Week in review: 24-30 May

This week has not gone as expected.  This week I exposed a mountain of work that I, previously, had greatly underestimated.  Last Sunday I stated my goal was to move on from my current programming tasks by today, but even with an extra afternoon today, I am still far from completing this task.  It's my own fault to find myself in my current situation and main for one reason, poor planning.  Making things up as you go along is bad news, especially when you're months from submitting you PhD thesis.  The problem came when I desired to update my documentation for the communication protocol I use for controlling my custom built hardware.  This isn't a bad idea as I frequently refer to my previous notes and I had recently made some significant changes.  Also, next month I'll be headed overseas to a lab where I plan to hand off copies of my instruments to other researchers.  For their benefit, decent documentation is welcome.  After cleaning up this portion of my user manual, I got a wild idea to update all my documentation.  This is a good idea, because it's been nearly a year since I wrote the original documents and much has changed, however, this is a bad idea, because it's been nearly a year since I wrote the original documents and much has changed.  At this point, I have the option to continue with my task, which will make it easier for other to reproduce my work and take advantage of the hardware I've developed.  Or I can fall back to preparing/writing my thesis.

Focus

I admit it... today I had trouble keeping myself focused.  Throughout the day I chipped away at a mountain of writing, but numerous times my attention was drawn elsewhere.  The biggest distraction of the day occurred in the afternoon when I helped another student design and print a new part for their project.  What can I say, somethings just seem so much more interesting that creating user guides and help documentation.  Bahhh.

A beast of its own

Today I spent more time preparing my hardware's "user's guide" which is starting to turn into its own mini thesis.  Earlier this week, my thought was only to update the documentation that I use (the codes for communicating with the instruments), but I am now focusing on documenting the entire system. Part of my inspiration comes from the fact next month I'll be lending out some of my equipment to another lab.  This means that as I sit down and focus on finishing my studies, other researchers and students will be able to continue using the hardware to generate data.  To me this is a welcome thing as I have always wanted my recent work to not just fuel my thesis, but to also become a legitimate tool that outlives my studies and can continue to be used in the years to come. Besides, a great deal of what I use in this manual can be slotted into my actual thesis (a bit of a win win).

Impromptu day at home

Today I stayed home to take care of personal jobs.  No work related news to report.

Writing of a sort

Having accomplished nearly everything on my "wishlist" for updating the firmware programming on my homebuilt instruments, I've started to update the documentation and help files.  Although these pages are not fit for slotting straight into my thesis, I believe the output will be of value when it comes to sitting down and finishing my dissertation.  Additionally, I will be handing off some of my devices on my trip overseas next month and it's important to not only have working hardware, but support for future users.

A broken record

Even I am getting tired of hearing the same story each and every day, but the fact is today I continued developing my software.  In the lab, hidden away in my little closet, glued to my computer, writing a line at a time.  I am still thoroughly enjoying my work and I am pleased to report I am still moving forward, making great progress.

Week in advance: 24-30 May

This week I will continue working to prepare for my new trip overseas; at this stage the work in mainly with software and programming.  While there is plenty to do and numerous projects that could side track me for days, my goal is to move on from these jobs by the end of the week.  I have plenty of data stacked up for in depth analysis and I have a thesis that needs to be written.