Pages

Friday, 30 December 2016

When Android Autocorrect goes bad

I posted an solution this year to correct an over-active Word Autocorrect entry that you can’t seem to delete.

That post sparked a question from a fellow-LinkedInner, who asked: "Hmmmm. I haven't had a problem in Word, but I do have issues with my (dated) Android mobile ... Any tips on how to delete words from that, Sam?"


Darn good question!

I had a quick hunt online, found a rough outline of a solution, checked on my phone and replied: "Open your keyboard in a message. Hold down the microphone key just to the left of the spacebar, and when an icon with sliders shows up, let go. You will get a pop-up that says 'Input options' and it will give you two options. Select 'Android keyboard settings' from those options, then see if you can find a 'Personal dictionary' tab. Select, then select your language, then look for the word you want. Change/delete. Lemmeno if it works!".

I sent the response, then had a brief crisis of confidence, because Android OSs - despite all being Android - are not necessarily QUITE the same, and this solution was for KitKat! So I posted an addendum, "Oh - should have said - or look for things with similar titles. Not all Android is made the same!".

If you have predictive text enabled, you should also be able to 'long press' on the incorrect auto-correct entry word, then select your required option from the pop-up menu; eg, edit, or delete from dictionary... but this will depend on your particular Android OS and build.


Sam
read more "When Android Autocorrect goes bad "

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

How to get a Transcript from YouTube

This article is a how to on how to get a transcript of an uploaded .mp4 file from YouTube, using Windows freeware.

I put this article together as a "how to" for my year three research students.

First (of course) you must create your recording. Most of us will record an .mp3 file.

But we can't upload an mp3 file to YouTube. It needs to be an .mp4.

To transform your .mp3 file into an .mp4, I suggest you download Windows MovieMaker. You will need to check which version you need here, and you can then download directly from the link on the page.

Install MovieMaker.

Open MovieMaker. Drop an image into MovieMaker and extend the time to 30 seconds in the Edit tab, under "Duration". Copy this extended image as many times as you need for the length of your .mp3 file.

Now go to the home tab, and move your cursor back to the start of your images (usually Ctrl & Home will work). Once your cursor line is right at the start of your project, click the "Add music" dropdown, and select "Add music at the current point..." option.

Navigate to where your transcript .mp3 file is. Wait while your file loads. Check that your .mp3 file ends before your images (otherwise your transcript will be incomplete).

Go to the file tab and select "Save movie" and "For high definition display". Wait while your .mp4 is made.

Once your file is completed, upload it to your YouTube account as a "Private" file (so no-one other than you can see it, and YouTube won't index it).

Then all you need to do is to wait for YouTube to create an auto transcript, which it does for everything that is uploaded.

You access your transcript by clicking the "more" and the ellipsis (the three dots, "…") under the video link, then selecting the transcript option from the pop-up menu.

The words of the transcript will show underneath that, which you can then copy (using Ctrl & C), and paste the transcript into MS Word.


You can also watch a video of this at:


There are also more instructions tidying up your transcript here.

Sam
read more "How to get a Transcript from YouTube"

Monday, 26 December 2016

Replace Many File Extensions Together

Did you know that Windows has the ability to change a whole range of file extensions all at once?

I have looked for this feature year after year, and never found it. But Ed Bott, from TechRepublic, posted the definitive 'how to' earlier this year.

He said "If you want to change the file extension for a group of files, for example, you can type ren *.jpg *.jpg and be done in a flash". But you have key that change into the Command window (you remember: that old DOS window).

You get to the command window in your desired folder by opening Windows/File Explorer, and going "to the folder that contains the files and subfolders you want to manage, then hold down Shift as you right-click. Select Open Command Window Here from the shortcut menu."

Oh, so easy!

Sam
read more "Replace Many File Extensions Together"

Friday, 23 December 2016

Moving from hierarchies to devolved decision-making

We tend to consider the military in terms of hierarchies.

However, in modern warfare, it is probably more useful to consider devolved decision-making, where those who are doing the job are well prepared to make decisions that fit with the broader strategic goals of the organisation.

On the fly. As it happens. For that, you need a different approach to strategic planning, thinking and training.

University of Queensland School of Business lecturer in innovation, Tim Kastelle, talks about why that is.



Sam
read more "Moving from hierarchies to devolved decision-making"

Wednesday, 21 December 2016

Data Never Sleeps 3.0

Domo has published internet consumption / generation / creation data by the minute for the past couple of years. The sum of digital creativity produced every sixty seconds on the planet is staggering - and increasing year on year.

For example, Pinterest pins for Data 2.0 were 3,472; for 3.0, 9722. YouTube video was 72 hours; now 300. 277,000 tweets became 347,222.

infographic

Sam
  • Reference: DOMO (2015). Data Never Sleeps 3.0. Retrieved 5 June 2016 from https://www.domo.com/blog/2015/08/data-never-sleeps-3-0/
read more "Data Never Sleeps 3.0"

Monday, 19 December 2016

Making PowerPoint Notes Run Over Two Pages

I was trying to help a colleague print their PowerPoint notes pages, and found that the notes, instead of printing over two pages, as mine do, kept shrinking to fit one notes page.

I got to the point of pdfing the PowerPoint file, but although it looked like it was working perfectly within the PowerPoint itself, and the page count was right as it was being sent to pdf, on opening the pdf file, the result was the original PowerPoint slide count without the extra 'over-flow' text pages that should have appeared.

It was persistently shrinking to fit.

I realised that this must be something to do with the template. So I checked out the Slide Master. I changed the font size, and specified it in the Notes Master. I ticked "Do not Autofit" under Master View | Notes Master | Text Direction | More Options | Autofit.
Grr! I was STILL unable to make the text run over one page in length. All the help posts online for this seem to point to this behaviour being quite "normal", and providing all sorts of peculiar gymnastics in order to create an overflow notes page.

Seeing as I have old PowerPoint slides which do this auto-magically, but I felt there must be a native solution within PowerPoint that would allow this to happen. I had just not yet found the magic bullet.

Until today.

The solution is not found within the Master view, or within the font sizing tools.

Navigate to the slide in your PowerPoint deck whose notes you want to expand.
Go to the view tab.
Click on "notes pages".
Highlight the text in the notes page.
Select the text, and go to the home tab.
Now select the font and size you want to display.
Select the paragraph formatting.
Go to Text Direction | More Options | Autofit and select "Do not Autofit".

Unfortunately, you will have to do this for each page that you want your notes to go over the page on.

But at least now your PowerPoint deck will print out with multiple pages of notes.


Sam
read more "Making PowerPoint Notes Run Over Two Pages"

Friday, 16 December 2016

Add notes to a pdf/a file

If you have had the problem where you have a PDF/A document that you can't add any notes to, there is a surprisingly easy fix.

All you need is Adobe Acrobat.

Open the file in Acrobat, then:
  1. Go to the edit menu.
  2. Select preferences | documents | PDF/A View Mode | View documents in PDF/A mode. Select "Never" from the dropdown list.
  3. You can now add notes or highlight the pdf.


Sam
read more "Add notes to a pdf/a file"

Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Sport Sociology in Aotearoa New Zealand

I recently read a great article on the history of sports sociology in New Zealand, and how it has developed as a field of expertise at our various institutions.

Written by Professor emeritus Rex Thomson (Otago, then Unitech) and Professor Steve Jackson (Otago), this paper clearly outlines the marginalised role that sport sociology has in New Zealand, in stark comparison to the high profile role and access to funding that elite sports performance holds.

The authors explore the development of the sport sociology landscape in New Zealand, including the main players. Interestingly, the paper is very light on what is going on at AUT, which surprised me... even more because, while Lynn Kidman was mentioned in relation to her time at Otago, the paper was silent on her continuing time at AUT.

They also point out some ideas in this sector that need a little more attention: the growing attraction of western governments to performance-based research; the dominance of the English language in the sector; and an apparent reluctance to debate views that contrast with our own.

Interestingly, while talking about PBRF and neo-liberal politics, the authors segued into a short rant on the commercialisation of academic publishing. This is hardly solely relevant to the sociology of sport in New Zealand, but is a view that I share.
The authors wonder "how Karl Marx would view the current state of academic publishing. As researchers we do the work, including hours of careful planning, data collection and analysis, writing, submitting to journals, waiting for reviews and then carefully rewriting and resubmitting our manuscripts. However, that is only half the story. Many of us will also be involved in reviewing and editing manuscripts as service to editorial boards of journals that are predominantly privately owned. Ultimately, we labour, produce and often end up buying back the products of our own labour from private, profit-making publishers who we are increasingly being asked to subsidise! For all his faults, Karl Marx may have been right (Jackson, 2015a; 2015b)" (Thomson & Jackson, 2016, pp. 97-98)
This paper is definitely worth a read.

Sam
  • Reference: Thomson, R. W., & Jackson, S. (2016). History and development of the sociology of sport in Aotearoa New Zealand. New Zealand Sociology, 31(3), 78.
read more "Sport Sociology in Aotearoa New Zealand"

Monday, 12 December 2016

Animating a panorama photo to an mp4 movie using freeware

Recently, rather than create photo albums, I have been creating little mp4 movies from montages and panned views of photos, film clips, and photos of trip artefacts.

Set it to music, and you can watch it in three minutes, and show visitors... rather than boring them to death over several hours.

I remember a colleague showing their trip away which was supposed to last ten minutes, and e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y took two hours. The travellers themselves were engrossed. Their audience had run out of endurance.

I use Microsoft MovieMaker, which works really well for putting little mp4s together. I can put music in the background, add captions, choose from a fairly simple list of transitions how I will segue between images and video. I then upload to YouTube or to my Google drive to host it, and send people the link. It is very easy.

Until you get to panoramic still photos, that is. Movie Maker shows your entire image shrunk to fit in the screen, so you get a lot of black at the top and bottom. While you can pan across the entire image, it shows the first 80% on the screen right from the start, and only pans across the final 20%.

I would like to have the panorama still image show full-screen, then pan across the rest of the panorama full-screen, until it reaches the end. Much more dramatic that way.

So I went looking. Google search turned up that other users had the same request:
Ajma posted "I'm looking for some kind of app (preferably free) that will help me take a panoramic image and make a video that is panning across. I want the image to fill the entire screen (no black bars) and the output should be HD (1080 is preferable, 720 is ok). I'm running a Windows PC. Anybody know of one?"
However, Ajma did not really get a suitable answer. Someone suggested using PowerPoint, but it was apparently of poor quality and irregular in panning. I tried a couple of software downloads, including Panolapse, and PanoramaMaker 6, none of which delivered.

I did hear about Instaspan, an Apple app that videos your panoramas for posting to Instagram. However, I can't seem to find an Android (phone) or a Windows (PC) alternative.

Adobe has lots of tools, but I don't own the suite of - expensive - software, and don't want to make an investment of thousands just to do this one simple thing.

I am now trying Google Photos, to see if I can create something using the native tools online.

I will report back!


Sam

References:
read more "Animating a panorama photo to an mp4 movie using freeware"

Friday, 9 December 2016

The Slough of Despond... and new beginnings

In February of this year, I was ready to push the "Submit" button on my PhD application for pre-candidature.

All I was waiting on was confirmation from my supervisor that the pre-proposal changes we had discussed, and that I had written up, had hit the mark.

That day, while waiting for this confirmation, I got a phone call. It was my supervisor. "I can't supervise you. I don't have capacity".

"What if we push it back a year?"

"Won't make a difference".

Worse, my secondary supervisor couldn't supervise me, as she was offshore, and Uni regs wouldn't allow a non-resident supervisor. My advisor hadn't finished her own PhD. To say I was pole-axed was an understatement.

Pole-axed because my intended supervisor had heard that I had come up a PhD idea, and had approached me and asked me to develop a different PhD project in answer to a question they posed me. Their Uni would pay my fees, plus a small amount of expenses. I would be the inaugural PhD scholar on their programme. I had been head-hunted.

I felt a bit special: silly, may be, but I had been asked. In return, I felt a duty to do the best for my 'client'. I started by doing lots of thinking and reading.

And after six months of hard work, planning and writing to get to that point, it was ripped away in one five minute phone call.

The aftermath of this left me in limbo for probably a month, processing what this meant. I had some conversations with academics, fellow-travellers, and after a while, decided to go back to my original PhD idea.

Then I had a conversation with my Master's thesis supervisor, telling him the story. Who immediately said "dump the original idea. It's not exciting" and "do the sports governance thing. It's really topical".

He even suggested a Uni to apply to.

After a fortnight of thinking about it, I did as he had suggested. I now have two supervisors on my team at that Uni. After some sensible edits, rethinking, refining and clarifications, I pushed the "Submit" button on my pre-proposal.

I am now waiting to hear if the Uni will accept my pre-proposal as it was submitted, or if their Academic Committee will suggest some more edits.

Into the Slough of Despond (Alcott, 1869, p. 11), again. And apparently out. I will wait and see.


Sam
  • Reference: Alcott, Louisa May (1869). Little Women: or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (Fourth Edition, 1915). USA: Orchard House
read more "The Slough of Despond... and new beginnings"

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

Word bibliography style error on pdf

I have recently run into an UGLY error when trying to pdf a document that contained a Word bibliography.

My bibliography section was originally formatted as Times New Roman 12 point, and only taking up two thirds of the width of the page. Hideous in a document where the style was formatted as Calibri 11 point.

I figured that it was because I had not set the style permanently in Word. So I changed the bibliographical style to Calibri 11 point, full page width, as a new style, and named it.

Regardless, every time I went to print to pdf, style reverted to Times New Roman 12 point, and only taking up two thirds of the width of the page.

I realise that must've been Word fields which automatically updated when sending the document to print, but I was unable to find out what that were, and what to turn off. I tried turning off several things, to no avail.

I looked on Google and was unable to find anything. I found lots of stuff on tweaking APA formatting in Word using code, but nothing about style settings.

Until I found Doug Robbins - Word MVP, who - in reply to Bruce sc - said "Ctrl+A (to select everything) and then Ctrl+F11 to Lock the fields". which worked perfectly (9 May 2011).

The issue is indeed a printer setting, not a style setting (though obviously the styles don't 'stick').

You can also "Ctrl+Shift+F9 to Unlink [the fields]", so the problem never comes up again.

Sam
read more "Word bibliography style error on pdf"

Monday, 5 December 2016

Macaronic Latin plurals

Who knows about Latin plurals? I have always found them to be a bit tricky. These days, I tend to forget and to simply Anglicise them. I think this is becoming a global trend.

I have noted that few people say 'celli' when speaking about the cello section in an orchestra. And - depending on the company you are keeping, of course - you can look like a numpty if you use the Latin plural correctly, or if you don't. Damned each way, really.

Anyway, I was trying to find what the plural of Professor Emeritus/Emerita was, for an official letter to a Uni (and I thought I had better get this right). Wordsmith.org provided some people who really knew their grammatical construction.
Bobyoungbalt said "A Latin passive participle, the 4th of the 4 principle parts of most verbs, is often used as an adjective, and is always given in the nominative singular masculine form and in the 2nd Declension form and is declined accordingly. A single judge who is a man would be a Judge emeritus, a woman would be a Judge emerita; two women Judges emeritae, two or more all men or a mixture of men and women, Judges emeriti. It's exac[t]ly the same as alumnus: you have one alumnus or alumna, two alumni or alumnae". Bobyoungbalt went on to say "As to the propriety of mixing an English word with a Latin modifier and declining the Latin (at least as far as respects number and gender -- we don't pay attention to case), this is not infrequent. In fact, there is a word for it: macaronic"(Wordsmith.org, 2001).
Nice and clear. This post got a number of replies, including the following, from Tsuwm:
"the 'original meaning' [... pertained to] a burlesque form of verse in which vernacular words are introduced into a Latin context with Latin terminations and in Latin constructions. Also, applied to similar verse of which the basis is Greek instead of Latin; and loosely to any form of verse in which two or more languages are mingled together" (Wordsmith.org, 2001).
Tsuwm went on to say that macaronic was likely:
"to have been invented by Teofilo Folengo (‘Merlinus Cocaius’) whose ‘macaronic’ poem (Liber Macaronices) was published in 1517. He explains (ed. 2, 1521) that the ‘macaronic art’ is so called from macaroni, which is ‘quoddam pulmentum farina, caseo, botiro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanum’"(Wordsmith.org, 2001).
I like it. We smash English together with Latin endings in a way that is big, rough and rustic, like blending cheese and flour. Fascinating.

With the result that even today, more than 500 years later, we can use Latin adjective endings and be 'correct'.

Thus, two Professors Emeritus are Professors Emeriti, regardless of whether they are male or female.

Easy.


Sam
read more "Macaronic Latin plurals"

Friday, 2 December 2016

Getting to Grips with Planning

Seriously, the MOST important thing you can do right now is to get on with planning your time.

By this, I do not mean that you plan everything down to the minute and then beat yourself up if you don't achieve it.

I mean that you list EVERYTHING that you have to do for this paper, and put in a rough date for completion. Break down your writing into the detail of when you will start writing your methodology for your research report. When you aim to finish. When you will start editing and proofing your research report.

Once you have a good plan, anything that you don't get done you move forward so you don't forget it. Those things you get done ahead of time, you change the due date to date achieved. You monitor your progress against your plan.

A good plan is flexible, not hewn in stone.

A good plan will have detail. Small, bite-sized tasks. Your plan should have LOTS small items which, when you think: "Oh. I have 15 minutes - I should be able to knock that job off now", will really help you stay on track.

Your plan will be realistic. You need to as accurately as possible cost your tasks in terms of your hours. Remember that you are expected to throw 300 hours at this project, so break your time down according to whether you want to pass, or whether you want an A (add a factor of 33% for an A).

It will include who is responsible, what you need to complete first, and what day - and sometimes what time - you will start items. It will include enough detail for you to remember exactly what that particular tasks is going to entail five months after you wrote it.

Your plan should help you when you lose track or lose confidence. If your planning is done in enough detail, you can just keep plodding through your task list. It will carry you forward when you can temporarily not see your path.

For ideas of what to include in your research plan, check out the plan template here. For ideas of how many hours you need to allocate to certain tasks, check out the Tasks matched to Learning Outcomes here.

Also remember that you are BUSINESS students. Planning is a key part of your professional persona. This is your opportunity to hone your planning skills.

In addition, a good plan will help you get great marks for your progress reports.


Sam

Also see:
read more "Getting to Grips with Planning"

Argh! How do I find a research topic?

Trying to get your first idea if you are a 'blank page' can be a problem.

Remember that this is a management problem, so you need to find a project with strong links to a management issue.

Material on the BUS750 course research topic can be found here. Reading through all the instructions on the home page on Moodle this may be enough to get you started.

However, if not, lots of people have come up with check-lists that you can go through to generate some yeast starters which will hopefully lead to a research idea.

Read the articles at the following links:

Sam
read more "Argh! How do I find a research topic?"

BUS750 Course Materials

Hi everyone, and welcome to BUS750!

To make the most of your headstart, work through the following items to get your head around how the course will run, what is expected of you and how you can support your learning.

This will take you a couple of hours or so, but careful consideration of what you need to do and when you will plan to do it will pay dividends.
Step 1 - Find out what is expected of you Read the Course Outline for an overview of the course. This is a really important document as it lays out the structure, assessments and general guidelines for your research project. Then read Tasks matched to Learning Outcomes.This shows you roughly how you will need to plan your time.
Step 2 - Find out about the assessments Diarise the assessments from your Course Outline, and view the Research Project Flowchart here in order to understand the research tasks and timing you will need to keep to in order to complete the course.

The Course Calendar is a great resource for you to print off and put on your study wall or on the fridge. Then you will be able to mark off the weeks and see when assessments are due.
Step 3 - Plan your time Start writing up a plan for the entire semester. A draft plan template is available here. I have found that the students who plan their entire research project in detail have far fewer problems than those who don't. Remember that you are business students: planning is a key tool for monitoring how we are getting things done... and ensuring the slips get picked up.
Step 4 – Other Resources Get the course textbook for this course (Ian Jones - Research Methods for Sports Studies). AbeBooks has it for sale here.
Step 5 - Make sure you know how to use Moodle View the Moodle homepage once you have Moodle access. Introduce yourselves on the Introductions forum. Make connections with the other students, and start asking questions of each other.

Take a tour of the BUS750 Moodle site so you can be sure that you feel comfortable finding your way around this course and using the tools.
Step 6 - Find out who I am Check out the details in the right-hand sidebar and my NMIT Profile to find out who your lecturer is (that's me). You will be allocated a supervisor once we know what your topic is, so the faster you get that sorted, the better!
Step 7 - Get started! Get into it! Check out the sub-topics on the Home tab, then segue over to the 1. Planning tab and look at what else you need to complete for your first week.
There will be some follow up posts detailing what you need to tackle to get to your research question sorted.


Sam
read more "BUS750 Course Materials"

Essays versus applied assignments

A couple of years ago, Melanie Wilcox posted a piece on Acculturated.com in support of continued use of essays as an assignment task. She said "When we learn to write logically, we learn to think more clearly, and therefore speak more clearly" (Wilcox, 2014).

Melanie was upholding the essay as a tool for learning writing skills in response to Professor Schuman's Slated post (2013), on the many and varied reasons for not assigning essays. The professor was outspoken, saying that “students hate writing [essays],” and “instructors hate grading them”, among other things (Schuman, 2013).

While I totally agree Melanie on the with need to teach writing skills to students, I personally find essays are not the 'right' construct for teaching writing skills.

I have never been asked in the corporate sector to write an essay. I can imagine the response if I delivered a four page clump of text, without sub-headings, in response to a business issue.

So, as a business lecturer, I don't assign essays. Ever. But, unlike Professor Schuman, I don't fall back on exams, either. To quote a colleague of mine, "Show me the learning in an exam" (Kidman, 2011).

Delivering under exam time pressure is unlikely to build logic or clarity in writing. It will get you a data-dump of what the student has crammed into short-term memory, and I am not interested in assessing this ephemeral 'knowledge'. And knowledge is, after all, the bottom end of Bloom's taxonomy.

What I am interested in is Bloom's upper levels of application, analysis, evaluation, and creation. So I get students to write case studies, research reports, progress updates, briefing papers, reflective logs, blog posts and diary notes. They write using the tools that they will be using in the workplace.

This is because I too, along with the professor that Melanie cited, loathe marking essays. Instead I get students to practice their logical, clear and planned approach to writing in formats which I prefer reading, and which students prefer writing: and those that they are more likely to use as graduates.

And I don't miss the essays. At all.


Sam

References:
read more "Essays versus applied assignments "