One of the most anticipated features that came on the iPhone 4S was a new thing called: Siri. Zooming out before concentrating on Siri, mobile assistants were the new rage. Beforehand, people were fascinated by the cloud, and how you could store your files in the Internet and retrieve it from anywhere. You could store your file at home, and get it at your workplace to make a presentation. However, next came virtual assistants. When you’re in the car, it’s hard to send text messages. It’s hard to call people. It’s hard to set reminders that just popped into your head onto your phone. Thus, came the virtual assistant: a new way to be able to talk to your phone to be able to do what you want it to do, and in this case, text message, or call people, and many other features. Apple jumped onto the bandwagon with the iPhone 4S and came out with the new feature: Siri, a virtual assistant that is tailored to assist you in your endeavours by your diction.

Getting started with Siri

To get Siri in the first place, you need an iPhone 4S; although you may have the latest updates on your iPhone 4 or earlier, having an iPhone 4S means you have the hardware that is required to run Siri on your phone. Therefore, if you are interested in using Siri, check into getting an iPhone 4S, as they are getting cheaper every single day.

What is Design Thinking and How Does it Apply to HR?

[Jan, 28, 2020] |
Tags:

The Context Of Design Thinking And Its Application In Employee Skill Training

Design thinking is a crucial pillar in today’s problem-solving imperatives. In fact, it is being pursued as a unit course in various institutions across the globe, thus underlying its importance in aiding objective human thinking. It’s not a specific property for designers. Far from it, it has emerged as an innovative solution-seeking tool for all great inventors and innovators.

By description, it is a design methodology used for tackling complex problems that are virtually unknown or ill-defined, through a careful evaluation of the human needs involved, understandably restructuring the problem, by brainstorming to create many solutions, and by adopting a direct approach in testing and prototyping. It helps us come up with creative ways to solve nagging problems that stem from us and especially in the workplace setting.

The ‘overwhelmed/overburdened employee’ is a common term in HR offices across many organizations in the world. Employees are faced with a huge challenge in regards to coping with fast-paced technological and office changes in the working environment. This had led to a massive stagnation in productivity, prompting HR heads to look for new ways to reduce their employees’ stress and workload.

While evaluating many options, this model of thinking has posed as a helpful tool for HR managers when dealing with their vexed employees. IT training, in particular, has helped shape the productive realms of many companies out there.

Let’s explore how this thinking domain can be used to plan employee skill training:

Empathize

If you want to show concern for your employees, first empathize with their situation. Seek to understand the needs of the employees deeply, what they lack, what they need, and the challenges that they are likely facing. This will act as the basis of plotting the problem and working on the next phase of solving it.

You can collect data in this phase through empathy maps and journey maps. In the latter, you endeavor to steadily track the day-to-day activities and tasks of employees. This is achieved through observations or structured interviews. In turn, it aids in elevating the thinking process.

Through empathy maps, you ponder on collected findings and synthesize them keenly. Here, you seek to establish how an employee is thinking, their feelings, and insights into the probable root cause of the problem.

Define the Problem

After a comprehensive analysis of the collected data; the problem definition phase should follow. The idea here is to locate the underlying root of the problem concisely. HR should seek to utilize an analysis framework to help address problems affecting the holistic being of all employees. Therefore, each issue would require a list of underlying causes: lack of motivation, lack of knowledge/understanding, or just lack of skill.

Once the root cause(s) are clearly defined, a clear problem statement should be drawn up alongside performance goals that are firmly based on actual drivers.

Think Solely About Employee-Based Solutions (iterative learning)

Conventionally, customers are at the heart of every organization’s dealings. They inspire and drive the company’s objectives because they are crucial in profit making. However, employees have greatly suffered while working ‘behind the scenes.’ Such situations have led to employees feeling discontent and work under immense pressure, which inevitably leads to underperformance. To avoid this, the experimental learning concept can be utilized by HR offices to engage employees more by creating solutions that directly suit the situations they encounter daily.

Here, trainers are removed as the center of focus. An iterative ‘reflection’ cycle is established to tap continuous employee feedback in a bid to sharpen their skills. This method helps employees adapt to new technology through a well established IT consulting network. In the long run, employees don’t forget how they handled a particular problem, and this effectively raises a firm’s productivity.

Support Employee Tasks with Simple Technology (Ideate)

The simplest way to support employee-working experience is by not sidelining them unprepared with changing technology processes. As an HR Manager, fully engage your employees when transitioning to new tech by making use of effective training or consulting services. Specific training needs can be assessed and addressed within the organization or with a third party industry expert.

According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends Report, design thinking was isolated as crucial in crafting the employee experience. 79% of those interviewed identified it as imperative. However, almost a similar percentage agreed that a lot of compliance programs and training are still based on outdated modes of meetings and processes.

The report also recommended the need to put necessary consideration on employees through proper IT training for far colossal efficiency. One way to make this work is by drawing a connected roadmap of skills and information needed at certain work intervals. Shedding off overwhelming and irrelevant amounts of data for new employees is vital in retaining their concentration and output. What’s more, a customizable app can help employees undertake appropriate tasks at the specified time, thus resulting in higher revenue for the long term.

Implementing an Intuitive Tech Learning Approach (Ideate)

The basis of this argument is that not every employee is the same. All of them are differently gifted and shouldn’t be forced to use one inflexible technology or system that doesn’t cater to their individual needs in a buzzing work environment. This mode of critical thinking brings to life personas such that fictive employees representing a defined group of external employees are drawn up. In this set-up, the personas should be able to learn and work efficiently within their own small environment while quickly utilizing their own skill set and the required information to make things work.

An HR manager can replicate this working scenario through the use of role-plays. This can be achieved by conducting short-term soft skills training sessions to sharpen their ability to handle similar situations. In the case of new technology, video-replays on how to use it in a one-on-one customer scenario can help relieve the pressure and spur the employee to be more productive.

Prototype and Testing

Here, the HR Manager should run a couple of tests to ensure whether the desired model of skill training is working. One way to get started is by crafting a simple prototype of the technology required, probably as a single module to establish its viability.

The new technology should be vigorously tested during prototyping to pinpoint any leaks, disjoints, or performance issues. Structured walkthroughs can be implemented to help employees navigate the solution through proper IT training sessions.

What’s more, HR should conduct sessions to get the employees’ views, emotions, or feelings regarding the new solution. In case of any cause for concern, the prototype should be improved until it meets the intermediate needs of its users.

Iterations are also a common occurrence in this phase. Refinements and alterations are curved out to make sure that the final thing suits every employee in some understandable capacity.

Wrapping Up

Design thinking is crucial in any organizational setting in making sure that employees sync properly with the technology in place. This will go a long way in improving their productivity.

How to add an item to a dictionary

[Mar, 29, 2014] |
Tags:

To add to a python dictionary is very easy. First create a dictionary, and then associate a key with a value.

a = {'cat',"furry thing"}
a['dog']="typically likes to run and is very loyal"
print a

Here is what is printed:

{'cat':'furry thing', 'dog':'typically likes to run and is very loyal'}


                
                    
                        
                            .NET Core 3 Release, Major Benefits
                            [Mar, 26, 2019]       |
      Tags:  
                            

	
		
			On March 6 of this year, Microsoft's .NET Foundation released its third preview release of .NET Core 3 — which is its free and open-source framework for developing apps on Windows, MacOS and Linux — with an official release scheduled for later this year. This release brings a wealth of new features and enhancements. This includes the following: 
	


	
		
			 
		
			1. Windows Desktop Support
		
			 
		
			One of the biggest additions to version 3.0 of the framework is the ability to develop Windows desktop applications. The new Windows Desktop component lets you build applications using either the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphical subsystem or the Windows Forms graphical class library. You can also use Windows UI XAML Library (WinUI) controls in your applications. 
		
			 
		
			The Windows Desktop component is only supported and included on Windows installs. 
		
			 
		
			2. Support for C# 8
		
			 
		
			The new framework has support for C# 8, which includes not only the ability to create asynchronous steams but features such as: 
		
			 
		
			Index and Range data types
		
			Using declarations
		
			Switch expressions
		
			 
		
			The Index and Range data types make array manipulation easier, while Using declarations ensure that your objects get disposed once they are out of scope. Finally, Switch expressions extend Switch statements by allowing you to return a value. 
		
			 
		
			3. IEEE Floating-Point Improvements
		
			 
		
			The new framework includes floating point APIs that comply with IEEE 754-2008. This includes fixes to both formatting and parsing as well as new Math APIs such as: 
		
			 
		
			BitIncrement/BitDecrement
		
			MaxMagnitude/MinMagnitude
		
			ILogB
		
			ScaleB
		
			Log2
		
			FusedMultiplyAdd
		
			CopySign
		
			 
		
			4. Support for Performance-Oriented CPU Instructions
		
			 
		
			The new framework includes support for both SIMD and Bit Manipulation instruction sets, which can create significant performance boosts in certain situations, such as when you are processing data in parallel. 
		
			 
		
			5. Default Executables
		
			 
		
			With the new framework, you can now produce framework-dependent executables by default without having to use self-contained deployments. 
		
			 
		
			6. Local dotnet Tools
		
			 
		
			In the previous version of the framework, there was support for global dotnet tools. But the current version adds support for local tools as well. These tools are associated with a specific disk location, and this allows you to enable per-repository and per-project tooling. 
		
			 
		
			7. Support for MSIX Deployments
		
			 
		
			The new framework supports MSIX, which is a Windows app package format that you can use when deploying Windows desktop applications. 
		
			 
		
			8. Built-In and Fast JSON Support
		
			 
		
			In prior versions of the framework, you had to use Json.NET if you wanted JSON support in your application. The framework, though, now has built-in support that is not only fast but also has low allocation requirements. It also adds 3 new JSON types, which include: 
		
			 
		
			Utf8JsonReader
		
			Utf8JsonWriter
		
			JsonDocument
		
			 
		
			9. Cryptography Support
		
			 
		
			The new framework supports AES-GCM and AES-CCM ciphers. It also supports the importing and exporting of asymmetric public and private keys from a variety of formats without the need of an X.509 certificate. 
		
			 
		
			Platform Support
		
			 
		
			.NET Core 3 supports the following operating systems: 
		
			 
		
			Alpine: 3.8+
		
			Debian: 9+
		
			Fedora: 26+
		
			macOS: 10.12+
		
			openSUSE: 42.3+
		
			RHEL: 6+
		
			SLES: 12+
		
			Ubuntu: 16.04+
		
			Windows Clients: 7, 8.1, 10 (1607+)
		
			Windows Servers: 2012 R2 SP1+
		
			 
		
			The framework further supports the following chips: 
		
			 
		
			x64 (Windows, macOS and Linux)
		
			x86 (Windows)
		
			ARM32 (Windows and Linux)
		
			ARM64 (Linux)
		
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                    Tech Life in  Indiana
                     
Some fun facts about Indiana: The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne on May 4, 1871; The Indiana Gazette Indiana's first newspaper was published in Vincennes in 1804; A great deal of the building limestone used in the U.S. is quarried in Indiana. As for the tech life in Indiana, there are growing opportunities within the state in some of the major corporations such as WellPoint, Biomet, and Zimmer Holdings (just to name a few) 

                    
                            
                
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                Software developers near Lafayette have ample opportunities to meet like minded techie individuals, 
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                 Dev Workshop Indy ·
                 IndyPy Meetup ·
                 Indianapolis Web Performance Group ·
                   
             
                
            
        
    
    
    
        
            
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