The Function Mixer: Bypassing MyDownZone and similar sites

The Function Mixer: Bypassing MyDownZone and similar sites: "Bypassing MyDownZone and similar sites"

Just before reading the rest of the post, you should that many of the warez apps which use MyDownZone and other similar sites to store the password of file X are just fake apps, scam, etc... They aren't malware, but only a way to some bastards to earn money each time someone fills one of the surveys.

Anyway, if you want still to get the password without completing the survey, follow this steps:
I will use http://mydownzone.com/pwbk.html as example.

1. Enter the website with Google Chrome. If you want to use Firefox, make sure Firebug plugin is installed.
2. Right click in the center of the page and select "Inspect element".
3. Expand the HTML code until you find the JavaScript function showHidden()
Copy the packed part of that function, that is:
    eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,r){e=function(c){return ...
    ...
    ... split('|'),0,{}));

4. Enter the website Try It Editor: http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_basic
and paste the copied code in the following way:
   
   

5. Press "Edit and Click Me »" and copy the website URL which appears at the right side:
In this example, the website is: http://www.satellitetvonyourpcblog.com/app/4/pindex.html
6. Enter that website. You will see "Process is successfully completed!". Then, press "Continue" and you will be redirected to another site (in the sample case: http://www.satellitetvonyourpcblog.com/app/4/ghjdftzrtvnsdxfnjgdcdbdhgj.html).

There you will find the password. :-)

Apkudo's Antidote To Android Anxiety | Dr Dobb's

Apkudo's Antidote To Android Anxiety | Dr Dobb's: "Apkudo's Antidote To Android Anxiety"

New Android application testing platform

Android application development specialist Apkudo has been vocal of late with regard to its online application test platform. The company's developer proposition rests on providing a place for programmers to see their apps run on every available Android device, thereby reducing what Apkudo calls launch anxiety.

"Apkudo lets developers run their apps on every Android device on the market. Period," said Josh Matthews, Apkudo CEO and cofounder. "Improving user experience on devices consumers actually buy and own benefits the whole Android ecosystem, from developers to OEMs to operators to end-users."

Apkudo points out that the openness of Android has fuelled its rapid growth but that it can also promote platform fragmentation, which is the bane of Android developers, device manufacturers, mobile operators, and end-users alike. When Android implementations diverge in look-and-feel, behavior, APIs, and other aspects, developers can find their apps working on some Android phones and tablets but not on others. With hundreds of Android-based devices on the market, app testing is daunting and risk of consumer rejection is high.

"Apkudo finesses fragmentation by testing on every available Android device. Developers upload APKs (Android Packages) for testing and view streamed video output of applications running on the actual Android device collection," said Apkudo's Matthews. Developers also receive test reports detailing execution and performance results across the whole Akpudo portfolio. When new devices are released and integrated into Apkudo, apps are automatically retested and updated results pushed out to subscribing developers.

Apkudo is free to Android application developers. The Apkudo team is working in "lean startup mode" to evolve and mature Apkudo capabilities to match developer needs and eventually the requirements of the larger Android ecosystem — mobile enterprise developers, ISVs, device OEMs, mobile operators, and beyond.

"The Apkudo vision for a better user experience builds on developer feedback and gleaning insight from exercising apps on Android hardware," noted Benno Leslie, Apkudo president and director of Products. "Lean startup methods and data analytics give Apkudo a clear edge over device clouds that just rent device access by the minute."

Implementing TPS: Part One - Introduction of 5S (1) | Lean Manufacturing

Implementing TPS: Part One - Introduction of 5S (1) | Lean Manufacturing: "Toyota  Production System"

Implementing the TPS: Part One

JIT Promotion Project:
Q. When a company decides to introduce the Toyota Production System (TPS) into their company, it's very important that the management take the leading role in the project. What kind of role does the management play and how should they support the implementation of the project?

A. Before introducing various Just-In-Time (JIT) techniques, there must be a big JIT project. The top management must be aware of the risks that we are experiencing right now. For instance, because of the sub-prime loan problem the economy is quite problematic and the revenue is decreasing so top management must realize the need to decrease the outlays or costs in order to increase the profit and this risk management must be shared between people. Even though people often say that Kaizen is important they are forgetting for what purpose the kaizen must be conducted. That is cost reduction and the need for cost reduction must be shared by both the top management and the general employees. So, in order to introduce TPS we have to establish a JIT promotion project.

Q. When the company establishes this kind of project, which employees should be in the project team?

A. The president must be the chief of the project team, the vice-president must be the vice-chief of the project and also, all of the department heads must be members. In particular, the directors in charge of the manufacturing department are very important and also the production engineering department chief and the general management chief. Of these, the production management director must be the center of the project team. Actually, the president and vice-president won't be involved with the actual promotion itself. There must be some practice team for the implementation. The members of the JIT practice team must be the current routine staff that includes the people in the manufacturing department, the production engineering department, the general management department and the foreman for each process and the team leaders of each process.

5S:
Q. What exactly is the beginning practice for JIT?

A. That is the pilot line and when that has finished, its success can be moved to other processes, in order, from the final process to the proceeding process. When carrying out the pilot lines you should start from the final assembly line. However, before handling the assembly line or manufacturing line there must be 5S, which means the abandonment of all kinds of Muda. 5S represents the five Japanese words: Seiri (to clearly separate necessary things from unnecessary ones and abandon the latter), Seiton (to neatly arrange and identify things for ease of use), Seison (to always clean up), Seiketsu (to constantly maintain Seiri, Seiton and Seiso) and Shitsuke (to have workers always confirm to rules).

Q. What kinds of Muda are there?

A. Muda means unnecessary things, such as unnecessary inventory of materials, work in process (WIP) and defective products etc. It also refers to unnecessary jigs, tools and machines. Over time, various kinds of Muda can accumulate in the factory and 5S is the process of removing this Muda. Before introducing 5S most of plants and most of the processes are in a kind of mess.

Q. Obviously deciding what is muda and what is not muda is a big task. What criteria should they use?

A. Usually that criteria is one month's use in the production planning sheet and if those inventory items and/or quantities are not being used in the following month's production planning then they are considered unnecessary. The production schedule for the next month is the output of the MRP system. When they have this information then they can go around the shop floor and judge whether something is necessary or not. This is the Seiri part of 5S.

Q. What should they do with the unnecessary inventory? Should they throw it away or do they need to be careful about what they do with it?

A. At first there is a red label that must be attached to the unnecessary inventory, machines or jigs etc. Those things must be moved to the red label storage area at first and then we should evaluate whether they are truly unnecessary or not. If there are defective units amongst the inventory then this dead stock must be abolished. Even though the same unit is being utilized within the plant if they don't need that much inventory of it then that excess inventory much be moved to the red label storage for a while.

Q. Do the workers really need to understand why they are doing this?

A. At first, people often say its laborious and don't want to do it, just like children at home who don't want to clean their room. However, unnecessary inventory must be reduced. When only the necessary things are left we can then apply the Kanban card system. After the red labels are pasted and the unnecessary things are abandoned, the remaining necessary things must be rearranged. The first step was Seiri and then the next step is Seiton. This is important for 5S. Seiri is just to remove the unnecessary things and then the necessary things that were left must then be rearranged in order to use them easily. The Seiton must be carried out after Seiri has been finished.

Q. How should Seiton be performed?

A. To carry out Seiton we make use of the indicator plate (see figure below), which has such information as the address of the shelf, the vendor name of the parts, item name and item code number. We also mark the MAX inventory and the MIN inventory levels as well. The MAX inventory is equivalent to the lot size, when we apply Kanban card system, and MIN inventory is the re-order point. When the parts are completed then they are stored here and the people working on the subsequent process will bring their Kanban card and take out the completed parts from this storage. Then, the level of the inventory will decrease to the reorder point and the lines here will start production. This indicator plate for Seiton is linked closely to the Kanban card system. This is a part of the 5S movement. For inventory reduction itself, if we reach this level then the necessary inventory does not exist in this storage and we can shorten the lead time because the inventory carrying time was reduced. When we promote the 5S then eventually we can reduce the lead-time because the inventory size is reduced. Seiton is also the prerequisite to shortening the setup time as well. When carrying out Seiton, mark the location where everything should be. For example, equipment that we use in the plant, such as a forklift truck must have the location that it is placed in determined and then marked with white lines. This is also part of the 5S movement.

Figure: The indicator plate and indication of max and min inventory quantities

"Lean Accounting's Fat Problem"

Forbes.com - Magazine Article: "Lean Accounting's Fat Problem"

There is an obscure accounting battle bubbling up around the world that has broad implications for how to run a business. The battle begins when a company starts to implement "lean manufacturing," a practice that pits costs against productivity.

This week's column examines the implications of the way lean philosophy asks companies to rethink their businesses starting with basic principles.

Lean, in the simplified form, involves three fundamental concepts: flow, pull and continuous improvement. The idea of flow is that manufacturing processes should operate as a continuous flow with as few interruptions as possible. In lean parlance, flow processes are called value streams and they run counter to the departmental and functional silos that dominate the org charts of most companies. The generalization of lean has taken this paradigm and applied it to processes outside of manufacturing such as health care, financial services and construction.

The idea of pull is that manufacturing should occur in response to actual demand, not predictions about inventory. A pull system is used to organize functions when the flow process is initiated. Instead of making products based on predictions and forecasts, you make them when an order is received.

The idea of continuous improvement is that there should be a constant and never-ending effort to reduce waste and improve productivity. Individual employees in an organization must be encouraged and made responsible for finding improvements and empowered to implement changes.

So in a lean process, the demand signals pull the materials through the flow processes and the right number of products is created with as little waste as possible. When all the suppliers of materials are also making their processes lean, the result is that the entire supply chain is extremely responsive and efficient. One of the biggest benefits of lean is that it allows companies to dramatically reduce their cycle times, that is, the amount of time from getting the order to delivering the product. This happens when the flow processes are redesigned to eliminate delays. Implementing lean also usually means a company can make significant reductions in inventory.

Here's where the accounting fun begins.

If I have $100 of inventory and I reduce it by $80, everyone should be happy, right? The company now has less money tied up in inventory and that money can be used for other purposes. But unless you understand the big picture, when you start to implement lean practices, it looks like they cost you money. Why? An $80 reduction in inventory is a loss from the financial perspective if you handle it as a write off and profits go down. You did have a higher level of inventory and now you have a lower level. That $80 reduces your shareholder's equity, although it is really a benefit. (Note to accounting experts: This is a simplistic case that represents the problem people are having in the field. We could argue all day about different ways to approach accounting for this inventory.)

Unless the accountants understand the way that lean works, in the worst case it seems to them that lean produces losses, not efficiencies. In a typical case, they cannot see the cost advantages. This is the source of many of the arguments I found out about at the Lean Enterprise Summit, a gathering of companies sponsored by SAP, Seal Consulting, Demand Point and several other lean-focused vendors.

The people attending the summit, those who were fighting to introduce lean into their companies, reported over and over again that finding a way to reconcile accounting the way lean does it and standard cost accounting was proving to be much harder than it should be.

Lean practitioners think of accounting in cash terms. Lean is against creating data and reports for their own sake. That would be considered another form of waste. In general, lean advocates have a jaundiced view of enterprise software and any general-purpose automation tools. The lean approach measures how well your value stream is working.

One presenter at the summit used weight loss as an analogy. When dieting, standard cost accounting would advise you to weigh yourself once a week to see if you're losing weight. Lean accounting would measure your calorie intake and your exercise and then attempt to adjust them until you achieve the desired outcome. While this analogy is oversimplified, it does get to the core difference between lean and standard cost accounting. Lean accounting attempts to find measures that predict success. Standard cost accounting measures results after the fact.

But even when the accounting types and the lean practitioners start to understand each other, problems remain. How can we reconcile the kind of data collection and accounting that lean demands and the standard cost accounting? Duplicated data collection and reporting is indeed a form of waste.

Value stream accounting was suggested by Bruce Baggaley of BMA as a way out. The company's revenues and costs are reported weekly for each of the value streams. The costs reported do not include allocations or standard costs, just the costs that actually occurred within the value stream last week. This produces reports that are easy to understand and are used for cost control; they also monitor the cost reductions or profit increases coming from the company's lean improvements. This report also gives the information needed for making routine business decisions. In some cases it is possible to implement value stream accounting using profitability and cost management systems that allow advanced modeling of costs in a way that still connects everything to the chart of accounts and shared cost allocations used in standard cost accounting.

One presenter explained that when financial cost-focused accounting was adopted in the U.S. about 100 years ago, its promoters warned that it would not be a good tool for operational management. A growing body of experience at companies implementing lean accounting is showing that they were right. Too many vital decisions are based on standard cost accounting, which obscures the true operational picture.

business model canvas

canvas to startup a business
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf

Muda 3 inventory

Muda #3 - Inventory Don’t think for a moment that this post has nothing to do with you! Muda or Waste of Inventory impacts virtually everyone at many levels. I won’t bore you with how your expenses are significantly increased by the stores and manufacturers of products you buy due to their waste of inventories. However, I will help you understand how you are wasting your own money and time through the waste of your inventories. Do you have too much or too little of any products or supplies (inventory) in your house? Too much inventory leads to waste. Most would find this common sense. As an example, last month at the big box store you got excited about a special price on milk, you could buy 4 gallons for only $4. Unfortunately, you have overdosed on milk, you can’t drink another drop and the last gallon goes bad before you can open it. The cost of your $1 gallons of milk just went up to $1.33 ea. for the gallons used! This is waste of inventory, but you can also suffer financially and physically by not having enough inventory. With a memory of your wastefulness last month and current distaste for milk you only purchased 1/2 gallon during your last trip to the grocery store. Then your friends and their children stopped by unexpectedly yesterday and emptied your inventory. Unfortunately, you had promised your kids pancakes this morning and now are faced with the need to make a special trip to the store to keep from breaking your promise. In this case, a lack of inventory caused you greater expense by way of a special trip, extra gas and your time to meet your needs. This is also muda of inventory. With this recognition that we can waste our money, effort and time by waste of inventory (both too much and too little), here is the first technique to help you begin eliminating this form of waste. Consider for a moment what you have in the room you are currently sitting. How many computer programs do you have that you’ve barely used if at all? Do you have any books that have not been read? Are there any supplies that have not been touched? I once read that a University of Arizona study found that the average American tosses 14% of the food that they buy. Think about this for a moment, do you ever dump food in the trash at the end of a meal? Do you find yourself cleaning out old or moldy food when you are putting away the latest batch of groceries? This means that if you could improve your ability to manage your inventory of groceries, conceivably you could reduce your food bills by 14%. How do you reduce your waste of inventory? One strategy is simply learning to recognize it, just thinking about what you have and what you don’t and the monetary impact as a result of having too much or too little? In addition consider: Measure what you manage – you cannot manage what you do not measure. This means you must be able keep track of your inventory. De-clutter your cabinets and organize your stuff so that you can easily tell what you have and what you don’t Make lists – get in the habit of keeping a list of items you need to replenish. If it is not on the list, you don’t need it! Don’t buy bulk – unless you are absolutely sure that you can use all the product and only when the unit costs are less than smaller packages Don’t buy – unless you really need the product. Don’t buy just because you have a good coupon, buy only if you are certain to use the product. Don’t cook or prepare more food than necessary. Lastly apply the first technique we suggested in every room of your house. After taking a thorough inventory of your home and considering all the money you could have saved if you had not purchased the things you don’t need and don’t use. Keep these thoughts burned into your memory so that you will be less likely to make the same mistake again. In my usual fashion I have been a bit verbose. A waste of inventory of words? Please comment if you find this interesting or have other thoughts to add!

Muda transportation

Muda #2 - Transportation

supplies or tools unnecessarily in the course of your day? If so, this would be muda of transportation.

As you read this post you may be thinking on the surface that addressing things like waste of motion or transportation are trivial. Keep reading, below is a real world example that will give you some insight on how valuable

your life and work.

Waste of transportation likely

you had no need to move an item then you would not be moving yourself, one form of waste, transportation, may cause another, motion in this case.

The key difference between waste of motion and waste of transportation is that waste of transportation is focused on moving stuff while waste of motion is focused on movement of people. By clearly defining the difference this allows a person to

photo by woodlywonderworks

differentiate and focus on the various forms of waste for the purpose of elimination.

Using the example from the 1st Muda, think about when you are cooking in your kitchen. Do you ever feel like a pinball bouncing from one side of the kitchen to the other while gathering ingredients. In this case the root cause for your waste of motion is the location of ingredients you must gather. To eliminate this waste you would focus on relocating the ingredients to prevent both waste of motion and the waste of transportation.

Are you a naturally organized person? If so maybe you have already reduced much of your waste of transportation. Are you or your significant other not so organized or do you consistently put things in different location or worse simply don’t put things away? If so, not only do you suffer the frustration associated with having to locate a needed item but you also suffer the experience of wasted of transportation.

Big deal, so I have to carry a few ingredients across the kitchen. It only takes a few seconds you may think!

The value in eliminating muda is that if you succeed at eliminating one wasteful activity today in the kitchen you stand to benefit for the rest of your life each time you are cooking. Find several more opportunities and over time it can add up to substantial benefit.

Last year during an informal presentation of lean management with an executive of a small company he was trying to multi-task, dealing with his mail and papers from his inbox. With each document he would decide to put in back into the In-box, file it or throw it away. Dozens of times, to throw away documents he would push his chair back from his desk, sliding a few feet while turning around to his credenza under which was the trash can. The whole process took less than 5 seconds and all if was waste of transportation and motion.

In that moment of sudden awareness he relocated the trashcan under his desk at his feet.

For years he’s been in the same office with the same routine. How much time was he wasting? Not much. If he tossed only 24 documents per day (his conservative estimate) maybe in the course of his day he wasted a couple minutes total. Big deal, you say?

What if this same executive found 9 other ways to save just 2 minutes a day? 20 minutes total; big deal you say? That works out to over 86 hours of additional time available for something more productive.

This company had 168 employees, what if each could save 20 minutes a day? Now it is a big deal! 86 hours times 168 associates adds up to over 14,000 hours!

What would you do with an additional 86 hours each year? Would you relax more, or earn more?

How do you find this waste of transportation?

The first rule to elimination of transportation is simply learning to recognize it, just thinking about what your doing and where you are going will help in this regard. Consider if each trip is really necessary.

Each time you pick something up to carry it, ask yourself if it is in the best possible location to store the item. Could the item(s) be located closer to where the work is being done?

Once you find an opportunity to reduce your waste of transportation consider finding some way to “standardize” the location. Label your shelves or establish a box, container or divider that clearly identifies the location for that item.

The more you think about it the more waste you will find.