Getting a CMD window in a Windows 10 folder

Pre-Windows 10, I was able to to use the Shift and right-click menu in File Explorer to access a command window in the particular folder that I was in. This wee trick was great for me to be able to list the contents of the folder (using the printit command in DOS: more on that here).

Unfortunately, I now appear stuck with the new navy blue Windows "Power Shell" window which does not play as nicely. While I can still go to the search function and key in "CMD" to bring up the command window, it is a pain in the proverbial to have to key in the entire folder location string. I have tried to reset this by turning the "Settings |Personalisation | Taskbar | Replace Command Prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right-click the start button or press Windows logo key and X off" ...but it doesn't turn off. Not even after several restarts. <sigh>.

However, help is at hand. I learned an even neater shortcut: simply key CMD into the address bar of the File Explorer window. I get a good old DOS command window opening in the folder that I need the function to run in.

Fantastic!!


Sam

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Up the Boohai

I went to write a reply to someone on FB recently, saying that something was all up the boohai, then needed to stop and find out how to spell it. I was struck at how difficult it was to find the spelling in Google: I had assumed "booai", but found - at last - that it was actually written "boohai".

That made me consider where the phrase had come from. I had assumed that it was an international term, but it turns out that I was wrong. New Zealand etymologist, Max Cryer, notes that boohai means "A long way from cities and business districts, out of the mainstream. During the 19th century immigrants arrived in Auckland from the region of Czechoslovakia then known as Bohemia and almost all settled to the north at the then distant rural district of Puhoi. The name came to mean faraway, the back of beyond, and the pronunciation altered to Booai. The up came a little later, in such silly phrases as 'up the booai for the rhubarb season'" (2006, p. 176). So why is this odd? Rhubarb does not really have a ‘season’ in the north of New Zealand.

Further, it appears that the passengers of the Auckland coastal ferry, which sailed Puhoi estuary, renamed Puhoi, "The Bohoi", because of the Bohemian community (happylovejoy, 21 January 2009). This may also have been referencing perceived cultural difference; perhaps strangeness. Linguistic shift may then have moved Bohoi to boohai.

However, the meaning noted by Cryer (2006) is not the meaning that I would attach to the phrase "up the boohai". I understood it to mean something dysfunctional, odd or wasteful with a hint of unpredictability about it. zbeckabee said that "out of the way, remote or non existent place, often in 'up the boohai' to mean lost [...] possibly in the head." BlueDruid related "I recall that my Dad sometimes used the expression 'Up the Boohai' to describe poor reasoning or irrational behaviour. He was a WW I vet and he told me that the term was used by the troops to describe some of the officers' decisions, as in 'These are the orders but they're all up the boohai'" (21 January 2019).

So there we have it: up the boohai: irrational behaviour; lost in the head.


Sam

References:

• Cryer, M. (2006). The Godzone Dictionary of favourite New Zealand words and phrases. Auckland, New Zealand: Exisle Publishing Limited.
• BlueDruid, happylovejoy & zbeckabee (21 January 2009). What does "up the boohai" mean in New Zealand? Retrieved from https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question69737.html

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Engineers and testing

Typical HBDI profile of an engineering student
(Du Toit & Horak, 2002)

People with technical minds, "such as engineers, scientists, computer programmers and mathematicians" (Baron-Cohen, 2012, p. 74), are essential in today's world of work. While their skills are in higher demand than they ever have been, there is currently a global shortage of people in the STEM fields.

While I know this is a rather sweeping statement, I often find engineers to be somewhat mathematically-focused, while being not so well connected to their emotions or the emotions of others around them. My observation is, however, supported by a number of research studies, including strong HBDI primary 'analytical' (blue) results in test data found in a study of civil engineering students by Du Toit and Horak (2002, as illustrated), and from research by Hunter (2009) on the MBTI ISTJ personality type and computer engineers in New Zealand.

When you meet a lot of engineers, as I do, it is fascinating to watch their reactions to the lives of those around them, and marvel "what were they thinking?!" at times. I have seen people make life-changing decisions without considering the emotional needs of those around them as if those needs were not even a distant dot of consideration on their internal decision criteria horizon.

This lack of emotional connection can make some engineers difficult to interact with. However, HBDI and MBTI testing can make it easier for both the client to understand what to work on to improve their empathetic skills; and for those around them to understand the level of limitation, and how to help the client to become more empathetic over time.

In addition, there is another test which can be done: an Autism test. It has been found that those with technical minds may display autistic behaviours more often than most (Baron-Cohen, 2012). Autism has been described as being a strong desire to systematise in some way, as when a client systematises, they "identify the rules that govern the system so [they] can predict how that system works. This fundamental drive to systemize might explain why people with autism love repetition and resist unexpected changes" (Baron-Cohen, 2012, p. 74) (and for those of you who are wondering, it is now accepted that Asperger's is part of the Autism spectrum, and not a separate syndrome).

Developed by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in 2001, the Autism-Spectrum Quotient test has around 85% accuracy. It can used as an early indicator as to whether a client is on the autism spectrum, to then pursue a professional diagnosis. The test is on a number of sites, and can be accessed here and here.

Taken together, these three test instruments can help us all to better understand an engineering client's viewpoint, and help those who are high functioning and technically minded to build better relationships, contributing to more rewarding work experiences.


Sam

References:

• Baron-Cohen, S. (2012). Autism and the Technical Mind. Scientific American, 307(5), 72-75. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1112-72
• Du Toit, J. W., & Horak, E. (2002). A study of the thinking styles and academic performance of civil engineering students. Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering= Joernaal van die Suid-Afrikaanse Instituut van Siviele Ingenieurswese, 44(3), 18-24. Retrieved from http://buildnet.csir.co.za/cdcproc/docs/3rd/horak_e_du_toit_jw.pdf
• Hunter, A. (2009). High-tech rascality: Asperger's Syndrome, hackers, geeks, and personality types in the ICT industry. New Zealand Sociology, 24(2), 39.
• Wired (2001). Take the Autism Test. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2001/12/aqtest/

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Manual page break not working in Excel

I struck an interesting problem in Excel recently, where I was unable to manually insert a page break. it took me some time to track the actual problem down.

In seeking an answer, initially I went down many rabbit holes: whether the issue was merged cells, whether it was related to drag-and-drop and the Enable fill handle and cell drag-and-drop box being ticked in advanced options, or whether I was trying to insert the break in the right row. However, none of these known issues applied.

What was preventing me from inserting a page break was actually page scaling: I had set my print size to one page wide by four pages long. In that document format you are unable to manually insert a page break. Who knew?

To solve it, all you need to do is set scaling as a percentage for the worksheet.

Easy when you know how.


Sam

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Getting our own Facebook URL

Have you ever wanted to invite someone to message you on Facebook, so that you can use Facebook Messenger to have a discussion with them?

What we need is our own Facebook page URL, so that our invitee can send us a Facebook message when they visit our Facebook profile page. Unless you know where to look, it is not clear where we need to go to find that information. Also, if we have a fairly common name, it can be really hard to connect with others without that specific URL.

So, to find it, simply go to our own Facebook page, then on the far right hand side of the top menu bar, click the down arrow. We then click settings, and a general account settings page will appear. Our username is the second item in the main part of the page. We can simply copy that URL, and then email it to anyone who needs it.

So easy when we know where to look.


Sam

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When Work overturns Identity

Career identity has been defined as "dynamic multiplicity of personal (in contrast to social and cultural) positions or voices regarding work" (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012, p. 1). Our professional identity comes from "constructing a sense of causality and continuity about one’s career path" (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012, p. 2). We bring 'ourselves' to work: our "experience, training, abilities, knowledge, effort, quirks, and passions' (O'Brien, 18 June 2019).

Superficially, it is very easy for all of us to conflate our personal value with our work identity. We can get so sucked into our work roles so much that all we see is the work or tasks in front of us. However, sometimes we can have deep damage to our professional identity - others' ability to see that we can perform in our area of expertise - that it can take a lot of digesting.

Take, for example, the following case. Kim is a professional engineer who progressed into management over a number of years, and has been managing the engineering team for some time. Following some changes in senior management, the organisation is restructured. Kim is demoted to a much lower level role, with someone who was once a subordinate now managing the engineering team. Worse, Kim has no warning of the impending role change until the change arrives.

Needless to say, Kim is wounded and bewildered. Due to the unexpected nature of the demotion, the impact this has on Kim is profound, with deep damage to career identity. While we all possess multiple identities (Super, 1985), Kim values professional identity above all others. Such a significant work change diminishes Kim's sense of self. Repairing this will require deep reflection and many well-structured counselling sessions to appropriately process, over a considerable length of time.

All too often, however, those in this situation do not seek professional career advice. The resulting damage to identity can lead to other issues in both professional and private lives, sometimes - due to the mid-life timing of the shift into management roles - manifesting as "midlife crises".

If you know someone in this type of situation, recommend they see a professional career counsellor.


Sam

References:

• Meijers, F., & Lengelle, R. (2012). Narratives at work: The development of career identity. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 40(2), 157-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2012.665159
• O'Brien, T. (18 June 2019). When Your Job Is Your Identity, Professional Failure Hurts More. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/06/how-we-confuse-our-roles-with-our-self#
• Super, D. E. (1985). Self-realization through the Work and Leisure Roles. Educational and Vocational Guidance, 43(1), 1-7.

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Creating Adobe Digital Signatures

This year I updated to Adobe Acrobat 2017, which required me to replace a number of regularly-used tools with add-ons, apps or to find the new way of doing the old thing.

However, one thing that I had used regularly in the past, this year I rarely used: my Adobe digital signature. It was not until three quarters of the way through the year that I needed it for the first time, and I realised that I didn't know how to create one in the new system. I went looking.

Most of the Adobe practices are now cloud-based, requiring us to be logged into our software. I hadn't realised that I was not signed in, which caused me no end of difficulty in following the instructions, until I realised what the problem was. Once you're signed in, it is very easy.

To create a new digital signature, the process is as follows:

• Ensure you are signed into your Adobe account
• Go to the tools menu and search for "signature"
• You will be routed to the "Fill & Sign" tools.
• In the right-hand sidebar ensure your profile information has been entered, particularly your first and last names.
• Click the sign icon on the toolbar (as shown in the illustration accompanying this post).
• Add your signature image from its file location
• Use the cross-hair cursor to position your signature on the page
• Save the document.

And that's it.


Sam

References

• Adobe (14 November 2017). Digital IDs FAQ. Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/acrobat/using/digital-ids.html
• Adobe (27 May 2019). Signing PDFs. Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/acrobat/11/using/signing-pdfs.html
• Adobe (7 June 2017). Certificate-based signatures. Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/acrobat/using/certificate-based-signatures.html

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Printing a Bookmark list from a pdf

(Kassuba, 1 April 2015)

I take notes electronically in pdf files, most often using bookmarks. I will go through the file and bookmark the words or sentences which are relevant. Every now and again I have wanted to print out the bookmarks that I’ve created (usually in case of technology failure), but for a long time, I have not been able to find out how to do so.

Then recently I found a piece of software that would apparently do that: Evermap’s “AutoBookmark™ Plug-in”. What put me off was the USD$220 to buy that plug-in (Evermap, 2019). Ouch. I felt the price of NZD$310 was a bit steep, when I didn’t know if the plug-in would actually do what I hoped.

However, much further down the search list was another link, to an Acrobat user forum, where a user question was answered pointing the reader to a plug-in called the “Create Bookmark Report”, created by a helpful developer called Rick Borstein (Hull, n.d.). The answer also pointed the reader to Evermap’s software, if Rick’s plug-in didn’t work.

I downloaded Rick’s plug-in (here, Borstein, 2013), then went to the Tools page in Adobe Acrobat, and searched for “action”. When the action wizard appeared, I started it, then clicked “Select a File”, and searched for the file I had downloaded. I changed the file view to all files, then double click on the file I had downloaded (“Create_Bookmark_Report.sequ”).

A dialogue box asked me “Do you want to import this action and Acrobat?”. I clicked “import”. I got a second dialogue box, asking me “The action has one or more steps that execute JavaScript. Do you still want to import the action?”. I clicked “import”. I received the confirmation “The action has been imported. To open it, choose Create Bookmark Report in the Action Wizard panel on the Tools pane”.
Once installed, simply open the pdf that you want to print the bookmarks from, and click “create bookmark report”. You will be asked what folder you want the report to be saved in: the filename will be the same as the open PDF, but with “bookmark” appended to the filename end.

So easy. And free.


Sam

References:

• Borstein, R. (2013). Create Bookmark Report. Retrieved from https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange
• Evermap (2019). Create, Edit & Manage: PDF Bookmarks, Links, TOC & Highlights. Retrieved from https://www.evermap.com/AutoBookmark.asp
• Hull, B. (n.d.). Acrobat DC and printing bookmarks and creating TOC's [sic]. Retrieved from https://answers.acrobatusers.com/Acrobat-DC-and-printing-bookmarks-and-creating-TOCs-q280029.aspx
• Kassuba, H. (1 April 2015). Sidebar box: How to work with Actions. Retrieved from https://acrobatusers.com/actions-exchange?trackingid=JZXYQ

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Embedding Gdrive video

Recently I went to embed some video - hosted on my Google drive - on a webpage. I know how to do this, as I've done it many times. However I kept getting an error message: "drive.google.com refused to connect".

I had done all the usual things, going into my Google drive, right-clicking on my video, selecting "Get shareable link" from the pop-up menu, clicking on the "sharing settings" link at the bottom of the dialogue box, selecting "More" the bottom of the next page, and ensuring that "On - anyone with the link" is ticked. But it did not work.

So I went looking, and found that someone else had the same problem, earlier this year. The link that Google now generates is missing three very important letters: "pre". Where once the Gdrive would auto-generate the format:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/[fileID]/preview?usp=sharing

Now it generated:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/[fileID]/view?usp=sharing

...and no longer worked. So all I needed to do was to autogenerate the link as usual, paste it where I needed it. then to manually edit it to add "pre" back in.

Working once more :-)


Sam

• Reference: Deniz (March 2019). Can't embed videos via Gdrive links on KB articles. Retrieved from https://help.zoho.com/portal/community/topic/cant-embed-videos-via-gdrive-links-on-kb-articles

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Running our lives

Apparently the administration of our own lives is increasing: an article in the Guardian seemed to imply that it was becoming overwhelming (Jones, 7 September 2019). A lot has been written about how 'busy' we are, which is somewhat contested by Pearson (21 October 2015). There is interesting research using diaries, from the 1930s through to today, logging hours spent in a number of activities which provides a fascinating insight into how we really spend our time. It appears that we FEEL busy rather than actually being busy. It may be that it is the weight of tasks that we think we have to tackle which is inspiring paralysis; or it may be that being busy is an aspirational thing which becomes self-fulfilling (Pearson, 21 October 2015).

However, I personally feel that there is more in our lives today which we need to keep track of than was so for our grandparents. We now have insurances for everything we can think of; we have to schedule checks for diseases now that were barely discovered in our grandparent's time; we need to manage our retirement plans; we need to track our investments; we need to continue to upskill; we have longer commutes; we have more sedentary jobs but need to find time keep fit; we expect to eat better quality meals made from higher quality materials; we need to look after both our children and our parents at the same time, with fewer siblings to share the load; and we simply expect to be able to DO more: we think we can do three jobs at once - to work AND run a house AND be a parent. Our to do lists go on and on and on...

We live in a time of affluence and a time of many choices. I personally suspect that we need to make some decisions about just how many things we want to pack into our lives, and to simplify or streamline where we can.

We also expect a high standard of living. We expect to live longer and be healthier for longer than our parents, and definitely longer and healthier than our grandparents. To do that, our lives require active management. So the Guardian article (Jones, 7 September 2019) has some valuable tips on getting our sh*t together, to which I have added my own flavour:

1. When we have a task that needs doing, diarise the most important ones and set them up to repeat. Use Google calendar and invite everyone who has skin in the game to the event. If it is weekly cleaning, washing, car servicing, certifications or policy renewals, add them to the diary and invite all involved participants. First in does the paperwork and files it.
2. Speaking of paperwork, file it all online in a shared Google drive. Teach everyone to file items logically and to name them logically so you can find the things you need when the world goes pear-shaped around you.
3. Assign the whole task. If someone is the person who does a task automatically, create a reminder for it, and any associated stuff around it. For example, if one person puts out the bins, ensure they are the ones who know they have to add the bin liners to the household shopping list when stocks are getting low.
4. Speaking of shopping lists, set up a family shopping list using an app like Bring (here). You can share one shopping list, and anyone can add to it. It is customisable. You simply tap on an item, then tap it off once purchased. It makes it easy to see who has got things covered when life is complicated.
   
5. If you hate doing tasks, outsource them. Get cleaners in. Get window cleaners in. Get gardeners in. Pay the garage to pick up the car, service it and drop it off again afterwards. Pay to have your groceries dropped off. When you buy your new jeans, drop them off at the tailors to have them taken up on your way home. Buy a meal delivery service. Pay an accountant to do your income tax. Whatever it is that you loathe, pay someone to do it, and enjoy the time that you release by doing something more rewarding.
6. if you want to work fewer days, see if your workplace will let you do four ten hour days. Set aside the extra day for recreation only. See if they will let you do a job-share (explain the advantages of the extra cover).

We could feel endlessly busy, but we don't need to. We can do more planning, and make some decisions about where we choose to spend the precious hours of our lives. We can deliberately streamline.

I am trying it. Good luck to all of you!


Sam

References:

• Jones, A. (7 September 2019). 'I feel bombarded with to-dos': the hell of life admin – and how to get on top. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/07/i-feel-bombarded-with-to-dos-the-hell-of-life-admin-and-how-to-get-on-top
• Pearson, H. (21 October 2015). The lab that knows where your time really goes. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/news/the-lab-that-knows-where-your-time-really-goes-1.18609

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Using Google Photos images in blog posts... doesn't work

If, like me, you use Google photos to store your images, you may have wondered how to send, or to reuse photos elsewhere online.

It has taken me some time to get around to investigating how to do this: I assumed there would be something obvious. However, it is not obvious.

Initially I thought it would be a simple matter of opening the image that we want to link in Google photos, so that it fills the screen (as illustrated). Right click on the image, and, from the right-click pop-up menu, we select "Copy image address". Then I thought we would be able to go to wherever we want to use the image and Ctrl & V to paste the URL: in Facebook, LinkedIn ...or wherever.

I thought that then all we would have to do is to include the image in a blog post would be - in the blog edit mode to click on the image icon, and under the Add images dialogue box, select "From a URL", and key Ctrl & V to paste the URL into the field provided.

But no. While WE can see those images, others can't. Then I thought it would be a simple matter of creating a shared album. But, while you can create an album, add images and set the album to be shared, that doesn't seem to work either. You seem to have to add another google account user to share the album, then use a shared link for each individual image, and, taking the link that would have been emailed to the 'other' google user, use that link to share each image in our blog in the "From a URL" field.

The sharing of each individual image palaver - and the attendant logging into a second google account to get the 'other' gmail link - is probably more time consuming than downloading the google image to our PC, and re-uploading it to the blog.

If someone else knows how to make google photos public and easily linkable in a blog, let me know! It seems ridiculous not to be able to link within the cloud.

:-(


Sam

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Assess our own typing speed

I have written about typing speed a number of times before (here), but I don't think I have mentioned the group of people who are exploring typing speed on a range of devices. This is the team of Oulasvirta, Feit and Kristensson, who are collecting typing speed information as part of an Aalto University study, based in Finland (2019).

The team have set up a website, where we can go and assess our own typing speed, specifying the device we are using, the style of keyboard we are using, our native language, and our age. The data they are gathering is helping to understand our actual typing speed, using all the technological aids we have access to. I have been able to assess my typing speed with and without correcting for my mistakes. I have been able to test the difference between my manual keyboard typing speed, and the speed I keyboard at when I am using Dragon to "talk it in".

While, the coding within their entry field does not auto correct for capital letters at the beginning of a sentence - which means that using Dragon creates more errors than I would normally experience - this is still a useful exercise. I simply ignore the errors generated, and it shows me that I actually speak twice as fast as I type, talking it in at 124 corrected words per minute (but not including capital letter correction). I left 3.15% of characters uncorrected, which were all capital letters. My manual typing speed is 55 words per minute, which I corrected as I went. I made one letter (I read "charge" as "change"). This is slower than I had estimated my speed in "talking it in" (which I thought was closer to 180 words per minute), however I do feel the Typing Test data is likely to be relatively accurate.

Even better, when using this typing test, we are adding to a very large data set which is being used for research into keyboarding. What has been learned so far is that: rollover-typing - where we key the next key we need before we let go of the previous one - is a normal practice; that typing speed can be better predicted by how quickly we key two characters using different hands or fingers; and that error patterns on keyboards are different to those that we used to make on typewriters. What is also interesting is that there appears to be no difference whether we have had keyboard training or not: we tend to exhibit the same errors.

The data collection method for this project is also unusual. The researchers worked in collaboration with a commercial organisation who hosted an Internet page offering a free typing test, in exchange for participants answering some demographic questions before they were able to get their test results. Participants were encouraged to share the site, and to make multiple attempts at data entry. This was effectively a crowd-sourced, snowball method participant group.

There are, of course, some limitations to this type of group. It is possible that particular age groups may be under-represented: however, the research has been designed asking for the participant age at the time of taking the test, which will allow them to cross tab their data with particular age groups.


Sam

References:

• Dhakal, V., Feit, A. M., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Observations on typing from 136 million keystrokes. In Proceedings of SIGCHI '18 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group Computer-Human Interaction ACM SIGCHI), Paper 646, 1-12. Retrieved from http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/3180000/3174220/paper646.pdf?ip=27.121.96.201&id=3174220&acc=OPENTOC&key=4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E8AF5215FEFE1B25A&__acm__=1561229209_03db33935ec739d9a48866f1d5046b19
• Oulasvirta, A., Feit, A. M., & Kristensson, P. O. (2019). Typing test. Retrieved from http://typingmaster.research.netlab.hut.fi/

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Resigning in Style

There used to be a US website that is called Resignation.com (yes, yes, I know - only in America).

Anyway, on this site there were a selection of resignation letters dating from 1900 through to 1998, including transcriptions of resignation speeches, from Heads of State, politicos and other famous people. While there are a lot of Americans in the list, there are a few inclusions that surprised me, such as Winston Churchill and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Alas, the site has now vanished, but some of the resignation letters live on elsewhere on the web. Winston Churchill's resignation can be seen here; and Richard Nixon's here; and how the only British Monarch to ever abdicate has done it here...

It is worth thinking about the extreme brevity with which Richard Nixon resigned; the emotional rationale with which Edward VIII - David Windsor - resigned; and the workmanlike future-focus with which Winston Churchill resigned. Once we read what others have done, it seems obvious that we too should have a think about the legacy that we want to leave when we next resign a post.

What we leave behind is definitely worth considering: we never know, we may become famous for it... and being gracious is better than being infamous.


Sam

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