Mastering Embedded Systems

Muda, Mura and Muri I have recorded this episode twice. Not by intention – far away from that. But I was neither convinced nor satisfied with the first recording. Also the subject was not really impressive and I decided to do it again from scratch. Thus I got a first hand impression what waste of time and effort is. However one detail in the first record was amazing. It was about waste in SW-development. You remember episode 4? Already there I have mentioned waste due to over-processing and over-engineering. Both are part of the 7 forms of regular waste in any kind of system. The Toyota Production System (TPS) has introduced to a broader audience the classification of waste forms. In this episode I wanted to connect traditional manufacturing based Kaizen and Muda, Mura, and Muri with Software-development. Is it possible? Do we have parallels? Or is the TPS not adaptable to nowadays IT-based technology? Stay with me and enjoy the show. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What is Kaizen? Kaizen is Japanese and means Improvement. It is regularly used in conjunction with Continuous Improvement. However that’s not the original intention. Kaizen stands for the understanding and the wish that everything can be improved. Why are there different kind of wastes? The classification of wastes for manufacturing and assembly purpose is one of the key-concepts in the Toyota Production System (TPS) as one of the three types of deviation from optimal allocation of resources (muda, mura, muri).[2]. Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability. What does Muda stand for? Lean and TPS knows the key step to distinguish between manufacturing steps which add value and which don’t. The classification of all processes involved into these two categories let one improve the one and eliminate the other. That means Muda is any activity or process which does not add value. Thus it is a physical waste of time, effort, resources and finally money. Which forms of waste does Muda indicate? Transport; the movement of product between operations, and locations. Inventory; the work in progress (WIP) and stocks of finished goods and raw materials that a company holds. Motion; the physical movement of a person or machine whilst conducting an operation. Waiting; the act of waiting for a machine to finish, for product to arrive, or any other cause. Over-Production; Over producing product beyond what the customer has ordered. Over-Processing; conducting operations beyond those that customer requires. Defects; product rejects and rework within your processes. Which forms of waste cannot be adapted to SW-development? In principle can all forms of waste in Muda be used for SW-development, too. However some of them are quite seldom and do not effectively match always, like Transport or Motion. However others, like Over-Production, Over-Processing and of course Defects seem like exclusively made for SW-development. What does Mura and Muri stand for? Mura and Muri define some more abstract ways how waste can be finally created in Muda-categories. Mura and Muri drive Muda. Mura stands for the waste of unevenness. If the available men, material and equipment are used in a non-balanced way, this finally will result in waste. For example, four weeks ahead of an upcoming milestone the previous measured way of working is changed into a more hectic, confuse and challenging action. The probability of waste, especially defects, will increase. This can be prevented by steering the utilization of all resources in a balanced way. Muri stands for the waste of overburden. If there is unnecessary stress given on employees and processes this will cause Mura and then Muda. Permanent overburden will cause absences of employees, increase of sickness-rate and finally a higher attrition rate. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Kaizen Muda The 7 wastes of Muda Muda – Mura – Muri [saf feature="email" cta="Send me feedback"][saf feature="twitter" cta="Reply on Twitter"] Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Muda, Mura and Muri – Waste in SW-development – MES024 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Engineers’ Talk: DevOp and Tester Vassilis Rizopoulos You remember episode 20 where I mentioned the Embedded Testing conference in Munich. One of the presentation was about Applying DevOps Principles to Software-Hardware Integration Test. Vassilis Rizopoulus explained details about DevOps, their tooling, automated testing and the mandatory environment. I was excited and we have had an extraordinary talk after his contribution. Some days later I asked him for an interview. I am sure that Vassilis’ ideas and thoughts will be helpful for a lot of engineers out there. Especially engineers who wanted to try something knew, but who might need some trigger to change their way of thinking and habit. Vassilis has been dabbling in software engineering close to two decades by now. In this time what started as a hobby of a would-be electrical engineer became full time occupation. He specializes in software productivity engineering, a catch all term for the role that integrates the development environment, test automation, continuous integration and deployment, devops and general behind the scenes tooling that enables software teams to concentrate on actually producing useful software. His language of choice is Ruby and has been for the past dozen of years, but he also has several C and C++ embedded projects under his belt as well as a few C# .NET projects. Most of his professional career has been spent working for large industry firms doing really close to the metal stuff, from devices smaller than an Oreo cookie to as large as 60-ton locomotives. He is one of the co-founders and organizers of thessaloniki.rb the Thessaloniki Ruby Users group and also had the luck to be part of the organizing committee for EuRuKo 2013 that took place in Athens. Whatever free time remains between deadlines and family life goes into open source projects mainly in the Ruby community with the lion’s share reserved for rutema and gaudi. In the Engineers’ Talk we’re discussing about DevOp-priniciples. His will to automatize everything. The infrastructure you need for day-by-day development. And of course the mother of all questions: what are the differences between SW-tester and SW-developer. Stay with me and enjoy the interview. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What are the DevOps-principles? How does typical tooling for DevOps look like? Why does Vassilis describe himself as Testing hardliner? Where does the classic SW-developer distinguish from a DevOp-Tester Why is it essential to treat your environment as code? What are the 3 most important skills a good and successful tester should have? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Vassilis’ personal blog Vassilis’ company blog Vassilis’ github repository Vassilis on Twitter Vassilis on LinkedIn Euruko 2013 Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Engineers’ Talk – DevOp and Tester Vassilis Rizopoulos – MES023 appeared first on Embedded Success.

In episode 20 I have described the main differences between traditional conferences and the idea of BarCamps. In this session I wanted to give you my 15 tips that your first BarCamp visit becomes a success. I have meanwhile joined several BarCamps. And I have made a lot of things wrong. Mainly because I was not aware of. Sometimes also I thought it is better done in another way. But there are a some main phases you are confronted with. And for all of them you can do things well and you do things much more better. Starting into a BarCamp well prepared lets you enjoy the atmosphere even more intensively. You get much more quicker into connection with the other BarCamp-members. And you finally get more out of the time you’re staying at the event. All BarCamps can be separated in three different phases: BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the BarCamp. Even the AFTER phase is as much important as the other phases. If you do not care for the AFTER-phase you loose a lot of momentum you have gained during your time before. Please take these 15 tips into account. Let your first or next BarCamp become an even more thrilling success. The BEFORE phase BEFORE the BarCamp it is much important to prepare yourself than in traditional conferences. In traditional conferences you more or less get surprised by the presenters and the program. On BarCamps the program will be designed and composed by all contributers. Therefore it is essential to get the idea and perhaps already the spirit of the BarCamp you’re willing to join. Even more, if you want to get the best out of it, a well preparedness is essential. Let’s start into it: BEFORE the BarCamp it’s all about communication. Prepare yourself for communicating a lot. Not only verbally, but mainly also by Internet. The main intention is to get familiar with upcoming participants. Twitter seems to be designed for BarCamps. Regularly the organization announces a hash-tag for the social media. Search for this hash-tag in Twitter and get acquainted with the persons using it. Announce yourself as upcoming BarCamp-participant and connect yourself with them. And prepare yourself for Meeting your Twitter mates. It’s great to meat these guys in reality. Best thing is that you initially have someone you know if you enter the BarCamp the first time. Raise questions before the event. Whether you need to know something about the motto, the organization, the situation or the environment. Do not hesitate to engage yourself and ask for support. It’s the very best way to get acquainted with all these guys even before you have go for journey. On some BarCamps they are having introduction rounds. I have one time joined a 120 persons BarCamp. They announced the introduction and I winced due to the expected amount of time. But they have considered that and everbody has had only 3 words to describe herself. Thus, consider your 3 words introduction before joining the BarCamp. It might be very distracting if you need to think about some words about you (only 3) if you’re not prepared. You will not create enough attention for all the other participants to gather their introduction. Interesting persons might slip through your attention. And, don’t be foolish and try to remember everybody. Concentrate on the interesting ones. Therefore, be interesting, too, with your 3 words. Get yourself clear about the intention of your visit. What are the main topics about the event you’re interested in. Please remark, there might be several sessions in parallel. You will have to decide every 45 minutes to whom you will spend your attention. Or are you only there for getting in touch with other participants. Fine, then prepare yourself even better to meet them. The DURING phase DURING the BarCamp could be considered the most important phase. However in my experience it is not. It might be of course the longest phase, but without your good preparation in the BEFORE-phase you might not get the full potential. DURING the BarCamp it’s all about getting the most out of it. In what direction? That depends on you. But you should have an agenda, an intention, which you have prepared in your BEFORE-phase. After the session collection there will be a board with all the parallel sessions, the time schedule and the locations. Take a photo of this schedule-board. This will give you lot of assistance if you want to quickly know what’s happening next, where it will take place, or what goes on in parallel. I personally have also made me always familiar with the room location. If I wanted to switch a session I already know where to go. It’s not always that easy like in Dornbirn with 4 rooms in a row. Do not hesitate to leave a session if you get aware that you’re not interested. There might be reasons like you have not understood the topic in the presentation in the way the presenter has meant. Or the topic tends during the session into a direction you’re not interested in. That’s fine. There should be no offense against the presenter. You’re simply not matching for this session. I have to admit it is somehow weird if you’re presenting yourself and people leave the room. But it is even better if others came in and stay. Take the breaks as opportunities to become acquainted. That’s the best thing in traditional conferences. Learn new and interesting persons. But on BarCamps it is an additional benefit you should not drop. There is one problem – if you have arrived with some colleagues or other acquaintances, do not hang out with your buddies all the time. Take the opportunity and get familiar with the ton of other persons in the room. Have your ears open, independent where you are. In Dornbirn, right in the beginning, someone at the coffee-machine was telling his neighbor that he would have liked to stay in Barcelona. Hey man, I was there – that was a good entry to become familiar. Do not be shy. If you will well enough, if you have a topic and you have the right mood, then apply for your own session. Besides my very first BarCamp, I have taken every BarCamp as an opportunity to ask, provide or present something in my own session. If you feel yourself comfortable give it a try. You’re not paid for it, thus there is no pressure by the others, only by yourself. If you’re eager to have your own session, but you feel not unsure, ask for help. The Org-Team will be willing to assist you to find some more experienced person to assist in a session. Experiment with sponsor’s gifts That’s something you might see that some sponsors provide their material for usage. Great for example are Stattys replacing the traditional pinboard-cards. I haven’t known them before. But at some BarCamps Mikko Mannila is supporting and you can try his cards for free. Meanwhile I have ordered my Starter-Pack and Stattys are supporting me in my daily work. I also got details about a new insurance company for IT-freelancers as I am. They presented me their product right at the moment I was considering to replace the existing one. Coinicidence? Follow the BarCamp via Twitter. If you have the chance or the opportunity, then follow the BarCamp, the sessions by Twitter using the given hash-tag. Some of the participants will provide details out of ongoing sessions. A great opportunity for you to have a glimpse into other session. If you cannot join the BarCamp, the Tweets are sometimes similar like a summary or pictures in a row, thus you get the impression. I personally prefer to listen more to the Tweets than writing that much during the sessions. But I’m delighted to see others contributions. Last not least in the DURING phase, but most important, enjoy the sessions and the participants. You’re there for learning, listening, providing your experience and having a good time. Therefore do not overreact. Do not get offensive or get provoked. It’s not worth the price. There might be very eager participants holding their opinion or their attitude like a monstrance over their head. Ignore them. Avoid crashing into them. Say yourself The map is not Territory. Everybody is free to have his own interpretation of reality. But you do not need to have the same one. Thus, if everything else fails, stay away of trouble making evangelists. The AFTER phase AFTER the BarCamp is different from regular traditional conferences. As your connection on the BarCamp was on eye-level and you’re already connected with other participants via Twitter, the BarCamp still continues for a while. It slowly goes down in the next two or three days. But everybody has the common days in mind and is eager to recapitulate or remember things. In the AFTER the BarCamp phase it’s all about doing the aftermath, providing details, hardening your contacts and stay in touch with the participants. Contribute to the documentation-wiki if you have run your own session or have promised or confirmed to contribute, then it’s now the time to do it. Imagine that others want to refer to you and your details. Providing nothing is highly unfair for the audience who have spend their time for your presentation. Check out the documentation, photos and Twitter-threads by yourself. Especially photos are very interesting from my perspective. Also for the sessions you could not or have not joined by intention, have a look at their details, too. I prefer to forward the documentation-links to persons who have not even known about the BarCamp, but get excited as I’ve told them. Take the documentation as advertisement for the event itself. Connect with the persons you’ve met. If you’re not already connected via Twitter, then do it now. Also consider to connect with your preferred ones on Xing or LinkedIn. Maybe Facebook is an option, too. But always remark when and where you have met these guys. You might loose their names or circumstances you have met. And wouldn’t it be great you know the next time you meet them that you’re already old comrades? Join the aftermath discussion. That was the most impressing detail for me. There is always that much traffic on Twitter or LinkedIn (I’m preferrably at LinkedIn), that I’m regularly flooded with tons of tweets after BarCamps. That comes down to a regular level. But for sure it gives your visibility a great push. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Pictures #PMCampDOR Session documentation #PMCampDOR Impulse presentation by Nadja Petrovskaja (German) Impulse presentation by Robert Weißgräber (German) A critical Retrospective by a GPM-member (German) 5 years Project-Management BarCamp in Dornbirn (German) Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post 15 amazing tips for your first BarCamp visit – MES022 appeared first on Embedded Success.

How everything started – My way to the PDP-11 Holy moly, seems I’m getting old. Two times in the last two weeks I was confronted with this fact. Things which are part of my experience are nostalgic for others. They have never seen or touched them. What has happened? One day I saw an update in LinkedIn highlighting DEC’s PDP-11 as an old system. That’s nothing extraordinary. It is old. But one of my colleagues mentioned it as nostalgic. Bumm, right in the face. Second, I got a mail by another colleague. In his signature he mentioned that this mail was written from his PDP-11. I doubted this, but he showed me a picture showing him from the backside (hopefully it is him) and a PDP-11 aside. That picture must be old. I do not consider that he really has a PDP-11 in his cellar. But both moments let me think back into that time 30, 40 years ago. Computer Systems were different. Computer Science was slightly different. And of course the systems you own or you could directly touch were dramitically different. Compared with the systems available nowadays the are more like flintstones than real lighters. And these thoughts created this episode. I wanted to go back with you showing some highlights in my computer-life. Not for nostalgic reasons, but to make you aware that things were really different at that time. And that it is of some benefit to know a little bit about it, to understand the situation we’re currently in. Please pay special attention on this video showing the startup phase of the PDP-11. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Why was the TI-59 hand calculator that desirable? Together with its printer and its magnetic card it was – more or less – a fully equiped computer system. The price was horrible. But it still was only a fraction of a real computer system. What should you take care for if you carry punching cards? As each punching card is representing one line of your batch-job, you should take care that the order is not corrupted. Stumbling or shuffling has to be prevented at any price. Why could the mounting of storage be embarrassing? Mounting of devices at that time really meant that someone, the operator, physically lifted the storage into a storage-equipment. If you liked to mount some storage you do not have privileges for, the operator might come personally to your working place offending you as stupid moron. How could the Atari ST have such a great success? The Atari ST was the first fully graphical desktop system. With its GEM Operating System it opened a whole new world. Out of the familiar character based limitation into the freedom of fully flexible presentation. What was the most weirdest action you have to do with the PDP-11? The PDP-11 has had to be started by using the front-panel in-line keys. These keys were set representing the address and the octal data to setup the boot-code. Why should you know Assembler languages? If you like to deal with computers on a more technical level you should know their very basic language. And assembler is mnemonized object-code. If you know assembler you are directly in touch with the bare metal. Mandatory if you need to know for sure what’s going on. And much much more.   Selected Links and Resources From This Episode TI-58 and TI-59 HP-41C Atari ST Starting the PDP See 2:40 Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post How everything started – My way to the PDP-11 – MES021 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Was your last conference poor? You know conferences. For sure you do. You might be a fan of them. Or not. You might be disappointed. As I was after visiting the Embedded Testing 2015 in Munich last week. Although I was invented as presenter, I was not convinced. I mean the topic was really good – no other conference or meeting available covering exactly this specific part in the Embedded Systems realm. But the conference got stuck as a sponsor-driven event which highlights products over general knowledge, marketing over sharing of experience. One could have made a lot more out of this conference. So the participants have finally had only their others to get acquainted with each other, hear the problems, discuss and finally detect the old rule, that the best of conferences are the pauses. Free time which can be used for connecting and sharing. In this episode I wanted to highlight the approach of traditional conferences in comparison to BarCamps. A BarCamp is an un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is the direct response on all attendees who wanted to create and design their own agenda of content. For me BarCamps, the un-conferences are by far the better conferences. Listen to this episode and create understanding about this popular approach to confer. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What do participants expect from traditional conferences? And what do they really get? Attendees regularly expect sharing of information, knowledge experience. They very often expect ideas and impulses for their own problems. They regularly focus on problem solving. Instead they get sponsors’ driven events only highlighting their own products and particular approaches. What is most missing from traditional conferences? The opportunity to make an impact on the sessions, their schedule or the selection of presentations. Very often there are only one or two presentations you’re really interested in. Why is the quintessence of traditional conferences that poor? As many of the conferences are sponsored the companies behind try to monetize their presentation for their own purposes. That often results in pure product presentation and selling event. This again thwarts the expectations of the audience. What are BarCamps? BarCamps are un-conferences not following the traditional approach of given schedule and predefined structure of speakers. People share and learn in an open environment not preferring the presenter over the audience. Do these kind of un-conferences have rules? And if so, what kind of rules? There are several pre-defined as also inofficial rulse. Listen into the episode to get some of them in detail. The general rules could be also find at BarCamp-rules. When should you prefer BarCamps instead of traditional conferences? If you want to experience know-how and get acquainted with interesting characters out of your environment or industry. You should join BarCamps if you’re interested more in sharing of expertise and problem-solving experience than in particular products. What is expected from you if you join a BarCamp? There are no spectators, but only participants. It is expected that you do not only consume, but actively engage yourself into the sessions, the discussion and share your knowledge. And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Engineers’ talk: Internet of Things with Marcus Behrens – MES007 BarCamp Definition by Wikipedia BarCamp.org Hackathon CloudCamp BarCamp Definition and Rules PMCamp Barcelona Sessions PMCamps in Europe PMCamp Dornbirn registration Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Was your last conference poor? – MES020 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Engineers’ Talk: Mr. Bug-Hunting: Bero Brekalo Talking about bug-hunting has become a regular topic in this podcast. However there are tons of different persons out there using their own approach to handle bugs. All of them might have different attitudes, different approaches and different experiences. And it might be of interest to get more familiar with them and the details they can tell us. Within today’s episode we have Bero Brekalo as a guest for interview. Bero is one of my very first listeners not directly related to me. We got acquainted after release of Episode 2. We have had a long mail-discussion about debugging, our different and common understanding. Especially Bero’s very interesting debugging tools made me curious. As more as we discussed and as more as I got familiar with Bero, I more and more get the impression, that he’s Mr. Bug-Hunting in person. Today I have the pleasure to present you Bero Brekalo. We’re talking about many details of debugging. You get further details about his approach and his understanding of debugging. And you get acquainted with a very experienced engineer, who has gone through a lot of storms and bad weather. Let’s stay with me and enjoy the interview. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Why do we need debugging? How could binary tracing support you in your searching for bugs? What are the essential points you need to know from your logging? How does Bero’s fixed price strategy help in finding the root-cause? What kind of hopeless problems is Bero confronted with? Why debugging effort is regularly underestimated? When should you ask for help? And much much more. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Bero Brekalo on LinkedIn Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Engineers’ Talk: Mr. Bug-Hunting Bero Brekalo – MES019 appeared first on Embedded Success.

How to survive the email flood? Everybody has his limit in handling emails. For one 10 per day are too much, another handles 150 without any problems. But sooner or later, everybody of us have to declare: it’s too much. I have had a time in my life in which I have had to handle 750 mails per day in average. Nobody can say that this is possible to do. But that was the time I started a very strict and consequent filtering and categorization. However it still was too much. The combination of importance and urgency was back-breaking. In the first part of this episode I will show you some of the most successful approaches how to handle the flood of emails daily arriving in your inbox. There are different concepts, sometimes even contradicting systems, but give them a try and find the most acceptable way for you. But if you’re in the same situation as I was, even the most sophisticated approaches to handle the flood, weren’t succeeding, then you might be interested in the 2nd part of this episode. This summer I stumbled over the book of Rory Vaden | Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time. Rory was welcome as guest in the Art of Charm Podcast His book was an eye-opener. I do not agree with everything Rory has written, however the major part, the introduction of a 3rd dimension, was essential. If importance and urgency are the first two dimensions, significance becomes the 3rd dimension. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Why you cannot manage time? You only can pass through time. Time simply goes on. It cannot be managed. The only thing that can be managed is you. Managing yourself is the only way you can change something significant in your email handling. What’s the difference between importance and urgency? Importance means How much does this matter?. Urgency means How soon does this matter? Both are regularly orthogonal in its use. There could be made a matrix of importance to urgency relations. Further details could be find in this episode. How many emails are too many for you? That’s highly individual. For one 20 mails per day are already too many. Another is happy to handle 200 without any problems. However there is a limit for everybody. And sooner or later you will hit this limit. Everybody faces the same problem of too many emails sooner or later. Listen to this episode to find out my new way how to handle emails more appropriately. What was my previous way of handling mails? I have selected some of the most interesting and helpful hints from all over the place. Here are my preferrred action: Categorize by name Specific sender names are highlighted that I can detect them instantly and react immediately. Filter every subscription into a separate folder and mark as read immediately This action removes me from regular bulk mails polluting my inbox. Additionally it prevents me from continously looking into such folders due to new emails arriving. Highlight mails written exclusively to me I am the only recipient in the To-field. Than it might be worth to be read. Conflicts with the first action. Color different groups of senders Provides a simple visual way to detect specific persons or specific threads which I should read or avoid. Do not hesitate to subgroup existing groups or folders If the folder content gets too big, split it into separate subfolders. Indexing and searching is essential to find whatever you’re looking for. How’s my personal new way to handle emails? It’s not only the way how I handle emails, but how I handle all of my tasks. Taking significance into additional account, I now follow some very simple rules: Stop long emails. Every email longer than 5 sentences regularly needs more clarification and discussion. It’s better to pick up the phone or chat. Stop sharing my opinion. Especially if it is unwanted. That’s regularly a waste of effort and not necessary. Stop confronting emails. E-Mails are horribly in transporting your real tone, understanding and intention. It’s that easy to misunderstand them. The time and effort you need to repair the damage and get back control of your relationship costs you more than taking up the issue in person. Taking significance into account. I do no longer only take importance and urgency into account when I decide about handling my emails. Significance – how long does something matter – has become an essential part of my understanding. It biases my decision whether and when to handle and email or not quite significantly. How to beat the tyranny of importance and urgency? Taking importance and urgency into account let you get stuck in a horrible life movie. You are completely remote driven by the different requests from the outside. Change that to a third dimension and take significance into account. This will limit the impact of importance and urgency significantly. Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Rory Vaden | Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time Rory Vaden in the Art of Charm Podcast presented in the Art of Charm Podcast John Burns and “Offline Email Keeps Me Focused” 8 tips for getting to inbox zero — and staying there Inbox Zero action-based email Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post How to survive the email flood? – MES018 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Soft-Errors Do you have ever heard about Soft-Errors? No, I do not mean Software-Errors. That’s something completely different. I mean Soft in difference to Hard. I first time get into contact with Soft-Errors in late 2011 as we have observed a spontaneous reset within a customer’s appliance. There was no indication for a reset-request, the system simply resetted. Within some industries this is no case to be worried about. But in that time, in that type of industry, with this particular customer it was a challenge to find the root-cause of this spontaneous reset. And it was even more complicated to approve this root-cause. In this episode it is Michal Lewczyk joining us. Michal is one of the very seldom specialists available for Soft-Errors. Michal was one of my colleagues in 2011 and the years after. He was the main investigator for all Soft-Error issues we suspected. Michal has a deep knowledge in bare metal SW-programming. He’s mainly engaged into developing software for Digital Signal Processors; thus he’s not only an elaborated and experienced software-engineer, but also a great investigator and marvelous bug-hunter. Let’s enjoy the engineer’s talk with Michal Lewczyk about one of the most quirky phenomenon in Embedded Systems. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: What are Soft-Errors? What induces Soft-Errors? How to treat Soft-Errors gracefully? What equipment do you need to approve a Soft-Error? Why you need at least one engineer to be aware of Soft-Errors? You do not know assembler? Here are the main reasons you should become familiar with it. How to distinguish Soft-Errors from regular seldom errors? How to take care of your boss’s mind if you explain Soft-Errors to him? What might cause an increase of Soft-Errors? Why you should not blame that easily for a Soft-Error? What is Michal’s first step guide for treating Soft-Errors? And much much more Selected Links and Resources From This Episode Soft Error (Wikipedia) Soft Errors in Electronic Memory – A White Paper Soft errors’ impact on system reliability DRAM Errors in the Wild: A Large-Scale Field Study (Google Research) Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Engineer’s Talk: Soft-Errors with Michal Lewczyk – MES017 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Task-Force – The final With episode #6 the mini-series about task-forces has started. Episode #8 tackled the launch phase of a task-force. And with episode #12 you got a lot of details about the most essential part of a task-force – the running phase. And now, in this last episode of the series, it’s about all the stuff you need to do after you have run any task-force meeting or the task-force at all. In the first step of the task-force mini-series you needed to understand the general pros and cons of a task-force, the intention and your own understanding of the why, what and how is essential. In the second step I have informed you about all the valid key indicators for a successful launch phase. And I have given you the tools to do it. The main phase of task-force, the essential doing, was covered in the third part. You found a lot of details about running the task-force, calling regular meetings, pushing forward, negotiations and arguments, and you strong commitment with a clear focus on the goals. This episode now finalizes the series about task-force’ing. The aftermath covers the creation of meeting minutes, support of ongoing work and finally touch-down the task-force. Essential Answers Provided In This Episode For: Why are meeting minutes that essential for your task-force work? What are essential contents for regular meeting minutes? How can you effectively handle action items? When is it more helpful to bow yourself out of the ongoing discussion? Why should you do a retrospective of your task-force? What does Yokoten mean? And why should you follow it? How you gather your personal feedback after the task-force? And much much more Selected Links and Resources From This Episode My Meeting Minutes Template (Google Docs share) Lean Thinking – Yokoten Continuous Improvement – Yokoten Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Aftermath in a task-force – MES016 appeared first on Embedded Success.

Since two weeks the Volkswagen scandal is swapping through the newspapers and the TV. Lots of details are already known, but tons of information are still unveiled. Step by step the responsibles are giving some light into the darkness of this threatening affair. An issue which might have the power for an earthquake in the German car-manufacturing industry. In this episode I am talking about the technical details which triggered the current situation. I wanted to reflect the current problems without having any idea of solution. Considering the results which are day-by-day shown in the news we can conclude what might be going on behind the scenery. BTW, I am sorry for any inconvenience with the audio of this episode. In the early versions I have not mono’fied the input, but you were bothered with the stereo version. It currently looks like a big mess, however Volkswagen is a big and strong company and might dig its way out of its problems. However there are tons of issues, hundreds of technical challenges and millions or annoyed customers. I wanted to give you my perspective on to the situation – with all its actions, assumptions and believes. Essential Know-How Provided In This Episode: What are the exhaustion problems with gasoline and Diesel engines? How were the defeating devices detected? What kind of task-forces will Volkswagen have raised? What might be the consequences out of this scandal? Do we have seen this kind of cheating before? Somewhere else? How has Volkswagen already reacted? Is that sufficient? Where do I see hypocrisy in all the yelling? What conclusions can we draw out of this finding? And much much more Selected Links and Resources From This Episode This VW Diesel Scandal Is Much Worse Than a Recall Volkswagen’s appalling clean diesel scandal, explained How Many Deaths Did Volkswagen’s Deception Cause in the U.S.? The Diesel Dilemma Thank You For Listening Out of all the podcasts available in the Internet you tuned into mine, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this note. Also, I would be very happy if you would consider taking the minute it takes to leave an honest review or rating for the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. They’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the podcast. For sure I read every single one of them personally! Or, if you prefer a more direct contact, don't hesitate and drop me a note at feedback@embeddedsuccess.com The post Task-Forcing extreme: Volkswagen and its Diesel problem – MES015 appeared first on Embedded Success.