Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
I was supposed to write a post mortem on Watexy-Java before this one but since the gadget has already been accepted over at the Google Wave Samples Gallery, it’s probably better that I write this one first.
I was supposed to write a post mortem on Watexy-Java before this one but since the gadget has already been accepted over at the Google Wave Samples Gallery, it’s probably better that I write this one first.
A couple of guys put up a StackExchange based question and answer website last week, NullPointer.ph, targeting pinoy software developers.
The people there right now (including yours truly) have a wide range of skills (PHP, RoR, Java, .NET, etc) but there seems to be a shortage of questions. If you’re facing a head-scratcher at school or at work it may be worth dropping by that site and posting your problem.
I don’t feel like posting Software Engineering or Management posts yet, so here’s something different: a graph mapping the complicated plot of the recently concluded series Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
Spoilers for Tsubasa and its sister series xxxHolic below the cut.
Continue reading “Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Timelines Map”
I was supposed to rant about the inefficiencies and waste in my experience as a volunteer in a repacking center for relief goods last Tuesday. After a 4 hour blackout, though, my desire to rant dissipated so I’ll keep this short and simple:
The real bottleneck in repacking relief goods is the loading of the trucks.
A small truck can hold 300-500 packs for distribution. Unless the center has a fleet of 10 or 18 wheeler trucks (which is highly unlikely), the realistic number of outbound packs per hour is less than 1,000 packs.
That is one pack every 4 seconds, a rate that can easily achieved by a single assembly line consisting of only 20 people. (6 assigned to clothes segregation, 3 in rice packing, 1 assigned to soap packing, 5 people packing in series, and 5 people to restock their supplies)
And here we come to the whole point of the rant I didn’t make:
There is no reason why relief goods repacking centers with over 50 people on hand should produce inconsistent and poorly packed relief goods packs as there is enough time to introduce quality in the system.
Streamline the whole assembly line, get the extra people to do quality checks, increase the frequency of breaks… just do anything that can improve the quality of the packs. Remember that those packs are headed to flood victims: a poorly made pack can unknowingly add insult to injury.
After reading various books and magazine articles on management, many clueless managers suddenly become prone to making grave mistakes based on a certain fallacy:
High morale leads to high productivity.
When these managers hear how successful companies manage their employees, sometimes even going to great lengths to provide morale boosting perks, they think that if they do all of that to their employees they’re going to see a drastic improvement in productivity.