Mantis, the free bugtracker

You will face Mantis’s limitations just as you have started using that. I have only two days of experience, but I see that this tool is not competitive to other free bug trackers. Let me have some example:

  • CSV export is comma separated. And it exports text fields without text identifier (“text”). What do you think; can the export be parsed successfully? No, because if any text field contains a comma (some will!) the parsing dies for that record.
  • CSV export suddenly dies after ~4500 records, it is impossible to export the entire database (14000 records, so it is very small). By the way, it is a simple coding issue, because it’s possible to export all record to “Excel format” (see below)
  • E-mail notification on new record does not work, however it has been set.
  • Let’s assume you are browsing the records. You want to set Mantis to display 100 records per page, but accidentally you type 00. The page you can use to browse the records will never be displayed. Furthermore you will never be able to access the setting itself. The only thing helps is to remove all cookies from your browser.
  • XLS export is NOT an XLS export. It is HTML, and the extension is XLS. Excel opens that, but there will be issues with the first 25 rows, the rest 13978 is OK. You need to manipulate the export manually to fix the issue.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND, really. Try something else instead.

Need a logo?

… visit http://logotournament.com/

There you can initiate a contest on a minimal, USD 250 price, and get logo proposals from around the globe. If you provide your feedback frequently, new proposals will refine your preferred ones, and the result is a logo you have always wanted.

It is recommended to set up contests finishing in the middle of the weekend since most designers play in their spare time. Also recommended to give feedback frequently to speed up the competition.

Enjoy!

Turbine testing

I have a couple of friends in General Electric Energy Division. I was continuously begging for having an afternoon when I can see their work. Last week they got the approval to bring in some of their relations and guide them through all things they do. Since they work with LM 6000 turbines, they picked a day when a fully assembled power unit is ready to ignite. Last Thursday was that day.

I arrived at 2 pm together with many workers of swing shift. At the main entrance we got eye protector glasses just after the registration. GE has very strict regulations on health and safety, every people entering must be trained. I learnt where I need to wear the glasses, where can I walk in the plant, what rooms I’m not allowed to enter without protective shoes. We have seen large turbine stators under construction in the turning-lathes, large turbine blades, and surprisingly low number of people.

We walked through the assembly hall where LM6000s are assembled. An LM6000 consists of two large containers: one for the turbine unit, and the other for the generator. These containers are fully assembled here including welding, painting, integration of pipes and wires. Of course before installation these two containers get some additional equipment such as air filter, exhaust stack, hydraulic and fire extinguisher module.

We arrived to the yard, where the awesome and huge unit was waiting next to the separated test building, fully equipped, and was waiting for testing. The yellow blinking lights around the building warned everyone that the testing is in progress.

We have found the testing team in the middle of their work. They seemed to be a FormulaOne team during the race. Each of them had a huge headset with active noise suppression on both the speakers and the microphone to be able to communicate just a few meters from a working turbine. They were locating some cabling problem inside the unit. Since they were working inside the unit, the CO2 fire extinguisher system was deactivated, so we were allowed to look inside the turbine and the generator rooms – of course with steel toe cap on our shoes. It was amazing. I was not allowed to take any photos, but believe me: the things inside emitted the feeling of professionalism and preciosity.

They were ready and they decided to start cranking up the turbine. This means they start a hydraulic pump that rotates the high pressure part of the turbine up to 2200-2400 rpm, while the low pressure part reaches 200 rpm. This is for purging the air in the system from the air filter to the exhaust stack to avoid any explosion caused by gas leak.

During the start up process I saw the team’s professionalism. There is a process they need to follow and all of them know their tasks by heart. When the leader ordered the start all team members began to do their part of the preparation. Some organized fire extinguishers around the unit, some checked the doors and the fire system, one recorded the gas meter and one stood next to the “Emergency stop” button. They did it without any voice. Well organized, well trained team.

During the cranking they were not sure of the position of some valves. After a short discussion the cranking was stopped, and a few-hour-work began to check that the position monitor displays the correct values. When they finished they started the cranking again. This time they encountered software problems that seemed to be difficult to solve that day. They kept trying but it still remained at 10 pm. After 10 pm the turbine cannot be started due to its high noise. Unfortunately I was not able to hear how a turbine gets working, perhaps next time…

<Pictures are from here and here>

Promising signs – light at the end of the tunnel

One of my old friends called me and sent me a job advertisement of his company. This is an assembly leader position in the neighborhood. I’m very proud of being asked, because this assembly team is one of the suppliers of his responsibility area, and I cannot imagine greater appreciation than somebody asks me to lead a process, which his success highly depends on. I could do what I’m really eager to do,  surrounded by people I have known for many years…

This week I’ll send the application. Cross your fingers, I’ll do so too!

By the way this is a beautiful night. I’m sitting in the garden with a laptop and an oil lamp.  Crickets chirping, thunderbolt sounds from far-far away.
Származási hely: WordPresscom

Sniffing around

Since in the last few months I couldn’t manage to find a potential carrier path within the company, I tend to think that I have to start browsing the net more deeply to find another options. Currently my roles and responsibilities don’t match each other or better to say they have disappeared, and because of this my work cannot add business value to the company. I’m currently maintaining a software, which will never been sold, but such softwares are available on the Internet for free or on a limited price. I feel my time is just wasted day by day, both for my company and for myself.

I think these signs ring the bell saying that the time to open a door and look around outside has definitely arrived. I’m very sad, or the better word is disappointed, because I really loved to work here, I’m very proud of what we built up with my collaboration. To see them being thrown away and be disappearing day by day is painful.

I have considered many options. One is, for sure, to stay and wait these circumstances to be changed. I see many potential assignments may be challengous for me, many areas we have lacks in, and I would be able to close some of these gaps. Unfortunately none of these areas is in my present responsibility area, if I still have such.

Another option is to look around in Hungary. This is a bit risky because nowadays the Hungarian business culture errodes day by day, so I cannot be sure that the agreement and the contract I sign is kept. In addition the elections next year may kill companies even if they are working well today. In Hungary large multinational companies with foreign top management can only be considered. Locally I’ll look for a management position.

My dream is still to live and work in Austria or in Germany, learn the language, try another way of living. In the present situation that is not too easy too. In abroad I would be happy to get a senior tester or senior quality job, I’m sure the rest of my resources would be consumed by learning the language.

We will see.

By the way, it is not the most worthy thing to write a post, which will newer be read by anyone. Instead I’m starting to look for a job.

Reconstruction work has been fininshed

After a month of work I’m happy to announce that the reconstruction work has been finished. The site has got new look & feel, new domain address (http://sandor.peterbencze.eu), and a lot of updated information.

Registering this domain and get them work was a good challenge. I registered my surname as a primary domain, and since there are a few hundred other people with the same surname, I found it unethical to reserve the right of using this domain. Therefore I had to find a company which is very flexible in defining DNS entries, and of course cheap enough, and I developed an architecture enables using this domain to other “Peterbencze”s.

During the implementation I learnt configuring DNS entries, learnt how to map domains to my blog, learnt how to provide e-mail service to more people in this domain on the cheapest way, without having an on’line server with fixed IP. The result is that now there can be unlimited number of subdomain.peterbencze.eu, and each user has a subdomain@peterbencze.eu e-mail address. It costs EUR 28.- /year. Was I cost effective enough?

Thanks to:

  • Dimnet, providing the DNS,
  • Google apps for the e-mail service,
  • WordPress for the easy to use WYSIWYG blog creation and the domain mapping,
  • Blogspot for the powerful blog engine.

Remote work

I found managers reluctant to accept remote work. I did it so. My main concern was that I felt impossible to measure how people work according to their skills. If I get 100 pieces of something per a day from one of them, is it enough, or he works only two hours a day to produce this, and in the rest he is sunbathing on the beach?

Then one of my employee told me that she is able to return from maternity leave as half time, but she cannot be present in the office. I knew her for many years, she is the most enthusiastic and valuable member of my team, so I decided to have a try, and she started to work from home in January, half time.

In the beginning the team was very open to accept her lack of presence, but some of them wanted to join the remote worker’s club. It’s still an issue how I can explain people again and again that they are not allowed to do what she does. Later they got used to it, but the information sharing was really ineffective. People in the office gathered to discuss something (it is very often since the team is working agile, SCRUM), and they didn’t call her to attend. Then we had a try with Skype, but the microphones of the headsets cannot transfer a discussion of a room of people. The best practice hasn’t been found, we have an acceptable state, but there are many areas to improve.

During this few month I realized an important thing. If the remote worker is a mother with a young baby, the telephone conversations need her presence have to be scheduled according to the baby’s schedule, else the conference is so loud with crying. In the occasions she needs to appear in the office carrying the baby the visit have to be shorter than 30 minutes between two breaks, because the baby or toddler cannot bear longer silent periods.

With keeping this in mind remote work can be almost as effective than the office one. I support it.