Erik on Software

Personal Reading List: 2Q2013

My personal reading list for April, May, and June 2013.

Color Key: Special Notes, Currently Queued, Completed Reading. Updated throughout the Quarter.

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Common Errors in Statistics and How to Avoid Them (Fourth Edition), by Phillip I. Good and James W. Hardin, Wiley, 2012.

Drools Developer's Cookbook, by Lucas Amador, Packt Publishing, 2012.

The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business, by Rita Gunther McGrath, Harvard Business Review Press, 2013. By invitation from author Rita Gunther McGrath. Copy provided by Harvard Business Review Press.

Instant Drools Starter, by Jeremy Ary, Packt Publishing, 2013.

Introduction to Decision Analysis (Third Edition), by David C. Skinner, Probabilistic Publishing, 2009.

JavaScript: The Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford, O'Reilly, 2008.

Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders, by Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz, Jossey-Bass, 2013. By invitation from Amazon.

Parallel R, by Q. Ethan McCallum and Stephen Weston, O'Reilly, 2011. 

R Graphics Cookbook, by Winston Chang, O'Reilly, 2013.

R in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (Second Edition), by Joseph Adler, O'Reilly, 2012.

Pro Bono: IEEE Chicago Section Statistician - Part 1

Over three years have past since my last post here on my pro bono efforts outside of the workplace. My latest pro bono contributions over the last few months have been working as Statistician for the IEEE Chicago section. The Statistician role is new for the section, and works within the Membership Development team.

Much of my time to date has been spent working to get familiar with the data that is currently available on our membership. The SAMIEEE database uses Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 11g. Unfortunately, my early efforts to obtain programmatic access to the database via IP address and port was not successful, so I create rough data sets via the web front end that OBIEE provides and then export for analyses.

At a high level, my CSV exports from OBIEE are imported to PostgreSQL, and then I use the R language with a package called sqldf to perform analyses. Traditional SQL statements can be run against database tables in this manner as though they were R language data frames, making it much easier to work with data for someone such as myself who is adept at SQL as a technical architect.

My plan is to get into more detail regarding the specifics of my setup in later posts. As part of this first post, I want to share the first visualization I created for the IEEE Chicago section a few months ago. A heat map showing the top 26 technical interest profile subjects (TIPS) of active IEEE Chicago section members, created using the above technologies along with specialized R language functions such as heatmap().

The Membership Development Chair has since used this visualization as part of his marketing efforts associated with trade shows, as part of his presentation on our membership. Creating this heat map was fairly straightforward. Although working with the R language environment and language is not intuitive for someone who specializes in Java, getting the right data to create this visualization was really the hard part.

While the TIPS list might not need an explanation, since it is essentially a list of technical interests in which members have shown interest, notice the labels for the three columns. Data was queried and sorted by primary interest, which indicates whether a member actually performs regular work in the area, followed by some work in the area, and some degree of interest, the least significant category of the three.

Traditional engineering concerns may comprise the bulk of the top 26 technical interest profile subjects (a somewhat arbitrary number that I chose, although the break off as to whether a subject made it to the heat map was set at 50 members in the regularly work category), but I found it very interesting because of my profession that Software Engineering was the top regular work subject, and one of the top subjects in the some work category. And Computer was the top subject in the interested category.

Working as Statistician for the IEEE Chicago section, my goals are to work with the Membership Development Chair to meet his immediate needs, as well as explore some ways that we can use the data to help understand our members. In other words, look at our membership at both an aggregate and individual level. In my opinion, some of the best insights will likely come from an investigation of the data at a more granular level, and then determine how findings might apply to the aggregate.

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Pro Bono: Taproot Foundation - Project Manager (Draft Direction)

Pro Bono: Taproot Foundation - Project Manager (Delivery & Assessment and Closing)

Pro Bono: IEEE Chicago Section Statistician - Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Treadmill Maintenance: Control Board Replacement

A couple years ago, I wrote my first blog post in this treadmill maintenance series on how to replace the rear roller of my Smooth Fitness 5.25, which blew out a day before what was literally the end of my three-year warranty. It so happens that on Christmas Eve a couple months ago, my treadmill stopped working. After turning on the treadmill, everything seemed to power up normally, but the roller would not start turning.

The folks at Smooth Fitness told me that the symptoms pointed to the need for the control board to be replaced. I searched for other potential remedies to no avail, because at the cost of $280, roughly a quarter the original cost of the treadmill, this was a significant expenditure. But I also did not want to purchase a new treadmill unless absolutely necessary, so I made the order.

During the order taking process, it was mentioned that control boards were on back order until the end of January, partially due to a recent company reorganization that apparently involved new owners. Of course, I had no choice in the matter in terms of supplier, although running outdoors during Winter season in Chicago was not immediately appealing.

My inquiry as to whether a guide to replace the control board would be included with the shipment resulted in a response that it will only involve four screws, and if needed I could make a call to Smooth Fitness for assistance. I assure you that there are more than four screws just to remove the cover of the treadmill, and that there are actually three screws to hold the control board in place, so I do not know where the number of four originated.

Removing the cover will reveal the control board, situated in the right corner when facing the treadmill at its head. If you were on the treadmill belt in a position to run, the location would be in the upper left corner, but all the photos here were taken with maintenance in mind. After five years of usage, the inside of the treadmill was fairly clean, although it gathered some dust after waiting an additional month for the order to arrive.

The shipment included the actual control board with three screws and two connectors, and it was very heavy for such a small part, so I was not looking forward to ever needing to return it due to the probable high cost of shipping it back. As the folks at Smooth Fitness had communicated, no instructions came with the shipment, but after comparing the old control board attached to the treadmill with the new control board, it appeared as though the most critical task would be to keep track of cables connecting the treadmill and control board.

In a matter of minutes, the swap between the old and new control boards was completed, but after powering up the treadmill, it was apparent that something was wrong. The digital display did not populate correctly, and the treadmill belt ran without abandon, running at apparently the highest speed the treadmill is capable and not permitting speed adjustment via the treadmill dashboard.

I have joked in the past that engineering may have been my original undergraduate field of choice, but I had never been interested in mechanical engineering. Chemical engineering was the specialization I had chosen, and I later moved to software engineering as occupation, so moving parts was never my strong suit and I realized that it was probable I had done the work here incorrectly, but after a couple attempts with the same result, I shelved the effort for a couple weeks and endured an increasingly colder Winter season.

After finally having some time to repackage the control board for shipment back to Smooth Fitness, I thought I would try one more time. I might not be mechanical, but I am also a German who does not give up at anything very easily. One aspect about the new control board that bothered me was the two connectors that came with the shipment. First, there were two, and the control board only seemingly needed one, and second, why were these needed when I could just use the old one?

In comparing the control boards, I noticed that the original control board in the above photo was apparently missing a pin for where the single connector was to be put in place. At first, I had thought that I broke off a pin because original release of the connector was rather difficult and I had needed to apply some force to remove it. But this did not end up seeming likely.

In taking a second look at the new connectors, and comparing the original and new control boards, I quickly realized that the number of pins had decreased from six to five. After replacing the original control board connector and powering up, everything immediately started working correctly. The start up sounds that I had heard hundreds of times were all restored, the dashboard display populated correctly, and speed adjustment and inclining and declining all worked correctly.

The remainder of this post shows the location of the other connectors with which you need to keep track while swapping control boards, because some of the connection points on the control board are simply not used. The first photo below shows the placement of the main connector that has been discussed, which has a black cable, followed by photos which show single red and black cables side by side, and blue and white connectors that are separated by an unused connection point.

To make this process easier, especially because your control board might be different, I recommend first making note of all cables that connect the control board with the rest of the treadmill. Looking at the overhead photo of the control board above, this assessment is not very difficult to perform, because most of the cables that protrude from the treadmill in general are cables involved with disassembly and reassembly. A couple treadmill cables awkwardly extend over the control board, but are not directly connected to the control board itself.

Before you replace the treadmill cover again, you will probably want to screw on the new controll board to the treadmill, all of this work of course taking place while the treadmill is unplugged from an electrical outlet. While extensively testing to make sure everything was working, I noticed that the control board did not budge at all due to the tight quarters in which it is located, but fastening it back is probably a good idea. Just make sure you do so as one would do during any assembly involving screws or nuts and bolts. Partially tighten all of the three screws to make sure placement is correct before fully tightening all of them. Again, these are very tight quarters and the tolerance level is very low.

This post concludes in very much the same way as the first in this series. The end result of my control board replacement is that the entry level Smooth Fitness 5.25 that I purchased five years ago is operational and fully functional once again. One very positive aspect of the break down, back order wait, and trial and error process is that my fears of running during the heart of Winter season in Chicago have been alleviated for the first time in many years.

And remember, what is often true for car warranties is apparently true for treadmill warranties: issues tend to arise as soon as accompanying warranties end. And as was the case with my control board, which was no longer under warranty, break downs appear to take place like clockwork. The rear roller needed replacement two days before the end of my three-year warranty, and my control board needed replacement almost exactly five years after original purchase. As always, would love to hear about similar experiences from other treadmill owners.

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Treadmill Maintenance: Rear Roller Replacement

New Book Review: "Infinite Shades of Grey"

New book review for Infinite Shades of Grey: Advanced Consulting, by Ian R. Hunter, 2012, reposted here:

One of the best consulting texts from an in-the-trenches been-there-done-that perspective, unlike some other texts in this space that are often a bit too formulaic to provide practical advice to consultants or aspiring consultants. While the content that the author provides here goes well beyond what the title and preface suggest, the book revolves around the premise that during a consulting engagement, "the process used and the potential solution should never be defined in black and white, but in infinite shades of grey".

A few years ago, I read a book by Roger L. Martin entitled "The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking" (see my review), in which the philosophy of Bob Young, co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat, is shared through several quotes. Hunter would agree with Young, who is quoted as saying not only that "there is always more than one way to succeed in any given situation...whatever we adopt as our first answer is bound to be wrong", but that "customers are not always right...customers lie or they are wrong."

Hunter comments that "there is an old adage that the customer is always right. Nonsense. The customer is talking to a consultant because they don't have the answers." Prior to this assertion, the author explains that "black and white (and the world of absolutes) can never properly define a client's problem, the process used to solve it, or the solution itself. Inexperienced or bad consultants see the problem, process, and solution in black and white."

"They know exactly what is wrong, exactly how to fix it and exactly what needs to be delivered. Most of the time, they are wrong and some of the time they are really wrong. The world is filled with bad consultants." The author furthers this thought by writing that "when you investigate a grey problem, you ask more questions, you dig deeper, and you look for not a single but many potential causes of the problem. When you utilize a grey process, you are flexible and adaptable, and this allows you to be open to more possibilities and minimize preconceptions."

This work is broken down into 28 different easily digestible areas of discussion relevant to independent consultants and those working in consulting firms. The content could use some editing, but this is a self-published work that might not have made its way through typical channels otherwise, due to the frankness that I especially appreciate as a consultant. And the "top tips" that the author provides throughout the book (and lists in his concluding chapter), show that Hunter is down-to-earth.

Other than the preface and the chapter entitled "Why are there Infinite Shades of Grey?", I also especially appreciated the chapters "Being in Demand and Understanding Your Value", "Increasing Your Value and Your Compensation", "Understanding Grey and Building a Relationship with Your Client", "Integrity and Ethics in IT Consulting", and "Tips for Your Personal Success". The author has over 30 years of consulting experience, and the numerous personal examples he provides (many of which are also entertaining) are sure to help readers relate.

In the last chapter listed above, the author argues that the technical consultant should be viewed as a pie sliced into four pieces, comprising technical knowledge, behavioral skills, business knowledge, and sales and marketing knowledge, and that most commodity consultants really only participate in a quarter of the pie (technical knowledge). After explaining what helps transform the commodity consultant into a value-based consultant, however, Hunter follows up by writing that "technical knowledge will always be the largest part of what you do and who you are, and it is up to you to figure out the best way to develop" it, the only portion of the pie that this book does not discuss. Well recommended.