Roadster season is still not in full swing due to cold temperatures and occasional snow. But here are a few tips what you should do before the season.
Tip number one:
If your gear shifting is not buttery smooth as normal or you just want to make it a bit better I would suggest to change transmission oil. My Mazda MX-5 has 6 speed transmission which was co-developed by Ford. I need to say that while this is one of the best short gear transmission it can fell a bit notchy while the car is still cold, specially going into first gear. Over the internet you can find a lot of advises how to fix this behavior.
Like most of the people I was looking for Geniue Ford Motorcraft XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid. This product is widely know as “unicorn tears” in Miata community.
After a bit of research I found out that it’s quite hard to get it in Slovenia. Who would imagine that unicorn tears are so hard to get?
That did not stop me and I found out that Castrol is actually making unicorn tears with their own brand. It’s called Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75W-90 and it also says that it meets Ford Approval which should results in smooth shifting.
I got this Castrol manual transmission oil and it did a great difference in the smoothness of my 6-speed manual transmission. I can highly recommend it.
Tip number two:
My model has an additional performance package which also brings Limited Slip Differential or simply LSD. Benefits of having an LSD, which is located on the rear axle, is improved vehicle traction and handling. LSD is also using special oil. On most cars you only change this oil when your odometer is showing around 200.000km. With sportier cars in this case Miata you need to change this oil more regularly. I would advise it to change in intervals at around 30.000-40.000 km.
After a bit of research and help of Mazda community I decided to go with Motul Gear 300 LS 75W-90 this one is intended for differential on high performance and racing cars. It is also important to note that it needs to be API GL 5 for Mazda MX-5 NC differential.
With a change of LSD oil we quickly notice that the ride becomes much more quieter and only then you notice how loud the differential really was with old oil. Definitely something you need to do properly maintain your Miata.
Also don’t forget to frequently change your oil filter and engine oil. That are really the basics.
With that said, check your tires, tire pressure and you are ready for your first season trip. Don’t forget to clean it, so it will shine on your ride.
Last year, the pre-pandemic year of 2019, I was enjoying sunny days under the pyramids of Egypt. Ten days of sun, relaxation and journeys.
Freedom of driving in the middle of desert, with wind all around reminded me of a long time wish I had. Dream that was there for a long time. When I arrived home from Egypt I was determined to tick another lifetime goal that I had.
The term “hacker” can refer to someone or an activity with either good or bad intentions. The popular use is almost always with a negative connotation, mainly because of popular media showing this term in negative light.
How would you describe hacker?
I would compare it to a painter. What hackers and painters have in common is that they are both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. Exploring possibilities.
The way to create something beautiful is often to make subtle
tweaks to something that already exists, or to combine existing
ideas in a slightly new way.
After curiosity, a hacker’s most useful trait is persistence.
Let’s get back to comparing writers, painters and hackers…
Over time, beautiful things tend
to thrive, and ugly things tend to get discarded.
It’s often like that if you are a writer. Good writers usually get the appropriate traction and reputation after they die.
How do hacker gain traction?
Hackers need to understand the theory of computation about as much as painters need to understand paint chemistry.
How do hackers gain knowledge?
Believe it or not the best sources of ideas are not the fields
that have the word “computer” in their names, but the other fields
inhabited by makers. Painting has been a much richer source of
ideas than the theory of computation.
For example, I was taught in high school that one ought to figure
out a program completely on paper (diagram/algorithm) before even going near
a computer. I found that I did not code this way. I found that I liked to program/code sitting in front of a computer, not a piece
of paper.
Worse still, instead of patiently writing out a complete
program and assuring myself it was correct, I tended to just spew
out code that was hopelessly broken an hacky, and gradually beat it into
shape. As far as I can tell, the way they
taught me to program was all wrong. You should figure
out idea/code/program as you’re writing them, just as writers and painters
and architects do.
At that point I realized I’m a hacker.
A programming language (not to be specific) is for thinking of programs, not
for expressing new innovative way in form of code/programs you’ve already thought of.
If hackers identified with other makers, like writers and painters,
they could show their full potential.
What about research institutes, academic world? If universities and research labs keep hackers from doing the kind
of work they want to do, perhaps the place for them is in companies?
Unfortunately, most companies won’t let hackers do what
they want either. Universities and research labs force hackers to
be scientists, and companies force them to be engineers.
Because hackers are makers rather than scientists, the right place
to look for metaphors is not in the sciences, but among other kinds
of makers. So, what else can painting teach us about hacking?
One thing we can learn, or at least confirm, from the example
of painting is how to learn to hack. You learn to paint mostly
by doing it. The same applies for hacking and embracing the hacking mentality.
But in the end it’s all business. The rise of successful startup companies is the side effect of implementing hacker mentality.
If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because
this is one of the reasons startups win: Big (corporate) companies want
to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because
they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you
lose the high points as well as the low.
This is not a problem for
big companies, because they don’t win by making great products.
Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies.
Let’s take a look at one great example: Hackers think in different ways and they try to make revolutionary things. While Product Managers already have the framework and they just want to continue in their own way. It’s hard to engage a big company
in a (for example) design/UX war, just as it’s hard to engage an opponent inside a
castle in hand-to-hand combat. It’s easier and quicker to grab a gun in this case.
So, if hacking works like painting and writing, is it as cool?
After all, you only (probably) get one life. You might as well spend it working on something great. Being creative, the act of creating and making, is actually fundamental to what it means to be human. Famous philosopher
Abraham Maslow also came to the same conclusion:
creative acts are fundamental.
The concept of the hacker mentality is very simple at a low level. It is just people manipulating everyday things in their own environments with motivation to improve the way we interact with the objects an the world around us. So let’s hack all the things! And challenge current ways, methods.. whatever.
What would you do if you could do it all the time?
Everybody is the happiest when they are doing what they want to be doing. When you get to do what you want to do, you’ve won. That is seductive nature of human beings in 21st century. To be more precise, in the era of Information Society.
I’ve been very fortunate to collaborate with high competent people in my early teenage days. At that time I had a lot of ideas. But we all know that ideas without execution are worthless. Some of the ideas became great projects, some of the ideas were just not ready for the world at that time and a lot of ideas failed on the first steep.
One of the first projects was building of my own brand “elnino.si” which was and still is my number one incubator for ideas. It’s funny when people say… “hey elnino!” While this was strange for me at the start it was also a solid proof that my work is recognized locally and much more globally thanks to the power of Open Web. Last year Janino Organization was born as a result of “too much” projects coming to elnino.si brand. In that year Janino has become an umbrella organization with a small team behind, few successful projects and still some ongoing projects.
The wishes are really “blue sky vision”, but still we have more demand for our services than we can handle and this is a proof we are doing a good job at Janino Organization.
One of the fields that really gave me a lot is also Open Source and culture around this phenomena. I was and still am supporter of this movement that is changing the world. When I started exploring Open Source world it was still being labeled as “hobbyist playground”. After educating myself on this field for a few year I was determined to prove that that was wrong and undervalued label.
Today Open Source is one of the leading streams of Information Technology and innovation in general. While most people disagreed I was determined to prove that Open Source is the next big thing and is here to stay. Numerous projects on this field brought me to numerous great opportunities that I am really pleased I was part of.
Bottom line: It’s all starts and ends with hard work and commitment. Even though people often doubted in me I made all my decisions predicated on the long term. I wanted to learn and gradually improve.
I was always driven to do more. It’s just my nature, I’m never satisfied with average.
Last two years were also challenging. I had to make some important decisions regarding my professional and also private life. On the career path I had three options. One was to continue my path on the field of Mobile. Second one was to continue in the field of Open Web and the third one was to try something tottaly new in the IT field. As you may guessed it I decided to broaden my horizons and went to a totally new field in IT connected with Life Sciences. Currently I work for Amplexor. I have probably chosen the hardest way. I really like challenges, this is the fuel that keep me going forward to improve.
Amplexor Life Sciences is the leading provider of end-to-end solutions. It enables life sciences companies replace manual work or obsolete siloed applications with automated single authoritative software product that helps users effectively tackle industry-specific challenges and problems.
Don’t get my wrong I don’t accept all challenges.
Steve Jobs was one of the people who followed path with set boundaries. He has been practicing the technic of saying “No” more often.
It might sound crazy at the start but according to the human psychology people are used to say “Yes” more often in the life.
The problem is that by saying “Yes” more often in life you will at some point get in the status where you will be stuck in the middle of nowhere and later on you will realize that you have made a mistake.
Because of saying “No” more often Apple has become one of the leading and also well known companies with top-notch products.
Steve Jobs had a set frame of mind of what he wanted the product to look like. If something was not polished or did not fit within his boundaries he would simply cut it out by saying no to it.
Pre-empting might be the most difficult part about a decision, but it is
the most effective means of letting other people know that you already
have something on your plate.
Saying “No” is a subtle art.
One of the most challenging parts my past year was an opportunity to publish a book with German publishing company.
They found me based on my research that I have done and were fascinated about my work. My academic research in 2016 highlighted how mobile devices operating with specific OS, in this case Firefox OS, are a perfect devices for performing illegal activities of organized crime. Why? Simply because commercial forensic tolls worth multi-thousand dollars do not fully capture all the data from this niche mobile operating system.
I open sourced 70% of the source code publicly (as much as I could) and also released a set of tools for free. At the time of writing this blog post none of the commercial “big money” forensic companies still don’t cover most of what this tools can do for a niche mobile operating system - Firefox OS.
While writing a book sounded exciting I said “No” I was not interested in making money out of my work or becoming a “famous hacker writer”. My work is already public and would not fit in my set of boundaries. Releasing tools and source code publicly was what I wanted to do and share it as a public good, this was in my set of boundaries.
One thing that was really hard to say “No” was the opportunity to act in a role of professor in the field of IT on the faculty. While I have wish to one day do that I could simply not give all passion and dedication into this opportunity, therefore the boundaries were out of my limits, for now. Hard to say it… but I had to do it - No.
Information Society and Web offers unlimited opportunities. If you do a good job opportunities will come. I did get a few jobs offers that I would not like to publicly disclose. I would like to say thank you for expressing an interest to all the people I shaked hands and offered me job or project. Who knows, maybe in few months/years our paths will cross…
This is, kind of, traditional recap that I usually post at the end of the year. But as we know being more available equates to having less time to focus on other things… like this blog post.
“As we become more mature and enlightened adults, we come to realize
that if an opportunity is presented to us and it does not gain a near
100-percent enthusiasm and commitment from us, then the reply must be a
100-percent no.” - Brendon Burchard
What I learned is that we are either being navigated by the flow of life which means we are becoming stagnant, hence going into “parked state” or pursuing to resonate our deepest self. I’m keen to keep pushing and exceeding the (yet) unknown limits.
It’s obvious that big tech companies have a problem in retention rate. Despite of the high pay and jaw-dropping “startup like” perks. Employee turnover is costly, it affects the performance of an organization, and it becomes increasingly difficult to manage.
Half the number of recruits in any one year may be lost over the next five years, unless something can be done about the factors causing wastage. This is called a survival curve.
According to Peter R. Garber, Human Resource professional, turnovers can cost anywhere from 25% to 200% of the salary for the position if it needs to be filled for advertising, training, orientation, loss of productivity, and so on. Hidden expenses of a turnover can account for up to 80% more.
In my opinion here is the list of top things you should work on:
1) Cultivate a sense of ownership in employees by showing them how their role directly affects others in the company and client success.
2) Offer perks employees really want. Talk to them, it’s not all about money.
3) Company culture is like an unspoken code among team members. Build a strong company culture, a culture of freedom.
4) Offer growth opportunities, as this is a major psychological factor in job satisfaction.
5) Pay competitively. Paying fair wages and providing competitive benefits are crucial elements of improving retention, especially if you want team members to trust your organization. It goes without saying that having competitive, market-level wages is the first step. The next step is getting to know your employees, their motivations, and their goals.
6) On-boarding and trainings, conferences and feeling of belonging to the vision and path the company is pursuing. Tools, time and training are the easiest problems to solve and affect employee retention the most.
7) Employees seek to use their talent and skills in the workplace. A motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of his specific job description. Give them options to grow.
8) Clear lines of communication is a must. Last but definitely not least, unambiguous communication should be the cornerstone of foundation for all your other employee engagement strategies. People want to feel they’re a key part of the organization and that they play a role in upcoming plans. Keep your employees in the loop when it comes to the latest developments at your company. Have regular one to one meetings.
Employees stay for things they get uniquely from you.
These things might be tangible, like being able to walk to work, a four-day/ten-hour schedule, feeling aligned with the company.
Or they might be intangible things like learning new skills, working with a trusted supervisor, great team, or performing a service that helps others. Some of these stay reasons may come via policies or programs, whereas others occur during the course of doing work.
With that being said, retention and engagement is not a one time job, it’s a continuous loop of ongoing improvements.
This week I meet with my friend, who also happened to be my first “official” mentor, Brian. I asked him if he can recommend me someone for our team at my current company. His response was, sure I can share the news just send me a link. The next step was logical and this is the result of it - blog post explaining why this is an excellent opportunity to join our team at Amplexor Adriatic in Slovenia.
So let’s start with basic information. Amplexor Adriatic is a member of the AMPLEXOR International group with clients in more than 20 countries worldwide. The group has 40 offices in 22 countries on 4 continents and more than 1900 employees and the best part is that our business is expanding so we are looking for new employees.
Amplexor Adriatic has two offices in Slovenia (Novo mesto) and Croatia (Zagreb) and we provide state-of-the art solutions in the field of life sciences. We have also been labeled as business stars and trendsetters in the field of Information Technology for Pharmaceutical companies.
Check out recent news about us in media (Slovenian language):
- Pioneers on the field of Information Systems for content management in pharma.
- Working in international environment with the biggest pharma, biotech and medical device companies.
- We offer competitive pay with bonuses.
- Ability to work using the latest hardware (Laptops, Mobile devices, etc.) and software of your preferred choice.
- Regular travels to clients and visiting beautiful cities all around the World.
- Family friendly company: flexible working time, occasional working from home, regular team buildings and other benefits. Family first! :)
- We support your sport activities with yearly financing budget for each employee. Healthy body is happy body! :)
- We support your cultural engagement with yearly financing budget for each employee. Because we all enjoy great concerts, movies or other activities that spur our imagination! :)
- Work you do has impact on hundred of million of people around the world, do you need any additional motivation? Doing meaningful work not just for Pharma industry but also for well-being of people is a big motivation for all of us. So be prepared to see a lot of smiling faces in our offices! :)
- Relaxing working environment with a blend of young talented people and experienced experts willing to help you to achieve our goals.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for people with can-do attitude willing to face daily challenges in a thriving working environment. We are looking for juniors (students, recent graduates, etc.) and also experienced experts. If you have a good work ethic and you are willing to learn new things… this is your chance!
Contact me for any additional info, I’m happy to help you, or just apply at Amplexor Workable.
We live in Information Society in which the creation and distribution of
information has become the most significant economic and cultural
activity. Right now a satellite or a passing drone might snap your picture. In other words, there is essentially no such thing as total privacy, online or otherwise.
Personally I like
sharing thoughts and opinions with a wider audience online. And I like
the convenience of using my computer, phone, or tablet to communicate,
find directions, and make purchases anywhere in the world.
On the contrary, common-sense strategies, the Internet equivalent of drawing the curtains and locking your door, can significantly reduce the risk of having your personal information fall into unwelcome hands.
Many times I have heard the phrase: “I have nothing to hide”, it’s just an absurd statement.
I’m sure you’re an honest, moral, law-abiding citizen.
But if you tell me you have nothing to hide, I’m going to laugh in your face.
We all have secrets, and that’s as it should be. But you may not realize how much you want to keep private and how you might inadvertently give it away online.
I’m sure your are aware that every Web site you visit, every Web search,
every video you watch, and every file you download leaves a trail,
which includes information about your location, your device, and your
browser, among other things. Parts of this trail are stored on your own
computer or mobile devices as histories, caches, and cookies. Some parts
are stored on the servers of search providers, advertisers, and other
entities.
You should be aware that browsing the Web typically results in at least the following information being stored, for each browser you use:
- Browsing history: A list of every Web page you’ve visited, in each browser.
- Download history: A list of every file you’ve downloaded again, in each browser.
- Cookies: Textual information stored on your device by
the sites you visit, or by the companies who place ads or other code on
those sites. Cookies are most often simple settings or random-looking strings of
characters that identify your browser uniquely, but they can also
include your username, password, location, or any number of other
details.
- Zombie cookies: Conventional HTTP cookies aren’t the
only way browsers can store persistent data about your behavior. Records
similar to cookies can be stored separately when you visit sites with
content that uses Flash, Silverlight, HTML5 Web storage, etc. In some cases, the effect is to recreate
cookies even after you’ve deleted them so that’s why we call them by nickname “zombie cookies”.
- Web cache(s): The contents of pages you’ve visited recently, especially images (so the page can load more quickly if you return to it) and favicons
(the little icons that appear in your browser’s address bar next to the
URL). Some browsers also store thumbnail images of the pages you’ve
visited and similar data.
The above is only a partial list. Some sites use even sneakier
techniques to squirrel away various information about you in a variety
of places. In addition to all these things, your
device may store a global cache of recent DNS lookups - somewhere
outside your browser there may be a list of the domain names you (or
your apps) most recently visited along with their IP addresses.
Web activities can follow you everywhere. That’s why the big corporate companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others want to track you across accounts and devices
(to get the most information about their users).
Mozilla on the other hand is a non-profit organization striving to fight for Open Web. We recently introduced Firefox Focus, private mobile browser. Firefox Focus is already available for iPhone users on App Store. Firefox Focus for Android is also close to being released.
So how is Firefox Focus different from any other mobile browser?
Focus automatically blocks trackers that follow you around the web. You can browser freely for that
engagement rings, flights to Las Vegas or expensive cigars that you don’t want anybody to know about.
Firefox Focus is super simple: no tabs, no bookmarks, no pop-ups - just URL bar and extremely fast and user friendly browsing experience.
Browse like no one’s watching. The new Firefox Focus automatically
blocks a wide range of online trackers — from the moment you launch it
to the second you leave it. Easily erase your history, passwords and
cookies, so you won’t get followed by things like unwanted ads.
Accessibility of information is one of the most powerful aspects of
the Web. It is all the more powerful when anonymity is protected.
We know from copious user research and constant community feedback that
being able to browse the web without stressing about being tracked or
served unwanted ads is a big deal.
For the last few weeks I have been using Firefox Focus on daily basis on Android device. I’m really happy to see that even pre-release version is stable and extremely fast. Here is a sneak peak of Firefox Focus localized for Slovenian market.
On iOS Firefox Focus is already available in more than 27 languages, covering billions of users around the world.
Be sure to follow me for more updates about Firefox Focus for Android and the date when it will be released on Google Play.
The digital revolution is now part of our everyday life. Much of the digital change has happened at such a dazzling pace, especially over the past decade.
Technological innovations have been powered by ubiquitous connectivity and consumers have constantly increased their dependence on it. On one side we have the fast innovative and creative technological pace and on the other side we have contrasting slow pace of the legislative and regulatory process. Much of the standardization, legalization or any kind of regulation especially in the tech sector is always in inevitable risk of being out of date by the time it hits the statue book, or even so vague that it offers nothing new of any real value.
In many cases the digital world has delivered considerable benefits for consumers in terms of choice and plurality. Connectivity has unlocked other forms of creativity too. One of the key points was the role of the Web in this digital revolution.
Over the years we have seen rise of multiple new technologies which now allow us to create interactive and diverse Web pages. In all these years the Web has become like one bacteria - It’s schematic but still complex.
Diagram of Mycoplasma pneumoniae’s metabolic pathway reminds me of the Web today.
I’m sure you can spot the complexity of this diagram. But still this diagram is detailed enough to trace a path from glucose to ethanol. We can draw a few analogies between the digital (Web) and organic (biological) worlds.
Let’s make an assumption that the components of the novel H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, are similar as computers.
If organism are like computers with IP addresses, each functional group of cells in the organism listens to the environment through its own active port. As port 25 maps specifically to SMTP services on a computer, port H1 maps specifically to the windpipe region on a human. Interestingly, the same port H1 maps to the intestinal tract on a bird. Thus, the same H1N1 virus will attack the respiratory system of a human and the gut of a bird. In contrast, H5 the variety of hemagglutinin protein found in H5N1, the deadly bird flu specifies the port for your inner lungs. As a result, H5N1 is much deadlier than H1N1 because it attacks your inner lung tissue, causing severe pneumonia.
In theory we could hack the virus (make a variation) and modify the virus sequence to make it deadlier.
Wait… how does the Web relate to that?
Well the situation is similar. We have many Web browsers which are based on rendering engines. Rendering engine is a component that draws text and images that the user can see on the screen.
Like many variants of flu, no vaccine can target all types of the virus. So if we have one killer virus we could wipe out most of the humanity, maybe one small group of people would survive it (because of ability to confer immunity).
With multiple rendering engines (variants) we can ensure that the web cannot be hurt by one “killer virus” in the form of only one rendering engine.
We still have different browsers but we can see that lots of browsers are adapting same rendering engines. Safari and Chrome are using WebKit and even Opera abandoned it’s own rendering engine to use WebKit. On the other hand Microsoft cleared legacy code of their Trident rendering engine and introduced EdgeHTML - rendering engine which is used in Microsoft Edge. Firefox is based on it’s own Gecko rendering engine.
In the words of “killer virus” - one rendering engine or even one browser to rule them all. That would be disastrous.
So does it matter to have diversity (of rendering engines) on the web? Yes.
Mono-cultures are brittle, vulnerable, and difficult to change. This statement was already confirmed in the past when the Internet Explorer 6 was introduced. Lack of competition brought a lot of stagnation in that period. In some cases rendering engine monoculture or “killer virus” already exists on Apple mobile devices. You can download any browser on App Store but they all use the same WebKit rendering engine. This means that the innovation curve and vulnerabilities can be more easily exploited.
If you would attempted to recreate the Web in some really clean, monoculture code written for specific rendering engine you would have something
that would impress the heck out of your programming peers but no one
would ever use it.
Web in the form of “one rendering engine to rule them all” would become boring and uncreative.
The dream of a single rendering engine is the dream of someone who fails
to understand the most fundamental thing about the Web.
Web is polymorphism. It’s diverse, flexible and messy, but it’s beautiful just because of that.
The diversity sustains the Web. I have one pledge for the future, whether you are Web developer, hacker, creator or decision maker, please don’t support the creation of “the killer virus” and don’t let the Web become a vulnerable monoculture. Diversity is better than a monoculture. For everybody who believes in
diversity, polymorphism might be the right thing. Polymorphism is the
art of making one thing appear in many different facets and in many
different ways. Only that way innovation can happen.
