Grad School Progress

I’ve completed 6 of the 9 required courses for a Certificate in Project Management.

I’m taking a break from school until January.

 

Oops!

[Source: Dilbert ©2009, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.]

 

Revising Grad School Schedule

Taking three courses in one eight-week session is proving more than I bargained for. It seems that I’m on the computer most of my waking hours, and my life balance is out of whack. I thought it would be OK since I’m not working right now, but this much school is affecting my personal relationships, and taking time away from home remodeling. I also have some new prospects about landing a job, and I don’t think I can handle this much school while working full time.

When the September session starts, I’ll be taking only one class per session max. This extends the time frame of completing the certificate out to the end of April 2010.

 

Things Fail

Laptop Cat on flickr™

Originally uploaded by Perfesser

It is a fact of the modern age that things fail, or go wrong, or produce unexpected results.

A few days ago, my laptop would not boot up. I got a black screen with the following text:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select ‘r’ at the first screen to start repair.

I did not have an original “Windows Setup disk”. Most name brand computers come with Windows pre-installed, and the only disks you get (or can burn) are “recovery disks”, which reformat everything to an original state.

I found out on the Microsoft website that the problem is a registry error. I didn’t have the means to fix it using their prescribed method either.

Since I’ve loaded Linux onto my main computer at home, my approach would be to load Linux, have it repartition the Windows area so that I could extract what files I needed off the disk under Linux. Unfortunately, the Linux installer was going to reformat the partitions, so all existing files would be lost.

Then I remember using Paragon Partition Monitor when I installed Linux previously. It will move files while changing partition sizes without problems. So I purchased and downloaded the Partition Manager Pro version, burned a Recovery CD, then booted the laptop with the Recovery CD. So far, I’ve been able to change the partition size for Linux install, and I can see the directory listing of all of the existing Windows files. A few more tweaks, and all will be recovered.

Then I’ll probably have a used laptop for sale…

 

50 is the new 50

50

Originally uploaded by Perfesser

Today is my 50th birthday. My soul mate and family will have a party to celebrate this Saturday. Otherwise, it’s a normal day. I’ll be going to my home to keep remodeling it prior to selling the house. I’ve got three online classes to read for and post discussions. It will be a busy day…

…if I ever get off of the couch.

OK! Git-r-done!

 

GanttProject: Free Project Tool

The Project Management course (PM586) needed to use Microsoft Project to complete some of the assignments. It’s available for a 60-day trial, but a little expensive to purchase for an unemployed graduate student. So I have been searching for free alternatives, and have discovered GanttProject.

GanttProject is a cross-platform desktop tool for project scheduling and management. It runs on Windows, Linux and MacOSX, it is free and its code is opensource.

I’ve mapped out my graduate certificate program using GanttProject, and have included Gantt and PERT charts below.

Gantt Chart

PERT Chart

 

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

Bosco on green

Originally uploaded by Perfesser

Keller’s course schedule is structured around eight-week calendars that run year round. In essence, there are 6 mini-semesters (Fall, Spring, Summer) throughout the year.

I’ve found the key to success in these courses is participation in discussions. You are expected to contribute to several discussion threads at least three different days each week for each topic, and the posts must be more than “me too” posts. There are also final exams, and also mid-term or project/paper submissions based on syllabus.

The first two courses I’ve taken are “Managing Quality” and “Project Management”. Surprising to me, being a QA engineer for 10 years, “Managing Quality” was more difficult. Perhaps it was some overconfidence on my part, thinking that I already know the subject matter. It didn’t work out that way at first. But I managed to do well in both classes.

I was going to bore everyone by publishing my two papers for the Managing Quality course. Write to me if you want to read them, and I’ll e-mail them to you.

 

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More to come…