Windows Sysinternals Primer: Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and More

The Sysinternals utilities are vital tools for any computer professional on the Windows platform. Mark Russinovich's popular "Case Of The Unexplained" demonstrates some of their capabilities in advanced troubleshooting scenarios.

This complementary tutorial session focuses primarily on the utilities, deep-diving into as many features as time will allow. Learn tips and tricks that will make you more effective with the Sysinternals utilities.

How to Manage and Deploy video

The case of the Unexplained video

More Videos here

Employers: How to Manage Dyslexia in the Work Place

Dyslexia is a hidden disability that affects 10 per cent of the population. It predominately causes reading and writing difficulties but memory, mathematics, organisation and sequencing skills can also be affected.

If un-addressed, dyslexia can result in underachievement. However, it does not affect intelligence and need not be a barrier to success.

There are many brilliant dyslexic professionals following a wide range of careers. But for those struggling, it is important for an employer to be aware of the ways they can help.

The UK  Equality Act 2010 covers dyslexia so all workplaces need to comply with it if a staff member is dyslexic. This act repeals and replaces the original UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

1 Know the signs
Indications of dyslexia in the workplace will reflect the nature of the work and will vary depending on the individual’s difficulties and their severity.

Key indicators might include performance that is not reflective of potential, written documentation that is unexpectedly poor or seems careless, confused memos or messages, deadlines regularly not being met or taking longer to learn new skills.

Have you noticed whether the individual appears forgetful, seems disorganised, has low self-esteem or suffers unduly from stress or anxiety? These are behaviours that may be attributed to dyslexia.

2 Seek confirmation
Many adults do not know that the difficulties they have are the result of dyslexia. If confirmation is required, referral to an occupational psychologist or an expert trained in screening and assessment for dyslexia should be considered.

3 Provide support
Effective support can often be simple and inexpensive. This may include;

• holding regular one-to-one sessions to reinforce aims and objectives;
  
  
• help with prioritising and organising workloads by using calendars with deadlines clearly marked, diaries or electronic reminders; 
• allowing regular breaks; 
• setting realistic objectives and negotiating deadlines; and, if required, 
• professional training and coaching.

4 Use technology
Many products can be incorporated into an office environment,

• spellcheckers are commonplace, 
• encourage the use of a dictaphone for note-taking, or 
• change the set-up of the person’s PC to make it more usable (Consider doing this from both an ergonomic and in terms of operational, as in software default layouts – font size and colour, and the use of a preferred background colour to clarify reading). 
• Consider investing in Assistive technology such as EasyReader, and /or
• voice-activated software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and /or 
• planning software such as Inspiration may also be helpful.

5 Look at your practices
Develop dyslexia-friendly practices across the business for recruitment, assessment, training and health and safety.

Consider how accessible your communications are and provide alternative formats such as large print or audio.

Plan training sessions and inductions that accommodate extra time or support to ensure retention of information.

For instance, give the individual training materials in advance or present communications in a more dyslexia-friendly layout. This may include:

• bullet points;
• font size of no less than 11pt;
• sans-serif typefaces such as Arial;
• left-justified margin;
• cream or off-white background;
• increased spacing between lines;
• important points in bold (not italics).

6 Consider individual needs
Do not assume or generalise. Dyslexia is complex and the number, type and severity of difficulties will vary.

This will also be influenced by the individual’s ability to manage their own dyslexia. Discussions about support strategies should consider fully what the person feels they need. Listen to them. Do not impose on them.

7 Seek specialist help
You are not expected to be a dyslexia expert and, given its complexity, it may be wise to discuss specific strategies and adjustments with a specialist.

If dyslexia is suspected and formal identification is required, contact an occupational psychologist or specialist service provider.

Avoid New Age alternative therapy 'solutions' and only consider support and assistance from medically or educationally qualified consultants and institutions.

In the UK, the Citizens Advice Bureaus should be able to point you in the right direction.

8 Increase awareness
Encourage better understanding among all staff by including accurate information about dyslexia in internal communications.

Key Points

• Dyslexia need not be a barrier to success, and is recognised under the UK Equality Act 2010.
• Dyslexia is common – an organisation with 50-100 employees could have up to 10 workers who are dyslexic.
• Adjustments can help to maximise potential.
• Do not generalise – treat each case individually.

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

Since the dawn of recorded history, philosophers have pondered which came first, the chicken or the egg, as a causality dilemma exploring grander existential inquiries into the origin of life and the universe.

But, it turns out, science has an answer that bypasses the metaphysical and dives right into the nitty-gritty of the tangible and concrete.

In yet another illuminating animation, AsapSCIENCE enlist evolutionary biology in answering the age-old question, comparing the process to how dogs became dogs and ultimately demonstrating that, like much of science, the solution may have more to do with semantics and nomenclature than with actual scientific evidence.

Online Child protection : CEOP UK Video

'The Parents' and Carers' Guide to the Internet', from CEOP, is a light hearted and realistic look at what it takes to be a better online parent. The show covers topics such as, talking to your child about the technologies they use and the things they might see, such as pornography.

With interviews from leading experts such as, Professor Tanya Byron, Dr Linda Papadopoulos and Reg Bailey, as well as key industry players from Facebook, Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters , this online guide aims to equip you with the tools to have those tricky conversations with your children and keep your family safe online.

Change: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Humans are very sensitive to change: When we get a raise or commission, we really enjoy it — but we adapt at incredible speeds to our new wealth.

Some studies have shown that in North America additional income beyond $75,000 a year ceases to impact day-to-day happiness.

“Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants,” Ben Franklin — who was born 307 years ago today — is often (mis-)quoted as having proclaimed. 

In asking what you would do if money were no object, Alan Watts echoed Franklin as he advocated for liberating creative purpose from money-work.

Microfinance and Patriarchy: 'Drifts Away from Serving Women'

Microfinance -- an approach to poverty based on providing small loans and other financial services to poor people, primarily women -- has inspired extensive press coverage, a Nobel Peace Prize for founder Muhammad Yunus and reams of research in the decades that followed the launch of Grameen Bank in 1976.

Much of the research on microfinance focuses on factors associated with the efficient delivery of loans and their effect on borrowers -- in other words, on the financial and economic aspects of the microfinance movement.

But by ignoring microfinance's cultural aspects -- including the influence of patriarchal attitudes on lending practices -- the ability to make loans to the women whom microfinance was originally intended to serve can be seriously restricted, says Wharton management professor Tyler Wry.

Using data on more than 1,800 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 168 countries compiled by the Microfinance Information Exchange, Wry and Eric Yanfei Zhao from the University of Alberta School of Business look at policies advocated by the United Nations, World Bank and other development agencies that are intended to build stable infrastructures for microfinance institutions.

"We found that countries that do have more liberalised markets, including increased flow of capital and thus the ability to make more loans, also [can] support a lot more microfinance activity, which is good," Wry says.

"But we also found that these same factors that would make a country attractive to MFIs also made it less likely that they would lend to women."

He and Zhao present preliminary findings in a working paper titled, "Culture, Economics, and Cross-National Variation in the Founding and Social Outreach of Microfinance Organizations."

Read the full article here

Modafinil and Sleep: A Sociological Speculation

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution is a major proponent of the Great Stagnation thesis: that new innovations are not having the same impact on productivity as those we saw in the previous 150 years.

Think of iPads versus electricity and cloud computing versus the railroad.

Hence, we can expect to see slowing growth in GDP per capita as future productivity gains will take much more effort to unlock.

This week The Economist took up this line of thought with a thorough briefing on the subject that broadly agreed with Cowen, although with some equivocation.

Overall, I think the argument has a lot of merit but there may be at least one more piece of low hanging fruit: a vast reduction in our need for sleep.

The American Time Use survey reports that an average American work day includes 8.8 hours of work and 7.6 hours of sleep.

Sleep is the second largest single use of time. However, new drugs such as Modafinil appear to vastly reduce the need for sleep without significant side effects (at least so far).

Based on reports from users, it seems that people could realistically [edit: potentially (see update)] cut their sleep requirements to as few as 2.5 hours a night without a decrease in mental acuity. That gives us another 5 hours to distribute over the day.

Workers would probably prefer to allocate the bulk of that extra time to leisure but I doubt employers will let that happen.

Let's make a generous breakdown and give work an extra 3 hours and let workers spend another 2 as they wish. This increases working hours by around 34% and potentially increases leisure time by 80%.

This increases the number of hours a worker spends at work from around 1800 hours a year now to about 2,400.

The argument against the use of drugs such as Modafinil, is that a rapid introduction of these pills would amount to an increase in the labour supply and cause a fall in hourly wages or unemployment.

However, it's likely that individuals would generally still see an increase in their overall income and their additional leisure time (2 hours extra) would allow this to be translated into an increase in demand in the economy through increased consumption.

 Overall the transition to a sleepless world seems beneficial to humanity. There's nothing special about the 7 hours of sleep we get right now and I think people would rightly be opposed to a change that made everyone spend an extra hour asleep every day.

Caveats:

• I've never used Modafinil. This is because I don't know where to buy it, I have some moral qualms about using it when the rest of the world is not and because it is still a bit early to conclude that there are no long term health effects; 
• Some people I've talked to have raised the issue of environmental damage. I think the total environmental impact of a sleepless world could be positive or negative but surely the damage would be lower per unit of output (because there are a lot of fixed carbon outputs per work day such as commuting and building overheads). At the very least, a sleepless world looks like a more environmentally friendly growth strategy; 
• This argument is premised on the safety of these drugs. Clearly the calculus will change if they are shown to have negative long term consequences; 
• For those people who already work long hours with little sleep, these drugs should at least make that lifestyle less dangerous. There is convincing evidence that chronic lack of sleep is harmful in normal circumstances; 
• The precise amount of sleep that a Modafinil user can get by with seems to vary but all sources I've seen suggest it is dramatically lower; 
• The short term costs of a rapid change might be substantial so gradual adoption is probably preferable from the standpoint of welfare.

Real the full article here