Tools to decode a fake offer letter

Recently I have been in an aggressive job search and there are some interesting experiences I have come about. I thought these experiences will serve a greater purpose if I share it with others. After all any smart person would learn from other people's experience.

In my job search I have come about many fake job offer letters. The intension of these letters is usually to take away money or identity theft. None of the fake job offer letters were able to take away money from my pocket, but I have wasted a lot of time reading the details of these job offers. I believe that even wasting our valuable time on these things in itself is a great loss. My intention here is to give tools  to people so that as soon as they receive a suspicious offer letter they can compare the letter and be sure that it is fake or real. I have learned many of the points by wasting my own time. So I hope that my effort here will help people not to waste their time.

1. Check out their email id

The quickest and fool proof method to hit the nail on a fake offer letter is by checking their email id. The domain names from which the email has been sent tends to be a bit shady. For example, let there be a company named ABC Inc. which is a genuine company. Now if ABC Inc. sends emails to job-seekers it will be from an @abc.com or @abc.org or @abc.net, etc email address. A reputed company will never use email services of Gmail or Yahoo Mail or Hotmail to send job offers to candidates (no matter how convincing it sounds, like abc_recruitment_drive@yahoo.com, it is fake). The scamers have evolved over time and become smarter at their trade. They have replaced domain names like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com etc with more good looking domain names like @techie.com which seem more genuine. In such instances just google the domain name from @ and search result will show you if it is a scam or not.

 2.Job offer letters without interviews

Once you receive a job offer letter without attending any interview be sure to raise your alert. No company or owner of a company will want to take a person into their company with the strength of only your resume. However compelling your resume be you will be invited for a face to face interview atleast on skype.

 3.High salary compared to your experience

All of the fraud job offers will have a very high salary which is more than your experience will get paid for. Getting a high salary without an interview to even evaluating your abilities in itself cries out loud fraud.

 4.Look out for money to be paid

All the fraudsters ultimately do what they do not for their daily bread and butter. So all fraud job offers will have an amount to be paid. The deadline for the amount to be paid will in most cases be very short. This is done so that we may not have the time to make a better judgement. No reputed company will ask for money for recruiting you to their company whatsoever the reason.

 5.Just Google search the company name

If you find a company you have not heard before just google it. A good company will have a good online presence with an established website. But this alone is not be taken as the criteria. Scammers are now even building good websites. Search the company name along woth the word scam, fraud etc so that it will bring out posts others have reported.

 6.Grammatical mistakes

Many of the scammers are from non English seaking countries in Africa. They do not have a good English. So even if their first mail may be better scripted once we ask them casual questions we will may start noticing significant errors in their English.

So I have given you the tools to check your job offer letter. So how do you use it. When you get a job offer letter which you are not expecting is enough sign to raise your alert. Now search for the numerical in the letter without reading it. You have the possibility to find two numerical, one is the salary and the other will be the amount you have to pay. Compare the email domain name and the company name. Keeping all the tools in mind and using the procedures mentioned above will help you to crack a fraud offer letter within minutes.

So what do we do if we recognise a fraud job offer letter. Our impulse would be to send back abuses back due to our frustration of wasting time on it. But this would be the wrong thing to do as this would help the spammer to recognise that our email id is active and real and they may target us in the future for their next trick. The best thing to do would be to press the report spam button. If enough number of people press the spam button, google will automatically send any email sent from it automatically to the spam folder without wasting our time.

I was not aware of many of the above tools so I had to waste my time on some of the letters. A mere awareness of these points will help you to save a lot of time and money. I hope this article will be useful to many and my time has not gone in vain. Information dispels myths.I have done my part to help out my connections, wish that everyone who reads do the same. I am open to discussions. So please contribute to the article if I have missed any points.

An answer most designers might find difficult. ( Fillet Vs Chamfer)

One of the questions that caught my attention is what the difference between a fillet and chamfer is. Hearing the question at the first instance will very easily bring to the minds of everyone a one liner answer giving the geometric difference between both. They might even go further giving their common purpose of reducing stress concentration. Many people will not even consider it as a topic to reflect. But I find that the most basic of the things is the least understood and ignored. Yet the answers are hard to find and carry significance. Over the years of reading design related material I remember no article giving me the answers. So as usual I went to the best knowledge base of humans- the google to get the answer. But to my surprise I found that even Google does not have a consolidated material  about the topic. This was when I decided that I have found a topic I could help out people with.

In mechanical engineering a fillet is a rounding of the interior or exterior corner of a part. On the inlet fillets are concave while on exterior corners these are convex. Fillets are mainly used to reduce stress concentration compared to chamfers. These can easily distribut stress more uniformly.

An interior or exterior corner with an angle or type of bevel is called chamfers. The purpose of using a chamfer is that it keeps the edges from being damaged and makes non uniform edges look more uniform. Chamfers (45 deg to horizontal) are also used as bevelled edge of a hole ( usually to remove burr due to drilling operation) . It is usually used to allow the head of a screw or bolt to sit below the surface (i.e. Flush fit) rather than stick out. Larger chamfers (usually 60deg) are used as lead-in for a screw or a bolt. Chamfers are less effective compared to fillets in reducing stress concentration as they have sharp corners

The main points that help in deciding to choose a fillet or chamfer are the following:

1. When done manually one of the main factors that come in deciding which to apply is the machining time. A chamfer requires less machining time that a fillet radius.
2. When done on CNC both chamfer and fillet require the same time as only a tool change is required.
3. For fillets different radii of tools has to be stocked to create different radii, but a single tool can be used for creating different chamfers.
4. Higher machining time required translates into cost. Thus chamfers are less costly compared to fillets.
5. Industrial designers tend to prefer fillets compared to chamfers as these are considered to be visually pleasing.
6. One of the other reasons is that protective coating like paint are more uniformly distributed over a  fillet compared to chamfer. Thickness of coating is reduced on sharp corners of chamfers so coating is lost first on these spots. Fillets have no such issues due to uniform distribution of coating.
7. Since non uniform distribution of coating can lead to accelerated rusting this may be a disadvantage.
8. Fillet gives better stress flow (less resistance) compared to chamfers. Fillets generally give a lower stress concentration factor than chamfers .
9. Chamfers are more forgiving when fitting mating parts. i.e. even if there are inaccuracies in a chamfer mating parts might fit together. But if the radius of fillet changes it will be difficult to fit the mating parts

Below are some snips that I have included from one of the case studies I did using Ansys to study the effects of chamfers, and different radii of fillets on an engine valve. You will be able to find my complete report on my Linkedin profile.

 a) engine valve with no fillet or chamfer

 b) engine valve with  chamfer

 c)  engine valve with  fillet radius

Note: I have tried my best to cover all the information regarding fillets and chamfers. I am open to feedback and would like the experienced designers to help me improve the article. Please comment the change you would like to see in the article.

Difference between a desktop and a workstation

One of things that confused me in my early days as a designer was the difference between a workstation and a desktop. The only fact that was clear to me was that workstation is a more powerful desktop. But why call a powerful desktop a workstation when we don’t call powerful cars a different name. I was very curious about this. So I set out to google to find out the difference. So one of my motivations to write down the article is help out those who are in the same state of confusion as I was. I am a believer that if are able to share whatever we learn we will be helping out save the time of many others.

 So first let me address the first concern why a high performance desktop is called a workstation. Digging a little deeper into the matter I found that the confusion arises only when we use the term in at present. During the early years of personnel computer history there were very vast difference between a desktop and a workstation. In the old times the desktop was a low power computer and the workstation was a very powerful computer (but not as powerful as a mainframe or a super computer) used for special tasks such as engineering, CAD, etc, for which the PC didn’t have enough horsepower. Now the PC CPUs evolved so much that there is little difference between a PC and a workstation. Nowadays a workstation means just a high powered PC.

Today, even budget, commodity desktop PCs bought at an office supply store or discount retailer can be very efficient and powerful business productivity tools. Some users, however, require more computing power than a standard desktop computer can provide. These users often pay premium prices for high-end, built to order machines called workstations. Although desktop PCs and workstations can look the same on the outside, they are engineered to meet different user demands and expectations on the inside. Below listed are some of the major differences listed.

1.Mainstream ISV certification

 ISV or Independent Software Vendors are companies like Dassault, Ansys etc that produce high end softwares. Workstations are usually certified by ISV for compatibility, fine tuning for the software etc. But desktops do not have ISV certifications

2.Graphics card

 Workstations have OpenGL 3D graphic cards which are essential for most 3D professional creations. It provides hardware acceleration, and better performance. Desktops usually consumer graphic cards or no graphics card at all.

3.Memory

Workstations use ECC ( Error Correcting Code ) memory. These are a kind of memory that can detect and correct the most common kinds of internal data corruption. ECC memory is used in most computers where data corruption cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, such as for scientific or financial computing. But desktops only have less costly non ECC memory.

4.Users

Desktop PCs are well-suited for home or small business computer users. Desktop PC users can surf the Web, play media files, email, play games, chat and video conference. Desktop PCs can also run office productivity software like databases, spreadsheets, word processors and Web applications with ease. Workstation users on the other hand, are often scientists, engineers, architects and digital media content creators whose work requires much more computing power than the average small business computer user would ever need.

5.Performance

Entry-level desktop, notebook and netbook computers today have more raw processing and storage capacity than many high-end workstations had a decade ago. Nevertheless, today's workstations are engineered to outperform desktops in data analysis, image manipulation and data transfer. The speed difference between a workstation and a desktop may not be obvious, however, when running a word processor application or Web browser. A workstation's superior performance can best be seen when you need to encode and render images or video files, search through massive databases, recalculate large spreadsheets, manipulate computer-aided design drawings or run multiple large applications simultaneously

6.Computer Components

Each component in a workstation computer selected and optimized with the goal of increasing the movement of data into, within and out of the system. Workstations have more powerful graphics processing units for fast 2D or 3D graphic image creation and manipulation. While many new desktops have multi-core processors, workstations may come with more cores per CPU or support multiple, separate CPUs for even more parallel processing capability. In addition, workstations often come standard with more RAM and larger, faster hard drives than the typical desktop has.

7.Expandability

Many desktops today come with their GPU, hard drive controllers and network interfaces built into the motherboard. In addition, you may not have the room or the connections available to add an additional hard drive or a better graphics card. Workstations, on the other hand, are often designed from the ground up to make it easy to add or swap hard drives, increase RAM, replace a graphics card or add additional graphics cards support multiple displays.

8.Cost

Due to the use of technologically advanced components with higher more performance the cost of workstations are always more than that of desktops.

A subject we take for granted (Difference between Ansys WB and APDL)

When the idea of doing a course in Ansys struck me I was thinking about learning the tools of Workbench. For me Ansys was all about workbench. But while starting the class I found out that we started with APDL. This disturbed me. I couldn’t understand why we were learning APDL when workbench was easier to use and more user friendly. My initial conclusion on APDL was that it was just a primitive version of Ansys that was in use before workbench has come and that Ansys has continued keeping it along side so that the older users might be able to use it. But then why was I taught APDL first before workbench if it was the older version. So I concluded that there was more to APDL than just an outdated tool of Ansys. This is why I started off to find the difference between the both. Below listed are some of the differences I found:

1.Graphical User Interface

Workbench has a better graphical user interface compared to APDL. Workbench is also more intuitive as compared to APDL. The user can just go through the different options and understand what the different icons mean easily.

 2. Use of memory

Since WB has higher graphical user interface compared to APDL it takes up more computer memory for the same operation performed. Thus we find that WB is more resource intensive.

 3.Ease of use

The interface of workbench is intuitive and much easier to use. It has many of the settings already built in and there is no reason to provide these. For example many of the generally used materials are readily available and can be just selected but in APDL we have to give in the properties of the most common materials even. The other use is that we do not have to select the element type according to the problem type. WB automatically selects them according to the type of analysis, but in APDL we have to know the best element that suits our purpose and select it accordingly.

 4.Amount of control

APDL gives a very high degree of control to the user regarding the problem. The user has to specify each and every step of the problem manually thus the user is aware of everything that APDL does.  But in WB as seen in point 3 many of the parameters are chosen by the software in the background. So we are not able to control every aspect of the problem.

 5.Undo option

APDL does not have an undo function as workbench. If an error is committed in giving boundary conditions or forces we have to manually delete it using the delete tool in the menu. The delete tool is very difficult to use. But in workbench we can just press Ctrl+Z or right click on the boundary condition or force and just select delete from the drop down menu.

 6.Interacts easily with other CAD packages

APDL allows importing of only step or iges geometry files for analysis. But workbench supports files of catia, solidworks , etc also. Thus we do not have to waste our time converting a model into iges or step. This is particularly helpful when we have to bring about corrections in the model.

 7.Possibility of error

Workbench has higher probability for error since it gives results even if we do not know what we are doing. It solves the problem even if the input values are not correct. For example even if complete boundary conditions are not given it gives weak springs in certain cases to solve the problem.

 8.Complex problems

Although WB is easier to use APDL helps to solve complex problems. Problems where the material has a very particular behaviour. Example it is very easy to specify the properties of different layers of laminates using APDL but in workbench we have to use an additional module called ACP for the same.  Another example may be defining Tertiary creep equations for materials. APDL is the only one that can do the user defined non-linear tables, or equations for the material definition within the simulation. WB is useful for general problems that are defined already in WB as components but to simulate out of the box problems APDL is the go to person.

 9.Materials Repository

WB has a dedicated repository of general materials and materials that are used for specific applications. But APDL does not have any such thing. In APDL we have to define each and every material we use in a particular simulation even if it is structural steel. In this case WB is a real time saver. The point 8 also highlights the advantages APDL presents material wise.

 10.Coupled analysis

APDL does not allow coupled analysis. Thus after a particular analysis we have to manually take down the values and input these for further analysis. But WB allows coupling of different analysis like thermal and structural etc. This helps us to seamlessly share the results from one analysis to the other as input without effort. It helps to simulate real world problems without manual effort from user part saving a lot of time.

 11.Checking mesh quality

Although workbench allows us to check the quality of mesh, it ignores bad meshes to continue giving results. This results in poor quality of results. But APDL will not proceed to the results if the mesh is inappropriate. Thus APDL assures meshing quality.

 12.Geometry creation

Only very simple geometry can be created using the APDL modeller. It is near to impossible to create complex geometry.  On the other hand WB has a fairly good interface to create complex geometry. But still FEA engineers prefer to use external CAD softwares to create the geometry.

 13. Geometry correction 

WB has a very good geometry editor which is able to work with complex shapes.  Up to a point design modeller in WB can also be used to design complex shapes, but mainly it is used to correct the imported model for better meshing and boundary condition assignment. But the modelling tools in APDL are very primitive and do not encourage imported model correction.

 14. Use of command

Problems in APDL can be completely executed out using commands. Once we learn to work with commands this can be a real time saver. Some actions in WB do not have tools and make use of commands to execute them. Usual problems in WB are not executed completely using commands.

 15. Ability to codify a problem

This is one of the best advantages of APDL. In APDL we can create a batch code in a text file and rerun the text file in APDL. If the code has problems or a specific part needs to be changed ( like the force or the material ) you can change the code in the text file and run it again very quickly. This cuts down time on troubleshooting and rerunning similar problems with different input. WB lacks such a capability.

 16. Mesh tools

WB has very advanced mesh control tools. These can be used to mesh the model according to the complexity of the geometry. Although WB does not promote the selection of mesh elements it helps us to control the manner in which the automatically selected mesh elements are distributed over the model.

 17. Presence of modules

WB has a large number of pre-engineered modules. Modules have been already built in for the different real world problems. So once we identify our problem we can find out which module is used for our purpose and carry out with our problem. But in APDL there are no such pre- engineered modules. We have to define the type of problem we are going to simulate and define the suitable settings.

So basically WB has most of what APDL has but lacks the more specialized stuff. WB is constantly evolving over the years to develop into a very powerful tool but APDL seems to be pretty static. The limitations of WB in analysis capabilities are being solved. Recently it has been possible to solve problems by using WB and APDL ( known as MAPDL )  so that we can utilise the  strength of both for problem solving.

Note: I have tried my best to cover all the information regarding the topics. I am open to feedback and would appreciate if the other designers could enrich the article by sharing their insights, experiences and knowledge through the comment part.

Get the most out of your CAD workstation

Being a beginner in the industry myself I have not used a workstation much. But one thing I was certain was the amount of computer resources required to solve complex FEA problems. Over the years the demand of FEA engineers has consistently outgrown the computer technology. As more and more complex problems are being solved there has been a constant need to make optimised use of the limited resources. There are many ways engineers adopt to execute complex problems like upgrading existing systems configuration, optimise the present system to do more or simplify a complex problem in such a way that the results are not affected much. So I was interested in the methods by which I will be able to make maximum use of the current computer configuration for better performance. Below I have listed some of the steps any one can take to optimise their system for better performance. Although this article has been written with solving the problem of FEA engineers in mind the methods mentioned can be used by anyone using heavy applications to optimise their system. Although many of the methods jotted down are common the purpose of the article is to list all the methods available at one place. Below listed are the methods: 

1. UNINSTALL UNNECESSARY APPLICATIONS

The simplest, most effective way to improve performance is to uninstall unnecessary applications as these take up memory and clog up startup sequences. Make sure you do this in the correct way, through  Start > Settings > Control Panel >  Add/Remove Programs.

1. TURN OFF UNWANTED STARTUP APPS

Some applications can’t be uninstalled in the traditional way. To overcome this, click Start > Run and type MSCONFIG. Click the STARTUP tab and you will see all the processes that run at startup before the OS is ready to be used. Here’s the WARNING! Be very careful what you turn off. For example, if you take out ATI.dll, on restart yourscreen will not display! Search the web for details of each process.

1. DELETE UNNECESSARY FILES

Hard drives soon fill up, which can slow down performance. Capacity can be a particular challenge with Solid State Drives (SSDs) as price per GB is high so drives tend to be smaller. To start, delete any installation files you have downloaded. CAD software and service packs can soon add up to tens of GBs. Many installers also store temp files in the root of the C drive. Once the application is installed it won’t need them. Delete these files, but before emptying the recycle bin run the application to check it works OK. If it does, it’s safe to permanently delete. To get rid of other unwanted files, including temporary Internetfiles, use the built in Windows tool. Right click on your drive, select properties and disk Clean-up. Third party tools can also help. Try Auslogics’ Duplicate File Finder or for a deeper clean of your drive Piriform’s CCleaner.

1. REBOOT REGULARLY

When applications and datasets load they take up valuable memory. Over time this memory can become full, as resources are not always freed up when things are closed. This can slow down your workstation, as new applications will then push some data to a swap file on the hard drive, which is a lot slower. Restarting your workstation periodically can clear up these minor memory leaks, helping ensure you have all of your memory available.

1. DEFRAG YOUR HARD DRIVE

Defragmentation can be a great way to increase the performance of a mechanical SATA hard disk drive (HDD). (N.B. do not do this with a Solid State Drive (SSD) as it there is no benefit and it can actually reduce the life-span of the drive).

 HDDs are spinning platters with heads that read/write data. The disks spin at a constant rate so the outside edge read/writes more data per revolution than the inside. This difference can be as much as 20%.

 As you add and delete data, files can get spread over the disk with one part in the middle and one part at the end. This decreases performance because the head needs to physically move from one part of the disc to another and over a period of time your system can start to feel slower.

Defragmenting your HDD on a regular basis can help with this as it moves all the files back together

1. INSTALL THE LATEST DRIVERS

Hardware drivers are important. Windows comes with a base set of drivers but you can still benefit from ones that are more up to date. For 3D apps, graphics drivers, then chipset drivers are the most important.

For graphics, first visit your CAD application’s certification page e.g. SolidWorks (tinyurl.com/cert-Solid) or PTC (tinyurl.com/cert-PTC). These are updated periodically but  graphics card vendors might have a more recent one. e.g. AMD FirePro  (tinyurl.com/cert-firepro).

Over the life of a pro graphics card, updating to the latest drivers can improve performance dramatically so be sure to check back regularly.

1. TURN OFF ENCRYPTION AND COMPRESSION

On NTFS disks save space and increase security by compressing and encrypting files. However, for maximum performance always turn these off

1. SET TO MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

By default, the power profile in Windows is set to ‘balanced’, giving a combination of  performance and reduced energy consumption. To set these to maximum performance click Start > Settings > Control Panel > PowerOptions. Then click ‘show additional plans’ and set to ‘high performance’.

1. DISABLE INTEL SPEED STEP AND C-STEP

Intel Speed Step cuts the processor speed if it thinks the system is idle or running a lightweight application. However, sometimes the GPU might be doing the work and Speed Step might not realize. It can be turned off in the workstation’s BIOS. You can also turn off Intel C-State, which adds additional “wait states” if the CPU thinks nothing is happening. Disabling both will make the CPU run at full speed all of the time but will likely use more electricity.

1. SET CPU AFFINITY

Hardcore compute operations like rendering can hog CPU resources, making it almost impossible to work on other tasks. However, by setting specific processes to run on specific cores you will be able to manage your CPU resources and multi-task much more efficiently. Start Task Manager (CTRL, ALT, DEL), select the processes tab, right-click on the process you want to change and ‘set affinity’. You will then be able to select which processors (cores) are used for that particular process. Note that this change is only temporary. Once you close an application, the affinity settings will return to default. prActicAl tip  For an 8 core CPU try assigning 6 cores to a rendering app.

1. ENABLE/DISABLE HYPER THREADING

Intel HyperThreading technology creates two virtual cores out of each physical CPU core with a view to increasing performance when possible. It can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS. Enabling it can boost performance in multi-threaded applications (e.g. ray trace rendering) but for single threaded applications (e.g. CAD) it is usually best to disable it as it can slow things down. If you are unsure, check with your software supplier

1. SPRING CLEAN YOUR MACHINE

Over time, a build up of dust can clog up fans, which are used to cool CPUs and GPUs. This makes them less effective, and in some cases causes processors to slow down to stop them overheating. Cleaning inside the machine can help this, but be very careful. Workstations are delicate and sensitive to static so this should be done by hand using an anti-static cloth or compressed air, not with a vacuum cleaner or cleaning products!

Here’s the disclaimer — proceed with caution and, before you start, make sure all of your data is backed up and that you have a system repair disk!

My aim here was to bring as much points as possible on a single platform so as to make people aware of all the possibilities that are available. But I  advice everybody to carry out a thorough research of each of the points before excection so as to have a complete idea the action would have on your system settings.

Please free to point out the errors and enrich the article in the comments section with your experience