Musings : The Conundrum of Solving Problems

Thoughts,
“It’s elementary, my dear Watson! Or, is it (anymore)?”, Sherlock Homes

I haven’t read much of Sherlock Holmes. Of course, I’d like to. Though, I have seen the latest movies where Robert Downey Jr. has done a marvelous job. The fan inside me certainly woke up and took notice of certain mannerisms attributed to the Holmes’ character.

Coming straight to the point now, to the headline/phrase, which is why I am writing this. This phrase has proved itself numerous times (i.e., QED-ed) in several different contexts I have found myself observing, mostly during problem-solving analyses. I am sure this has been the case with most of you reading this – How often do people lose hold of elementary stuff! –  At work or in personal life, making decisions on worthless or utmost important objective question-marks or complex/subjective problems they face. Just look around and see what’s happened in only the last 3 months in your own work-life/personal-life setting (Not in/about your own life; Of others you are connected with – it is just a bit easier then.). You’ll perhaps need a counter. I know I would. ( PS: Don’t get into politics, otherwise “To infinity and beyond!”. There’s no need to count.)

How often do you feel that people don’t sit down or stop for a moment to actually think about a problem, its root-causes (fish-bone anyone?), or just the priority/severity (action-priority matrix, anyone?). If you just make a wild guess why they do not have time to think (time-management, anyone?), you might just be surprised. “They just don’t!” will also feature in the top root-causes, for sure, at least in today’s age. That’s the most frightening/eye-opening one.

What is/are, actually, the real problem(s) then?  Is it too much work? Too much stress? Too many distractions? Too many threads? Too much pseudo-social life (Yes, here you can add FB, WA etc.)? Too much of day-to-day randomly going about the wild-goose chases, i.e. everything is important, everyone is important, everything takes (the same) priority, everything is work, every possibility has to be explored etc., everything has to be perfect, everyone’s impression about my work/life (yes, here you can add “my image”) is important?

PS: Of course, “Couldn’t care less!” (the don’t-care bit is set) doesn’t count for anything.

Probably, someone else, up there, is one of the root-causes then!

What do you think? Your comments are welcome.

 

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. To know more about our company, please click on Mindfire Solutions. 

 

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Online Marketplace for Tutors

Online Learning, Python Programming, , , ,

Mike was famous for his out-of-the-box career choices, something that earned him the tag of a rebel among his friends. So, it was not a surprise when, in spite to scoring the highest in subjects like economics and algebra, he choose to drop out, and pursue music as a career. His parents were as much disappointed as they were concerned about his future.

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The Travails

Having set out to carve a career in the field of his choice, Mike quickly realized that making a living out of his passion would not be an easy job. He could bag a few gigs and call-shows to begin with using his contacts, but that was surely not enough to sustain a reasonable lifestyle. To add up to his net income, he started offering music lessons, mainly vocal and classical guitar classes to teenagers. That too did not assure a steady inflow of cash. Firstly, because the number of students turned out to be only a few. And secondly, because teenagers were fickle minded, they would pick up the guitar one day and get bored with it right after a week and drop out. Mike started wondering how far could he carry on like this.

One day, his best friend from school, Paula dropped in for a surprise visit. At that time, Mike was giving guitar lessons to his students, a group of three boys. They were just about to leave when Paula rung the bell.

“Hey, what’s up”? Paula’s enthusiasm was met with a feeble smile on Mike’s face. “Hey. Wow! Come in!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Paula was anxious, seeing that the signs of struggle were everywhere in his rented place, now more conspicuous than ever.

“Nothing, it’s just been a little tough these days. That’s it” Mike tried but couldn’t hide the tone of despair.

“Care to explain?” Paula tried to be of help.

“Actually, I’m getting tired of this now. My students, all three of them, are going to withdraw by this month-end. In every two months, I’m giving lessons to a completely new set of people. They ‘re just coming in and going by, frustrating me at its worst”, Mike never sounded this helpless as far as Paula could remember.

“Listen”, Paula said “I have good news. There’s a cousin of mine, she wants to take vocal classes, and she has heard about you. But, the only catch is that her place is at Hancock, nearly two hour’s journey from here. Would you be able to take this up?”

“I’m afraid I can’t. That will be too much of traveling. I can refer my friends who live near Hancock, they can help her out”.

“Wow, you have musician friends there as well?” Paula didn’t expect that.

“Ah, my network is quite large you see. I have my folks everywhere, just like me”, Mike sighed, “struggling and trying to make both ends meet. And for us artists, tuition is one of the few sources of regular income that we have”.

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The Idea

“Wait a second! Why not take this entire thing up to another level?”, Paula quipped. She was always the ingenious one in their group. “What do you mean?” remarked Mike.

“Simple. You have your fellow mates, a network of artists in South California who provide tuitions and do it seriously. I know a lot of people who offer subject-specific classes. Even I would love to give French lessons to young learners. So, what we all need, is students who are serious about learning what they desire to. On the other hand, there are folks like my cousin, and I believe a lot of others too, who need dedicated teachers”

“Yeah, so what’ll we do? Organise a meet-and-greet?” Mike quipped.

“Yes, but in a way that makes it fruitful for all”, Paula didn’t care for the tinge of sarcasm in his voice, “Not face-to-face, but in cyberspace”

“Woah, that escalated quickly! Now, who will take up the tech bits? That’s not my cup of tea, and you’re no better”

“Listen, I’m serious. I’ll set up an appointment with a tech solution provider that my brother recently worked with for a venture of his own. They can help us out to get things off the ground”

“Hey, are you serious?”

“Very much I am! Wait for my call, once they confirm, I’ll tell you when and where to drop by”

Paula left that day, keeping her promise. After a week, they were at the office of that tech company. They discussed the proposition with the representative, who created the blueprint of an online portal where students could reach out to the best teachers/mentors in areas of academics, language and of course, music. Both the parties could set their priorities straight, with respect to the location, the level of expertise, and the price point. They could also come to mutual terms, regarding the time and place of the classes, in the portal itself.

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Interested to get a more detailed account of the solution, Download the Case Study;
No Email Ids/Contact Numbers needed.

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The Solution

“Also, if you ask me, there’s another excellent addition that has a lot of potential,” Emily from the Tech company was keen to help. You could also offer online tutoring, for cases where taking physical classes is not possible. That way, you’re spreading the geographical boundaries of your business ”

In that case, Mike said “We’ll also have to think of something through which we can transfer large audio/video files because the instructor has to send samples, notations etc. The student should also be able to bounce off similar stuff with the teacher.”

“Not an issue, we’ll be in talks with our development team to streamline the portal with fast file uploading system”, Emily assured him, “This will be one of its kind. What have you thought of naming the portal?”

“Yikes! We haven’t thought of any”, Paula admitted.

“Let’s call it an online marketplace for tutors, as for the type. You can name it anything you want, after all, it’s your idea”, Emily smiled.

The idea was executed with flying colors, and today, Mike has stopped spending sleepless nights overpaying his next month’s bills. The portal, has enabled him to have a steady source of income courtesy his pool of geographically dispersed and enthusiastic students who share his passion towards music. Besides, it has also helped him garner a reputation for himself in his field of work.

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Talk to Mindfire Solutions, and we’ll help you push your idea to the real world!

 

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Best PHP Development Tools for Developers in 2018

Application Development ToolsMindfire Solutions

10 Best PHP Development Tools for Developers in 2018Unlike other programming languages, PHP was designed with features to simplify web application development. In addition to being a mature web programming language, PHP has been evolving consistently. The new language features provided by PHP 7 enables programmers to improve performance of web applications without increasing memory consumption. The developers can further accelerate custom website and web application development by leveraging a number of full-stack and lightweight PHP web frameworks like Laravel, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Zend, Yii and Slim. Likewise, they can take advantage of a number of robust PHP development tools to write web applications rapidly according to varied business requirements. They can even use these PHP development tools to extend various web frameworks. Continue reading Best PHP Development Tools for Developers in 2018 →

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10 Best Ruby Web Frameworks in 2018

Ruby on RailsMindfire Solutions

10 Best Ruby Web Frameworks in 2018In addition to being a general purpose programming language, Ruby supports object-oriented, functional, and imperative programming paradigms. The programming language further focuses on simplicity and productivity. Its expressive syntax rules enable programmers to build web applications by writing natural-to-read code. Many developers even opt for Ruby to create prototypes without putting extra time and effort.
. Continue reading 10 Best Ruby Web Frameworks in 2018 →

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Mobile Wallets: Safety vs Convenience

eCommerce, Mindfire Solutions

Mobile Wallets: Safety vs ConvenienceAccording to recent study from Juniper Research, “Nearly 2.1 billion consumers worldwide will use a mobile wallet to make a payment or send money in 2019, up by nearly 30% on the 1.6 billion recorded at the end of 2017.” Within a short span of time, mobile wallets have emerged as a popular alternative to debit and credit cards. Also, the mobile wallets have emerged as the most preferred eCommerce payment tool in many countries. Consumers nowadays use mobile wallets on a regular basis for both online and offline transactions. Continue reading Mobile Wallets: Safety vs Convenience →

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Java vs PHP for Enterprise Application Development

Custom Application Development, Enterprise Application Development, Java Developers, Programming Languages Comparison

Java vs PHP for Enterprise Application DevelopmentLike consumer applications, enterprise applications also need to deliver optimal user experience. But enterprise applications are developed with the aim to make employees productive and processes efficient. Hence, enterprises want to develop the custom software applications in the best programming language. The programmers have option to write enterprise software applications in a number of programming languages including Java and PHP.  Java is a general purpose programming language, whereas PHP is used widely as a server-side scripting language. Java is a compiled programming language, whereas PHP is an interpreted programming language. Continue reading Java vs PHP for Enterprise Application Development →

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Printing Management Software

Print Management Software

Thoughts, , ,

Veteran Bruce Engles had recently taken a huge loan to fulfill his long-cherished dream of expanding his business. An innovative and versatile businessman himself, he had overcome all sorts of odds in life with utmost ease. But, this time around, surprisingly Bruce found himself acting nervous. His struggle seemed to stem from an array of hurdles that needed to be overcome to successfully proceed with the expansion plans. Plus, he had never taken a loan of this size. Continue reading Print Management Software →

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IT Outsourcing Trends for 2018

Thoughts, ,

IT Outsourcing Trends for 2018There was a time when enterprises were outsourcing IT services to reduce operational expenses. But a large percentage of enterprises nowadays focus on the value of IT services and credibility of the IT service provider. Several studies suggest that IT services industry will grow steadily throughout 2018. But the enterprises will opt for IT outsourcing services to leverage next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), mixed realities, and big data analytics. The landscape for outsourced product development is ever changing. The enterprises will also look for outsourcing partners with the capability to automate business processes and operations more innovative way. Here are some IT outsourcing trends which will impact and shape the industry in the years to come. Continue reading IT Outsourcing Trends for 2018 →

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Selenium vs Appium : Which Tool is Best Suited for Software Testing?

Automation Testing Tools, Selenium, , Mindfire Solutions

Selenium vs Appium

Quality Assurance (QA) testing is a crucial part of any software development process. It ensures that the software application seamlessly performs the expected tasks, and meets the requirements set forth by the stakeholders.

Testing software manually is a tedious and time-consuming process. The process leaves a lot of room for human error, which can harm the software’s performance. That’s why about 73% of organizations are looking to adopt automated testing.

Automation tools like Appium and Selenium offer a more efficient approach to software testing by providing automated test scripts that can be reused for future projects. In this article, we will explore the pros and cons of both tools and discuss the best use case conditions for both Selenium vs Appium.

Comparing Two Widely Used Test Automation Tools: Selenium vs Appium

Appium

Appium is an open-source test automation tool used for mobile application testing. The tool is a mobile-based testing framework that encompasses the philosophy of “write once, run anywhere.” This means that the same tests written for one platform will also run on another. Appium supports test automation for both Android and iOS applications, allowing testers to use their preferred programming language to write tests.

The Appium architecture is built on a client-server model, with the server code written in node.js. Appium Clients are written for each platform (Android, iOS), and send out HTTP requests to the Appium server through the JSON Wire protocol. The server then responds with code that can be understood by the application under test. This allows for cross-platform testing.

The Appium server is responsible for interpreting the instructions from the client libraries and translating them into commands that can be understood by the device under test. It also acts as a proxy between the client and the device, ensuring that all of the necessary commands are sent properly to the device.

Appium also has an Inspector feature, allowing testers to take a deep dive into their applications and view elements inside of their apps. This provides testers with crucial information when debugging issues related to UI tests, such as element locators or XPath selectors which allow testers to interact with elements in an application more accurately.

Benefits of Appium

  • It is a versatile and powerful tool that tests all types of applications, web, native, and hybrid across multiple platforms.
  • Appium allows testers to reuse code snippets between projects, reducing development time and costs associated with writing complex tests from scratch.
  • Doesn’t require the recompilation of applications.
  • Appium does not require any coding knowledge for its operation.

Weaknesses of Appium

  • The scripts written in Appium have to be maintained, as they can break.
  • The debugging process can be time-consuming when tests fail due to a network latency issue or any other issue related to the test environment.
  • Doesn’t support parallel testing.

Selenium

Selenium is another open-source automated testing framework. It is primarily used as an automation tool for web applications. The tool supports popular browsers and every operating a system like Windows, Linux or MACOS, etc.

Contrary to Appium, Selenium is not a single tool but a tool suite, consisting of four components: Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, Selenium WebDriver, and Selenium Grid. Each piece caters to the different QA testing needs of an organization.

Selenium IDE enables testers to record and playback test scripts while they browse the application. It is best suited for small projects where complex logic isn’t needed. Selenium RC acts as an HTTP proxy and allows developers to automate UI tests for any web application. Lastly, Selenium WebDriver is used for writing more sophisticated tests, with support for various programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, etc.

Benefits of Selenium

  • Selenium makes it possible to run parallel tests on different machines or browsers simultaneously.
  • Allows integration of third-party plug-ins such as SauceLabs.
  • The debugging process is quite straightforward when compared to Appium.
  • The scripting process can be done quickly and easily as it supports a wide range of programming languages.
  • Selenium has a bigger community than Appium that actively contributes to the tool and documentation.

Weaknesses of Selenium

  • Selenium cannot automate mobile applications.
  • The setup and configuration of Selenium is a time-consuming task.
  • Selenium doesn’t provide end-to-end testing solutions and heavily relies on external libraries.

Suitability of Tools

  • Appium

It is best suited for organizations whose software experience extends beyond web-based applications. The tool is designed to test any kind of application. IT firms use this tool to automate tests on mobile devices and to write tests that can run on Android and iOS platforms. Software companies are also utilizing Appium for testing complex gaming applications and IoT devices that have several moving parts and interactions.

  • Selenium 

Organizations whose primary focus is web application automation should prefer Selenium over Appium as the tool suite can be used to automate all types of tests for browser-based software. Furthermore, companies looking to run parallel automated tests on different machines or browsers simultaneously can opt for Selenium. IT firms leverage this tool for testing complex websites like eCommerce and eLearning platforms which can have hundreds of pages and different user flows.

Related Case Study – AUTOMATED TESTING OF AN IOS HEALTHCARE MONITORING APPLICATION By Mindfire Solutions

Conclusion

Appium and Selenium are two of the most popular automated testing frameworks for software. Both tools are open sources and allow organizations to save time and cut-down costs involved in QA testing.

The decision of which tool to use between Selenium vs Appium depends on the specific requirements of the project. Appium is best suited for organizations looking to test mobile applications and IoT devices. On the other hand, companies with a primary focus on web automation should opt for Selenium as it supports all types of tests for browser-based software.

If you are looking to leverage Appium or Selenium for testing your software, Mindfire Solutions can assist you in the process. Our highly-skilled QA engineers can define the most effective test cases that ensure the software delivers a seamless experience for its users.

Contact Mindfire Solutions to know more about us.

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Migrating Flash to HTML5

Custom Migration Services, HTML5,

Migrating Flash to HTML5In 2015, YouTube replaced Adobe Flash Player with HTML5 as its default web video player. Facebook also announced its plan to switch from Flash to HTML5 for all its web video interfaces.  With large online video sharing platforms moving migrating from Flash to HTML5, many analysts considered Flash was on a ventilator. In 2017, Adobe announced its plan to stop supporting and updating Flash Player after 2020. Major web browsers will stop supporting Flash Player in phases. Continue reading Migrating Flash to HTML5 →

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