Google Photos system tray icon error

I recently had a problem with Google photos.

Google photos automatically synchronises my image and film files on one drive with the cloud - which is fabulous. Until I forgot and saved a huge video file to that drive.

Then I was unable to do almost anything, because my upload pipe was jammed with a 3Gb file.

Simple, I thought: I will simply pause Google photos. It is the matter of a moment to hover over the Google icon in the system tray, get the pop up menu, and select 'Pause backup'.

So I went to do that. Only to find that for some strange reason, my Google photos icon had disappeared from my system tray. Ah. I vaguely remembered this happening once before, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what I had done to repair it.

OK, I thought: I will attempt to repair the Google photos app installation. I went to installed programmes and found that my only option was to uninstall the software - there was no repair option.

No problem. Someone is sure to have had the same issue - I will just google it. I did that, to find that yes, someone had had this issue before, and had been told to shut down and restart (which didn't work).

However, the person with the issue found their own solution: they simply redownloaded the Google photos app (here) and reinstalled it over the top of the existing install.

I was worried about doing that with an ongoing upload, so I first turned off my router (why hadn't I thought of that in the first place?!), then moved the offending file to the correct, non-cloud-back-up drive, restarted the router, downloaded a new install version, and installed over the top.

Et voila: il est réparé!

Sam

• Reference: Korloo, Ali (9 November 2016). Google photos Desktop uploader icon is missing from system tray. Retrieved 3 April 2017 from https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/photos/OaYVgojRJ_M

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Paintshop Pro error "There was a problem sending the command to the program"

I have had an ongoing problem on my laptop with opening images using PaintShop Pro (PSP) 9, on Windows 8.1. I would click on an image file and, as my default programme is PSP 9, the software opens but without the image I clicked on, and I get a popup saying "There was a problem sending the command to the program".

The problem is, apparently, that PSP 9 uses an old Windows system called DDE to pass the image to PSP. While DDE is still a Windows component, it no longer works as it should because of tighter Windows security settings.

The solution that I found was from MyComputerGirl (30 March 2011), who advises that to repair, we should:

1. Open Regedit
2. Go to the following string: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Paint Shop Pro 9.exe\shell\open\command
3. Change the "Default" entry to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 9\Paint Shop Pro 9.exe" "%1"
4. Delete the following string (which is immediately below the string you just edited): HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Paint Shop Pro 9.exe\shell\open\ddexec
5. Exit Regedit
6. Open a picture file as you typically would from windows explorer and it should open without error.

And she was SO right. It works perfectly. It also works in Windows 7, for those of you still using that version of Windows.


Sam

• Reference: MyComputerGirl (30 March 2011). PaintShop Pro 9 problem sending the command to the program. Retrieved 21 March 2017 from http://mycomputergirl.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/painshop-pro-9-problem-sending-command.html

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Annoying Samsung app update messages

If any of you have a Samsung Android phone, and have been getting annoying Samsung messages about 'Game Mode' app updates, there is a way to turn them off.

Samsung has been super ...er... helpful with some of their phone apps. I don't want 'Game Mode'. I also don't want it telling me all the time that there is an update. However, users are not able to uninstall it.

As one user, Svendly, said: "Like many people, I don't need or want this app. Okay, fine, whatever. If I must keep the app, I don't want notifications from this app. Ah, it appears you've also prevented us from disabling notifications from this app."

Funny.

However, you can stop the app notifying you every 2.5 minutes about updates.

HurricaneAndrew provided the solution, saying "Go to Settings> Device> Application manager> select More at the top right then tap the Show System Apps option. Scroll down to GameMode, and from there you can disable notifications". Some of your menu shortcuts might be a little different to that, but so long as you can see "Show System Apps" in your App manager, you should be right.

Just slide the notifications setting to 'off' on Game Mode, and back out.

Relief.

Sam

• Reference: Riderdude (12 August 2016). Game mode update. Retrieved 28 January 2017 from https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S-Phones/Game-mode-update/td-p/9884/page/2

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Lost Google search bar in Android

I had an interesting problem with my Android phone recently: I lost my Google search bar.

Of course, I went hunting - on Google - to find an answer.

The answer appeared to be pretty standard from Google's product forums: Moonycamilla posted a question asking how to restore a lost search bar, and Sweetie4u replied "If your search bar is missing from your android, hold your finger on the screen, a box pops up, touch android wi[d]gets, select google, then select all in the final box, your search bar should be back on your screen" (2012).

That sounded spot on.

Until I tried it, only to find I that had no "Google" Search widget. I had Google+, Google Play Store, and Keep. But no Google.

So I figured that somehow the Google search widget had got lost/overwritten/uninstalled with an android software update. I went hunting for how to restore the Google search widget.

And hit paydirt.

Member KAJ418 had posted the same question in 2015 on the Android Enthusiast's website. Firelord had replied, suggesting that "Go to Application Manager and keep rolling right until you get to the 'Turned Off' header. My Google Search was there. I simply had to turn it back on and then it appeared back in the widget options and I was able to pick it up from there and move it to the home screen."

These instructions were a bit tenuous though. What I actually did was to:

go to settings (pull down from the top of the screen and click the gear wheel) | Application Manager | click the "All Apps" and filter to "Disabled" | scroll down the list of apps until you find "Google App", click ENABLE | then hold your finger on the screen until the list of screens and shortcuts pop up | tap Widgets | select Google App from the list | drag to the screen you want it to appear.

That should see you right.

Sam

References:

• Moonycamilla (2012, 4 February). How do i get my google search bar back on my screen if i had already removed it? Retrieved 19 January 2017 from https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/IBn7v39la68
• KAJ418 (2015, 24 May). Google Search Bar Widget is gone from Galaxy S5, it is not in the widgets section anymore. Retrieved 19 January 2017 from http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/106720/google-search-bar-widget-is-gone-from-galaxy-s5-it-is-not-in-the-widgets-sectio

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How much paraphrasing versus quoting?

A great question from a student recently, about how much paraphrasing we need to do versus quoting when we are developing definitions to scope a project.

As a rough rule, in academic writing we paraphrase 90% of the time, and use direct quotes 10% of the time. In reality, it probably works out to be more like a ratio of 98% to 2%.

So we both paraphrase AND quote in academic writing... and we cite all the materials which we use.

However, when we are working up a common set of definitions and understandings, at the beginning of our literature review, we will probably need to use more quotes. We do probably end up more at the 90%:10% ratio.

You can view a couple of pages from my Masters thesis here to give you an idea of what this looks like.

Sam

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Using a key word diagram

I recently read an article by Aussie research supervisor, Inger Mewburn (aka the Thesis Whisperer).

Based on work done by Dr Jonathan Downie in Kristin Luker's book, "Salsa dancing into the social sciences" (good book, by the way), Kristin cross-tabs key words visually using the ‘bedraggled daisy’ diagram.

Inger was talking about her process in starting to find out about a topic area, and suggested first making a list of sub-areas - key words - within our topic.


Inger explained that, we should "search each one of these [key words] separately", but that the power lies in creating the bedraggled daisy diagram of them, like the image above. Our brains may then make connections differently, add in other areas, see different connections.

In the middle of the image is where our topics will converge, and where we will create our own area of expertise.

The idea is that we search out unusual combinations of key words: for example, searching digital literacy + anxiety will return us very different sources in GoogleScholar from information overload + procrastination.

Then we mine the bibliography lists of the papers which have some relevance to the area we are working on.

We end up with lots of information in no time flat.


Sam

• Reference: Mewburn, I. (22 February 2017). Using diagrams as research aides. Retrieved 24 February 2017 from https://thesiswhisperer.com/2017/02/22/using-diagrams-as-research-aides/

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Parachute Guru: we will miss you

Job Hunter's Bible (2014)

How sad to lose Dick Bolles who died this year on 31 March. He is best known for having spent almost fifty years working on one great legacy: writing the pre-eminent handbook for job seekers, "What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Changers".

I so enjoyed his practical mindset, his simplicity of approach, his direct style of writing, and the continual development of his work in each edition of "Parachute". Each year there was something new and valuable in the book, so each year I would invest in the latest version.

Of late I transitioned to the eBook. However, I also have Parachute as an audiobook, and audited his eParachute course on Udemy.

Not only have I lent clients my older versions of Parachute, but I have encouraged clients to take his eParachute MOOC on Udemy (view here), which is pretty good too.

Dick Bolles was a man of many talents. He completed his undergraduate degree in Physics (chemical engineering) at MIT and Harvard, then felt a call to the ministry and did a Masters in theology at New York's General Theological Seminary. He was an episcopalian minister for many years before being made redundant and, in his next role, being tasked with aiding jobless theologians of various stripe into new roles (Vitello, 1 April 2017; Jacobs, 10 September 2015).

What started as a self-help photocopied booklet segued into Parachute. He remained a minister until 2004. Oh, and wrote books. And lectured. And presented at conferences. And won many awards. In 2014, he delivered his wisdom to Google as an invited lecturer (here).

He was such a lovely man, and a great contributor to the field of helping people to help themselves into rewarding work. He was also kind enough to become a LinkedIn contact with a career practitioner all the way away in New Zealand.

While I think his son Gary has been working as editor and keeping the infrastructure going for some time with both Parachute and The Job Hunters Bible (here), Dick himself will be sorely missed.

Kua hinga te totara i te wao nui a Tane


Sam

References:

• Bolles, R. N. (2017). What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Changers. USA: Ten Speed Press.
• Jacobs, E. (10 September 2015). Richard Bolles: The man who shaped careers advice. Retrieved 8 April 2017 from https://www.ft.com/content/c2102dea-52ea-11e5-8642-453585f2cfcd
• Job Hunter's Bible (2014). Home Page Background Image. Retrieved 8 April 2017 from http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/
• Talks at Google (5 May 2014). Dick Bolles: How to Decide what you'll be doing Five Years from Now. Retrieved 8 April 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeP6Pm3Xf-8
• Udemy (2016). The eParachute Introduction to Your Career and Job Search. Retrieved 8 April 2017 from https://www.udemy.com/the-eparachute-introduction-to-your-career-and-job-search/learn/v4/overview
• Vitello, P. (1 April 2017). Richard Bolles Dies at 90; Wrote ‘What Color Is Your Parachute?’. Retrieved 8 April 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/business/richard-bolles-dead-what-color-is-your-parachute.html?_r=0

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Kill your darlings

I first heard the saying "kill your darlings" from Stephen King's book, "On Writing: A memoir of the craft".

What I didn't realise was that Mr King was paraphrasing a much earlier writer, Arthur Quiller-Couch.

Mr Quiller-Couch said in his 1916 collection of speeches and essays, where he speaks about knowing whether writing contains 'style' or not.

He says "if you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: 'Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.'" (pp. 234-235)

OK, so this says 'murder' not 'kill'. But the sentiment is the same.

And now we know where Mr King's inspiration came from.


Sam

References:

• King, Stephen (2000). On Writing: A memoir of the craft. USA: Scribner.
• Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas (1916). On the Art of Writing. UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Spangenberg, Lisa L. (2010). Murder Your Darlings. Retrieved 6 February 2017 from https://www.lisaspangenberg.com/writing/murder-your-darlings/

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How do you cite an 'in press' article?

As a member of the Academy of Management, members also have a couple of nominated sub-groups which are in our 'areas of interest'.

I am a member of the OB group, and recently in the ListServ (yes, they STILL have ListServs! Staggering), I received a posting about a forthcoming publication, which was provided with the following APA reference:

"Cortina, J. M., Aguinis, H., & DeShon, R. P. in press. Twilight of dawn or of evening? A century of research methods in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology. doi: 10.1037/apl0000163"

To which Professor Neil Ashkanasy replied:

That as "this piece has a DOI number. My understanding is that an article is officially published as soon as it is given a DOI (notwithstanding that the date of publication might change when the article is eventually published in print). Based on the APA Manual (see http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/advance-online-publication/), the correct citation of your article should be:

Cortina, J. M., Aguinis, H., & DeShon, R. P. (2017). Twilight of dawn or of evening? A century of research methods in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/apl0000163".

However, Professor Ashkanasy wasn't quite right. DOIs should be cited with a live URL, like this:

Cortina, J. M., Aguinis, H., & DeShon, R. P. (2017). Twilight of dawn or of evening? A century of research methods in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000163

Always nice to know how to actually do it!


Sam

• Reference: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv (5 February 2017). OB Digest - 3 Feb 2017 to 4 Feb 2017 (#2017-38). [Personal Correspondence]

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How to read 200 books a year

I read an interesting post by Charles Chu recently on Medium (6 January 2017).

Apparently the average American loses 608 hours of their lives annually on social media, and 1642 hours in front of the TV (Chu, 6 January 2017). Ouch. And if we think of the number of ...er ...'alternative facts' out there, perhaps this isn't the best use of our time.

It probably doesn't improve our thought or decision-making processes, either.

Charles laid out the mathematics instead for how to read 200 books a year (Chu, 6 January 2017. Also see the poster with this article). Surprisingly, it works out at 8 hours a week.

However, if we do the mathematics a different way, we need to read 3.8 books a week in order to read 200 in a year.

I think it will take most of us longer than 2 hours per book - particularly if we are using talking books, which average around 10 hours in length.

I listen to around two talking books a week, plus my other on-screen reading... my talking books get listened to at night using my iPod and earbuds, as I go to sleep. I also do a fair bit of technical reading, as a PhD scholar.

So I suspect that it would take us closer to thirty hours a week to get four non-fiction books read. Then we have enough time budget to read two and listen to two.

But even thirty hours is only just over four hours a day. Ditch the TV and social media for three nights, and four books a week is pretty do-able.

Read on!


Sam

• Reference: Chu, Charles (6 January 2017). The Simple Truth Behind Reading 200 Books a Year. Retrieved 5 February 2017 from https://betterhumans.coach.me/the-simple-truth-behind-reading-200-books-a-year-1767cb03af20#.sbditxjxk

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Hiring on skill

The 'big five' US orchestras - the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra - had very few women musicians until four of them - excluding Cleveland - changed their selection process to include blind auditions. Those orchestras went from a percentage of women of around 10% in the 1970s to in the thirties by the mid-90s.

In fact, to make that change in numbers, as orchestras have a glacial pace of musician turnover, most of those orchestras hired women. The New York Philharmonic has hired 50% women since they changed their process (Goldin & Rouse, 2000).

So it wasn't skill that was lacking. It is suspected that the problem was perception and bias.

The authors, Goldin and Rouse, state that the "blind audition procedure fostered impartiality in hiring" and that "Sex-biased hiring has been alleged for many occupations but is extremely difficult to prove" (2000, p. 715). They also note that blind auditions make it 50% more likely for women to get on the short list.

Let's consider the statistics which show women are more highly qualified on average than men. Lets consider that there are as many women in the workforce as there are men. Lets consider that there are more women than men starting new businesses.

So then when we look at the top 50 listed New Zealand stock exchange companies, none of whom have a woman on the board, and most of whom have no women as officers, I like to have a think about what Goldin and Rouse found.

And I come to the conclusion that wouldn't it be great if we could use a blind process for board directorships, and be rather more sure that we were hiring on skill set alone.


Sam

References:

• Goldin, C., & Rouse, C. (2000). Orchestrating impartiality: The impact of" blind" auditions on female musicians. American Economic Review, September 2000, Volume 90, issue 4, (pp. 715-741).
• Phelps, Amy Louise (2010). Beyond auditions: gender discrimination in America's top orchestras. University of Iowa: Doctoral thesis. Retrieved 3 February 2017 from http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2059&context=etd
• Princeton University (27 November 2000). "Blind" Auditions Help Women, New Study Suggests. Retrieved 3 February 2017 from https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/00/q4/1127-auditions.htm
• Rice, Curt (14 October 2013). How blind auditions help orchestras to eliminate gender bias. Retrieved 3 February 2017 from https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/14/blind-auditions-orchestras-gender-bias

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Guest Contributors Welcome

It is very common to have guest authors on blogs, and can be a lovely breath of fresh air to have a different voice to to share new resource. I get asked from time to time if I will publish guest contributions.

The answer is yes, I am happy to consider any guest posts. My proviso is that guest articles meet the following criteria:

• Are on the topics of career development, career theory, management theory, leadership theory, technology, problem-solving, or learning, and will aid my audience
• Are supplied with a landscape image at a minimum 600dpi to illustrate the piece, which is the author's own property and can be legally used
• Meet the style guide (ie, written informally, are around 500 words long, are in NZ English, are APA referenced, and are provided with an author strapline and weblinks)
• Are able to be forward-scheduled six months ahead of acceptance date. This is because I usually have around six month's worth of posts written and already in holding pattern.

If a guest writer can meet those criteria, then we go ahead.

If not, then we don't.

But I welcome any inquiries!


Sam

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