How to Manage Projects?

by
Guru

With already a couples of failures in the past, we can just think to move forward with a dose of success. “Success”, this word seems glamourous. While some can easily achieve their objectives, others are able to do so in a much longer time period. But what is the difference between the two??? If you do not perceive things the same way as I do, then do so now. Everything that we do is a project. Agreed??? The only variation is its scale and priority. An assignment has a higher order priority and at times takes a larger scale as compared to nailing a piece of wood. Having the right tools and mindset to get things done is important.

 

To start with, dreaming is bad. Be completely down to earth. This will allow you to perform better, evaluate your progress and be able to take corrective measures. Now that I mentioned these key points, roll up your sleeves and get to some serious work.

The number of people working on a project can range from one to many; forming a team. Now that we have got our team, to start, we need a minimum level of commitment. Being committed to whatever we are doing will have a direct impact on the end-result. The more time, the more effort is put will give better results. Good results gives much better self satisfaction and improved skills.

Each team members must have a particular role. To name a few, president, vice-president, treasurer, public relationship officer and so on. Having said these particular posts you can guess that each team member’s action will pay-off with a better result. Right? We should not forget that each and every human are capable to do everything (taking asides handicapped – in fact they do better than us). Everyone ought to be a leader. Being able to take decision, announce new ways of proceeding and be able to think aloud.

Now that the basic structure and mindset of the team has been set, lets see what concerns the project. The whole backbone of a project lies in its objective. What is an objective? In simple terms, it is just what must be achieved. The objective should be crystal clear so that unnecessary jobs will not be done thus straying from the core tasks and losing precious resources. Alongside with our objectives we have something called “aims“. What is that? Let me explain using an example. I want to but a laptop. My objective is to but a laptop. To be able to do so, I need to work. That is an aim. Another aim could have been, I just need to steal 5 under wears of a certain celebrity to sell them. 😛 I hope you can now make a difference and how important they are.

Communications is an important aspect. With easy access to internet, many projects are going towards the “online” trends. Like I am currently doing for “AgriMauritius”. To ease communications and interactivity, there are a certain tools that will help you. Here are a list that would help:

 

  • Scriblink is an online whiteboard. It can accommodate as much as 6 users online. It acts just like the traditional blackboard. Each participant can scribble, write and chat at the same time. InF and I have used it to helps us study. 😀 I believe this tools will also help you clarify some points in your projects. Other alternatives would be Netmeeting and Marratech.
  • Freemind is an open source software, It allows you to make a mind map. What is this? Simply, all your ideas will be presented in a “graphical” manner. This will make sharing ideas easier and neater.
  • Microsoft Live messenger or Skype can be used for the purpose of interacting with team members. An added benefit of skype would be it allows VOIP and addons as whiteboards can be added. Interesting?
  • Now is the most important part. Use Webcollab as usual another open source software. It is just a project management tool. Assign tasks and permissions to users. That is a bonus to project management. View?

Project management is a vast topic and this article has covered just the essential topics. I am not a pro, you see errors drop a word. Want to add something, comment it. I will be adding it.

 

As always comments appreciated. Find it helpful, stumble it. 😛

Thank You.

 

Big Buck Bunny

by
Inf

Yaay! An animation movie! What’s so special about that anyways? There are tons of these coming out now. Nothing impressive. It’s not even very suitable for young children. So what?

What if I told you that the small clip, called Peach or Big Buck Bunny you see above was made using Blender (Wikipedia page), the awesome 3D Modelling and Animation software? It’s free as in no money, and free as in open-source. Surprised?

Blender is extremely powerful, and can somewhat even take on commercial solutions. However, the user interface is a bit daunting to the new user. I’m trying to start learning it, and it’s not very easy.

Why did I post this? Because I was amazed at what a totally free software could do and thought it was worth sharing with you, reader! That movie take a whooping 125 days to render! Open-source really really rulz!

Btw, some interesting information about this clip is available here. Also, check out the previous clip, again made with Blender and other open-source software, called Elephants Dream.

Budget 2008-2009: Points of Interest

by
Inf

As you probably know, the 2008-2009 budget was presented today by Dr. Rama Sithanen. So for this post, I’ll be dissecting the budget to see what truly concerns students and people involved in IT in general. There are not many sections about these. According to me, if I had to resume the whole budget in one key phrase, it would be “The Poor’s Budget”. If you read the budget speech, available here, you will notice how many times the words “poor”, “needy” or “poverty” are mentioned! It’s just astounding!

So, Mr. Speaker Sir, I will now move on to dissecting the speech, and putting up the relevant sections, which according to me, are most relevant to the title. Of course, if you found anything worthy of being added or something that interests you in the speech, you can still post it via comments and I’ll add it here. Here goes:

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Recover files from damaged media

by
Inf

I’m sure it must have annoyed you at some point. You found a CD with some very important files. Unfortunately it is a bit scratched, and your drive refuses to read the disk properly. And then? Your files are lost. Forever?

Nope! There may be a solution. In fact, there are several solutions. Some work, some are dubious, and some don’t. So, I’ll be listing some things you can do to recover files from your CD or DVD if ever it is scratched, or otherwise corrupt. Mind you, if your media has been scratched polished by something like sandpaper, you won’t be able to recover anything. What I mean is, you can get back some files provided the disk is not excessively damaged. Also, one of these solutions is also applicable to other drives, like floppies, flash disks and hard disks.

Briefly? You will be able to read files from damaged CD or DVD disks, or maybe hard-disks and other drives. As with most risky things, try at your own risk! 😀

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Do more with your digital pictures

by
Inf

Digital cameras are a blessing, we have to agree to that part. No need to go to a photo booth to get your photos printed, no need to buy rolls of expensive film, no hassle to find a “great scene” and numerous other advantages. Basically, it’s just point-and-shoot, and if you don’t like it, delete it, and try another shot. Go until your memory ends, or your batteries die. Then replace these. Repeat.

However, most of the digital pics you will shoot will either stay on the memory card or the internal memory of the camera, or they will be dumped somewhere on your hard disk and get lost among your clutter files. So? I came up with some ideas to put my pictures to better use, and share them with you. Here’s my top #5 ideas:

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DRobo – The storage robot

by
Guru

We are all worried about our data. Being able to keep them secure is a big question mark. We don’t know when our hard disks will crash. We may have heard of the famous “RAID” (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). Taking the RAID approach, our data is either spread in many disks or mirrored across them. Thus, ideally nothing will ever be lost. 😀 This is just the basic of the idea behind RAID. There are further extension to it. with a combination of the levels of raid for better suiting the situation. The more we think of security, usability, flexibility and for the long run, the more money we spend. In fact, you must be knowledgeable to configure your “RAID”. What if I say there is an easier solution? Yes, there exists one; DRobo.

 

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Hotmail Spam. I HATE Spam!

by
Inf

After being absent for 3 days, I check my Hotmail inbox, and what do I see? SPAM!

SpamHotmail

My usually clean inbox is filled with 34 NEW spam mails, coming somewhere from here: “explorerscomputerjm”

I googled the address, and found a domain “explorerscomputerjm.com”.

But then, while opening some of the spam mails*, one of the people said:

Guys, this email turned up in my inbox earlier. Not sure where it started but all I know is that by responding to it and asking to be removed from the mailing list it appears to be spreading like wildfire. If you get this email please DO NOT press the reply button. I suspect that if you do it will just keep replicating itself in everyone’s mailbox, even though their email address does not appear in the list of recipients.

*Yes, I know I shouldn’t open spam mails, specially those with attachments. I was extra careful. 🙂

I use this hotmail address sparingly, and I do not know from where all the spam is coming from. I’m suspecting something involved with Windows Live Messenger. Possibly a virus or spyware. I’m currently running an antivirus scan, and an anti-spyware scan. Results pending. I’ll update this post soon.

I’m going to follow my own advice about spam mails, that is to never reply to one. Let’s see what happens. I definitely HATE spam! :/

Updates: Good luck for me! There was actually no spyware or virus on my machine. The spam mails stopped. I didn’t get anything new, from the time I took the shot. I still don’t know how the spammers got my email.