Rogue Tory

Thesis and experiment progress

Paul — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:10:04 +0000

After setting up my experiment a week or so ago, I’ve now moved into thesis writing mode. At forty pages, it seems to be taking shape quite well. My abstract is more or less finalised (after only two revisions with my supervisor, so I think I must have done a good job the first time round), the thesis overview is ready, a large chunk of my related work chapter was written over the last six months anyway and the methodology chapter is mapped out in my head. I’m not sure how quickly it’s all going to fall into place, but I think I’m well on track to finish by the informal deadline of 1st December which I’ve agreed with my supervisor.

My technical experiment, the results of which will be analysed in my thesis, is also coming along slowly. So far 15 people have taken part (thank you!), which is 30% of the number I’m aiming for and 50% of the minimum I need, so that’s reasonably encouraging, and I’m hoping that some of the people who I’ve emailed today will also take part. Results and analysis is the only chapter which I’m worried about—all the others I know what I’m going to write so hopefully I will get some reasonable results from the experiment which is currently running and the one I plan to setup next weekend.

Between my thesis, starting a new contract and running Manchester FoE without Sam (though assisted by Sarah and Cat), I’m massively stressed out and have had to miss several meetings (including mySociety Manchester and Manchester Free Software) in the last month just to keep on top of things, but hopefully things will gradually calm down in the next month or so and return to mildly hectic, as opposed to the stress-testing madness at the moment.

Help push forward the frontiers of science

Paul — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:21:41 +0000

As part of the research for my MPhil, I’m running a simple experiment to try and find out the keywords which people associate with news stories on the Web. The survey comes in two parts – first of all you’ll be asked to look at some existing web pages and enter some keywords which you think describe the main story on the page. After completing this stage, you’ll then be shown some more web pages and asked to rate some suggested sets of keywords for each one. You can complete the survey online – it will probably take between twenty and thirty minutes based on the people who have taken part so far.

There’s no tangible reward for taking part, other than the warm fuzzy feeling of helping me to get some results for my MPhil, plus my eternal gratitude, hugs (if you so wish), and a promise to be less stressed once this is all over and done.

Disclaimer: Title of this post may be a slight exagguration.

Keeping on top of things

Paul — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:55:03 +0000

I’m somehow managing to keep on top of Friends of the Earth work in Sam’s absence—probably because it’s a quieter time of the year with so many people being on holiday, although local groups conference is approaching fast (I have to organise getting the group there, as well as planning a workshop which I’m running) and there are deadlines for the newsletter and membership leaflet coming up. We’ve also started a company to run the group’s activities through—for which muggins here has ended up as the company secretary as a result of being the only person who knows a lot about company law.

MPhil progress (or lack thereof)

I still don’t have my experiment up and running, though that’s largely because I’ve spent so much time fixing code written by other people (especially JTidy, who don’t keep their documentation in sync with their latest release—I wasted several hours trying to figure out why I couldn’t use a documented method, only to find out that it didn’t exist). I’m hoping to get things going this week though, as I really need to get some users through the system, tune the algorithm and then start writing up my results. I’ve only got two months left until I finish—although I can, and probably will, ask for a year of “submission pending” status, during which I can’t conduct any further research but am allowed to write up and submit my thesis. I think I will get everything done in time, though it all hinges on my results as I’m fairly confident that I can write decent chapters for related work, future work, methodology etc.

Jobs

Haven’t heard anything definite yet from anyone who I have spoken to, though I did have a constructive lunch on Tuesday—and discovered a reasonably-priced restaurant within walking distance of Euston—so I am currently waiting to see what, if anything, happens as a result.

OpenTech 2008 - a reflection

Paul — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:55:32 +0000

I spent last Saturday in London at OpenTech 2008, an event organised by UKUUG “and friends”. There were lots of interesting talks—allowing fifteen minutes per speaker ensured a variety and that no one got bored listening to one voice for too long—across a range of subjects from green IT to accessing “freely available” government data. I was also asked/volunteered to chair one of the sessions, which was enjoyable—even though the “projector and laptop failing to talk to one another” beast reared its head at one point.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend the conference itself, recordings of some of the talks should be available in the next few weeks – keep your eyes on the OpenTech 2008 website for details. Already there are some photos available, including several of me—chairing a session puts you at the mercy of the camera far more than just milling around in the audience!

The only downside to the whole day was a five hour train->bus->train journey back, as engineering works on the West Coast Main Line forced me to go via Northampton and Birmingham International. Luckily I’d set off earlier than normal—someone else (who unfortunately I didn’t know was in London) ended up having to book a hotel after missing the last train…

Perhaps I should move to London

Paul — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:03:57 +0000

As all the important meetings etc. seem to be there, including in the next month:

30th June: UKUUG Council meeting and venue viewing
2nd July: Association of History and Computing committee meeting and book proposal
5th July: OpenTech 2008
19th July: Campaign Against Climate Change steering group meeting

Plus a possible interview at some time in the next couple of weeks…

Dance off with the Star Wars stars

Paul — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:13:35 +0000

Via Ma.tt: Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars 2008

Anyone who can dance to Footloose whilst wearing a Jawa outfit deserves something, but I’m not sure ‘respect’ is the right word…

A week of activism

Paul — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:57:45 +0000

I’m not normally a big activist, usually because I’m so busy trying to keep my eye on/organise everything that I don’t get much time to actually take much action as an individual. However, this weekend I managed to lobby my MP over amendments to the Climate Change Bill and all of my MEPs on standards for new power stations in Europe (I know, not the most exciting of subjects). I felt quite pleased afterwards too, though I don’t know whether any of my letters/emails will get a response or the action I want my elected representatives to take. Stallsl on Monday and Tuesday for FoE also await, as does the chairing and minuting of the Greater Manchester Local Groups network on Thursday, preparation of documents and motions prioritisation for local groups conference, company formation and various other bits and bobs. One day I might even get paid for this…

Dropping down to MPhil

Paul — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:26:46 +0000

For those people who don’t know already, I’ve decided to drop down from my PhD and just do an MPhil this year. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and there are numerous reasons behind it—though mainly it’s a case of not wanting to do research full time (I enjoy it, but I’m not that committed to it) and it not getting me to where I want to be (chairman of a FTSE 350 company). It’s a shame, as I’ve got two really good supervisors who I get on with, plus a good research grant, but I think it’s better to leave in October than continue into the second year. Fortunately, I’m registered to do an MPhil anyway (the University sometimes registers first year PhD students as MPhil students anyway, though how they choose to do this appears to be an entirely random process), so I don’t need to change which course I’m on or anything like that. Hopefully I can also get a short extension in order for me to write up my thesis—apparently this is at the University’s discretion, but in practice this means my supervisors can decide.

So, come October I will stepping up my freelancing to a full time job, though hopefully leaving time to continue my commitments to Friends of the Earth, UKUUG and the Classical Association. Since I’ll be doing it full time, it will probably be worth activating my company (which is currently dormant) and invoicing clients through that mechanism. I think if I’m honest about it, this is really what I’ve wanted to do most of my life anyway—when I was eight I had already decided that I wanted to be a hotel manager with a chain of branches across the UK, so running a business has always been at the forefront of m mind.

In other news, I have been really out of it the last couple of days, which I think is as a result of doing too much. I’ve forgotten agendas, arrived late for events and not brought notes to meetings, which is not like me at all. I’ve also felt ill on a worryingly regular basis since starting my PhD, which is part of the reason why I want to leave now rather than sticking it out for another two years.

Good old USA

Paul — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:02:57 +0000

It’s not often that I praise the United States of America, but one thing which I do like about them is their policy towards making data created by government agencies free of copyright (in most cases) and available for download over the Web. As a result, I can obtain a complete list of geographical names (which will be really useful for my research, as I need to recognise locations within a corpus of text) in an open standard format, for free, with no restrictions on usage. The file also contains huge amounts of geographical information, which isn’t necessary for my work at the moment but could be interesting later on. This is completely different to the UK, where lots of information is collected and held by the Ordnance Survey (or the Royal Mail if you want postcode to coordinates mapping), which will require you to remortgage your house in order to afford the licences for their data.

Restaurants in London

Paul — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:59:18 +0000

Following on my previous post, I’m currently looking for restaurants (or other catering venues) near the centre of London (defined as ‘within walking/short tube distance of Euston’) which can offer a three course meal and wine for over ninety people on a weekday evening. I know there are some Londoners who read my blog, so is there anyone who can offer any recommendations?