T&M Tom articles

T&M Tom articles and comment on Technology and Management. Bbite provides coaching, mentoring and business opportunity research for SMEs and into technology markets.

Thursday 19 June 2014

Musings on The NI Automated Test Summit 2014 (UK)



Today I have had the pleasure to attend the key not presentations at the NI Automated Test Summit 2014 held in Reading at Royal Berkshire Conference Centre on Thursday 19th June 2014.

These are my personal impressions of what I heard.

Attitude
They are a welcoming lot, enthusiastic, engaging, polite and knowledgeable. They appear proud of their company.

Leadership
They express leadership in how they act and speak of ‘equipping engineers with tools that accelerate innovation and discovery’.
They are clear in their product leadership and delivery of graphical software and modular hardware (unrivalled in PXI with greater than 500 products.)
Brendan Davis, author of ‘The Economics of Automatic Testing’ gave an inspiring talk on that subject engaging senior management on how to promote the need for test and the savings available to explained economically. NI engaged at the event fully from novice to engineer, to senior engineer, to management and to director level.

Collaboration
They spoke of collaboration and had over a dozen independent exhibitors explaining a variety of solutions around NI products.
The spoke of the escalating complexity engineers are facing and the battle for even lower cost and lower energy consumption.
They spoke of NI’s leading role in 5G development and the UK/ German research collaboration with Dresden Technical Uni, Kings College and University of Surrey. (CeBIT 2014)
Of 4 main 5G topics NI explained their collaborations and leadership further as
-          Massive MIMO – Lund Uni Sweden, Texas A&M University
-          Make Denser Networks – High re-use of spectrum and small cells, NYU Wireless; EU CROWD Project
-          mmWave – more frequency spectrum, increase spectral efficiency – NYU Wireless; EU MiWaves project. Expect a big demonstrator with an NEM at Mobile World Congress 2015
New Physical Layer – Dresden Tech Uni; EU 5GNOW Project; German FAST project.

Wednesday 28 May 2014

Reading Arts Business Club Tues May 27th Notes and News



News- Artists Space at Caversham Court Gardens launches Sunday June 29th
-          Thanks to the council and ‘Friends of’ http://home.fccg.org.uk/ we launch an artist’s space at Caversham Court Gardens on the last Sunday of every month from 11am. In simple terms this means you (as artists) will be welcome in the gardens to sketch, draw, annunciate, strum quietly etc. If we do that collectively it should build up an excellent community to be involved with or appreciate. I need to stress that it is not a space to sell from and behaviour/ tidiness must be in keeping with the Gardens ambience.  

Let’s get involved Many Thanks to Grant Thornton (Reading Council Executive for  Economic and Cultural Growth) for being at our May meeting.
-          The next meeting of the Council Arts Forum is on Weds 2nd July at 6pm in Mezzanine Room 1 at the Civic Centre.
-          As well as Reading Arts Business Club on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn I suggest you also take a look at Reading Arts Forum Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/836453313036092/?fref=ts
-          If you want to address a full committee with a question you can do so via Reading Council Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure Committee. http://www.reading.gov.uk/meetings/ou/40/ Next meeting Tues 8th July
-           The Council has drafted a Heritage Statement.  This is to provide context and initial input in the development of the heritage section in the forthcoming Cultural and Heritage Strategy that the Council has committed to prepare and publish for consultation during 2014. http://www.reading.gov.uk/council/consultations/openconsultations/heritagestatement
-          Reading Arts Week 14 to 22nd June (See attachment)

Next Meeting- Tuesday June 24th but from 12 noon with a presentation from The Intellectual Property Office on ip, copyright, patents, trade-marks, designs, innovation et al.

Artists/ Businesses Speed Networking Event this year is kindly part of Reading Fringe Festival. The opportunity for 20 artists to meet with 20 select business representatives and town leaders at The Penta Hotel from 6pm on Thursday 17th July http://readingfringefestival.co.uk/whatson/schedule/thurs-17th-july-2014/

Chronologically that is
- Tues 24th June Reading Arts Business Club with Intellectual Property Office from 12, noon
- Sunday 29th June Artists Space at Caversham Court Gardens launches from 11am
- Weds 2nd July Council Arts Forum 6pm
- Tues 8th July Reading Council Housing, Neighbourhoods and Leisure Committee
- Thurs 17th July Artists/ Businesses Speed Networking

Notes
- Reading Gaol. If you want to ask what is happening to the Gaol and submit a suggestion you can eMail MoJ_ED_Briefing@justice.gsi.gov.uk
- What Next? Held ‘The Value of Culture Debate’ at The Hay Festival where Alastair Spalding, CEO and Artistic Director of Sadler’s Wells chairs a What Next? conversation on the impact and value of culture, arts and literature in our society. He was joined by guests including Tony Ageh, Controller, BBC Archives Development, David Pountney, Welsh National Opera and Topher Campbell, The Red Room to discuss how we can get the public to appreciate the many different ways art and culture can affect and enhance our lives. More news on the results to follow
•             An open space event by Devoted and Disgruntled: Why is funding the arts better for everyone? is on June 3rd in London http://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/events/devoted-and-disgruntled-why-funding-arts-better-ev/

Some Press Links
Poorer pupils forced to drop arts subjects due to the cost of studying

John Hurt argues against arts funding cuts

Nick Ahad argues against London’s arts funding bias

Thursday 30 January 2014

Twitter Search Tips

  1. Twitter search cake filter:links returns results for cake and linking to urls
  2. Twitter search traffic ? returns results for traffic and asking a question

  3. Twitter search lunch:) returns results containing lunch with a negative attitude

  4. Twitter search movie -scary :) returns results containing movie but not scary and with a positive attitude

  5. Twitter Search "Wedding Cake" since:2013-01-01 returns all containing Wedding Cake and sent since 2013 Jan 1st (year-month-date)

  6. "Twitter search" returns all Tweets from me on Twitter Search
  7. Twitter Search near:Reading within:15mi returns sent within 15 miles of Reading

  8. Twitter Search "business club" near "Reading" returns all business club sent near Reading

  9. Twitter Search to: returns all sent to

Sunday 3 November 2013

Managing People in Engineering



Managing People

Aim:- This unit will develop learner’s understanding of the methods, processes and procedures used when managing people in engineering
The unit will give learners an opportunity to examine the various practices, procedures and constraints that influence the management of people within a work environment. This will require learners to consider and explain the processes and procedures involved in the management of people, such as human resource planning, recruitment, selection and contracting. Learners will alos investigate a range of working relationships in engineering settings and the lines of responsibility. Management and development of human resources are also covered with an examination of industrial relations and legislation.

Understand the processes and procedures involved in people management
1.1   Explain how workforce planning is used to assess staffing requirements
1.2   Analyse how the general employment environment affects effective workforce recruitment and selection
1.3   Outline the processes and procedures carried out when recruiting and selecting personnel for a given post

Workforce Planning: Estimating manpower requirements; the labour market; needs analysis and evaluation; recruitment and selection; training and development; cost implications; general employment environment e.g. market conditions, labour turnover, demographic issues (the number and characteristics of the people who live in an area, in relation to their age, sex, if they are married or not, etc.:), skills shortages, use of part-time and older employees

Recruitment and Selection: job descriptions; personnel specifications; recruitment sources; advertising; relevant legislation e.g. equal opportunities, discrimination; interviewing techniques; selection tests e.g. psychometric (designed to show someone's personality, mental ability, opinions, etc.:), intelligence, personality; employment contract e.g. full/ part-time, seasonal, sub-contracted, consultant, fractional posts, outworking (outsourcing); associated legislation

Rejecting Rejection



Breaking Down Rejection
For example, when rejecting behaviour occurs, individuals sometimes are led to believe and think, "I just got rejected. They didn't like me.". This already contains many distortions and inaccuracies. But, compounded with harsh rejecting behaviour from others, these self-thoughts may even include "I am a no-good, worthless person, etc.". The result is a very negative experience and perhaps a lasting poor self-image.
To help protect yourself against such negative and undeserved feelings, it can be helpful to counter the unfair cognitive distortions. To do so, keep the following in mind:
1) Each instance is unique and different. Whether one or several people have demonstrated rejecting behaviours towards your request, you cannot logically generalise to "everyone" or "always". Each time, place, and person is distinctive. What is true for one is not true for all. The next situation could be different. So, try not to overgeneralise. Stay hopeful. Keep an open mind.
2) Rejection is not your fault. Try not to personalise and take the blame. There are many reasons why someone can be disinterested and very few of them relate to you at all. This is even MORE true, in instances where the other person is needlessly abusive or shaming. That is clearly their issues, which they are trying to push onto you, and you are not responsible for causing. However, do stay open to civil explanations and respectful feedback.
3) Rejection says nothing about you as a person. This is where the phrase "I got rejected" is particularly troubling. "You" did not get rejected. The person saying no doesn't even know the essential "you". How could they reject it? You have not downloaded your personal life history into them. So, try not to label yourself based on one superficial interaction (or many). Be vigilant to not give anyone who doesn't really know you that much influence over your self-image.
Given all of that, a less self-blaming and distorted statement might be, "that individual person rejected the offer you proposed". Such a statement is more accurate (and more comfortable). It leaves open the facts that:
-          Others might like the offer, just because that person didn't.
-          That individual is responsible for the "rejecting" behaviour, not you.
There are many factors that may have contributed to their disinterest in the request that are not under your control or your responsibility. Most importantly - the interaction says NOTHING about you as a person. The "request" was declined...not "you".
You are entitled to make your request in a respectful and civil manner. But, you are not entitled to a "yes" response. Furthermore, you are responsible for respecting that choice.
Finally, while the choice of others does not say anything about you as a person, it can be a source of information about achieving your goals. Constructive feedback sometimes accompanies a decline (or an acceptance) of an offer. All experiences may contain information about how an offer or approach could be "refined".
Again though, the feedback and changes are about where, when, how, and with whom "the request" is made - NOT about your value as a person. This is like any other persuasive appeal. If an advertisement doesn't sell the product, that doesn't mean the product itself is bad. But, based on feedback, the advertisement could be modified to target the right people, at the right time, who are interested, with an appealing format. The product didn't change at all...only the advertisement.
So, show pride in your product but look for feedback that might help you optimise your "advertisement".
Conclusion
Experiences of rejection are not easy. Sometimes they can be made worse by the behaviour of others and how we even discuss it culturally. But, attending to how you are thinking about and internalising the experience can help alleviate negative personal feelings. Remember that "you" don't get rejected - it is the other person that simply declines a request. There are also many reasons out of your control why someone says "no". You are further not responsible or at fault for the choices of others (within legal limits). So, their choice is not an indicator of your character or self-worth. Rather, keep in mind that you are a good and worthwhile person, no matter what.