Wildfalcon

Quite and Busy.

Life has a strange cycle of being busy, and being quiet. Since I first submitted my thesis this has been really clear. There were two months between when I submitted my thesis to Senate House, and the day of my viva. Two months in which I had very little structure in my life. I knew I wasn’t yet done, not yet ready to get a job. The chances were good that the examiners were going to want some corrections. Thinking back on it now, I can’t remember what I did for those two months. I remember something taking up 3 weeks, but I’m not sure…

It’s not really surprising; the PhD was pretty all consuming. I suspect I was ill for a few weeks, stressed, and sleeping lots. But basically, other than catching up with paperwork, and some meeting up with old friends, I had time off. Then I had my viva, and was given another three months or so of work to do. I started off working hard, working late, running new experiments. Then it stopped – for Christmas. I did some work over the Christmas holidays, but my loved ones prevented me from doing much (for my own benefit!)

January was back to the grindstone, corrections, more experiments, typographical changes. Then it all stopped. I sent it to my supervisor, and found myself with nothing do while waiting for him to look though my corrections, though this time only for a few days till he got back to me, The cycle repeats a few more times before a few days ago when I sent the final copy to the examiners, needless to say, hoping they will get back to me saying everything is ok. When they do I will have to go back into rush mode, to print the thesis, and bind it and hand it in before the deadline. But till they get back to me I am once again stuck with nothing to do.

It’s not just the thesis and the PhD that has this pattern. Today I have been busy all day with sorting out photos for a photo shoot I did yesterday.  Tomorrow I have 4 appointments – one being a final found interview for a good job. Tuesday is totally empty, except a 45 minute phone interview at 7pm….  Then Wednesday, nothing! I have the day off, in fact, at the moment I don’t think I have any plans at all after Wednesday, ever!

Ok, maybe that last bit is slight exaggeration, but the last 6 months have left me feeling like that. Maybe I just need a good long holiday :-)

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Spending a lot of time at the computer has one big benefit: I get a lot done, or at least can do :-)

Last night I spent a few hours while watching TV and chatting to friends refactoring the forum software I have written, which eventually will be used to power the universitydancesport website. Its called paso and is coming on very nicely, though pretty slowly as its very much a side project while I do my PhD corrections. I had bumbled into my first Ruby On Rails project not quite sure how to go about it, and still not feeling very confident with the eXtreem Programming philosophy. I ended up with one big forum controller than did everything, boards, topics, posts, all done in one long file that was getting unwieldy. I realised that putting everything in one big file was a mistake, and that boards, topics and posts should each have their own controller. So I did just that. It was easy (if a bit dull), and thanks to my test suit (which is nearly twice as long as my actual code!) I’m sure everything still works. Cool. The next step will be some form of access control, watch here for details

Today I started on my corrections. Much of the day was spent making sure all the LaTeX source files still worked, getting the version I submitted checked into CVS and tagged all nicely (which took quite a while, the file system was convinced the files were in CVS, and the CVS system was convinced they were not!). After that I had to get LaTeX working on the new Linux install I set up between submission and the viva. With that all done, and after the minor panic when my thesis shrunk to 11 pages for 5 mins, but its back again now. I then had another go at going though the corrections, and came up with 13 stories, each one a small card with a task to do. When I have done them all then I will have done all the corrections. One of them I might write out as two or more new stories as I cant’ see myself doing it in one day. So if I write that one out as two new stories I will have 14 stories, each of which should take about a day (roughly). That means that in theory I can do the corrections in 2 weeks. Allowing for how any project always takes longer than expected, I might just get it done within the 3 month limit :-)

Oh I did actually do some corrections today as well. I changed the structure of the top levels (chapters etc) to reflect the new structure, and started moving some of the larger blocks of text to their new locations. Tomorrow I will try and complete one of my stories, and get that one step closer to finishing.

Technorati Tags : rails, ruby, refactoring, phd, thesis, corrections

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Not the best day ever. I started off by loosing my hat. Was in a coffee shop for lunch after running some errands this morning, and I left without taking my hat with me. When I went back to get it 5 mins later it was gone. Someone just got a new hat for xmas! I went all the way to Canada to get that hat, and I’m going to miss it!

Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, today I started on my corrections. Not exactly the most enjoyable pastime! Actually they don’t look too bad, some bits of it are going to be a bit complex. but nothing looks too impossible. Mostly its restructuring and clarification, with a few additions.

So here is what I have to do, written as something of a todo list. I’ve not gone into too much details as I have recently started to do various bits of work using the XP mantra of plan as you go. This is a high level plan, and the more low level details will come along as I go.

1) Structure. I need to swap two chapters, and do some merging on the introductory chapters, and even remove one of the later chapters
2) Math. The math needs to be made more precise. A lot of the math is not very clear, but ways to fix this were discussed in the viva
3) Introduction. The introduction is going to have a slightly different structure and emphasis. Ch 1&2 are to be combined, and Ch 3 is to be split into a new Ch2 and Ch3
4) Theory: The relation between my theory and the math presented needs to be explained. Both the new and the existing bits of theory need to be clearly marked
5) Experimental: I need to compare my work to one more piece of existing work, and present my existing results in an additional set of metrics
6) Related work: I have seven things to add
7) Conclusions: Updated to reflect the changes, and re-iterate a clear statement of what’s new.

And of course, various spelling and grammar mistakes :)

I’m going to start on the biggest changes, and then work my way down to the smaller ones. So step one is to do the restructuring, the math (which is most important) followed by the theory (without witch the math is meaningless) Then I will see what seems like the biggest thing in need of attention.

Technorati Tags : hat, phd, thesis, corrections

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A week ago I sat the viva for my PhD. I passed! I’m now a Doctor.

I’m only just starting to find it sinking in. I spent a day or so convinced I was going to get an e-mail from the examiners saying they had changed their mind, then a few days thinking I wouldn’t be able to do the corrections in time. Of course these thoughts probably have more to do with being dragged out drinking by well meaning friends for several days in a row, and then coming down with a cold, which I’m finally recovering from.

A few days ago I got a copy of the corrections that they examiners want. Maybe I should stop for a moment end explain the exam procedure. After I submitted my thesis a copy got sent to both my examiners, who then had to read it (for which I apologize to them). They then came to Imperial for my viva. It lasted four hours, and the spent the time asking me lots of detailed questions about my thesis, which bits they agreed with, some bits were badly written and they couldn’t follow in the format it was in.

They have a number of options they have to choose from. Firstly they had the option of a straight pass, Secondly they could pass me with minor corrections, in which case I have 3 months to do the corrections they ask for. Then they could have specified 18 months of corrections, which I think would have counted as a fail, as I would have had to redo the submission process. There are some worse options available to them, like down-grade the degree from PhD to DPhil, but those are too horrible to consider.

After four hours they asked me to leave the room while they conferred between them what they thought. I spent a few minutes very restlessly. Then they called be back in and told me they were recommending pass with minor corrections. I remember thinking it was strange they use the word “recommending” but I guess that’s because there is a PhD committee who technically do the passing based on the examiners recommendation, or maybe it was just a phrase. Anyway they then outlined the changes they want.

So now I’m off to the bank to get the name on my credit cards changed :-)

Technorati Tags : PhD, Viva, Exam, Doctor

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Well it’s a while since I have written anything here. I have been having some down time, relaxing after my PhD submission. I now have a date for my Viva, the 1st Dec. I have also been promoted to webmaster for IVDA, so I’m now in charge of www.universitydancesport.com. It has to change, quite drastically! There are a number of problems with the current site, mostly that it’s falling apart at the seams! Text is overflowing from one column into the next, the forum is a totally different piece of software, and it’s breaking. Probably none of the users have noticed it yet, but the admin side is generating SQL errors left right and centre.

I’m moving in a different direction and am playing with Plone. Plone is a full content management system, written on top of CMF (the Continent Management Framework), which is in turn written on top of Zope, which is an application framework for content management systems. Zope is written in Python, a language I have no prior experience of, but its meant to be nice, and well thought out, with the exception of some strange white space issues. Anyway, the whole project is very well designed, and once you get your head round the strange multi level configuration options, kinda cool. Though it has no good forum products. I have installed Ploneboard, which works, but is missing several features. Firstly it doesn’t let you allow access to some boards to only some groups, but because of the nice security model in Zope, I can set that using Zope (though it’s a bit of a hassle). It doesn’t seem to let you edit posts, not does it tell you how many new posts have been made since you last visited. Looking at the source code for Ploneboard, it’s well structured and clear, so I think I can add the features we need and submit them back to the ploneboard development team for inclusion in future releases.

On a different note, I watched the BBC’s new Rome drama today, and then read the Guardian’s review of it. The reviewer seems to find every fault with it, without much justification, or historical accuracy. Sure, we don’t know that roman women would have showered in bull’s blood for a sacrifice, but given the prevalent religion at the time, it seems more than likely. As for his claim that the political back story is not covered in enough depth, well there is only so much screen time. If you want a good dramatisation of the fall of the republic and the rise of the empire, then Iggulden’s series has to be your first stop. Of course that is 3 books long, and counting…..

Finally I’m writing this in WB Editor 2, which is crap, and I won’t be using it again!

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Well My PhD is now down, and handed in. Now I have to wait for the examiners to receive it and then sit my viva. Something I should story worrying about but it’s liable to be two months or so away yet. I have some pics of my thesis, including a close up of the spine with my name on, the title page, and my first quote, at the beginning fo Ch1, which is from the Mabinogion, one of my favourite books :-)

I also want to put a copy of my acknowledgements here, as I have thanked a few people who are unlikely to get to see the final physical copy.

I have found writing a thesis to be a long, difficult, and trying experience. However there have been many people who have helped in one way or another. I would like to take this opportunity to thanks them. Without their help I would never have done as much as I have.

My supervisor, John Darlington has been invaluable. As well as guiding me in the right direction, and helping form the structure of my research, I have always found him capable of reassuring me whenever I start to feel concerned about my work.

Of my colleagues I would like to thank: Stephen McGough for his advice on how the academic world works, and almost always making himself available to help me with bits of maths that befuddled me; Anthony Meyer for inspiring me to look at the economic ideas that eventually formed the basis of my thesis and Oliver Jevons for both his emotional support, and for endless conversion of figures into EPS format. I also want to think everyone else in the London e-Science centre for bits of advice and technical help over the last four years that are too numerous to mention.

My friends have been invaluable too. James Fairbairn has tirelessly advised me about clean and maintainable Java coding practices, ensuring that adding new features when required to my code was a lot less painful that it could have been. William Dugdale has provided emotional counselling and friendship on numerous occasions, as well as helping to proofread the final manuscript, a thankless task also undertaken by Laura Cobden, my dance partner, who has put up admirably with my confused leads as well as some confusing grammar.

Finally but by no means least, my mother and grandfather, without their constant faith I would have lost heart many times. No doubt they will both be pleased my student days are coming to an end, or at least their bank accounts will be.

Thesis Cover
Originally uploaded by Laurie Young.

My Name on the Spine
Originally uploaded by Laurie Young.

Title Page
Originally uploaded by Laurie Young.

Chapter 1 Quote
Originally uploaded by Laurie Young.

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Today I finished another chapter to first draft. This leaves me with just four more chapters to write to first draft standard, and then I will have an entire first draft thesis! Of course its going to be harder than that makes it sound, some of the results aren’t quire complete, and some of them will probably have to be run again to allow the optimisation to folly complete, but it doesn’t appear that this is going to cause any problems. With any luck I will actually be lucky enough that it really won’t cause any problems! Only one of the four chapters that need to be started is an experimental chapter, which means most of the dull hard work of preparing graphs should be out of the way. Not that I believe that for a second!

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Well the final stage of my PhD are now well and truly underway. I have written a small thesisometer to monitor the progress of my writing. I have also created a currently empty thesis page which will get updates when I can be bothered to put them up :-)

I have spent this week sorting out the forms applying for the exam. I have had to choose a title for my thesis, and i have have settled on “Scheduling in a Grid environment using high level policies”. That still has to be approved by the appropriate committee, but I don’t think they will have any problems with it. The next step is to finish the final set of extended experiments, and write it all down. I have to take at least four months, as that is how long the paperwork takes, so I’m not actually allowed to submit my thesis. I don’t think I will have any significant problems (other than motivation), touch wood!

I have also had to write a “statement of conjoint work” as I will be basing one of the the chapters on the paper I recently had published which i worked on with other people. All the forms are now done, and waiting for John to check them, and sign them.

John also needs to decided on examiners for my viva, which is already starting to scare me…

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A while ago I wrote about having the deadline for a submission to The Computer Journal extended. Now I have just received word that the paper has been published.

You can read the paper on The Computer Jounral’s Pages. Though I am not the sole author of the paper, I feel very proud of it, as I feel I made a major and significant contribution to the content :-)

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I have just had a meeting with my supervisor, discussion the shape of my thesis. I am now at the preliminary stages of writing up. I have one last set of experiments to code and run, which will form a Case Study for the thesis, and probably be the most interesting part of it. The main core is now coded, and tested, and is ready to write up :-)

In Today’s meeting, we discussed the order of the chapters and the “story” that my thesis will tell. We have agreed on a structure. Basically things are going well.

I am now off for a weeks holiday in Italy, and when I get back I will start the last phase of my PhD with a vengeance

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