Zotero premium service
Posted by Peter | Filed under Academia, Software
The team behind the open source Zotero citation management software has been actively developing “sync” functionality for quite some time now. It allows you to work with your references collection from multiple computers by storing the latest copy of your collection on the Zotero servers.
An optional part of the sync system allows you to store PDF files and such like in your collection (full-text copies of papers etc.). Zotero provides 100MB of storage free to everyone, but towards the end of 2009 they introduced an optional premium service, in conjuction with Digital Scholar.
What is Standard Deviation?
Posted by Peter | Filed under Academia, Maths
The term “Standard Deviation” comes up quite a lot in certain types of research papers where statistics are mentioned. As a result, I have to wonder exactly what it tells us, why it is interesting, and how it works.
Thankfully the basic idea is fairly simple, so I don’t need extensive training in statistics to understand what it means. In fact, I just picked up an old copy of a statistics textbook at a second-hand book shop, and it tells me everything I need to know. (And a lot more that I probably don’t!)
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Zotero 1.5 sync: tag too long
Posted by Peter | Filed under Academia, Software
I had been awaiting the Zotero synchronization functionality with great anticipation, so that I can easily share my citation library between home and work. I recently downloaded the first beta version of Zotero 1.5, which supports sync, and got it up and running.
For the most part, the library sharing is great (kudos Zotero dudes!)… but I hit one frustrating problem recently. When attempting to synchronize my library with the server, it failed and complained of this error:
“Tag ‘…’ is too long”
Citation Lottery
Posted by Peter | Filed under Academia, Software
For the most part, I’m a big fan of Zotero. It’s citation management software which works as a FireFox plugin, and is great for grabbing all the citation data off a web-page. It can often also find, download, and index the full-text PDF for you, which is seriously groovy!
Anyway, yesterday I did a mini-haul through some HCI texts, and took note of a good looking article by Sussane Bodker, called “Creating Conditions for Participation: Conflicts and Resources in Systems Development” (from HCI 11(3), 1996). Unfortunately, today, upon opening the PDF file which Zotero had diligently downloaded on my behalf, it turned out to be “Out of Scandinavia: Alternative Approaches to Software Design and System Development”, by Floyd et al, from HCI vol. 4, 1989.
At least it’s roughly the same topic… 
It’s the first time I’ve seen this problem, so I’m not going to complain too bitterly. I just think it’s quite an entertaining approach to research: pick a paper… any paper… don’t let me see what it is… and I’ll try to review it blindfolded…
“How to Write a Thesis”
Posted by Peter | Filed under Academia
I got a book from my university library, called “How to Write a Thesis”, by Rowena Murray (I’ve got it on 3-day loan only, which is a pest, so I might buy my own).
I’m not much through the book yet, but I am liking its encouragement and guidance for writing early and often, which matches advice from Prof. Malcolm Crowe at our induction day for new research students (waaaay back in September). It is particularly good at encouraging action in the here-and-now, rather than waiting until you ‘feel ready’, and in so doing, seeks to portray writing as a discipline, rather than an art, for academics (even one only just starting his PhD!).
Part of the aim of the book is to get its readers able to write 1000 words an hour, and it labours the point that is might seem scary and unobtainable… but that is is achievable if I follow what the book says. Sure, it might not be the most polished, high-quality 1000 words ever, but it ought to be decently coherent and have at least some semblance of structure. As such, I tried one of the first exercises, which was to write (i.e. type at the computer) for five minutes, on the topic of “what can I write in five minutes?”. Somewhat vague target, but I thought I’d give it a go anyway, under the book’s guidance to write non-stop, in complete sentences, using the first person (i.e. “I do this…”).
The result? 275 words which are in fact rather coherent and structured. I won’t post them here, but suffice it to say, if I kept that rate up for an hour, I would have 3300 words! I figured it could be a fluke, and that maybe I couldn’t keep up that rate for more than 5 minutes.
Indeed, I was proven correct… somewhat. Next exercise was to write, for no particular amount of time, about what particularly interests me regarding my research area. I ended up writing for 19 minutes, producing an oddly well-structured and coherent piece of writing, totalling 818 words. If I kept up that rate for an hour, I would have written around 2583 words. A little slower than the 5 minute flurry, but still rather faster than the book claims to help me achieve if I follow all its advice!
OK, OK… I know it’s not about word count. Of course, it helps that after 18 years of being a pianist (which helps with dexterity) and a number of years’ computer programming, I can type a little more quickly than your average computer user (>100 correct words per minute if I’m copying text verbatim). So I won’t be benefiting much from the book’s writing speed claims… but I’m sure it will help me structure stuff better, which is the important thing. 
I’ve got to get into this other book too now, which is recommending everywhere… “How to Get a PhD”… sounds like the book for me!
