Time sheets and perceived value

As this blog entry is connected to my thesis topic, I think it only fair that I start with news about the final stage in my doctoral studies - the viva exam. It would be more accurate to write 'start with the lack of news' - the administrator of the doctoral programme informs me that the external examiners are very busy and that he has yet to fix a date for the viva. Onto a case in my company which I would have liked to include within the case studies presented in the thesis - although it's too late for that. Maybe I can bring it up in the viva as an example of how not to deploy an enhancement.

The CEO decided a few months ago that he would like certain departments to keep time sheets, showing on what specifically they have been working on (i.e. the number of a project, or the number of an engineering change) as well as including more general information, such as participation in meetings with customers or training. One can understand his point of view: it might well be that we are spending more hours on these activities than we are budgeting for, or to paraphrase Peter Drucker, one can't manage something without measuring it.

The task was passed on to the CFO, my manager; she along with the network administrator and I looked for programs which manage time sheets. Specifically we were looking at the sort of program that lawyers, accountants or architects would use to record billable hours. My first idea, that the external programs in use could manage time, was a dead end. Whilst Microsoft Word keeps a record of hours during which a document is open, the engineering programs that we use do not have this functionality. We found a few programs with which I played: these programs led me to believe that there is a continuum of approaches. At one end, there are programs that are geared to recording working hours (when a person clocks on or off) and that the task management was bolted on afterwards. The other end has a very programmatic database approach which was much more to my liking, but also twice as expensive as the work hours program (no names). I had also considered creating a module in Priority to handle the time sheets, and seeing the database approach strengthened my position.

I could already see that whilst the work hours program was easy for the end user (there are interfaces for the web and for mobile phones), it would be problematic to create the initial tasks. The CEO presented several requests which could not really be achieved using this program; they could be approximated but not really to the depth that he wanted. The database program had no external interface: it's a program that has to be installed on each user's computer.

Even before I had started work on a specification for a Priority based program, it was clear that there were certain advantages in using Priority: it's a known technology, it's flexible, it's already installed and it's (essentially) free - there would be no marginal cost in using a new module, provided that I wrote it. A further advantage is that several of the tasks could be created automatically as a result of events happening within Priority, such as the opening of a new project. There are also disadvantages, which basically boil down to the requirement to having Priority open at all times in order to have automatic time recording (i.e. Priority knows and can record the current hour when a button is pressed); this requirement would not be met for one group of users.

After receiving the go ahead to prepare a demonstration program, I spent several hours over one weekend working furiously on the module. Every now and then I would take the dog for a walk, during which I managed to solve problems that had arisen as well as considering new ideas. I showed the module (via Teams) to the CEO and CFO, from which more requests arose, which I solved over the following days. It would be accurate to say that there is a lack of fit between the interface required and the paradigm of Priority forms; I would say that I managed to obtain about 95% fit.

Then we showed the module to representatives of the two groups who would initially be using it: the engineers and the planners who interface between the salespeople and customers on one side and the engineers and production on the other side. I had predicted in advance that their reaction would be negative and I was not disappointed. Whilst they understood what the CEO stood to gain from the module, from their point of view it was 100% overhead which they could do without. Even after I explained that most of the tasks would be opened automatically and that the user interface was extremely simple, they were still adamant in their opposition.

As a test, I defined a few tasks for the CEO who barely uses Priority; after five minutes of training, he was able to report that the module was extremely easy to use. Of course, the ability to extract data in any form conceivable goes without saying. I have yet to hear anything from the other users who were supposed to test the module.

Why was I not surprised that the users would be against using the module? Because from their point of view, the perceived value of the module is not even zero, it's negative. Quoting my thesis, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is based on four components, all based on the individual: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, the individual's evaluative judgment of the IT system and the individual's motivation to use the system (Davis, 1989). I can easily imagine that at least the first two components of the TAM would receive negative scores; some of the users (especially their managers) are strong users of Priority so at least the third component is positive. I imagine that their reaction would be even stronger if we tried using an external program.

Quoting the abstract of the thesis, "the research shows that companies that develop a tested framework for deploying enhancements are able to reap the promised benefits and so improve their business performance. The research also shows that user resistance is a major problem that has to be overcome in order to achieve a successful deployment". We managed to complete the first two stages of the seven stage framework, viz. the identification of a misfit (stage 1) and the preparation of a technical specification that defines the advantages that would accrue from the enhancement, the disadvantages and the financial cost (stage 2). We floundered on the third stage - obtain the signed agreement of all stakeholders on the specification, involving senior management wherever necessary.

I haven't heard any more on the topic of time sheets for the past few weeks, probably because almost all of the participants in the last Teams meeting on this subject are also involved to some extent with a much more important project, including the reception and installation of new equipment in one of the factories, the problems with getting technicians from Italy to install the equipment, and software interfaces (including a program that I wrote that receives a file from a design program then builds appropriate parts and a BOM based on the data).

A final quote from my thesis: there is no attempt to assess the economic validity or benefit of specific enhancements; there is no comparison between enhancements that provide economic value and those that merely satisfy whims. Does this proposed enhancement really provide economic value or is it a whim of the CEO?

New CPAP machine (part 2)

After nearly a week with the new machine - I uploaded the statistics file to the manufacturer's website in order to see the statistics. As I noted previously, the data is presented in the form of histograms, but clicking on a bar will give the numerical data. I am very pleased to see that most nights there have been four or less apneic events per hour, which is very good. This is probably more to do with the new mask than the new machine.

I developed a very simple spreadsheet into which I added the data: this is a bit awkward as the web site shows data per type of event (hours of sleep, apneas, leaks), what might be termed a vertical presentation, whereas the spreadsheet and my CPAP data program require a horizontal presentation, i.e. all the data for one date together. It took only a few minutes to copy the data into the spreadsheet and a bit longer to write a new module in my CPAP program to read the spreadsheet. Now that I have data, I will try to read the statistics file directly in order to discern any structure.

As for the 'CPAP pillow' - I don't have much to say about this. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference and it's not that easy to get the mask to lie in the cutaways. I'm going to continue with it for the time being. Strangely, its firmness doesn't seem to matter at all.

New CPAP machine

One is supposed to purchase a new CPAP machine every five years - at least, in Israel we are entitled to receive participation from our health insurance once every five years. The first machine that I had (not the one on the left) had internal problems after three years so I had an incentive to replace it when the five years were up.

At the time, one needed to go to an ENT doctor who would give a referral to the sleep doctor who would then write a 'prescription'. As my current machine (the one on the left) has not given me any problems, I decided not to bother with the trouble of seeing these doctors for what should be an automatic process.

On the other hand, one should replace the mask every year; I have been somewhat lax about this, even though one receives full participation and so the mask doesn't cost anything. I phoned the CPAP company the other day and ordered a mask; I was persuaded to buy a new machine at the same time. It seems that the requirement for the two doctors has been dropped: one can buy a new machine and request participation once every five years.

So I ordered a new machine a few days ago which was delivered on Friday. This is a very smart looking device although it took me a while to find where the SD card resides (the data from the machine are written to this card). Along with the machine, I also received a new mask and even a 'CPAP pillow'. 

The mask 'fell apart' when I awoke during the first night for a toilet visit, so I had to reconnect the part which separated while still half asleep and almost in darkness. This stunt did not repeat itself last night, although there are a few parts which I want to glue together on the mask. There is a part called the pressure modifier that disappeared from my previous mask and caused a terrific leak. I had to put sellotape over the holes which ameliorated the problem somewhat but not totally. Gluing this piece of plastic will prevent coming loose on this mask.

As a result, it might well be that I had much fewer apneic events over the last two nights; I can't tell as the machine records its data in a different format to its predecessor. Stored on the disk are several files, one of which being a file in JSON format (if that means anything to you, dear reader) that I can read, but I don't know yet what the various numbers mean. One can upload this file to a website that presents the data but only in a graphical manner: I want numbers!

I have written to the company that manufactures the machine in the hope that they will reveal the format of the file so that I can write my own parser and so input the numbers directly into my CPAP/walking program. At least, I hope that they will show how I can see numerical data in their web app and not just graphs; I'm a 'tables' man and not a 'graphical' one.

And as for the CPAP pillow: this link gives one an idea what I'm writing about. It's a sculptured pillow with two cut-aways (as we would call them on a guitar) that enable one to lie on one's side and have the mask fit into the cutaway. It's true that I had back pains when I first started with CPAP because of the difficult of finding a suitable sleeping position with the mask, but that was a long time ago. Last night, the pillow was harder than I'm used to, but I fell asleep and didn't even wake up in the middle of the night, so at least the pillow didn't cause problems. On the other hand. I did swim and walk a lot yesterday so I was also fairly - and honestly - tired.

The new machine's shape (think of a giant wedge of Toblerone) caused me to wonder how I could put it in a small suitcase, should we ever go on holiday again. The answer came to me this morning: leave the machine at home and take the old machine on holiday. Not only that, I can store the old machine in the small and smart suitcase which I always take with me as personal baggage: I put the CPAP machine, laptop computer, cables and medicines in this suitcase, so I have the most important things with me at all time, even if our luggage gets lost.

Masked songs

There was a full moon a few days ago, which means that the Hebrew date was the 14th of Av. For reasons unknown to me, this date marks 'the festival of love', in stark contrast the fast day of 9th Av, which commemorates the destruction of the second temple.

The cultural committee on the kibbutz decided to celebrate the locked down love festival in an unusual way: members were invited to sing a love song and act it out for the camera whilst being masked and generally incognito. The public were required to identify the singers, and the least identified singer would receive a prize. 

Even though the anonymity should mean that there would be no voting blocs (see my blog about the last kibbutz song festival), this opportunity didn't tempt me. To my surprise and secret delight, my wife, though, was interested and she had a song in mind. So I spent a great deal of time creating a suitable arrangement for this song; the key was fine, but I had to slow it down to only 70 bpm, which is the slowest tempo I have ever used. After several revisions, I developed an arrangement which met with the artist's approval.

Recording the vocals was quite easy: my wife is much better at pitching than me (i.e. singing in tune), but her timing is not particularly good. I had to count her in a few times, and even so, I can hear parts of the tune which are out of time. After mixing the song, the final track was about 3 minutes 15 seconds long. We were then told that the song had to be a maximum of 2 minutes 40 seconds, so I had to mutilate the song in order to meet this requirement. Chopping out the introduction, link in the middle and coda did the trick.

The singers were filmed last Saturday, but in order to achieve surprise, each singer was called at a different time, so none of them knew who the others were. Yesterday evening, the completed nine clips were shown via YouTube, and members had to guess who they were. This was surprisingly hard: we managed to identify three out of the other eight singers but had not a clue who the others were.

The singer who was least identified was still recognised by 32 people, which means that my wife was recognised by more than this number. This surprised us somewhat as we imagined that few people had heard her sing in recent years.

What was - IMHO - the worst song naturally won the prize for the best song. There is no accounting for taste.

The video can be seen here.

Musicians that I have heard of who share my birthday

1926 - Tony Bennett

1939 - Jimmy Nicol (temporary Beatles drummer in 1964)

1946 - John York (The Byrds)

1953 - Ian Bairnson (Pilot; plays the guitar solo on Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights")

1963 - James Hetfield (Metallica)

There is also a musician called Kirk Brandon who was born on the same day and year as me, but I have no idea who he is.

Peter Green RIP

There was a time, in my 'knowing very little about popular music' period of late 1969 that Peter Green was my favourite guitarist. He was the leader of Fleetwood Mac, named after his drummer and bassist - there's modesty for you. During 1969, they had quite a few hit records, where the music was certainly not pop but also not blues.

"Albatross" is probably the most well known and also the least typical; there was my favourite "Man of the world", along with "Oh well" and "Green manalishi". Green seemed to be making his own furrow with songs that stand up well 50 years on. I wrote about these songs and their effect on me many years ago.

But then something happened; Green became an LSD casualty and dropped out of the music scene. Although he did make a few records after leaving his own band, nothing much came of them. He certainly dropped off my radar, and I adopted other favourite guitarists: at first Mick Abrahams and then Richard Thompson.

He died a few days ago, apparently "peacefully in his sleep". May he continue to sleep peacefully.

Swimming pool reopened

There was an absurd situation over the weekend when public swimming pools (and as such, the kibbutz swimming pool) were closed, but swimming pools connected to hotels were open (and even allowing the entrance on non-hotel guests). As many people pointed out, the chances of getting infected with Covid-19 whilst in the swimming pool is almost zero, and is certainly zero for those who are seriously swimming (as opposed to loafing and playing around). Finally the special Covid-19 task force/government committee has made a good decision and is reopening the pools. I don't know what else is being reopened and what is being closed, but the pool is the only thing that interests me.

So it's back to swimming on Friday.

Judy Dyble, RIP

I have just read about the death of Judy Dyble, who was the first singer in Fairport Convention, way way back in 1967, when she was Richard Thompson's girl-friend. She wasn't a distinguished singer, in the same way that Sandy Denny was, but she did make an instrumental contribution to their first album, playing recorder and electric autoharp, as well as singing. She reprised her freaky recorder in the instrumental break of 'Jack Of Diamonds' at Cropredy 1997.

I got to meet Judy at Cropredy 2000: she was a nice enough person. I also have her autobiography which I bought a few years ago when it was published, which gives an alternative view of the beginnings of Fairport.

She also had a connection to the nascent King Crimson: for a while she was the girl-friend of Ian McDonald who was playing with Giles, Giles and Fripp before they metamorphosed into KC. As such, she appears on a demo recording of 'I talk to the wind', a song which changed greatly from its original arrangement to the one on ITCOTCK.

Judy made a return to music in the last two decades; I have on my music players a modern version of ITTTW in which the chords have been mucked up. She sings with little expression and I don't really like that track.

Funnily enough, whilst walking the dog this afternoon, I was thinking about how old the current Fairporters are, and when they intend to give up playing. What is rewarding is the prominence that the notice of her death received: I saw it on the Guardian website, but the same announcement appeared also on a BBC website as well as other places. I wonder whether Simon Nicol or Ashley Hutchings will publish something on the topic.

Swimming pool closed

The high number of new Covid-19 infections in Israel in the second wave (over 1000 a day, which is more than the peak during the first wave) has lead to certain restrictions being put back in place. Most of them have no effect whatsoever on me, but the one specific restriction which will affect me is the forced closing of the kibbutz swimming pool (surely the chlorine in the water will kill the virus?). 

Due to the virus, the OP hasn't been at work for the last four months, and so instead of spending up to two hours with her on a Friday morning, we have a short chat and then I head to the swimming pool for a brief swim - this is in addition to Saturday mornings. So even I though I am deliberately swimming less in each session as compared to last year, I am actually swimming more. I even purchased a new waterproof mp3 player which seemed to be better than my original machine, but since copying files to it, my computer can't identify the player when it is connected.

Last week I had my blood pressure measured a few hours after swimming: 120/77, which is very good. On Monday I underwent an ergometric stress test, which means walking on a treadmill while being attached to an ECG machine. At first, the treadmill moved slowly and was flat; every few minutes the speed would increase automatically as well as the angle. After several minutes, the treadmill finally got to a speed at which I felt comfortable, walking very fast - I could have carried on at this rate for quite some time. But then the speed changed once again and simply became too fast for me to walk so I asked to stop. After all, the name of the game is not to show how much stamina I have but rather how the heart performs when under stress.

Why did I do this? During the lockdown, I noticed that my feet - especially the right foot - were swelling up, and it was painful to move them. Although that extreme swelling has not returned, I still see every evening that my right foot is somewhat inflexible. The swelling is due to liquid leaking from somewhere in the body, and so my doctor ordered a few tests. The first was ultrasound of the veins in the thighs - nothing wrong there. The stress test was next, and I have an echocardiogram examination in another two weeks. I had one of these four years ago which didn't show anything noticeable.

And it turns out that because of these tests, I was once again denied the chance to give blood. I had hoped that there would be no more problems, especially considering my last haemoglobin test which was relatively high for me. But no.

First swim for this year

The opening of the kibbutz swimming pool was delayed this year because of Covid-19, but it is now open (it might have been open since last week). Today I had the opportunity of making my first swim of the year. It was very similar to the first swim of last year: my left arm starting hurting after a few lengths but the pain disappeared as I carried on. My right ear hurt - this is something new. I couldn't get my swimming headphones to work, even though I supposedly charged them the day before. As the day was hot (the temperature reached 37°C in the afternoon) and the water was cool, the difference between the two (which is what we feel) was great: I felt like I was swimming through ice for the first length. 

Oh yes: I swam 16 lengths, which seems to be my distance for my first swim; I wonder how far I'll swim next week. Then I came home and after showering and drinking tea, I fell asleep for an hour.

[Edit from a few days later] I didn't charge the mp3 player at all. I mistakenly tried to plug the usb adapter directly into a computer, forgetting that I had a special cable for this. Today I found the cable, and connected everything, after which the player began showing a red light: presumably a sign of charging.

The background behind another song that is used for Israeli folk dancing

The story that I told in a blog a few days ago reminded me of a similar story. Every weekday for at least 40 years, the Army radio broadcasts at 4 pm a programme normally composed of 'classic' Israeli songs. Sometimes these songs are well known but frequently they are lesser known (at least, to me). I don't listen to this program frequently - I would only hear it when I had spent a day in Tel Aviv and was returning home with a colleague in his car.

One day a song was played that I recognised as it is used as the tune for another Israeli folk dance (which also I learnt in the early 80s), 'Nahal Naaran'. Hearing the song in the relative quiet of a car (as opposed to the distorted version played when dancing) enabled me to listen to it properly and I was most appreciative of it.

Once at home, I found the song on You Tube (as referenced above) and started to read about its background, primarily who sung. I could identify the man who seemed to be the lead singer but I was also mildly interested to discover who the others were. To my great surprise, I discovered that the female singer in the song is a member of my kibbutz!

Of course I had to write a gushing message that evoked an interesting response. Since then, the singer (who is probably now approaching the age of 80 and not someone with whom I have much contact) has become a friend of mine.

Is it OK to have a PhD thesis with shortcomings and inaccuracies?

I'll have to define this blog entry as a 'guest posting' as I have written almost nothing of what appears below. What is not mine will appear in italics and in black.

A few days ago, someone asked the question "Is it OK to have a PhD thesis with shortcomings and inaccuracies?" on the Academia Stack Exchange, beginning with the statement "I recently defended my PhD thesis and was awarded a pass with some minor corrections. I am due to submit the final version of my thesis very soon." Hopefully I will soon be in the same position (the latest news is that the external examiner has suggested a few dates in July).

The best answer was The thesis is a "good" one if you have passed and will be awarded your degree. Don't overthink it. You have learned something from producing it that you can leverage into future work. That is, in lots of ways, a big advantage. If your advisor is also happy and wants to work with you on any future extension, you have a positive outcome, if not a perfect one. On the basis of this answer, someone commented People forget that a PhD is a 'learning degree'. Too often, completion is treated as the end, when really it is only just the beginning. If you learned something and can express that you know how or why errors occurred and what they mean for your work, then you have proved you justify being awarded your PhD. A PhD is about the process, not the end result.

Back to me: there is a huge difference between the academic and lay understandings of a doctoral degree. A lay person believes that a doctorate shows how clever a person is, and that the doctorate discovered new knowledge (that might have been true once). The academic understanding is that the degree is an apprenticeship in performing research; it is unlikely in these days that anything startling new will arise from a doctoral thesis, but it is a good base from which to start further research.

A musical day

A starting point for today's story could equally be yesterday evening, a week ago, two years ago or even 42 years ago... I think I'll start from there. In the 1970s and 80s, kibbutzim used to have a weekly evening of Israeli folk dancing. When I emigrated in September 1978, there weren't enough people on my kibbutz who were interested in folk dancing so we used to combine with a neighbouring kibbutz and a neighbouring moshav. There was a new dance (to me) which I learnt fairly quickly: it had lots of bouncing around and was very fast, and dancing it produced a great deal of endorphins. I never managed to catch the name of the song, but it was a girl and boy singing alternate verses.

Over the years, I've enjoyed dancing this dance but still have never managed to learn the name of the tune. The recording to which we used to dance probably wasn't too clear and anywhere I was too busy bouncing around and trying not to collide with any one to catch the name of the song.  It was played the other week at the harvest festival (itself a strange event because of Covid-19), although I wasn't fast enough to record it on my mobile phone.

Yesterday evening I decided to make a brief recording of me playing the tune on the piano; I thought that I would send it to someone more versed than I in Israeli music during the period 1948-78, while it still had a charm of its own and was less western European in its attitude. This morning I sent my recording to a colleague and she replied within ten minutes. Here is the song which I know, and here is someone teaching the dance to a different version of the song, which is called 'The flower seller'.

Once I was finished with this song, I watched part of a documentary about the Tamla Motown label ('Hitsville') which was very interesting. Tamla was part of my childhood but it was not something which I ever grew close to, instead admiring it from afar.

Part of this inspired me to write some lyrics. At the beginning I worked out the music to a new song, whose arrangement I've been working on ever since. Unfortunately I've never been able to write any words for it, apart from an incomplete verse which I wrote at the beginning. Today I went back to the song, and within about ten minutes (literally - the writing went incredibly quickly) I wrote another two verses and a middle section, including rhymes and proper scansion. It makes me wonder how I can be barren for so long and suddenly the whole thing pops out.

After a rest, I thought I'd try my hand (or my voice) at recording the vocal. Instead of getting out the mike stand and microphone, I thought that I'd try the headset which I use for Team/Zoom meetings. This worked out very well - at least, after I turned off the air conditioner which was affecting the microphone badly. One take and I was done. Listening to the playback, I realised that the tune for the middle section was almost exactly the same as another of my songs, so I had to sing this part again with a different tune. This went quickly and I was also able to slot the new verse into the time line without ruining anything else.

Heatwave no longer

After the 40°C+ temperatures last week, things cooled down on Saturday: the highest temperature outside was a more "modest" 30°C - but inside the air did not cool, being a few degrees hotter than outside. Today is much cooler: barely touching 20°C outside, and inside is also cooler. There were a few splatterings of rain just now!

More DBA news in May: it's getting even nearer the end

I last wrote on this topic 11 days ago, saying that "The only minor problem remaining is that a submission/certification form has to be inserted after the acknowledgments in the thesis. What I will do is create a PDF version of the thesis, split it after ten pages into two new documents, then merge the first split, the form and the second split into a new document. Fortunately I have a program that will do this without any bother." 

Not quite as easy as that. The file that denotes the layout of the thesis states that the order of the first few pages should be Title; Abstract; Acknowledgements; Dedication; Declaration; Table of contents; Abbreviations; List of tables; List of figures; and then the text. The appendices should come before the references. The order in my document was Title; Abstract; Table of contents; Abbreviations; List of tables; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Dedication; and of course the references came before the appendices (my supervisor told me to do this: previously the appendices came before the references). So I had to dig out three pages (A & D) and insert them in an earlier place. This shouldn't be a problem, but following the dedication was a section break, which causes the pages following this break to be numbered differently (the pre-text pages are numbered with Roman Numerals (i, iv, etc) whereas afterwards they are numbered normally). As a result, almost the entire thesis got numbered incorrectly. So I had to fix this.

Then I sent the entire document to a PDF printer which naturally creates a PDF (the F in PDF stands for 'file'); I extracted from this the first six pages (title, abstract, acknowledgments, dedication) into a new file and removed those pages from the original document. Then I merged the first six pages, the declaration form and the rest of the document into a new combined document.

After doing so, I discovered that the pagination had gone haywire: I had a blank page after the acknowledgments and tables were starting at the bottom of a page instead of the first line of the next page. So I went through the original Word document, trying to ensure that the pagination was correct. Then I repeated the entire PDF process (create, split, merge) only to discover that somehow two tables had been numbered incorrectly - instead of 13 and 14, they were now numbered 3 and 4 (I don't know how that happened). Another check to see that the lists of tables and figures is correct and then another PDF cycle. Still there were problems.

Then I remembered that Word has its own create PDF functionality: it might be better to use this than send the document to a PDF printer, as the latter can repaginate the document. Indeed this was so, as the PDF that I obtained directly from Word was paginated correctly. After checking that there were no more errors, I split the document and merged, creating the final document which also received a new name. Then it was over to Turnitin in order to upload the document to the university.

I informed the administrative director about the upload and asked about the binding process (apparently two or three copies have to be soft bound prior to the viva exam). After waiting a week with no response, I resent the letter, and yesterday afternoon received a reply. Not a word of congratulation at having got this far; instead dry words: "It is normally up to you to submit the bound examination copies of your thesis but it is obviously not possible at this time. I am waiting for confirmation from the University for the new process but I am assuming the version you submitted via Turnitin will suffice. "

I don't remember if I have mentioned the topic of the external examiner here. The viva is held with one external (to the University) examiner, one internal and my supervisor. My supervisor asked me several months ago about possible external examiners, which struck me as rather strange, as the university should know better than I. Normally I would have asked for someone who had been listed in the references, as this would imply a connection to my topic; there were no recent British authors referenced, so this idea didn't get very far. Then I searched the staff directories of a few British universities, looking for business orientated schools of information. I don't remember now how many I looked at before I found what seemed to be the perfect selection: a lecturer at Northumbria University (and thus reasonably close to Edinburgh) who worked several years for SAP before turning to academia. The administrative director wrote that this lecturer has agreed in principle to be the external examiner; now there is some form of bureaucratic process involved in signing her up.

I wonder whether this examiner gets paid by my university (i.e. from my tuition fees) or whether it is considered part of the job at her university and possibly my university has to reimburse hers. Or whether it's like peer reviewing papers for a professional journal, which is done for free. Also, the fact that her university is close to mine is now irrelevant as the viva will obviously be done via team working software ("We have successfully held four of these since the beginning of the lockdown and it has worked very well on each occasion" - I am surprised that there were so many doctoral candidates from my department at the same stage).

Yesterday's letter ends with the words "I’ll get back in touch once the examiners are approved". The tricky subject of fees will have to be discussed again: I got this wrong in my earlier blog. Fees have to be paid up until the final bound thesis is received, which can be a few months after the viva, depending on its results.

I doubt that I have mentioned this before, but there are five possible outcomes of the viva:

1. to award the degree as is
2. to award the degree subject to minor amendments 
3. to require resubmission of the thesis with major amendments without a further viva 
4. to require resubmission of the thesis with major amendments with a further viva  
5. to fail the candidate.

Of these outcomes, the final one should never happen as the supervisor should only recommend the candidate to submit the thesis when it is complete in the supervisor's opinion. Failed theses are the supervisor's fault! The first outcome is very rare whereas the second is the most common. Of course, this outcome is the one that I expect for my thesis.

Heatwave

A heatwave started yesterday which is forecast to last the entire week. The picture is of our barometer: the lowest figure (40.0) is the temperature outside - that's 40°C!!!

Inside is a mere 29.4°C. The time is not 20:16 but rather 1 pm.

At 9:30 pm yesterday the temperature was around 28°C; I didn't look to see what the temperature was at 5:30 am when I got up to take the dog for a walk but already I could feel the warm wind.

Naturally I am going out as little as possible.

I have to say that as much as I don't like cold, rainy days (I had enough of them in my childhood), they're infinitely better than 40.9°C torrid days (the temperature rose a little more after I took the picture). After all, one can wear a coat, put on boots and carry an umbrella for the rain and cold, but there is nothing that one can do about the desiccating heat.

John Martyn vs Dave Evans

Listening to 'Stormbringer!' (the album) again, I notice similarities between Martyn and Dave Evans: now and then they both feature two guitars playing along with female backing vocals. I have to say though that Dave Evans is much much better: the songs are more interesting and the guitar playing is from another world. It's true that Martyn's playing would improve, but he went in a different direction to the one presented in 'Stormbringer!'. I wonder what would have happened had Evans recorded for Island Records instead of the regional Village Thing. Probably he would have eschewed the bright lights, being too modest for success.

Looking for a suitable picture to display, I discover that someone has done the world a great service and uploaded to YouTube the complete cd version of 'The words inbetween' with the extra songs coming from his second (and less good) album. 

But more importantly, I found the following on the Internet :

The story goes that Ian A. Anderson and John Turner were sat in their habitual coffee shop, Splinters, trying to come up with a name for their new record label. At the time (the early 70s) Greenwich Village was naturally the mecca destination for any musician worth his 12-string, so the pair had taken to referring to their slice of Bristol as 'Clifton Village' (long before this was taken up by estate agents across the land, albeit in a very different fashion). And so The Village Thing was born; home to a great many extraordinary talents, not least of all Dave Evans, and his magnificent debut 'The Words In Between'. 

Like many albums of the era - and inclination - "Words" was recorded straight to tape in someone's home (in this instance, Ian Anderson's). Nothing unusual there – the DIY aspect of making records at this time was something of a necessity, rather than an aesthetic – but one has only to look a little further to realise that the sounds Dave Evans relayed to a shiny new Revox were unique. Not just the songs, but the guitar on which he played; every aspect of his sound was of his own design. No small feat during a time when most of his peers had to beg borrow or steal an instrument, just to fulfill their Saturday night slot at the Troubadour. 

Evans has rightfully earned cult status amongst anyone with an ear for the fingerpicking style of guitar. Even the most cursory glance at his 'Old Grey Whistle Test' session is enough to leave one spellbound – Lou Reed (in the audience at the time) was said to have been completely mesmerised by Evans' phenomenal – yet seemingly effortless – touch. As far as comparisons go, Evans could easily sit alongside the likes of Robbie Basho or John Fahey in terms of technical ability, but the rarity of his talent lies in his gift for melody, which is relayed both instrumentally, and via his sweet Welsh lilt. In a world where it seems as though every guitar LP of the 60s and 70s has been scrutinised within an inch of its life, 'The Words In Between' might just be that rare thing: a wonderfully arcane gem.

"The Words in Between' feels clear and effortless. It's a recording of just guitar and voice, and really does guide us to the spaces in-between, where we find solace, a calm warmth. Dave’s consoling voice comes through in his words, and his exquisite guitar playing guides us along on this lovely journey. I'm so happy that this album will be put back into the world -- for new ears to love, and for the old, worn out copies to be replaced.” Steve Gunn, 2018

"After Bert, John, Ralph and Wizz, where to next? Look further than this companionable compendium of small wonders. One of the last great undiscovered folk guitar albums of its era.", Pete Paphides, 2018

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It's nice to know that someone else feels the same way as I do.

Today is 'Bonny black hare' day, and completely by coincidence that was one of the songs that I heard this morning when walking the dog.

The user interface in Blogger has been changed without recognition and is much less intiuitive IMHO. Inserting the above picture was an exercise in cruelty and I had to look at the HTML code of a previous post to see the necessary command to put the picture on the left with the text on the right. BTW, it's

style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"
    

Edit from a few days later: I discovered that there is an almost hidden option, "Restore classic Blogger" (or similar). Choosing this restores the interface to how it used to be.

Jamie Oliver inspires a chicken dish

I haven't blogged about food for several months, not so much because I haven't been eating but more because I haven't tried any new dishes.

Our satellite television provider has been varying its content: one 'open' channel (i.e. one that is covered in the general subscription) has been showing a variety of programmes, including one series, "Jamie Oliver in Italy". I like JO's programmes although generally I haven't particularly liked the dishes that he cooks. A programme on Italian cooking enables one to see some sights of rural Italy - something lacking in these Corona days - as well as new recipes.

Unfortunately, most of the recipes shown are not kosher: sea food, pork, meat with milk (cheese), rabbit.... One recipe which I did see which needs a little conversion is 'sweet and sour rabbit': obviously I'm not going to use rabbit, which is not kosher and not available in Israel. We have two pairs of chicken thighs and drumsticks waiting to be cooked, so here we go....

The recipe on the web site isn't the same as the recipe shown live on television, so I feel able to improvise a little. Here are my ingredients:

• chicken portions
• three spoonfuls of olive oil (the web site says brown the meat in the oil, but I didn't see this on television)
• a cup of white wine in which has been dissolved a spoonful of sugar
• a cup of balsamic vinegar (this replaces mosto)
• a cup of non-alcoholic wine juice (the Italians use red wine, of course)
• a cup of fig syrup (not in the original)
• one sliced onion
• chopped tomatoes (these were chopped into large pieces; I think it would have been better to have smaller pieces)
• a cup of hot water
• 50 grams chopped almonds
• surprise ingredient: a teaspoon of marmite! This adds umami and colouring. 

Cook for one and a half hours over a low light with an uncovered pan in order to reduce the liquids and enhance the flavours.

The result was very tasty! Presumably I am going to cook this the next time that we have company - on Friday night the entire family was present for the first time in two months! The amounts of ingredients listed above were a bit too much for the small amount of chicken; I could double or treble the chicken without changing the rest of the quantities (after all, I can always add water).

In episode 6 of the series, Jamie visits the Tuscan town of Pitigliano, where he meets an elderly grandmother, apparently the only survivor of a once flourishing Jewish community, and learns how to cook stuffed artichokes (this looks like something that I am not going to attempt!). There is even a scene where Jamie and the grandmother sit in the local synagogue, looking at a picture of the pre-war community. No mention was made whatsoever about the laws of kashrut (no pancetta in this recipe!). Someone wrote about this episode here (warning: it's in Italian).

DBA news in May: it's getting very near the end

I spent most of last weekend working again on my thesis, mainly adding summary sections to each chapter, but generally trying to improve the text and make the points as clear as can be. I uploaded the thesis to my supervisor who responded within a few days saying that the work was very good although that he had made a few minor changes. I had to scour the thesis looking for these and the only one which I could find relatively easily was the changing of a section title from 'Research failures' (i.e. topics which didn't work out as I had expected) to 'Research hindsights' - except that he wrote 'hindsights' with a grocer's apostrophe, i.e. hindsight's (when I pointed this out to him, he said that he was pleased that I found the deliberate mistake).

Afraid that I might have missed something more important, I tried to find out how I could display all the changes made in the document. Eventually I discovered that Review > Track changes > Reviewing pane would open a window with all the changes. Well, my supervisor did say that his changes were minor: capitalising a few words and hyphenating some, such as seven-stage.

He said that now was the time to get a second critique before the final submission and so on Thursday I uploaded the thesis as it currently stands. I contacted the DBA administrator to tell him of the upload and to request a reasonably quick response - last time it took five weeks to get the review - so I was surprised this morning to receive an email saying that there is only one review of the final thesis, and that "The next step, provided your supervisor is happy that you have addressed the previous feedback, is to submit your thesis for examination". So I suppose that the writing-up stage has now been completed!!!

I shall have to get used to the feeling that this is the final product. Externally I'm pleased because I will be able to submit a bound thesis during the period for which I have paid my fees (another month) - over the past few days I had been considering how to pay fees for another six months. Internally the doubt starts to creep in: impostor's syndrome.

The only minor problem remaining is that a submission/certification form has to be inserted after the acknowledgments in the thesis. What I will do is create a pdf version of the thesis, split it after ten pages into two new documents, then merge the first split, the form and the second split into a new document. Fortunately I have a program that will do this without any bother.

A good weekend

I have just finished a very good weekend.

It started at around 7 am on Friday morning, when I read my private email. There was a message from my doctoral supervisor who wrote "I think the changes you have made have certainly helped the narrative flow of the document. I've added a few comments for you to consider, but I think this is just about 'ready for submission' ... The effort you've put into this document really shows! Well done!". From his feedback, it seemed that all he was asking was for summaries at the end of four chapters. I worked on this on and off during Friday and Saturday, adding a few more paragraphs at the end of those chapters. When I thought that I was done, I took yet another look through the thesis and realised that there was a section missing, something that we had never discussed. The final chapter restates the research questions that were presented at the beginning of the thesis; following them were stated the aims and objectives of the research. Nowhere in the thesis was anything written related to those aims and objectives, so I thought it necessary to add a section (another page) discussing whether the aims and objectives had been realised. I finished this off then uploaded to the supervisor what I hope is the final version, at around 8 pm yesterday evening.

I also did some paying work for some of my clients.

Over the past few days, I have been copy editing a book entitled "E = mc²" by David Bodanis; something went wrong when converting the epub format to mobi (which is what the Kindle wants), so I had to go through the entire book and fix the formatting. I didn't really read the book - I look forward to doing so in the next few days - but one part captured my interest, about an astronomer called Cecilia Payne, who in 1925 concluded in her doctoral thesis that the sun is about 75% hydrogen, and not iron as was previously thought. The scientific world ignored her until someone else (a man) arrived at the same conclusion. Her findings were ignored because she was a woman. While I was reading my own thesis, somewhere in the methodology chapter, I mentioned her in a footnote when I was writing about how the identity of the researcher should not make any difference in the exact sciences.

Yesterday was also my first grand-daughter's 4^th birthday party. The rate of new Covid-19 infections in Israel (outside of the ultra-religious strongholds in Jerusalem and Bnei Barak) has dropped to zero in the past few days, so people are returning slowly to their previous habits. I had my mask on for most of the time and kept a distance from everyone else (no hugging), but I'm pleased that I was able to take part in the party.