Correct Usage of the word "Revert" (Very Important)

revert verb verb: revert; 3rd person present: reverts; past tense: reverted; past participle: reverted; gerund or present participle: reverting 1.       return to (a previous state, practice, topic, etc.). "he reverted to his native language"

Quite possibly the most abused word in the electronic mail landscape, “revert” can usually be found at least once in your emails for the day. If you have gotten an email with the phrase “Please revert as soon as possible”, feel free to charge the sender with culpable homicide amounting to murder of the English language.
A common error is to use revert to mean reply or respond. The word revert means either:

• return to an earlier topic or subject, or
• return to a former state; to start doing something again that you used to do in the past

Thus, we do not say:

• I will revert to you tomorrow.
• Please revert to me on your preferences.
• Kindly revert back for any clarification.
• Please revert to me on the status of the project.
• We will investigate and revert back as soon as possible.

Instead, we can say:

• I will get back to you tomorrow.
• Please let me know of your preferences.
• Kindly write or call me if you need any clarification.
• Please update me on the status of the project.
• We will investigate and get back to you as soon as possible.

Securing your Facebook Profile

I recently went through the process (again) of locking down my Facebook profile. Every single time Facebook change their privacy policy, I recommend that you review your profile – look at it from the view of a random – that is someone who is not your Facebook friend.

I’d recommend sharing absolutely nothing with the public. Facebook currently forces you to share your profile picture, your cover photo and your name. In all honesty that is all anyone who knows you needs to find you. Why share anything else with the randoms?

Think about this: personal information you share with randoms can be used steal your identity, track your whereabouts, and con your family and friends. Is it worth the risk of ignoring this? You may ask why Facebook don’t just default all the privacy settings to “Friends Only” – well that is a good question – but my guess is that the more information public that you publish the better it is for their business partners. Advertisers. I know I sure as hell don’t want my details, location, habits and connections shared with corporates.

I hope you make the effort to follow these instructions to lock-down your profile.

If you are a ‘pro’ Facebook user and have setup custom lists and custom access groups, then I’d ignore this entirely. This is intended for the average Facebook user who doesn't really know or care about the privacy options.

Our aim here is to make as little of your information public.

Step 1: About You

Ok, so giving everyone in the known universe access to your details is stupid. If you do nothing else recommended in this guide – do this.


1. Click on your name to view your profile







2. Click on ‘About’. 
You will now see a screen with blocks of information about you (Work and education, about you, living, Basic Info, etc...)

3. On each block of information, you’ll see an Edit button - Click it
Next to every text-box there is a drop down menu. Make sure each one is set to Friends. (you can quickly verify this by looking at the icon – if it is the silhouette of two people you've selected friends

(You will have to perform this step for every section)

Do this for every information entry point – even if you have not filled it in, then click “Finished Editing”

4. There is only one section on the “About” screen that needs special attention. In the Basic Info section, make sure that “Show my sex on my timeline” is unchecked

Step 2: Your Friends

Here, we are protecting your friend’s identities. Randoms can use this information to con other friends by pretending to share a common acquaintance. Additionally, they may be able to guess who your parents are (and thus secret password questions) by simply profiling your friends pictures.

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Friends” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘about’ block

3. Near the top right of the screen, you’ll see the Edit button

a. Click it

b. On the pop-up, select “Friends” from the drop down list.

c. Click close

Step 3: Your Photos

This is a no-brainer for me too. I don’t want my personal photos to come up in Google searches. Hell no. People in the UK can sue you if their child is in a photo that you took of your child, yet they ignorantly share photos of those same kids on the internet!

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Photos” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘friends’ block

3. Now click on the ‘Albums’ tab

4. For each album, click on the dropdown box next the text that shows you how many photos are in the album. Select “Friends”

5. If you have setup your “close friends” list, you could select this as well. This is useful if you have hundreds of friends and only want to share your photos with the ones you actually still talk too.

There are three albums that you cannot mark as private, these are:
a. Mobile uploads - You’ll have to manage each photo in here manually

b. Timeline Photos - You’ll have to manage each photo in here manually

c. Cover Photos - These are public photos; if you have any photos of you or your family in here I’d move them to another album or delete them.

Step 4: Things You Like

1. Click on your name again to view your profile

2. Click on the “Likes” Block – it’s on the right of the ‘maps’ block (which is next to the photo block)

3. Now click on the Edit Button

4. Make sure every category is set to Friends

5. Make sure you also change the ‘other pages you like ‘as it is easy to miss and a lot of your ‘likes’ will fall into this category

Step 5: Privacy Settings

You’d think everything above would be in here somewhere… well it’s not. Go figure.

1. At the top of the screen, on the right of your name you’ll see a little cogwheel.

2. Click it and then click “Privacy Settings” and you’ll see a screen like this

3. Set the following

a. Who can see your future posts – Friends

b. Who can look you up using the email address of phone number you provided – Friends

c. Who can look up your Timeline by name – Friends

d. Do you want other search engines to link to your Timeline – Off

4. Now click on the “Limit Last Posts” Link, and click the button labelled the same

5. Facebook will now warn you. Don’t be intimidated. Click “confirm”

Step 6: Timeline and Tagging

1. (If you’ve just finished step 5, skip this item) At the top of the screen, click on the cogwheel again and select “Privacy Settings”

2. Select “timeline and tagging” on the left

3. You’ll see a screen like this

4. Change these settings

a. Who can see posts you've been tagged in on you time line – Friends
b. Who can see what others post on your timeline? – Friends
c. When you're tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience if they aren't already in it? – Only Me

Step 7: Congratulate Yourself

Well done. You've locked your face book profile down… for now.
Hope this helps you
--Jason.

Organic Software is not Good for You

Imagine a tree growing in your garden; visualise the branches of the tree, the way they grow in many different directions. Consider the height of the tree and how it looks silhouetted against the clouds.  Now imagine building a tree house in that tree. In your mind, your tree suddenly has branches that are thick enough to support the house; it has a branch that forks out of the trunk where you can conveniently place it and the tree is tall enough for the house to need a rope ladder. Lucky for your tree house project, your tree was constructed in your mind and it could undergo significant, easy change in order for the project to proceed.

In the real world it’s not that simple. Things need to be planned. You can’t build a tree house in any tree.

Now imagine that the tree house is a new requirement in an application and the tree is the original piece of software. If the tree wasn’t ‘designed’ for a tree house, then you’ve got a problem on your hands. There are many ‘tree houses’ that have been built in pine trees; supported only by gum poles and rope. So, what’s the point? Systems that have grown organically out of a single requirement often fail due to the original system not being built for the task it has to now execute.

A Good Design is Important.

There are many aspects to software design and many varying methodologies. My intention is not to discuss the pros and cons of these varying methods or to recommend a specific one. It is just to emphasise the important part of design is not which methodology you choose; just that you choose one.

You might be surprised to find that a great many applications start their life has a collection of "hacks". By hacks, I mean pieces of code that have been forced to work together using creative methods and techniques. Interestingly, the developers who write the code are usually not bad programmers; on the contrary, they are normally exceptionally talented. The problem is, without adequate planning, decisions made at the beginning of the project often have unforeseen consequences. These can include an unwieldy UI, poor performance, over-sized data files, overly complex processing and un-maintainable code.

An answer to these unforeseen consequences is, as you may have guessed, to create a good design. A good design needs to take all the facets of the system into consideration; these facets include (but are not limited to)

• User Requirements
• Information and Process Flows
• User Interface prototypes
• Internal Data Structures
• External Data Dependencies
• Location of the user and the delivery method

Why then do many developers only look at a small part of the design process (if at all)? Most of the time, they are of the belief that they will be able to deliver the application faster without going through the design phase.

The problem is that they are right; well at least for the first few phases of the project. Most good programmers can create a basic system without spending much time thinking about it holistically. The easily understood requirements can be put together in a relatively short amount of time and non-technical stakeholders will perceive that the project is progressing well. The problems start as the application grows. Assumptions that were made in ignorance at the beginning of the project hamper progress, and workarounds are put in place. Later in the project, these workarounds further hamper progress. It is a downward spiral into the abyss of an un-maintainable system. The old adage that the first 80% of the system takes 20% of the time to complete and the last 20% of the system takes 80% of the time to complete applies.

So just remember, it’s easy to build a pine tree; but almost impossible to put a tree house in a pine tree.

How can we solve the power problem?

I've been thinking about the electricity problem, and as far as I can tell the situation that we find ourselves in boils down to two basic things:

1. Eskom don’t have enough capital to expand capacity, and
2. Consumers are using electricity wastefully

I think I’ve come up with a solution that addresses both problems; It involves solar geysers – but a better plan than the current rebate system.

1. Scrap the current solar geyser rebate system; it doesn’t work*
2. Allow Eskom to increase the tariff per kw/h, but
3. If you have a solar geyser you get a reduced tariff per kw/h

This will encourage business and home owners to go out and buy solar geysers because they want to benefit the lower electricity tariff. It will also reduce the strain on the existing grid because less people will be heating water using the power grid. The reduced strain on the grid will reduce the pressure on Eskom to rapidly expand the power grid which will reduce the cost.

A self reinforcing loop.

The selling point could be that if you do get a solar geyser, not only will you be using less electricity, the amount you pay for the running your other appliances will be less. A double whammy reduction on your bill.

If we believe the stats that a solar geyser reduces your electric bill by 40-50% then this plan could work.

* I recently had a solar geyser installed by a registered supplier (Teljoy solar). The way it seems to work is that all the suppliers quote you on the actual geyser and the installation. What they don’t tell you is that if you want to get the rebate, you have to have a Eskom approved electrician come and install an Eskom approved timer. The cost of this comes in just over the rebate; so it actually costs you a little extra to qualify for the rebate. (Just to be clear, it’s important that you do get a timer installed, as it greatly improves the effectiveness of the solar geyser. Luckily I already had one installed on my regular electric geyser)

A Solution to the Carnage on our Roads

Yesterday, driving to work on the N1 south, and was passed by an old Toyota Cressida doing about 160 km/h. It was obvious that he had no regard for the rules of the road, because he was also talking on his cell phone.

This got me thinking… what will make this guy start driving responsibly? It was then that I realised that there is no incentive for people in South Africa to obey the rules of the road. There is a threat of a fine, but most people just adopt the attitude “It will never happen to me” or “If I get a fine I can just talk my way out of it”.

Before we can try to solve the problem, we have to ask ourselves what the role of the traffic department is. Is it to fine as many people as possible in order to achieve some kind of budget, or is it to ensure the safety of people on the road? As far as I am concerned, it is the latter. The traffic department should be responsible for ensuring the safety of people on the road.

Which brings me to my idea...What is the ultimate motivating factor that drives human beings? Incentive. Incentive is what drives us. It makes us wake up in the morning and get out of bed. So why not incentivise good driving habits?

This Easter, the police should pull over people who are travelling at the speed limit, stopping at stop streets, driving on the correct side of the road and reward them for obeying the rules.

The reward could be something as simple as “free road tax for a year” or a “free road worthy test”... or a police escort through the morning traffic! It would be like the lottery a 1 in 60 million chance of winning, but you still enter. That is you obey the rules of the road.

There would have to be some rules, like; if you have outstanding traffic fines you are excluded; if you get any traffic fines in the following 3 months you loose the benefit; etc...

Ok, so this idea screams “please abuse me”, but maybe it’s worth giving it a go. It’s time the traffic department started being proactive about road safety and not viewing it as a budget item that needs to be “achieved”

Gated Communities in Gauteng

I recently had the displeasure of finding that one of my routes to the office had been closed by the residents association of the suburb i was driving through. I wasn't the only poor schmuck that was blighted by the closure. The road was crammed with people doing U-turns.

After I had vented my anger on the steering wheel of my car and finished thinking about the best way to blow up the offending gate, I started pondering what I could realistically do about it. The starting point was the "welcome to bordeaux" board that kindly gave me a web site address for the residents association. (I had plenty of time to read all the details on the board because of the mad traffic jam caused by all the closed roads).

The website was a trove of information. Email addresses and phone numbers of the all committee members; addresses... A little googleing turned up a few more details; photos, work addresses, and a facebook group. Bingo!

So, step one was a quick email to all the members (copied to the JRA and some influential radio personalities) voicing my disbelief in the closure of the roads. Step two was a post to the facebook page. I expected my complaint to be immediately put in file 13, but was surprised when the first reply popped into my inbox.

The ensuing mail storm basically revealed that they wanted the roads closed because there was too much "alien" traffic in the suburb; they believed that criminals were too stupid to use the roads that they left open and that i should just go away because it was "legal" anyway.

Ok, so crims are often fairly retarded, but i think this assumption takes the cake (we'll leave the discussion of the merits of closing suburbs for another day). Too much traffic in the suburb? I had to laugh at this one. Aren't roads supposed to be used by cars (alien or not), and anyway they are public roads. As for the legality of the closure; the chairman of the residents association was not forthcoming when i asked for the court ruling as it was "with the lawyers in whiteriver". Obviously she hadn't heard of faxes, scanners, email; which is odd since i was communicating with her via her blackberry.

It was, however, the post on facebook that returned the most interesting result... As it turns out, the residents association didn't have the backing of all of the people living in the suburb. In fact there were a lot of people living in the suburb who were opposed to the road closures. In fact they claimed that they were bullied into the closures by the committee.

Facebook also provided me with a copy of the court ruling (uploaded by one of the disgruntled residents). As pointed out by the poster, the court ruling was interpreted by the residents association the way they wanted to interpret it. In short they don't really have a leg to stand on.

So whats my point? Everything is not as it seems on the surface... if you have the misfortune of getting stuck because of a road closure, don't just accept it. Do something (that doesn't include explosives) about it!

"Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

Footnote:

If you want to see all the details, join the facebook group "Bordeaux Residents Against Gates"