Perspective matters. Particularly when you're not terribly sure which way you are heading.

Around this time last year, I had been in up to my neck dealing with a messy repair job at work. Every day my team and I had to work with issues revolving  The Tickler, The Reacharound, and The Dumptruck. No, this isn’t some unsavory gay porno I’m talking about… these are real project names we have given to various software components of a fairly complex job. Specifically, these are the functional pieces of a physical access control system that we use at work which needed some significant tuning.

By now, if you’re still reading this you are probably involved in some capacity with the access control or security industry. Thanks for sticking around. I will try to make this whole rant of mine worth your time.

In hindsight, I really wish we had just taken the plunge to be rid of this particular system completely and started over from scratch. It really has been nothing more than a headache for us, but at least I’ve learned a quite a few things about access control and physical ID card production. So here I am sharing these valuable nuggets of information to you, at no cost whatsoever… except that if you find them useful, you owe me a beer (or two). I’m not a heavy drinker. I promise.

…access control functionality is a rather mature feature set, and everyone at this point is supposed to be doing it right… but you would be surprised because some vendors still get it horribly wrong.

I had though long and hard about making any comments about this sort of thing publicly. But after having been asked why I had locked myself in a cage for many months last year, it seemed like a good time to vent a little bit and share some of the mistakes we made so that others can’t make them. This is part of the coolness of working at a university. I wouldn’t dare discuss these sort of issues in the open otherwise, if this was corporate America.

So here goes. I broke these tips down in pieces for you:

Card Production

• Wear Your Overcoat. If you use ribbon printers (Fargo, MagiCard, Zebra, Evolis, etc), don’t cheap out and avoid using an overcoat. You will be left with ID cards which will wear the hell out and look like garbage within the space of a few months. Spend the extra dough and use a proper overcoat. In the words of the great Mister T… “I pity the fool who wants to be a cheap bastard”… or something like that.
• Tune Your Oven. When you use a printer that supports overcoats, you must properly tune it. This isn’t just some fire-and-forget solution… you need to find the proper temperature that the overcoat likes to be applied to the card. Too hot, and the card warps. Too cold, and the overcoat doesn’t bond properly. These printers can be like petulant little electric toasters rather than the grand pizza ovens that their vendors advertise them as. They require occasional inspection and maintenance in order to minimize errors during printing.
• Automating RFID Input Fail. Automated RFID/HID tag reading is one of those things that a good number of the smaller access control software vendors advertise – “It’s all automatic!”… and you will have to accept  that this process will most often not work properly at all. This is one feature which is bullshat around the most. Be prepared to enter these values in by hand. Someone’s going to have to do it.
• Strip Permissions Out. Proper delegation. You DO NOT want your card production staff to have the ability to change access control groups or to do ANY of that sort of thing. Why? It’s not about trust. It’s about accountability. Make it easier for everyone and don’t let them have that burden/responsibility. Make sure your production environment makes it impossible for them to do anything other than perhaps correcting typos of a person’s name, or editing data that they would only use, such as barcodes or magstripe data. They and everyone else will thank you in the long run for it.

Access Control Software/Hardware

• Core Access Control Functionality Is Easy-Peasy. For every big vendor like Lenel, AMAG, Software House, or S2, there are are a bunch of smaller companies who eke out a living building accordingly smaller software packages. There is nothing wrong with that. However access control functionality is a rather mature feature set, and everyone at this point is supposed to be doing it right… but you would be surprised because some vendors still get it horribly wrong. In other words what I am saying is that while it may not be as simple a procedure as boiling water- a vendor better not totally fuck shit up when it comes to making doors open when a proper card is presented to them. So if you are stuck with a system which requires you to constantly restart intelligent controllers or door modules… or has trouble updating cardholder state changes across the system… you had best kick them to the curb and find someone else who can do this sort of thing properly.
• Scalability Blah Blahblahblah. Unfortunately the refrain is similar to above. A lot of the smaller vendors simply don’t have this functionality done properly. What works well when you are a single building with less than a hundred card readers, and a fixed population will most likely turn into a vat of boiling vomit when you double or quadruple the cardholder population. There are some things which simply can’t be reproduced in a lab environment. When talking to a vendor, get their references and seriously grill them. Ask these references what sort of problems they encountered with scaling up, and home in on the usual suspect issues… such as server requirements, hardware costs, additional feature costs, and the reliability of each additional component when added to the system as a whole. Do your homework and do not be afraid to dig in.
• System Monitoring… Don’t Underestimate It. Make sure you have some way to monitor your smart controllers. Industry standard stuff like SNMP would be nice, but most of them don’t support it, so you are left with the only option of ping monitoring. This is complicated by a lot of the controllers having Ethernet/TCP/IP support as an afterthought, with their roots from RS-485 or similar serial connections, so the Ethernet module might fail, but the underlying controller will resume functionality.
• Go Heavy On Smart Controller RAM. There is a temptation to cheap out on the memory available for transactions or card data for your smart controllers- in particular the ones you will regard as being low-traffic. Don’t do it. You will be doing yourself a huge disservice. Think about what happens if access to a set of readers changes because of a department move, and suddenly many more people need access to a set of doorways. Understand that many vendors do not have truly drop-and-replace system boards… they will need to be reprogrammed and one of the side effects to that is system downtime. We all know how pissed of people can be if they can’t access their corporate computing resources. Now think of what happens if you deny them access to their bathroom doors.
• Proprietary Schmoprietary. Some of the intelligent controllers available on the market allow you to run any vendor’s software on them. Of course this is used as a selling point. Guess what though… just like any other technology, you can get royally screwed by this. The caveat usually falls in line with… “Oh, you can run our new software on these boards… but you would have to have the latest version of the board to do it”. Sound familiar? Sure! You can upgrade to Windows Version XXX but your motherboard and CPU are too slow, so you need to upgrade to something newer… The moral of this story is that it really doesn’t matter if a vendor’s hardware is proprietary or open- if you plan on switching vendors with an open system you are going to get screwed in some fashion. As for the war between choosing a proprietary or open system… so long as the damn thing works properly, these sort of issues really falls into oblivion.
• Think Like A Boulder. If rocks and dirt could actually talk… what would they say? Other than expressing displeasure at being buried without anything interesting to look at for hundreds of millions of years, only to be exposed to the elements, perhaps without a good view for hundreds of thousands of years… only to be covered over again by a mudslide or whatnot for another few million years… okay, the point is… you need to take a long term perspective on how long the hardware installation is going to last. Instead of just thinking on three year level, you need to really look further down the road and scale things to the lifetime of the building, or at the very least, the full length term of your lease. You will not be a happy camper if you are faced with the prospect of replacing hardware mounted in door jambs or walls on a frequent basis.
• Don’t Overlook The Installer Selection. Shady installers will underbid their initial installation contracts because they know once they have you locked in, they can charge $$$ for any service related work in the future. Chances are… you will have lots of service work. I think it goes without saying that you cannot simply assume that the installer vendor search is going to be straightforward. This is probably the most critical piece of the whole vendor search process.
• Beware of Mom & Pop Shop Disease. This is mainly applicable to the access control software vendor… but if they are too small of a company, or if the product is run by a single super-intelligent guru (who doubles as a single point of failure), then you need to be careful. Veeeery careful. This is your physical security we are talking about, right?

Well, as abruptly as I started ranting, I will end it. I guess I’ll quit when I’m ahead, right? As a disclaimer, the people at my job who I continue to work with on security related capacities are awesome people, and they know I’m not railing at any of them. If anything they’re probably wondering why I haven’t said anything about this sooner.

Anyhow, this is my attempt to distill my however short involvement with access control and security into some meaningful nuggets of knowledge. I hope they don’t appear like floating poop logs… but even lodged within the poop there are kernels of wisdom. Thanks again for reading.

Octomom. Patron saint of the Clown Car. Image by davidvogler@flickr

I’m beginning to wonder if something really unavoidably bad has happened to the core of American society. I used to think that the rise of religious zealotry was one of the biggest issues we face internally as a nation and as a (relatively) educated people, but now I realize that is only the tip of the tidal wave.

Yeehaw. This is where we are headed it seems.

For people like Nadya Suleman to actually make a living (and profit handsomely) out of being basically useless outside of being a vaginal clown car is a clear sign that something is wrong with us all. Her poor kids are innocent at this point, but they’re really going to be caught in the swirling whirlpool of feces as they get older. This is a woman who successfully sued her former employer for USD $160,000- and then spent $100k of it on in vitro fertilization so she could be a famous garden sow. Now she is going as far to try and trademark the term ‘Octomom’ and possibly build a franchise out of it all. Boy, I can’t wait to be able to buy a case of Octomom condoms, or some Octomom official sports drink… in “Sweaty Crotch Fruit” flavor.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Hotel.

Give it up for the guitar army. YEAAAAAH!

The rise of the idiocracy is at hand. It’s sobering how similar it is to the dark comedy “Idiocracy” by Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis & Butthead. There’s a man who knows something about mocking stupidity, and he crafted a distopia so frighteningly real (yet bonesnappingly funny) for what was a relatively low budget.

It’s really unfortunate how 20th Century Fox completely dumped the promotion of the movie, and tried their best to kill it. In any event that gave it the street cred that it needed to become a true cult classic. Watch the film- it will grab you by the neck in the first five minutes and you will be hooked- guaranteed. If in the beginning you were indifferent about people like Octomom, you’ll be pretty disgusted by the end.

Is this what we have to look forward to?

In conclusion however, the only thing that I can say that even I am guilty of helping perpetuate this idea that being ‘famous’ is the end that justifies the means. I’m sitting here writing about how stupid someone else is, and contributing to their legacy- even if that legacy is sheer idiocy. You as the reader are sitting here reading about my rant, and contributing because of an innate curiousity- whether you agree with me or not does not matter.

It doesn’t change the fact that someone like Octomom is famous and quote possibly can continue to hold the public eye’s attention. The type of attention doesn’t matter any more. Captivating, or repulsive- attention like this generates money.

We’re doomed!

Republic of Korea's King Sejong the Great

The battleship is dead!

No navy has built a new one since the close of World War II, well over 60 years ago. The concept of an all-gun surface warship is basically a relic from a time past. Imagine if the term “carriage” was used in a car review for something modern like a Lamborghini Gallardo. It would be out of place, and makes the writer sound less intelligent than they may be.

For example in this recent article by Paul Alexander of the API, he uses the word ‘battleship’:

…Japan has deployed battleships and Patriot missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any rocket debris that the North has said might fall over the area…

Sure you could argue this is just petty semantics but unfortunately makes the writer look ill-informed about the basics of contemporary naval military technology. I’m sure that Paul is not a stupid fellow though- but it is a mistake that he is helping to perpetuate. Unfortunately for him what is normally a goof that only happens in conversation bit him with a published article on the web.

So What’s The Solution Then?

The correct terminology in this case is “surface warship”, but you can get away with “guided missile destroyer” as a blanket term for the blunt end of the stick of naval power. It’s a good approximation for the outdated term “battleship” even if you’re not entirely sure of what specific surface assets are involved.

Boats versus Ships

Furthermore, don’t call guided missile destroyers “boats”. There is a size difference implied. Boats are water craft that can be hauled aboard a ship. On a purely technical level you would call that a skiff- but for all practical purposes- Boats are small – play it safe and imagine something that can fit on a flatbed trailer- that’s a boat. Anything bigger than that? It’s a ship.

The only exception to this are submarines. Those are commonly called boats even if they are stupendously huge.

I can think of much better ways to spend $300

$300USD and up for a pair of Prada branded flip-flops?

Who… I mean who really buys this sort of crap?

Oh. This girl did apparently (article in Chinese).

Bonus points- she spent $80,000HDK (roughly $11500USD) on a shopping spree. Included in the tally was $1900HKD for a pair of Prada flip-flops.

Okay, so I blow a ton of money on camera gear and machine tools… but those things can be used to make other things. Plus both things hold their resell value pretty well in case I change my mind and say to myself “gee, that was stupid”. Flip-flops, belts, and Vertu mobile phones don’t really do too well in that department.

I am sooooo in the wrong line of work. Maybe I should put my machine tools to work making ridiculously expensive, exclusive thingies. Then I should take pictures of underfed models wearing them. Profit!

You’re probably here because of a random search. Well, i’m no expert, but i’ve got some equipment, and i’ve been shooting for only a little while. I’m probably the perfect person to offer an objective point of view! I’m a newbie too. Just like you, but the only difference is that I have some gear, and you don’t (yet).

Well, I want to help you. I want to help you save money, time, and frustration. So without further do, please allow me the opportunity to set you straight on a few things.

1. The equipment DOES NOT really matter!
2. Persistence and patience do matter, however.
3. Being creative and curious helps a lot.
4. Special effects are easy. Time consuming, but still… easy.
5. Connections help more than expensive lenses.

The explanation for each of these points continues after the break.

The Equipment Does Not Really Matter

I shoot Canon gear, and I have invested in it mainly because it’s what I’ve always been comfortable using from starting off with point-and-shoot cameras. That’s it. I’m perfectly comfortable with the prospect of having to use Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, and even Sony (who bought up the assets of what was once Konica-Minolta).

Anyone who tells you one system is flat out superior to another is a fanboy. Don’t listen to them. No how good they seem to be at their craft, they are doomed to be the frog in the well. Definitely do not listen to the boisterous keyboard warriors of the Internet forum wastelands. More often than not, these are the types who never even post photos. Probably because they are too busy arguing the merits of one brand over another.

…The camera at its core is just a f#*%ing box that captures light…

Save yourself a lot of stress, go to a camera store, or a Best Buy, and play around with the interface on the cameras on display. Put your brain on ‘IGNORE’ mode with the salespeople. Feel the camera and look around in the interface for what is intuitive for you. Don’t worry if you don’t know what buttons do which. At this point you are not supposed to know. Just put the camera in your hands and work on these things:

1. Can I figure out how to turn it on or off?
2. Is it comfortable in my hands?
3. Is it too light, or too heavy?
4. Can I reach all of the buttons, switches, and doodads with both hands comfortably?
5. Does it feel right?

Seriously, that sounds simple, like for developmentally retarded individuals. But I have quantified the exact things that will be running through your mind at that point. Pick something you’re comfortable with. You’re the one that is going to have to use it every day.

Don’t worry about megapixels. Don’t worry about the ISO rating of the camera. Don’t worry about technobabble this, or whachamcallit that. Don’t let anyone- whether it be a sales droid, a crazy uncle, or even myself get to you to influence the TECHNICAL aspects of your decision. Camera bodies are all competent regardless of the manufacturer and worrying about the TECHNICAL details is really useless at this point.

The camera at its core is just a fucking BOX that captures light. An empty coffee can with a pinhole and some film can do that. There is even a trend these days to use deliberately crappy cameras and lenses to take artsy, strangely overexposed photos. I am serious! (wikipedia – Lomography). So DON’T WORRY about these technical aspects at all.

Don’t worry about getting additional lenses at this point. Learn and use the kit lens that comes with your camera first. I had a kit lens and I regret selling it, because it was damn good at what it did, and was light and cheap. Put thoughts of loading up on lenses firmly out of your head.

…Don’t worry about megapixels. Don’t worry about the ISO rating of the camera…

The main merits of sticking with Canon or Nikon (since they are the big dogs) or some other recommend brand is that if you’re in a class/group environment, you can share other people’s lenses.

Otherwise if you want to go with some other brand, knock yourself out. Building a good DSLR is not rocket surgery, and pretty much everything out there is competent at taking pictures, so you will be perfectly fine with whatever gear you are comfortable with.

Still not convinced? Check out this rant written by Chad Coombs, a professional photographer. He says it a lot more to-the-point and jarringly eloquently than me most of the time. I am being dead serious. Stop right now in fact, go read that page RIGHT NOW, and you can thank me later. I won’t be upset if you decide not to come back. I’m being serious.

Persistence & Patience Really Do Matter

I read my manuals and documentation all the time. I frustrated the hell out of my wife because I take my cameras into the bathroom, and use that opportunity while downloading a brownload to fully understand the feature sets, limitations, and experiment while my gear has a captive audience. No, I don’t take pictures of my own poop. I might though, if I leave one large enough to clog the whole thing down, but you get my drift – OKAY back on subject…

There is a lot to understand about photography, and while I cannot claim to be an expert at ANYTHING in the field, I can at least have conversations with those that do, and take away a reasonable understanding of things they have to say. There are quite a few technical terms, a little bit of math, TONS of marketing bullshit, but even more good tips and techniques.

My point is that I still may not be a good photographer after all is said and done, but I have learned a lot of random things related to the study of light, and there is always more to reach for. Don’t let the initial overwhelming flood of information intimidate you. Embrace it, and just try to digest comfortable sized bits at a time.

Being Creative & Curious Helps a Lot

I’ll admit I need a lot of work in this regard. Every time I give my camera to a child to use, more often than not I get something back that looks better than if I had taken it. This happens! Accept it!

The trick is to not get discouraged, and instead capitalize on the lesson they are sharing with you. Keep an open mind, be creative, and be curious. Who cares if you’re at a museum, and you are lying on the ground to get a better shot of a statue?

Sure, people are laughing at you now, but these are the same people who would gladly over cashmoney for one of your prints afterwards.

Special Effects are Easy, But Time Consuming

If you’re looking at this photo and you say “Wow! I really want to do this! This is SO FREAKING COOL!”

…let me just tell you first to smack that thought out of your head and come to your senses. Don’t fall for this sort of bullshit. You are better than that.

There is nothing wrong with this type of photography- it’s called high dynamic range imaging, or HDR (sometimes HDRi) for short- but it is a special effect. Time will tell if it fades into obscurity as a mere gimmick, or continues its life in a more muted and upscale fashion.  Photos like this are composed of at least two images taken at different exposure settings which are ‘muxed’ together using Photoshop or other applications.

Remember, that these are special effect shots. Good effects like any must be used in moderation. If you rush out and get yourself a DSLR thinking you want to shoot only images like this, chances are you will be frustrated and disappointed. These sort of shots take a lot of time to craft, and it’s all too easy to fall into the trap to overdo them.

Connections Help More Than Expensive Gear

This is something I don’t need to elaborate much on. If you’re at a venue, and you can get front-row access, you stand to get much better, intimate shots than the guy slathered in gear who is sitting in the nosebleed seats, doesn’t know any of the performers, doesn’t even know where the dressing rooms are, or can’t even get the time of day from the security staff.

I often have to remind myself to work on this aspect. It’s really something that people overlook until the last minute.

Conclusion & Wrap-Up

Below are two of my cameras. I use both of them. If you’re bored, you can see a head-to-head comparison between David and Goliath that I am slowly pulling together here and here. You can decide for yourself if even using a DSLR is what you are looking for.

Well, I really hope that this helps you in making your purchase. Remember that what matters is that you are happy and comfortable taking photos. Good luck!

It pays to take your camera around everywhere. This may not be a ‘great’ photo but I love the emotion it sparks when I see it. Best part? No posing, and total spontaneity. I wish I had a better eye for this sort of thing.

Again, not a technically impressive shot, and completely lacking in an interesting subject… but its always fun to experiment.

Normal, mundane things can be fun too.

They want in on a share of the bailout money? Heck no. Let GM, Chrysler, and Ford go down.

A combination of factors have led the the invariable decline of the American automotive industry.

My opinions as just another freaking observer on this? Keep reading if you’re so inclined…

Heavy Union Contracts Aren’t Cheap

The overhead that the Big Three have to pay per auto manufactured on union wages essentially amounts of an unfair competitive advantage. Imagine being a marathon runner and having to compete with ankle weights strapped on. The Big Three have (like a good number of American businesses in the manufacturing sector) been burdened with this extra weight as to not be price competitive with the rest of the world. It’s recognized that labor unions have a critical role to play in any capitalist economy, but the weight has swung too far in their favor. They have helped bleed the Big Three dry. Good job, guys!

The Product Line is Out of Touch

Even when the writing was on the wall regarding the relatively low cost of gas some time ago, the Big Three put all their eggs in one basket – focusing their efforts into SUV development. For a time, none of the Big Three even had a good economy sized car in development, never mind in production. Aside from the occasional rebadged vehicle such as the GM Aveo, there really was… nothing!

The Product Line Sucks

See above. By not actually expanding their research and focusing on just the SUV market, it was as if American automakers have forgotten how to build a proper 4 passenger sedan. They never could figure out how to clone the Honda Civic or the Toyota Camry. Now after the hangover from the SUV party (and it’s ensuing collapse) sets in, they really have put dug themselves in a hole.

The Credit Crunch and Economy Meltdown Double-Team

If you have too much inventory in hand, but can’t sell them because they require too much fuel to burn, and your potential customers are not able to afford them because the global economy is turning into a tub of burning diapers… well, it can be said that this part is fairly easy to explain and understand.

The Military Industry Really Doesn’t Need Them Anymore

The M1 Abrams main battle tank and M2 Bradley armored fighting vehicles are built by General Dynamics. The M113 APV is built by FMC. FMC stands for ‘Food Machinery Corporation’. Think about that for a moment.

If you have ever seen the design of the M113 (Think of a giant aluminum shoebox with tracks) you would realize it’s not exactly rocket surgery to construct. The complex parts to an Abrams are the fire control systems and the gas turbine engine that power it, which are not built in the same factory anyway.

The FMTV cabover truck family that the Army depends on is manufactured by a company I bet most of you have never heard of- Stewart & Stevenson Inc. The sort of investment required to build a factory churning out these types of vehicles really does not involve THAT much technology, tooling, training, and equipment.