Anal I know, but hey I like CoverFlow!

The main comments and findings from today’s lesson are that I should try to slow down, slow and correct is better than being faster and wrong. I have problems changing chords which is to be expected, but by playing slower I should give myself more time to change and also I should be looking ahead at the music to see what chord is coming next - there is no need to look at my strumming hand or fret hand once I’m playing the chord.

Another biggie from today was hand positions of the fret hand, my fingers seem to bunch up towards the index finger when playing scales so I need to consciously make sure that I keep them spread between the four frets I am working on. It sounds simple but seems hard in practice and it does make the scales easier to play so I need to persist.

Practice for the coming week now includes:

12 bar blues rhythm.
The blues scale (first, second and third position).
Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train but with accents on certain down strokes.
The chords for Limp Bizkit’s Behind Blue Eyes.

Today was really just a trial lesson, a free 30 minutes where I could decide if I liked the teacher enough to attend ok a regular basis and pay 94 bucks an hour for the privilage. While being rather nervous the time passed by rather quickly and I was quite surprised at what was achieved in such a short length of time.

I’ve come away from the lesson with a music sheet containing a basic A blues rhythm, the A blues scale 1st position and the rhythm and chords for the song Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, all of which I need to learn and practice ready for my first proper lesson next Thursday.

What is really cool is that along with the music sheet I also have an MP3 recorded onto a USB stick with Tsering playing all of the items that I need to learn so that I have a reference to listen to when ever I practice, it’s a nice touch and one that I think will be very helpful going forward.

So why am I telling you all this? Well I figure that I should keep some form of log of my lessons and practice so that I can refer back at any time in the future. If I can ever work out garage band I may even upload an MP3 of my practice on a regular basis so that I have a more concrete reference of what I hope will be improvement over the next months.

If your around the Zurich area and looking for a teacher, I’m with Tsering at Guitar-School.ch and if you’re an ex-pat like myself don’t worry he speaks fluent German and English.

Now that things have calmed down a little at work, ok so they are still not that calm as it is 7am on Saturday morning and Im preparing to head to the office, I’ve been looking at my someday maybe list and thinking about what I can study. I’ve decided to go for the CISA and followed by the CISM or CISSP, at the moment I’m waiting for the study guides to arrive before I decide if i chance a June exam or wait until December.

Towards the end of 2007 I took on quite a large project at the office (actually I had no choice, it was urgent and needed and therefore had to be completed within the time frames set). Between normal work, the additional project, home life and work on the dissertation things got a bit too much and something had to give. Unfortunately the only real way forward at the time was to withdraw from the dissertation process with the full support of my family, friends and most importantly my employer.

Withdrawing from the final module was literally a weight off my shoulders, looking back now it was certainly the right thing to do and although I can not complete the MSc ISM degree with the University of Liverpool, as I have exceeded the time requirement, I have come away from the course with a lot of experience and knowledge gained from the course topics and my fellow students take on things, as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Systems Management that theoretically I can take to another institution to carry out the dissertation component. The learning an experience gained during these studies is certainly paying off within my working life.

I will be leaving all of my posts regarding my experiences with the MSc ISM modules online for people to reference, if you have any questions regarding taking this degree etc. please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The last couple of weeks saw me slacking on the proposal document, partly because I’ve been busy at work and knackered in the evenings and partly because I was a little lost within the process. Today I took the day off work to really concentrate on getting the proposal out of the way and this evening I submitted a full draft for review by Geoff by dissertation advisor. Hopefully I will get some feedback on the draft by the weekend and will then be able to submit a reworked, final proposal on Saturday or Sunday.

Technorati Tags: Dissertation, Masters, MSC ISM

The store came online a few minutes ago and I managed to get an order in (it was dog slow), now all I have to do is bide my time until the delivery date at the start of Oct :(

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod

The most surprising thing was the volume of spam comments that had been previously sitting in the database and hidden on the blog itself, Spam Karma 2 found around 20,000 spam comments to delete :)

Technorati Tags: WordPress

Now it seems that the most common question is ‘what are the essential tools’, so here we go, this is a list of the tools and websites that I have found invaluable over the past couple of years.

Endnote and the University of Liverpool Harvard style template - This is a must have from day 1, you can buy it with a massive student discount if you go through the university computing website and you will never lose marks for poor referencing. The benefits and time saving from keeping a record of all references are also great.

Microsoft Word (combined with Endnote) for all assignments as well as initial responses - Use Word or something similar instead of typing straight into First Class, this way you can use Endnote’s Cite as You Write toolbar within Word to auto reference your work.

First Class (client and web access) - Download the latest First Class client from the website rather then use the outdated version provided by the university. Also make sure that you know how to use the web access for those times when you have 15 minutes free. Spending the occasional 15 minutes reading up on DQ posts over lunch from the office or on the train with a PDA etc makes a big difference when you do it throughout the week.

University of Liverpool Electronic Library particularly the following sources / databases:

• ACM
• IEEE
• Scopus
• Business Source Premier
• Emerald

For top marks throughout the modules you are expected to show that you had read outside of the course materials and carried out your own research, there is no comparison between academic grade articles such as those coming from journals via the library and general information found on the Internet which is considered unreliable.

MindManager - Really any mind map software will help greatly when brainstorming assignments and collecting data. MindManager is expensive and there are many other pieces of software that do the same thing, others that I would recommend are: NovaMind, TheBrain and Freemind.

Google Scholar - While the UoL library is great, you can sometimes find what you are looking for faster with Google and then go and collect the full article through the library where you have academic access.

Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion - If you are a mac user like me then at some point during your modules you will have to run Windows software such as MS Project, both of virtual machines run Windows very capably within OS X.

Skim - A PDF reader that I have only just found recently, it’s main advantages over Acrobat, Preview etc. is the ability to annotate the PDF as you read it.

Access Anywhere bookmarks - I used to use .mac to synchronize my bookmarks and favorites between computers, this also gave me the opportunity to access my bookmarks from other locations such as the office, university libraries or net cafe’s if I happened to be working away from home. In recent weeks I’ve moved my bookmarks onto del.icio.us which seems to be a much better way of working.

ChronoSync / Backup - On the Mac I use both of these tools to keep backups of my work but any backup method will do. As I work between a laptop and a desktop, ChronoSync makes sure that all of my files (including my Endnote reference databases) are the same in both location by using a bi-directional sync each day. Apple’s backup take a backup of my documents and uploads them to an iDisk on the Internet which also provides the advantage of remote access from libraries etc. if I don’t have my laptop with me.

Earplugs / iPod - Both essential if like me you intend to take advantage of public or university libraries, or even coffee shops for studying. Personally I find that I work best when listening to mellow classical music.

While not essential tools, I would recommend avoiding:

Wikipedia - While it seems like a great resource, entries are often not accurate and many instructors will not accept Wikipedia references. Get into the habit of using better sources from the outset and don’t come to rely on this site.

Referencing general pages on the Internet - Unless you are referencing company or organizational websites or are referring to reliable secondary sources such as newspaper and trade / industry news websites, look for some better source material i.e. reference from the electronic library databases.

Using non standard referencing methods - The university provides a clear referencing guide that you must follow if you want good marks, it is very easy to fall into the trap of using non standard referencing as the Harvard system demands attention if you want to get it right, if you hate writing out references in the correct format get a tool to do it for you e.g. Endnote.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Masters, MSC ISM, Studying, University

A friend asked me to compare the dissertation process to the modules a couple of weeks ago, the best comparison I could come up with is -

The modules are like swimming in a swimming pool with lane markers to keep you going in the right direction and a life guard to give you advice and jump in if you get into trouble. The dissertation is like you have been taken out of the pool, flown by helicopter out to the middle of the ocean and then dumped. While your treading water, watching the helicopter disappear into the distance the sudden realization of the mammoth task ahead hits home!

So weeks 2,3 and 4 have been and gone, I’ve worked steadily through the research modules and have been developing my project proposal. The topic has worked through a couple of iterations and the scope has been reduced to the development of best practice guidelines for the use of mobile email devices such as Blackberries within organizations. I still am not clear as to how to evaluate such a best practice and the timing of the proposal development has coincided with a family emergency of my dissertation advisor so feedback has been delayed and to be honest, less than expected.

This week I have had 2 days off work to try and get through the week 5 research module and to attempt to pull the proposal together a bit more.

Technorati Tags: Dissertation, Masters, MSC ISM, Studying, University, UoL