Have you ever bought something purely because of what’s written on the package? Today I saw this small, medical-looking box in a store’s confectionery section: It’s a bar of chocolate! It was expensive and I already had a couple of bars in my basket. Even so, I bought it. Why? Because I wanted to take the writing home with me. I was also a little curious about the chocolate inside the package. If the writing is so innovative, the product will probably be good too. The chocolate is good, although I prefer milk to dark chocolate. But the point is that I bought it entirely…
Technical Writing
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ffeathers -- a technical writer's blog
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Did you ever buy anything just because of the writing on the package?
6 Feb 2010 | 12:03 am -
How to write a blog post
5 Feb 2010 | 7:46 pmLast week I wrote about getting started as a blogger. Now I’d like to tell you how I go about writing a blog post, in the hope that this will give you some tips on getting those blog posts written. While I was writing these two posts, the DMN guys published an article on “How we blog“. Scott and Aaron write killer blog posts, so their article must be well worth a read. I haven’t read it yet (!) because I wanted to post mine first and then see how much we have in common. Here goes. Quick tips Here are some quick pointers. Let me know what you think of them or if… -
What do technical writers do?
3 Feb 2010 | 1:05 pmIt’s a question often asked of us: “What does a technical writer do?” We tell people how to do technically complex things, mostly by writing instructions but also by drawing pictures and making movies. Want to know more? I’m impressed by the write-up in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Thank you Tom Johnson for tweeting the link to the handbook today! -
Getting started as a blogger
29 Jan 2010 | 7:32 pmA while ago I gave a lunch-time talk to some colleagues on blogging. I’ve brushed up and expanded on some of the ideas I put together for the talk, in case they’re useful to other people too: How do you start out as a blogger and how do you go about writing the blog posts? I guess the first thing to say is that there are many different ways to start blogging and to write blog posts, and there’s probably a lot of information on the web already. So this post won’t add anything new. On the other hand, sometimes an idea just “clicks” when you see the same… -
Collective noun for a group of technical writers
22 Jan 2010 | 6:29 pmThis week a colleague, Tom, came up to me with a big grin and asked, “What’s the collective noun for a group of technical writers?” He had another developer in tow, a new starter at that, and the grin made me wonder what mischief lay behind the question. But it’s a goody and it made me laugh. I came up with “a scribble of technical writers“. Later, it occurred to me that we could call a group of agile technical writers a “jot“. Can you think of any good names for us and for what happens when we get together in a group?
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Just Write Click
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What traditions would you give up?
3 Feb 2010 | 7:28 amWow, Pepsi is not going to air an advertisement during the Super Bowl for the first time in 23 years, according to the Financial Times. They say, “With a major digital campaign that features its own website and a heavy presence on Facebook, PepsiCo is betting that a more interactive approach will resonate with consumers in the always-on age of social networking sites.” So, Pepsi is willing to give up an expensive ad campaign and forgo celebrities for everyday people. What are you willing to give up from your traditional technical communication deliverables? With whom will you… -
Email feedback mechanisms for online help
29 Jan 2010 | 5:44 amEmail has become a universal conversation mechanism for business to business notification, customer to business communication, you name it. If you’re not doing so already, you can add email links so that readers can send emailed feedback to your technical documentation team. With advanced mailto markup you can automatically enter a subject line, indicate who the email will go to, as well as enter courtesy copies and blind courtesy copies to additional people. Your inbox should not be overwhelmed with feedback emails, but a link should give customers the feeling that their comments are… -
Collaboration thoughts
26 Jan 2010 | 6:59 amSome of my favorite quotes that make me chuckle are the ones about collaborative authoring and the difficulty being people, not tools. For example, Alan Porter recently wrote an article Wikis in the workplace: a practical introduction for Ars Technica. My favorite line from the comments was “Remember that the people contributing to it are the same people who steal each other’s lunch from the fridge and regularly screw up the different between reply/reply all/forward.” Bwah hah ha. But intense collaboration efforts can be inspirational. For example, Adam Hyde, the founder of… -
Last sprint, first step
18 Jan 2010 | 3:32 amThis week I’m finishing up an Agile sprint. Not just any sprint, though, my last sprint as a technical writer embedded on a sprint team at ASI. I’ve learned so much there in the last couple of years that I’ve decided to make a go at consulting. I want to help people with content strategy, social media, and any tools they need along the way such as collaborative authoring, wikis, web content management systems, or DITA. This week is my last Agile sprint for a while, but I think I’ll adopt some Agile principles and apply them to my new work lifestyle as an advisor for… -
Pilot or not?
12 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pmWhile doing some research for LugIron, a startup here in Austin where I serve in an advisory role, I found a slideshow discussing signs of successful community launches by Joe Cothrel, a VP of service at Lithium. Now, what they mean by “community” is a larger than 5,000 person audience, enterprise-type (B2B or B2C focused communities), and containing primarily forums and blogs (followed by everything else.) So, it’s not quite the same as the wiki communities that I’ve studied and participated in. But, what’s interesting to me is that one of his Warning signs on…
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one man writes
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On Google Wave
9 Feb 2010 | 11:12 amI think I’m starting to get it. I’ve used it a couple of times but not for any other reason than to play with it, but now I have an actual need for a place to collaborate with a group of geographically displaced people, the ISTC Community website, it’s starting to make sense. And I’m not the only person that thinks Google Wave is best suited to this kind of collaboration. I’ve realised that what Google have done is take the best bits from a couple of different communication channels, combine them and add a couple of improvements. Those channels are email and… -
ISTC Community website
3 Feb 2010 | 1:33 amAs has been mentioned elsewhere, I’m currently planning to build a community website for the ISTC and thought it time to get you all a heads up and ask for some help. The idea for the website was borne from the members panel that Rachel Potts ran last year, which cited “reducing the feeling of isolation” as an important benefit of being a member of the ISTC. It will also help to promote and publicise the ISTC and hopefully become a valued resource for technical communicators in the UK. As such the new website will compliment the current ISTC website, and has two main aims:… -
Strange Bias
26 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pmPulling together my monthly column for the ISTC (I write about blogs, unsurprisingly), I noticed something rather odd. I really, sincerely, hope this isn’t something I’ve been unconsciously doing but it does seem that many of the technical communications blogs I follow, and which I feature in my monthly column, are written by men. Given that, for the bulk of my career, I was usually outnumbered in many a Documentation department, with on one occasion when I was one guy in a team of six, I find this gender balance quite odd. Thinking back to the Technical Communications conference… -
How to prioritise your work
21 Jan 2010 | 2:44 pmWe all have a need to make sure we are working on the most important thing, the thing that needs our attention and focus the most. Given that all of us will have more than one thing that needs to get done, you need to prioritise. But how? Ivan Walsh recently posted his thoughts on this topic but he doesn’t cover the process that comes before the daily decision making of “what shall I do today?”. Presuming that you don’t lurch from day to day and that you have a plan, or at least a list of things that you need to deliver, how do you go about setting the priority? Some… -
ISTC & Community
20 Jan 2010 | 11:41 amOver the coming month or so, I’ll be casting around for opinion and insight from you, my lovely readers, particularly if you are based in the UK and especially if you are a member of the ISTC member. Why? I hear you ask. It’s because I’m planning, designing, and building, a community focussed extension to the website (or sub-website, or side-website or.. well that bit has still to be agreed). I’m still figuring out how best to collate the information and requirements for such a website, and where would be best to hold those collaborative conversations that will be…
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Writing Technically
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Quick and rude guide to DITA - Part 2 of 3
30 Jan 2010 | 10:20 amIn Part 1 of this series, I said DITA was about chunks and tags, and asked you to look at this user guide. My aim was to get you thinking in terms of topic types ("Hey, this table is a reference, what's it doing in the middle of a task topic"). In this post, I'll talk of writing your first DITA topic.DITA is XML, so you can use pretty much any text editor to write in DITA. Here's an example:(to see a larger picture, click the picture)Because DITA is nothing but XML, it has its own DTDs, schemas, XSLTs, etc. The DTD used in this example is the one distributed through the DITA Open Toolkit,… -
Quick and rude guide to DITA - Part 1 of 3
16 Jan 2010 | 6:11 amFirst, a DITA overview. DITA is an architecture. It is a collection of design principles that:* Is inclined heavily towards self-sufficient information modules* Lets its basics to be inherited into derived classes* Borrows its tags from HTML and XHTMLTo write in DITA, you need two things:(i) Know how to think in chunks. Each topic you write must answer one - and only one - of these questions: What is this? How does it work? What should I do to make this work?(ii) Know what tag to use where. DITA tags are XML tags, governed by the DITA DTDs and schemas.ChunkingTo keep matters simple, we'll… -
Building a portfolio
16 Dec 2009 | 7:57 amThis is the text version of my presentation at the STC India annual conference at Bangalore last week. It is a long post.What is a portfolio? Let's see what the Compact Oxford English Dictionary has to say.That's four meanings but for this blog post, we're interested in #2. Just like a set is a collection of well-defined objects, a portfolio is a collection of objects intended to show your ability in the field of technical communication. But why is a portfolio needed in the first place? Well, for one, because job ads ask for it.A portfolio shows writing and editing capabilities, ability to… -
Play play
10 Dec 2009 | 7:01 amI made this crossword for the conference newsletter of STC India's annual conference that happened last week at Bangalore. Take a shot. I'll post the answers 3 days from today.The crossword is not interactive, so you might want to take printouts... To see a bigger picture, click on the crossword. To see a bigger picture, click on the clues. Answers are here. -
When the ToC spins out of control
19 Sep 2009 | 5:13 am-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This post has a post script written about 45 days after the original post.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Early this year, I wrote the install guide for an enterprise-level reporting application. The application itself is pretty easy to use - once it's installed properly - with intuitive UI elements etc. It's the installation that's a bit complicated. The product has three separate components which, while they can be installed on a…
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Technically Speaking
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Skuut on over to great customer serivce
3 Feb 2010 | 2:33 pmMy three year old loves to play outside. About a year ago, we got him a Skuut, but because we lived in a condo, he only rode it once or twice last year. I loved the Skuut when we bought it because of its all wood design, and the way it teaches young kids to balance on the bike before they are ready to learn to ride a bike. It is a perfect ride for a 2-4 year old, and the seat is adjustable, so it can grow with him. Since the first of the year, since we are in our new house, Nathaniel has re-discovered his Skuut, and he absolutely loved it for the four or five days he got to use it. Then the… -
No geeking out over the iPad here
27 Jan 2010 | 1:06 pmThe makers of the iPhone, Apple, today announced a “revolutionary” device: a tablet computer they call iPad. Now, normally I’m a big fan of things Apple. I have an iPod touch (don’t want the service contract or wireless provider of the iPhone), and I love it. So you might be expecting me to be geeking out over this new device. But, not so much. Here is what we know: the new device will run the iPhone OS (albeit an updated version). The iPad will have an option for unlimited wireless 3G connectivity (again from AT&T) for $30 bucks a month (or a limited plan for… -
Lassie is no more
26 Jan 2010 | 7:41 amBack in 2004 we received a much needed gift: a little red truck named Lassie. Lassie was a 1984 red Toyota pick up truck that got her name because when my in-laws owned her, she was stolen several times, yet every time she came back home (the police found the truck and brought it back). Since she always came back, they named her Lassie. We’ve used Lassie since then as a second car to our 02 Nissan Sentra. However, due to the pending birth of our third child, we needed something larger than the Sentra. We’ll have three kids 3 and under, and you just can’t fit three car seats… -
Intellectual Property Responsibilities of Content Developers
13 Oct 2009 | 2:36 pmAs a technical writer, I develop content for the applications I’m supporting. Often that includes designing content, images, and multi-media to provide the best user experience possible. As content developers, however, we have a responsibility (both legal and moral) to ensure that the content we are using is being used properly and legally. We live in a world with lots of avenues to get content for our projects. Several websites specialize in searching for media that you can download and use in your product. Just because you can find it, however, does not mean you can use it. There are… -
Analysis of Team Design Review
7 Oct 2009 | 12:57 pmProbably most of you don’t know that I changed jobs recently, which is part of the reason I’ve been posting so infrequently. When you change jobs there is so much to learn, and it takes time. One of the benefits of my new job is that I’m working with an impressive team. I have great respect for every one of my team members. We have four technical writers, three trainers, and our manager. They are quite the group. We have Intermountain STC chapter president Ben Minson, the unstoppable Tom Johnson of I’d Rather Be Writing, and fellow Flare pro Derek Warren.
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The Content Wrangler
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[Interview] Joe Gollner: Defining Intelligent Content And Providing Some Real-World Examples
9 Feb 2010 | 7:41 amInterview with Joe Gollner by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler The Content Wrangler: Joe, thanks for agreeing to chat with us today. Tell us a little about yourself and your experience in the content industry. Joe Gollner, Content PhilosopherJoe Gollner: I began tinkering with content, using open markup technologies, in 1987 while still a grad student at University of Oxford. The tinkering has never stopped. Tapping on another side of my background, the military side, I was deeply embroiled in the CALS initiative – where we applied open markup technologies to the most complex documentation… -
SDL Understanding Global Information Management Video
9 Feb 2010 | 6:20 amAn imaginative and informative video from SDL designed to help people understand the basics of Global Information Management. The video, done in the style of the popular “In Plain English” series of instructional videos from the folks at Common Craft, uses a small set of characters the company calls SDL Buddies that remind me of the little Fisher Price people we played with as children. -
Valentine: The Digital, Device-Independent Comic Available Via Wireless In 14 Languages
8 Feb 2010 | 5:27 pmBy Alex de Campi Valentine: An original supernatural thriller set during Napoleon’s retreat from RussiaImagine a graphic novel series, released every month simultaneously in 14 languages and across all major wireless platforms (Kindle, EPUB, Android, iPhone), hopefully soon via the web and, eventually, in collected print editions. Every month, you pay 99 cents and get 70-75 screens of action, adventure and suspense. In its first fortnight after launch, in the difficult final weeks of December and with no marketing and without all our distributors yet on stream, the first episode had 5,000… -
From The Start We Were Different … An Amazing Video From Mark Logic
5 Feb 2010 | 10:40 amThis video was used to open the Mark Logic 2009 User Conference. It’s an amazing presentation that tells the story of humans and the paradigm-shifting information explosion we find ourselves in today. When the video ended, the crowd went wild with applause. I’ll have to admit, I’ve never seen such response from an audience, not even to a great presentation delivered by a human opening keynote presenter. Watch the video and let us know what you think. And, consider attending the Mark Logic 2010 User Conference, May 4-6, 2010 in San Francisco. -
[Interview] Microsoft’s Gabor Fari on Intelligent Content: Saving Lives By Helping New Drugs Get To Market Faster
5 Feb 2010 | 7:38 amInterview with Gabor Fari, Microsoft Life Sciences by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler The Content Wrangler: Hello, Gabor. Tell us a little about yourself and your experience in the content industry. Gabor: I am a Chemical Engineer by training. I became fascinated with software a little over 10 years into my career, before I made the switch to the software industry. To me, building software solutions is still pretty much engineering, and my approach is to build solutions block by block. Gabor Fari, Microsoft Life SciencesI have been working in the enterprise content management industry for…
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I Came, I Saw, I Learned...
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Adobe FrameMaker: Working with Fixed Spaces in a Document
9 Feb 2010 | 6:45 amby Barbara Binder When most of us think of spaces, we think of pressing the spacebar and moving on. Did you know that FrameMaker supports additional spaces? Em, en, figure, thin and non-breaking spaces are all available if you just know how to ask for them. Unlike spacebar spaces, which are proportional to the characters around them and can expand and contract when you justify a paragraph, these five spaces are all fixed width spaces.Here's a quick list for you:Em space Esc spacebar m (or Control+Shift+ Spacebar)An em space is typically the width of a capital letter M in any given… -
Reader Feedback: PureText is Pure Heaven
5 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amLast week I ran an article about removing text formatting from Captivate text captions. That prompted this email from Bill Creitz: I, too, used to run copied text through Notepad to remove the formatting. I eventually stumbled across a free utility, PureText, that replaces the multi-step Notepad approach with a single keyboard shortcut. With this utility, the routine is [Ctrl] [C] to copy, then [Windows] [V] to paste unformatted text. It's a rare day that I don't use PureText at least a few times. -
mLearning: A Lesson in Real Estate
3 Feb 2010 | 11:28 amA principle real estate theory: buy property in a less valuable, but up and coming neighborhood at a cheap price and reap the benefits down the road when everyone else catches on to the area's value. Relatively common knowledge that should perhaps be applied to the mLearning craze?According to T+D's January issue, despite the buzz around mLearning, programs delivered on mobile learning devices are still the least frequently used of the eLearning practices, which seems to signal that there's been much ado about nothing. Basically businesses are looking at these mobile technologies… -
Adobe Captivate: Captivate vs. Presenter
2 Feb 2010 | 8:06 amThis question arrived in my inbox last week: Question:In your Advanced Captivate class you talked about importing PowerPoint files into Captivate. I am curious as to what the advantage of doing this is over using Adobe Presenter.Answer:Generally speaking, you would use Presenter if you wanted to take existing PowerPoint presentation into an LMS (with SCORM data and even include a quiz). You would import PowerPoint presentations into Captivate (bypassing Presenter) if you wanted to use Captivate to add interactivity not available in PowerPoint, and then make the content SCORM compliant (for… -
Adobe Captivate: Need an Unlisted Symbol?
2 Feb 2010 | 7:56 amNeed to insert symbols into your text captions and don't see them listed among the available symbols? Check this out... you can insert the symbol in Microsoft Word, copy the symbol to the clipboard and then paste it back into the Captivate caption. Alternatively, export the captions from Captivate to Word, insert the symbol in Word and then import the captions back into the Captivate project.
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I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson
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Cures for the Information Exclusion Complex
8 Feb 2010 | 6:01 amSome years ago, I used to suffer from developer neglect, or to use a more scientific term, from a kind of information exclusion complex. You know what I’m talking about. Developers make updates to the interface, often at the last minute, and don’t let the tech writer know what changed. As a result, the help is wrong and out of date. It’s a frustrating experience from the writer’s perspective. Information exclusion is fairly common. Just last week I learned about an application that had a new version nearing release in a week, but the developers hadn’t told me… -
Add More Sidebars to Your WordPress Theme
7 Feb 2010 | 8:26 pmYou can add more than one sidebar section to your WordPress site. For example, with the stc-intermountain.org site, I added a whole bunch of additional sidebar sections in the Appearance > Widgets section. Adding more sidebar sections Adding more sidebars is useful if you’re using WordPress more as a content management system than a blog. Someone asked me how I did this. The process isn’t hard. I’ve broken it down into three steps. (Before you continue with the instructions, you may want to back up the information in your existing sidebar.) Step 1 Add this code to your… -
What Would a WordPress Template for Chapter Sites Look Like?
2 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amLast week Will Sansbury mentioned to me that one of his ideas with the Atlanta chapter site was to provide an example or template of how WordPress could be used for chapter sites. I got to thinking, why isn’t there a standard WordPress template for chapters and SIGs to use? Further, in WordPress 3.0, WordPress MU and regular WordPress will be merged. This is huge, because it means you’ll be able to create child blogs with a regular WordPress install. Essentially we could have one site like stcchapter.org with dozens of child blogs, containing subdomains such as… -
Fragmented Communities and the Chapter/SIG Web Site Problem
1 Feb 2010 | 7:33 amRecently Will Sansbury and I gave a webinar to STC community leaders on chapter and SIG websites. Rather than giving a static, one-way presentation about theoretical concepts with web design, or boring people with technical details they probably didn’t care about, we held the webinar more like a design review workshop, not too different from a writing group workshop. Although I spent three years in a creative writing program holding exactly these types of writing workshops, in which a group of people provide feedback on the story or essay someone submits, it never crossed my mind that… -
Madcap Flare’s Extensibility: Adding jQuery to Flare
26 Jan 2010 | 7:45 amAlistair Christie recently published a podcast about Unscripted Screencasts and Flare Extensibility. In the podcast, he considers whether scripts are necessary for corporate screencasts – a good topic for exploration and testing. But he also gets into something a little more interesting: extending Flare with jQuery. jQuery is the new Javascript. It provides smooth functionality that shows and hides components, slides objects around, and animates graphics in a sexy way. As an example, ProPhotoBlogs’ support section incorporates jQuery functionality. And the drop-down menus on…
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Gryphon Mountain Journals
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Guest Post on STC’s Notebook
8 Feb 2010 | 3:58 pmKevin Cuddihy has posted my guest post on STC’s Notebook in advance of Wednesday’s Web seminar on quick reference guides. As of this morning, 58 people are signed up, which is exciting and a bit intimidating at the same time. If you’re interested, you can get more information and sign up on STC’s seminars page. No related posts. -
Communication Problem or Programming Problem? (Part 1)
3 Feb 2010 | 2:00 amHenry opened up a PDF on his laptop and went to page 27. The meeting continued around him as he scanned the text of the procedure he’d written 18 months before so he could verify some of the information that had been distributed. “One way to look at this is that we want to prevent our customer from getting these phone calls all the time—or at all,” said Vanessa, the project manager. “What’s the first step?” George, the business analyst, lifted a hand. “Well, since he keeps getting asked why people are or aren’t seeing this or that in the… -
Release Scrums: An Important Resource for the Agile Technical Writer
1 Feb 2010 | 5:35 pmScrums are part of the particular flavor of Agile methodology project teams use in the portfolio I work in. The managers recently borrowed the scrum concept for release preparation because the projects in this portfolio are interrelated and often have to be released together. This means that a lot of coordination is needed so that there are no surprises for anyone. In these scrums, we have 15 minutes or so for a representative from each project team to report on the progress of showstopper bugs, testing, problems that have emerged, and so on. They usually happen during the week or two before… -
Anticipatory Search in Context-Sensitive Help
29 Jan 2010 | 7:11 pmI don’t think online help is the wave of the future—it’s more the wave of the past—but I’m still always trying to keep my brain open to ideas for improving it. I attended a meeting today with the folks I work with in a project portfolio. Our portfolio manager reviewed what the group accomplished in 2009 and showed us what’s coming up this year, including the goals the managers cooked up. One of the developers demonstrated an application his team built for their customers to use in accessing content in a MarkLogic database. Of course, the application featured robust… -
Twitter as a Professional Development Tool
26 Jan 2010 | 4:14 pmTwitter has different uses for different people. For me, it’s primarily a professional development tool. I follow a number of technical writers. I also follow the #techcomm hashtag. I keep Twitter open while I work (to this point, we’re allowed to do so). When someone I follow posts a link on a subject that I’m interested in, or an interesting link is posted to the #techcomm tag, I copy the link to my tasks list in Gmail with a few words from the person’s tweet so that I remember what it’s about. I usually don’t follow these links while at work for a couple…
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HelpScribe
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Standard operating procedures formats and template
31 Jan 2010 | 4:50 amThe format of your standard operating procedures is very important. Because such documents coordinate tasks for critical operations, often across multiple units, they must be presented in a format that provides clarity and consistency. Uniformity of presentation allows for greater usability in crisis situations. The following guidelines will help you structure your guide. To make the job easier, you may wish to start with a pre-formatted template. Numbering Policies and procedures usually follow a numbered format for easy reference. Both main sections and subsections are numbered, Subsections… -
Screencasts | An overview
29 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pmScreencasts are quickly becoming one of the primary instructional tools used to train people on developing software skills. Because they show actual screenshots of the software and how it is used, they make a great compliment to written documentation and cater to viewers with a preference for visual learning. A visual representation of a concept is often the fastest way to transfer knowledge to a trainee. Some concepts are better suited for video, so you must use careful consideration when adding screencasts to your instructional documentation. Here are some tips for creating effective… -
Screencasts 2.0 | How to create engagement and add integration
16 Jan 2010 | 3:36 pmSlowly, but surely, statistics are emerging that show screencasts are a cost-effective and engaging way to provide instructional content. Now technical writers can focus on how to most effectively integrate screencasts into their documentation in an engaging manner. Video content seems to be very effective for grabbing and holding the attention of viewers, and you can leverage this to help guide them through the tedious details of your user documentation. Here are some tips for using screencasts more effectively. Integration Work to build tighter integration between video content and other… -
Training manual examples
8 Jan 2010 | 10:45 amWhen you write your next training manual, you may find it handy to have some examples to refer to. This post will serve as a repository for examples of training manuals. I will add to it as I find additional resources. Manuals and tutorials - High Tech Center Training Unit: A very large collection of training manual examples. Most are software training manuals in PDF format. ENLISTED.INFO: Hundreds of declassified military training manuals. Altium Designer training manuals: Many manuals for using the Altium Designer software for electronic design. Perl training manuals: Several free training… -
Communication templates
7 Jan 2010 | 4:58 pmMost businesses generate a stunning amount of documentation. Keeping track of internal communications alone can be cumbersome; when you add in documents for your customers, it becomes downright tedious. Communication templates and documentation plans can help you track the purpose of each document, delivery deadlines, staff involved, and more. By using communication plan templates you can ease the tracking of your business, marketing, technical, and other communications. Also, you can increase the consistency of those communications and provide a reference so your staff can collaborate and…
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THE BOGGLISH HUDERON
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760: on dias, et al. worlds apart, part ii
7 Feb 2010 | 12:38 pmChapter six begins with the claim: "... we have come to see that rhetorical purpose in workplace settings is in large part institutional rather than individual... and ideological rather than merely communicative" (114). This claim stuck with me as I worked through the case study of social workers’ writing activities at a large hospital. Particularly, how does that claim and the following statement jive with the net worked organization described by Spinuzzi: "The hierarchical structure of organizations creates economic and political semblances that work against shared goals and the continual… -
760: on dias, et al. worlds apart, part i
7 Feb 2010 | 8:53 amI like the way the authors present a range of different theories through which to consider two central questions: 1) what are the functions writing performs in the workplace, and 2) how do socio-cultural settings shape writing practices in the workplace?Throughout the survey of theories and the descriptions/definitions of academic writing, I was asking myself, “If we don’t’ regard university education as preparation for the workplace, then what is university education for? Maybe it’s a definition of the “workplace” that complicates this for me. Yes, “…writing practices in the… -
760: on spinuzzi chapter 6 and conclusion
7 Feb 2010 | 6:02 amNot having read chapters 1 through 4, I found myself making a lot of assumptions about the holes in Spinuzzi’s claims. It wasn’t’ until that back end of chapter 6 and the conclusion that I had a better understanding of his framework. This is a must-read text for any student of comp, rhet, or tech com.The issues with training identified at Telecorp are, as Spinuzzi notes, typical of most organizations. The field work for the text was conducted in 2000. From my perspective, not much has changed since. Arguably, the same issues have been plaguing organizations for decades. As I noted in my… -
760: on spinuzzi chapter 5
6 Feb 2010 | 6:35 amWhoa!! That’s some serious field work. I like this text because Spinuzzi is accessible. Without over theorizing, he makes his analysis work because it is grounded in observed activity.The concept of “net work” complicates some of the calls we worked through last week. For example, if the application of knowledge and information is what characterizes the technological revolution and information capitalism, what are we doing to prepare our students? Are we equipping them to understand, navigate and exploit the new distributed economy? "...negotiation becomes an essential skill" (143). -
760: on dicks’ the effects of digital literacy on the nature of technical communication work
31 Jan 2010 | 8:49 amI wish I’d had Dick’s perspectives when I was trying to work through Chris Anderson’s Long Tail Theory and how it might apply to the information products created by technical communicators.As I worked through Dick’s narrative about factors that changed and continue to shape technical communication, I kept coming back to this theme of preparation – of what we should be doing to better prepare technical communicators (and others) to be effective and successful communicators. I very much agree with Dick’s introductory claim that we should remember, “when discussing current and…
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[: technically speaking :]
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Apologies for the Spam Comments
19 Jan 2010 | 6:43 amApparently someone got a hold of a Chinese spam-producing software and used it to target this blog. Blogger doesn't have features for editing/deleting comments en masse, so I won't be able to remove them from the posts. Hopefully they do not interrupt your browsing experience :-) I've turned on comment moderation for older posts and enabled some other features that should prevent such spam from -
Movement in Information: Moving toward goal-oriented documentation
16 Dec 2009 | 9:35 amWriting a great tutorial is an art form. There are several requirements for a successful how-to exercise:- The user needs enough information to successfully complete the task.- The user needs to move through the exercise in a reasonable amount of time.- The user needs to learn several basic concepts that will continue to be useful outside the context of the tutorial.A common thread in these -
#2 With a Bullet
16 Dec 2009 | 8:48 amHope ya’ll don’t mind a little horn-tooting! In a Glassdoor.com survey, NI’s been named the second-best tech company to work for, coming in behind Juniper at #1 and Google at #3! Can’t say I’m surprised :-) If you look at the site’s overall company ratings, we come in at #13, just behind Kraft. If only we had the power of mac & cheese, we’d be better than they are, I know it … -
The War on Error
8 Dec 2009 | 1:37 pmFunny post from Andrew Brooke, a new blog I’ve added to my RSS feed. The troop surge represents a 43% increase in the number of soldiers. Can you imagine the effect if a company increased the number of its tech writers the same amount? It would annihilate much of the company's misinformation and missing information, a victory in war on error. -
Camel Case & Linux Documentation
3 Dec 2009 | 7:38 amA couple tidbits for ya today: LabVIEW, VeriStand, FieldPoint, CompactRIO, iPhone – what do they all have in common? Their product names use camel case. (h/t to DF) The sorry state of Linux documentation; from a user’s viewpoint.
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CyberText Newsletter
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Charging for travel time
8 Feb 2010 | 1:24 pmA question from the STC’s Consultants and Independent Contractors discussion list a while back prompted a response from me — and was the inspiration for this blog post. The question Here’s a question for those of you who travel for your clients: I am bidding on a contract that will require me to travel for several days at a time. The client will pay for the airfare, hotel, and meals. How do you charge for your time? Do you charge your regular hourly rate for the number of hours you work those days, or do you charge a daily rate. What is your daily rate based on (e.g., 12 hrs… -
Got a Kindle? a Nook? or similar?
7 Feb 2010 | 1:06 pmThen take a look at this list of privacy issues that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together for the various electronic books: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/e-book-privacy Back in the day, librarians used to be worried that ‘the government’ could check library borrowing records, and there was a lot of discussion at conferences and within the professional library associations about privacy and security issues. People buying these devices don’t seem to care that a lot of information about them, their purchases, their reading habits etc., can be monitored by… -
Oops…
6 Feb 2010 | 1:15 pmAnother interesting incident notification and a good story for a ’safety moment’ for the next meeting: (For the non-Australians, a ‘ute’ is a utility vehicle — commonly called a pick-up truck in North America.) Filed under: Humor -
Computer ownership life cycle
5 Feb 2010 | 1:30 pmAnother great cartoon from Matthew Inman, over at The Oatmeal comics site, this time on the three phases of owning a computer — the honeymoon stage, the comfortable stage, then the dinosaur stage. Here’s a taste: (Click the image to go to the full cartoon, or click this link: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computer_phases.) [Links last checked January 2010] Filed under: Humor -
How long will the editing take?
4 Feb 2010 | 1:35 pmA colleague asked how long it would take for me to review a Word document (edit, fix formatting and styles, troubleshoot weird Table of Contents etc.). Well, how long is that proverbial piece of string? Here was my response: How long is dependent on several things, particularly: length of the document (typically, it takes longer to QA 200 pages than 50 — as you would expect) technical complexity of the document (if there are lots of statistics, or content we’re not familiar with, then it takes longer than for something we’re more familiar with; likewise a document with lots…
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A Tech Writer's World
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And the Oscar goes to...
7 Feb 2010 | 10:20 amThe Annual Distribution of Meaningless Awards to Shallow People, a.k.a., The Oscars, is fast approaching. This non-event is as useless as a Windows 1.0 user guide. The choices are completely subjective. Many great films and performances have lost out to lesser ones. One of the best examples of this is the masterpiece Citizen Kane, considered by many the greatest film ever made, which lost to - wait for it - How Green Was My Valley.Now, many STC chapters have awards for technical communication. Unlike the Oscars, this is a useful awards event, if for no other reason than to have one's work… -
Recalling all recalls
5 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pm"Oh, what a feeling to drive Toyota!"This catchy jingle from a few years ago rings ironically in my ears. With all the current recalls from Toyota, this jingle needs a rewrite:"Oh, what a feeling - to drive Toyota - into a brick wall..."Last year, I came dangerously close to owning a dangerous Toyota. The dealer and I had agreed on a price for a new Camry. However, he was unable to actually obtain the car - apparently they had sold out, and only next year's model was available.I never quite understood how next year's model could be available in the spring of the previous year. It's as though… -
Colour my worries away...
1 Feb 2010 | 8:45 amI love the simplicity of the Homeland Security colour-coded advisory system.This system, which purports to indicate the threat of a terrorist attack, and thereby tells the general public how much they need to worry, is as follows:Green - LowBlue - GuardedYellow - ElevatedOrange - HighRed - Severe(I didn't list Yellow in its colour because the lack of contrast makes it hard to read - I learned that in college.)Rephrasing this in practical terms (which is what information developers do), we get:Green - Relax! Take a load off. No worries here.Blue - Start getting a little anxious.Yellow - Be… -
Collaborative editing 101
8 Jan 2010 | 1:20 pmCheck out this great example of online collaborative editing using Google docs.It's a video of a group of friends editing a document.Watch it, then watch it again, pausing to see the changes.Compare the original, long-winded, version with the much simpler, and much better final version.Ain't technology grand? -
An Echo from History
31 Dec 2009 | 7:49 amOne of Sting's finest songs is Children's Crusade - his haunting lament on the follies of war, specifically, the First World War.Here are the relevant lyrics:Young men, and soldiers, Nineteen FourteenMarching through countries they'd never seenVirgins with rifles, a game of charadesAll for a Children's CrusadePawns in the game are not victims of chanceStrewn on the fields of Belgium and FrancePoppies for young men, death's bitter tradeAll of those young lives betrayedThe children of England would never be slavesThey're trapped on the wire and dying in wavesThe flower of England face down in…
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The Humane Experience
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Nouns in 3D
9 Feb 2010 | 5:09 amHere's an interesting snippet of research coming out of Carnegie Melon: How the brain arranges nouns.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, members of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging have gained deep insight into the way human brains categorize objects. In a breakthrough that demonstrates the interdepartmental cooperation here at Carnegie Mellon, neuroscientists -
Hump-day Humor 2010-5
3 Feb 2010 | 5:16 amOn-the-job negotiations.Click comic to enlarge it. -
New award, and a cry for help!
28 Jan 2010 | 7:25 amMy NSS award goes collectively to all of the accessibility web sites on colorblindness that advised me to offer an alternative to using color to convey meaning.An open question for my readers:If an IP address in red means one thing and an IP address in blue means something else, what alternative approach would you recommend for this kind of scenario? -
Hump-day Humor 2010-4
27 Jan 2010 | 4:24 amDon't you just love working on distributed teams?Click cartoon to enlarge it. -
I have so been here!
25 Jan 2010 | 3:08 amI just had to chuckle when I read Dilbert yesterday. I think a lot of UX departments go through this phase. I hate hiring onto a job and then showing up for this as my first meeting (it's happened more than once).
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TechScribe software documentation
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Accuracy in website terms and conditions
30 Jan 2010 | 7:00 amMore than 109,000 companies do not want people to link to their websites without written permission. Make sure that you write what you mean. When you use a template, make sure that you customise the content carefully. -
Technical writing newsletter 34: January 2010
5 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amThe latest news from TechScribe. Issue 34 is about international English, the quality of machine translation into Norwegian, and Mike Unwalla's STC Senior Member grade. -
Free machine translation gives satisfactory translations
22 Dec 2009 | 1:00 amFear about the low quality of free machine translation stops many business people from using the Internet fully in their businesses. Because sufficient data is not available, business people cannot decide whether machine translation is suitable for their websites. New evaluations show that if text is optimised, free machine translation gives satisfactory translations. -
ISTC online groups, autumn 2009
17 Dec 2009 | 12:00 amISTC online groups. This review covers RTF output from DITA, 3D illustration software, and agile methods for technical publications. -
Technical Communication UK 2009
13 Dec 2009 | 1:00 amThe Technical Communication UK 2009 conference was in Derby, 22-24 September. Mike Unwalla reports on the presentations that he attended.
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Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog
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Fitting technical documentation into a Social Web strategy
9 Feb 2010 | 2:57 amSocial Media experts, such as David Armano, of Dachis Corp, are proposing new business measures for assessing the effectiveness of social media marketing. Armano is proposing five key measurement... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]] -
Augmented Reality for maintenance and repair-BMW
30 Jan 2010 | 8:08 amBMW research projects - virtual world meets reality. In future, the real world is set to combine with the virtual at BMW Service. BMW Augmented Reality creates this bridge and extends the real world... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]] -
Will “Context is King” apply to user assistance?
30 Jan 2010 | 7:54 amAshkan Karbasfrooshan has written an article called “Context is King: How Videos Are Found And Consumed Online“, in which he argues: Times have changed. In fact, less and less often do... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]] -
The business case for DITA
29 Jan 2010 | 10:32 amThis is an edited version of a transatlantic interview we carried out with Sarah O’Keefe, CEO of our US partner Scriptorium Inc., on DITA. We discussed a range of topics relating to DITA, but... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]] -
How checklists can save your life
27 Jan 2010 | 1:19 amDr Atul Gawande is currently in London, touring the radio stations to promote his book “The Checklist Manifesto“. Dr Gawande is a surgeon in Boston Mass., who has been looking at how to... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]
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Communications from DMN
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Web applications, usability, and me
8 Feb 2010 | 2:30 amAs part of a personal project, I’ve been shifting more and more of my day-to-day computing to the Web. Aside from the project I mentioned in the last sentence, there are a number of other reasons why I’m doing this. Reasons that I won’t go into right now. But one thing that I’ve noticed (and which I’ve known for a while) is that the Web isn’t your computer desktop. And a number of developers of Web applications have realized this too. They’ve created some simple, but fairly intuitive interfaces. They’re easy to learn, easy to adapt to, and are easy to… -
Weekly links roundup
5 Feb 2010 | 2:30 amFive simple but essential Web usability tips A pair of videos about how to write for real people Bar codes to deliver help text? A quick and rude guide to DITA The five keys to a successful remote writing project 10 reasons why your last collaboration didn’t work When it comes to usability, sometimes less is better Learn what Google Wave is for Related posts:Weekly links roundup Weekly links roundup Weekly links roundup -
Posting will be a bit thin this week
1 Feb 2010 | 2:37 amIt’s not that we don’t have anything to write about … Believe us, there’s a solid backlog of topics on file. But last week was pretty hectic and this week will be even more so. Both on a professional and a personal level. Nothing bad; quite the contrary, there are a number of good things on the horizon. Bear with us as we try to power through what we need to power through. We’re hoping to get back on track next week. Until then, feel free to check out our past posts for something you might have missed. Related posts:Posting will be thin over the next few days… -
Weekly links roundup
29 Jan 2010 | 2:30 amAnybody can do usability Some advice on how to use advertising in user guides An interesting post on moving towards goal-oriented documentation Are you a freelancer or consultant? Then make it easy for clients and others to find you Examples can be powerful Why do publishers need XML? You probably know the answer to that … 10 words to avoid when writing Related posts:Weekly links roundup Weekly links roundup Weekly links roundup -
Virtualization and the technical communicator
27 Jan 2010 | 2:33 amOne of the technologies that intrigues and excites me, both as a computer user and as a technical communicator, is virtualization. I’ve been following the progression of virtualization for a while and it’s something that not only has a number of uses it also appeals to my inner geek. But what exactly is it? In an article that I wrote about virtualization software, I described it as: a form of software sleight of hand. The trickery involved enables a computer to run two or more operating systems simultaneously. While it’s overly simplistic, I think the description works. But…
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Core Dump
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Web publishing and hyperfiction
9 Feb 2010 | 3:39 amAs new media and technologies develop, writers are taking advantage of the possibilities of hypertext and rich media to create new forms of online documentation. But most fiction, even if published online, remains firmly in the linear mode. I've thought for years that hypertext was the ideal medium for some types of fiction - in particular, the big sprawling, multiple point of view novel ( -
Chinese superbug onslaught
8 Feb 2010 | 3:04 amAntibiotic use in China is more widespread than almost anywhere else in the world, and it's resulting in strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It may result in exports that we don't want.Studies in China show a "frightening" increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA . There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs -
The Home Scientist
7 Feb 2010 | 2:10 pmWhen I was a kid, I was seriously interested in science, and I had a chemistry kit. I don't remember doing anything really remarkable or dangerous with it, but it was neat to mix up various chemicals and observe the results. My lab was the laundry room, because we didn't have a basement bathroom at the time, and the laundry tubs were pretty much impervious to anything I could concoct. Chemistry -
Steeped in the American tradition
7 Feb 2010 | 7:36 amSaturday's Globe and Mail had a long article about the Tea Party, the US populist fringe party that's holding its convention in Nashville this weekend. It's making mainstream US politician's quite nervous.Though their gripes are not always coherent – they're against Mr. Obama's “government-run” health-care proposal, but cling to publicly funded Medicare for seniors – the Tea Partiers are -
Arctic sea ice melting faster than predicted
6 Feb 2010 | 2:56 pmAccording to research conducted in 2008, the Arctic sea ice is melting faster than projections and threatens the Arctic's ecosystem. The melting ice poses different threats. Barber said the ice is full of toxic contaminants, which are released back into the environment when the ice melts. Wildlife in the Arctic is negatively impacted by the loss of ice and degraded habitat. Animals that live in
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Tech Writer News (Elephant)
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FM UG (Kfar Yona + Web): FrameMaker & Localization
7 Feb 2010 | 4:23 amFM UG (Kfar Yona + Web): FrameMaker & LocalizationFebruary 17, 2010Next meeting of the Israeli FrameMaker user group will be held Wednesday, February 17, in Kfar Yona (starting 6:30pm) Topics: * Language-Related Aspects of FrameMaker -- Shlomo Perets * Localization of FrameMaker Source Files -- Marva Roth & Sorrel Ritter, Net-Translators.com Tips from a translation company on how to make your FrameMaker files easier to localize, best practices and pitfalls Admission is free; registration is required. If you wish to attend, please register through the poll at… -
Voices Israel poetry group - Tel Aviv
6 Feb 2010 | 12:34 pmVoices Israel poetry group - Tel AvivFebruary 23, 2010The Voices Israel Group of Poets in English ( http://www.freewebs.com/voicesisrael/ ) will meet to read and discuss original poetry at 7:30 pm, Tuesday 23 February, in Beit Tami (behind the Sheinkin Street park), Tel Aviv. Admission 15 shekels. Newcomer poets and just-listeners welcome. If you'd like to read, bring 2 poems in at least 12 copies each. -
Resilience Tip - Emotions as Communication
1 Feb 2010 | 6:08 amA critical characteristic of resilience is flexible thinking. For effective problem-solving we want to be able to see the issue from different perspectives andRead more... -
Free study day for Hebrew editors at Lifshitz College in Jerusalem
22 Jan 2010 | 6:39 amFree study day for Hebrew editors at Lifshitz College in JerusalemJanuary 26, 2010The free study day is organized by the Academy of the Hebrew Language and the Department of Textual Studies of Lifshitz College. You need to register in advance with Rachel Levi at 02-5320906. For more information view the PDF at http://www.lifshiz.macam.ac.il/messages/images/LIF2.pdf . -
CO&PI Meeting in Raanana on on editing footnotes and bibliographies
20 Jan 2010 | 2:34 pmCO&PI Meeting in Raanana on on editing footnotes and bibliographiesJanuary 25, 2010Susan de la Fuente (sdlfsusan@yahoo.com 09-7743713) asks participants to confirm attendance in advance and leave contact details. The meeting will be at her home: Hagedud HaIvri17/6, Raanana. Shirley Zauer will address the meeting on editing footnotes and bibliographies.
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STC AccessAbility SIG
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Weekend Gazette – Link Collection for February 7
7 Feb 2010 | 2:35 pmWe present to you a menu of tidbits collected in recent days that are too short for blog posts and sometimes too long for a tweet (when we want to add clarifying comments). Headings provide a light grouping to help you skim the offerings. Bon appétit! Where to Discuss Accessibility? The Accessify Forum is an excellent place [...] -
What is Unclear About Captioning?
4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 amDoes your business know about the need for captioning?This recent article might be a wake-up call for people in the United States: Who is Required to Close-Caption? With only a few exceptions, all programming for broadcast in the United States must be closed captioned. Fortunately, the article includes the FCC fact sheet for more closed captioning information. If [...] -
Weekend Gazette – Link Collection for January 30
30 Jan 2010 | 6:58 pmWe present to you a menu of tidbits collected in recent days that are too short for blog posts and sometimes too long for a tweet (when we want to add clarifying comments). Headings provide a light grouping to help you skim the offerings. Bon appétit! That Thing Everyone Buzzed About Last Week The long-awaited new gadget [...] -
Weekend Gazette – Link Collection for January 23
23 Jan 2010 | 5:47 pmWe present to you a menu of tidbits collected in recent days that are too short for blog posts and sometimes too long for a tweet (when we want to add clarifying comments). Headings provide a light grouping to help you skim the offerings. Bon appétit! Accessibility Statements @mgifford started a page about the need for Drupal [...]
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User Assistance
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Nouns in 3D
9 Feb 2010 | 5:09 amHere's an interesting snippet of research coming out of Carnegie Melon: How the brain arranges nouns.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, members of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging have gained deep insight into the way human brains categorize objects. In a breakthrough that demonstrates the interdepartmental cooperation here at Carnegie Mellon, neuroscientists -
Hump-day Humor 2010-5
3 Feb 2010 | 5:16 amOn-the-job negotiations.Click comic to enlarge it. -
New award, and a cry for help!
28 Jan 2010 | 7:25 amMy NSS award goes collectively to all of the accessibility web sites on colorblindness that advised me to offer an alternative to using color to convey meaning.An open question for my readers:If an IP address in red means one thing and an IP address in blue means something else, what alternative approach would you recommend for this kind of scenario? -
Hump-day Humor 2010-4
27 Jan 2010 | 4:24 amDon't you just love working on distributed teams?Click cartoon to enlarge it. -
I have so been here!
25 Jan 2010 | 3:08 amI just had to chuckle when I read Dilbert yesterday. I think a lot of UX departments go through this phase. I hate hiring onto a job and then showing up for this as my first meeting (it's happened more than once).
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Writer River
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Upcoming Webinar on 10 February: Quick Reference Guides: Short and Sweet Technical Documentation
8 Feb 2010 | 12:02 pm -
Why I'll never say I'm booked
8 Feb 2010 | 6:02 amOn saying "no", "come back later", "I don't have time", "I'm busy".... This is one for the freelancers, consultants, independents... It would be interesting to hear the viewpoint from agile practitioners, too! -
Disagreements and Debates Are Good Things
8 Feb 2010 | 5:56 amThis post might be a bit controversial. Maybe some have tried to disagree and been fired. Maybe some cannot tolerate hearing other opinions. It's worth a read and worth considering. -
Knowledge Games - how to apply game thinking to your business challenges
8 Feb 2010 | 5:52 am"How to apply game thinking to your business challenges." @willsansbury learned about this site at the Interaction Design Conference (IxD10) and shared it on Twitter. At some level playing games is related to storytelling, and both are relevant for businesses - and technical communicators in those businesses.Enjoy! -
Portable apps for tech writers II: Screenshots - Kai's Tech Writing Blog
8 Feb 2010 | 1:29 amThree portable screenshot apps give paid competitors a run for their money.
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EServer TC Writing
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Information Industry: Structure, Partnership and Change
7 Feb 2010 | 8:10 pmInformation industry gloom in 2009 In the last Initiatives column in the June 2009 issue we wrote: 'Market studies based on 2008 data only gives a part of the picture. However much information vendors whistle in the dark and make positive public statements, the hard reality is that the shakeout of the sector will continue in a variety of ways. Outsell's 2009 predictions for "slower but fairly consistent growth overall" (see below) look optimistic, certainly for the business information part of the industry'. It's interesting to see that Outsell has caught up with our view. In its new report… -
Marking Time, Figuring Space: Gesture and the Embodied Moment
7 Feb 2010 | 4:13 pmThis article addresses the role played by gesture in theorizing embodiment in drawing practice. The gesture here is cast simultaneously as the material trace left on the drawing surface as well as an intentional act geared toward enabling participatory spectatorship. Both forms of the gesture are enacted through attention to embodiment in drawing as performed through the organs of artist and audience. The surface of a drawing affords openings for gesture's potential to convey meaning beyond the semiotic and as a site for ongoing physical and aesthetic intervention on the part of the… -
The Terrain of the Long Take
7 Feb 2010 | 4:11 pmThis autobiographical essay examines my inclination towards the use of the long take in documentary film and video. I discuss how my documentary practice is dominated by the take in duration; the ways in which I use the time of the frame to draw closer, in an intuitive way, to the profilmic; and how the long take makes visible the complexities of living through the representation of landscape, space, and time. I describe the process of framing my subject, what the long take signifies in the moment of its capture, as well as what the duration of my frame might express to an audience in search… -
The Graphic Novel: a “Cool” Format for Communicating to Generation Y
7 Feb 2010 | 3:17 pmThe graphic novel provides an attractive medium to communicate business concepts with a number of characteristics that may aid student learning in a more effective manner than traditional textbooks. The authors provide an overview of the graphic novel format and use McLuhan’s research on “hot” versus “cool” media as a theoretical base that highlights how and why this format can be a useful tool to present management content relevant for the current generation of business students. The authors provide examples of how the graphic novel medium could be applied to business concepts and… -
"It Actually Made Me Think": Problem-Based Learning in the Business Communications Classroom
7 Feb 2010 | 3:16 pmWe advocate for problem-based learning (PBL) as a rhetorical pedagogy for business communication. Briefly put, classic PBL inverts the typical instructional sequence; rather than presenting concepts first and then asking students to apply them, PBL creates situations in which students must learn the concepts in order to solve a “problem” constructed for that purpose. Thus, students learn in an iterative process as they cycle through the three key questions: “What do we know?” “What do we need to know?” and “How will we learn it?” We advocate emphasizing three key elements…
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Shanghai Tech Writer
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Collaboration Across the Globe
7 Feb 2010 | 8:00 amCollaboration Across the Globe is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer One really cool thing about working at Google is the amount of collaboration that takes place between different offices. I can’t speak for all the products and services, but the product I work with has people in several offices. There’s a lot of collaboration between the development team, global services, customer support, marketing, legal, etc… In addition, I’m the only technical writer in Shanghai, so I’m also collaborating with other writers that are mainly in the U.S. All the Google… -
Serving Breakfast at Work Today
3 Feb 2010 | 6:20 pmServing Breakfast at Work Today is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer When I got to work this morning, I saw caterers busy in the kitchen preparing various trays of food! I was surprised because they usually come around 10ish to prepare for lunch, but today, it was only 8 and they were already preparing food! I asked what the occasion was and they said as part of our Chinese New Year treat, they’ll be serving breakfast today and again next week. Wow! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day since it’s about the only meal that I’m able to eat without feeling sick. Ironically,… -
Mobsters iPhone Playdom IDs to Grow Your Mob
2 Feb 2010 | 8:00 amMobsters iPhone Playdom IDs to Grow Your Mob is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Recently, I’ve been playing the Mobsters: Big Apple app on the iPhone. It’s an online multiplayer mafia game where you complete missions, build territories, earn money, buy equipments, grow your mob, and fight with other mobs. I’m not usually into this type of games, but Mobsters really grew on me. I guess it’s a nice 5 minutes break every so often to check the status of my growing mob and complete as many missions as I can. I don’t care too much about fighting with other mobs, but… -
iPhone OS 3 Built-in Chinese Pinyin IME Works Poorly
30 Jan 2010 | 8:00 amiPhone OS 3 Built-in Chinese Pinyin IME Works Poorly is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer The other day, I wrote about how easy it was to use Google Pinyin to input Chinese characters on the computer. Originally, I wanted to write a post about how bad the iPhone’s built-in Chinese pinyin input method was but I needed to provide a basis for comparison. So, I wrote a post about using Google Pinyin first and now, I can rant and complain about how bad the pinyin IME on the iPhone is. It’s obvious the pinyin IME either was not designed by a Chinese developer or did not go through… -
Fixing Wordpress Allowed Memory Size
25 Jan 2010 | 8:00 amFixing Wordpress Allowed Memory Size is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer I tried upgrading to WordPress 2.9 and got this error message: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted To fix this memory size error, follow the instructions below: Open and edit the wp-settings.php file using notepad. Search for:define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘32M’); Change 32M to 64M :define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘64M’); Share and Enjoy: Related Articles:Fixing WordPress 2.9 Missed Schedule Bug (1)Fatal error: Cannot redeclare pclziputilpathreduction…
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David Barnes @ Packt
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"How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days" from Gamasutra
8 Feb 2010 | 8:30 amWritten by the folks behind Experimental Gameplay, this article explains how one person can churn out working game prototypes in just seven days. Perfect for anybody who wants to build games fast -- or churn out a first draft of anything quickly. (250 pages, 12 chapters in 6 months? Easy!) Here's a summary: Setup: Rapid is a State of Mind Embrace the Possibility of Failure - it Encourages Creative Risk Taking Enforce Short Development Cycles (More Time != More Quality) Constrain Creativity to Make You Want it Even More Gather a Kickass Team and an Objective Advisor – Mindset is as… -
Casual Game Developer Advice from the Unity3D Website
5 Feb 2010 | 8:07 amInfiniteUnity3d links to a collection of articles for casual game developers, and indie's thinking of taking the plunge. The highlight is an article discussing Casual Games as a business, over at the main Unity3d site. Y'know, some of the advice applies to writing tutorials too... Think About Your Target Audience Think about your game and its intended audience when choosing a distribution path. Free browser-based web games appeal to males in their teens and twenties who tend to prefer action, adventure or driving style games whereas downloaded executables appeal to an older and increasingly… -
Make your reader Curious to keep them Interested, Engaged and Entertained
16 Dec 2009 | 2:36 amCuriosity drives a whole lotta learning. Most of what we learn and remember comes from us feeling curious about something, wanting to understand it, and eventually finding the answer. A good teacher will create a sense of curiosity in their students, and then satisfy that curiosity with an answer. A strong written tutorial will take the reader through this simple process over and over again: Make them curious Satisfy their curiosity Make them curious about something else Doing this will keep your reader's mind engaged and active as they learn. Good ways to make a reader curious: Present them… -
Oxford Word of the Year 2009: Unfriend
18 Nov 2009 | 2:33 amFrom the Oxford University Press blog: Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is:unfriend. unfriend– verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.” Other new words recognized by the Oxford University language boffins include hashtag, intexticated, sexting, funemployed, deleb, and zombie bank. Many of these words a tech words, of course. Should a technical publisher coin new words in their books, when none of the existing ones… -
Why the free availability of Unity3D and Unreal Development Kit has me nostalgic for my childhood
6 Nov 2009 | 8:50 amLike many skinny boys my age, the first computer book I ever read looked something like this: Looking back, it's easy to be cynical about these titles. Each book contained a whole selection of games. You'd get a few pages of code (a lot to type on a ZX Spectrum keyboard at the age of 9), virtually no explanation, and a lavish watercolor picture supposed to illustrate the game play. When you'd got the whole game typed in, you'd run it and discover that the game consisted of a few lines of plain text. Most of them didn't even use color. One game I remember was called "Archery". I was excited to…
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MetaliQue.com
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Comment Policy
13 Jan 2010 | 11:25 pmAll comments are subject to approval before they are posted, and will be evaluated on a first-in-first-out basis. By submitting a question or comment, you are agreeing to relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this blog. This entitles granting me the right to display any information or material you submit to this blog. Comments are welcome. However, note that, overtly insulting comments either to me or to other commenter will be deleted. Any personal attacks will be deleted. Please feel free to comment or disagree with the actions of any person. -
Disclaimer
13 Jan 2010 | 11:12 pmMetalique does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any of the information, content or advertisements contained on, distributed through, or linked, downloaded or accessed from any of the services contained on this website, nor the quality of any products, information or other materials displayed, purchased, or obtained by you as a result of an advertisement or any other information or offer in or in connection with the services herein. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon any materials shall be at your sole risk. Metalique reserves the right, in its sole discretion… -
New Site
13 Jan 2010 | 4:00 pmWelcome! I’m in the midst of a site redesign, turning my blog into a portfolio/blog. In the meantime, please subscribe and check back soon- hopefully tomorrow for the complete redesign.
