2016-01 on Funky Si's Test

Development Annoyance

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:00:45 +0000

I spend a lot of my time creating new features that simplify my companies business processes.

A good example of this is an invoicing system I created. Instead of users working off different spreadsheets and copying and pasting data between various different programs the user can click a couple of buttons and everything is done and they can move on to the next task.

I am currently expanding this system so more of the companies work can be invoiced quickly and simply.

I like working on this kind of problem

I get to discuss with the different departments involved, finding out how they work and what could make their lives better.

I then get to look at what structures already exist in the database and get to rip out anything that makes no sense (Today I had a Customer table which has a primary key called ClientId – its now a Client table with PK ClientId) and add new structures to store new information.

I then can build a user interface so the users can interact with the data.

But the most important part of the process comes next. This is when I show the users what I have built and how it will make their lives better, they can then feed back to me questions and comments. How do I do x?, what about y?, have you thought about z?

After this very valuable feedback I can go back and tweak what I have done making it better and better until the users think it is suitable for what they need.

Now why did I call this post development annoyance?

I find it intensely annoying that after spending weeks of my time working on creating something to be used. Users either make do with my solution and never tell me the one thing that really annoys them or worse they go back to the time consuming process and never feedback the one or two changes I need to make to complete the project.

Now I am not perfect, like many IT people my people skills are somewhat lacking but apart from asking people what can you do to get the feedback you need to complete the project?

I do not have the knowledge that other departments have so I consider development a team effort that requires everyone to contribute otherwise it will not finish.

The second outcome where users return to their old ways is the most annoying. It could well be months or even years before I find out that what I created is not being used any more. By that time my memory of what I did and more importantly why I did what I did has been lost and forgotten.

So users please, please tell me what works and what doesn’t and what things I can do to improve things. I want my solutions to constantly improve and get better and I can only do that with your help.

Star Trek Episode Review Arena

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 20:00:45 +0000

Episode Title: Arena
Star Trek Type: TOS
Original Air Date: 19 January 1967
Teleplay: Gene L Coon
Story By: Frederic Brown
Directed By: Joseph Pevney

The episode begins with the Enterprise in orbit of Cestus III. Commodore Travers requests a tactical team join the away team. When the away team beam down Cestus III has been destroyed.

Spock detects non-human life signs, obviously the aliens that destroyed the outpost. They attack the Enterprise, stranding the away team who are under heavy fire. Sulu is instructed to do whatever he can to protect the Enterprise and leaves orbit.

Kirk finds the armoury and a grenade launcher, after firing the enemy withdraws.

After beaming back aboard the Enterprise they pursue the unknown enemy into uncharted space. One of the survivors of Cestus III explains that the enemy attacked without warning.

Kirk is determined to destroy the enemy ship before it reaches home and the Enterprise prepares for battle.

An unknown solar system scans the Enterprise as they continue their pursuit of the enemy ship. The enemy ship comes to a complete stop. The Enterprise prepares to attack but before they can they also come to a complete stop. The Metrons have stopped both ships because both ships were on a mission of violence. The captains of both ships will be placed on a planet where the winner can destroy the other.

Captain Kirk and the enemy captain appear on a desert planet. The enemy is a reptilian like species called the Gorn. The Gorn has superior strength to humans but Kirk manages to escape his first encounter.

"This is Captain James Kirk of the Starship Enterprise.
Whoever finds this, please get it to Starfleet Command.
I’m engaged in personal combat with a creature apparently
called a Gorn. He’s immensely strong. Already,
he has withstood attacks from me that would have
killed a Human being. Fortunately, though strong,
he is not agile. The agility and I hope the cleverness, is mine."

The Metrons said that the planet contained materials to allow the building of a weapon, however at first glance Kirk sees nothing that could help him defeat the much strong Gorn captain. He does find some diamonds, too small to be used as a weapon.

Kirk pushes a huge boulder over a cliff onto the Gorn captain, which appears to knock him out, however he survives and Kirk barely escapes. Kirk then finds Sulphur, which triggers a memory.

The Metrons allow the Enterprise to watch the last stages of Kirks struggle. They see Kirk discover Potassium Nitrate. The Gorn accuses the Federation of trespassing into their space.

Kirk starts constructing a weapon using the diamonds, sulphur and potassium nitrate to make a gunpowder explosion to fire the diamonds at the Gorn captain. Just in time he applies a spark to his weapon and his opponent lies defeated.

Kirk refused to kill the Gorn captain as they may have been just defending themselves. The Metron announces that Kirk has displayed the advanced trait of mercy and there may be hope for humanity after all.

Thoughts: I like this episode very much. It has some classic Star Trek ideas in it.

We have a super powerful alien race (the Metrons) that think there is hope for humanity.

We have Kirk using raw materials to construct a weapon using simple chemistry.

We have an enemy race that appears destructive but may have just been defending themselves.

We have the classic location of Vasquez Rocks, somewhere that if I ever visit the US I have to visit.

We have the very cheesy Gorn mask, yes its not realistic but the story is strong enough that it doesn’t really matter. Enterprise brought back the Gorn but as a CGI character and I think I may prefer the rubber mask.

Interestingly the weapon Kirk builds would likely not work. The US show MythBusters proved that the bamboo wasn’t strong enough to hold the explosion and the weapon would likely wound Kirk as much as it would wound the Gorn.

Score: 10/10 Redshirt Count: Cestus III Outpost, 1 Red Shirt and 1 yellow shirt from away team.

Arena along with all 900+ Star Trek episodes is now available in Episode Atlas .

Disaster Planning

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 20:00:45 +0000

Over the Christmas break the city of York experienced the worst flooding disaster it has seen in recent years. If you want to help donations are being taken at York Flood Appeal .

Luckily I wasn’t affected but it was really sad seeing many of my favourite streets full of water. Thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes when the water was at its highest.

York has its phone exchange located in the centre of the city and as the flood waters rose, this building flooded. BT who run the exchange worked flat out trying to restore phone and broadband services to York and the surrounding area, but this lead to at least 24 hours or more of downtime for users.

During this time most of the city wasn’t able to take card payments from customers (due to an internet connection being required), cash machines were not working for the same reasons and the most worrying thing access to emergency services was not available.

Anyone would think the city phones were down #yorkfloods #bthardatwork pic.twitter.com/ZavLMsG2Js
— Simon Foster (@funkysi1701) December 28, 2015

I am in no way critical of the hard working engineers that worked on the BT exchange to restore services to the city. However I have to ask what was contained in the BT disaster recovery plan.

As an IT Manager myself backups and disaster planning is something I need to think about and plan for. Recent investment in our internet connection meant that we are now on a leased line so BTs downtime would not have affected us in terms of network connectivity, I am uncertain about phone but I believe as a business we could have continued running during this time if we needed to.

Planning for a disaster is not something I ever make enough time, however I definitely want to spend more time on it and I do have the basics of a plan in my head which is probably more than BT has.

BT is a huge company they run almost the entire country’s phone lines and according to wikipedia have operations in 170 countries. I think that they can afford to have someone plan for disaster recovery.

The York Exchange is located next to a river that often floods. What could the company have done to avoid this problem?

Relocate some or all of its services to a location away from the river.
Add the ability to reroute services through an alternative exchange.
Many towns and villages surrounding York use the BT exchange surely some of these could have been configured to use other exchanges.

In these days of terror alerts and bomb scares. Imagine if York was London and all it took to take down communication ability of the capital was one Exchange to be offline?

I am sure BT are looking at what they did right and what they did wrong and if you are reading this have a look at your own disaster recovery policy. Don’t get caught out like BT did.

Top 50 Star Trek episodes

funkysi1701@gmail.com (funkysi1701) — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 20:00:45 +0000

In 1966 a TV show called Star Trek first aired in the USA. Since then 726 episodes have been made and 12 films have been released. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary and Star Trek is as alive as ever with a new film due out this summer and a brand new TV series in the works for broadcast in 2017.

But what can I do to celebrate? With that many episodes I don’t have enough time to re-watch every episode so how about a re-watch of the top 50 episodes.

Star Trek has five live action TV series so all I need to do is pick my top 10 from each.

Star Trek

The original Star Trek series first aired on September 8th 1966. It lasted only three years and 79 episodes. This series featured the iconic characters Kirk, Spock and Bones on a five-year mission to explore space.

The City on the Edge of Forever
The Devil in the Dark
Balance of Terror
The Trouble with Tribbles
Arena
This Side of Paradise
Amok Time
Space Seed
Mirror Mirror
The Deadly Years

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The first spin-off series set 100 years after Kirk featured a new Enterprise continuing to explore space. This series aired between 1987 and 1994 for 178 episodes.

Best of Both Worlds
Yesterdays Enterprise
The Offspring
The Measure of a Man
Disaster
All Good Things…
Tapestry
The Inner Light
Cause and Effect
Unification

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The second spin-off series which ran at the same time as TNG was set on a space station so instead of exploring adventures arrived via a stable wormhole. This series aired between 1993 and 1999 for 176 episodes.

Emissary
Duet
The Way of the Warrior
The Visitor
Sacrifice of Angels
Waltz
Trials and Tribble-ations
In the Pale Moonlight
Far Beyond the Stars
Siege of AR 558

Star Trek: Voyager

The third spin-off series ran after TNG and featured a female captain and a starship stranded in a remote part of the galaxy journeying home. This series aired between 1995 and 2001 for 172 episodes.

Scorpions
Year of Hell
Caretaker
Message in a Bottle
Eye of the Needle
Heroes and Demons
Jetrel
Timeless
Pathfinder
Riddles

Star Trek: Enterprise

The most recent spin-off ran after Voyager and was set 100 years before Kirk. This series aired between 2001 and 2005 for 98 episodes.

Broken Bow
The Andorian Incident
Shuttlepod One
In a Mirror Darkly
Twilight
Damage
Azati Prime
Regeneration
Impulse
Zero Hour

I am not going to review each episode here, I will save that for future blogs. With 50 episodes that is one a week to get them all reviewed during Star Trek’s birthday year. We will see if I manage to keep to that schedule.

Track all these episodes and more in Episode Atlas .