As per the comment on my previous entry the issue of the Kensington laptop lock being pickable is actually an old one. I admit that I never realised this as it was only highlighted to me just over a week ago.
What I don't understand is why you would upgrade a perfectly good and working laptop lock? I checked with Kensington and found that they have know about the issue for THREE years and never issued a product recall. In the email conversation I have had with them they would not answer why they never issued a recall which is pretty bad going for a company that makes security devices.
Overall the lesson appears to be one of caution with laptop locks because they are not as secure as you may think.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Kensington Laptop Locks
Earlier this week I was sent a link to a video on how to pick a Kensington laptop lock using nothing but a toilet roll.
It works.
After about 20 minutes practice it becomes very easy to pop the lock within 30 seconds. The process on how to do it is on a very well known video sharing site which I won't link to here for obvious reasons but you'll be able to find very easily with a Google search.
It works.
After about 20 minutes practice it becomes very easy to pop the lock within 30 seconds. The process on how to do it is on a very well known video sharing site which I won't link to here for obvious reasons but you'll be able to find very easily with a Google search.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Project time Analysis
After last weeks fun and games with project management and changing deadlines I've come to the conclusion that I really don't like MS Project. Maybe this is because I don't really know how to use it and I don't have the back end server infrastructure set up for it all to work.
Even after saying that I still don't like project. I don't like the way it requires dates. If a persons time was dedicated to a single project then fine, project will work better but when you have a person whose time you get in varying lengths and that length of time is unpredictable then project is unable to cope with working that way and breaks down.
I personally feel that what is needed is a time planner tool which can be used as a time base for tasks. This system would become a centralised store of tasks - what to know how long it takes to get a server? Not a problem, look it up and the tool will give you the average time it takes based on previous knowledge.
MS Project is not able to offer this, in fact no project tool I have used seems to be capable of offering this pooled knowledge and therefore all project plans are new, finger in the air guesses with no ability to draw on previous learned experiences.
Additionally, the tool I envision will be able to detect compare the tasks you are creating and suggest others based on previous projects.
Once your project tasks are drawn up it will be easy to see the amount of hours required and most of this information will be based on known information!
To me, this seems to be a common sense approach based on learnt knowledge yet no one seems to work this way and I can't find a tool that is able to do this type of time analysis?
Even after saying that I still don't like project. I don't like the way it requires dates. If a persons time was dedicated to a single project then fine, project will work better but when you have a person whose time you get in varying lengths and that length of time is unpredictable then project is unable to cope with working that way and breaks down.
I personally feel that what is needed is a time planner tool which can be used as a time base for tasks. This system would become a centralised store of tasks - what to know how long it takes to get a server? Not a problem, look it up and the tool will give you the average time it takes based on previous knowledge.
MS Project is not able to offer this, in fact no project tool I have used seems to be capable of offering this pooled knowledge and therefore all project plans are new, finger in the air guesses with no ability to draw on previous learned experiences.
Additionally, the tool I envision will be able to detect compare the tasks you are creating and suggest others based on previous projects.
Once your project tasks are drawn up it will be easy to see the amount of hours required and most of this information will be based on known information!
To me, this seems to be a common sense approach based on learnt knowledge yet no one seems to work this way and I can't find a tool that is able to do this type of time analysis?
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Bad Project Management
Sometimes this industry makes me want to scream. My old favourite the artificially tight deadline has been back in force this week with a project due to finish at the end of the month being shortened to the 23rd and now further short end to this Friday.
Obviously, in order to deliver the project will have to skip most if not all of the testing. Problems will occur in a very user facing environment and there will be no pre-learnt knowledge of failure modes which in turn means a very steep learning curve.
of course, chances are everything will be fine. Chances are testing won't uncover any major problems, chances are the testing can be deleted with no obvious impact to the systems.
however, without testing its impossible to know, without testing the little oddities that do crop up during the operation of a system cant be found or at least recognised.
a second really annoying part is that the project management tool we are using requires testing to be added so all the tests have been carefully thought about and added and now they won't be used.
this is my bosses boss demanding this so do I get on with it knowing the system will be inferior or refuse unless its properly tested?
At the end of the day I consider myself part of the engineering community with standards and a pride in my work so I will make a noise but fights like these end up leaving me drained, tired and wondering why the hell I still work in this sector.
This project doesn't need to deliver early. It just makes the stats look good and I am now fed up of working long days to fix something that should not have been delivered broken in the first place.
Obviously, in order to deliver the project will have to skip most if not all of the testing. Problems will occur in a very user facing environment and there will be no pre-learnt knowledge of failure modes which in turn means a very steep learning curve.
of course, chances are everything will be fine. Chances are testing won't uncover any major problems, chances are the testing can be deleted with no obvious impact to the systems.
however, without testing its impossible to know, without testing the little oddities that do crop up during the operation of a system cant be found or at least recognised.
a second really annoying part is that the project management tool we are using requires testing to be added so all the tests have been carefully thought about and added and now they won't be used.
this is my bosses boss demanding this so do I get on with it knowing the system will be inferior or refuse unless its properly tested?
At the end of the day I consider myself part of the engineering community with standards and a pride in my work so I will make a noise but fights like these end up leaving me drained, tired and wondering why the hell I still work in this sector.
This project doesn't need to deliver early. It just makes the stats look good and I am now fed up of working long days to fix something that should not have been delivered broken in the first place.
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