Free For All

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   gmwilliamsposted 23 months ago

   
   This is an open forum.  Simply discuss what is on your mind whether it is political, spiritual, or otherwise.

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      Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      I don’t have much on my mind of any great importance at the moment.  I guess that as spring approaches my attention will be drawn to getting back out into the garden and in my workshop; but the two highlights of this week for me has been:-
      
      •    Our new surround sound system for our TV, and
      •    The Bristol Light Festival.
      
      The annual Bristol Light Festival is taking place all this week, and we are currently making trips into the city centre every few days to see more of it and film it; so I don’t currently have any footage of this year’s festival, but this is a video I made of the Festival in 2020:  https://youtu.be/fQscN3ZBCeY
      
      As regards the new sound system; our old Home Theatre Sound System died last week, so after some extensive research I opted to get the Samsung Q930B sound system; sound bar in front of the TV, Woofer behind the TV and two rear speakers – and with two HDMI sockets and one Optical socket built into the front sound bar it’s enable me to plug our TV, Cable box and Blu-ray player into the sound system – giving far superior sound to what we would get from just the TV speakers.
      
      The reason we opted for a Samsung sound system is that our TV is a 55 inch QLED Samsung TV, so using it in combination with a Samsung sound system gives maximum compatibility:  https://youtu.be/E-YLVI9jgVY

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      tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

      I think of all kinds of silly stuff having too much time on my hands. They range from here to there, back again, and at times so far into the left field I am not in the game anymore, or, so I feel. I said feel, not think.
      
      There is importance to that at least with Myers Briggs Personality Indicator test with its theory and data since 1962 with over 50 million people taking it.
      
      Sharing a bit way back when earlier in life I took the test while attending college. I was rated an INTJ. Having taken it recently for curiosity and it rates me an INFJ. The significance is T = Thinking while the F=Feeling. Thinking is not a reflection of cognitive ability. T or F is how one approaches a problem, yet it does vary by the problem. The bottom line is change has occurred for me. hmmm
      
      As a side note, it was the Quality of Life thread prompting me to retake the test to see if there is a difference since 1974 when I first took it. 
      
      For more on the Myers-Briggs Personality Test see the link following. As an aside, it is used by governments, corporations, and for education too.
      https://www.16personalities.com/ At that site it will give a comprehensive explanation for the result.

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         Credence2posted 23 months agoin reply to this

         I took the test in the 1990s as part of an employment exercise, it was INTP.

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         1. 85

            tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            Cool, Cred!! For giggles consider going to that link and see if it changed. There is no cost for the initial result.

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      2. 92

         Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the link Jim.  I just did the test and my personality type came out as:
         
         Advocate INFJ-A (so it looks as if we are kindred!)
         
         A further breakdown of my results was:-
         
         •    83% Introverted (which I already knew).
         
         •    51% Intuitive.
         
         •    75% Feeling (which I was already aware of).
         
         •    94% Judging (yep, that’s why I use Project Management to run my daily life in retirement, and why I rely so heavily on daily To-Do Lists etc.)
         
         •    54% Assertive.

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            IslandBitesposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            That's interesting. You seem to agree with your results. I agree with mine too, especially the percentage parts. I got Assertive Mediator. (INFP-A)

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               tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

               I'm happy you liked the result, agree with it, and took the test for curiosity's sake. It does prompt one to ponder about it don't you think?

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                  Credence2posted 23 months agoin reply to this

                  Thanks, Tsmog. I took the test, it has a most interesting interface. I came out as an INTP/A.
                  
                  Assertive Logician…

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                  1. 85

                     tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                     hmmm . . . I noted that your main four designations did not change remaining as INTP. That is not to say you should have. I have not looked for my original test indicating me as an T to see the percentage. Maybe I was close to 50% so, becoming an F came down to life experience as the catalyst to that change.

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                     1. 81

                        Credence2posted 23 months agoin reply to this

                        I, too, was curious as the foundation of my personality did not change with time and advancing age, since I first was exposed back in 1994.

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            tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

            I'm glad you took it and figured you might be a curious sort. You made me log in to look closer since we are in the brotherhood of INFJ-A.
            
            58% Introverted. I knew that to an extent, yet I am an extrovert too. I did sales for 1/3 of my career I think demonstrates that.
            
            61% Intuitive. Their descriptor does seem to hit what I figured.
            
            64% Feeling. That was definitely a change from '74. I think I have the test results from then buried in my file cabinet. It will be interesting to peek at it to see the percentages.
            
            56% Judging. That is me based on there descriptor
            
            60% Assertive. That wasn't part of the test from way back when. I think it does describe me today.
            
            If registered, again no cost, it goes a little deeper. It says my role is a Diplomat and my strategy is Confident Individualism.
            
            One of the pages of information you may be interested to know is next.
            
            The first designation is either Introverted or Extroverted and relates to the mind.
            
            The second is between Sensing or Intuition and relates to Energy.
            
            The third is between Thinking or Feeling and relating to nature.
            
            The fourth is between Judging or Perceiving relating to tactics
            
            And, the fifth in our case the A relates to Identity.
            
            Remember those are in regard to personality. In other words, with nature, it is the nature of the personality.
            
            I plan to read the info later one day this week for a deeper dive out of curiosity.
            
            Footnote: It is Tim, not Jim. But, everyone I give my name to on the phone thinks I say Jim, so I'm used to it.

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            1. 92

               Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

               Sorry Tim for getting your name wrong; just a typo error.
               
               Yep, I found the test results extremely accurate.  It’s not the first time I’ve taken such tests; years ago my employer sent me on a course, which included such a test using the “Insights Discovery” tool:  A psychometric tool based on the psychology of Carl Jung.   And like this test, the results were extremely accurate for me.
               
               I note that even with your introverted score at 58% you were able to work in sales; that’s something I could never do, which is not surprising considering my Introverted score is 83% - although when I was much younger I was trade union leader for almost 10 years, which did take me out of comfort zone, but I did take it all in my stride, and I actually enjoyed it.
               
               This video gives some insight into the “Insights Discovery” personality profile tests:  https://youtu.be/OgN4c7VQuzg

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                  tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                  That is a very interesting intro to Insights Discovery. The Myers Briggs is also founded on Jung's work in psychology. I have taken the Myers Briggs several times throughout my lifetime.
                  
                  As said earlier the first time was in a class in college titled 'Quest for Identity' in '74 my sophomore year at a community two-year college. It satisfied one of the requirements - multi-cultural studies, and other choices I wasn't interested in. They still have the class, but it is more online than what I had with class lectures/discussions. The link next goes to a short descriptor for it.
                  https://www.coursicle.com/palomar/courses/COUN/120/
                  
                  Another program I was involved with for about 20 years was the Clifton Strengths Assessment through the Gallup Organization. It is founded on the book titled Know Your Strengths. The main idea is to build your career on those strengths. Originally you got a key with the book to take the test, but today you can pay online to do it. The test takes about an hour.
                  
                  Besides an individual version they haveTeams & Managers, Organizations, and Educators & Students. At the following link, you can l learn about the programs if curious.
                  https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths … gKBbPD_BwE
                  
                  The next link share what the 34 strengths are that fall into four categories; Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Executing.
                  https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths … hemes.aspx
                  
                  As a side note, I gave the book to my nieces and nephews for a high school graduation present plus some bucks. Of course, with their parent's permission.

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                     Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                     Wow, thanks for the links; yeah I can see the similarities between the different organisations using Jung’s work in psychology – Carl Jung was certainly talented in his sphere.
                     
                     Like you, I've done the test more than just once in the past.  The one I had at work wasn’t the only time.  While on the work's course, the tutor gave us a link to a marriage guidance website that also offered the test (on line) for a small fee – the only difference being that the questions in the personality profile I had done at work was more oriented towards the work environment, and the personality profile done on the marriage guidance website oriented more towards ‘relationships’.
                     
                     In fact, because I so impressed with the one I had at work, a couple of weeks later I paid for both me and my wife to do the online test from the marriage guidance website.
                     
                     •    The 1st wheel below is my works one:-
                     •    The 2nd and 3rd Charts are me and my wife’s relationship wheels.
                     
                     You’ll notice that for work I’m classified as a co-ordinator; and for my marriage, a supporter.
                     
                     But what really struck me when both my wife and I each took the test is that we both has almost identical results e.g. both classified as ‘Supporters’ in a relationship, and both with the same position on the wheel e.g. position 31.  It shouldn’t really have been any great surprise because we are both so similar in personality that in many ways we could almost be twins.
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     

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                     1. 85

                        tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                        Interesting Arthur!! I bet to an extent that you two were 'Supporters' it brought comfort. I looked online at discovering Insights Discovery Website and explored. Very informative of its purpose as you shared.
                        https://www.insights.com/us/products/in … discovery/
                        
                        I have a great interest more in curiosity than anything for evaluations such as those discussed. Of the ones I took, I kept them in mind throughout my career and life.
                        
                        At the last business/corporation, I worked we used the Know Your Strengths by the Gallup Organization with corporate managers, store managers, and assistant managers for personal assessment. Plus, the Organization one too.
                        
                        I know today, those types of assessments are used in high schools, colleges, as well as corporations. In that class 'Quest for Identity,' we took another evaluation using Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence. I think I made mention of it way back when to you.
                        
                        Gardner's theory says there are nine different intelligence and we all have one or another stronger than the other. See the link to those with brief explanations.:
                        https://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learn … 0table.htm
                        
                        If curious, the following is an online assessment for it. How thorough it is I don't know, yet more than likely a strong indication of a person's different intelligence.
                        https://www.mentalup.co/blog/multiple-intelligence-test
                        
                        Just now, pondering, I would think knowing the results of those types of tests may contribute to reaching a higher quality of life with planning. Even though one may not be able to do it career-wise, there is free time too as well as retirement life.

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                        1. 92

                           Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                           Yep, definitely, with us both being ‘Supporters’ with almost identical personalities makes our relationship very stable; it’s so easy to work together and come to a common understanding and agreement on almost any matter of importance.
                           
                           I had a good look at your links, and tried the test; although I couldn’t answer the second question properly, because it asks “I’m good at memorising dates and names”; whereas in fact I’m hopeless at memorising names, but very good at memorising dates?
                           
                           Nevertheless my final score in order of strength was:-
                           
                           •    Naturalist Intelligence = 88%
                           •    Spatial Intelligence = 75%
                           •    Intrapersonal Intelligence = 75%
                           •    Mathematical Logical Intelligence = 73%
                           •    Social Intelligence = 30%
                           •    Kinesthetic Intelligence = 28%
                           •    Musical Intelligence = 28%
                           •    Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence = 25%
                           
                           I scored high in the mathematical-Logical Intelligence (Ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns). Which is of interest in that my “capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns” was put to good use just six months prior to my retirement when I successfully identified an obscure pattern in tens of thousands of line of data, that highly qualified and highly paid professional consultants couldn’t identity after months of pouring over the data looking for the flaw.  My findings enabled the specialist consultants to go on and identify the computer glitch that was causing the problem, and when corrected saved the taxpayers over $1.5 million.  For my discovery I was awarded a $180 bonus ( with a letter of gratitude from my Government Department, which doesn’t sound much, but as British civil servants are almost never awarded a bonus, it was an honour.   The honour was worth more than the money in my view.
                           
                           The way I discovered the numerical pattern has always stuck in my mind:  If you can imagine thousands and thousands of pages on a computer spreadsheet where each line is a complete data set consisting of a jumble of words and numbers.
                           
                           When I was given the datasheet, to see if I could spot the flaw in the data that the paid experts couldn’t find; in the first instance I just used the speed reading technique e.g. scrolling the pages up at about 1 second per page – after spending about 30 minutes of scanning through the data I took a 20 minute coffee break outside, to clear my head e.g. a lot of my inspiration comes when chilling out on a coffee break (a chance to gather my thoughts).
                           
                           It was while I was having a relaxing coffee break that images of the numerical pattern that looked wrong just suddenly flashed into my mind – So I made my way back to the office; and sure enough what flashed into my mind was in the spreadsheet, as obvious as day.  So I quickly spent 20 minutes writing down my findings, along with simple step by step instructions on how anyone else could identify the rouge data, and past my findings onto my line manager.
                           
                           I also find that Mathematical Logical Intelligence, the “capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns” extremely useful when doing my genealogy research.
                           
                           Yes, I’m sure that “knowing the results of these types of test can contribute to reaching a higher quality of life with planning.” as much in retirement as when I was working.  Although the most valuable tool I’ve taken into retirement is ‘Project Management’; a subject that I was required to study and take exams in as part of my last job in the civil service.  But with a bit of imagination the basics of Project Management can be applied to most any social and home environment situation e.g. hobbies and personal interests; not just the plans and schedules, but also the corner stone of Project Management e.g. the balance between Cost, Quality and Time.
                           
                           The Project Management course I studied was Prince2.
                           
                           What is PRINCE2? (in 100 seconds) https://youtu.be/61RnrsWQE7A
                           
                           PRINCE2 Made Simple (in 3 minutes) https://youtu.be/Rz4o-kR87ls

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                           1. 85

                              tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                              Thanks for sharing your experience, Arthur! I found your results interesting based on what I know of you not only your contributions with forum posts, yet your passion for gardening and DIY articles submitted to HP. Those hit your intelligence with higher percentages, don't you think? I would have to go back and take the assessment again to share my results. I do remember my highest was mathematical logical intelligence as is yours.
                              
                              We had similar job duties. During the last 14 years of my time in my last position, I had routine responsibilities and special projects. Matter of fact that was the name they gave to my position - Special Projects. I was the only one in that dept. The company was auto repair & tires with 24 stores, 2 warehouses, a corporate office, and 7 stores in Mexico with one warehouse.
                              
                              I did inventory management, performance assessments for stores and personnel; sales, gross profit, and such, and deep dives into profit/loss stuff with not only the company/stores/warehouses but account receivables. That was done by downloading from the mainframe to my PC using Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic. 
                              
                              Similar to you at times the data was reaching into the 10k region for lines of data with columns reaching upward to 30. Yes, although I used formulas or code to go through the data to see what was what actually visually looking at it revealed patterns of oddities with significance at times. So, I can relate to that discovery you made.
                              
                              I worked directly for the owner of the company, though reported to the vice president also managing the corporate office. The owner would give me special projects that he would want to know everything about something not only for the company but a special interest of his. Those were fun projects.

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                              1. 92

                                 Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                                 It’s uncanny that we had job duties in our respective careers.   
                                 
                                 For the first 20 years of my civil service career I was in Admin, and like you (because of my talents) I often had special project tasks, and often worked on my own.  One example that springs to mind is when I worked in the vehicle tax department:-
                                 
                                 Initially I worked on the counter, checking people’s documents and taking their money so that they could have their new tax disc – It was a demanding job in that the queues were relentless and we less than a minute to deal with each customer which meant just glancing at the documentation which included the application form accompanied by the cars log book, and valid car insurance and MOT (MOT being an annual certificate of test proving that the car meet all the safety standards).
                                 
                                 In spite of the pressure, and although we only had sufficient time to just glance at the documentation (less than a second); I had a knack of spotting forgeries (Mostly forged MOT certificates) even the good forgeries that were almost near perfect.
                                 
                                 Then after about 9 months on the job I was transferred to the back room where I took over the responsibilities of the daily accounts e.g. I had just an hour from the time we closed our doors to check all the money and ensure it tallied to the tax discs sold that day, complete the finance sheet and bag up the money before the security van arrived to pick it up to take to the bank.  Again, another high pressured job because there was zero tolerance in errors e.g. the accounts had to balance to the penny before we could bank the money – even just being 2p (£0.02) was accepted.
                                 
                                 As it turned out I was proficient in the job, so much so that after about 6 months I was re-employed as a ‘trouble shooter’ e.g. I would periodically be sent all over the country, to spend a night in a hotel so that the following day I could go into another office where the cashier couldn’t get the accounts to balance, and I would have just one day to go over the accounts with a fine toothcomb and find the error – A job that I enjoyed, and a job that I always achieved to do successfully.
                                 
                                 Moving on:  Although I didn’t have the appreciate technical qualifications I transferred from the Admin to the Technical side in the civil service for the last 20 years of my career, because I had the right aptitude for the job; initially transferring to ICT (Information Communication Technology) – Initially as a floor walker (sorting out technical problems) and for the last 5 years of my career transferring to a small team responsible for our Department’s Intranet (the largest private Intranet in Europe, if not the world).
                                 
                                 To give some background:  I worked for the Department of Transport, and from the 1960s, when the UK Government started to build motorways across England, the technical team within the Government Department at that time took it upon themselves to lay massive optic fibre cables (at great expense) along the edge of the motorways; well over engineered because at that time all the cabling was required for was to connect all the emergency roadside telephones at regular intervals along the motorways, so that anyone who broke down on the motorway or had an accident could use the emergency phone to call for help.
                                 
                                 In total there’s 2,300 miles of motorway in the UK.  The UK Government was oblivious to what our Department was up to e.g. the cost of the optic cabling was hidden in the accounts.
                                 
                                 Then in the 1990s, when the UK Government decided to stop building new motorways and instead switch their invest to railways, our Department used that optic cabling to convert the motorways to ‘smart motorways’ e.g. CCTV cameras, variable speed signs, variable message boards and road sensors etc., laid out every few miles, to gather detailed intelligence on road traffic, and to advice and warn road travellers as appropriate.   My favourite device is the coils of copper wire buried underneath the motorway every 5 kilometres (3 miles) and connected to the optic fibre by the roadside – Simple but effective e.g. the principle of moving iron over copper generating a small electric charge e.g. each time the axle of vehicle passes over the copper wire it generated electricity which can be measured, and the details passed back to one of the 7 Regional Offices serving the motorway.  The strength and number of signals generated can be used to distinguish between cars and Lorries and the shorter the time lapse between the front and rear axles crossing over the copper the faster the vehicle is travelling.
                                 
                                 Of course, it was at this time that the UK Government finally cottoned onto what our Department has been doing all those years; but our Department sold the package to the Government in such a way that it ticked all the Governments boxes, so that the Government became fully supportive of what the Department was doing.
                                 
                                 And this is where I come in.  With all the tens of thousands of pieces of electronic kid along the length and breadth of the motorways, it takes a lot of maintenance to keep it all in good working order, and any failure could cost lives e.g. you don’t want a fog warning message to fail during dense fog, or for a serious accident on the motorway to go unnoticed so that the appropriate Regional Office can use the variable message boards and variable speed signs to warn motorists and slow them down, to avoid a pile up.
                                 
                                 A few years before I took early retirement our Department commissioned a private technical and engineering company to make a bespoke hand held diagnostic device that our engineers could carry with them while on duty maintaining the roadside equipment.
                                 
                                 I took a couple of years to develop the prototype, along with the accompanying software, before field testing, and because of my innate skills in this area I became part of the team that oversaw and participated in the R&D of the device – and a smart piece of kit it was too.
                                 
                                 The device that was produced was a handheld device the size of an oversized voltmeter, with a couple of leads that plugged into it with crocodile clips on the other end that could be fixed to any suitable terminals in any of the weatherproof electrical boxes scattered at regular intervals along the motorway, and a lead to plug into a laptop running the software for the device.
                                 
                                 The beauty of the device is that it would listen to the traffic on the Intranet e.g. on the Internet routers talk to their neighbouring routers every 30 seconds, and to all devices in their neighbourhood (handshaking); so that each and every router knows what’s where at all times, so that it can find the best route for signals that come its way etc.
                                 
                                 When the device is used what you see on the laptop is akin to what an ECG looks like, but the beauty of the system is that after two years of development and testing it knew previously what all the signal from all the equipment hooked up to the motorway Intranet looks like, and can spot any deviation in what it should look like e.g. a sign that a piece of equipment is developing a fault. 
                                 
                                 And on find a potential pending fault, the software would alert the engineer, telling the engineer in plain English which piece of equipment was unhealthy, its location on the motorway, and what the developing fault was.
                                 
                                 The beauty of the device is that it enables our engineers to regularly check the health of all the equipment on the motorway remotely, and with ease, and identify a developing fault so that the equipment can be repaired or replaced before it fails – potentially saving lives.
                                 
                                 My one memorable moment in all this is that, while we were doing testing under laboratory conditions, although I was surrounded by a team of experts (handful of people) all watching the peaks and troughs in the spikes being generated on the oscilloscope, looking for something that didn’t look right e.g. a bug in the device that needed to be ironed out; because of my “capacity to discern logical or numerical patterns” under Mathematical Logical Intelligence, I spotted a small hardly noticeable reoccurring spike that didn’t look right to me; and when I pointed it out the others they (being the Experts) were able to identify it and what was causing it, and subsequently make minor modifications to the device system so that it properly handled the signal. 
                                 
                                 So yes, like you, I found such projects that I worked on were fun projects.

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                                    tsmogposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                                    Wow!! Certainly, working for either a government setting or a large corporate setting there are opportunities to use/utilize one's talents/gifts with growth at hand. I don't know if all have such opportunities. I dun'no . . . I would say you were fortunate.
                                    
                                    I did not mention I also did the daily cash receivables for the stores including auditing credit card receipts. We held the stores to $1/day. It would become interesting when shortages arrived. On more than a few occasions it led to a person being fired and now and then a  prosecution.
                                    
                                    Thanks for the info Nathan!

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                                    1. 92

                                       Nathanvilleposted 23 months agoin reply to this

                                       In a recent discussion I had with Credence on another forum, he too was a civil servant, and he too was fortunate enough to have “opportunities to use/utilize one's talents/gifts with growth at hand”.
                                       
                                       So yes, certainly, working for large corporations and government there are certainly opportunities for job fulfilment.
                                       
                                       Arthur

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2. 69

   abwilliamsposted 23 months ago

   Perfect timing Grace, this is what is on my mind:
   After having a couple of shots directed my way, suddenly "Replies were closed" in a certain forum discussion. Only to have it opened up again, in order to take another swing in my direction (or could call it a cheap shot!?!)
   This was my response, which also gives the gist of the particular conversation:
   
   "Oh so this one has been opened up once again for replies - or only for the replies you deem worthy!? (There's a lot of that going around you know?)
   Go ahead, I'll not interfere with your propaganda campaign, which is in the process of transitioning from the disinformation campaign against Trump to that of DeSantis.
   It makes perfect sense, why wouldn't it be at full throttle?
   Gotta stop all those who actually work for the benefit of the Country and for its people, so that patsies and pushovers can be inserted, how else are you going to destroy a Republic?!?
   Carry on."
   
   Did I go too far? Maybe. But I'll not back down, I'll not apologize. This is our Country we are talking about, this isn't make-believe or one-upping the competing political party...once a Republic is destroyed, it doesn't come back and that should mean something to every citizen, no matter their political leanings.

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