As the previous post mentions, I have a lot of work ahead of me!
As I am visually screening thousands of trains (the word used to describe echolocation click groupings), often being required to process false-positives quickly throughout a day which requires navigation through a right-click menu, I decided to seek out software to ease the workload.
After spending 6 hours yesterday screening a single file that spanned the recordings of 5 months I was seriously thinking that I may suffer from repetitive strain injury after several months of going through the same motions. The software I found to be most effective for my needs was a macro recorder by JitBit (Macro Recorder: available here: http://www.jitbit.com/macro-recorder/) which allows the recording of a series of mouse or keyboard commands to be played back later when required.
In all honesty I have only created one macro so far, but that is all I require at this point, and I'm sure that further down the line I will create more to aid my CPOD analysis! This software has probably saved me hours of clicking, and it was incredibly easy once downloaded. Obviously it isn't going to make its way into the acknowledgements of my thesis, but I am grateful for its existence. Anyone reading this may think I am going on about the software way too much, and that would be because JitBit say that if a review is provided on a blog then a free version of the software will be provided (hopefully) saving me from withdrawl symptoms and repetitive strain injury in 40 days once the free trial has expired! So forgive the grovelling, and I hope that JitBit decides that aiding a post-grad student in scientific research and reduced stress is a good move!
Moving on, I am back in Scotland this week to attend, and present a quick talk about my thesis at the UK Regional Student Chapter about marine mammals, hosted at SMRU in St Andrews (http://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/ukrsc/meetings/). I hope to meet some interesting people conducting great research, and learn where the future of marine mammal research lies!
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