The NeceMoon Album

Technologies and Strategies to Keep Moving Forward

By Necemon Yai

First edition

Published by Evasium ®

April 2018

London, UK

TheAlbum.NeceMoon.com

The contents of this file are protected under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

License

This file is free to distribute and give away to as many people as you would like.

I only ask that you do not sell it or publish the content onto any website.

If you use any quotes from this document, give me credit and link to the original file.

If you write a book and I quote you, I will give you credit and links too.

© Necemon Yai

necemon@gmail.com

www.necemonyai.com

All Rights Reserved.

Version 1.0.7.235

To the ones I lost, to the ones I got back

For each one that gets lost, ten get laid back

Table of Contents

Introduction      5

For All Practical Purposes      8

Chapter 5: Transition - Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy      9

The Effects of Accelerated Evolution and Information Overloading: did you know?      10

Eponymous Laws For Tech Strategists      11

Success, A Reward To Enjoy In The Shadows (by Ahou The African Chick)      13

[Interview] In The Bubble Of Ahou The African Chick: "I like to go beyond my limits, I like to be curious and try new things"      15

The General Assumption of Security      18

World Wide Worries      19

The Golf Ball Effect      20

Just 2 Things      21

Games for Everyone      22

Final Reminder      23

Conclusion      24

Share The Album with Your Mates      25

Introduction

About The NeceMoon Album: what is this all about?

The NeceMoon™ is a Blog about Technology and Strategy. The Album is The Best-Of, a compilation of the most popular articles on The NeceMoon™.

The main objective of The NeceMoon™ is to share tips and insights on a sensible range of topics, in order to let others learn from my mistakes and successes, and hopefully to make things easier for the next person.

The main objective of The Album is to promote an optimal access to that content. The Blog format does not always do justice to techno-strategic content. Originally, Blogs were designed in a journalistic spirit and are more suitable to chronological events and (more or less trivial) discussions around daily news. Even if the usefulness and the importance of an analysis persist in time, it becomes almost impossible to find and difficult to consult, as more articles keep stacking.

That is why the best articles have been cherry-picked, reviewed and arranged in a logical order that better matches the layout of a book. The Album is free of charge.

The NeceMoon™ can be accessed from NeceMoon.com (or necemonyai.com/blog)

The NeceMoon™ Album can be downloaded in various file formats, in full from TheAlbum.NeceMoon.com (or necemonyai.com/Blog/page/The-Album.aspx). The available formats are PDF, EPUB, MOBI/AZW3/KF8 (Amazon Kindle) and MP3. Furthermore, the various chapters and volumes can be downloaded independently/separately, according to your interests.

About the Author: who is Necemon Yai?

I am a Software Development Engineer extensively involved in Microsoft .NET technologies. Full time developer. Part time digital artist, strategist, essayist and entreprenerd. I majored in computer science from NIIT, Christ University and Swansea University (Master of Engineering, Computing).

At the time of publishing this, I have worked for a Europe leading E-Commerce company, a major UK financial group, the General Electric global corporation and a few tech start-ups that you probably never heard of.

Over the past decade or so, I have been running The NeceMoon blog, where I describe my experiences, my observations and my reflexions. I mostly talk about Technology and Strategy. Here I share my most popular articles.

About the Contributors: who is in your War Council?

I invited the best writers in my network to include some contributions in this book, especially some of their most relevant insights in terms of Technology and Strategy. These top authors are, Ahou The African Chick, Antoine Mian, Cyriac Gbogou, Darren Mart, Edith Brou, Holty Sow, Israel Yoroba, Jean Luc Houedanou, Jean-Patrick Ehouman, Karen Kakou, Monty Oum, Nanda Seye, Nnenna Nwakanma, Olivier Madiba, Vanessa Lecosson and Yehni Djidji.

Along with their respective writings, you can find links to their own web pages. In addition, most of these contributors introduce themselves and provide you with some tactics in our exclusive interviews that you will also find in this book.

About You, Dear Reader: who is this book for? What’s in for you?

In The Album, there are 9 chapters organised in 2 volumes. Each chapter deals with a specific topic. You don’t have to read everything. If you are interested (to one extend or another) in one or more of these topics, you would possibly appreciate the related chapter(s):

Volume 1: Moon Light (softcore)

Chapter 1: Strategy and Tactics

Chapter 2: Digital Marketing and Web Visualisation

Chapter 3: Corporate Worlds and Emerging Markets

Chapter 4: Quick Wins, Tricks and Tips

Chapter 5: Transition - Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy

Volume 2: Full Moon (hardcore)

Chapter 6: Software Development and Engineering

Chapter 7: C# .NET Programming

Chapter 8: Epic Prototypes, Classic Projects, Historic Genre

Chapter 9: Research and Case Studies

If you want to, you can download and read only the chapter(s) and volume(s) that you are interested in. Several file formats are available on TheAlbum.NeceMoon.com

(or necemonyai.com/blog/page/The-Album.aspx)

All the Web links in this document are working, feel very welcome to click on them.

For All Practical Purposes

The NeceMoon Album, Chapter 5

This document contains the Chapter 5 of The Album: “Transition - Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy”. If you care, 8 other chapters are also available. Depending on your interests, you may download, (re-)read or share any of the various chapters and volumes independently/separately. The PDF, EPUB, MOBI/AZW3/KF8 (Amazon Kindle) and MP3 formats are available.

To get them, just click on any of the links you like below or go to TheAlbum.NeceMoon.com

(or necemonyai.com/Blog/page/The-Album.aspx)

The NeceMoon Album (complete)

Volume 1: Moon Light (softcore)

Chapter 1: Strategy and Tactics

Chapter 2: Digital Marketing and Web Visualisation

Chapter 3: Corporate Worlds and Emerging Markets

Chapter 4: Quick Wins, Tricks and Tips

Chapter 5: Transition - Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy

Volume 2: Full Moon (hardcore)

Chapter 6: Software Development and Engineering

Chapter 7: C# .NET Programming

Chapter 8: Epic Prototypes, Classic Projects, Historic Genre

Chapter 9: Research and Case Studies

The Album is available in French as well at Album.NeceMoon.com

(or necemonyai.com/Blog/page/L-Album.aspx)

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Transition:

Extra Thoughts

and Sharp Fantasy

Transition: Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy

Featuring Ahou The African Chick

The Effects of Accelerated Evolution and Information Overloading: did you know?

By Necemon, 2009

As I am writing this:

There are 255 million websites and 152 million blogs online, 35 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every single minute, 119 millions tweets are posted every day...

It is estimated that a week's worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a life time in the 18th century.

3000 scientific articles are published every day, that's about one every 10 seconds.

My point? There is much more information that is getting produced than one person can possibly absorb. And it just gets bigger and bigger. We are living in exponential times...

Eponymous Laws For Tech Strategists

By Necemon

Parkinson's Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

In other words, if you have a certain amount of time to complete something, that’s how long it will generally take.

Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (at the worst possible time)

Most ideas look great on paper. But by the time events go from A all the way through the alphabet to Z, you see who rules when it comes to getting something from the theoretical stage to the practical stage : it's Murphy's Law.

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Hope for the best, be ready for the worst.

Murphy's Law for DevOps

If thing can go wrong, it means it already went wrong but you didn't get a notification from the monitoring tool yet.

Moore's Law

The power of computers per unit cost doubles every 24 months.

Because of the nature of this law, anything that an extremely clever programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later.

Hofstadter's Law

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

Brook’s Law

Adding manpower to a late tech project makes it later.

The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.

Kranzberg's law

Technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.

It's powerful. And it's complicated.

Pareto's Law

For many events, about 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Success, A Reward To Enjoy In The Shadows

By Ahou The African Chick

Success has several meanings in the dictionary. It may be about a happy outcome, a job, a sporting event. For a public figure, it may be a favor, a public hearing. It is also about pleasing someone, seducing someone or achieving a desired goal. In all these definitions, one thing is certain anyway, one must work hard to achieve a marked success. But today, success is regarded as the result of practices which are unorthodox, shady or even occult. Anyone who gets successful is systematically accused of having made a deal with the devil.

Nowadays, in many people's mind: "Once someone has been dirty, they can never get the right to become clean". Some (mostly public) people have seen their past resurface and be exposed to public scrutiny. We don't have anything better to do than to draw upon people past history and mistakes, hence giving rise to avalanches of accusations that are all equally wacky.

I wonder if we are no longer allowed to succeed on this earth; if we are bound to die poor and unhappy; if we should remain in a state of failure instead of trying to improve ourselves.

As of today, I, Strella, am neither the daughter nor the protégée of anyone. I have been knocking on every door while hoping for help, but those doors usually remain closed. Nevertheless I persevere and I continue to move forward. I struggle as much as I can. Sometimes, I work without being paid. While I am in the face of adversity, no one shows up, there are no rumors about me, there are no nude pictures or videos of me anywhere.

But tomorrow, when I will start taking off, just a little bit, even my mother (may she rest in peace) will come back to life and will suddenly get some "twin" sisters. I will be everyone's protégée. And they will not stop there at all... Some will go as far as suddenly finding photos or videos exposing my anatomy. This is the part where I am told that I am dating all men in the whole world and that I am the mistress of the president himself. And that my success is due to my village's mascot or to a magic cauldron that I laid at some mystical crossroads. Even though I worked hard to get there. Of such fantasy are ignorant people capable.

When you are going through a tough life, nobody hates on you. They do not even pay any attention to you. You are neither the daughter, nor the protégée, nor the friend of anyone. But look at how some people react towards the success of their peers. They would start hating on you for any reason or for no reason. It's like you started a world war.  They will dig into your history, bring up your past mistakes, tarnish your reputation and wage war against you. It's as if people would like to see you remain in poverty, debauchery and idleness.

If a young girl had been sleeping around with the whole neighborhood, and then decides to settle down, that would provoke a big "international outcry", especially if some guy decides to marry her despite her controversial past.

If a person deprives himself of distractions, works hard and ends up succeeding, some will still remind him that he comes from a modest background or whatnot.

There are people who commit to expressing their arts. In the event that they produce some popular hits, their victory is attributed to their presumed pact with the devil. But when their projects fail to take off, no one would assume that the devil intervened. If a producer or a singer works hard, it makes sense that his music becomes fine. It's that simple. It's possible that some people may resort to the occult sciences, but let's not generalize.

Enumerating people's past mistakes leads nowhere. You better make a proper use of time by working, investing or thinking about a business, so that you will achieve success too.

Not all successes come from the devil, God is good and generous. If a person keeps learning, it's quite normal that they become better. So let's stop worrying about others and let's try to move forward in our own projects, because while you spend your time tracking their flaws, other people evolve, get married, have children, they are happy. While they become independent, you still live with and depend on your parents. Let's appreciate the success of others, because success also comes from God.

At the sight of all this hurly-burly around the success of people, I humbly conclude that it's better to stay in the shadows with your success in order to avoid seeing your past come back and being called names. Therefore, before proclaiming your success and advertising your victories, think of all the collateral damages you could be creating for yourself. That may imply having your origins and your past exposed to the entire world. Choose carefully with whom you want to share your success, or else...

[Interview] In The Bubble Of Ahou The African Chick: "I like to go beyond my limits, I like to be curious and try new things"

1. Quick (but effective) introduction of the personage and her achievements?

My name is Bénédicte Kouakou or, if you wish, Ahou l'Africaine (Ahou The African Chick, my blogger name).

Holding a Master's degree in Judicial Law obtained from the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO), Ahou is passionate about digital communication and content writing. She worked as a Social Media Manager at YooMee, Bogolan Distribution (for the "Living Together" project) and RCG West Africa where she also worked as Communication and Event Assistant, on content writing and digital strategy development. Hence she has accrued 4 years of professional and corporate experience.

Unsatisfied with her "brief" internship in a law firm, and her 4 years of business experience, Ahou will combine her two passions, which are the Law and Digital Communication, by creating The Blog of Ahou The African Chickin May 2015... I have been fighting for what I wanted. I have not yet fully realized my ambitions so far, but for me, these have been great experiences.

2. What are your main goals in life?

My main goal is to see every African woman getting interested in their Rights, because very often they don't fight enough to claim those and prefer to settle for very little. My other goal is to see more women at school, and getting  involved in areas such as law, medicine, politics and whatnot; i.e. more women who do not restrict themselves. In my view, women are potentially able to do much more, beyond being a wife and a mother.

My project is to organise Masterclasses in order to educate women and teach them about their rights, and also to survey/address their specific legal needs.

I like to go beyond my limits, I like to be curious and try new things. I like loyalty and to stay true to myself. I like to believe in others because we all have talents. I plan to be a recognized blogger, and to participate in debates where Women Rights are a priority, and to make my blog a reference in women's empowerment.

3. What tools and techniques do you use to accomplish things efficiently?

My tool is my computer (I'm thinking of getting another one, most certainly a Mac) because it allows me to write most of my articles, my phone (I have to change it too lool), my mobile Wifi for connection, Canva (for my occasional visuals), a camera (that I would like to have lool)

Google helps me a lot (Google Drive, Gmail, Google Translate, Youtube, etc.)

Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram) to be closer to my subscribers.

As for my methodology, I have a notebook where I list my pending tasks (along with their related deadlines), which I eliminate as and when they are completed.

4. Any recommendations for your juniors?

My recommendation is to believe in yourself and in what you do. To give oneself the means to realize their dreams.

There is a quote that I like: if life gives you lemons, make fresh lemonade!

My favorite book is the Bible. It is filled with messages of life that lift up the spirits for anyone who needs to refresh themselves. Also, "We are all feminists" of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I also read websites like Femme d'Influence Magazine, elle.fr, Aufeminin.com, and some other female motivation websites. I follow the blogger Fatou Ndiaye who is a beautiful inspiration, The chronicles of Sapitou, etc. I also listen to Zack Mwekassa. I follow many others, but well, I could not name them all.

I read various legal codes: criminal law, civil law and anything related to Law!

5. What is the best way to contact you?

You can reach me on most of my platforms

Website: www.ahoulafricaine.com

Email: ahoulafricaine@gmail.com

Social networks: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn : Ahou L'Africaine

The General Assumption of Security

By Necemon

According to some Hacker News folks, the general assumption of computer security is:

- The attacker is smarter than you

- He has a bigger computer

- He knows your own software better than you

- He is after you, specifically.

Well...

World Wide Worries

By Necemon, 2010

Wherever you move on Internet, you are often forced to leave some information about yourself. To access a service, you may be asked to give your real name, phone number, address and so on. They call that required fields. Either you fill the form or you just leave it. But a lot of optional information is also intentionally released by some users.

The current trend is to share private information and photo in an intimate way, with family and friends via social networks. Even some people seem to enjoy displaying this personal data over the public internet.  Nowadays, you can tell your own story to the world, describing your day-to-day activities as it happens (e.g. via Twitter). Some say that it’s fine. It’s also ok if some people get an access (somehow) to your Facebook wall and check your pictures. It seems that if you didn’t do anything wrong, you don’t have anything to hide so it’s ok if people see it.

I don’t know how much of that is true but I observed that on the other side, some people are very careful about what they display over the internet. They never connect to you if they don’t know you in real life or they simply avoid social networks. If they let you access their profile or resume, don’t even think about seeing their phone number or address. You can never find a picture of them anywhere online and when you get a chance to chat with them, they always use some nickname.

And in the middle of those two philosophies, there is the kind of average guy, who is a bit worrying about his privacy but still publish some photos from times to times; he blogs using his real name, accepts friendships from strangers on Facebook or Hi5, probably hoping to become popular someday, or whatever. I guess you see the kind of person...

So who is right? What is the right attitude toward the public Internet? Should we be worrying that a stranger can see our pictures (if so, why)? What is the actual risk of using a real name when interacting online?

UPDATE: a few months after writing this (and after a bit of research), I am starting to figure this one out. There is certainly a risk, exposure is a sort of sacrifice, as long as you know exactly what you lose and what you get, maybe it's ok.

The Golf Ball Effect

By Necemon

What is the Golf Ball Effect?

First, note that small causes can have huge consequences. Butterfly Effect?

When hitting the ball, a difference of a few angles will result in a big difference in the position where the ball will land.

As in a triangle ABC, if a point X is on [AB] and a point Y is on [AC], the further x and y are from A, the bigger is the distance [XY].

Therefore, a minor shift of 2 degrees could drive the ball yet another 10 meters away from the target (or closer to the said target).

That's just a metaphor for the small changes, small factors and small decisions in life that can make a big difference on the long term.

Just 2 Things

By Necemon

When meeting someone, anyone, especially for the very first time or for the few first times, whether it's online or in person, I think there are just 2 essential things to consider:

- The harmony factor : whether the person is friendly or hostile (and to what extent)

- The skill factor : whether the person in strong or weak, that is, in the areas which are relevant to you (and to what extent)

Those 2 critical factors (or the way they are perceived) would determine the direction of the relationship; depending on the context, other parameters may affect the next steps, but the general idea is the following.

If the person is:

- Friendly and strong in your areas of interest: your next move could be to try and figure out how you could collaborate, what you could do together, etc.

- Friendly and weak in those respects: you could then try to figure out how to help them improve and evolve.

- Hostile and strong: this may trigger your defensive system or make you consider being relatively careful, watching out for opportunities while avoiding any crisis.

- Hostile and weak: in many cases, it may be ok to simply ignore them.

Games for Everyone

By Necemon, 2010

We are living a terrific OS wars with the rise of Linux over the last two decades. The big Google is also launching its Google Chrome OS. Microsoft and Apple are far from throwing in the towel with the Windows 7 and Mac OS X respectively. Well, as a wannabe game programmer, I feel it is getting difficult to choose a side. The will to reach the maximum audience could lead to code mainly for windows gamers. But then, there is still a trouble. Let’s talk about a very exciting field of gaming: Multiplayer online gaming. Suppose you build your game client using any Microsoft .net language, say C#. Are you compelled to code your server application in C# as well? I am asking because a C# server app will normally need to be hosted on a C# enabled web server (IIS is all I can’t think of at the moment).

See, the thing is in the game industry, I know they use a lot of Linux servers. But worldwide most of the gamers are running Windows. So I think either they are using the same language on the server and on the client (like C or Java) or there is a sort of conversion. I wonder how that conversion happens (for now, I would bet on web services).

Well, I don’t know how much C# is used in the game industry but how can it be used in collaboration with another language that would make the server app? Anyways which language would be suitable for a game server? Last doubt on this post: is it feasible to build a large scale game server (like a MMORPG) using C#? (I assume this would mean running it on IIS)

UPDATE: It's funny how, about 2 years after writing this post, I naturally got answers to my doubts. Yes, I think I am getting it now. I should probably write about what I found some time. More on that later (maybe).

Final Reminder

Chapter 5

Before we conclude, I just thought I would remind you that this document contains the Chapter 5 of the Album, and that 8 other chapters are also available. You may download, (re-)read or share any of the various chapters and volumes independently/separately, depending on your interests. The PDF, EPUB, MOBI/AZW3/KF8 (Amazon Kindle) and MP3 formats are available.

To get them, just click on any of the links you like below or go to TheAlbum.NeceMoon.com

(or necemonyai.com/Blog/page/The-Album.aspx)

The NeceMoon Album (complete)

Volume 1: Moon Light (softcore)

Chapter 1: Strategy and Tactics

Chapter 2: Digital Marketing and Web Visualisation

Chapter 3: Corporate Worlds and Emerging Markets

Chapter 4: Quick Wins, Tricks and Tips

Chapter 5: Transition - Extra Thoughts and Sharp Fantasy

Volume 2: Full Moon (hardcore)

Chapter 6: Software Development and Engineering

Chapter 7: C# .NET Programming

Chapter 8: Epic Prototypes, Classic Projects, Historic Genre

Chapter 9: Research and Case Studies

The Album is available in French as well at Album.NeceMoon.com

(or necemonyai.com/Blog/page/L-Album.aspx)

Conclusion

This is Good Bye. However, we can stay in touch. Feel very welcome to add me on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. If you also have any tools and tactics that help you achieve things efficiently, I would like you to tell me about that. My email address is necemon@gmail.com. You are more than welcome to write to me and report any possible mistake in this document, or to suggest any improvement, or to tell me about your favourite parts. However, if you don’t like The Album, don’t bother writing to me.

Anyways, I wish you all the best for your ongoing and next projects. Thank you for reading. And many thanks to Wikipedia, MSDN, IconFinder and FreeDigitalPhotos for the clarifications and the graphic resources. Special thanks to the Evasium Team. Thanks to all those who contributed, thank you Ahou The African Chick, Antoine Mian, Cyriac Gbogou, Darren Mart, Edith Brou, Holty Sow, Israel Yoroba, Jean Luc Houedanou, Jean-Patrick Ehouman, Karen Kakou, Nanda Seye, Nnenna Nwakanma, Olivier Madiba, Vanessa Lecosson and Yehni Djidji.

Thank you Monty Oum, rest in peace.

Share The Album with Your Mates

Just click on any relevant icon below. It only takes a couple of seconds and it’s free for everyone.

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