One thousand seven hundred and seventy seven … @Instagram Chronicles featuring @WordPressDotCom #Blog

WBS – per PMBOK – and how it ties to #Recursion – Discrete Math Class

Question was…

“Describe a situation in your professional or personal life when recursion, or at least the principle of recursion, played a role in accomplishing a task, such as a large chore that could be decomposed into smaller chunks that were easier to handle separately, but still had the semblance of the overall task.

Did you track the completion of this task in any way to ensure that no pieces were left undone, much like an algorithm keeps placeholders to trace a way back from a recursive trajectory?

If so, how did you do it? If not, why did you not?”

There’s ALWAYS math at the core? “The Universal Language” they call it

And my answer, was…

Work
Breakdown
Structure

(Finally!)

WBS’s are what many of you have already put out there; i.e. at a large Corporate Customer of mine, I participated in large rollout, slated for about two years – yet, as they were somewhat similar in nature, given that the ‘target’ audience was always the same (Branches, Regional Offices, and Corporate) they were all ‘tagged’ under the exact same project number.

That it’d later mushroom into filling out a whole wing/building with a call center, trainers, engineers, contractors for the phone system, etc. did NOT matter – it was all ONE project

• Enter WBS’s

That’s the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) way to ‘describe’ not only the breaking-down of the actual tasks (and the actuarials that ensue, as for example, we had a whole team dealing their way of naming an Exception Process, where a 600+ step technical hardware installation manual had to stop due to technical incompatibilities that required a VERY human interface to negotiate with multiple stakeholders, work on assessing impact and even ROI (Return on Investment) as the overall relationship between Branches and Corporate somehow echoed that of Franchisors and Franchisees, giving Franchisees a lot of latitude in Capital Investitures like these, etc…)

Anyway…. that’s the anecdotal: Theoretically, then…

https://www.workbreakdownstructure.com/work-breakdown-structure-according-to-pmbok.php

(Does that NOT look like a fractal?… I mean, a graph from the textbook?)

Relevant excerpt?

“According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), and the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures – Second Edition from the Project Management Institute (PMI), the work breakdown structure can be used to effectively decompose the project scope, to improve estimating, to better control the project execution and to more accurately verify project completion. In addition, using a work breakdown structure approach summarizes project information to improve the opportunity for use of historical information, which, can aid in both speed and accuracy of future projects. The work breakdown structure is a repeatable process that can be used as a template for future projects.” (PMBOK, 2013)

Hence, the ‘recursiveness’ of these projects – which as mirrored by my Customer’s experience, where they were able to ‘boilerplate’ these projects/rollouts, onto something that’s somewhat repeatable – yet mold it to fit the scope and constraints, and above, all, the budget of each – which as I mentioned earlier, had a lot do to with the way the entire structure was legally incorporated, as those were the boundaries, that much like a ‘Demarc’ (anyone who’s been in telco – telecommunications – knows that’s the lingo for “rat’s-nest-filled-with-a-gajillion-bits-of-twisted-pair-and-orange-tags-that-only-a-tech-can-decipher”) = ‘Demarcation Point’

So yes, how does ‘recursiveness’ extend to the real world?… look around!… any Franchise/Branch of a nationwide or regional entity, most likely, there are processes that a Project Manager oversees – and tickles, tackles and otherwise shapes to fit the needs and budgets allowed to move ‘forward’ – in a remarkable fashion, when one considers that the endpoints at said Customer’s project? about a quarter million, ONLY at the Branch/Franchise levels!

Now, since it was asked as to ‘how’ it was tracked, a bit more on the ‘what’ is being tracked?

“A work breakdown structure is deliverable-oriented. So what is a deliverable? In a word, it can best be described as a noun. What is the difference between “write xyz specifications” and “xyz specifications”? One describes the end product and the other describes a single step to produce it. The end product is described as a noun without a verb. A deliverable can be delegated to a team or leader who can then be responsible for the work product and complete work should be returned when complete. A work breakdown structure is complete when all of the deliverables necessary to obtain the project goals are identified.

A work breakdown structure is a hierarchy. That means that deliverables can be further decomposed into parent and child relationships. In this case “xyz specification” may be further decomposed into “xyz functional specifications” and “xyz performance specifications”. It is important that if decomposing the deliverable that the lower child decomposition represents 100% of the parent. This is similar to how we learned to outline our writing in our freshman English class. We can continue decomposing the deliverables until we feel comfortable that we have defined in a way that we can effectively manage and control the project.

Simply put the work breakdown structure technique divides projects into smaller more manageable chunks that can be more easily estimated and controlled. It gives a black and white version of the work effort needed and almost as important if the work is not in the work breakdown structure it is not a part of the project. The work should be decomposed until it is clear to teams performing the work. This provides a clear line of sight between the work and the goals for the project.” (ibid)

• Enter MS Project

I’ll wrap up this paste up with a word on an app many cannot live without (per above, as you can see, PMBOK applies to MANY disciplines – not only I.T.)

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/create-work-breakdown-structure-wbs-codes-HA010156785.aspx

Relevant excerpt:

“Outline numbers

Outline numbers are the simplest type of WBS coding. Microsoft Office Project automatically calculates an outline number for each task, basing the numbering on the outline structure of the task list. For example, the first task in your task list is numbered 1. If that task has three subtasks, the subtasks are numbered 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

Outline numbers consist of numbers only (no letters), and you cannot edit them. They do, however, change automatically when you move a task up or down in the task list and when you indent or outdent tasks. For example, if a subtask currently has an outline number of 3.5.4, and if you move it up one row in the list, the outline number is automatically updated to 3.5.3. If you then outdent that same subtask, the outline number is automatically updated to 3.6.” (Microsoft.Com, 2013)

So I guess Indices and other typographical artifacts, again, straddle that boundary of logic and usefulness?

@Kankuchito on Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr & Pinterest

Imaginative Recursions? On .JPEG Compression – and DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) – Discrete Math Class

The question being…

” Describe an activity in terms of its iterative components, such as solving a Sudoku puzzle, a game of chess or backgammon.

Please mention any recursive elements that may occur…”

And the answer, of course…

Iterative Recursions?

Games?

Howzabout compressing Images?

– Enter Rasterization

Meaning, how do you think we’ve been shuffling, schlepping and otherwise compressing those beautifuls shots, first over a feeble 2,400 BPS Modem (took a while, BUT in most cases, it was worth the while!)

First JPEG’s (or .jpg’s as they’re commonly known) made a big hit back in the late nineties, allowing for higher definition images to be a part of a website – besides those cheesy .GIF’s which yes, could be animated, but once one wanted a bit more resolution and color, ended up becoming larger and larger files…

(and I tag this as a “Game” as I’m having a ball with a suite of about six apps, my “Pocket Photoshop” which I use to shoot, edit, composite, bubble and prep for my portfolio)

#Prismacolor Crayons? Look again!

So what’s rasterization?

It’s a process whereby a grid is created, and yes, each single individual point (pixel) has a very unique identity; for a print image for example, values that include its Pantone Colorization, as to allow CMYK Color Separation, along with other types of metadata required for the downstream print equipment, like channels to allow for perfect outlines, “Alpha Channels” that allowed for literally split hairs to BE printed OR not, masks, etc, they were all layered in these .psd (Photoshop) files, which then had to be reconverted as .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript!… talk about MATH!)… so yes, how does one quickly shuffle a preview file?

“Typical usage

The JPEG compression algorithm is at its best on photographs and paintings of realistic scenes with smooth variations of tone and color. For web usage, where the amount of data used for an image is important, JPEG is very popular. JPEG/Exif is also the most common format saved by digital cameras.

On the other hand, JPEG may not be as well suited for line drawings and other textual or iconic graphics, where the sharp contrasts between adjacent pixels can cause noticeable artifacts. Such images may be better saved in a lossless graphics format such as TIFF, GIF, PNG, or a raw image format. The JPEG standard actually includes a lossless coding mode, but that mode is not supported in most products.

As the typical use of JPEG is a lossy compression method, which somewhat reduces the image fidelity, it should not be used in scenarios where the exact reproduction of the data is required (such as some scientific and medical imaging applications and certain technical image processing work).

JPEG is also not well suited to files that will undergo multiple edits, as some image quality will usually be lost each time the image is decompressed and recompressed, particularly if the image is cropped or shifted, or if encoding parameters are changed – see digital generation loss for details. To avoid this, an image that is being modified or may be modified in the future can be saved in a lossless format, with a copy exported as JPEG for distribution.

JPEG compression

JPEG uses a lossy form of compression based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT). This mathematical operation converts each frame/field of the video source from the spatial (2D) domain into the frequency domain (aka transform domain.) A perceptual model based loosely on the human psychovisual system discards high-frequency information, i.e. sharp transitions in intensity, and color hue. In the transform domain, the process of reducing information is called quantization. In laymen’s terms, quantization is a method for optimally reducing a large number scale (with different occurrences of each number) into a smaller one, and the transform-domain is a convenient representation of the image because the high-frequency coefficients, which contribute less to the over picture than other coefficients, are characteristically small-values with high compressibility. The quantized coefficients are then sequenced and losslessly packed into the output bitstream. Nearly all software implementations of JPEG permit user control over the compression-ratio (as well as other optional parameters), allowing the user to trade off picture-quality for smaller file size. In embedded applications (such as miniDV, which uses a similar DCT-compression scheme), the parameters are pre-selected and fixed for the application.” (Wiki, 2013)

So maybe I do not play games… but I’m sure many in the audience are staring at these, right now!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG

#Tigger’s Hour? Or “On The Consequences of #Convos” (The Good Ones, at least!) Re: #NewSpotters

So I’ve tasked myself, again, with nibbling at the meaning of what’s going on around here… this time, serendipitously, across time zones – and at somewhat odd times, considering that the Skype app was running at the Hour of the Tiger, and well, the simple fact that the call DID come through, unhindered!…

[LOOOONG SIGH… INHALES…]

“… Age of Miracle of Wonders, it is a Long Distance* Call…”as Simon would put it!

[SATISFIED GRIN]

Anyway, here’s what the newfound focus may end  up being about? another ‘seminal’ and oft-referred to piece?

[5:25:29 AM]: But is this explosion of prose good, on a technical level? Yes. Lunsford’s team found that the students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos—assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across. The modern world of online writing, particularly in chat and on discussion threads, is conversational and public, which makes it closer to the Greek tradition of argument than the asynchronous letter and essay writing of 50 years ago.

[5:25:45 AM]: The brevity of texting and status updating teaches young people to deploy haiku-like concision. At the same time, the proliferation of new forms of online pop-cultural exegesis—from sprawling TV-show recaps to 15,000-word videogame walkthroughs—has given them a chance to write enormously long and complex pieces of prose, often while working collaboratively with others.

Yeah, that’s me ‘quoting’ the Clive Wilson piece from 2009 on #NewLiteracy

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-09/st_thompson

Anyway, this is just a sketch/outline/bullet’ing of what I’m supposed to post in a few days; unfortunately, GTG, long day starts… I mean, started a couple of hours ago!…

P.S: * Long Distance Calls now being redefined as VoIP Centered ones, all through apps on devices, nothing to do with Analog Transliterations of our  Actual Voices, BUT with simply digitized encodings!… and all at the Speed of Light, lest we forget the real ‘clock’ The Packet Cloud runs at, routers & firewalls notwithstanding!

Waiting Room Productivity – not so, no #JobsMonday via @LinkedIN App

Hola. Happy Mardi Gras, hope y’all safely reveled this weekend; come Wednesday, though, a reminder about forty days of observation – and other things the Spring Equinox shall promptly bring us…

Anyway, I had hoped to share some of the usual #JobsMonday’s on #SocialMedia via @LinkedIN App; apparently one of their most useful feats, not yet available and relegated to “Desktop Dino” (whom actually happens to be a Laptop, perennially tethered as a broken screen’s RMA dampens it’s mobility!)…

… Which either makes the case for keeping some of them around, as how else do we have access to some features?

So anyway, let’s talk about the weather, shall we?

Yesterday’s utterances about Jeb made me wonder about the potential for a “Six Flags over Tampa” kind of Convention; and sorry to say, @MeetThePress’ RoundTable conveyed an uneasiness, that well, may make for great TV Ad Sales, a protracted nomination and yes, a happy #Incumbent; just picked up an old copy of @Newsweek, and well, history is already being made, in nearby #3rdMetro…

[WRY CHUCKLE]

Yeah, there are so many kinds of “weather”, no?

Meteorology-wise?

Screenshots don’t look like anything but Late October, Early November at this time; tornadoes may make April a worrisome time, but at this point, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, right?

Saludos! Castilian Digest, soon to follow, BFN/TTYL!

“A Month Away From Spring’s Equinox’s” (a/k/a: #3rdWinter/Day31) & #HelpRon #HelpsKlout?

En Castellano, Traduciendo y Expandiendo:

Okidoki; no posts via @WordPressDotCom for a WHOLE week!… #WhatGives?

@Klout!

Been to The TimeLine lately? (as in the wee hours of THIS morning?)

It’s all there, so to better understand my mind’s perpetual #ScavengerHunt modality, skim here, scan pics here and there, AND then take a look at your OWN Klout Score!

Why? Appears to be a new Job Requirement, that’s why!

(En Castellano, les contare e interpretare pronto!)

Au Revoir!

10 things you still need to know about social media / social business.

1

Hola!

Five languages? A Polyglot libro! #Kudos!

First stop today!

https://twitter.com/fjpalacio/status/167586897684742144

Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog

Since I am bouncing around Europe this week, (come say hi at #tsc12 if you can), now is a good time to republish this list from a few months ago. It is still as relevant today as it was then:

1. “Social” is something you are, not something you do. If your company culture doesn’t focus on building relationships with your customers, then chances are that you won’t use social media to do it either. The “media” doesn’t dictate how social a company is or isn’t. It simply enhances its ability to be a social business – if in fact it is – or illustrates the extent to which it isn’t.

2. You cannot effectively outsource customer relationships to an agency. Research and intelligence, sure: that can be outsourced. Creative? That too. Implementing technologies and helping you with strategy? You bet. Marketing, PR and advertising?…

View original post 986 more words

DayView: #TimeLineTuesdays – or The What For Of Hashtagging #3rdWinter/Day42

So yesterday we did post a few from @LinkedIN that were filed under #JobsMonday… And today? Well, after ‘FaceWallin’ (one more!) #SenseiSaturdays (‘Zuck’s’ #Spideys’ diligently clustering atop all them Daily Encouragements! Keyword? #Ikeda!)…

… And THAT, if anyone is reading, or like I say to myself, for them cyber archaeologists (or Dr. Harroways at the other end of the Chasm?) is what my proclivity towards hashtags is all about!

Ever heard about them “Trending Topics”? Millenials LOVE them! Hilariously fresh! (and if you watch @HLNTV, or the other #TW outlets, a MUST for modern media?)

Whoa! @Verizon & #RedBox?… thanks Jen!

anyway, as usual, full of tangentials, narrowcasting from an iPhone, here’s my current one, as viewed from a Safari! (Browser, that is!)

Cheers! (Castellano/Spanglish #AudioCaption, soon to follow!)

En el 54avo Dia / on The 54th Day of #3rdWinter: “Warming Up To Reality” / Realidades Candentes

Spanglish Audio brought to you by a Messaging Slideout Phone who thinks very high-ly of himself! …

…Dares to blog, Facebook and Tweet/Tuitiar, too! – in spite of it’s obvias limitaciones!

Hola Audiencia Global… Bueno, eso según WordPress!… Hello Global Audience – At least according to @WordPressDotCom!

Well, who should go first? New Tweeps and FB Friends/Subscribed-tos? Or that “groundbreaking” v-interview?… Quien va de primero? La video entrevista? O los nuevos amigos o fuentes?

El Clima! Let’s do the weather first, shall we?… And hence, can you notice not only the warming trend pun, but also, how lucky we been so far? Nuestra suerte, si no lo han notado, al tener un invierno desganado hasta hoy, quien pensaría que a estas alturas los cuarentas Fahrenheit, “tibios” nos sonarían?

I mean, relativity? Abounds!

that one? WUnderground.Com

This? Belongs to Mr. Icahn, last I heard?

New Like-ers? Followers? Followbacks? And the interview?… iPhone sez WP will see me as @Google, after all these are all frontispieces to the UXML Pages… So let’s just clipboard it, shall we?

@FJPalacio: @Spreecast FYI/Re: #HelpRon via @FJPalacio, 20120124 as requested: “And & Or” http://t.co/1Y8bIHC7 (Now? #FingersCrossed! @LinkedIN #IN)

Original Tweet

@Spreecast FYI/Re: #HelpRon via @FJPalacio, 20120124 as requested: "And & Or" http://t.co/1Y8bIHC7 (Now? #FingersCrossed! @LinkedIN #IN)

— Pájaro Kankucho (@Kankuchito) January 25, 2012

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Los nuevos amigos? La entrevista? Veanla arriba! Habían 48 ‘views’ ayer!

Make that 57!

http://www.spreecast.com/events/helpron-fjpalacio-20120124

And SOOOORRY but St. Steve of The Valley left us sans workarounds for Flash… shall update later! Ahora? A agendear un retuiteo!

Dia 62/62nd Day of #3rdWinter? “Paramo Plummets” & “Hemisferios Encendidos” #FF & #Latinos

Buenos Días, Universo Celestial!

Hoy, reenfocandonos al punto donde queríamos llegar, en función del actual retooling, es decir, que el blog salga antes que nada en Hemisférico Spread One (Castellano); luego vendremos, pasaremos el rastrillo mecanizado y de seguro nos reiremos un rato con la manera como el Google interpretara el Root Alpha y nuestros intentos en Portunhol; hoy hay trabajo en el horario, por lo cual, si los hacemos esperar, mil disculpas!

Entonces al afinar queremos asimismo darle relevancia no solo a la autobiografía sino a la actualidad: el que hatee hubiésemos pensado volver al DVR’d versión of the South Carolina Primary Debate, bueno, que buenas causas hicimos que al final del interludio familiar tan necesario, resulta que no solo vimos el formato destilado y comentado del highlight, sino que @CNN decidió volver a pasar el rerun entero; debemos admitir que el “Plato Fuerte” lo pusieron al comienzo, tremendo “Command Performance” del #ProfesorGingrich en función de las cosas que según dijo en el pasado; y mas que el punto en si, el cual tendemos a olvidar en medio del posterior análisis, fue el como fue manejado, jugando con las audiencias, bases y localidades para un excelente “Tono de Testosterona”…

… En fin, el resto se lo diré en #MP3; por ahora, el nuevo reporte del tiempo, “#BroughtToYouBy @Yahoo & @Apple (and that other choice carrier which I’m afraid to mention due to potential misinterpretations of contractual obligations, yo!)

Saludos!

BUT before I go, and as I am working on getting back into #FF..,

“Young Hispanics in America are eager to lead new types of conversations about their local community to build national credibility. Their socially conscious thinking and their ability to keep conversations moving across multiple channels and platforms via social media allows them to cultivate fresh perspectives and an influential voice. As one of the young Hispanics at the Town Hall told me (after the event), “I am tired of the old guard’s attitude. While I respect the doors they have opened for my generation, they must let go of their anger and use that energy by sharing their wisdom to inspire and guide us. They don’t understand the new generation of Latinos and the challenges that we face. Their voices bring us down.” It is evident that young Latinos are ready to revitalize our (Hispanic) reputation and correct the misperceptions if only the older generations would begin to serve as mentors to enable their voices.”

Source/Credito:

@wineandgrind: RT @LatinoVoices: “Young #Latinos are Ready to Lead their Local Communities to Build National Creditability” http://t.co/z02cjxHP via @GlennLlopis

Original Message:

"Young #Latinos are Ready to Lead their Local Communities to Build National Creditability" http://t.co/z02cjxHP via @GlennLlopis

— HuffPost Latino Voices (@LatinoVoices) January 20, 2012

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#Tarántulas? R u Happy now? We Cool, u pinches?