Dan Mcilroy

A sport enthusiastic lead software developer @ Aqueduct. Mainly programming in .NET C#, Sitecore & Umbraco. With a keen interest in Hybrid App development (Ionic Cordova), IoT & Node.js. @__DanielSan__

[danmcilroy]

Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

I was travelling back from Liverpool to London on the train and picked up a book a friend was reading. It was about Elon Musk, I knew very little of him but had heard of SpaceX and Tesla. As soon as I read the first page of the book, Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future by Ashlee Vance, I was fascinated! Space rockets, leading edge electric vehicles, Silicon Valley, who wouldn’t be! 

A definite must read for anybody who is interested in the future and advancements of humanity. The achievements of Elon Musk makes Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin & Jeff Bezos look insignificantly ordinary. That’s certainly not a dig at them as these guys are giants in today’s world. However Elon Musk has delivered the biggest advances the space, automotive and energy industries the world has seen in decades, with an unerring look towards the future of mankind.

Elon Musk: The Man

At the age of 17 he upped sticks and emigrated from South Africa to Canada, where he eventually resided in the US to seek "The American Dream”. He made his money after cashing in on his first company Zip2 ($22 million) and then x.com which merged with PayPal ($165 million), October 2002. This gave him the capital to invest and start up his stated life’s purpose... turning humans into space colonisers! Elon, “I would like to die thinking that humanity has a bright future. If we can solve sustainable energy and be well on our way to becoming a multi-planetary species with a self-sustaining civilisation on another planet - to cope with a worse-case scenario happening and extinguishing human consciousness, then, I think that would be really good”. Musk threw $100 million into SpaceX, $70 million into Telsa Motors and $10 million into SolarCity!

It hasn’t all been plain sailing, to say this guy has gone through the mill and back would be an understatement. He had a troubled up bringing, married divorced three times (twice to the same partner), had 5 children, lost a child, almost died in 2000 from a malaria infection aged 29 and was on the bring of bankruptcy in December 2008 with Tesla. Elon Musk has been pushed to the very brink, stared over the precipice, survived and excelled.

SpaceX

Aside from putting man on Mars, one of Musk’s goals is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10 while improving reliability. “[Musk] is battling the giants of the U.S. military industrial complex, including Lockheed Martin and Boeing. He’s also battling nations---most notably Russia and China. SpaceX has made a name for itself as the low-cost supplier in the industry.” He has revolutionised a 60 year old ageing and stale space industry with reusable rockets and made space fun and exciting again.

“If the company can perfect this technology, it will deal a devastating blow to all of its competitors and almost assuredly push some mainstays of the rocket industry out of business while establishing the U.S. as the world leader for taking cargo and humans into space”. To the point, Musk said, “My family fears that the Russians will assassinate me”.

Telsa

Musk a lead investor in Tesla essentially wanted to change the minds of automobile companies and consumers that electric cars are a viable option and the future of the industry. This in tow would reduce the World’s dependency on petrol and ultimately help global warming. This has manifested itself in the form of the Roadster, Model S, Model X and the cheaper Model 3.

The Future: So what next for Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla?

Back in 2013 Elon Musk and SpaceX open sourced the idea of Hyperloop transportation. Where pressurised capsules ride on an air cushion in reduced-pressure tubes. This now gathering pace in the form of the company Hyperloop One. Hyperloop One announced in February 2015 their plan to develop a route between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and have raised more than $90 million in working capital.

Tesla announced back in March 2016 the Model 3 for $35,000, moving from a low output high price structure to a high output low price. Musk has aimed for a  production rate of 500,000 cars by 2018.

SpaceX is also pursuing automated launch capabilities, aims to build a constellation of 4000 satellites capable of beaming the Internet to the entire globe and ultimately sending humans to colonise Mars. Yes... that’s all!

My own personal suggestion would be a space elevator, which would make space rockets (and SpaceX) more or less obsolete. Maybe in my lifetime?!

Conclusion

Elon Musk hasn’t got to where he has, yes a whopping $12.8 billion net worth, through being nice. He is a very controlling individual due to his long term goals, he’s difficult to work with and his companies have a high turnover of staff due to his extremely high demands.

But he has a clear vision for all his companies for which he doesn’t want to waver or deviate. He tries to make what seems impossible, possible. The extraordinary, ordinary and all on a shoe string budget at the same time. In SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has brought the Silicon Valley start up mentality to ageing and stale industries that have been sitting idly complacent for far too long without innovation and future foresight. Elon Musk has disrupted this thinking and has made the World sit up and take note.

The best quote to finish up on from the book which encapsulates what Musk is about and what he is trying to achieve, is as follows:

“While the ‘putting man on Mars’ talk can strike some people as loopy, it gave Musk a unique rallying cry for his companies. It’s the sweeping goal that forms a unifying principle over everything he does. Employees at all three companies are well aware of this and well aware that they’re trying to achieve the impossible day in day out. When Musk sets unrealistic goals, verbally abuses employees, and works them to the bone, it’s understood to be---on some level---part of the Mars agenda. Some employees love him for this. Others loathe him but remain oddly loyal out of respect for his drive and mission. What Musk has developed that so many of the entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack is a meaningful worldview. He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a CEO chasing riches than a general marshalling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to... well... save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation”.

There you have it! Go read the book, you certainly won’t regret it. You might even learn something about a guy who is trying to help shape the world for the better and for generations to come.

This book gives a great overview of Elon’s childhood, his move from South Africa to Canada then U.S., early start up days with Zip2, then x.com merger with PayPal. A little bit about his personal life, then finally exploring his struggles with both SpaceX and Tesla Motors right from initial startup to present day. A fascinating read for anyone that is interested in Silicon Valley, startups, engineering, space and generally awesome geeky things.

Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

[danmcilroy]

“Tesla Unveils Model 3 from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.” I’m late on the scene but this is awesome! #tesla #electriccar #model3

[danmcilroy]

Agency and Client Collaborative Development

Recently Aqueduct, the company I work for as a Lead Software Developer, embarked on a slightly different approach to working with our clients.  The need arose from the client for Aqueduct's expertise in website project management, design and development. “Ok, what’s different there? Sounds like a normal project.”, I hear you say. However the client also wanted to be close to the day to day running of the project from design to build by including their own staff from project managers, designers to developers. The logical solution was to form a team that comprised of both Aqueduct and the clients staff working symbiotically. The team consisted of 2 designers, 4 developers (2 back-end, 2 front-end), 2 project managers & a scrum master where each department had an equal split of Aqueduct to client staff members. Next I'll explain from a developers point of view the project management, the benefits to this type of approach and points to help make this process successful.

Project Management

Agile: Scrum, Scrum Master, weekly sprints & retrospectives.

Scrum Board: Different coloured PostIt notes for different types of tasks, e.g. back-end, front-end, database, design. This allowed us to quickly see potential bottlenecks and successfully navigation them at each days stand up.

No Estimates: From a developers point of view no estimates was very welcome. It meant that sprint planning was reduced to just choosing the user stories & writing user story tasks, no estimating! Instead all stories were broken down into smaller stories of similar size & complexity. Therefore at the end of the sprint you could gauge productivity based on the number of stories completed at the end of the sprint. Using a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) we plotted the burn up of the project based on number of stories against time. Having progress lines for backlog, in progress, dev QA and staging QA. After each sprint the CFD was updated retrospectively.

User Profile Journeys: this greatly focused the team to build the areas of the website that were most important to different types of end user. For example one user might just want to login and then do a quick search based on closest to me. So rather than building out the whole search filter functionality, we focused on closest to me only. This allowed for a more of a complete website after each sprint, where extra layers of functionality, via new stories, could be added in future sprints.

Slack: All staff used slack for on-line project communications. This helped to ensure everyone was communicating effectively, even when working off site.

The Benefits

Close Team, More Collaboration, Less Disruption: Tight-knit project team consisting of both Aqueduct and the clients Business Owners, PMs, Designers, Developers. Meant decisions could be made quickly and problems/blockers resolved quickly. Therefore reducing unnecessary communications, for example via email, to the client. You could pose the questions immediately to the client and get a instant response, which means less disruptions to a developers flow.

Knowledge Share: Knowledge of the project is learnt from day one by the client. In this case 

Learning New Things: The client’s staff can learn from industry experts in each of their respective fields, i.e. design, front and back end development & project management. New tools, coding standards, techniques.

Positive Team Environment: The client is working alongside you trying to achieve the same goals, deadlines and sprint show and tells. This builds a positive team environment from both the client and the agency.

Resource Flexibility: Aqueduct resources could be extended as required by the project. Allowing for a flexible build approach.

Making it a Successful Collaboration

Same Location: Working in the same office & a sectioned off team makes a positive difference to productivity.

Work Together: All project members being able to work together and pull in the same direction.

Open Minded: project members being open to working with new people, new ideas, new tools, new techniques.

Common Ground: Finding common ground within both teams and agreeing to technologies & approaches.

Thanks, Dan Mcilroy

T: __DanielSan__

[danmcilroy]

Vauxhall Astra Glove Box won’t shut: 99 problems but the glove box ain’t 1

Fixing a Vauxhall Astra VXR Glove Box Latch Spring Mechanism

I bought a second hand 10 reg Vauxhall Astra VXR and after about a year of owning this beaut the glove box would no longer stay shut once opened. Annoying that the best of times, but then add the acceleration of the VXR to the mix and you have projectiles flying at you like exocet missiles.

It turns out that the spring inside the glove box was just worn and needed replacing. Why in this day and age we can’t make springs that last more than 5 years I don’t know, quickly moving on! Below are steps with pictures to help you fix it yourself:

Remove glove box: Open the glove box door and using an allan (hex) key unscrew the 4 corner screws. Then slide out the glove box and completely remove from your car.

Accessing the glove box latch mechanism: The glove box latch mechanism is inside the glove box door panel, so how do I get to it? Well in order to open it you need to get 2 screwdrivers and run around the whole edge prying open the panel. The glove box panel when manufactured appears to have been glued down instead of fitted with some nice handy releasable clips. Go figures!

Replacing the spring: The glove box handle latch mechanism is very simple. Inside there is a spring which pushes out the locking bar, so when you release the handle the glove box door stays closed. Simply buy a spring box set from your local hardware store e.g. ScrewFix and attach the new spring. Be sure to spray some WD40 lubricant on the moving points of contact before closing for good measure. Before closing up be sure that the spring is strong enough to pull the locking bar mechanism out. If not use a stronger spring.

Seal the glove box panel: As the glove box panel was originally glued shut, not push clips, then you will have to glue the panel back. I used super glue for this and found having 2 people with super glue each meant we could get the super glue down in time before it dried out and set. Once glued, place the glove box door panel back on and push firmly and fasten with mini clamps around the edges or equivalent, like a couple of heavy bricks. Leave to dry and then simple screw back in your glove box when ready!

Jobs a good’en!! Hopefully this will help someone else thinking about fixing this same problem and are a little unsure whether to take the plunge. I found it simple enough, do it!

NOTE: I also emailed Vauxhall Spare Parts local dealer for a new/spare glove box but heard absolutely nothing back. So I just got on with it and did it myself.

[danmcilroy]

#TweetVader and the IoT

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I was given a Particle Photon by a work colleague as a thank you for helping out on a recent hack day for TeamGB.com, also Particle Photon related. After a week the Particle Photon was still sitting on my desk and gathering dust. I therefore made a guilt driven decision to put the Photon to good use. But what could I do?!

I began crawling the internet for ideas and I stumbled upon tweetmonkey.io. A simple idea of activating a clapping monkey toy via a twitter hashtag #TweetMonkey. This utilised a Raspberry Pi or Intel Edison with a Node.js application. Perfect! Now for my own spin on the same idea...

I thought about it and decided to keep it topical and celebrate the forth coming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie (due 17th December). This spawned the rise of #TweetVader!

#TweetVader The Brief

The idea was to build a tweet hashtag activated Darth Vader toy, namely #TweetVader.

It consists of a Node.js application that listens for the hashtag #TweetVader. When a tweet matches, the Node.js app fires the Photon's API post method call. The lightsaber will then glow red and the masked figure talks in the unmistakable voice of the Dark Lord himself Darth Vader... "It is your destiny!"

The Technology

The technology that will be used for the build:

Twitter

Node.js

Particle Photon

Electronics Starter Kit

Darth Vader figure

Stay tuned! The build is in progress at the moment and making excellent headway. Be sure to come back and see the final product in action.

On a side note and maybe a complete coincidence, but Particle & hackster.io have also launched a challenge that is also Star Wars related. I have submitted my entry, why don’t you do the same!

https://www.hackster.io/challenges/particle-star-wars

Happy Hacking!

Dan Mcilroy @__DanielSan__