big wall chart in the QA Lab; if the company will spring for it even have a small cash prize/ meal out for the absolute best showstopper.

5. Don't let this become habit. It's not healthy for QA to continually compromise the test cycle and R&D testing means they aren't developing and Developer hours are costly.

When I did Best Bug Awards I liked to use a wooden plaque with a gold painted big bug stuck on it. We would ceremonially review the bug and award the plaque (to be held until the next contest) at our weekly meeting; the person who found the bug would receive the award and then be responsible for explaining the process of how they tested and found the bug.

The most common phrase I used to hear from R&D when we found a bug was "I can't reporduce this." so make the QA Lab accessible (even by Remote) and encourage the Developers to feel at home to use the Test environments to see how the bug occurs in the wild.

All of this is part of a greater process with an underlying philosophy of marketing QA as valuable but also ensuring that other teams don't see QA as an interference in their progress.

A lot of this boils down to something my Grandpa told me,"You can draw more flies with honey than vinegar." This especially holds true for the sort of work done by QA/ Testing.

The cellphone saga in a nutshell

2009-06-04T00:09:00.005+03:00

About 8 months ago my cellphone stopped working. I dutifully took the Nokia 6233 to my cellular provider and received it back as unfixable from the service center. They told me I could pay for another device for a reduced fee but as that phone was on a 3 year contract I decided simply to get another phone.

My brother had an unlocked Windows Mobile 2003 iMAte SP3i in an office drawer so he sent it over. The phone was by no means perfect but I was happy to have a working phone. He warned me this was a relatively old phone and might not last forever so perhaps I might want to consider a more permanent option.

With alink to his cellphone supplier in the UK I checked the site for details until a very nice MwG Windows Mobile phone went on sale. The company had 100 units and I made my order online. A week of emails and phone calls later I discovered the UK company would not honor an Israeli international Visa card nor would they use PayPal without receving so much personal info as to render the whole concept of PayPal redundant. By now all 100 units were gone. As you can imagine I was a little displeased by the experience.

Ideally I wanted to hold out for the Google Android phone from HTC but I needed to set myself a budget and a phone like that was more than I wanted to spend. meanwhile the stand-in phone, the iMate was becoming idiosyncratic to say the least. I bit the bullet and decided to try an Israeli e-commerce site for phones and ordered a nice Nokia slider with wifi and the trimmings.

The phone arrived unlocked but regardless it simply would not work with my Cellular provider, a defective unit but unfortunately the last one in stock of this model.

An email arrived from another UK phone supplier with a sale on a really gorgeous Windows Smart Phone. I made the order and it was confirmed. I had the phone shipped to my family for my brother in the UK to test (I was getting a little gunshy of the whole thing by now).

To cut a long story short I now have in my possession the Toshiba Portege G810 with Windows Mobile 6.1. It is a wonderful phone, clear reception and sound, excellent GUI similar to the HTC Windows interface and a plethora of goodies on the device.

The wait was worth it now I just have to deduplicate my Contacts from the old phone and sync the data.

Movie bests etc.

2009-07-28T23:37:00.003+03:00

I am a huge movie fan. I have always enjoyed the movies and not just the whole popcorn, big drink experience but also remembering quotes, facts etc.

I decided to compile my own list of "bests" so here they are: -

Best psychological thriller: Dead Again starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thomson, Andy Garcia and Derek Jacobi.

Best Western: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Best War Movie: The Great Escape

Best Sci-fi: Blade Runner

Best Martial Arts: Enter the Dragon

Best Action: Die Hard

Best Sci-fi Action: Total Recall or Predator

Best Swashbuckling Comedy: The Princess Bride

Best Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs

Best Cult Movie: Highlander or Terminator

Best Dark Comedy: Grosse Point Blank starring John and Joan Cusack, Minnie Driver and Dan Ackroyd

Best Spoof: Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery

Best Rom-Com: Addicted to Love starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick

Best Comedy: Life of Brian or Young Frankenstein

Memorable...

Best bar-room brawl: Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Best sword fight: Uma Thurman's Bride in Kill Bill faces off against all the Crazy 88

Best gun fight: Raiders of the Lost Ark in the Souk.

Best fist fight: Fury of the Dragon where Bruce Lee fights Chuck Norris

Best car chase: Steve McQueen as Bullitt

Best anti-hero: Kurt Russell defines the genre as Snake Plisken in Escape from New York

Best court room scene: Jack Nicholson as Col. Nathan Jessep explains some hard truths to JAG lawyer Tom Cruise, "You want the truth. You can't handle the truth!" A Few Good Men.

Most likely to be sponsored by Energizer: Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard

Villain we just have to hate: Alan Rickman sneers his way to the peak of euro-evildom as uber-villain Hans in Die Hard (and not a stolen nuclear warhead in sight)

Best stiff upper lip: Sean Connery in Goldfinger is James Bond, "Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?"

Best quotes ever: so many from Dirty Harry, all Clint Eastwood.

Most committed to vengeance: "My name is Inego Montoya..." The Princess Bride

Best angst ridden cry: James T. Kirk howls in unbridled rage "Khaaaaan!" Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Best death scene: Opera, tommy guns and the crawling bullet riddled Sean Connery as Malone in The Untouchables

Best we never saw that coming moment: "Luke, I'm your father!"

There are so many others that I might just do a follow on but for now enjoy the list and if you have other ideas let me know.

Tools, techniques and resolving conflicts in Development

2009-07-28T00:46:00.004+03:00

There are many different organizations, start-ups amongst them where the transfer of knowledge between teams or individual can be akin to pulling teeth; difficult, messy and painful.
The classic example in development is when the QA or Test team has to begin defining tests for the next release but has no clear idea beyond terminology on a Gantt or various emails what they have to test.

Getting documentation at this stage can be frustrating and even ultimately counterproductive in terms of the conflict or friction it raises between the person who has to produce the documentation (in our case specifications) and the person who needs the documentation to continue working and not become a bottleneck.

In SCRUM during the daily meeting this issue would be raised as an impediment to the testing progress and the Scrum Master would help the team in resolving this.

However as an experienced QA Manager I can state that this issue is a function of corporate culture. Normally this occurs where VP of R&D and or the CTO continues to make statements committing to full knowledge transfer but actually the real concept being maintained is that writing code comes first and if you are lucky we might get to writing spec down the line.

This truly demonstrates a Waterfall methodology regardless of the methodology that the organization claims to be using.

How do we resolve this? Perhaps this is something you just have to live with and realize that this is an organization that will never embrace Kanban, Lean, Kaizen, and Agile - SCRUM or any variant thereof without a true management commitment.

There are different personality types depending on which theory of psychology you adhere to; I’m a tools and techniques guy, I try to identify the problem and knowing it will recur find the correct tool or technique that allows everyone involved to keep a smile on their face and get the job done.

I encountered this kind of problem myself several times and it occurred to me that if the core of the problem is finding the time to write stuff down, then why make people write at all? The written medium is tiresome to create an often just as difficult to read and learn from. So why not use a different medium?

Ideally, you would introduce the use of Digital Audio or preferably Video recording and get the relevant knowledge owner to speak freely explaining the (in our example) spec. Diagrams, charts and slides could be added later making this “living document” or work in progress. (I re-heard this idea at the Israel Scrum Users Conference, earlier this month; many of us confirming that a good idea is something others thought of at the same time as you).

This is the easy part; there will still be a need for post-processing, review/ approval, document control and much larger storage/ backup than if these were simple textual documents.

Users would have to learn to be comfortable with being filmed, cameras would have to be readily available and seated on a stable platform. The video files would need some form of tagging which could be used for creating a searchable index in the Document control database but ultimately the ROI would be enormous in terms of reducing the friction and frustration in dealing with this impediment.

Martial Arts (Judo and Hapkido) as a life philosphy

2009-07-28T01:01:00.002+03:00

I practised Judo and Hapkido for quite a number of years. As a martial artist I always prided myself on one thing. No matter the number of times I was thrown, kicked, punched or battered I would always get up one more time than my opponent. This was the key to my success.

It was never about pride, traditionally in all martial arts the rule is the one who breathes for longest wins. However for me combat was always about the application of kata and determination. I was only competing with myself.

Several years ago my Sensei retired and I never found a teacher to replace him, in effect I didn’t get back up.

I moved to a new town (Modiin), this is an area rife with martial artists; Ju Jitsu, Tae Kwan Do, Karate, Kung Fu, and many others but I never took the time. The thought of having found a style of martial arts that suited me (Hapkido); progressing and then abandoning it for another style probably held me back too. Instead of viewing the knowledge and skills I had acquired in Hapkido as something I could port to another style I became rigid in my thinking.

Martial arts had been a driving philosophy throughout my life and without it I lost something. Or maybe I just forgot my governing principles.

Recently I lost my job. Reasons aside I have been metaphorically on the mat, on my back and bloodied by my opponent but now it is time to get back up one more time than my opponent.

Resume (CV) Inspirations that are a little obvious ...

2009-07-24T00:52:00.002+03:00

The times you need a printed resume these days seem to be fewer and further between. Everyone wants resumes in digital format RTF, DOC, DOCX or even PDF (some even have video resumes).

There was a job fair this week in Tel Aviv so of course I checked my resume and and off I went to print it up. On the way out of my house I stopped for a second and asked myself, which resume do I print, the English or Hebrew. Yes there are still tech companies in Israel that prefer Hebrew over English.

It occurred to me that this was a case of being able to have my cake, eat it and do something so elegantly simple that I could save paper and make a good impression too.

Picture this, I'm asked for my resume and I hand over the .... Hebrew copy; "Oh do you have this in English?" They ask, I hand it over and now they have to ensure the two loose pieces of paper stay together.

Now flashback to the question and imagine I give them two stapled sheets English and Hebrew; their first impression will be, "Oh no another two page resuem to wade thru"

First impressions do count, so I took my resume and made the Hebrew version a mirror image of the English in terms of layout and format and I printed it double-sided.

I know, forehead slappingly obvious and yet.... So I took it to the job fair, small in size but appreciated nonetheless. The response to my bilingual, double-sided resume was positive. One prospective employer has a long chat with me on the layout, format and the double-sided idea.

So, if you are looking for work and need to print your resume for someone in more than one language, feel free to use this idea. Remember, this falls under the idea from my previous blog, shared information is empowering. Good hunting.

Does Facebook perceive itself as a virtual society?

2009-06-17T00:54:00.000+03:00

As the arguement rages about Facebook's liberal interpretation of free speech i.e. allowing Holocaust deniers the right to post freely on Facebook I am sure that the deniers and spreaders of hate are loving every minute of it but that is not the point of this blog.

Facebook and perhaps all Web 2.0 technology used for Social Networking de facto provides the infrastructure for a virtual society. One might say that the founders/ owners of Facebook have the right to define TOS however by creating a virtual society online that has little if any semblance of law/ code of acceptable behavior then is Facebook opening Pandora's Box?

In the real world and in civilized society "hate crimes" based on race, gender, religious practice or orientation are treated as a special class of crime because of the actual not potential influence these incitements have to violence.

If it wasn't simple Holocaust denial but perhaps recruiting Facebook residents for cyber or real-world acts of terror then we would certainly see a real world law enforcement response.

The freedom of speech issue is an American one and Facebook is an American company. Is Facebook liable for any acts of incitement and subsequent violence caused by the incitement that occurs within their virtual society? Moreso, is Facebook breaking the law, US Federal law by providing a platform for hate of this nature on servers that probably sit on US soil owned and funded by US citizens?

Perhaps the founders should visit Germany where Holocaust denial is illegal and admit that they provide a platform for this "free speech" or try to set up a Facebook server farm there. It would be interesting to see the official German response to this.

What is a legitimate reaction to encountering this kind of hate online? Should users indulge in Facebook petitions, or approach advertisers to leave Facebook, will users themselves boycott and leave Facebook as a result of this or will some users define a more militant approach to this?

One thing I do know is that Holocaust denial and other hate crimes have no place on Facebook or any other open social network platform. Legitimizing this kind of thing whilst hiding behind the constitution seems liberal naivete at best and at worst leaves us to question the true beliefs of the management of Facebook.

The great PC meltdown didn't happen overnight

2009-06-04T00:08:00.000+03:00

I've been away awhile and it has been a combination of a few things, work gettting in the way of life, a stint wrestling with writers block and finally the creeping meltdown of my PC.

Deep down when the PC was taking a long time to shut down and doing minor, irritating things during operation I knew it was time to do a format and reinstall. The real problem was I just didn't have the time or will to deal with a comprehensive reinstallion of Windows XP never mind all the apps, drivers, codecs etc.

Still this is exactly when fate reaches out and slaps the back of your head ... I was having what I called a Bad Hardware Karma Month, it seemed work laptops, my cellphone, my watch and other hardware would stop working on me for no apparent reason.

I decided that I needed to draw a line in the sand and that would be the task of getting my desktop PC back to full operation.

First I did an inventory of the hardware, OS, service packs, hot fixes and drivers using Belarc's Advisor Tool and for the drivers the very neat Drivermax tool.

I created a plan and then set to work ensuring that I had downloaded everything I needed to install and put it on Disk on Key and a backup DVD. All the data was backed up to the Seagate Free Agent pocket USB Hard Drive.

My biggest indecision was all the updates; how was I not going to sit in front of the PC ding Windows and Antivirus updates? I thought about creating a slipstreamed DVD but in the end decided to do the install over two evenings and use my laptop until the Desktop PC arose from the dead.

My install disk fro Windows XP was Service Pack 2 and I had the ISO install of SP3 so much of the hard work vis a vis the OS was done. I decided to do all the Windows Updates in one go via the Custom option which includes all the critical updates (Hotfixes, security patches, service packs etc) and all the other stuff you can choose to install or not.

The truth is the process was pretty fast and all in all took about 3-4 hours. In short this was the classic adage:

Proper planning prevents problems.

Now as you can tell I am back and hopefully the writers block is gone.. time will tell

Shared knowledge (or skills) is power

2008-12-19T01:06:00.000+02:00

Those of you lucky (lol) enough to have read my resume have seen that I have led a diverse career in terms of the types of employers I have had; start-ups, software houses, factories, public sector and big business.

As I passed thru my 20’s into my 30’s and rose up the ladder from QA Engineer to Team Leader and Manager I noticed that no matter the scale of a company or its background if the corporate philosophy was unhealthy in other ways then the concept of information is power (in it's classical or negative sense) was prevalent.

Early on I realized that this paradigm is a precursor to failure at many levels unless you shift the paradigm to shared information is power (or empowering). Whilst magicians do not explain their tricks I have always believed that if you know something valuable perhaps how to do something then passing the information on to your team or anyone else shows you as an investor in others, empowers you and empowers those who you share with.

It doesn’t detract from the value of your innovation or source knowledge now that others know what you know as they may add to this or even reciprocate. Furthermore, demonstrating a depth of knowledge or a skill in mentoring others ultimately defines you in a positive light.

During several social networking events (particularly) my skill cloud was noticed on my business card and compliments paid for originality. Beyond the ego boost (yes that too, feeling good is a reward unto itself no?) several people did ask me how I did it and I was happy to explain the process and even sketch out notes.

Do I fear seeing emulations of my card? No not in the least. Firstly this was only a customization of an existing tool and secondly if others copy it then I was doing something right.

My real question for myself is what skill or knowledge do I want to acquire next?

del.icio.us Tags: Skill set,Social Networking,Shared Knowledge,Mentoring,Job Hunt,Career,QA and Software Testing,Productivity

Technorati Tags: Skill set,Social Networking,Shared Knowledge,Mentoring,Job Hunt,Career,QA and Software Testing,Productivity

Web 2.0 Resume etc continued

2008-12-16T18:36:00.000+02:00

Web 2.0 and my Resume (see earlier article)

Well last week was the hi-tech job fair in Tel Aviv and even knowing what to expect (it used to be in the main hall of the Tel Aviv Conference Center; about 5-10 times larger) on walking in I was a little shocked to see 5 companies recruiting there instead of the usual throng. Yes, it was just a little depressing and worrying for even the most positive of us. Many of us standing there in queues to get to the recruiters discussed this but really, no one knows what will happen next.

Regardless, I had prepared for the event doing more work on my resume and business card. As I have said both had to be memorable and I wanted the business card to leave an impression. Whilst I haven't taken the time and invested in getting a print house to run me off a batch I have created, designed and printed a bunch myself using Word and Office Depot's marvelous Business Card Inkjet Paper.

The card has my name, job description or title, email, linked in, blog address, twitter and cellular phone number on the front. On the back I wanted to put a tag cloud describing me and my skill-set. To this end it behooves me to give credit to a great web app that allowed me to create my personal Tag/ Skill cloud: http://tagcrowd.com/ - TagCrowd takes free text, a file or URL and with various options allows the user to customize their very own Tag Cloud.

But (big but) this is a Java app and there is no export feature to allow the user to take the Tag Cloud and make something off it in a textual format. Enter the trusted screen grab or Print Screen button. Alternatively you can use a PDF driver like Cute PDF to print the Tag Cloud to PDF.

Needless to say with a little magic and a dash of luck my Skill Cloud now resides in my resume and business card (as seen below).

Make your own comics online :-)

2008-01-23T00:39:00.000+02:00

Sometimes you just want to do something a little less serious, something that may have potential but may just be fun.

Toonlet.com allows the user to create their own character and then make a comic strip with them. Of course, it wouldn't be online if you didn't have the option of sharing your creation with all the other users.

Maybe I should blog like this from now on...