Beyond Software

Advice to mine bosses

Graeme — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:33:23 +0000

I spent three years working for the Debswana diamond company in Jwaneng, Botswana. It was my first exposure to life on a mine and one of the things I remember was the importance placed on mine safety training. We were always working towards having a great incident free record for the world to see.

Mine health and safety continues to come under the spotlight and the recent death at Gold Fields Driefontein mine in South Africa has forced the spotlight on mine bosses. According to national secretary for health and safety, Erick Gcilitshana, the The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa “will forge ahead with a campaign to ensure the necessary amendments to the Mine, Health and Safety Act are put in place for the prosecution of mine bosses.”

If I was a mine boss I would put my people before profits. I would get out of my office, put my hard hat on and walk amongst my people. I would spend more time in my surveillance and security operation as they are the eyes and ears of a mine. I would then report back to my management team on a regular basis so as to create a culture of safety for my people. It’s not about the incident free record, it’s about creating a genuine culture of safety and it starts at the top.

Hindsight Mining Health and Safety

Graeme — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:48:46 +0000

Chilean Mining and Energy Minister Laurence Golborne announced recently that the government will be putting plans in place to improve security in the country’s mines. The government is obviously under pressure to act following last year’s San Jose Mine accident, in which 33 miners were trapped for 70 consecutive days.

Hindsight = “the recognition of the realities, possibilities, or requirements of a situation, event, decision etc., after its occurrence.”

Hindsight provides new eyes but many governments will continue to turn a blind eye when it comes to mining health and safety.

Multitasking @ Casinos!

Graeme — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:03:47 +0000

Now I know in detail why surveillance people need super multitasking skills! Started reading “Casino Surveillance and Security: 150 Things You Should Know”. Wow! Check the book out at: Amazon

World Cup Fan View

Graeme — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:41:53 +0000

It’s been labeled the most colorful soccer World Cup ever and I had the chance to experience the color and vibe.

Missed opportunity!

Graeme — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:24:39 +0000

Yesterday in Cape Town was the soccer World Cup quarter final between Germany and Argentina. On the morning of the game, I went for a run along the popular bloubergstrand beachfront which was bustling with tourists (mainly Germans and Argentinians who were in town for the big game). As I was running past a pancake store I noticed that they only had a South African flag flying! I wonder how much more business they could have picked up if a German and Argentinian flag was flying with a sign stating specials for all Germans and Argentinians. Maybe even take it further and find out what fillings they like in their pancakes??

There are a few more games left in the World Cup. What welcoming opportunities are so obvious that your casino can take advantage of? I can think of dozens and you don’t need to be a casino in South Africa!

Flag Flying Casinos

Graeme — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:30:09 +0000

On my way back from Mykonos Casino this week I drove past an up-market game lodge (hotel) and like many hotels in South Africa they had the world flags flying in celebration of the soccer World Cup. However, there was one flag missing that caught my attention. I’m sure the people from that country would feel the same as I do when I’m traveling and don’t see my country’s flag – unwelcome! I’ve come to accept that most hotels etc cannot fly every countries flag but you would expect them to know where most of their guests are coming from. The missing flag at the hotel happens to represent the people from the country who have bought the most tickets to the world cup final!

By the way, Mykonos Casino did not have that flag missing. Maybe that’s why they’re such a popular destination. They send simple welcoming messages!

There are 10 days to go to the World Cup final. The first 5 people to reply to this blog post with the name of the country who’s flag was missing at the hotel will receive a World Cup shirt of the winning country (clue: they were knocked out by Ghana). Ayoba!

BP’s Oil Disaster highlights Time for Change

Graeme — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:43:09 +0000

According to the Wall Street Journal, the ceding of oversight to oil drillers by the Minerals Management Service is a major cause of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico. The report highlights the lack of oversight but it’s difficult to provide oversight without insight. Could that be the reason the Minerals Management Service lacks effective oversight?

Having worked in the mining industry, I know that they are great when it comes to documenting safety and compliance standards but they fall short in being able to measure them.

In their continuing effort to provide a superior product, Apple recently released a new version of their operating system called “Snow Leopard”. Beyond Software is on the verge of releasing a new version of our dataveillance solution called “CheetEye“, a solution designed to “protect with insight”. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Mining disasters will continue to happen without oversight and insight. Both take time and money which effect the bottom line or does it really?

Dataveillance Countdown

Graeme — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:02:45 +0000

Our dataveillance product ICOS has been under surgery. The countdown to the new version called “Cheeteye” has begun. Keep checking out cheeteye.com for more info, specials and prizes.

Cheeteye – Protecting with Insight

Casino Cattle Parade

Graeme — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:39:26 +0000

I watched The Moscow Circus with my family yesterday at Grand West Casino in Cape Town. What a great show! Well done Sun International for bringing this phenomenal performance to our shores.

Gambling wasn’t on the cards afterward as I had two minors with me but I was keen to take them out for a meal.

The Grand Problem:
After leaving the arena, you join the casino cattle parade in an attempt to get casino floor walk through. I don’t have a problem with this but they really need to learn from the internet – “allow consumers to cut through the clutter and get to what they want in the easiest and quickest way”. That’s what made Google great and that’s one of the things making great casinos.

The solution was simple: Free those who just want to go home! Enough money has been made off them and nothing can be done to force them to gamble or stay longer. This would have allowed the rest who wanted to go for a meal or gamble, get to their destination a lot sooner.

I’m sure the very experienced surveillance department has witnessed this problem many times. Empower them to form part of the casino marketing team and give them mature dataveillance tools. The surveillance revolution has begun!

Psychology of Surveillance (Part 2)

Graeme — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:57:14 +0000

Last week I discussed the first of four of ways that the mind tries to deal with the significant amount of information it processes on a daily basis day. Firstly, it looks for a difference.

Secondly, our mind tries to explain to us what is happening when something different takes place. It’s a good thing in the context of surveillance that the mind is not content with randomness and needs an explanation. However, our minds can very easily lie to us. Not everyone’s explanation as to what they’re observing is correct, hence the importance of dataveillance software.

Dataveillace software that is setup correctly does a much better job than our minds can do when it comes to dealing with copious amounts of data and information.