Oxford – Page 11 – a sibilant intake of breath

Bad prioritization

Wadham just replaced most of the computers in our lab with brand new HP 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo machines, complete with new keyboards and monitors. This strikes me as pretty wasteful, given that the previous machines were completely adequate for web browsing and word processing – the only tasks for which the computers in the lab are ever used.

The new machines probably cost about £500 each: money that could have been much better spent on scholarships or some other purpose that serves student needs. Having three or four fast computers with Photoshop or similarly resource-intensive software makes sense; buying a dozen high power machines for mundane tasks does not. When running Word and Firefox, the performance difference on the new machines cannot even be noticed.

At least they didn’t upgrade to Vista.

Getting things done

After multiple recommendations, I started reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity. So far, most of what he sets out is familiar to me. I already deal with emails using an algorithm almost identical to the one he suggests. Likewise, my calendar and to-do list usage is closely akin to what he describes. What I am most hoping to get from the book is the ‘stress-free’ part. I have spent enormously more time worrying about the thesis than actually working on it (because I worry about it every minute of every day).

Hopefully, the nuts and bolts of his approach will help in the completion of the thesis, during the course of the next five weeks. I still have about half the book to go, so I am hoping it proves worth the time and money spent reading it.

[Update: 18 Mar 2007] As part of the ‘collection’ phase of GTD organization, I have started making project lists and reading lists on the wiki.

Luminox

The Luminox festival is really quite something. Essentially a celebration of combustion, it runs all along Broad Street from 7:00pm to 10:00pm for the next two days. The event involves a combination of fire-based artistic displays and live music. The whole thing seems to be paraffin powered, and it includes both static displays and manned installations that are made to flare up with the removal of chokes. Spaced along the road are braziers of coal and wax-burning metal chimneys that glow orange hot. Hanging from a crane beside Balliol College is a massive chandelier of flame.

Having such an immediate experience with fire would be impossible in lawsuit-happy North America, but it is quite engaging and beautiful. I actually took about fifty pictures, so expect to see them crop up on future days when I am too busy to find something new.

PS. Today, I also saw the inside of the Green College tower tonight, and got a photo of Mansfield for my growing collection of Oxford college images.

PPS. Did you know that you can set Google Calendar to automatically notify you of upcoming appointments by SMS? During the breaks, I have trouble keeping track of exactly which generally unstructured day I have an event in. With this free service, I have a very helpful aide memoire.

Shedding possessions

With my departure from Oxford coming up in about one hundred days, I am getting nervous about how much stuff I have picked up while here. Since it seems that shipping things back to Vancouver would be excessively expensive, I am planning to sell as much as possible before leaving.

Here is a list of what will be for sale. If you are interested in anything, let me know.

Spring, geeky tech, and the continued tapping of thesis words

Today has been fairly productive, with one excellent break out in Oxford’s sunlit gardens and along its warm paths. I am well on the way to having the structure of chapter two revamped, though my introductory sections for chapters three and four still need to be finished. The most difficult thing is staying focused for any length of time. It is all too easy to find a more immediately satisfying way to use one’s time.

Speaking of immediate satisfaction, this week’s Economist features their Technology Quarterly (most of the links below require a subscription). Most of it is stuff that is pretty familiar: cellulistic ethanol, solar power (mentioned here recently), data visualization, display technologies, and climate engineering. One thing that was new to me is the emergence of ‘haptic’ touch screens that are able to simulate the feeling of various materials by slightly stretching the skin of the fingers touching them. It is possible to make tapping on a screen feel like pushing a button, or even make a flat screen feel like a sharp edge. It doesn’t take much thinking to imagine some really interesting applications for such technology, particularly in terms of making technology more comprehensible and accessible.

Task sequencing altered

Today’s meeting with my supervisor was very useful – the flaws in my draft second chapter were discussed, and a route forward proposed. As soon as possible, I am to submit a revised chapter two introduction, as well as draft versions for the opening sections of chapters three and four. These are to lay out the central purpose of each chapter, the three or four main arguments that will be made, and the structure that will be used:

Chapter two, main argument: the linear model of scientific investigation is wrong, in the context of environmental politics generally and Stockholm and Kyoto specifically
Chapter three: scientific and political consensus are not independent, the first does not chronologically precede the second
Chapter four: technical remedies to environmental problems are not value neutral (be sure to focus on remedies and scientific rationality, not economic rationality ie. Coase)

Once that is done, I am to revise chapter two into a more logical form, then write the draft of chapter three that was originally due tomorrow. The objective of all this is to have the structure of all three chapters finalized by the end of the month, as well as their introductions and conclusions. Then, when Dr. Hurrell leaves for Brazil and I go to Dorset, it will be a matter of tidying things up, adding some footnotes, and generally polishing the finished work prior to submission.

Of course, that leaves me with eighteen days to write two more chapters, as well as discuss and edit them. Amazing how the period in which the bulk of the work on a project actually seems to get done always lumps up at the end. Hopefully, all the background reading I have been doing since last year will percolate into my analysis.

And so it continues…

Looking over my introduction and first chapter, both show an acute need for additional work. Many thanks to Tristan for giving them a much more comprehensive look than anyone else has. The chapter on problem identification, particularly, shows signs of having been written in haste. I need to integrate arguments in response to many things I have read, but not discussed in the present draft. I also need to work on the structure, language, and arguments.

Even more worryingly, I am meant to submit my chapter on consensus formation next Wednesday, and it is nowhere near where I wanted it to be before I left for Wales. I am not naive enough to think I will be able to get any work done there, but I am committed to the expedition now. Expect some truly frantic, crazed entries early next week.

I wish I had my noise isolating headphones. Even more, I wish I had the ability to simply read efficiently for many hours at a stretch. Memory suggests I could do this once, but perhaps I am not recalling things accurately.

M.Phil teaching complete

With today’s international law seminar done, the taught portion of the M.Phil program is complete. All told, we had 24 two-hour core seminar classes, with 2/3 of those devoted to 20th century history. In addition, I have had eight on the developing world and eight on international law. We also had our various research training lectures and seminars.

Now, I just have two essays, four exams, and the thesis left to complete – over the course of the next three and a half months. The fact that the portion of that collection that is the most time consuming and difficult is due in only 46 days is something rarely forgotten by anyone in the course.

By Canada Day, at the start of July, I will no longer be a student. This, for the first time in twenty years (pre-school 1, kindergarten 1, elementary school 7. high school 5, undergrad 4, master’s 2). I wonder what I will end up doing.

PS. The WordPress trio have been upgraded to version 2.1.2. Nobody ever reports bugs, so I will not ask for it.

Rare pub visit

My first month here probably involved more days that included time in a pub than days that did not. Of late, the social component of Oxford has evaporated. As such, it was all the better to spend a bit of time at the Rose and Crown on North Parade walk with Claire and Iason tonight. Just the place to complain about theses, hypothesize about space elevators and nuclear fusion, express our doubts about the discipline of international relations, and generally revel in non-laptop company.

Now, I need to work double-time to get a pre-Snowdonia draft of chapter three (of five) written.

40% written, roughly

The draft of the second chapter has been submitted. I expect that it will change a moderate amount before the final version. After all, it only makes sense in conversation with the next two chapters. More importantly, there is no clean demarcation between problem investigation and consensus formation, the subjects of the second and third chapters respectively.

I am to have at least an internal draft of the third chapter by the time I leave for Snowdonia on Friday. Sometime between now and then, I should meet with Dr. Hurrell to discuss this draft.

While sometimes frustrating, and always terrifying, this is certainly a learning experience.