I prefer training my team using the pavlovian conditioning, with a slight bias in negative reinforcement. This has drawn the ire of the Human Resources department in the past.
The reinforcement that I usually employ is done via penalties. The penalties are monetary in nature, and increases in severity if the infraction happens close to each other. An example is a first violation is worth Php50, but any violation in the next 2 weeks will incur a higher penalty of Php100, and so on until a set limit (normally Php500 per infraction). If there is no violation after 2 weeks then the penalty goes back to Php50 as the next violation will be treated as a first offense. The reinforcement is only effective if the team sees that I have my skin in the game too. If the violation is something that applies to me then the same penalties cover my violations. Usually I also sweeten the pot wherein if there is no violation for 2-3 consecutive periods then I automatically contribute the highest penalty amount to the collected funds. I “lose” either way but my goal is not to collect funds but to make the team learn a certain behavior.
The funds collected do not go to my own pocket. The team decides what to do with it. Normally the team spends it on a lunch-out or a series of snacks. I had one team donate the collected funds to charity.
The whole point of negative reinforcement is to make sure that the subjects do not deviate on the prescribed behavior as it will be too inconvenient. Positive reinforcement on the other hand makes it pleasant to meet the prescribed behavior. I just prefer the former because I find it more effective in getting results in a much shorter time.
I am not a handy man as I never inherited that skill from Daddy. I am very of wary of powertools even if I am fascinated by them. I always treat the tools with respect whenever I use them. Much like today.
I am glad to say the powertool I am using today (portable impact drill) didnt cause me harm. It was the underside of the monoblock chair that did me in and caused a mini red fountain in my foot’s second toe. It was a perfect storm of carelessness, stupidity and timing.
I did see Daddy again in that brief 30 seconds of pain though. I squealed the same way I imagined he would have. Murmuring self-directed invectives while brimming with pain.
If the Linux VM was running at the time the host OS (Windows) hibernated then the clock in the guest VM will be left at the time of hibernation. If NTP is configured then the clock should resync gradually but most systems do not apply a big chunk of time correction by default.
If the Linux VM was configured with a VPN that implements a system-wide configuration then the DNS resolution might be unable to resolve the NTP server since the DNS of the VPN session will be unavailable. The alternate and work-around presented hinges on two things:
The guest VM has internet access at the time it was resumed.
The google.com domain name is already resolved and cached.
sync-clock() {
echo Current time before sync: `date`
echo Current time after sync : `sudo date -s "$(wget -qSO- --max-redirect=0 google.com 2>&1 \
| grep Date: | cut -d' ' -f5-8)Z"`
}
The work-around uses the time in the google headers to provide an anchor for the correction. This is provided as a bash function to provide user feedback if a correction was done.
The GNOME control center in my Manjaro system crashed while I was tweaking the details of the mouse settings. After it crashed, I was unable to bring it up again even after a reboot.
The solution was to reset the configuration files for it using the following command:
$ dconf reset -f /org/gnome/control-center/
After that, the control center UI is up and running again. Based on the search hits, visiting the details pane can sometimes caused the state that results to a segmentation fault whenever the control center initializes.
I am lifting the image below that I sent to some colleagues to highlight the power of deductive reasoning. The image originally came from 9gag.com but I am hosting a copy since this blog has been littered with broken links.
Batman vs Sherlock Holmes
The comment that I sent to accompany the email message has already been gone from the site. It explained the comics so I replicating it below for archiving purposes, with typos and all.
It’s quite easy, my dear watson. It is Apparant that the mask is used to disguie a well-known identity from society. a man using a double life is most clearly a famous person, most possibly a rich man who can use an expensive Cavlar suit and quirky gadgets. the square jaw indicates a good lineage, perhaps a doctor’s son. the bat-motif is most likely from a childhood trauma that branded into the man’s mind as a great truth in the power that chiroptophobia has on the common man… *puff* *puff*
The mob mentality negates the basic premise that two wrongs doesnt make a right. Being part of a mob grants both a sense of power and a degree of anonymity by blending with the crowd. The combination of both can imbue a euphoria that overrides the normal and logical reasoning, enabling a person to do things they won’t normally be expected to do.
Once a mob is fired up, it will either take a lot to subdue it. Most of the time, it will simmer down but only after leaving a lot of damage in its path. The participants of the mob usually doesn’t feel any remorse as they justify their actions as both “right” and “acceptable” since it was the actions of the mob and not their own.
The best time to stop a mob is when it is just starting up. That is easier said than done though. The best way to handle a mob is get out of its way and just hope that there is still something left in its wake.
To my friends and acquaintances from both sides of the Filipino political arena: if you want to post anything related to the current pandemic, may it be a public service announcement, a morale booster, or a gratitude post then please do so. However, take your political slant out of it. Here is the reality: YOU are NOT helping.
The government is doing what it can to stop the spread. Organizing and mobilizing a country is not easy. If you have the experience and willingness that you can do something better then go to your govt office and volunteer. Otherwise STFU.
The decisions of the government are based on a compromise. There will always be somebody affected. The best option is a compromise, not a win-win. If you have a win-win option, go talk to your elected govt official. Otherwise STFU.
If your argument is your heart goes for those unable to stock up supplies because of poverty or lack of opportunity, then go improve a few lives and share what you have. Your bickering doesnt help get them fed or assured. You are only fanning their fears with yours. If you cannot help directly, STFU.
If you are clamoring for businesses and enterprises for benefits and advance payrolls for those affected by the quarantine/lockdown,they are already evaluating that and trying to figure out where the money will come from. Do that if you have a business but don’t assume others can easily do the same. The owners and managers are already losing sleep and getting stressed trying to protect their employees and their business. If you have a seat in the managing table then I know you will go with the best option. To the others, STFU.
I can go on but you should already see where I am going. This is the point where I need to heed my own request and STFU.
[Lifted from an old email I sent to my previous project mates.]
This is an email to remind about wantonly tweaking configuration settings in the Oracle Fusion Middleware stack to make the code work. Wantonly in this case means it did not go through the official change management process as the members in question wanted to quickly solve an issue that was first encountered in the UAT environment.
E2 is supposed to mirror the E3 environment to catch any problem that could happen in E3, or replicate an ongoing issue.
Our goal is not to make our deliverables pass UAT, but to provide deliverables that will not malfunction in production.
Any setting that needs to be changed needs to be evaluated properly to ensure it doesn’t affect the other applications in the environment. Each setting change is always a compromise between two conflicting scenarios (e.g. performance vs scalability, traceability vs resource management, etc.). We need to understand what we are exchanging for each setting update. The E2 settings change needs to be propagated to E3 afterwards.
For sometime now I have opted to play with my responses to the mundane question of “how are you doing (today)?” in the office. My response admittedly has turned dark lately but the canned response usually are:
Better than I deserve! (credits to Dave Ramsey)
Same-old, same-old.
SSDD 😉
Can’t wait for the week to be over.
Looking forward to the weekend.
Still breathing.
Dying a little bit every day.
The last one is a play in the saying that one of these days death will come to our doorstep. It is a reflection of the common reality that all of us will need to pass through that milestone in our lives. The question however is that given of that inevitable reality, how much of that time can we comfortably say we have lived; and not just along for the ride and surviving? Can we look back at the end of each day or week and say “it was worth it”?
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