A perfect engineering storm happened in Warsaw this week. The project was carefully chunked into separate well bounded smaller projects, which would all be integrated near the end of implementation. Team 1 built the train tunnel, and team 2 was responsible for the train tracks. It wasn't really necessary for the tunnel builders to talk to the track builders, after all, they had all done similar projects many times before. After construction was complete, inspectors discovered that the newly engineered tracks are taller than previous installations, therefore, the tunnel is not tall enough to fit a train.
Thanks to Rumsfeld, we've all heard of Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknown Unknowns. This Polish project fiasco introduces another phenomena I refer to as Unknown Knowns - Requirements folks make assumptions based on what they think they already know, but due to change, they're wrong.
So what are the engineers in Warsaw to do? Raise the roof? Lower the tunnel base? Reengineer the track height? I suggest they look into building smaller trains. ;-)
Fast Vista - Finally!!!
I've been a frustrated Vista Ultimate user for a while now. Frustrated at how painfully slow it was running on my 1.83 Ghz Dell Laptop with 2GB RAM. After making the following adjustments, I'm thrilled with the performance of my machine:
1) Deleted files I didn't need. My hard drive was near capacity, so this had to be bogging down the virtual memory. Old media files can be huge, and an 80GB laptop hard drive is no place for them.
2) Uninstalled programs I'll never use.
3) Cleaned out additional junk files using CCCleaner (freeware). I'm not really sure if this helps, but the cleansing process feels good nevertheless.
4) Turned off the Vista Sidebar. It's cute, but seemed to consume a lot of system resources I'd rather use for something else.
5) Turned off most of the Vista visual effects. Again, cute, but after the initial appeal has worn off, they didn't do much for me.
6) Ran MSCONFIG and un-ticked a few startup programs and services I didn't need.
7) Turned off Google Desktop. Vista's search works great, so Google Desktop is redundant.
8) And now the biggie - I installed the Vista Service Pack. I thought I already had it, but as it turns out, Windows Update had repeatedly failed to install it. I searched the Microsoft site and downloaded and installed it manually, and it made a HUGE difference to the performance of my laptop.
9) And by the way, I also bought a replacement battery. When I ran a battery utility I discovered that my battery was only operating at 10% of its design capacity. Every time my PC went to sleep, it would run out of juice and perform a total shut-down. Now I can avoid time consuming boot-up, and just wake up my laptop when needed.
Next on my to-do list is to set up my flash drive for ReadyBoost, which is supposed to add up to 2GB additional RAM.
1) Deleted files I didn't need. My hard drive was near capacity, so this had to be bogging down the virtual memory. Old media files can be huge, and an 80GB laptop hard drive is no place for them.
2) Uninstalled programs I'll never use.
3) Cleaned out additional junk files using CCCleaner (freeware). I'm not really sure if this helps, but the cleansing process feels good nevertheless.
4) Turned off the Vista Sidebar. It's cute, but seemed to consume a lot of system resources I'd rather use for something else.
5) Turned off most of the Vista visual effects. Again, cute, but after the initial appeal has worn off, they didn't do much for me.
6) Ran MSCONFIG and un-ticked a few startup programs and services I didn't need.
7) Turned off Google Desktop. Vista's search works great, so Google Desktop is redundant.
8) And now the biggie - I installed the Vista Service Pack. I thought I already had it, but as it turns out, Windows Update had repeatedly failed to install it. I searched the Microsoft site and downloaded and installed it manually, and it made a HUGE difference to the performance of my laptop.
9) And by the way, I also bought a replacement battery. When I ran a battery utility I discovered that my battery was only operating at 10% of its design capacity. Every time my PC went to sleep, it would run out of juice and perform a total shut-down. Now I can avoid time consuming boot-up, and just wake up my laptop when needed.
Next on my to-do list is to set up my flash drive for ReadyBoost, which is supposed to add up to 2GB additional RAM.
Cherish Now
I'm stunned. Another fellow school parent died last night. That's two this week, three this year. Two heart attacks, one car accident. These are all people close to my age, with kids who still desperately need a parent. They must still need a parent, I know I do. Another wake-up call to remember that every day matters, to live for now not later, cherish the treasures in my life, and to re-read the famous "wear sunscreen" speech.
Tear Down This Wall (not really)
There's going to be a lot of fuss about The Wall over the next couple weeks. The picture is at the very rugged Mutianyu, around an hour northwest of Beijing. While it's awesome and inspiring to see, it is highly reminiscint of times of endless war, slavery, oppression, and death. The original intent was to keep others out, but in modern times it could be representative of holding people in.
Hopefully the Beijing Olympics on the world stage will move China toward a freer society with complete and utter protection of human rights and dignity.
User Beware - Translate Server Error
Thanks to my good friends at Schlumberger, I had the tremendous opportunity to do some work in Beijing around five years ago.
With all the buzz about the Olympics, which start this week, I've spent a lot of time reflecting on my time in China. Five years ago, there were marginal attempts to provide English translations on signs, but the quality of those translations was not always what I'd expect. For example, note this sign on a fire hydrant by the elevators at the Schlumberger office in Beijing... 
Recently with all the visitors expected for the Olympics, there has been a mad dash to translate signs to attract commerce from visitors. So where to the translations come from? Maybe from an English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary...maybe from a bilingual friend or family member...or maybe from an online translation website such as Babelfish. I must admit that if I used an online tool to generate Chinese characters from my English phrase, I would probably accept the translation it provides me as accurate. Therefore, the reverse must also be true.
Check out this photo of a sign in front of a Beijing restaurant...
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