Project Management, MS OTP, CPU Utilization, Wi-Fi Analyzer, Internet Sharing, Surveillance

Post date: May 6, 2018 4:47:09 AM

• Never ending discussion about project management, scope, software development, etc. Someone wants to use agile methods and a fixed price for project. Well, that's just not going to happen. We can give you fixed hour price. But if scope isn't exactly defined, then the price isn't either. Sometimes these discussions get utterly ridiculous. Is it so hard to get the point, really? So when ordering, it's very important to decide. Do you need something according the specification, schedule and cost. Or do you actually need a working system, in schedule at some cost. Yes, there will be cost overruns most likely (of course it depends how much you wanted to underestimate the amount of work) but you can get practically and actually working system hopefully in schedule. With waterfall, you do probably get technically working system. But it's totally another question if it's practically working system. This problem arises from the well known fact, that it's highly unlikely that all the requirements and things have been considered in enough detail. If there's no flexibility, you won't get practically working system. That's pretty much it. Because if there are any changes required, it does not belong to the scope of the original project. Because it's fixed. Then there should be secondary project, which fixes the short comings of the first project. - Not a first nor last time, I'm going to have this same discussion.
• Microsoft Login OTP is working again. Let's see how long it takes, before it's broken again. Wow, it worked for a second day in a row. Was someone actually able to fix this? Cool.
• CPU Utilization is Wrong - No news here. We all know that memory access is slow. It's just like the claims that fragmentation doesn't matter with SSD. Well, SSD is slow, fragmented SSD is slower. As well as RAM is slow and fragmented RAM is slower. It does make difference. Just as the application data access patterns, was it then RAM, SSD or HDD. Accessing data is slow. Using cache efficient algorithms is important and of course data access speed can be improved, but at times it's very expensive. Like CPUs with huge caches, lots of extremely fast ram or very high performance enterprise SSD drives.
• Fluke (OneTouch AirCheck), Ekahau, RF Explorer, Metageek are tools worth of checking out. If you're interested about Wi-Fi (WLAN) performance and interference. Personally I haven't used Metageek's products. But Fluke, Ekahau and RF Explorer are awesome. Only if things get really bad and there's need for more advanced channel planning and site survey, then we utilize Ekahau. Depending from the environment, it's either easy or impossible to deal with interference. As example, rural large steel warehouse versus open space shopping mall lobby. I've got my own RF Explorer, but other tools are so expensive, we use those on shared basis and only get the equipment when other basic troubleshooting methods fail. - The Wi-Fi Analyzer apps are mostly useless. Yet you can of course check RSSI, link speed, channel and test performance.
• Another ridiculous discussion with people whom claim they don't have Wi-Fi. Yes you do. Just turn it on from your mobile. It's not that hard. Then you've got Wi-Fi where ever you go and for whatever devices you'll ever need it for. It's that simple, it's cheap and easy and often also pretty fast. There's no need to make simple things complicated. Yet telcos of course love to sell you several Internet connections, because it's very good profit, especially when you're even underutilizing the only connection you'll ever need. Basic connectivity is now 100 Mbit/s unlimited data. Why you would need multiple connections? kw: Internet Connection Sharing, Mobile Hotspot, Tethering.
• Just took a small ceiling viewing tour in local shopping mall. It's absolutely littered with visitor tracking & camera systems. It's practically impossible to go even near the building so you're not getting covered by multiple cameras. Naturally inside the building the situation remains the same. kw: customer flow analysis, in-store surveillance, retail security, customer tracking.
• Got bunch of specification documents. Which are all using MS Comic Sans font. I don't know if they're trolling or what. Reminds me from case a long time ago when I sent all documentation in all caps, because the client always sent all of their emails in all caps. I just thought maybe they don't know how to read lowercase or something. At least they didn't complain about it.