As I know from my own experience, manuals are seldomly read. On the other hand, a short guideline to complex software can be helpful, to use it effectively. I summarised the main menus of AHP-OS in a four page quick reference guide. The full manual is still available from the AHP-OS entry page (needs update …), and all details regarding methods and calculations are shown in my working paper about the AHP-OS software implemetation.
With the latest update of my AHP online software it is now possible to save judgments (pairwise comparisons) without completing the whole hierarchy evaluation. There are two scenarios, where this could be useful:
Pairwise comparison input is started as usually: either using the link provided on the project session page, or using the link AHP Group Session on the AHP-OS main entry page. After providong session code and name, in case the participant hasn’t given any input, a message Ok. Group has x participants. Click “Go” to continue will be displayed. Nodes without judgment show the AHP button with red outline.
Continue reading AHP-OS Hierarchy Evaluation with Partial Inputs from Participants
Most data generated with AHP-OS can be downloaded as csv files for import into a spreadsheet program and further analysis:
For each download you can select “.” or “,” as decimal separator. The downloaded csv (text) file is coded in UTF-8 and supports multi-language characters like Chinese, Korean, Japanese and of course a variety of Western languages.
Open Excel, click on “File” -> “New” to have a blank worksheet. Click on “Data“. On the left top you will find the “Get External Data” box.
My AHP free online software AHP-OS has a feature to involve a group of decision makers to give their inputs to a decision problem. In contrast to my AHP Excel template, in AHP-OS the number of participants is practically unlimited. As of now, I see users having up to 100 participants in one project.
Other articles:
As registered user you need to start with a new project by defining your decision hierarchy. In the Project Administration Menu click on New, define your hierarchy, Submit and Save as project. You have the possibility to give a short project description, explaining the project, before it is saved.
Recently I bought the network attached storage (NAS) DS1513+ from Synology and integrated it into my home network in order to have a central place to store and access my data. This NAS has several server functions, making it convenient to access data remotely, but also making it vulnerable to unauthorized intrusion. So the question arises, how to mitigate this risk without restricting the remote functionality of the NAS. There is a lot of information available in the web; yet for me it took some time to identify and understand the most important modifications and to implement them:
Continue reading How to make your Synology Disk station (NAS) more secure?
Note: All answers assume that you are a registered user and logged in.
Q: How do I save a new AHP hierarchy definition?
A: In the Session Administration Menu click on New.
The hierarchy window is displayed. Define a new hierarchy in the text input field and click on Submit new hierarchy, then Save in the Hierarchy Input Menu.
The group session window will open. Optionally provide a project short description and click Go, and the defined hierarchy is stored and shown as type “H” (Hierarchy) in the project table of the Session Administration Menu.
Q: How can I define and store a project for the evaluation of alternatives?
A: Start with a hierarchy definition, save and resume from the project table by clicking on the session code link. Complete all pairwise comparisons (Click on AHP in the hierarchy) to define the weights of criteria. (Before alternatives can be evaluated, criteria weights need to be defined.) Submit for group evaluation and view the result. In the group result page click on Use consol. priorities.
Then click on Evaluate Alternatives in the decision hierarchy display. Provide number and names of your alternatives and save a new project. It will be saved as type “A” (Alternative Evaluation). From there you can resume and start the alternative evaluation.
Q: How can I use a defined and stored hierarchy definition as template for a new project or new group session?
A: Click on the session code link of the project, you want to use, in the Stored AHP project session table.
a) If the project has no participants, the project will be opened in the group session input mode. Click on Leave, then Close in the Active Session Menu.
b) If the project has participants, the project will be opened in the AHP Group result window. Click on the Resume link at the bottom of the page, then Leave and Close in the Active Session Menu as in a).
You can now re-use the hierarchy definition and save as a new project.
With the latest version of my free AHP software you can manage complete AHP projects, including the handling of group sessions. In order to use the full functionality, you need to register (it’s free). You can find the manual there.
As I was asked by many visitors, how to evaluate priorities and alternatives for a whole project in AHP, I have realized an online solution, where you can define a hierarchy, get the priorities for all categories and evaluate alternatives. The project is realized in PHP.
| AHP Online System – BPMSG |
| AHP-OS software Implementation (paper 2018) |
| Short description (pdf) for download. |
Please rate the software at the end of this post!
Operating your own website or blog, you will soon realize lots of comments with nonsense content and embedded links to obscure websites. These are comment spammers making your life difficult. Everyday you have to clean up or moderate all comments. In the past I used a wordpress plugin “spam free wordpress” to protect my blog, and for long time it was working fine without any problems. Writing a comment to my postings, you were asked to copy and paste a password from one to another field in the comment form. Suddenly it was not working any longer, and I found out that the developer changed his policy: I have to pay a license fee. Maybe I also should change my policy, and ask for a license fee to download my AHP excel template? So I was searching for a new free plugin. I installed SI Captcha Anti-Spam from Mike Challis, but still spam comments were coming through. So I enabled the honeypot spambot trap and it seems to work.
I learned some new things about spam, and also found an interesting project “Project Honey Pot” on the web. There you can find out more about harvesters, spammers, dictionary attackers and honey pots. You can participate in the project, install a honey pot or implement a quick link to fight spam. A honey pot is a – for humans invisible – link to a dynamic website providing “fake” e-mail addresses and forms for spam programs. If the form is submitted or an e-mail sent to one of addresses provided there, then you can be sure it is a spammer and record/block his IP address. Here an example of a quick link (opens in a separate window, don’t submit.) Usually this link is hidden -only visible for bots, spider programs etc.
Project Honey Pot also provides a useful service HTTP Blacklist to check IPs against a list of known harvesters, comment spammers, and other suspicious visitors to websites.
Now I can monitor suspicious activities on my website: within only two days I could see more than 100 attacks!
Check your own IP address.
SourceCamera settings depend on the type of recorded video. The Canon XA-10 has only two full HD (1920×1080) recording modes: FXP and MXP. Based on these, most of my videos are recorded in FXP mode as it is a good trade-off between quality and file size.
Recording Modes of Canon XA-10
For video editing I use Adobe Premier Elements 10. Editing is done without changing codec (H264), resolution, interlacing, etc. As I have the PAL version of the XA-10, the Adobe project settings are AVCHD Full HD 1080i 25 under PAL. Once the video is edited, I render the clip with the highest quality settings (2 Pass VBR, Render at max. depth, Macro block Adaptive Frame-Field Coding), and a maximum bitrate corresponding to the source (FXP: 17 Mbps) for archiving. In Adobe Premier Elements 10 and for XA-10 FXP mode the settings are:
Archive settings in Adobe Premier Elements 10 for XA-10 FXP mode
Depending on the target media the clip to be published is adjusted in codec, resolution etc. I have predefined settings for:
I use a simple excel template to calculate the bitrate for the target medium. As input you simply select:
and as a result you get the recommended bitrate for rendering your video clip.
Comments and feedback are welcome!
