Alistair Rooney – The Blog

I’ve just come back from one of my favorite gun stores, Ihawu in New Germany (just outside of Durban). We were invited to try the new range of Grand Power polymer pistols chambered in 9mmx19. These are branded as the STI GP6 in the US, but there is no difference apart from the branding.

They come nicely packaged in a plastic box with 2 magazines as you can see in the photos. I suppose the first thing I would do is get a decent box, since a $400 watch can come in a decent wooden or aluminium box, I’m always disappointed in gun packaging these days.

Predictably the place was crawling with our friends from law enforcement (SAPS, Road Traffic Inspectorate and Metro) and they were all very complimentary of the Grand Power and compared them favorably to their Glocks. The big difference is that they were happier with the external hammer which gave them more comfort carrying in condition 1 (Cocked and Locked). The junior officers carry CZ75′s which they are looking to replace with the harder wearing polymer pistols. The GP has been torture tested in much the same way as the Glock and has come through with flying colors.See Reliability Test and also Torture Test  for all the pictures.

The Mark 7 comes with replaceable grips of different sizes, like the Glock 4th Gen. This is great for a smaller handed shooter.

I particularly liked the rotating barrel concept, which noticeably reduces recoil in the smaller frames.

Range Session

I shot 50 rounds standing and managed to get all but 3 inside the center mass section, so I’d say this was as accurate as you need it to be. The trigger was crisp with around a 3-4lb pull. The X-caliber was not for shooting sadly and I was shooting the mid-size frame. The X-Caliber is great value for money as it’s a competition gun out of the box.

Recoil was not unpleasant due the rotating barrel and the fifty rounds didn’t seem to tire me much. I probably could have shot 200 happily. The sights are white tritium type dot sights. The competition versions have fiber sights. The ammo given to me was FMJ and not the highest quality, but true to expectations it cycled perfectly every time. I was shooting Single Action, but you can of course shoot Double Action. There is a side safety which shows red when safe. You can also “lock” the gun with a special key.

As you can see in the photo it does have an underbarrel rail for light or laser.

The K100 is completely ambidextrous.

Conclusion

The Grand Power is already winning competitions and is in use by the Slovakian Police and other agencies. It’s good value for money at around $100 cheaper than a comparable Glock. Would I recommend one? Yes – without hesitation. If you want a polymer pistol that will be ultra-reliable and has an external hammer – this is the way to go. This competes squarely with the S&W SD9 or M&P and the ubiquitous Glock.

Downside? I’d like to see .40 or .357 Sig or .45 ACP. At the moment the Mk7 is in 9mm x 19 only.

Or rather – when you shouldn’t. The law in South Africa is fairly clear – your life or the life of someone you are trying to protect must be in immediate danger.

Let’s run through a few scenarios. You hear someone trying to break into your car at 2am. You grab your firearm, lean out of the window and blam! the perp goes down. In this country and in most others including the US, you would go directly to jail. Was your life in danger? No. What should you have done? Call the police and your security company. Try to get a good description of the alleged thief and be a good witness. Why was it wrong to shoot. 1. You were not sure of your target or what was beyond it. 2. This could easily have been a case of mistaken identity (more on that soon). 3. You want to execute someone for stealing your car? Really?

Let’s replay this scenario a couple of different ways. Firstly, let’s pretend your bank has messed up. Your last two car repayments didn’t go through and you’ve been too busy to check. The finance company tried to get hold of you but they have an out of date cell number. The guy you have just shot and killed was legally re-possessing your car. Oops. Enjoy jail for the next 20 years. Sadly there is one even worse than this – and this one is true. A well known rugby player was awoken by the sound of someone opening his car door at 4am. Macho man that he was, he did exactly what the scenario says. He leaned out his window, shot and killed the “perpetrator”.

Who turned out to be his daughter who had an early meeting with her boyfriend. His life is over in so many ways. http://mg.co.za/article/2004-05-24-rugby-player-shoots-and-kills-daughter-by-mistake

Scenario number 2 is more challenging. A lady at home hears someone enter the house at 1am. She grabs her firearm and shoots a rather unsavoury looking man coming in through the door, which she forgot to lock. Again, true story. The old man suffers from dementia and got confused about where he lived. He lived 3 houses down the road.

The thing is this – identify if the so-called attacker has a weapon. If you can, retreat into another room or out of the house altogether. Call the police, call security. Only when your back is literally against the wall. You have no way out and the attacker is clearly armed and clearly intends to do you harm, then shoot. Not a bloody warning shot (what a load of rubbish), but a proper shot, centre mass or Mozambique drill. Double tap chest, single to the head.

If you are out and about and witness someone being attacked by a man with a gun, what should you do? Draw your own and fire of course…NO! As happened recently the man with the gun was a plain clothes ATF agent who had just apprehended an armed robber. You are not a policeman! (unless you are of course). It is not your job to decide which is a lawful or an unlawful attack. In the scenario above the man was killed by an undercover policeman who had a negligent discharge while trying to apprehend the ATF agent! http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/nyregion/off-duty-atf-officer-is-killed-intervening-after-robbery.html?_r=1

The main point here is that if you are not 700% sure that this is an unlawful attack – you know the drill – back away, phone the police, be a good witness.

Get Good Quality Training

If you have a firearm, get good training, read some Jeff Cooper books http://www.jeffcooperbooks.com/and always use it as the absolute last resort. Try to think about how to get away first. Once that trigger is pulled you can’t recall that bullet. You are responsible for everything that it does until it comes to rest.

Be sure of your target (I hope these scenarios help you think about that) and what is beyond it.

There are many reasons why projects fall behind or fail altogether. I’ve talked about them before. Management and Employee buy-in. (Organisational Change Management) – bad Data Migration Practices and so on. If it is a technical project it can fall foul of “we don’t know how big it is, we don’t know how complex it is, but we know when it must be finished” syndrome. If you have a project that falls into this category you’re already at a severe disadvantage. You will uncover the real scope of the project as you go along so you have to start compromising early on.
Statements like “this will not fit into our timescale” should be par for the day. Reduce the scope to fit and make it clear upfront that this is the way it will be managed. If this is not acceptable and extra resources (not always a practical solution) can not be added, it’s time to walk away from this project.

I’ve mentioned the triple constraint before so I won’t labour the point here.

One way you can reduce the scope in a subtle way is to reduce the complexity. Complexity is a poison that eats into projects, increases TCO and can make a project a nightmare to coordinate, integrate and deliver. An Architects job should be to reduce complexity. period. If he or she can do that then half the battle is won.

A good developer is not, as some would have you believe, one who can deliver functionally rich, complex and “clever” solutions. Clever solutions are simple, elegant solutions that are easy to use and even easier to understand. There was a saying in the 60′s and 70′s that went along these lines:

If you can explain your system to your Grandmother – it’s a good system.
If your Grandmother understands it – it’s a much better system.
If your Grandmother designed it – it’s the best system.

In other words – it’s simple, elegant and to the point. Some complexity these days is unavoidable (security, for example). Most is completely avoidable.
A good developer and a good architect avoid complexity like the plague. They will argue long and hard to simplify processes.

If you are a client, let them simplify things as much as possible. Ask the question – “is this really needed?” – often.

Some complexity is acceptable – some people go as far as to call it “good complexity”. Personally I wouldn’t. Adding functionality that differentiates and puts your company ahead of others is acceptable complexity, but it must itself follow the rules of simplicity to become an elegant function.

The Global Simplicity index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Simplicity_Index puts an estimate of $1 Billion dollars a year lost by the worlds largest companies, purely due to complexity.

That’s a lot to pay for someone to think you’re clever.

Leonardo da Vinci once said “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

With the imminent release of Windows 8, the focus is on touch computing and how it will change the world. Apple have been forerunners with multi-gesture and now it’s seems the world of the PC will soon be catching up. The mouse may be consigned to the museum.
All of this is great – but one commentator wrote off speech recognition as an archaic attempt at computer interfacing. Well – I’m here to tell you he could not have been more wrong. Speech is being developed and continues to make huge strides. It wont be long before certain aspects of computing are given back to us as a speech response and a graphical display, depending on the need.

We already have some of this on phones (iPhone and BB) where we can give verbal commands. and this comes in very useful some times. The point I’m making here is that there plenty of room for a speech interface – they have become better and they will become even better.

On Wednesday IBM showcased the IBM Watson in Louisville, Kentucky. It can play games and solve real-world problems in areas such as Healthcare, Business Intelligence, Life Sciences and a host of other areas.

Photo Credit: IBM

Have a look at the link through to IBM – This is impressive stuff and the takeaway is that it’s pretty premature to write off speech recognition. In fact quite the opposite in my opinion.

As we have seen http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-14523741 there has been yet another attack with these heinous weapons.

 The fact that anyone can just walk into a shop and buy something that is designed to cut and slice is unbelievable. Knife-nuts keep spinning the tired old line about these dangerous weapons being tools and only for use as cooking utensils and other nonsense.

To me the solution is obvious – if you need one of these dangerous and deadly weapons for use in your kitchen then you should apply for a license, have your fingerprints taken and have a background check. Even then they must be secured in a safe somewhere so that people who are not authorised cannot access them.

This will bring down the knife crime rate without a doubt – and of course it will prevent the terrible scenes that have played out in Jersey recently.

I’ve also heard of people shooting high speed and lethal arrows at targets for SPORT! These weapons are designed to kill. This needs to be the next step – banning or licensing bows and arrows!

Hang on…hang on… does sound a little off the wall to you?

Now you understand how the drivel spewed by A C Grayling (I’m ashamed to say he went to the same school as I) and others sounds to us. I’m not trying to make light of the terrible events in Jersey. We need, however, to look at the fools – and make no mistake Grayling is an over-educated, self publicising fool – who jump on the tragedy band wagon (Norway) and try to blame the weapons themselves in order to push their own agenda.

I can’t believe that we’re already into November (still depressingly far away from payday though) and the end of the year is around the corner!

Well that means it’s time again to look forward to the new year.

• Tablet Wars - It started (or should we say rebooted) with the iPad in April. I always marvel at the time to market of the likes of Samsung who already have the Android based Galaxy Tab on sale. It’s a little rough around the edges – some software doesn’t work well for example. The same cannot be said for RIM and their new Playbook due out in Q1 2011 (See picture). This boasts a POSIX based OS which will enable true multi-tasking , a 5mp camera and an automatic Blackberry phone sync and a new App Store to mention a few features.
  

  The new Blackberry Playbook

Don’t expect Apple to rest on their laurels though – I think we will see an added camera to the 2nd generation iPad. There could be even bigger things in the pipeline from them.

Microsoft Tablet Prototype (c) Gizmodo

Then we have Google weighing in with a possible Google tablet, Steve Ballmer announcing that Microsoft is back in the tablet game (see other picture), we have the Dell Streak, HP Slate and a bunch of others coming in. So expect this then: 2011 is going to be the year of the Tablet Wars.

I think, based on the public memo by Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie, that we can see some serious focus on tablets coming from Redmond. Stylus and Multi-touch on the same device?

All in all it’s going to be a fun year for tablets and the consumer will benefit.

I think the Kimble will die a natural death though – sorry Amazon!

• Cloud Computing – I don’t expect this to become full mainstream yet, but I do expect some fairly serious development to be done in 2011. I think that 2012 will be the year of the Cloud as providers really start to gear up and IT departments start to spend again. As we see the uptake in Mobile taking off, and believe me it will, the whole cloud discussion becomes more pertinent. I expect to see a lot more being done on private clouds, but we should see some interesting public clouds popping up as well – think news streams, weather streams, finance etc. Of course the advertisers will make sure we see their message somehow.

• Some sneak previews from SAP? Well expect to see big things with in-memory databases. HANA (for Advanced Analytics) and some cool stuff coming out of our alliance with Sybase.

Anyone who has studied Software Engineering knows that because of inherent complexity in even the simplest software, there are always going to be bugs. What we need to do as developers is make sure that 90% of them are dealt with. The other 10% will always be there but in the normal course of events, they will not interfere with the user. In fact the user will probably never encounter them.

This brings me on to Project Management. In classical PM we learn of the “Triple Constraint” (See diagram) of Cost, Time and Scope. Somehow Quality, which seems to be an inconvenient afterthought, floats into the middle of this triangle and seems to look after itself.

The Triple Constraint

The Theory is that as you increase scope, cost and time will also increase. This is in fact correct and I’m still stunned by the number of PMs who seem to be unaware of this or who choose to ignore it. So what happens? Well I’ll tell you what happens on most projects. The development team is expected to work “harder” and start pulling long hours and start working weekends. Brilliant. There are even a few super keen developers who insist that they are OK with this.

These guys are great, I love having them on my team, but their enthusiasm is misplaced.

What? Why?

Simply this – and this is where classical PM and I cease to agree – no human can maintain an adequate level of concentration when he or she is working longer hours. It’s a simple fact – repeatedly shown by researchers – that developers (and anyone in a high concentration business) can only maintain that level of concentration for 3-4 hours. After that they must have a break. If you are very lucky you can do two of these in one day. Some days I can, most days I cannot. That’s usually OK. You then do emails, documentation, admin and other work related tasks.

This “concentration span” will become less as you get older. By my age most people have moved out of development altogether and have taken on more responsible but less mentally hyper-focused work. I even know of one friend who artificially enhances this “concentration span” with Ritalin. (Not recommended people!)

So where does this lead us? Developers, because of this relatively fixed concentration span, will produced good work, but only a certain amount of it per day. Now we play what-if. What if we push these developers to work extended hours in order to stay within budget yet meet our new extended scope? Well it’s simple and it is a fact. Please feel free to do the research yourself. The Quality of the software will deteriorate. There will be more bugs and – even worse – you could have degraded or poor logic constructs. PMs note – this will lead to higher TCO after the project.

So let’s get back to the Diagram above – what we need here is a fourth constraint to make it more accurate. We need Quality. Whenever we mess with the scope or the time we are messing with quality. Try to fool yourself or your client that despite the increased scope you will still bring the project on-time and in-budget and you will be showing a lack of professional integrity. Whether you like it or not you will be delivering an inferior product. Developers are not production line workers. Good developers are craftsmen and should be treated as such.

Here’s a beautiful little parable to illustrate this. It’s called the “Kings Dinner”. Please read it – it’s worth the time.

Oh Dear! It seems it wasn’t long before the criminals started making up for lost time (literally). They kept a low profile during July because the police were out in force and very visible. We’ve been saying for years that visible policing drops crime and now we have the proof. Crime in the Durban area was down to 10% of it’s previous levels.

Of course this is all in the past now and we have crime back up, with a phenomenal rise in carjackings over the last two weeks.

This is made doubly uncomfortable by the fact that I have to travel out of town again and it is very difficult to get a firearm license now in this country. Not impossible but very difficult.

It’s a good time for me to come clean – I used to be firmly in the Gun Control camp. I’d had enough use of them in the military and as an aviator we had to be familiar with NATO as well as Comm bloc/Chinese weapons. Having been fed the lines from Gun Free South Africa I was swayed by their “statistics” and “research”. But being me I like to try and see the actual research before going out and singing the company song.

The “Real” research began to annoy me. It couldn’t be right. Crime goes down in areas/towns/countries where the normal person has at least one licensed firearm. Studies by Gary Kleck and others show conclusively that despite the claims by gun control groups, guns prevent crime in a very clear way. One study showed that over 90% of crimes were prevented entirely by producing a firearm (without firing) and even when the attackers also had firearms they fled.

Interestingly Gary Kleck started his research to prove that Gun Control cuts down on crime and became a convert in the process. In my search for credible research I also came across some research done by the University of Cape Town here which also shows convincingly that Gun Control has no lessening effect on crime – in fact quite the opposite. So I’m convinced now, that proper responsible possession of a firearm will keep you safe.

Obviously there are some idiots out there who don’t understand when they can use a firearm and what they must do to keep it safe from children etc. (Like Rudi Visagie who thought someone was stealing his car – shot out the window and killed his daughter). Remember you can only use a firearm if your life is in danger – NOT when someone is stealing your car. Unfortunately those of tiny brain will continue to add fuel to the Gun Control Lobby.

I believe strongly in the right to defend myself and my family and if you want that spelled out in a Christian sense read this.

I hope after reading all of this you’ll also understand that there is a way we can chip away at crime. Sadly the government doesn’t see it that way.

As always – these notes are in my personal capacity and not in any official SAP capacity. I’ve always felt that BSPs are a little under appreciated by developers. Let’s have a look at a BSP/Web Dynpro comparison and I hope I’ll show you just how powerful BSPs can be.

Let’s start by telling you how good ABAP Web Dynpros really are. They are fairly easy to learn. You don’t have to worry about GUI layout and standards. They can encapsulate Adobe Forms and with a bit of work you can even use Flash Islands. Very cool.

So hang-on if they’re so great why am I telling you about BSPs? Business Server Pages can use HTMLB or Business HTML which is very nice but they can also use good old HTML, Javascript (Yes – mixed with ABAP script!) – Ajax, and any number of open Web standards. So here’s  point number 1 where BSPs knock Web Dynpros for a six.

1. A Business Server Page can use standard HTML and other technologies to make the Web page look exactly how you want it. If you have a standard Web Site but you need some SAP Data or functionality – you don’t want to break your look and feel with a Web Dynpro. With BSP you don’t have to. You just embed the necessary ABAP calls within your normal  web page. It’s an unfortunate fact that SAP have taken a lot of stick for busy and complex UIs over the years. I’m afraid the plain old ABAP (or Java) WD does nothing to dispel this. On the other hand a well-designed UI written in HTML and using AJAX can make a users life a lot easier.

Don’t get the wrong message here – I’m not saying for a minute that we must throw out WDs! They have their place in ABAP development. No arguments there. We just need to understand that BSPs also have their place and should always be in your UI arsenal.

The second point in favour of BSPs is their flexibility. I have designed and developed (in a short space of time) a customer sales order enquiry system running on a Blackberry. Since it’s HTML you can scale it to any device that you like. Including mobile! You don’t need fancy links between your front end and your SAP system. So point number 2 for BSPs is this:

2. You can write native mobile web apps which are fully connected to the SAP back-end. They can be as simple and uncluttered as you like with the full functionality of SAP at your mobile fingertips. This can be developed now. You don’t need to wait for Sybase or Mobile Web Dynpros (only Java at the moment). You can develop wonderful mobile apps for your Road Warriors without buying or installing any additional software.

So don’t write Business Server Pages off as “older” tech that has been replaced by ABAP Web Dynpros. There are some fantastic niche areas that this technology can still fill admirably and I’m convinced I haven’t even scratched the surface is this little article.

In 1982 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman published “In Search of Excellence”. This remains one of the “must read” books on business. If you don’t have it. Borrow it from someone who does or go to http://www.amazon.com/Search-Excellence-Lessons-Americas-Companies/dp/0446385077 and buy the darned thing. It really is that good.

Anyway contained in that book is a truism that I’ve come across quite often – even recently. This is that small teams- and by that I mean 5 people or less – can innovate and go to market in a very short space of time compared to large teams or even research teams in large companies. Typically there are too many levels of decision making and each one – to justify their existence I suppose – try to add their stamp.

This results in products – especially in a high innovation environment  - being constantly “behind the curve”. Large companies such as SAP, IBM and Oracle are always being made to look slow.

What we need to do is encourage the Sun mentality of paying people to go offsite and develop “something cool”.  It worked for James Gosling and Java. Lockheed have been doing this for years with their “Skunk works” program.

It seems a pity to me that these lessons have been out there since the 1960′s and our leaders of today still pay no attention to them. So just to make it easy to follow – here’s a checklist.

1. Make small teams – no more than 5

2. Put them off-site where they can be semi-autonomous with little or no red tape

3. Try to encourage innovation by making the requirements as wide as possible – but have a generous time limit.

4. Cash in the profits and make shareholders very happy.

There – not too difficult is it. Pah! You’d be surprised – especially when the bean counters hear what you plan.