Steps
#
- Build a list of task/items
List everything that you want to get out of your head. The goal here is to make explicit as much as possible.
- Deconstruct tasks into their pre-requisites and follow-up tasks
There are a couple of important things to consider when one wants to prioritize their task list. One is that even if a task is at the top of the list, it might not be possible to do it until its dependencies are fulfilled. This in turn means that all dependencies will have a superior priority to this task automatically.
However, it frequently happens that what we consider dependencies can in fact be delayed or temporarily replaced by another solution which takes less time to implement or costs less (or for whatever other reason can replace the original dependency).
- Split tasks into 2 groups (and repeat this process)
The idea here is to quickly filter out as many tasks as possible. As you may have noticed, I have not specified the filtering predicate. It is up to you to filter out your tasks such that you will have the least amount to filter at once. Examples of predicates you could use are “will/will not do”, “want/do not want”, “need/do not need”, “like/do not like” and so on.
- Prioritize the tasks that will have to be done
After a certain number of iterations of the previous step, you should arrive at a point where the items you have all need to be done, but you do not know in which order you have to do them (or want to do them).
Methods
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4 Quadrants Method
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This method, also known as the Eisenhower Matrix, involves categorizing tasks into four groups: Urgent/Important, Not Urgent/Important, Urgent/Not Important, and Not Urgent/Not Important. By sorting tasks this way, you can focus on what truly matters and avoid spending time on less critical activities.
Analytic Hierarchy Process
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The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions. It involves breaking down a problem into its components, comparing them pairwise, and assigning weights to determine the relative priority of each task.
Binary Search Tree
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Using a binary search tree for prioritization means inserting tasks based on their priority value, allowing for efficient retrieval and reordering. This approach is useful for dynamically managing and updating a list of tasks as priorities change.
Planning Game
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The Planning Game is a collaborative method often used in agile development, where stakeholders and team members estimate and prioritize tasks together. It encourages discussion, negotiation, and consensus to determine which tasks should be tackled first.
100-Point Method
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In the 100-Point Method, each participant is given 100 points to distribute among a list of tasks or requirements according to their perceived importance. The tasks with the highest total points are prioritized, reflecting the collective preferences of the group.
Prioritizing reading
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- What you feel like reading
- Reading dependencies
- ROI evaluation
References
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- Karlsson, Joachim, Claes Wohlin, and Björn Regnell. “
An evaluation of methods for prioritizing software requirements.” Information and Software Technology 39.14 (1998): 939-947.
- Karlsson, Joachim, Stefan Olsson, and Kevin Ryan. “Improved practical support for large-scale requirements prioritising.” Requirements Engineering 2.1 (1997): 51-60.
- Ahl, Viggo. “An experimental comparison of five prioritization methods: investigating ease of use, accuracy and scalability.” (2005).
- Gill, Nasib Singh. “A Comparison among Various Techniques to Prioritize the Requirements.” International Journal of Computer Science and Management Studies (IJCSMS) www. ijcsms. com 1.12: 601-607.
http://www.gwern.net/Resorter
Context
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Learned in this study
#
Things to explore
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Overview
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- Encapsulate the application within a .phar
- Use obfuscation (can only obfuscate variables inside function/methods as anything else must remain with the same name in order to allow for dynamically called methods (or simply do not support such code))
Requirements
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- Must not make it easy to extract the original source code
- Must checksum itself for modification
- Should prevent usage by sharing a single license (TBD?)
- Should not be possible to reuse a trial forever in a VM
Issues
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- Relying on opcode (to act as a binary) probably implies you are dependent on the php version used. Furthermore, it also means that the extension must be available and enabled for the code to work
- Given the current implementation of opcache, the cache cannot be reused on other machines as it contains the system ID as part of an opcache file header
PHP OPCache
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Header
#
-
OPCACHE
-
System ID
-
Timestamp
-
Checksum
-> zend_accel_load_script (persistent_script, from_memory)
Obfuscation
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- Replace classes methods with (generated) traits that contain one or many of the classes method
- Compression/optimization by creating variables
Issues
#
- Even with obfuscation, PSR0/4 based code is too easy to distinguish (no reason to obfuscate libraries)
Ideas
#
- Find some way to transform the original source such that it is in symbiosis with a client identifier (and thus cannot be removed)
Packaging
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- Replace variables within functions with obfuscated names
- Concatenate all files into a single file (or bundle of files)
- Pre-process require/include, or do not allow their use (as the files will not be available)
- Randomize file order
- Scramble method order
- Inject junk code
- Insert junk code with encrypted user identification
- Generate a differently scrambled version per download/user
See also
#
References
#
Obfuscation
#
Context
#
Learned in this study
#
Things to explore
#
Overview
#
- Encapsulate the application within a .phar
- Use obfuscation (can only obfuscate variables inside function/methods as anything else must remain with the same name in order to allow for dynamically called methods (or simply do not support such code))
Requirements
#
- Must not make it easy to extract the original source code
- Must checksum itself for modification
- Should prevent usage by sharing a single license (TBD?)
- Should not be possible to reuse a trial forever in a VM
Issues
#
- Relying on opcode (to act as a binary) probably implies you are dependent on the php version used. Furthermore, it also means that the extension must be available and enabled for the code to work
- Given the current implementation of opcache, the cache cannot be reused on other machines as it contains the system ID as part of an opcache file header
PHP OPCache
#
Header
#
-
OPCACHE
-
System ID
-
Timestamp
-
Checksum
-> zend_accel_load_script (persistent_script, from_memory)
Obfuscation
#
- Replace classes methods with (generated) traits that contain one or many of the classes method
- Compression/optimization by creating variables
Issues
#
- Even with obfuscation, PSR0/4 based code is too easy to distinguish (no reason to obfuscate libraries)
Ideas
#
- Find some way to transform the original source such that it is in symbiose with a client identifier (and thus cannot be removed)
- Obfuscate php built-in functions
- Zend Host ID limited deployment: It appears that Zend Guard allows the software to be limited to run on only specific “Zend Host” (what are those?)
- Zend Guard Loader is a custom extension? for PHP which requires a licence_path to work
Packaging
#
- Replace variables within functions with obfuscated names
- Concatenate all files into a single file (or bundle of files)
- Pre-process require/include, or do not allow their use (as the files will not be available)
- Randomize file order
- Scramble method order
- Inject junk code
- Insert junk code with encrypted user identification
- Generate a differently scrambled version per download/user
See also
#
References
#
I am currently looking into javascript based libraries that will allow me to do in-browser queries, similar to how a server-side application would query a NoSQL database.
In order to pick the most appropriate database for my project, I first search for available solutions online. Then, I build a comparison table like the one below in order to determine the most popular database and its current health.
Over the next year (and hopefully years), I plan on working on AI, but more particularly what is known as AGI, Artificial General Intelligence.
Since I am the kind of person that enjoys to overly plan, I’ve been thinking about the whole process for a while. Here’s a brief overview of how I plan to construct my days as well as my work.
Daily
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Beginning of the day
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- Decide and plan on which projects I will work today
- Video log
- What will I be doing today?
- What might be blocking me or will be difficult and how do I plan to tackle that?
During the day
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- Record my thoughts: Either through video logs or through written notes, which is the more likely option. This will allow me to search my thoughts as well as organize them as necessary. Furthermore, I hope I’ll be able to optimize my thought flow through tools.
End of the day
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- Video log
- What have I done during the day?
- What are the key takeaway of the day?
- What didn’t I do?
While reading books/papers
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- Take notes (of interesting sections and ideas)
- Write down thoughts
- Write down questions related to what is being read (for further exploration)
- Explore right away a question I might have had
After each mini project
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I plan on working on multiple mini projects in order to ensure diversity as well as to allow me to spot projects which have the potential to be interesting and rewarding. However all projects are valuable in their own and it is important to reflect on the project at the end in order to extract things we’ll want to repeat in the future as well as things we’ll want to avoid.
- Post mortem
- What went wrong
- What went right
At the end of each month
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- Update the status of all tracked activities
- Write a list of things that were done during the month regarding each activity that was done. The purpose is to review what was done as well as provide a way to determine how well a project may/may not be progressing. It is also a good time for me to look at each individual activity that was done during the month and evaluate if I want to keep doing it or not.
- Write a post-mortem of the month, describing the good/bad of my current process and progress, with a section suggesting improvements to try for the next few months.
- Plan the projects/activities I will be working on next month, as well as their time allocation.
Living process
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I will be experimenting with this process in the next few weeks and will iterate on it as I see fit. I will thus be updating this post as changes occurs and I think of better ways to do my work.
https://www.amazon.ca/XCSOURCE-20X-800X-Microscope-Endoscope-Magnifier/dp/B00N4K22OA/