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LOTD
This is day two of me saving up my links.
After looking them all over there's only one thing I can say. I completely understand why lsoulban asked me to stop sending him stuff while he's at gencon. From now on - I'll just lj the links (except the zombie sex stuff. That I'll still send directly.*)
* Cruel joke because he won't see this for a week.
Crueler still because there is no zombie sex stuff. At least, not recently.
Technical Writing
Write to Done hosted this article by Jonathan Mead. It caught my eye this morning because, while I don't live without a template, I do understand the need to trust what you write. More than any other writing tip, this one has held true for me both in my daily career and my secret identity as an author. In technical writing, if you don't understand your topic and believe in what you're saying -- your reader won't understand and won't believe what they read. Either that or, if they are less observing, they just won't like it. It's not an easy lesson to apply to fiction, but rewrites, edits, and peer-reviews are all great ways to gain that trust.
Write River pointed me to a great article from Gryphon Mountain Journals about enhancements vs Just Documenting It. I agree with Write River: "NO. You can't just explain it in the manual." I want it on a pin too. Possibly a stamp I can use at work. Maybe even a power point slide that I can present at meetings when asked if we can just write around the error or (worse) explain the defect as a feature. The article at Gryphon Mountain Journals asks the question - how do you make the determination whether to enhance the product in a certain way or instead add to the documentation?
It's a tough question.
In my day job I tend to look at how things have been done in the past. If the new "feature" is the exception to the rule - my tendancy is to ask the engineers to change it. If, however, the new "feature" falls in line with the rule or at least the spirit of the rule - then I'd add to the documentation. It sounds strange for someone who is being paid to document products to say no to documentation; but it does happen.
I realize this is a pretty generic answer, but it sounds better than "it depends". :)
Gathering information is a topic most techical writers love to discuss. This blog post proposes an interesting idea that can provide more information than just taking notes as the SOI (Source of Information) talks. In addition, it's the type of data that we could pass on as "unstructured tutorials" when contractors or stagiers are replaced. It doesn't change the staffing problems we have (or lack of staff problem), but it might speed a few things up. I should forward this one to my boss.
Beautiful Pictures
Boing boing provided a link to the Coral Kingdom - a NOAA Photo library. The pictures are indexed and titled. Warning: visiting this site is a really beautiful time-waster.
Gizmodo featured a picture of the proposed Ras Al-Khaimah Gateway. It's a 2.9 million square feet hotel, conference and exhibition complex. At first glance it really does look like something from a sci-fi movie.
Springfield Punx looks like a great site if you're collecting pictures. Parodies of Dean's favorite characters -- only some of which have appeared on the Simpsons. Gizmodo says that Dean's simposnized superheroes are well worth looking up, but there are just so many others on the site. And the site keeps growing.
This fountain on YouTube is truly amazing!
TBritain from Above has some goregeous photography. Thanks to Gizmodo for the quicklink and great examples. Now if only I could figure out how to make these 1024x whatever wallpapers. The site is both wide and deep, so it's definitely a great time-waster. Bonus! It's still growing.
Humour
The Fail blog has a great video from youtube about a guy on a motorcycle texting. The people filming are in a passing car and laughing about it. Fortunately, there is no accident depicted and the video is SFW. The guy on the bike most definitely leads a charmed life.
Security & Passwords
Slashdot today posted an intersting stub: Let your Theme Song be Your Password. I definitely want to try the Firefox add in, but I'm going to have to improve my password keeper at home if I start using this. Other than using a Pad of paper to keep your passwords recorded, there are dozens of bits of software for creating and storing passwords.
Podcast review
The Right Kind of Town by Christian Klaver, read by Cunning Minx. The story is short (22 minutes) and set in a western sci-fi universe that the host reminisces is similar to that of FireFly. Minx's voice serves the tale well, but the story takes a sudden twist near the end that has polarized the reviewers who commented on the tale. To me the twist-ending is a classic trope found in many genres -- especially westerns. And so, while surprising, did not detract from the tale for me. The story sounds like you're sitting down with the main character who's reminiscing, perhaps over a cold glass of something. She's a bit sad about the tale, but not regretful. I enjoyed the story and was happy to learn that there's more fiction on the author's website.
Through this podcast I learned about PodCastle and added it to my Bloglines. I'll try it out and get back to you.
Presenting steven King's N. Thanks to Pulp 2.0 for pointing out an interesting experiment by Stephen King and Marvel Comics. It's a graphic novel told in webisodes as a prelude (prequel?) to the novel's release. No RSS feed. :( and they're already at episode 12. Here's hoping I remember to visit daily to catch the rest of the story.
Role playing
Not too long ago I was introduced to Play Sorcerer from a link on the Midnight's Lair forums. It was described as an indespensable set of articles about how to build and use story. They're sitting in my Bloglines waiting to be read; I keep intending to read them (like I do with SpaceWestern stories). I'll review the articles after I read them. Which I intend to do. Sometime. Soon.
Health/Conspiracy
Scientific American answers a reader's question and reminds us to check the underside of our plastic containers.
2, 4 or 5: safe.
7: not safe for food storage or nuking!
1: single use. These are dangerous when they start to break down, so the safety in reusing them is questionable.
3: the common form of plastic used to wrap deli items. Swapping foods out of such wraps once the groceries are at home is advisable.
6: styrofoam is also one to be avoided.
If you can't keep the numbers straight - go with pyrex.
DIY/Projects
Lifehacker is finally having a battle of the Media Collection managers. There's a few on the list (like Ant and MeD's Movie Manager) I've been interested in trying. I currently use Libra, but it doesn't have the ability to log in VHS (of which I have many still). The post also asks how you organize things. My answer: badly. I really have to catalog stuff better. Ideally I'd have a nice little hard driver sitting somewhere with everything on it. It would certainly make finding things easier. Sigh. Just another project for my list.
Edited: Fixed the Scientific American link. Great catch Stirling!
After looking them all over there's only one thing I can say. I completely understand why lsoulban asked me to stop sending him stuff while he's at gencon. From now on - I'll just lj the links (except the zombie sex stuff. That I'll still send directly.*)
* Cruel joke because he won't see this for a week.
Crueler still because there is no zombie sex stuff. At least, not recently.
Technical Writing
Write to Done hosted this article by Jonathan Mead. It caught my eye this morning because, while I don't live without a template, I do understand the need to trust what you write. More than any other writing tip, this one has held true for me both in my daily career and my secret identity as an author. In technical writing, if you don't understand your topic and believe in what you're saying -- your reader won't understand and won't believe what they read. Either that or, if they are less observing, they just won't like it. It's not an easy lesson to apply to fiction, but rewrites, edits, and peer-reviews are all great ways to gain that trust.
Write River pointed me to a great article from Gryphon Mountain Journals about enhancements vs Just Documenting It. I agree with Write River: "NO. You can't just explain it in the manual." I want it on a pin too. Possibly a stamp I can use at work. Maybe even a power point slide that I can present at meetings when asked if we can just write around the error or (worse) explain the defect as a feature. The article at Gryphon Mountain Journals asks the question - how do you make the determination whether to enhance the product in a certain way or instead add to the documentation?
It's a tough question.
In my day job I tend to look at how things have been done in the past. If the new "feature" is the exception to the rule - my tendancy is to ask the engineers to change it. If, however, the new "feature" falls in line with the rule or at least the spirit of the rule - then I'd add to the documentation. It sounds strange for someone who is being paid to document products to say no to documentation; but it does happen.
I realize this is a pretty generic answer, but it sounds better than "it depends". :)
Gathering information is a topic most techical writers love to discuss. This blog post proposes an interesting idea that can provide more information than just taking notes as the SOI (Source of Information) talks. In addition, it's the type of data that we could pass on as "unstructured tutorials" when contractors or stagiers are replaced. It doesn't change the staffing problems we have (or lack of staff problem), but it might speed a few things up. I should forward this one to my boss.
Beautiful Pictures
Boing boing provided a link to the Coral Kingdom - a NOAA Photo library. The pictures are indexed and titled. Warning: visiting this site is a really beautiful time-waster.
Gizmodo featured a picture of the proposed Ras Al-Khaimah Gateway. It's a 2.9 million square feet hotel, conference and exhibition complex. At first glance it really does look like something from a sci-fi movie.
Springfield Punx looks like a great site if you're collecting pictures. Parodies of Dean's favorite characters -- only some of which have appeared on the Simpsons. Gizmodo says that Dean's simposnized superheroes are well worth looking up, but there are just so many others on the site. And the site keeps growing.
This fountain on YouTube is truly amazing!
TBritain from Above has some goregeous photography. Thanks to Gizmodo for the quicklink and great examples. Now if only I could figure out how to make these 1024x whatever wallpapers. The site is both wide and deep, so it's definitely a great time-waster. Bonus! It's still growing.
Humour
The Fail blog has a great video from youtube about a guy on a motorcycle texting. The people filming are in a passing car and laughing about it. Fortunately, there is no accident depicted and the video is SFW. The guy on the bike most definitely leads a charmed life.
Security & Passwords
Slashdot today posted an intersting stub: Let your Theme Song be Your Password. I definitely want to try the Firefox add in, but I'm going to have to improve my password keeper at home if I start using this. Other than using a Pad of paper to keep your passwords recorded, there are dozens of bits of software for creating and storing passwords.
Podcast review
The Right Kind of Town by Christian Klaver, read by Cunning Minx. The story is short (22 minutes) and set in a western sci-fi universe that the host reminisces is similar to that of FireFly. Minx's voice serves the tale well, but the story takes a sudden twist near the end that has polarized the reviewers who commented on the tale. To me the twist-ending is a classic trope found in many genres -- especially westerns. And so, while surprising, did not detract from the tale for me. The story sounds like you're sitting down with the main character who's reminiscing, perhaps over a cold glass of something. She's a bit sad about the tale, but not regretful. I enjoyed the story and was happy to learn that there's more fiction on the author's website.
Through this podcast I learned about PodCastle and added it to my Bloglines. I'll try it out and get back to you.
Presenting steven King's N. Thanks to Pulp 2.0 for pointing out an interesting experiment by Stephen King and Marvel Comics. It's a graphic novel told in webisodes as a prelude (prequel?) to the novel's release. No RSS feed. :( and they're already at episode 12. Here's hoping I remember to visit daily to catch the rest of the story.
Role playing
Not too long ago I was introduced to Play Sorcerer from a link on the Midnight's Lair forums. It was described as an indespensable set of articles about how to build and use story. They're sitting in my Bloglines waiting to be read; I keep intending to read them (like I do with SpaceWestern stories). I'll review the articles after I read them. Which I intend to do. Sometime. Soon.
Health/Conspiracy
Scientific American answers a reader's question and reminds us to check the underside of our plastic containers.
2, 4 or 5: safe.
7: not safe for food storage or nuking!
1: single use. These are dangerous when they start to break down, so the safety in reusing them is questionable.
3: the common form of plastic used to wrap deli items. Swapping foods out of such wraps once the groceries are at home is advisable.
6: styrofoam is also one to be avoided.
If you can't keep the numbers straight - go with pyrex.
DIY/Projects
Lifehacker is finally having a battle of the Media Collection managers. There's a few on the list (like Ant and MeD's Movie Manager) I've been interested in trying. I currently use Libra, but it doesn't have the ability to log in VHS (of which I have many still). The post also asks how you organize things. My answer: badly. I really have to catalog stuff better. Ideally I'd have a nice little hard driver sitting somewhere with everything on it. It would certainly make finding things easier. Sigh. Just another project for my list.
Edited: Fixed the Scientific American link. Great catch Stirling!
