More work on documents, translation for UK partners, interspersed with generation of a version of Mr Straus' logo suitable for Word documents. A telephone call also established that the printing of four photographs for my Open Studios as still proceeding according to plan, with delivery next week.
A short diversion was the e-mail conversation with S Jinks of the Creative Network re site design. I have submitted an application to join for the trivial annual sum of £25.
The rest of the day's work was directed to putting on paper the structure for the workshop that I will be presenting, on effective networking, at tomorrows HBN. Tomorrow morning will then be devoted to aspects of delivery.
The strike day by some teaching unions and other public sector unions was significant but remarkable for three reasons. Firstly, It was not supported by the Labour party. Second, it was less disruptive than anticipated and finally, there was none of the violence from small groups reported, that had been a feature of the major demonstration earlier in the year.
From a biologist's viewpoint, the interesting news was the disruption of two Scottish nuclear reactors at Torness Power Station, by a jelly fish swarm that clogged up the water intakes temporarily. It took a bit of a search on the internet to reveal that these were “moon” jelly fish or Aurelia aurita and that significant numbers had been washing up on Scottish beaches off East Lothian (http://scottishnatureboy.blogspot.com/2011/06/nature-wins-again-plankton-1-nuclear.html).
According to the British Marine Life Study Society (http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Moonjell.htm), the are incapable of stinging humans. A native coastal species, they regularly form large swarms in late summer, with the society recording two particularly large swarms in Shoreham harbour in 1999 and Loch Nevis in 2002.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Document OCR and impending public sector strike
A circuitous series of tasks took up most of the day, starting with an initially simple task, converting photographs of a contract into readable text by OCR. This required installing up to date software, so a considerable amount of time was spent waiting for the installation to progress. Then a period of re familiarisation with the slightly different interface, and then at last the relatively quick task of conversion to text which could then be annotated with relevant translations.
The intervening time was however used productively in the preparation for the workshop on Effective Networking that I will be presenting on Friday.
The evening spent collating screen captures of file conversions into e-books.
The Greek government has, with the narrowest of margins, agreed to the adoption of the austerity measures to combat its national debt. According to Mr Preston, the Financial Correspondent of the BBC, this will permit a controlled collapse of the economy, as opposed to an anarchic one. From the broadcast pictures from Athens, the streets there are full of rioters and looters amongst the peaceful demonstrators.
In turn, the public sector unions are coming out in a day of action, initiated by proposed changes to their pension plans. Already tonight, some of the airport workers are not appearing for work, promising disruption to travellers. Tomorrow morning we will see how great the impact of strike action by teachers and lecturers is. Almost tempted to go to a school and help out!
The intervening time was however used productively in the preparation for the workshop on Effective Networking that I will be presenting on Friday.
The evening spent collating screen captures of file conversions into e-books.
The Greek government has, with the narrowest of margins, agreed to the adoption of the austerity measures to combat its national debt. According to Mr Preston, the Financial Correspondent of the BBC, this will permit a controlled collapse of the economy, as opposed to an anarchic one. From the broadcast pictures from Athens, the streets there are full of rioters and looters amongst the peaceful demonstrators.
In turn, the public sector unions are coming out in a day of action, initiated by proposed changes to their pension plans. Already tonight, some of the airport workers are not appearing for work, promising disruption to travellers. Tomorrow morning we will see how great the impact of strike action by teachers and lecturers is. Almost tempted to go to a school and help out!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Posters, ebook conversions and irises.
Mr Beal had facilitated the uploading of audio files to the Cambridge Open Studios website, so the edited interview recording was made pubic on the COS blog this morning. With less than 9 working days till Open Studios, also designed two posters for my exhibition, one on publishing and the other, to be produced in a limited run of 20 copies, with stereo-images. Digitally ordered, I await digital proofs in two days, followed by a next day delivery.
An interesting diversion this evening, trying to photograph the iris of an eye close up , intiated by some excellent images seen elsewhere. We achieved a fair success but were hampered by low light. This suggests that another trial could be attempted during daylight.
Continued the research into the various ways of transforming documents into e-books and finding interesting differences between those generated from plain text, Microscoft Word and Open Office and converted using different programs.
Late news: Large forest fires in New Mexico close to nuclear facility at Los Alamos. 12000 people evacuated.
An interesting diversion this evening, trying to photograph the iris of an eye close up , intiated by some excellent images seen elsewhere. We achieved a fair success but were hampered by low light. This suggests that another trial could be attempted during daylight.
Continued the research into the various ways of transforming documents into e-books and finding interesting differences between those generated from plain text, Microscoft Word and Open Office and converted using different programs.
Late news: Large forest fires in New Mexico close to nuclear facility at Los Alamos. 12000 people evacuated.
Monday, 27 June 2011
Mr Straus' cards, routes to e-book creation and the hottest day of the year so far
Today marked the completion of the business card designs for Mr Straus and his new venture, The Wine & Spirit Training Consultancy International (WSTC International). The design had evolved through a number of permutations and corrections – but today it was off to the printer.
The pleasurable was mingled with the difficult. Talking to and writing to two clients for whom we had not been able to find contacts in the UK, despite considerable effort expended. The one consolation is that this is a phenomenon in the minority.
We have permission to use the audio recording that I made and edited of Mrs Evans' interview on the Cambridge Open Studios website and I will address this possibly tomorrow.
Late afternoon and evening was directed to trying to convert both Word and Open Office documents into e-book formats via a variety of routes and with the use of different program sets. Examples were use of Mobipocket Creator and Calibre to convert either Word processing formats directly or via conversion to the internet language HTML. The test-ebooks generated in their myriad forms were then tested both on Kindle emulators and on the Kindle itself. I feel that I am getting a much better grasp of the process and possibilities.
Todays temperatures reached 30 degrees centigrade in the shade. The news claimed this to be the hottest day for years. Working in my windowed office afforded me the opportunity to practice dealing with heat up to 35 deg C whilst working, in preparation for an Egypt trip later in the year.
The pleasurable was mingled with the difficult. Talking to and writing to two clients for whom we had not been able to find contacts in the UK, despite considerable effort expended. The one consolation is that this is a phenomenon in the minority.
We have permission to use the audio recording that I made and edited of Mrs Evans' interview on the Cambridge Open Studios website and I will address this possibly tomorrow.
Late afternoon and evening was directed to trying to convert both Word and Open Office documents into e-book formats via a variety of routes and with the use of different program sets. Examples were use of Mobipocket Creator and Calibre to convert either Word processing formats directly or via conversion to the internet language HTML. The test-ebooks generated in their myriad forms were then tested both on Kindle emulators and on the Kindle itself. I feel that I am getting a much better grasp of the process and possibilities.
Todays temperatures reached 30 degrees centigrade in the shade. The news claimed this to be the hottest day for years. Working in my windowed office afforded me the opportunity to practice dealing with heat up to 35 deg C whilst working, in preparation for an Egypt trip later in the year.
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Editing sound recording and e-book TOCs
Today, I finally achieved the formatting and sizing of my remaining four photograph files, ready for printing. The completed file was placed in a secure online location for Mrs Mauders to retrieve and print.
A quick interlude was provided by the recording and editing of an interview by my Chinese Brush Painting Tutor, Mrs Evans, on Radio Cambridgeshire last night. Fortunately, I was able to listen to the recording on i-player and record the relevant section, then editing out all extraneous material. Again, this file was made accessible online, this time for Mrs Evans to approve.
The last conundrum of the day, which I eventually solved, was the final textual structure of a document translation into an e-book. As ever with computing related matter, it required an inordinate amount of time and research for hidden answers to find a trivial and retrospectively simple appearing solution.
A quick interlude was provided by the recording and editing of an interview by my Chinese Brush Painting Tutor, Mrs Evans, on Radio Cambridgeshire last night. Fortunately, I was able to listen to the recording on i-player and record the relevant section, then editing out all extraneous material. Again, this file was made accessible online, this time for Mrs Evans to approve.
The last conundrum of the day, which I eventually solved, was the final textual structure of a document translation into an e-book. As ever with computing related matter, it required an inordinate amount of time and research for hidden answers to find a trivial and retrospectively simple appearing solution.
Battling with the conversion of documents
Friday, 24th June.
The resolution and de-escalation of the previously mentioned conflict appears to be progressing, as judged by the e-mails still circulating
It being a Friday, the accumulated work and urgency combined with a minimum of a couple of hours to progress, before setting of to HBN for a relatively quiet meeting . This was followed by a Tutorcloud session, where we progressed with practical procedures and instructions for potential users.
My battle of the day was getting an understanding of the finer points of converting a word processor generated text into an e-book. This being part of an exercise in trying to generate my own book on the subject in a form far more comprehensible than this document. Effectively, the conversion means translating a text from one electronic dialect to another, via an intermediary language. It required time and learning by trial and error, to gain an understanding of how different routes worked, their successes and their pitfalls. It was a very late night.
The resolution and de-escalation of the previously mentioned conflict appears to be progressing, as judged by the e-mails still circulating
It being a Friday, the accumulated work and urgency combined with a minimum of a couple of hours to progress, before setting of to HBN for a relatively quiet meeting . This was followed by a Tutorcloud session, where we progressed with practical procedures and instructions for potential users.
My battle of the day was getting an understanding of the finer points of converting a word processor generated text into an e-book. This being part of an exercise in trying to generate my own book on the subject in a form far more comprehensible than this document. Effectively, the conversion means translating a text from one electronic dialect to another, via an intermediary language. It required time and learning by trial and error, to gain an understanding of how different routes worked, their successes and their pitfalls. It was a very late night.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Positive turn to reconciliation after a shaky start and preparation for a workshop
A sixth day of waking with a migraine in the making and quelled.
I was prompted into a first and sharp response to another message by e-mail, a continuation of the debate mentioned on Tuesday, only to find that the subject of my ire was actually the first step in a more conciliatory approach by one of the protagonists.
A flurry of calls and e-mails was initiated throughout the wider circle of interested parties as well as between myself and the now offended letter writer. It did look however as there was a new mood to compromise and find an equitable route out of the conflict. There is a glimmer of hope.
A series of other calls and e-mails trickled in during the day relating to specific design work for Mr Straus' business cards. The afternoon was devoted to collating feedback from questions to UK contacts for a German client
With my workshop on networking effectively, for July 1st at the Huntingdonshire Business Network, just over a week away, I put in place two strands in support. Rather than just relying on what I though might be questions that attendees would like answering, I submitted a request for feedback from a variety of groups within the business social network LinkedIn, for their questions and opinions on networking effectively.
The second strand followed previous advice by Mr Howell, on using preset timed microblogs on Twitter. I chose a series of phrases and questions from my publicity text for the event and spread them, three to a working day (morning, midday and afternoon) starting today through to next Wednesday. Already, one friend kindly retweeted one of the first messages.
The writing of my e-book, on using free software to prepare e-books, is progressing. Last night I completed the intitial advice on formatting text whilst writing, with advice for experts, experienced digital writers and novices. Started the next session on reviewing and proof reading a manuscript.
I was prompted into a first and sharp response to another message by e-mail, a continuation of the debate mentioned on Tuesday, only to find that the subject of my ire was actually the first step in a more conciliatory approach by one of the protagonists.
A flurry of calls and e-mails was initiated throughout the wider circle of interested parties as well as between myself and the now offended letter writer. It did look however as there was a new mood to compromise and find an equitable route out of the conflict. There is a glimmer of hope.
A series of other calls and e-mails trickled in during the day relating to specific design work for Mr Straus' business cards. The afternoon was devoted to collating feedback from questions to UK contacts for a German client
With my workshop on networking effectively, for July 1st at the Huntingdonshire Business Network, just over a week away, I put in place two strands in support. Rather than just relying on what I though might be questions that attendees would like answering, I submitted a request for feedback from a variety of groups within the business social network LinkedIn, for their questions and opinions on networking effectively.
The second strand followed previous advice by Mr Howell, on using preset timed microblogs on Twitter. I chose a series of phrases and questions from my publicity text for the event and spread them, three to a working day (morning, midday and afternoon) starting today through to next Wednesday. Already, one friend kindly retweeted one of the first messages.
The writing of my e-book, on using free software to prepare e-books, is progressing. Last night I completed the intitial advice on formatting text whilst writing, with advice for experts, experienced digital writers and novices. Started the next session on reviewing and proof reading a manuscript.
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