Palm Vein Biometric System:

Principles of palm vein biometrics
The pattern of blood veins is unique to every individual, even among identical twins. Palms have a broad and complicated vascular pattern and thus contain a wealth of differentiating features for personal identification. Furthermore, it will not vary during the person's lifetime. It is a very secure method of authentication because this blood vein pattern lies under the skin. This makes it almost impossible for others to read or copy.
How does palm vein biometrics work
An individual's vein pattern image is captured by radiating his/her hand with near-infrared rays. The reflection method illuminates the palm using an infrared ray and captures the light given off by the region after diffusion through the palm. The deoxidized hemoglobin in the in the vein vessels absorbs the infrared ray, thereby reducing the reflection rate and causing the veins to appear as a black pattern. This vein pattern is then verified against a preregistered pattern to authenticate the individual.
As veins are internal in the body and have a wealth of differentiating features, attempts to forge an identity are extremely difficult, thereby enabling a high level of security. In addition, the sensor of the palm vein device can only recognize the pattern if the deoxidized hemoglobin is actively flowing within the individual's veins.
This system is not dangerous, a near infrared is a component of sunlight: there is no more exposure when scanning the hand than by walking outside in the sun.
How does palm vein biometrics compare with other biometric systems?
As palm veins are inside the hand, they are protected and this system is not susceptible to minor trauma, cuts, etc (conversely to some fingerprint systems). Also, this system doesn't have the same potential civil liberty issues as face recognition techniques: Your face can be scanned without you being aware of it, but your palm vein remain hidden.
Benefits of palm vein biometric systems
• Difficult to forge
• Contactless, hygienic and non-invasive
• Highly accurate
• Capable of 1:1 and 1:many matching
Applications of palm vein biometrics
• Security systems: physical admission into secured areas with door lock and integrated building security systems
• Log-in control: network or PC access
• Healthcare: ID verification for medical equipment, electronic record management
• Banking and financial services: access to ATM, kiosks, vault

How Secure is the Technology?
On the basis of testing the technology on more than 70,000 individuals, Fujitsu declared that the new system had a false rejection rate of 0.01% (i.e., only one out of 10,000 scans were incorrect denials for access), and a false acceptance rate of less than 0.00008% (i.e., incorrect approval for access in one in over a million scans). Also, if your profile is registered with your right hand, don't log in with your left - the patterns of an individual's two hands differ. And if you registered your profile as a child, it'll still be recognized as you grow, as an individual's patterns of veins are established in utero (before birth). No two people in the world share a palm vein pattern - even those of identical twins differ (so your evil twin won't be able to draw on your portion of the inheritance!)

Create Named List:

a. In an empty area of the workbook, type the entries you want to see in the drop-down lists. These should be one-word entries, to match the dependent list names that will be created.
b. Select the cells in the list (but not the heading).
c. Click in the Name box, to the left of the formula bar
d. Type a one-word name for the list, e.g. Produce.
e. Press the Enter key.

To apply the cell validation using the Named list,
a. Select the cells in which you want to apply Excel data validation using the Category List
From the Data menu, choose Validation.

c. From the Allow drop-down list, choose List
d. In the Source box, type an equal sign and the list name, for example: =Produce
e. Click OK.

Fingerprint Facts:

Fingerprints are formed before birth, grow with the growth of hands and help in identification. Let's learn some basic facts on fingerprints: Fingerprints come out from the interior fleshes of the skin. Even Siamese twins have varying fingerprints. Loop is the most common fingerprint. 60% palms have such pattern. The other patterns are Whorls, Arches, and Accidentals. An important means of examining fingerprints is using their "Class Characteristics". Our fingers are covered in skin pores which produce oils and sweat detected by good old fingerprint powder. An undetected fingerprint is termed as "latent". The Laser helps in obtaining fingerprints from human bodies. Identification of criminals is the most common use of fingerprints and computer database has actually helped in this goal.

Voice Directed Warehousing:

Voice Directed Warehousing (VDW) is the implementation of speech recognition in Warehouse Management Systems. VDW was originally limited to picking, whereas now all warehouse functions (picking, receiving/put-away, replenishment, shipping) can be coordinated by voice systems.
Implementing voice systems in the warehouse has among its benefits
• Increased picking accuracy
• Increased inventory accuracy
• Increased employee productivity
• Reduced new worker training time
• Increases job satisfaction for warehouse associates
• Growing customer satisfaction
Each operator is given a voice-enabled RF device. These devices need not have screens or keypads – operators communicate with the system via headset.
Managers use the Warehouse Management System (WMS) or middleware to assign operators work – jobs such as picking, put-away, replenishment, and truck loading.
With voice picking, the voice system directs the operator to perform each pick, giving them directions to the pick location. Depending on system configuration, the operator may be prompted for a location check-digit or a container check-digit as well as a count-back. Following is an example picking dialog:
Computer: Go to building one.
Operator: Ready
Computer: Aisle five.
Operator: Ready
Computer: Bay twenty-seven.
Operator: Ready
Computer: Pick four cases of double-chocolate almond fudge.
Operator: Ready
Computer: What are the check-digits?
Operator: Four-Five-Three
Note These might be from the pallet license or location
Computer: How much remains?
Note: Optional count-back - increases accuracy and reduces speed
Operator: Seven.
…and so on, until the order is complete. The system then directs them to the location to put their pallet (onto a truck, into a staging area) and then tells them to take a new pallet and start the next pick. Unique license plates can be assigned to each picked pallet so that they can be easily located in the warehouse – and so that the voice system can direct the process of loading staged pallets onto trucks.
Apart from training users to use the voice system, the system must be trained to understand each user. This training process takes roughly 30-45 minutes - during this time, the user is asked to repeat aloud the words they will be using when they communicate with the system. The voice system learns how the particular operator speaks, and saves a template of their speech patterns. This allows voice systems to understand users with heavy accents – the system knows how each individual user pronounces each word.

Cover your Risks:

As you engage on a project, either as a project manager, an independent consultant or both, there are many things you need to consider about the potential issues and risks that may come into play on your project.
When analyzing and considering risks, there are a few angles to approach them from; as well as different categories that you need to consider in regards with the team and or customer.
Risk avoidance
Not all risks can truly be avoided or predicted, but if you can avoid them you are much better off. You won’t have to battle it head on and it won’t potentially derail your project timeline and budget.
Risk mitigation
This is the next best thing to risk avoidance in that you have identified possible risks and come up with plans to mitigate, or lessen the severity of the risk should it present itself. In this case the impact will affect the project in the form of a potential budget increase or a timeframe extension, but with proper planning you’ll know the action to take to lessen the blow to the project and maintain the necessary forward momentum.
Vendor risks and issues
If you are relying on outside vendors for your project then you are automatically introducing risk. You can’t directly control those vendors, but you can make them aware of risk concerns, make them go through training on identifying how they’ll deal with potential risks, and even come up with backup vendors should major problems arise.
Customer induced risks and issues
The customer is part of the solution, but they can also be part of the problem. Influences and issues on the customer side can throw a wrench into project progress. Risks such as losing key customer personnel, funding issues, and slow decision-making can cause major project delays if not managed properly. Make sure that the customer is aware of the potential risks they can cause and that they are working continuously throughout the project to help ensure those issues do not arise and affect negatively affect the project.

5 Why’s:

The 5 why's typically refers to the practice of asking, five times, why the failure has occurred in order to get to the root cause/causes of the problem. There can be more than one cause to a problem as well. In an organizational context, generally root cause analysis is carried out by a team of persons related to the problem. No special technique is required.

An example is in order:
You are on your way home from work and your car stops:
• Why did your car stop? Because it ran out of gas.
• Why did it run out of gas? Because I didn't buy any gas on my way to work.
• Why didn't you buy any gas this morning? Because I didn't have any money.
• Why didn't you have any money? Because I lost it all last night in a poker game.


I hope you don't mind the silly example but it should illustrate the importance of digging down beneath the most proximate cause of the problem. Failure to determine the root cause assures that you will be treating the symptoms of the problem instead of its cause, in which case, the disease will return, that is, you will continue to have the same problems over and over again.

Also note that the actual numbers of why's is not important as long as you get to the root cause. One might well ask why did you lose all your money in the poker game last night?

Selecting Multiple Messages:

Notes 8 employs the familiar Microsoft Windows selection model where the the Shift and Ctrl keys are used. In addition to its familiarity for many users, this selection model can also make selecting large amounts of messages less time consuming.

Let's take a look at how it works. To select a number of contiguous messages simply choose the first message of the desired selection by clicking on it. Then, hold down the Shift key and click on the last message. All of the messages in between will be selected. You can start your selection at the bottom and proceed up, or at the top and proceed down.

To select noncontiguous messages, hold down the Ctrl key and select the messages by clicking your mouse.

You can use both of these keyboard controls when selecting a large number of messages. Use the Shift key to select a large number of messages, then use the Ctrl key to de-select the messages that you don't want as part of your selection.

Once you have your desired selection, you can act on it. For example, you could drag and drop it into a folder, delete it, or forward the messages in an email.

TEXT Function formatting Examples:

Format a date as 12/31/04:
="Payment is due " & TEXT(A2,"mm/dd/yyyy")
Format a number as currency:
="Amount due: " & TEXT(A3,"$#,##0.00")& " USD"
Format a number as a percentage:
="Your score is " & TEXT(A4,"0.00%")
Format a number as a fraction:
="Hours worked: " &TEXT(A5,"# ?/?")

Cost-plus Pricing:

Cost-plus pricing is a pricing method used by companies. It is used primarily because it is easy to calculate and requires little information. There are several varieties, but the common thread in all of them is that one first calculates the cost of the product, then includes an additional amount to represent profit. It is a way for companies to calculate how much profit they will make. Cost-plus pricing is often used on government contracts, and has been criticized as promoting wasteful expenditures.
The method determines the price of a product or service that uses direct costs, indirect costs, and fixed costs whether related to the production and sale of the product or service or not. These costs are converted to per unit costs for the product and then a predetermined percentage of these costs is added to provide a profit margin.
Advantages of cost-plus pricing
1. Easy to calculate
2. Minimal information requirements
3. Easy to administer
4. Tends to stabilize markets - insulated from demand variations and competitive factors
5. Insures seller against unpredictable, or unexpected later costs
6. Ethical advantages
7. Simplicity
Disadvantages of cost-plus pricing
1. Provides no incentive for efficiency
2. Tends to ignore the role of consumers
3. Tends to ignore the role of competitors
4. Uses historical rather than replacement value
5. Uses “normal” or “standard” output level to allocate fixed costs
6. Includes sunk costs rather than just using incremental costs
7. Ignores opportunity costs

Project Manager’s Guiding Principles:

Following are some of the guiding principles for a Project Manager.
• Lead by example
• Constantly communicate a sense of urgency
• Know your scope and manage it relentlessly
• Report the Past and Manage the future
• Know your governance model and use it appropriately
• Keep on track with the weekly control cycle
• Manage your stakeholders proactively
• Escalate high-priority issues early
• Keep your focus on the end game
• The plan is your map, ensure you know where you are

Why we are not allowed to use Cell Phones in Airplanes or hospitals:

Most of us experience electromagnetic interference on a fairly regular basis. For example:
• If I put my cell phone down on my desk near the computer, I can hear loud static in my computer's speakers every time the phone and the tower handshake. In the same way, my car's tape player produces loud static whenever I make a call on my cell phone.
• It is not uncommon for a truck to go by and have its CB radio overwhelm the FM station I am listening to.
• Most of us have come across motors that cause radio or TV static.
None of these things, technically, should be happening. For example, a truck's CB radio is not transmitting on the FM radio bands, so my radio should never hear CB signals. However, all transmitters have some tendency to transmit at lower power on harmonic side bands, and this is how the FM radio picks up the CB. In the case of the cell phone affecting the computer's speakers, the wire to each speaker is acting like an antenna, and it picks up side bands in the audible range.
These are not dire problems -- they are just a nuisance. But notice how common they are. In an airplane, the same phenomena can cause big trouble.
¬¬An airplane contains a number of radios for a variety of tasks. There is a radio that the pilots use to talk to ground control and air traffic control (ATC). There is another radio that the plane uses to disclose its position to ATC computers. There are radar units used for guidance and weather detection, and so on. All of these radios are transmitting and receiving information at specific frequencies. If someone were to turn on a cell phone, the cell phone would transmit with a great deal of power (up to 3 watts). If it happens to create interference that overlaps with radio frequencies the plane is using, then messages between people or computers may be garbled. If one of the wires in the plane has damaged shielding, there is some possibility of the wire picking up the phone's signals just like my computer's speakers do. That could create faulty messages between pieces of equipment within the plane.¬

Many hospitals have installed wireless networks for equipment networking. For example, the heart monitor in Rooms have a black antenna sticking out of the top of the monitor that connects it back to the nursing station via a wireless network. If you use your cell phone and it creates interference, it can disrupt the transmissions between different pieces of equipment. That is true even if you simply have the cell phone turned on -- the cell phone and tower handshake with each other every couple of minutes, and your phone sends a burst of data during each handshake.
The prohibition on laptops and CD players during takeoff and landing is addressing the same issue, but the concerns here might fall into the category of "better safe than sorry." A poorly shielded laptop could transmit a fair amount of radio energy at its operating frequency, and this could, theoretically, create a problem.

Advantage of Quality Assurance Software Testing:

Software Quality Assurance Testing is an integral and critical phase of any software development project. Developers and testers must ensure that
• Newly developed products or product enhancements meet functional and performance requirements
• The products are reliable and able to operate consistently under peak loads.
The most effective way to reduce risk is to start testing early in the development cycle and to test iteratively, with every build. With this approach, defects are removed as the features are implemented. The testing of the application is completed shortly after the final features are coded, and as a result the product is ready for release much earlier.

Additionally, the knowledge of what features are completed (i.e. both coded and tested) affords management greater control over the entire process and promotes effective execution of the business strategy. Testing with every iteration may require some additional upfront planning between developers and testers, and a more earnest effort to design for testability; but these are both inherently positive undertakings, and the rewards are substantial.

There are several key advantages gained by testing early and with every build to close the quality gap quickly:
• Risk is identified and reduced in the primary stages of development instead of in the closing stages.
• Repairs to problems are less costly
• The release date can be more accurately predicted throughout the project
• Results will be given by the way of requirement
• The product can be shipped sooner
• The business strategy can be executed more effectively
• Transparency established
• Artifacts can be reused for regression testing
• Not bound to any particular vendor

Shade Alternating Rows in Excel:

You can use Excel conditional formatting to shade alternating rows on the worksheet.
1. Click the Select All button, above the Row 1 button, to select all the cells on the worksheet.
2. Choose Format|Conditional Formatting
3. From the first dropdown, choose Formula Is
4. For the formula, enter =MOD(ROW(),2)
5. Click the Format button.
6. On the Patterns tab, select a color for shading
7. Click OK, click OK

Software Testing Terms:

Actual outcome
The behavior actually produced when the object is tested under specified conditions.
Bug
(= Fault) A manifestation of an error in software.
Coverage item
An entity or property used as a basis for Testing.
Error
A human action that produces an incorrect result.
Expected results
(= Predicted outcome or Expected outcome) The behavior predicted by the specification of an object under specified conditions.
Failure
Deviation of the software from its expected delivery or service.
Fault
(= Bug) A manifestation of an Error in software. A Fault, if encountered may cause a Failure.
Steps
(= Test Scenario, Input) A sequence of executable actions from an entry point to an exit point.
Test Project
Test Project is top structure in TestLink Data. All data (except users) are related to active Test Project.
Test case suite
A collection of one or more test cases for the software under test. TestLink uses this term for organization of Test Cases within Test Specification and Test Plan.
Test Coverage
The degree, expressed as a percentage, to which a specified Coverage item has been exercised by a Test case suite.
Test execution
The processing of a test case suite by the software under test, producing an actual outcome. Test Case Suite is defined from Test Cases within Test Specification via assignment to Test Plan.
Test Plan
A record of the test planning process detailing the degree of tester independence, the test environment, the test case design techniques and test measurement techniques to be used, and the rationale for their choice.
Test Specification
For each test case, the coverage item, the initial state of the software under test, the Steps, and the Expected results.
Testing
The process of exercising software to verify that it satisfies specified requirements and to detect errors.
Test case
A set of steps, execution preconditions, and Expected results developed for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular program scenario or to verify compliance with a specific requirement.

Customer Interfacing:

The process of effective communication is the single most important thing that a project manager does – then you understand that how we interact with the customer is critical to the overall success of the engagement.
Just as important as the project manager’s communications with the customer are the individual project team members’ communications with that same customer. The part that becomes hard is that as the project manager you’re responsible for ALL communication, but you can’t always police that which you are not a part of. Nor do you really want to, but it does all come back to you.
Project manager – customer interface
The primary function here is to practice frequent and effective communication with the customer. Most of this done through the creation of informative and accurate weekly material: status reports, project schedules, issues and risks tracking sheets, status calls, and status call notes among other things.
But even the informal communication with the customer is important and must be done with care. Always be above board with the customer, but also always be above reproach. You don’t ever want to spread gossip, give inside information that is not appropriate, or speak poorly of your team, your company, the project, or customer personnel. Always maintain a very high-level of professionalism. It’s ok to be familiar with the customer, but don’t let your guard down … they’re still the customer.
Prepare the team
At the beginning of the engagement set the ground roles for the team in their communications with the customer. Coach them on professionalism, the methods that are acceptable, and what communication approaches to use in different situations.
One more thing – in this age of social media – be sure to make it clear that no discussions with or about the customer should happen on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google Buzz or any similar source. During the project that is too familiar and potentially unprofessional. And once it’s out there, it’s there forever.
Overseeing the communication process
This one isn’t easy because communication is happening all the time and you can’t oversee everything. Make it clear to the team that decisions need to involve you and most need to come from you. In fact, all official project communication needs to come from you. However, you don’t want to slow progress, so ask that you be cc’d on all important project communication that doesn’t require your immediate attention. Stay in the loop because when things are moving fast on a project, once you are out of the loop it’s hard to fix what might go wrong.
Fixing the mess
This exactly where you hoped not to be, but it happens. And you may have a mess to clean up or fix. Go back to the effective communication and the practice of full disclosure with the customer. Making them part of the solution rather than keeping them uniformed is almost always the best way to go.
And for communications that get out of hand … that’s a another problem. First, go to the source. If it’s your team member, then discuss the communication issue with them and understand their side of the story. Then take it to the customer together. Working with the customer and the team to proactively correct a communication problem or misunderstanding will show that you’re involved and the problem is being addressed. This will go along way in maintaining customer satisfaction and confidence.
Summary
Communication happens throughout the engagement and without effective communication a lot can go wrong on your projects. Poorly communicating one important requirement can cost tens of thousands of dollars – more if your project is huge. It’s critical that the project manager is in charge of all communication, preps the team on effective communication and keeps the customer as well informed as possible in order to help ensure a successful project.

Hardlines:

A store department or product line primarily consisting of merchandise such as hardware, housewares, automotive, electronics, sporting goods, health and beauty aids or toys.

Stationery for emails:

If you often send a particular type of e-mail (like a newsletter, a weekly status report, or response to a certain type of request, etc), you can use stationery to save that information and re-use it whenever you need it. You can use it to save e-mails that are just text, or for things like newsletters, you can add graphics, backgrounds, and formatting to make it look like a newsletter.

Here's how to make stationery:
1. From Mail, click the plus sign (+) next to Tools, and then click Stationery.

2. Click New Stationery and then click Message.

3. Add the text, formatting, graphics and background you want, and then save it!
• To change text color or style, or add links and attachments, use the buttons in the toolbar

• To add graphics, click Create > Picture.

• To add a background, right-click, select Text Properties, and then click the arrow next to Text and select Document


Then select the Background tab (it looks like a picture of a gradient)

From there, you can pick a background color or paste or import a graphic.

For example, below is a sample Stationery, that is used as a table to create the form and included a greeting and instructions:





After you make stationery, here's how to use it:

1. When you want to create an e-mail from stationery, click More > New Message with Stationery


2. Then make any changes you need to the e-mail (like changing dates or recipients' names), and then send it!

Make an Autoshape go smaller:

You've drawn an AutoShape and it will simply not go any smaller by sizing it manually. e.g.. a circle indicating places on a map
1. Select the AutoShape with the mouse
2. Right click it and choose "Format AutoShape"
3. Then either enter a new "height" and "width" or
4. Enter new values in the "scale" boxes
e.g. height 50% and width 50% will half the size of the shape.

Highlights Duplicates in a Column:

Use Excel conditional formatting to highlight duplicate entries in a column:
1. Select range A2:A11
2. Choose Format|Conditional Formatting
3. From the first dropdown, choose Formula Is
4. For the formula, enter
=COUNTIF($A$2:$A$11,A2)>1
5. Click the Format button.
6. Select a font colour for highlighting.
7. Click OK, click OK

Prototyping Model:

This is a cyclic version of the linear model. In this model, once the requirement analysis is done and the design for a prototype is made, the development process gets started. Once the prototype is created, it is given to the customer for evaluation. The customer tests the package and gives his/her feed back to the developer who refines the product according to the customer's exact expectation. After a finite number of iterations, the final software package is given to the customer. In this methodology, the software is evolved as a result of periodic shuttling of information between the customer and developer. This is the most popular development model in the contemporary IT industry. Most of the successful software products have been developed using this model - as it is very difficult (even for a whiz kid!) to comprehend all the requirements of a customer in one shot. There are many variations of this model skewed with respect to the project management styles of the companies. New versions of a software product evolve as a result of prototyping.

How USB Ports Work:

Just about any computer that you buy today comes with one or more Universal Serial Bus connectors on the back. These USB connectors let you attach everything from mice to printers to your computer quickly and easily. The operating system supports USB as well, so the installation of the device drivers is quick and easy, too. Compared to other ways of connecting devices to your computer (including parallel ports, serial ports and special cards that you install inside the computer's case), USB devices are incredibly simple!

The USB Process
When the host powers up, it queries all of the devices connected to the bus and assigns each one an address. This process is called enumeration -- devices are also enumerated when they connect to the bus. The host also finds out from each device what type of data transfer it wishes to perform:

Interrupt - A device like a mouse or a keyboard, which will be sending very little data, would choose the interrupt mode.

Bulk - A device like a printer, which receives data in one big packet, uses the bulk transfer mode. A block of data is sent to the printer (in 64-byte chunks) and verified to make sure it is correct.

Isochronous - A streaming device (such as speakers) uses the isochronous mode. Data streams between the device and the host in real-time, and there is no error correction.

The host can also send commands or query parameters with control packets.

As devices are enumerated, the host is keeping track of the total bandwidth that all of the isochronous and interrupt devices are requesting. They can consume up to 90 percent of the 480 Mbps of bandwidth that is available. After 90 percent is used up, the host denies access to any other isochronous or interrupt devices. Control packets and packets for bulk transfers use any bandwidth left over (at least 10 percent).

The Universal Serial Bus divides the available bandwidth into frames, and the host controls the frames. Frames contain 1,500 bytes, and a new frame starts every millisecond. During a frame, isochronous and interrupt devices get a slot so they are guaranteed the bandwidth they need. Bulk and control transfers use whatever space is left.


Inside a USB cable: There are two wires for power -- +5 volts (red) and ground (brown) -- and a twisted pair (yellow and blue) of wires to carry the data. The cable is also shielded.

USB Features
The Universal Serial Bus has the following features:

• The computer acts as the host.

• Up to 127 devices can connect to the host, either directly or by way of USB hubs.

• Individual USB cables can run as long as 5 meters; with hubs, devices can be up to 30 meters (six cables' worth) away from the host.

• With USB 2.,the bus has a maximum data rate of 480 megabits per second.

• A USB cable has two wires for power (+5 volts and ground) and a twisted pair of wires to carry the data.

• On the power wires, the computer can supply up to 500 milliamps of power at 5 volts.

• Low-power devices (such as mice) can draw their power directly from the bus. High-power devices (such as printers) have their own power supplies and draw minimal power from the bus. Hubs can have their own power supplies to provide power to devices connected to the hub.

• USB devices are hot-swappable, meaning you can plug them into the bus and unplug them any time.

• Many USB devices can be put to sleep by the host computer when the computer enters a power-saving mode.

The standard for USB version 2.0 was released in April 2000 and serves as an upgrade for USB 1.1.

USB 2.0 (High-speed USB) provides additional bandwidth for multimedia and storage applications and has a data transmission speed 40 times faster than USB 1.1. To allow a smooth transition for both consumers and manufacturers, USB 2.0 has full forward and backward compatibility with original USB devices and works with cables and connectors made for original USB, too.