Early on in my career, I found myself sitting at an elderly woman’s house whom I’ll call Betty. That morning she had called police to report some fraudulent transactions on her credit card statement. Well, I had no sooner sat down at the kitchen table and she excused herself from the room. This bundle of grandma sweetness returned  several minutes later carrying a huge platter of home-baked sticky buns. She sat them down in front of me and said, “I hope you like them, I just baked them.” Now in fairness to her, she didn’t realize I had just eaten a huge breakfast and was not particularly fond of sticky buns. But I knew if I didn’t have one of her sticky buns this woman would be devastated, her feelings would be hurt, and I just couldn’t do that to her. So as I sat there listening to Betty I was trying to decide how to resolve the situation in a diplomatic way, without being forced into a situation where I might projectile vomit on her carpet if forced to eat this sticky bun. Well as luck would have it, Betty left the room again to get some bank statements for my investigation. As soon as she left the room, I grabbed the sticky bun from my plate and jammed it into the front pocket of my body armour, zipping it closed. When Betty returned several minutes later, all that remained were the crumbs on my plate. She said, “Oh my, you were hungry, would you like another one?” I smiled politely and said “No thank you, that was delicious.”

In life we sometimes find ourselves in awkward situations. While I believe in forthrightness and being a straight shooter, there are times when a little tact and diplomacy can go along way towards improving or sustaining relations, and relationships. The same principle applies in giving feedback to people. So often people receive performance feedback that is so harsh and destructive that it actually becomes counter-productive.  Harsh feedback delivered without tact and diplomacy can have an adverse effect on the person’s behavior and performance. Like a child who continually hears he/she is dumb, they will soon begin believing and acting in such a way.

As much as people may say they want you to give them straight feedback and tell it like it is, tread carefully. There are very few people who can accept this type of directness when it comes to the most important subject in their life “themself”. Erring on the side of caution with the use of a little tact and diplomacy is a safe strategy, which at the same time gives the impression that the sticky bun was delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving, to my American friends.

Perhaps thinking about giving thanks, and the question of my perspective from this vantage point in life, is what made this post from the Bad Astronomer pop out in my reading this morning. It’s about a scale model of the solar system hosted on the web. From the site:

This page shows a scale model of the solar system, shrunken down to the point where the Sun, normally more than eight hundred thousand miles across, is the size you see it here. The planets are shown in corresponding scale. Unlike most models, which are compressed for viewing convenience, the planets here are also shown at their true-to-scale average distances from the Sun. That makes this page rather large – on an ordinary 72 dpi monitor it’s just over half a mile wide, making it possibly one of the largest pages on the web.

Just for reference, the image of the Sun on my monitor is about 6″ diameter. Yeah, Pluto is a speck about 6,000x the diameter of the Sun away.

I love these sorts of things which convey the notion of deep distance (similar to the concept of deep time). One of these days I’d like to make it to Sweden to see the Sweden Solar System, which uses the Globe arena to represent the Sun, with Pluto a sphere about 5″ in diameter almost 200 miles away.

This question of scale – of the deep distance from one planet to another here in our solar system – is one which I tried to deal with honestly in writing Communion of Dreams. It’s why it takes over a week for the researchers sent out from Earth to reach Saturn (Well, Titan, actually) even using a constant thrust of about one-third gravity, and why there is a time-lag in radio communications of about 90 minutes (yeah, I researched not just the average distances between the planets, but where they would be in their respective orbits on the dates in the book – as well as what the intermediate time lag would be en route at various points). Which presented a problem in the writing – what to do with the characters in the book during this period? Which, in turn, is what I think made the readers at the publisher feel that the book moved too slowly in the first half.

Well, I still haven’t heard back from the publisher about the revisions I sent (and I didn’t expect to yet), so I don’t know whether I was able to address this concern adequately with the changes I made. And once I do hear, I expect that my perspective on the matter will change – as it always does, after the fact. Such is life. Such is the universe.*

Again, Happy Thanksgiving.

Jim Downey

*Thanks, JB.

If you go outside and just take a few quiet moments in observing people, you will notice that almost everyone are carrying their own gadgets:  You will see that businessmen are busy talking to someone on their cellphones; teenagers have their ears plugged with earphones listening to their i-pods;  children are busy playing with their PSP;  moms listening to their self-help audio in their MP3s;  and employees researching on the internet using their laptops;

Now you ask yourself this:  “What would this people want for christmas?”  I’m pretty sure that almost all of your family members have one of the gadgets that were mentioned above.  Well, enough thinking and let me help you.

I had one of my friend, Shirley Choa, showed me her fantastic product.  It is called Hamburger Mini Speakers.  When she showed me this tiny speaker, I couldn’t believe how loud and clear the sound was!  You can also carry it anywhere with you without worrying about carrying bulky speakers and looking for a power outlet to make it work.  It is so convenient for me I bought the red one at first sight. 

For you tech-wise guys out there, the following specifications are for you:

Dimension: (L) 55.5 MM x (H) 77 MM
Net Weight: 112g
Speaker: 36MM
Input: L/R380mV
Power Output: 7W X 2
S/N: 80dB
AMP Freq Range: 280Hz %u2013 16KHz
Charge Voltage: 5V 0.5V
Charge Time: 1.DC 5V 200MA%u2014300MA about 2.5 hours
3 USB about 4 hours
Suitable Temperature: 0°C-40°C

Now what’s even greater here is that she also have Double-Speakers.  They are two mini speakers which can be put together– which would look like an egg.  The bottom part of the speakers are magnetized, which means you can place them anywhere that’s metallic.  Double the sound means double the fun!

With this kind of gift to my loved ones, I’m pretty sure they would remember the day I gave it to them.  The children would be very happy with the fantastic sound on their PSP and teens can now party without carrying large stereos!

My trip with Mariana was absolutely fantastic !!! this women is a perfect women for this trip !!I finished my stay in south Africa very well. Best regards, Emmanuelle Murcia (France)

Photo by Dano

Yesterday I was reading an intriguing Chnagethis manifesto by Matthew E. May called: Creative Elegance – The Power of Incomplete Ideas. May argues the there is a great power in leaving things out. A concept he calls “the missing piece”:

What isn’t there can often trump what is.

May gives examples from art, TV, film and business to demonstrate that sometimes, creativity can be achieved not by creating something new, but by deliberately taking something out or leaving missing pieces. And these inspiring examples got me thinking of other examples where this idea could be used.

Example one – the missing piece in the feedback process

When I teach and evaluate feedback skills I always emphasize to people the importance of asking and listening first and only then deciding on a course of action. I am constantly surprised to see smart people go into a conversation without first understanding the other side problem – is it lack of knowledge, is it misunderstanding or is a shortage of ability. Until you understand that, you cannot really contribute anything to the other person. I just realized that what I am talking about is how the missing piece changes the conversation. How without this information, the conversation is a totally different one.

Next time I am going to give this class I am planning to use the example from the manifesto (which I am not going to ruin for you) to show how powerful the missing piece is and what happens the minute we discover it.

Example two – the unnoticed employees

Similarly, I remember when I was a course commander in the Israeli Air force I was leading a course which was comprised of participants who lacked motivation and had a lot of discipline problems. Usually, we spent a lot of time dealing with and giving attention to the people who were undisciplined.

Until one day we noticed something. When we do that, the phenomenon spreads across the course participants. By ignoring the “regular” soldiers, those who did not give us any problems and focusing on the trouble makers, we were not only unable to take care of troublemakers, we created more trouble makers. We were pushing those who did not act up to act up, as they, like any normal human being, wanted the attention and recognition for a job well done.

I think this relates easily to the workplace. How is your time divided? How much time you spend with you under-performing employees compared to others? How many times to you recognize, award or give feedback to the employees that are not overachievers or underachievers, but are simply doing their job. If, as Woody Allen says: “80 percent of success is just showing up“, don’t we need to make sure we do not ignore those people who are doing everything that is expected of them?

Example three – lack of friction

Lastly, it made me think of a post by Bob Sutton that I read a while back and left a lasting impression on me. The post was called on noticing what you don’t notice, and this is what he wrote:

It is one of those phrases that applies to all sorts of things, great customer experiences where good things happen and your feel no friction, organizational practices that are seamless and painless, and even government services that seem designed to reduce the burden on you.

Sometimes, Sutton claims, the really great services, are the ones that are transparent, that we don’t notice they are there. Or in other words: the missing pieces.

So, how can you use the idea of the missing piece to improve your business, teamwork or personal life?

Elad

i donno why, but i feel like saying once more why i am writing this blog, MY blog and why i have this “tune” playing in my writings. it’s not that i justify or explain myself, but it’s a way in which i notice and pay (needed/un-needed) attention to certain pushing opinions that animate bravely my blog

and..i like that, it reminds me why i’m writing, who i’m writing for and why i’m manifesting this way. all these challenges instigate me in a pleasant and kinda twisted way )))

and call forth certain feelings when receiving feedback on my blog…this is a thought..i’ve received feedback of many kinds on what i’m writing and the most important how i’m writing it, how people understand the manner  in which i’m revealing my life and experiences. on the principle that feedback is a gift, i’m embracing mine as only a gift should be received  (ah..the maturity in this is overhelming, right? )

My blog was “born” because i needed to word out my feelings, experiences, the situations that i’m coming across to an extend that i release pressure and intrigue my readers to “find” themselves in my stories or relate to them in order to know me better or why not – know me less.

all these without saying it all, by keeping really personal aspects to myself and to those who relate to me, understand me and want to know me.

I talk about “me” in many ways and situations, by not exactly pointing out who i’m referring to, what i did or even thought about etc. this is for those who are interested in finding out more, by simply asking about the “BEHIND SCENES” and the spicy things.

as i said in a previous post, by simply putting the words down on the blog i sometimes find the right answers, my answers, i review my thoughts and reflect on different matters that are brought to my attention or tell the life experiences that i’m going through.

i do not expect everyone to understand me not i want that. i’m ok with my cyclic writing and with my “managerial skills” developed by writing. (feedbacks)

First of all i’m writing for myself and if others are interested in my blog, feel free to read it and share opinions that are gladly welcomed, no matter what. This blog offers the means to express myself in all the ways that I am and that others discover me.

it’s not necessary to talk about a,b,c,d or smth like this in order to really put myself there, out on the table. My way it’s even more provocative and challenging, feeding the imagination and the reality-like comparisons.

it’s like “the images in the mirror are closer than they apper” or “any resemblance to reality is purely coincidence” ))

Bu gün sizlere, “Sound Dergisi” ‘nde Ekim ayında  yayımlanan makalemi yazacağım: “Feedback ile Savaş”..

FEEDBACK İLE SAVAŞ

Seslendirme denince, geçmişten günümüze gelen en büyük problem “feedback” dir. Feedback, ses kaynağından sinyalin mikrofon ile toplanması sırasında çeşitli etkenlerle alınan sesin, hoparlöre geri besleme yapmasına denir.
Bu çok karışık, sahne ve mekanın akustiği, mikrofon tipi ve kullanım şekilleri, sahne volümü gibi sebeplerden oluşan Feedback, yapılan etkinliğin bazen durmasına bile yol açar ve oldukça rahatsız edicidir.
Dinleyiciler kadar müzisyenleri de rahatsız eden feedback, kontrolsüz bir geri-dönüş olduğu için kalıcı kulak rahatsızlıklarına, ses sisteminin zarar görmesine kadar hasarlara yol açabilir. Dinlemeye gittiğim bir konserde, şarkıcının pek çok kez performansı durdurmasına bile şahit olmuşluğum vardır Feedback yüzünden…

Pek çok sebebi vardır, Feedback oluşmasının. Bazen bir yaka mikrofonu ile yapılan konuşma sistemlerinden tutunda canlı müzik gösterilerine kadar tüm seslendirme sistemlerinde başımıza gelir.
Peki bununla nasıl başedeceğiz? Tabi ki pek çok alternatif var. Her şeyden önce kaliteli ses sistemi ile çalışmak lazım. Sırasıyla mikrofon ile ses kaynağından sinyal alınır, miksere gelen sinyal burada işlenir, amplifikatöre gönderilen sinyaller yükseltilerek hoparlör veya sahne monitörü ile dinleyicilere ulaştırılır.
Bu işlem sırasında, ne kadar kaliteli cihazlar kullanırsanız, feedback riskiniz o kadar düşük olur. Çünkü örnek vermek gerekirse, kullandığınız hoparlör 3 yollu ise, hoparlörün çalışmasında içinde ki tüm sürücüler yanlızca kendilerine verilen görevi yapacakları için (bass yanlızca basları, tiz yanlızca tiz sesleri okuyacağı için) daha hassas çalışacaklardır ve bunun sonucunda hem daha kaliteli ses hem de daha az feedback, gain-before-feedback yani Türkçe anlamıyla feedback den önceki ses oluşacaktır.
SES SİSTEMİ:
Her şeyden önce, ses sisteminin doğru kurulması gereklidir. PA hoparlörlerinin sahnenin arkasında kaldığı bir durumda ya da sub-bass ların sahnenin üzerinde olduğu bir durumda inanın çok da yapılacak bir şey yoktur Feedback için, dua etmekten başka!
Öncelikle, ses sistemini doğru kurmuş olmamız gerekiyor. PA hoparlörleri doğru yerleştirilmiş, sahneyi görmemesi yada az görmesi gerekli.
Tabi ki performansın yapıldığı mekanın da akustik özelliklerinin çok etkisi var Feedback oluşumunda. Sahnenin yapısının, akustik özelliklerinin, sahne karşısı yada arkasının cam olmasından tutun da, amfi-tiyatro daki taşların PA den gelen sesi yansıtmasına kadar çok etken var. Tabi ki organizatörlere, bu mekan çok feedback yapıyor, gelin işi filanca mekanda yapalım dediğiniz de dayak yeme garantiniz var ama, en azından bir kaç pratik önlem ile bunu azaltabilirsiniz.
Mesela arkası cam ile kaplı bir sahneniz varsa, bu camlardan özellikle yüksek frekanslar yansıyacaktır. Ve emin olun mikrofonlarınız da bunları ara ve bulur!
Çok basit bir kumaş ile bu cam alanı kaplayabilir yada Star Cloud gibi led ışıklı bir perde ile hem hoş görünmesini, hem de feedback riskinin azalmasını sağlayabilirsiniz.

GRAFİK EQ:

Feedback’in engellenmesinde en çok kullanılan yöntem Grafik EQ’lar kullanmaktır. Herhangi bir frekans feedback’e girdiğinde bu grafik EQ nun üzerinden o frekans bandına ait kazancın azaltılması ile feedback engellenir. Bazı grafik Eq modellerinde 6db, bazılarında 12db bazı özel cihazlar da ise 24db’ye kadar size frekansların indirgenmesi sağlanır. En çok kullanılan Grafik EQ formatların da ise 10 band, 15 band ve 30 band frekansın dar bir açı ile azaltmanıza/çoğaltmanıza imkan sağlar.
Grafik EQ ları, ihtiyaç duyduğunuz tüm çıkışlara bağlayabilirsiniz. Ana PA sistemine, side-fill hoparlörünüze, sahne içi monitörlerine, davula verdiğiniz sub-bass hoparlörlerine vs.vs.
Grafik EQ kullanırken şunu unutmamak lazım. Yüksek ses elde etmek için feedback kontrolünde, ne kadar çok frekans indirirseniz, sonuçta duyumda o kadar sesin karakterine müdahale ediyorsunuz demektir. Ve bu da sesin duyumunu zayıflatır. Duyumu azalan sesi tekrar açmak zorunda kalırsınız ve tekrar feedback riskiniz yükselir yada feedback oluşmaya başlar. Tekrar feedback yapan frekansları indirirsiniz, bu sefer gene sesi açmak zorunda kalırsınız… Ve bu böyle sonsuz bir döngü şeklinde sürer gider, siz de ikinci paket sigarayı açmak zorunda kalırsınız!

ANALAYZER:

En çok kullanılan yöntem, bir analayzer, el tipi cihaz (bkz resim2) yada rack tipi veya PC ile kullanmaktır. Çünkü hiç bir insan kulağı feedback’e giren frekansı doğrudan tahmin edemez, en azından yüzde yüz doğru bulamaz. Siz 1khz feedback yapıyor diye tahmin eder ve EQ dan 1khz ‘ın faderini mesela 6db indirsiniz. Bu arada feedback kesilir. Ama aslında 1.6khz feedback yapıyordur ve siz 1khz’i indirince, EQ ların çalışma prensibinde bir frekans tek başına dar bir açı ile kısılırken yanında ki komşu frekansları da aslında kıstığı için, 1khz de oluşan feedback de kesilecektir. Ama bu arada problemin kaynağı olan 1khz hala yüksektir ve feedback tekrar oluşmaya başlar. Bu arada siz sorunun 2khz de olduğunu düşünür ve bu frekansı azaltırsınız. Böylece hem ses kaliteniz de bozulmalar başlar hem de feedback devam eder.
Bu gibi hataları inanın profesyoneller de yapıyor. Bu yüzden imkanlarınızın el verdiği şekilde analayzer kullanın.
En çok kullanılan analayzer ile feedback önleme methodu şöyledir. Sahneye bir mikrofon konulur. Tüm EQ’larınız flat haldeyken mikrofonun Gain’i kontrollü ve çok yavaş şekilde açılmaya başlanır. (burada çok dikkatli ve kontrollü olmak lazım, yoksa ses sistemini küle çevirmek mümkün)
Herhangi bir frekans, feedback’e girdiğinde, analayzerda bu görünmey başlar ve o frekansı, Grafik EQ’nuz da feedback kesilinceye kadar azaltırsınız. Feedback kesilince daha fazla azaltmayın, çünkü bu , ses sisteminizin kalitesini de azaltır.
Bir diğer yöntem de, sıra ile feedbacke girinceye kadar EQ daki frekans bandlarını açarsınız. Böylece hangiz frekansın feedback’e girdiğiniz ve ne kadar açabileceğiniz görüsünüz. Bunu, mikserin üzerinden mikrofonun bağlı olduğu kanalın ton kotrolünden de
yapabilirsiniz.
TON YUMUŞATMA:

Çok sert olarak tonlanmış yada tiz frekansları gereğinden fazla açılmış mikrofonlar da feedback yapar. Bunu, mikserin üzerinden ton kontrolünü yumuşatarak engelleyebilirsiniz.
Mesela 10khz frekansı seçili tizi açarak parlattığınız perküsyon feedback yapıyorsa, frekans bandından 8khz’i seçerek parlatmayı deneyin. Üstelik belki de bu sayede ton kalitesi de daha güzel olacaktır. Yada bas davulu (kick) 60hz frekasnını açtıysanız ve buda feedback yapıyorsa 100hz frekasnınız açmayı deneyin.

MİKROFON YERLEŞTİRME VE SEÇİMİ:
Aslında bu konu başlı başına ayrı bir yazı konusu. Basitçe burda bahsetmek gerekirse, sahne ki mikrofonunuz durduğu yer feedback’i engelleme konusunda çok önemlidir. Mikrofonun mümkün oldukça az şekilde side-fill veya sahne monitörünü görmesini sağlamanız lazım. Mikrofonu monitöre ne kadar, hangi açı ile çevirdiğiniz de feedback oluştuğuna bakın.

Mikrofonu, mümkün oldukça hoparlörlerden uzak tutmaya çalışın. Özellikle tecrübesiz vokalistler, performans sırasında mikrofonu sahne monitörlerine doğru tutarlar ve tabi aynı anda tüm dinleyicilerde ellerini kulaklarına doğru! Bunu, çalıştığınız vokalistlere anlatın, zaten bir kere bunu gösterdiğiniz de ve çıkan sesi duyduklarında emin olun bir daha yapmayacaklardır!
Mikrofonu, sesin kaynağına yakın tutmaya çalışın. Çünkü ne kadar yakınlaştırırsanız, o kada az açmanız gerekecektir ve bu da feedback’i o kadar engelleyecektir.
Doğru tip mikrofon seçimi ile de feedback’i engelleyebilirsiniz. Kullandığınız mikrofonun polar patern özelliklerini mutlaka öğrenin. Süper cardioid veya Hyper cardioid polar paterne sahip mikrofonlar, diğerlerine göre daha az feedback yapar. Hyper cardioid mikrofonlar 45 derece polar paterne sahip oldukları için, paternlerinde ki ölü bölge seviyesi yüksektir ve bu sayede monitörden daha az geri dönüş yaparlar. Sorunlu enstrüman yada vokaller için mümkün oldukça bu tip mikrofonları kullanabilirsiniz.
Ayrıca mesela koro ya da grup keman gibi aynı gruba birden çok mikrofon kullandığınız yerlerde aynı marka/model ve özelliklerde mikrofonları kullanın. Değişik ve farklı mikrofonlar, grup seslendirmede aynı özellikleri sergilemeyecekleri için size çok zorluk çıkartırlar ve hepsinin feedback ten önceki kazancı farkı olduğu için aynı şekilde kullanamazsınız. Araya karışmış ucuz, kötü bir mikrofon sizi ağlatabilir.
FEEDBACK DESTROYER:

Çalışma prensibi, feedback’e giren frekansı 24db ye kadar çok hızlı şekilde kesebilen, aynı anda 8 yada 10 veya daha fazla frekans bandına müdahale edebililen ve mikserinizin tüm çıkışlarına bağlayabildiğiniz bir cihazdır Feedback Destroyer.
Ben kullanılması taraftarı değilim. Çünkü yanılma payı çok yükse olan bir cihaz. Mesela solo yapan Elektro gitarı feedback sanıp bir anda 1khz, 1.6khz ve 800hz’ini 24db kısabiliyor! Ve tabi ki sonucu siz tahmin edin….
Ancak, bazı yerlerde işinize yarıyabilir. Mesela kürsü mikrofonu, konuşmacı gibi yerlerde.

BI-AMP YADA SELF POWER MONITOR:
Bi-amp monitör kullandığınız da , monitörün içinde ki sürücülerin her birine ayrı görevler verilir. Bu sayede, özellikle yüksek volümlerde daha az sıkışırlar, şişerler ve çalışmaları daha hassas olacağı için kaliteleri bozulmaz. Aynı şekilde kendinden amplifikatörlü monitörlerde de her driver (sürücü) ayrı amplifikatör ile beslenir. Bu da onların daha stebil çalışmasını sağlar. Bu sayede feedback daha az oluşacaktır, bir deneyin.
IEM: IN EAR MONITORING:

Feedback’in en çok iştahlı olduğu yerler sahne monitörleridir. Genelde doyumsuz müzisyenler, sürekli monitörüne yüksek volüm isteyenler sayesinde ortaya çıkar feedback. Bu gibi durum söz konusu ise sizde müzisyenlerle ile görüşüp IEM, yani kulak içi monitörü kullanabilirsiniz. Hem de böylelikle Hi-Fi kalitesinde bir duyuma sahip olurlar. Ilk zamanlar kullanmak zor gelebilir ama kolay alışılır, doğru kulaklık modeli seçimi ile ve kısa sürede de vazgeçilmez olur IEM’ler.
Piyasa da bulabileceğiniz yüzlerce model olduğu gibi, profesyonel kulaklık yapan firmalara, müzisyenlerin kulak kalıbı alıp göndererek onlara özel kulak içi monitörü yaptırabilirsiniz.
Mesela kulaklıkla beraber davulcunuza da ayrıca bir sub-bass vererek kick ve basların onu tatmin etmesini sağlayabilirsiniz.

DİĞER YÖNTEMLER:
Sahnede ne kadar açık mikrofon varsa, bu o kadar feedback riski demektir. Mümkün oldukça, o anda kullanmadığınız mikrofonlarınızı kısın yada kapatın.
Bir diğer yöntem de; problemli mikrofonun fazını değiştirmektir. Bunu mikserin üzerinde mikrofonun bağlı olduğu kanalda bulunan “phase” tuuna basarak yapabilirsiniz. Bu esnada mikrofonun alış yönü değişeceği için her zaman olmasa da işe yaradığı zaman çoktur.
Müzisyenlerinizle, özellikle egosu yüksek olanlarla konuşun, onlara feedback’i anlatın ve sahne monitörlerini kısmanız gerektiği anlatın. Emin olun sizi anlayışla karşılayacaklardır. Çünkü hiç bir müzisyen yada şarkıcı, performansın ortasında sağır olmak istemez.
Gate kullanabilirsiniz. Asıl işi, enstrümanlarda ki uzayan sesleri engellemek/kısmak olan Gate’i feedback’i engellemek için kullanabilirsiniz. Özellikle Kick ve Perküsyonda çok işinize yarayabilir.

Merhaba,
Bu gün size bir arkadaşımın tavsiye ettiği bir cihazdan bahsedeceğim. Malum, yüksek sahne ses, davulcunun zilleri filan hep vokal mikrofonlarına dert olmuştur, bazen doğru düzgün ses almamızı bile engeller, efekt açamazsınız hatta..

Rolls’un çıkarttığı MicMute diye bir ürün var. Bunu Sahnede Vokal mikrofonuna bağlıyorsunuz, basit bir XLR in-out şeklinde. Üzerinde bulunan ayarlanabilir delay ve treshold buttonları ile hassasiyetini ayarlıyorsunuz. Tıpkı bir gate gibi çalışıyor ve gate kullanıyormuşsunuz gibi ayarlıyorsunuz. Vokaliniz mikrofonu kullanmadığı zamanlarda sinyali keserek size yardımcı oluyor bu MicMute..

Ve böylece daha temiz bir mix elede edersiniz. MicMute, özellikle davul kitinin önünde duran vokal, gitarist vb gibi yerlerde kullanabilirsiniz.

Daha fazla bilgi için www.micmute.com ‘a göz atabilirsiniz.

Yay!  I had my first 50 pages of the current work-in-progress reviewed in today’s writers’ group meeting.  As always, I didn’t agree with 100% of the comments, but I bit my tongue and listened.  Too often, I’ve seen people in workshops, writers’ groups, and elsewhere spend the time they could have been improving their work defending it… setting up a barrier that says “no thanks” to honest feedback.

Today’s meeting was super helpful to me, and Claire, Michele, and Addy were great.  We still have a problem with no-shows … we had two that were expected today who did not attend.  And my friend Matt has probably decided not to participate, as he’s MIA as well.

As the current novel is #2 in a mystery series, it was especially helpful to have three new sets of eyes and three new brains!  They see it fresh; I see it with 1)  all the info in my head from book #1 and 2) everything I’m planning to write in future chapters.

So a big thank you on this day before Thanksgiving!!

Os índios da tribo Dakota passam de geração a geração o seguinte ensinamento: “Quando você descobre que está montando um cavalo morto, a melhor estratégia é desmontar”.

Nas empresas muitas pessoas se recusam a desmontar do cavalo morto e continuam a usar práticas e manter idéias ja superadas que não levam mais a lugar algum. Mas insistem em manter a situação. 

Alguns exemplos do que é feito:

• Trocam os cavaleiros.
• Ameaçam o cavalo morto com castigos e demissão.
• Criam um comitê para estudar o cavalo.
• Dizem coisas como: “Esta é a maneira como sempre montamos este cavalo”.
• Buscam um consultor para motivar o cavalo morto.
• Declaram que cavalo morto é melhor, mais rápido e mais barato.
• Revisam os requisitos de desempenho para cavalos mortos.
• Designam um Six Sigma Black Belt para ressuscitar o cavalo.
• Mudam os requisitos operacionais e declaram: “Este cavalo não está morto”.
• Incluem no orçamento uma verba para melhorar o desempenho do cavalo.
• Atrelam vários cavalos mortos para aumentar a velocidade.
• Promovem o cavalo morto a gerente.

No mundo real o cavalo morto representa a inércia, a acomodação e a manutenção do status quo. Representa as pessoas que nao acompanham as mudanças e, infelizmente, atrasam o andamento dos projetos e da empresa.

Nao me refiro apenas às mudanças ”tecnológicas” mas também à postura e ao comportamento: de um lado estão os gerentes que ainda insistem em chefiar dando ordens e fazendo ameaças. E no outro lado estão os funcionários que ainda resistem a trabalhar em equipe, são pouco comprometidos e não valorizam seu próprio desenvolvimento profissional.

Eu sou da linha da gestão humanizada e prego a valorização das pessoas como forma de se alcançar resultados sustentáveis.

Mas, como diz um executivo amigo meu:

“Como gestores temos de dar todo apoio, motivar, educar e treinar os funcionários mas chega uma hora em que temos de ser intolerantes e rigorosos: é nesse momento que sai o Piaget e entra o Pinochet”.

It was a gloomy, soggy and chilly day. I went down to our pantry to get some coffee…My office is right next to the famed “Durham Bulls Athletic Park”. I was looking out the window and found the green grass on the outfield particularly green and shiny. Then I noticed, despite the rain, the sprinklers were ON. I heard on the news that we are short of rainfall for the month, which means, come summer, restricted watering of lawns.

Anyway, the picture triggered off another thought i.e. Advantages & Disadvantages of Automation. The incident I just explained is a perfect example. By automating the watering of the outfield, the park maintenance team has done a good job of not only reducing the effort required but also ensured that it is done on a timely manner. However, what they forgot is to include a “Feedback” mechanism. This can be either automated or manually provided so that the sprinkler system is shutdown during the rains. If they have not built an automated feedback mechanism, then they should think of one. This could be either through a local news channel or national weather service, whatever is the easier way. Alternatively they can have personnel to check on the sprinkler system during the rains.

We can extend this analogy to organizations. This can be in terms of mission critical systems that are automated or even personnel related operations like “Annual Appraisals”. I have seen and experienced many organizations going through a very elaborate process to design and build a smart system or process. However, when it comes to obtaining feedback and improvising the system or process, they utterly fail. This could be either lack of a mechanism to collate and analyze feedback or gross negligence.

Moral of the story is, however smart the systems or processes are, unless until you build a good feedback mechanism to continuously improve, the systems will fail or will become outdated and costly over a period of time.

Hello All,

I need your help. I need a new camera ASAP. The only thing I need the camera to do is:

1) Take great before and after pictures.

2) It should have the ability to create clear videos.

3) Since I will be using it mostly for my personal use, I don’t need anything that is too complicated.

4) I would like the price to be reasonable as well.

Picture from: Here

Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

I look forward to reading your feedback.

Thots,

Tiwa

During my ten or so years in the corporate world I had the distinctive pleasure of observing and occasionally meeting some fantastic creatures. Being part of IT companies it would be very easy to single out the “geek” persona. These and other corporate characters (suck-ups, rebels, smellers) you already know pretty well. I’m going to direct your attention to other types you might already know, but didn’t quite figure out how to name, let alone understand their behavior. Hopefully my musings here will help you deal with these creatures when you next encounter them.

Corporate Copycats

Suck-ups are a dime a dozen in any company. It’s safe to say wherever there’s a boss, someone’s face is attached to his ass. The copycat is a different creature. You might say copycats are enhanced versions of suck-ups. Their utmost desire is to become a person other than themselves, so they pick their target (usually his / her boss or a member of upper management) and basically copy their behavior to the extent of their possibilities.

I’ve come across these creatures in more than one occasion. They not only back-up whatever their bosses say, no matter how stupid or unreasonable it might be, they usually adopt it with a passion and blind eagerness to obey more suited to the military than to a business environment.

It is a very dangerous thing to follow rules without thinking, that’s why copycats are potentially dangerous individuals. In case you encounter one and you happen to disagree on a particular subject, be mindful that since copycats have no mind of their own their mind cannot be changed. You will never succeed unless you manage to convince their object of desire (i.e. the person they emulate) of changing his mind instead. This strategy could mean jumping the chain of command, so it must be used wisely.

The Un-feedback-able

I’ve spent half of my professional life as a manager, and as such delivering periodical feedback has always been one of my duties. In all of my teams without exception there has always been a person that no matter how much I tried to explain things to, would always wind up not listening or not caring and ultimately doing whatever they wanted to. Also, they would rebut every single piece of negative feedback, finding a very reasonable justification for every single thing you dare consider a flaw in their performance. These are the un-feedback-able.

Coincidentally or not, in my teams, these were always brilliant people with authority issues and stubborn to the bone. I remember dreading the moment in which I had to deliver them feedback and in more than one occasion I would purposely schedule the appointment at the end of the day because I knew my mind would not be good for much after it.

Finally (after a few years) I came up with the formula to deal with the un-feedback-able: pulling rank. If you know me or have read my previous post on management you’ll know that I discourage this type of method unless necessary. This is one such occasion.

I found that time and brain cells could be saved by using phrases such as: “I can see you are not in agreement with my position, but I’m your manager and I will be evaluating you according to what I just told you.”

Sadly, most times they carried on doing exactly what they wanted to, but at least, if on their next evaluation I had to shave points off their final score I could do so without so much as an “I told you to do things in a different way”.

Showoffs

In a recent comment to one of my posts, one of you inspired the species I’m about to describe. The comment described those developers that just can’t do something in a straightforward fashion and wind up unnecessarily complicating things in order to prove to others their vast knowledge. These are the tech showoffs you can find in almost all development teams.

The behavior of these creatures is clearly derived of insecurity. Not long ago men resorted to their cars to make up for their shortcomings elsewhere. Later, cars were replaced (or accompanied) by gadgets such as laptop computers, cell phones or smart-phones. Nowadays, for developers, penis size can be measured by the amount of unnecessary frameworks they are able to pile up in order to create a single “Hello World” application.

It doesn’t matter if something that could be done in fifteen minutes took five months to build, or that it has the hardware requirements of an electric power plant; showing off to your peers justifies almost anything.

When confronted with one of these creatures you need to know this is almost always a sin of youth and will eventually fade away. Anything you can do to speed up the learning process could help, but remember no matter how much you try to teach life experience, there is nothing like experiencing by one-self. Working a five-day rush will teach any showoff that sometimes a smart architectural or design choice will pay off big at a later stage.

Self Promoter 2.0

I know self promoters are no novelty, but social networking has helped engineer a completely new breed of this fascinating species. They don’t just brag about their accomplishments (whether real or invented) in office halls anymore. They have expanded their domain and now spend most of their time building their 2.0 personas to be the very reflection of the perfect professional, something of course they could accomplish by doing some actual work once in a while, but… why bother?

This creature is cunning, let’s face it, there is no way a person with no smarts can pull this off. However, they tend to build as much enemies as fans, since subordinates or peers of these individuals often feel social self promoters are full of it and take credit when they don’t deserve it or just plain don’t do the job they are supposed to and more work falls on their laps.

I have yet to figure out a way of dealing with social self promoters. I can’t say I have had direct interaction with any of them, but I keep hearing about them from acquaintances. Boy, do they sound pissed off. I eagerly await to see what happens when one of these individuals falls from grace. I believe that given their exposure they could immediately become pariahs. The bigger they are…

Flavor Combination

Any one person could simultaneously be more than one of the creatures described above. Surely a showoff has some traits of an un-feedback-able individual, and a traditional suck-up or self promoter could easily have the characteristics of both a copycat or a social self-promoter.

If you see a person that combines the four, please send a picture to both me and National Geographic. You could have an amazing discovery on your hands.

Shuje

On my next post I will explain why you should not feed developers after midnight. In the meantime, I would very much like to hear about the fauna in your workplace. Any creatures I should know of? Comment below or e-mail me at shuje@holoom.com

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN REGENERATION

The State Government of Selangor will hold an “International Conference on Urban Regeneration Towards Selangor’s Sustainable Future”. Details are as follows:

Date:  30th Nov & 1st Dec (Monday & Tuesday)
Time:  8 AM – 5 PM    
Venue:  Sunway Resort & Spa, Bandar Sunway, Selangor.

Dato’ Menteri Besar Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is scheduled  to deliver Opening and Keynote Address on 30th Nov at 9.15am.

Presenters and panelists invited are Tom Murphy, Senior Resident Fellow for Urban Development, Lena Ng Hwei Ling from YTL Corporation Berhad, Fran Wagstaff, Former President Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, and Dyan Currie-  Brisbane City Council, Urban Renewal Task Force.

Dr Belinda Yuen Associate Professor School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Madam Maimunah Mohd Sharif from Penang City Council and Ungku Suseelawati Ungku Omar, Executive Director Debenham Tie Leung (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd also will be the presenters.

YB Ronnie Liu, Selangor Local Government, Research and Development Exco will give his closing speech on 1st Dec at 4.00pm.

Programme

TRANSIT Says:

TRANSIT will be attending the conference and participating in the conference on the 2nd day.

TRANSIT received an interesting email about the change of the RapidKL logo.

We wanted to ask RapidKL whether they were planning to make changes – but when we got to the UITP Seminar, it was pretty obvious that there was a change to RapidKL’s logo.

The old RapidKL Logo. Image courtesy of RapidKL

Want to see RapidKL’s new logo? We will post it here tomorrow…but if you cannot wait, just go to www.rapidkl.com.my and see if you can find it.

TRANSIT Says:

Guess what…we like the change. It highlights the word “rapid” which stands for what RapidKL is supposed to stand for.

The acronym R.A.P.I.D. stands for Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras, or Rapid Integrated Transport Network.

And that is what Rapid ought to be … an integrated transport network … run by a Klang Valley Transport Council.

You may remember that back in September, TRANSIT commented on the new RapidPass that RapidKL was introducing and made a few recommendations.

We recommended that there be:

• increased Tempatan bus service (otherwise why have the tempatan pass)
• integration of the monorail by allowing the holders of the LRT & integrated pass to board the KL Monorail
• extension of the student concession to post-secondary school students (just as RapidPenang does with their RapidYouth card).

A few days ago, TRANSIT learned that Prasarana / RapidKL are going to integrate the KL Monorail service into the integrated pass. RapidKL sent us the press release today and we promised to highlight it, so here it is:

Unlimited travel on RapidKL bus and LRT, as well as KL Monorail for only RM150 a month 

Petaling Jaya, 23 November 2009:- Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RapidKL), the largest public transport operator in the Klang Valley, is pleased to announce that starting December 2009, the rapidpass Integrated RM150 monthly travel card has been extended to cover the KL Monorail service.

The rapidpass Integrated offers unlimited rides for RapidKL buses, LRTs and now the KL Monorail service, for an entire month. 

Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) Group Managing Director, Dato’ Idrose Mohamed, said with the inclusion of the KL Monorail service, the rapidpass Integrated now allows its users to travel seamlessly on Prasarana-operated public transport services in Klang Valley.

“Commuters can now have unlimited monthly travel on RapidKL buses, RapidKL LRT trains and KL Monorail, by purchasing our rapidpass Integrated at only RM150.

TRANSIT Says:

Now, we would like to say to RapidKL that we and many other monorail users will appreciate the extension of the integrated pass to cover the KL Monorail (now, presumably the RapidKL Monorail)

Of course, we did say we would like to see the KL Monorail integrated into the LRT pass and the Integrated Pass (because after all, the monorail is officially LRT Sistem 3)….so we will continue to push for that.

However, in the meantime, we hope that purchasers of the integrated pass will be able to take advantage of the KL Monorail. We also hope Prasarana will get themselves together and start extending the KL Monorail instead of focusing only on LRT extensions.

Read the article below for a media update on the new integrated pass:

Unlimited travel on RapidKL bus, LRT and KL Monorail for RM150 a month (The Star)

Someone was asking on ARocket about where to start with building a differentially throttled hovering vehicle. Lots of advice were given by various people. I’ll show some stuff I quickly sketched back in 2007 with Simulink. It’s such an easy to use and awesome software (especially compared to a recent short battling with LabView), that whipping up any control system or any process or system models are really quick jobs.

This is just some really trivial basics, it doesn’t take into account nearly enough things to produce a real hovering vehicle. I guess it’s just a way to show how things could be started.

So, here’s a pic of a simple one-dimensional rotational feedback system. Just tested some feedback coefficient values for the PD controller.

1) You can see the placeholder “guidance algorithm” output at the top left “scope” graph. This is the reference or target value of the angle where we want the vehicle to be. At the start it’s giving a desired angle of zero radians, then from 4 seconds onwards it suddenly wants 0.5 radians, then again zero after 6 seconds. This could be holding a tilt for a while for getting up some lateral velocity for a transverse move.

2)  Below that, you see Theta, the angle that the vehicle actually had during the simulation. It follows the desired angle quite nicely. Below Theta, there’s omega, the angular velocity.

3) The tilting is done by throttling the two thrusters. At top center and top right you can see the values of the throttles. Since this thing only concerns tilt and not stationary hovering, the throttles are at zero when the vehicle is at the right attitude (reference=Theta) and there’s no angular velocity. When the refence is moved, at 4 seconds, throttle 1 shoots up for a while and the vehicle starts tilting. At around 4.8 seconds the other thruster, throttle 2 shoots up to stop the rotation, since the vehicle is nearing the desired angle.

You can see from the block diagram how the error value, E = theta – reference is calculated. And also omega is used. From these the throttle values are calculated, simply by Throttle1 = E*Kp1 + omega*Kd1 and so on. By fiddling with the Kp and Kd values, called gains, one can tune the system. The values currently are just some I quickly tried back then.  This Simulink model actually has a bug, a sign error. The error signal’s difference calculation is backwards, hence Kp1 and Kd1 are negative. It should be the other way around.

You can tune the model. Basically, raising the proportional values makes the system faster (reach desired values quicker) but gives overshooting and can make the system oscillate unstably. Higher derivative gains remove the tendency to oscillate, but the system becomes more sensitive to noise (noise can after all have large derivatives). If the vehicle had problems of always staying some amount off from the final required attitude value, an error integrator could be added that would fine tune the vehicle a little (making it a PID controller). This is probably not needed here though – the guidance system could notice if the vehicle travels somewhere it doesn’t want it to go.

The MDL file for the above is available here.

This is just a very quick first brush analysis, there are much much more things to take into account. The other tilt axis, roll, the need  to actually stay airborne (altitude or vertical velocity feedback loop) that ties into the throttle values too. One could abstract this tilt in one axis to a single control block, and produce another similar block for altitude holding, then couple these blocks into a whole system of altitude and tilt holding (by mixing the throttle values). This should avoid clutter and enable one to isolate problems.

Also, one should add some noise to the sensed angle vs real angle as gyro noise seems to be a real issue for VTVL vehicles. One wouldn’t want to tune a PD controller’s values in a noiseless simulator and then find out it gets wildly out of control in the real world. Even when not simulating noise, one can be quite conservative with the tuning values, and that helps too. The throttles probably would be another source of errors as well, if one used ball valves like here. One could also use pulse width modulated solenoids (John Carmack is fond of those for quick work) and those should be modeled. Digital valves (for liquids) have also improved lately, and hydraulics uses are emerging.

I’ve only done real world PID stuff on lab experiments. But it’s still very cool to see it work. It can balance a ball on an unsteady position on a moving cart, which humans have trouble with using a joystick, and the math in the controller is not complex since linear approximations can be used for that problem.

When it comes to receiving feedback on our work performance we sometimes over-estimate our readiness. Imagine the scene in the popular 1992 movie A Few Good Men where Col. Nathan R. Jessep strongly declares to Lt. Daniel Kafee that he is not able to handle the truth regarding a military trial. Similarly, there are moments in our work when we are really not ready to receive constructive feedback on our performance. Even when we ask for feedback there may be internal clues to pay attention to. Ask yourself the following questions before seeking feedback.

1. Am I willing to listen to what my trusted colleagues is willing to share with me?
2. Will I filter the feedback I receive based on the source of the feedback?
3. Should I act on the feedback I receive or wait to weigh it against more information?
4. If there is truth in the feedback I receive, will I consider changing my thinking or behavior?
5. Is today the right day to ask for feedback?

Most people really desire to grow and learn from how they are perceived in their work performance. Often times, the desire to know may be high but the willingness to change is low. Where will you be the next time you seek out feedback?

Scott Morrell

www.scott-morrell.com