TUS and Zinkworks Launch €2M Telecommunications Research Group to Make Driverless, Intelligent Shipping Ports a Reality
The group will develop cutting-edge autonomous port management capabilities using 5G, AI and cloud, improving eco-efficiency and safety.
As the race for self-driving cars heats up, a team of researchers at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) and Athlone-based ICT start-up Zinkworks are turning their attention to how shipping ports can adopt the technology to improve global supply chains, eco-efficiency and safety.
To do this, they have formed a new €2 million cognitive – or ‘thinking’ – technologies management research group aiming to develop a prototype for managing the full port eco-system autonomously – from the cranes to the vehicles that transport shipping containers.
According to Dr Enda Fallon, principal investigator on the project and head of the Department of Computer and Software Engineering at TUS, outputs from the project will have the capability to “smooth the issues with global supply chains”.
“Using 5G intelligent telecommunications management systems, we will be able to alleviate congestion in a port, taking into account things like when did the last ship come in, where did the containers go, how they are stacked and stored and how does that impact the network coverage,” he explained.
“Because you’ve got so many autonomous vehicles and so much networking involved, it is critical to be able to understand that environment and predict what the network coverage is going to be to ensure the autonomous vehicles stay connected and continue to operate as intended.”
“To put things in perspective, he continued, “Imagine if, due to a crane having issues with the network, a shipping container weighing 100 tons ends up dangling 40 feet in the air in windy conditions because of poor coverage. That’s a serious safety hazard.”
The new TUS-Zinkworks research collaboration, which received initial funding from the IDA and Enterprise Ireland through the Innovation Partnership Programme, will encompass 15 research staff and PhD students.
TUS President Prof. Vincent Cunnane said the project “illustrates how close collaboration can create deep knowledge for the fast-moving technology sector”.
“Proximity to TUS was a vital factor in Zinkwork’s establishment in Athlone in 2018, and we are delighted to formalise our ongoing partnership and offer our significant expertise and research capabilities in developing this highly sophisticated cognitive telecommunications management prototype,” he said.
Prof. Cunnane also pointed to the importance of deep, strategic technical knowledge development and transfer, explaining that TUS’s transition to technological university has been “vital” in building the physical and knowledge capability to support start-up companies, such as Zinkworks, as they continue to expand their workforce.
TUS supports regionally based ICT companies through its Software Research Institute (SRI), which it established in 2006 to facilitate applied research collaborations with industrial partners.
Zinkworks, which services clients in the telecommunications and financial services sectors, has expanded significantly since its establishment and now has more than 200 employees across three locations, Athlone, Letterkenny and Hyderabad in India.
The highly successful ICT start-up aims to launch its first telecommunications product through this research project with TUS, which is expected to take 18 months to bring to fruition.
“As 5G private networks are rolled out in complex dynamic environments like ports and manufacturing facilities with advanced automation, understanding the impact of the changing environment on the critical network characteristics and quality of service is essential,” Zinkworks CEO Paul Madden explained.
“The collaboration with TUS will provide this knowledge and through machine learning, modelling will define how best to optimise coverage required for complex industry use cases.”
The partnership is also expected to benefit current and future TUS students by providing the project’s investigators with insight into the skills that students will require in the medium to long term.
“Such a problem-based innovative project creates opportunities for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, giving them day-one, industry-ready skills. This talent pipeline is vital to support the regional ICT sector,” Dr Fallon said.
“As we look ahead to an autonomous future, the nature of jobs is changing. There will be huge employment opportunities but many of the current engineering jobs will be automated, with more high calibre jobs and specific, advanced skill sets required to manage these autonomous systems.”
Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Informatics at TUS Dr Sean Lyons also welcomed the collaboration, saying, “We have a demonstrated track record of engagement with industry, and this collaboration serves to further illustrate what can be achieved through our close links with local companies.”
Work with us: UI Developer
We are hiring a UI Developer to join our team at Zinkworks.
Zinkworks is a trusted partner to international market leaders in Telecommunications and Financial markets providing digital transformation solutions to elevate their business operations.
Our teams are working on mission-critical software projects for some of the world’s largest technology companies.
At Zinkworks, we are always looking for talented, creative and enthusiastic developers to join our team.
The Opportunity:
In this role, you will be involved in the design, architecture, coding, testing and operations of our global-scale software systems to support the innovation and technical excellence that the rapidly changing field of telco/financial domain requires.
Environment:
Innovative. Flexible. Transparent. Stable. Agile.
Every engineer is responsible for the operations tasks of the system they are working on. Agile teams are fully empowered to make their own decisions, to take over ownership, and to be responsible for their actions.
Main tasks:
- To work in collaboration with multiple teams – Design, Backend, QA and enjoy new professional and technological challenges.
- To keep users in your focus and always try to improve the product to maximize the value for the company.
- To share your knowledge with motivated team members, which also helps you to constantly push each other and improve your skills.
Requirements:
- Profound Knowledge in HTML5, CSS3, Angular 8+, Typescript, REST API, Websocket API
- Knowledge of TDD and testing tools such as Jest & Protactor
- Experience with CI/CD tooling
- Problem solving skills, particularly the ability to develop quick and sound solutions to resolve complex tasks
- Agile team player, passionate about learning new technologies and acquiring new skills
- Very good English (both written and spoken)
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree (ETH/Uni/UAS) in Computer Science or equivalent degree/experience in software development or infrastructure is a plus.
Company is offering:
- Competitive salary
- Health Insurance/Pension Scheme
- Experience in mission-critical and publicly available software projects
- Work with large multinational companies
- Flat organisational structure.
For the benefits we offer please check out our Zinkperks
Zinkworks Apprenticeship Programme – Ingrid’s Experience
Zinkworks apprenticeship programme is in association with the Fastrack into Information Technology (FIT) programme.
Ingrid joined Zinkworks through the FIT apprentice program with Athlone Training Centre in 2021 and is about to begin her final semester. Here she describes her experience at Zinkworks thus far.
“I am making a career transition and balancing studies, work, and family time. I am a participant in the FIT apprenticeship program at Zinkworks as well as a master’s degree student in Mobile Development at PUC-Minas Brazil. Zinkworks has allowed me to put into practice everything I studied in college and the FIT course.
Since starting at Zinkworks I had a basic understanding of C and C++, but I have been learning Java on my own with the help of my colleagues. My knowledge was used within a large and complex system, and I was mentored by members of my team who gave me effective solutions, taught me how to resolve errors, and about dependencies, management, and automation tools. Team members helped me understand the project and how to find solutions to bugs during the project... As a beginner, I found the start difficult, but with everyone around me helping, I felt confident that I could make mistakes and try again.
FIT and Zinkworks encourage their apprentices to acquire industrial IT certificates during their studies. I chose to obtain the Introduction to Programming Using Java certification from Microsoft at the beginner level because I had Java experience within the company. To prepare for the certification, I used video courses at O'Reilly a subscription service that Zinkworks provides.
I’m starting to study for a Javascript Specialist certification at Intermediate Level. I don't work with Javascript currently, but my studies are more intense. Javascript can be a little challenging for some developers. Javascript is a language that can be used with a variety of frameworks and technologies. It's challenging but I love it! I've done some projects for college as my dream career is Mobile development, I must learn Frontend too. Access to O'Reilly has allowed me to read Javascript books, take some courses, practice the old questions from IT Exams and study with official CIW material.
I am very lucky to be part of Zinkworks, and FIT supports me in my professional growth. I work with many people who are willing to help and show me where I can improve every day. Thank you to everyone who is supporting me and helping me to grow every day.”
Ingrid is one of three apprentices in their final year of study. This year, in 2022, six more apprentices have joined Zinkworks and begun their work experience as part of the FIT apprenticeship program.
To find out more about the apprenticeship programme contact us at info@zinkworks.com.
Click here to learn about careers at Zinkworks.
The experience of being an outed LGBTQ+ person in tech - Meet Adheli
Software Developer Adheli Tavares speaks about her experiences being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
1. How would you describe your journey to becoming a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community?
Complicated and complex. It’s a process that is always ongoing. There’s confusion and doubts until you find yourself comfortable in your own skin. Therapy was an ally in my process, to understand that all those feelings of inadequacy were uncalled for.
2. Have you found any differences between living in Ireland and the attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community (or you personally) versus living in other parts of the world?
Definitely. I think the main reason is that people here don’t really care. Although I have been targeted a few times with some not very nice words, I do feel a lot more comfortable walking hand in hand with my partner here than back home.
3. How have you found the attitudes of others towards members of the community in the tech world (globally and in Ireland)?
I have met mostly queer women in the tech industry. Because it’s still a male dominant world, the behaviour I encountered the most was “so you like women then you are one of the guys” which is wrong. This shows another level of sexism and the old stereotypes around how lesbians must look and act like a man. I have accepted this behaviour previously, mostly to feel included and avoid the mean comments, most of them hidden behind “jokes”.
4. Have you found Zinkworks to be an open and accepting place? How so?
Yes, Zinkworks has been super cool to work with. I think it kind of goes back to the fact people don’t really care as long as you’re a good person and good employee! Acceptance and respect go along with mental health, which is another thing that Zinkworks has been the best place for regarding support.
5. What further support is needed for the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace and socially?
The “removal” of the necessity of coming out is my big dream. It is good that English is a friendly non-binary language, which helps a lot. I can say that it has taken out a lot of stress when referring to my partner and the questioning when someone decides to label themselves. I think it’s very personal how one describes themselves, then for another person, even someone they do not know to question every little detail is demeaning.
6. What can allies of the community do to support members in their workplace?
First of all, respect their identity (gender/sexuality) and not let it be something that will create a pre-judgement of their work abilities. Let them be heard. If you have doubts about how to talk to someone, ask their name and their pronouns.
When people are asking questions we can differentiate between when someone has a genuine question because they are curious and want to understand, from someone that is just lazy and expect us to be their personal LGBTQ+ dictionary.
At the end of the day, I have been through so much, like working with international teams (before moving to Ireland), learning the quality side of development, managing teams, and laughing with teammates when everything went right. Crying when things went to space. Stayed until late to fix something, or left earlier because it was too tiring. And you, a non-LGBTQ+ person might think “that sounds like some of the stuff I have done” and that’s because we are just like you. People.
Thank you to Adheli for sharing her experiences.
If you need support as part of the LGBTQ+ community you can visit here.
To read more blogs from Zinkworks employees visit here.
5 ways to improve your workspace based on science
Regardless of where we work—at home, in an office. We can all do a few simple things to our work environment to optimise our productivity. Below is a shortlist of the most effective things—none of which require purchasing any products or equipment. Anyone can use these tools to:
- Maintain alertness and focus longer.
- Improve posture and reduce pain (neck, back, pelvic floor, etc).
- Tap into specific states of mind (creativity, logic, etc.) for the sake of work.
1. Sit or stand ( Or Both )
It is best to arrange your desk and workspace so that you can work sitting for some time—10-30 minutes or so for most people, and then shift to work standing for 10-30 minutes, and then go back to sitting. Research also shows that it’s a good idea to take a 5-15 minute stroll after every 45 minutes of work. There is evidence that such a sit-stand approach can reduce neck and shoulder and back pain.
2. Effects of TIME of the day has on you
We are not the same person across the different hours of the day, at least not neurochemically. Let’s call the first part of your day (~0-8 hours after waking up)
“Phase 1.” During this phase, the chemicals norepinephrine, cortisol, and dopamine are elevated in your brain and body. Alertness can be further heightened by sunlight viewing, caffeine and fasting.
Phase 1 is ideal for analytic “hard” thinking and any work that you find particularly challenging. It isn’t just about getting the most important stuff out of the way; it is about leveraging your natural biology toward the best type of work for the biological state you are in.
“Phase 2”: is ~9-16 hours after waking. At this time, serotonin levels are relatively elevated, which lends itself to a somewhat more relaxed state of being—optimal for brainstorming and creative work.
“Phase 3”: ~17-24 hours after waking up is when you should be asleep or try to sleep. During this phase, do no hard thinking or work unless, of course, you must, keep your environment dark or very dim and the room temperature low (your body needs to drop in temperature by 1-3 degrees to fall asleep and stay asleep).
3. Where your screen is and where you look ARE important
There’s a relationship between where we look and our level of alertness. When looking down toward the ground, neurons related to calm and sleepiness are activated. Looking up does the opposite. This might seem wild, but it makes sense based on the neural circuits that control looking up or down.
Standing and sitting up straight while looking at a screen or book that is elevated to slightly above eye level will generate maximal levels of alertness. To get your screen at or above eye level and not work while looking down at your screen may take a bit of configuring your workspace, but it’s worth it for the benefits to your mind and work.
4. Set your background sound
Some people like to work in silence, whereas others prefer background noise. Some kinds of background noise are particularly good for our work output. Working with white, pink, or brown noise in the background can be good for work bouts of up to 45 minutes but not for work bouts that last hours. So, use it from time to time. These are easy to find (and free) on YouTube or in various apps (search by “white, pink, or brown noise”).
Binaural beats are a neat science-supported tool to place the brain into a better state for learning. As the name suggests, binaural beats consist of one sound (frequency) being played in one ear and a different sound frequency in the other ear. It only works with headphones. Binaural beats (around 40 Hz) have been shown to increase certain aspects of cognition, including creativity and may reduce anxiety.
5. Room type can make a difference
There is an interesting effect of workspace optimization called the “Cathedral Effect,” in which thinking becomes “smaller”—more focused on analytic processing when we are in small visual fields. The opposite is also true. In short, working in high ceiling spaces elicits abstract thoughts and creativity, whereas working in low ceiling spaces promotes detailed work. Even relatively small differences (a two-foot discrepancy in ceiling height) have been shown to elicit such differences. The takeaway: consider using different locations: rooms, buildings, indoors or outdoors to help access specific brain states and the types of work they favour.
Very insightful blog post written by Release Manager, Colm Nibbs
Click here to read more blogs from Zinkworks.
Privacy Policy
Zinkworks Privacy Notice
This is the privacy notice of Zinkworks T/A Neueda Technologies Ireland and the use of Data on the Zinkworks.com website. Zinkworks may be referred to the following ‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’, and the user referred to ‘you’, ‘your’.
Our registered office addresses are:
Shannon Retail Park,
Dublin Rd,
Athlone,
Co. Westmeath,
N37 E2P6
……
Unit 216,
Atlantic Technological University,CoLab,
Port Road,
Letterkenny,
Co. Donegal,
F92 P2VE
Introduction
This notice describes how we collect, store, transfer and use personal data. It tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
In the context of the law and this notice, ‘personal data is information that clearly identifies you as an individual or which could be used to identify you if combined with other information. Acting in any way on personal data is referred to as ‘processing’.
This notice applies to personal data collected through our website and through social media platforms and online retail platforms, including Zinkworks.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Except as set out below, we do not share, sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected through our website.
Personal data we process
1. How we obtain personal data
The information we process about you includes information:
- you have directly provided to us
- that we gather from third party databases and service providers
- as a result of monitoring how you use our website or our services
2. Types of personal data we collect directly
When you use our website, we ask you to provide personal data. This can be categorised into the following groups:
- personal identifiers, such as your first and last names, your title,
- contact information, such as your email address, your telephone number and your postal addresses for billing, delivery and communication
- records of communication between us including messages sent through our website, email messages and telephone conversations
- your personal professional experience and education
In addition, we may also process:
- documentation that confirms your identity, such as an image of your passport or driver’s licence
- an image that shows your face, such as a passport photograph
- documentation that confirms the qualifications you advertise as holding
- documentation that confirms your employment
3. Types of personal data we collect from third parties
We confirm some of the information you provide to us directly using data from other sources. We also add to the information we hold about you, sometimes to remove the need for you to provide it to us and sometimes to be able to assess the quality of the services you offer.
The additional information we collect can be categorised as follows:
- information that confirms your identity
- business information, including your business trading name and address, your company’s registered number (if incorporated), and your VAT number (if registered)
- information that confirms your contact information
- reviews and feedback about your business on other websites through which you sell your services
- unsolicited complaints by other users
4. Types of personal data we collect from your use of our services
- By using our website and our services, we process:
- technical information about the hardware and the software you use to access our website and use our services, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version and your device’s operating system
- usage information, including the frequency you use our services, the pages of our website that you visit, whether you receive messages from us and whether you reply to those messages
5. Our use of aggregated information
We may aggregate anonymous information such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Anonymous information is that which does not identify you as an individual. Aggregated Information may be derived from your personal data but is not considered as such in law because it does not reveal your identity.
For example, we may aggregate usage information to assess whether a feature of our website is useful.
However, if we combine or connect aggregated information with your personal data so that it can identify you in any way, we treat the combined information as personal data, and it will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
6.Special personal data
Special personal data is data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.
We may collect special personal data about you if there is a lawful basis on which to do so.
7. The bases on which we process information about you
The law requires us to determine under which of six defined bases we process different categories of your personal data and to notify you of the basis for each category. If a basis on which we process your personal data is no longer relevant then we shall immediately stop processing your data.
If the basis changes then if required by law we shall notify you of the change and of any new basis under which we have determined that we can continue to process your information.
8. Information we process with your consent
We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us at info@zinkworks.com However if you do so, you may not be able to use our website or our services further.
We aim to obtain and keep your consent to process your information. However, while we take your consent into account in decisions about whether or not to process your personal data, the withdrawal of your consent does not necessarily prevent us from continuing to process it. The law may allow us to continue to process your personal data, provided that there is another basis on which we may do so. For example, we may have a legal obligation to do so.
9. Information we process for the purposes of legitimate interests
We may process information on the basis there is a legitimate interest, either to you or to us, in doing so.
Where we process your information on this basis, we do after having given careful consideration to:
- whether the same objective could be achieved through other means
- whether processing (or not processing) might cause you harm
- whether you would expect us to process your data, and whether you would, in the round, consider it reasonable to do so
10. Information we process because we have a legal obligation
Sometimes, we must process your information to comply with a statutory obligation.
For example, we may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorisation such as a search warrant or court order.
This may include your personal data.
We may inform relevant organisations if we have a safeguarding concern about a vulnerable person.
How and when we process your personal data
11. Job application and employment
If you send us information in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to five years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will keep your file for six years before destroying or deleting it.
12. Information obtained from third parties
Although we do not disclose your personal data to any third party (except as set out in this notice), we sometimes receive data that is indirectly made up from your personal data from third parties whose services we use.
13. Disputes between users
In the event of a dispute between you and another user, provided that you consent, we may share your basic personal data, business information and contact information with the other user.
At our discretion, we may share other information to enable the dispute to be resolved through litigation or alternative dispute resolution methods.
14. Referral partners
This is information given to us by you in your capacity as an affiliate of us or as a referral partner.
It allows us to recognise visitors that you have referred to us, and to credit your commission due for such referrals. It also includes information that allows us to transfer commission to you.
The information is not used for any other purpose.
We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of the information and the terms of our relationship.
We expect any affiliate or partner to agree to reciprocate this policy.
Use of information we collect through automated systems
15. Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer’s hard drive by your web browser when you visit a website that uses them. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use at a later date.
They are commonly used to provide you with a personalised experience while you browse a website, for example, allowing your preferences to be remembered.
They can also provide core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility; record how you interact with the website so that the owner can understand how to improve the experience of other visitors, and serve you advertisements that are relevant to your browsing history.
Some cookies may last for a defined period, such as one visit (known as a session), one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely until you delete them.
Your web browser should allow you to delete any cookie you choose. It should also allow you to prevent or limit their use. Your web browser may support a plug-in or add-on that helps you manage which cookies you wish to allow to operate.
The law requires you to give explicit consent for use of any cookies that are not strictly necessary for the operation of a website.
If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you may not be able to use all the functionality of our website.
We use cookies in the following ways:
- to track how you use our website
- to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
16. Personal identifiers from your browsing activity
Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are recorded.
We record information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We use this information in aggregate to assess the popularity of the web pages on our website and how we perform in providing content to you.
If combined with other information we know about you from previous visits, the data possibly could be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our website.
17. Re-marketing
Re-marketing involves placing a ‘tracking technology’ such as a cookie, a ‘web beacon’ (also known as an ‘action tag’ or a ‘single-pixel GIF’) to track which pages you visit and to serve you relevant adverts for our services when you visit some other website.
The benefit of re-marketing technology is that we can provide you with more useful and relevant adverts, and not show you ones repeatedly that you may have already seen.
We may use third-party advertising services to provide us with re-marketing services from time to time. If you have consented to our use of such tracking technologies, you may see advertisements for our products and services on other websites.
We do not provide your personal data to advertisers or third-party re-marketing service providers. However, if you are already a member of a website whose affiliated business provides such services, that affiliated business may learn of your preferences concerning your use of our website.
Other matters
18. Your rights
The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you regarding the processing and control of your personal data.
We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided at http://www.knowyourprivacyrights.org
19. Use of our services by children
We collect data about all users and visitors to these areas regardless of age, and we anticipate that some of those users and visitors will be children.
20. Encryption of data sent between us
We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to verify our identity to your browser and to encrypt any data you give us.
Whenever information is transferred between us, you can check that it is done so using SSL by looking for a closed padlock symbol or another trust mark in your browser’s URL bar or toolbar.
21. Delivery of services using third party communication software
With your consent, we may communicate using software provided by a third party such as Facebook (WhatsApp), Apple (Facetime), Microsoft (Skype) or Zoom Video Communications (Zoom).
Such methods of communication should secure your personal data using encryption and other technologies. The providers of such software should comply with all applicable privacy laws, rules, and regulations, including the GDPR.
If you have any concerns about using a particular software for communication, please tell us.
22. Data may be processed outside the European Union
Our websites are hosted in Ireland.
We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the European Union from time to time in other aspects of our business.
Accordingly, data obtained within Ireland or any other country could be processed outside the European Union.
We use the following safeguards concerning data transferred outside the European Union:
- the processor is within the same corporate group as our business or organisation and abides by the same binding corporate rules regarding data processing.
- the data protection clauses in our contracts with data processors include transfer clauses written by or approved by a supervisory authority.
- we comply with a code of conduct approved by a supervisory authority.
- we are certified under an approved certification mechanism as provided for in the Act.
- both our organisation and the processor are public authorities between whom there is either a legally binding agreement or administrative arrangements approved by a supervisory authority relating to the protection of your information.
23. Control over your own information
The personal data we hold about you must be accurate and up to date. Please inform us if your personal data changes.
At any time, you may contact us to request that we provide you with the personal data we hold about you.
When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal data we first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.
Please be aware that we are not obliged by law to provide you with all personal data we hold about you, and that if we do provide you with information, the law allows us to charge for such provision if doing so incurs costs for us. After receiving your request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information, and whether we require any fee for providing it to you.
If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information from our website, you should contact us to make your request.
This may limit the service we can provide to you.
We remind you that we are not obliged by law to delete your personal data or to stop processing it simply because you do not consent to us doing so. While having your consent is an important consideration as to whether to process it, if there is another legitimate basis on which we may process it, we may do so on that basis.
24. Communicating with us
When you contact us, through our website or by email, we collect the data you have given to us to reply with the information you need.
We record your request and our reply to increase the efficiency of our business.
We may keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high-quality service.
25. Complaining
If you are not happy with our privacy policy, or if you have any complaints, then you should tell us.
You can contact us at info@zinkworks.com
When we receive a complaint, we record the information you have given to us based on consent. We use that information to resolve your complaint.
We aim to investigate all complaints relating to user-generated content. However, we may not be able to do so as soon as a complaint is made. If we feel that it is justified or if we believe that the law requires us to do so, we shall remove the content while doing so.
Making a complaint may not result in the removal of the content. Ultimately, we have to make a judgment as to whose right will be obstructed: yours, or that of the person who posted the content that offends you.
If we think your complaint is vexatious or without any basis, we shall not correspond with you about it.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to notify some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter of our sole discretion whether we do give information and if we do, what that information is.
We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.
If a dispute is not settled then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in good faith with us in a process of mediation or arbitration.
If you are in any way dissatisfied with how we process your personal data, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC). This can be done at https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/complaints/1592.htm. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about your concern before you approach the DPC.
26. Retention period
Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal data only for as long as required by us:
- to provide you with the services you have requested
- to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities
- to support a claim or defence in court
27. Compliance with the law
Our privacy policy complies with the law in Ireland, specifically with the Data Protection Act 2018 (the ‘Act’) accordingly incorporating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Privacy and Electronic Communications) Regulations 2011.
28. Review of this privacy policy
We shall update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary.
GitHub & Microsoft Teams Integration
Seeking improvement opportunities to enhance productivity and collaboration is a crucial factor when working with technology. The GitHub integration for Microsoft Teams allows developers to improve their communication by automatically posting messages about issues, pull requests, deployment status, and more. Once GitHub and Microsoft Teams platforms are linked, this allows various options, such as adding comments, closing, and reopening issues or even making pull requests, without leaving your chatbox.
A considerable amount of time might be spent by developers while communicating about code changes, monitoring issues and other GitHub-related activities. This integration improves this communication and optimises the developer’s time, while also encouraging faster discussions on code reviews. All of this is happening right in your Microsoft Teams channel, which tends to be the natural place of ideas and collaboration.
Step 1 – Installation
First, we are going to install the GitHub App in our Microsoft Teams.
- Go to the Microsoft Teams app store and install the GitHub app or you can directly install it from here.
- Upon installation, a welcome message is displayed.
- Use the @GitHub handle to start interacting with the app
Step 2 – Get Started
At this stage, our Microsoft Teams and GitHub user accounts are not linked yet. The following will link the two accounts.
- Just authenticate to GitHub using a @github signing command or try to subscribe to your repository.
- A message “Connect GitHub account” is displayed as shown in the following image. Just click on the button to connect the GitHub account.
Once the channel is created.
- Go to the channel and look for the GitHub icon.
- if the icon is not visible at the bottom of the channel, you must click on the “…” and search for GitHub integration with Microsoft Teams, as shown in the following image.
- Once GitHub is set up on Microsoft We can subscribe to the repository, as shown in the following image.
- Once the repository is subscribed, we will receive notifications as described above.
This whole process should be done once. After that, we can subscribe to as many repositories as we need, following just steps 8 to 10.
GitHub provides a lot of features to customise your subscription and keep the team up-to-date without switching to different platforms.
For more information go through the GitHub Documentation:
https://github.com/integrations/microsoft-teams/blob/master/Readme.md
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Zinkworks Graduate Programme 2022
Zinkworks are now looking for talented individuals to join our 2022 graduate programme. We are looking for recent software engineering graduates to work with us on mission-critical software projects for some of the world’s largest technology companies. Zinkworks is a trusted partner to international market leaders in Telecommunications and Financial markets, where we provide digital transformation solutions to elevate their business operations.
We are seeking graduates with drive, curiosity and passion, who want to create a smarter future. Through our graduate programme, you will be part of a supportive environment, working alongside our diverse teams of engineers, where we are invested in your growth and development.
We want to give you the best start to your technology career. Are you ready to join us and start your journey with Zinkworks today?
REQUIRED SKILLSET
The ideal candidate for the graduate programme will have:
- Recent graduate of Bachelors/Masters degree in software engineering or a similar discipline
- Curious fast learner – who is eager to thrive in a professional environment
- Java experience/ DevOps experience in academia
- Experience working with application frameworks, such as Spring Boot
- Knowledge of programming & coding
- A passion for innovation, discovery and trying new things
- The ability to build strong working relationships with customers and other members of the software development teams
- The ability to obtain and analyse information
- Effective communications skills
- Understanding of development processes
WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Zinkworks provides a buddy system for all graduates. Each joiner will be paired up with one of our experienced engineers to help and guide them.
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Strong emphasis on learning and education.
An established support system, with approachable management and regular check-ins with line managers, allows you to address any questions, or concerns you may have.
Offering full-time permanent contract.
Apply now or before 19th of April 2022
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Work with us: Product Owner
Looking to make a change in your career? Working with new and exciting technologies of interest to you? Then Zinkworks may be for you!
We work in the 5G and Financial Services fields, working on groundbreaking projects and making advancements in these areas.
We are looking for a team-orientated, enthusiastic and career-driven individual to join our team as a Product Owner
Duties:
- Plan and prioritise product feature backlog, ensuring backlog management, iteration planning, and elaboration of the user stories.
- Ability to make, sell, evaluate and uphold the Business Case for Backlog prioritizations.
- Mitigate impediments impacting the completion of releases and achieving Sprint goals.
- Ensure the development team has an adequate number of prepared tasks to work on each sprint.
- Liaison between customers and the development team.
- Ensure work focuses on those with maximum value that are aligned with product strategy.
- Ability to motivate teams and individuals around a common product vision and a vision of product development excellence.
This role might be for you if you have:
- The ideal candidate will have a third level qualification and/or equivalent industry experience in computer science and technology.
- 1+ years working as a Product Owner or similar role.
- 3+ years’ experience in a commercially focused technology organization (Telco is a big advantage).
- Java or DevOps development experience would also be a big plus.
- Knowledge of Cloud Native technologies.
- Experience with SDLC and artefact management tools such as JIRA.
- Strong problem-solving ability and capability to react to changing requirements.
- Strong organizational and multitasking skills including the ability to effectively track and prioritize workloads.
- Candidate should be articulate and have strong attention to detail.
A method to override external domain name resolution in coredns
- You are trying to replicate an issue that you observe in a different environment, in your dev K8s cluster. To successfully replicate the issue, you need to ensure that you use the same hostnames, application FQDNs that were used in the original environment.
- You are testing an application running on Kubernetes that requires access to third party external endpoints over the internet. You need to ensure that these third-party external connections are created towards some known, test services, not the actual ones.
- You need an alternative and a more centralized way to control the responses received to DNS queries by the application pods. (e.g. You do not like to use “hostAliases” option with K8s pods)
First, we are going to run a “dnsmasq” server in the same Kubernetes cluster as a pod. It will be associated with a configmap through which we can manipulate the DNS records. Other than that, the dnsmasq pod will be exposed via a clusterIP type Kubernetes service.
To run a “dnsmasq” server as a container, we can first create docker image using following Dockerfile.
As you may notice in the ENTRYPOINT of above, we are running “dnsmasq” in foreground (-d) as well as we pass a configuration file (-C) and a hosts (-H) file to it. During the build, these files do not necessarily need to exist in the docker image. However, during the runtime we will mount relevant configuration files to /var/dnsmasq/conf/dnsmasq.conf and /var/dnsmasq/hosts location accordingly.
Now you can build the docker image with “docker build –t dnsmasq:latest ” command. You may push it to a docker image repository that is accessible by your Kubernetes cluster, afterwards
Now let us create a couple of configmaps to pass the dnsmasq.conf and hosts files to the running dnsmasq pod.
In below example, we are creating a fake DNS record, that resolves www.zinkworks.com to 10.100.1.1 address. Also, we will create a host’s file record that maps example.zinkworks.com to 10.100.1.2
You can create above configmaps in the namespace where you will run the dnsmasq pod, using “kubectl create –f“or “kubectl apply –f” commands.
Next let us create a dnsmasq pod using the docker image built in step 1. We will also mount the configmaps created previously to /var/dnsmasq/conf/dnsmasq.conf and /var/dnsmasq/hosts as files.
Above is an example pod definition to run the dnsmasq container with desired configurations. Notice how, dnsmasq-conf and dnsmasq-hosts configmaps are mounted as files to the pod. Also notice the “NET_ADMIN” capability given to the container. This will allow you to run the container with UDP port 53.
You can create the pod by running “kubectl create –f” or “kubectl apply –f” commands on above pod definition.
Once the dnsmasq pod is created, you can confirm if it is running fine by looking at the pod logs.
Here is an example output. In this case, it is assumed that dnsmsq pod is created in dnsmasq namespace.
Finally, we will expose the dnsmasq pod via a kubernetes service.
In the future steps, we may need to use the service IP assigned to the dnsmsq service to send our DNS queries to the dnsmasq container. To find the service IP of the dnsmasq service, you can run “kubectl get svc” command on the namespace where you run dnsmasq pod.
In our example the dnsmasq service IP is 10.108.96.48.
You can further check if the domain name resolution is working as expected in the dnsmasq container by running a few nslookup commands from a different pod.
In below example, we are running a pod called ubuntu-debugger in the same cluster from which we can check the responses sent by the dnsmasq. It is assumed that ubuntu-debugger pod has nslookup utility.
Notice how in the first nslookup command for www.zinkworks.com has returned the actual public IP instead of the fake one we provided to the dnsmasq container in dnsmasq.conf file. This is because this external DNS queries are handled by the coredns and they are by default forwarded to the nameservers specified in /etc/resolv.conf file.
Now in the subsequent nslookup commands we specify the service IP of the dnsmasq service which is 10.108.96.48. This ensures that the DNS query is processed by our dnsmasq container directly. As you notice in the second nslookup command for www.zinkworks.com, We have received the fake IP we configured in the dnsmasq container through the dnsmasq.conf file.
Any other query that dnsmasq service cannot answer will be sent to the next nameserver in the chain. In our case it is 8.8.8.8
Now as you noticed in step 2 above, all external DNS queries are by default not forwarded to our dnsmasq container, unless we specify the nameserver in our query. This is not convenient. Therefore, next we look at how we can configure the coredns to forward all our external DNS queries to dnsmasq container by default.
First, we open the coredns configmap in edit mode by running the following command.
$ kubectl edit configmap –namespace kube-system coredns
This will open a similar configuration as shown below on your editor.
The highlighted “forward” section in above configuration should now be modified to forward the external DNS queries to our dnsmasq container.
After the modification the configmap should appear as shown below.
Next save and exit from the editor so that above change is now reflected to coredns configmap.
Finally, you can restart the coredns pods in kube-system namespace by deleting them. This will ensure that our modified configuration is loaded into the new instances of coredns pods that will come up after deleting the old replicas.
Here is the command to delete the current coredns pods.
$ kubectl delete pods –namespace kube-system –force –grace-period=0 $(kubectl get pods –namespace kube-system | grep coredns | awk -F ‘ ‘ ‘{print $1}’)
Now, let us run the same nslookup command on www.zinkworks.com from our ubuntu-debugger container to see if we are getting the expected response.
As expected, the queries for www.zinkworks.com and example.zinkworks.com return the fake IPs we configured in dnsmasq.conf and hosts file in dnsmasq pod.
To find out more about careers at Zinkworks click here.