Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Search tools
Searchtools.com is a site about search tools for web sites and intranets. It includes a pretty comprehensive listing of tools, as well as reviews and background articles. Of particular interest was the page listing desktop search tools; the list is surprisingly sparse. I'm still waiting for Google to release theirs.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Hero
I went to see Hero last night, the Chinese sword-master historical epic starring Jet Li. It's excellent. Some of the reviews I've seen have compared it to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it's a fair comparison. Hero is at least as good and in some respects better; the cinematography is definitely better - Hero is one of the most beautiful movies I've have ever seen. Some of the shots in this movie will take your breath away. Highly recommended.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Barlow on the RNC
Writer and cyber-activist John Perry Barlow is in New York for the Republican National Convention. The posts on his blog provide a perspective that you probably won't see in the mainstream media. His most recent post is about the abundance of cocaine in New York:
I'll be keeping an eye on his blog over the next week.
"Once again, one can see clearly what the War on Some Drugs is really about. It's the culture, stupid. It certainly isn't about public safety, since coke and booze are the perfect combination for social depravity of all sorts. Instead, it provides a beautiful opportunity to jail the blacks and hippies who prefer the non-Republican drugs. It makes huge bank for one's wing-tipped colleagues."
I'll be keeping an eye on his blog over the next week.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Windows XP SP2 breaks Adobe help
If you use any Adobe products, for example FrameMaker, you should be aware that Windows XP SP2 may break the online help. Apparently it has something to do wiht the new security settings in IE and XP. Adobe help has been pretty much useless the last few years anyway, so it's probably not that big a deal for experienced users.
Another thing for parents to worry about
Now there's another thing for parents to worry about, especially if you have kids who spend a lot of time on the Internet. The New York Times (free registration required) has an article on cyberbullying, in which teens are getting bullied, or even sexually harassed, via email, IM chat, or having their pictures plastered over the net. Definitely required reading if you have kids.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Paint Shop Pro 9 beta
Jasc software has made the beta of Paint Shop Pro 9 available for download. I've been a happy user of Paint Shop for years; I usually use it in preference to PhotoShop for most simple editing tasks. They've now split the program into two versions, Paint Shop Pro 9 and Paint Shop Pro Studio. Oddly enough, the Studio version is the "lite" version. More on this once I have time to download and play with it - and it'll be the full version, as Studio doesn't do screen captures or have scripting - both features a technical writer would use.
Technical Writing with OpenOffice.org Writer
O'Reilly have published a long article by Jean Weber about technical writing using OpenOffice.Org Writer as an alternative to Microsoft Word or FrameMaker. Jean has written several books about technical writing with MS Word and OpenOffice. This article is the best I've seen yet about Writer, as it's written from the perspective of a technical writer. If you're contemplating a move away from Word or FrameMaker, you definitely want to read this. Her conclusion:
My kids will be using StarOffice next year at school. (The school board has switched from Corel Office to Star Office). StarOffice and OpenOffice are similar enough that they should be able to use OpenOffice at home without too much trouble. That should be me an opportunity to use it; until now, I haven't had time, and it's unlikely that we'll ever switch away from MS Office at work.
"I've looked briefly at a few of OpenOffice.org Writer's powerful features and their use by technical writers. If you use Word, you'll probably find that Writer can do the job just as well if not better, once you get used to its different approach to many things. However, you'll need to evaluate whether Writer's features and limitations are suitable for the requirements of your documents and working environment."
My kids will be using StarOffice next year at school. (The school board has switched from Corel Office to Star Office). StarOffice and OpenOffice are similar enough that they should be able to use OpenOffice at home without too much trouble. That should be me an opportunity to use it; until now, I haven't had time, and it's unlikely that we'll ever switch away from MS Office at work.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
"We trusted the work manual" says Chernobyl engineer
New Scientist managzine is running an interview with Alexander Yuvchenko, who was a 24-year-old engineer on duty the night the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded. It's a pretty grim interview, especially considering I live not far from a nuclear power plant. Being a technical writer, this quote really hit home:
"
"
People make mistakes, but we thought the safety measures would compensate for that. We believed what we were told in the work manual."
John Dvorak - Kill Microsoft Word
John Dvorak, PC Magazine's long-time columnist, has a column in which he suggests that it's time for Microsoft to replace Word with something new and better. He lists a number of complaints about Word, notably problems with Word wanting to install features when he tries to open a document and Word's inability to create a clean ASCII file. I've not had any of the problems that he mentions, but Lord kmows, I could list many, many, others, as could most other technical writers that I know. I'm going to get upgraded at work next month from Word XP to Word 2003; it'll be interesting to see if this version is any better than Word XP, which has caused me a lot of grief.
As for Dvorak's column, I doubt that MS will replace Word, unless they tackle the whole Office suite. They've spent too much effort creating an integrating set of products. The only thing I could see happening would be a new, "lite" version of Office, similar to Works.
As for Dvorak's column, I doubt that MS will replace Word, unless they tackle the whole Office suite. They've spent too much effort creating an integrating set of products. The only thing I could see happening would be a new, "lite" version of Office, similar to Works.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
GMail helper apps
If you're lucky enough to have a Google GMail account, you may want to enhance its features. This page has a list of help applications for GMail, including notifiers, POP3 access, and much more.
Free PDFs
If you want to create PDFs without paying the exhorbitant amount that Adobe charges for Acrobat, there is a free alternative. You can use GhostScript. It's a freeware application and not the prettiest, but it does work and the price is right. To make the task easier if you are using Word, there's a freeware graphical front end called GhostWord.
Monday, August 23, 2004
Kill Bill, Vol. 2
I watched Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 2 this weekend, and I was pretty impressed - actually, quite blown away. I enjoyed the first part, although the gore was a bit over the top, but the second part was a very different and much better movie. There were a couple of scenes (the burial, in particular) that were absolutely gripping. On a sheer technical level, there's nobdoy in Hollywood who can touch Tarantino. I find him a rather cold, emotionless director though, but if he ever makes a movie that has some real emotion in it, watch out. As it is, Kill Bill will be providing material for a whole generation of film students to get their Masters and Ph.Ds.
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Amazing Half-Life 2 screen shots
At SIGGRAPH Valve Software did a presentation on their upcoming game Half-Life 2. Truly amazing. If the game is anywhere near as good as the graphics (and the original Half-Life was a landmark), it's going to be mind-boggling. It may be time for a video card upgrade.
Friday, August 20, 2004
4 things Yahoo can do that Google can't
Although I tend to use Google for most of my searches, I do prefer Yahoo's directory. But Yahoo has some interesting search tricks up it's sleeve, and this PDF details four things you can do on Yahoo and not on Google. The most interesting is searching for RSS feeds, which could make finding blogs much easier.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Heinlein's children
Robert Heinlein was arguably the most influential science fiction writer ever, and his Scribners juvenile novels of the 1950s were in many respects his best books. J.T. Major is working on a book about Heinlein's juveniles, to be called Heinlein's Children, and has posted drafts of a substantial part of the book on the web. If you like Heinlein, these are a must read. And if you haven't read any Heinlein, grab a copy of Citizen of the Galaxy or Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. You won't regret it.
Interview with John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow is an interesting character. He's been a rancher in Wyoming, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, and founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Reason Magazine has a long interview with him. The interview is fascinating. Here's a short quote:
"Copyright and intellectual property are the most important issues now. If you don’t have something that assures fair use, then you don’t have a free society. If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure you have a highly knowledgeable elite and an ignorant mass."
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Windows XP SP2 breaks help systems
There are several reports on various tech-writing-related mailing lists that Microsoft's new Windows XP Service Pack 2 breaks various flavours of online help, includuing WebHelp (MacroMedia), WebWorks Help (Quadralay), HTML Help (Microsoft), and FlashHelp (MacroMedia). Help systems for Adobe products may also be affected. Some people are reporting security-related error messages when they try to run the help; turning off security lets you run the help, but you have to do this every time you load it.
That's all we need; something that makes online help harder to use. I wonder if anyone at Microsoft ever uses help (the state of their help systems makes me think not).
Update, August 19th: This article has more information about what types of active content SP2 will affect and what you can do about it. If you use JavaScript or Java in your online help, you may have some work to do.
That's all we need; something that makes online help harder to use. I wonder if anyone at Microsoft ever uses help (the state of their help systems makes me think not).
Update, August 19th: This article has more information about what types of active content SP2 will affect and what you can do about it. If you use JavaScript or Java in your online help, you may have some work to do.
The Trillion-Barrel Tar Pit
The July Wired has a long article on the tar sands in Fort McMurray, Alberta. There's probably enough oil there to get us out of the current oil crunch, but the problem is getting it out without using up all the fresh water in Northern Alberta, something the article glosses over. The article does give you an idea of the scale of the project, which is truly immense.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Wrangling spimes
BoingBoing has posted the complete text of Bruce Sterling's keynote speech at SIGGRAPH. Sterling is as visionary as always and this is worth reading just to find out what a spime is, and why he thinks you'll be wrangling them in a few years. If you're reading this, you are probably a good candidate to be a spime wrangler, though I'm not sure I want to be. The more I use other high-tech equipment like computers, video cameras, and MP3 players, the more I realize that I just want to use the damn things, not manage them.
Life in the Internet wild
It's dangerous out there. This Washington Post story tells the experience of a writer who's PC got seriously infected after he put connected to the Internet via a broadband connection without a firewall. Scary stuff. One of our neighbours is getting a cable connection on Friday, and I'll probably be spending Friday evening patching her system for her.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Movie reviews by Michael Skeet
Michael Skeet is a Toronto technical writer and freelance journalist, who I've known for about twenty years. As well as being a great guy and an excellent writer, he's about the best movie reviewer I can think of. Evidence of that statement can be found at his web site, where he's archived several years worth of reviews and the transcripts of some longer projects he's been doing for the CBC, the most recent of which is The Great War Project about World War 1. He and I agree completely on the merits of Kubrick's Paths of Glory. Mike's reviews are literate and informed by a both a depth of movie knowldge and a well-honed artistic sensibility. Check them out.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Charlie Watts has cancer
According to this article, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is undergoing treatment for throat cancer. The article says he's expected to make a full recovery. I hope he does, as he's one of rock's great drummers and a core part of the Stone's sound. I mentioned a while baack how much I like the Stones DVD set Four Flicks, and that still holds, some great performances in that set.
Friday, August 13, 2004
In praise of IXgen
IXgen is an indexing add-in for FrameMaker. I got it a few months back but have only started to use it recently. I'm beginnig to wonder how I ever managed without it.
I haven't used most of IXgen's many features, but there are a few that stand out. One is the ability to generate an editable list of index markers, in the form of a table. This makes it really easy to edit your index markers. You can also expand your index markers inline, so you can view and edit them in the context of your document.
I've found another feature to be useful, especially with documents that aren't already indexed. You can create index markers from headings (actually any paragraph or character style, or keywords). So to get an index started, I generate an index based on the headings in the document, then use another feature which automatically permutes the entries. Then I generate an editable list and do a quick edit, update the document and I have a good starting index. Then I expand the markers inline and go back through the document to refine it. The process of generating the first cut of the index takes very little time; I was able to produce a perfectly usable index for a new document in about an hour, compared to the day or so it might have taken me without IXgen.
IXgen will work with other types of markers, for example, hypertext markers, so you can use it to check links in a document.
You can find out more about IXgen from the developer, Frank Stearns Associates.
I haven't used most of IXgen's many features, but there are a few that stand out. One is the ability to generate an editable list of index markers, in the form of a table. This makes it really easy to edit your index markers. You can also expand your index markers inline, so you can view and edit them in the context of your document.
I've found another feature to be useful, especially with documents that aren't already indexed. You can create index markers from headings (actually any paragraph or character style, or keywords). So to get an index started, I generate an index based on the headings in the document, then use another feature which automatically permutes the entries. Then I generate an editable list and do a quick edit, update the document and I have a good starting index. Then I expand the markers inline and go back through the document to refine it. The process of generating the first cut of the index takes very little time; I was able to produce a perfectly usable index for a new document in about an hour, compared to the day or so it might have taken me without IXgen.
IXgen will work with other types of markers, for example, hypertext markers, so you can use it to check links in a document.
You can find out more about IXgen from the developer, Frank Stearns Associates.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Olympic madness
The 2004 Summer Olympics start tomorrow. Before you spend the next two weeks hunkered down in front of your TV, here's a couple of things to think about.
Number of athletes participating: 10,000
Number of security people: 45,000
Spectators may be refused entry to the games if they are wearing clothing from a manufacturer who isn't a sponsor, or if they have food or drink not from a sponsor. In other words, you can't wear Addidas shoes or drink Pepsi, or even have the wrong brand of bottled water. This is corporate sponsorship gone mad.
Number of athletes participating: 10,000
Number of security people: 45,000
Spectators may be refused entry to the games if they are wearing clothing from a manufacturer who isn't a sponsor, or if they have food or drink not from a sponsor. In other words, you can't wear Addidas shoes or drink Pepsi, or even have the wrong brand of bottled water. This is corporate sponsorship gone mad.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
SIGGRAPH blog
SIGGRAPH is the conference of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) special interest grou on graphics; it's the place where a lot of the graphics research gets previewed -- the stuff that will end up on your desktop or on the movie screen in a year or two. This year, there's a SIGGRAPH blog, so you can keep up-to-date with what's going on. This is something I'd like to have seen:
"Ever wonder how to visually show what it's like to be blind? The Controsenso project (from the Università degli Studi di Milano) gives an impressionistic view of what it's like to explore the city of Genoa, Italy, from the perspective of a blind guide. Using a mouse to "feel" the images and spatially navigate through the city, the user can follow people and directions as indicated by sound, or blurry patches of light. Was presented at this morning's Sketches presentation for "Design and Vsual Communication"(bright and early at 8:30 a.m.)"
When the Blue Screen of Death means death
Until I read this article, I thought that hospital medical equipment would be extremely reliable and probably ran an embedded operating system like QNIX. But manufacturers have been producing machines running Windows, and this is causing all sorts of problems for hospitals. Not only do hospitals now have to deal with medical machinery that crashes, but they have to worry about installing security patches because these machines are connected to their networks. There have even been cases of machines infecting hospital networks with viruses - right out of the box! Truly a scary article, and yet another reason to work at being healthy.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Festival Express rocks
The Festival Express was a little-known part of rock history - a cross-Canada train trip by some of 1970's best rock, blues, and folk acts. (The Band, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, Ian and Sylvia, and more) The concerts lost money and the trip had to be halted in Calgary, but it was certainly an artistic success and probably rock's greatest party, at least for the lucky people on the train.
The trip was filmed but the financial problems kept the film from being made, and much of the 75 hours filmed was lost. But more than half survived, in of all places Canada's Nantional Archives, and enough to make a rivetting film of the concerts and the train ride. So we get treated to performances like The Band doing "The Weight", the Grateful Dead doing "New Speedway Boogie" and Ian and Sylvia doing "CC Rider" (wth Jerry Garcia on guitar), and much more.
The highlights are some of the jam sessions on the train with an incredible, never to be repeated mix of performers, and Janis Joplins incendiary performances of "Cry Baby" and "Tell Mama". She died two months later and this movie reveals what a truly great loss that was.
I had forgotten it at the time, but it was kind of appropriate that I saw the movie yesterday -- it was the 9th anniversary of Jerry Garica's death, another artist who died too young, and it was a real treat to see him playing at the peak of his powers.
Festival Express is definitely one of the classic rock films. It's too bad we had to wait 34 years to see it, but it was worth the wait.
The trip was filmed but the financial problems kept the film from being made, and much of the 75 hours filmed was lost. But more than half survived, in of all places Canada's Nantional Archives, and enough to make a rivetting film of the concerts and the train ride. So we get treated to performances like The Band doing "The Weight", the Grateful Dead doing "New Speedway Boogie" and Ian and Sylvia doing "CC Rider" (wth Jerry Garcia on guitar), and much more.
The highlights are some of the jam sessions on the train with an incredible, never to be repeated mix of performers, and Janis Joplins incendiary performances of "Cry Baby" and "Tell Mama". She died two months later and this movie reveals what a truly great loss that was.
I had forgotten it at the time, but it was kind of appropriate that I saw the movie yesterday -- it was the 9th anniversary of Jerry Garica's death, another artist who died too young, and it was a real treat to see him playing at the peak of his powers.
Festival Express is definitely one of the classic rock films. It's too bad we had to wait 34 years to see it, but it was worth the wait.
Windows XP SP2 available via BitTorrent
In an effort to promote the legal uses of P2P technology, Downhill Battle-Music Activism have set up a BitTorrent feed for the Windows XP Service Pack 2.
This might be a quicker way of getting it than trying to grab it via Windows Update.
Update, August 13th: Not any more. Microsoft has forced them to discontinue serving the file.
his website has been setup by Downhill Battle - Music Activism as a demonstration of how peer-to-peer filesharing technology can help distribute files that are too large for centralized distribution to handle. Even Microsoft, which has incredible server resources at their disposal, is limiting downloads of their SP2 release, but filesharing technology can let everyone download it right away (see below). Congress is literally preparing to outlaw filesharing-- it is crucial that we rally to defend and promote the technology.
This might be a quicker way of getting it than trying to grab it via Windows Update.
Update, August 13th: Not any more. Microsoft has forced them to discontinue serving the file.
Monday, August 09, 2004
Windows XP Service Pack 2 is out
Microsoft has finally released Windows XP Service Pack 2. This is a major release and has many features intented to improve security on XP machines. By most accounts I've seen so far, it seems fairly stable. If you're running Windows XP, this is probably a must have upgrade, though it might be wise to wait a few days for the crush on the servers to die down and to see if the early adopters find any major bugs.
Hubble spectrometer fails
The Hubble space telescopes imaging spectrometer has failed, apparently due to a problem with the power supply. The instrument is probably fried. This was the only spectrometer on the telescope, so astromomers have lost a major piece of their science program. Presumably the instrument could be replaced by astronauts, but so far NASA has shown no sign of reversing its decision not to send another Shuttle mission to Hubble.
Saturday, August 07, 2004
First impressions of Half-Life 2
Gamespot has published their first impressions of the forthcoming Half Life 2, which they got to play at E3. The article is based on an intro level and the second level. They couldn't come to a conclusion as to how good it will be; what they saw was good but it probably would have been more impressive if they'd shipped last year. But Valve was hit by hackers, who stole the source code, which set them back a year or so.
From what I've seen on the 'net and my own impressions of the first Half Life, version 2 will be something I want to get. Some levels of Half Life were the most fun I've ever had on a computer.
From what I've seen on the 'net and my own impressions of the first Half Life, version 2 will be something I want to get. Some levels of Half Life were the most fun I've ever had on a computer.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Turning back the clock-what would you miss?
Popular Science has an article about someone who spent a week trying to live without any technology that was invented after 1954. No computers, email, cell phones, colour TV, DVD, CD, or PDAs are the obvious ones. No caller-ID on your phone. No Post-It notes. No Ibuprophen. No Gatorade.
The list goes on. A fascinating article.
The list goes on. A fascinating article.
Hiroshima
Today is the 59th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. I profoundly hope that I'll never see another city destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, I think the odds of a terrorist nuclear attack sometime in the next decade or two are pretty high.
Wild Fire is go
One of the Canadian entries in the X-Prize contents, the da Vinci project is ready to launch their Wild Fire rocket. They'll be launching on October 2, just a few days after Bert Rutan plans to launch SpaceShipOne in his quest after the X-Prize. Should be an interesting week.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
CIA asks Bush to stop blogging
The Onion, one of the web's most reliable news sources, is reporting that the CIA has asked President George Bush to stop posting entries into his three-month-old weblog, in the interest of national security. CIA director McLaughin is quoted as saying "Right now, the president insists it's his right to have it, as long as he doesn't work on it during White House work hours," McLaughlin said. "But I believe we'll be able to convince him, if we let him calm down. And even if we don't, frankly, I can't see the blog holding his interest for too long."
Transcription software
Occasionally, I've found it useful to record interviews with SMEs or meetings, especially if the subject is highly technical. But transcribing from a tape player is time-consuming. Of course, you could ask for a proper transcription setup with foot pedals, but the odds of convincing a manager that you really need it are not good. However, there is some software the could help.
Express Scribe "is professional audio playback control software designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings. It is installed on the typist's computer and can be controlled using the keyboard (with 'hot' keys) and/or foot pedal controls. This computer transcriber application features variable speed wave playback, foot pedal operation, file management and more. This program is free."
So you can use your handy MP3/voice recorder to record an interview with an SME, transfer it to your PC, and use Express Scribe to help you transcribe the notes. I have not used this software myself, but passed it along to a friend who has to transcribe a bunch of interviews, and he reports that it about doubled the rate at which he could transcribe, and that's using the built-in hot keys and not foot pedals.
Express Scribe "is professional audio playback control software designed to assist the transcription of audio recordings. It is installed on the typist's computer and can be controlled using the keyboard (with 'hot' keys) and/or foot pedal controls. This computer transcriber application features variable speed wave playback, foot pedal operation, file management and more. This program is free."
So you can use your handy MP3/voice recorder to record an interview with an SME, transfer it to your PC, and use Express Scribe to help you transcribe the notes. I have not used this software myself, but passed it along to a friend who has to transcribe a bunch of interviews, and he reports that it about doubled the rate at which he could transcribe, and that's using the built-in hot keys and not foot pedals.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Librarians' Index to the Internet
If you want to find something quickly, or make sure that you're getting accurate information, ask a librarian. Or, you could go to the Librarians' Index to the Internet, which has as its mission statement:
The site is organized in a directory, similar to Yahoo, but each site listed has a brief annotation. You can also search the site. I browsed through a few categories and the quality of sites listed is quite high, compared to the Yahoo or Google directories. If you like what they're doing (and I do), you can subscribe to a weekly newsletter which lists updates to the site. Definitely recommended.
"The mission of Librarians' Index to the Internet is to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected Internet resources, serving California, the nation, and the world."
Our motto: "Information You Can Trust." Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII) is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 14,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. LII is used by both librarians and the general public as a reliable and efficient guide to Internet resources.
The site is organized in a directory, similar to Yahoo, but each site listed has a brief annotation. You can also search the site. I browsed through a few categories and the quality of sites listed is quite high, compared to the Yahoo or Google directories. If you like what they're doing (and I do), you can subscribe to a weekly newsletter which lists updates to the site. Definitely recommended.
Doom 3 is out
Id's software much anticipated Doom 3 is out in the stores and some reviews are up on the net. Computer Gaming World has a short review and 100 new screen shots. Telefragged has what may have been the first full review posted.
I think I'm going to hold off for now. My main machine needs a better video card to play the game and I'm not sure I want my son playing it either - by all accounts is extremely dark (both visually and in mood), grim, and of course violent. But it sounds like Id have fulfilled their goal of creating a gaming experience that surpasses the intensity of the original Doom.
I think I'm going to hold off for now. My main machine needs a better video card to play the game and I'm not sure I want my son playing it either - by all accounts is extremely dark (both visually and in mood), grim, and of course violent. But it sounds like Id have fulfilled their goal of creating a gaming experience that surpasses the intensity of the original Doom.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
RoboHelp for FrameMaker discontinued
Macromedia have discontinued RoboHelp for FrameMaker. A copy of the letter being sent to users has been posted on techwr-l and other mailing lists.
This is unfortunate. While I'm happy with Webworks Publisher and had no plans to purchase the product, some competition in the marketplace is good for users. I wonder if Macromedia just couldn't get a toehold in a market that Quadralay had sewn up, or if the market for a FrameMaker based tool was too small to bother with.
This is unfortunate. While I'm happy with Webworks Publisher and had no plans to purchase the product, some competition in the marketplace is good for users. I wonder if Macromedia just couldn't get a toehold in a market that Quadralay had sewn up, or if the market for a FrameMaker based tool was too small to bother with.
RoboHelp for FrameMaker discontinued
Macromedia has officially discontinued RoboHelp for FrameMaker. Users of the product have been receiving letters from Macromedia, and one has been posted to the techwr-l mailing list.
I'm happy with WebWorks Publisher, but I'm not happy to see RHFM go, as competition in the marketplace is a healthy thing. Now what I'd like to know is whether the move was based on the strength of Quadralay in the market, or the small size of the market for FrameMaker-based tools? Or maybe both?
I'm happy with WebWorks Publisher, but I'm not happy to see RHFM go, as competition in the marketplace is a healthy thing. Now what I'd like to know is whether the move was based on the strength of Quadralay in the market, or the small size of the market for FrameMaker-based tools? Or maybe both?
Cool space mission
The Space Review has an article about a plan to use Soyuz in a lunar-flyby mission. The Soyuz would be mated to an upper stage/logistics module, which would be launched separately, and sent on a free return mission around the moon (similar to the flight of Apollo 13). It's an interesting idea, probably technically feasible, but I have my doubts about the economics of it.
Sean Connery by Cezanne, and more
Worth1000 has a Photoshopping contest, where people are asked to do portraits in the style of a non-realist artist. So we have Sean Connery in the style of Cezanne, Robert Downey in the style of Picasso, and so on. Some of these are really good; I particularly like the Ronald Reagan in the style of Lucien Freud. This one is fun.
Monday, August 02, 2004
The Crazy Years - BOB means Bomb on Board
The letters BOB written on an airsickness bag apparently mean "bomb on board", at least according to the United Airplines flight crew who decided to return to Sydney after discovering the bag on an LA bound flight. I have no problem with airport/airline security, but this is a little ridiculous, as does Bruce Schneier, the author of the linked article:
I flew to Edmonton for my sister's wedding recently, and security was a bit tighter than I remember from previous flights. They're checking IDs more often, and the bag scanning is a bit more thorough, but nobody made me turn my video camera on to make sure it really was a camera. Hopefully Air Canada flight crews are a bit more literate and have a bit more common sense than those for United.
"Unfortunately, fear begets more fear, and creates a climate where we terrorise ourselves. Now every wacko in the world knows that all he needs to do to ground an international flight is to write "BOB" on an airsickness bag. Somehow, I don't think that's the outcome any of us wanted."
I flew to Edmonton for my sister's wedding recently, and security was a bit tighter than I remember from previous flights. They're checking IDs more often, and the bag scanning is a bit more thorough, but nobody made me turn my video camera on to make sure it really was a camera. Hopefully Air Canada flight crews are a bit more literate and have a bit more common sense than those for United.
Toronto Star archives online
The Toronto Star has put more than a century of its archives online, for the years 1892 through 2001. The pages are displayed as PDFs. Unfortunately for the pocketbooks of armchair historians, the search isn't free, though you can buy 4 hours of search for $4.95. If you want to try out the service, the year 1945 is free.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
30 years of progress in digital media
There was an interesting discussion on the techwr-l mailing list recently about archiving data - what's the best format to use if you want to make sure you can still read something in 30 years or so? Most of us probably store data on CD-R disks now, but will we (or our kids) be able to read them in 2040?
Perhaps slightly tounge in cheek, someone mentioned paper tape, and got this response from Peter Neilson (quoted with permission):
It's really quite amazing to think that 30 or 35 years ago, paper tape and punch cards were the media of choice. I took a Fortran programming course in university in which we used punch cards. I don't think my kids have ever seen a punch card. Now we have hard drives that store a good fraction of a terrabyte and we carry the equivalent of 1,000 vinyl LPs worth of music in a portable MP3 player the size of a deck of cards.
Boingboing posted a picture and brief story about a 1975-vintage hard drive. The platter was almost three feet across and it weighed 35 pounds. The capacity was 256K (kilobytes, not megabytes!) Now I can buy a device the size of my thumb that has 1,000 times the capacity (and has an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and plays MP3s too).
It'll be interesting to see what we're dealing with 30 years from now.
Perhaps slightly tounge in cheek, someone mentioned paper tape, and got this response from Peter Neilson (quoted with permission):
600 megabytes stored on paper tape calculates out as follows. If I remember correctly it's 8 bytes per inch. So 600 bytes needs 75 inches of
tape. 75 megainches is about 6 megafeet, or 6000 kilofeet, or
about 1000 miles of paper tape. The "high-speed" tape punch runs
at 50 bytes per second. To punch 600 bytes takes 12 seconds. 600
megabytes require 12 megaseconds, or 12,000 kiloseconds. There are
3.6 kiloseconds in an hour. (12,000 / 3.6) = (4000 / 1.2) = 3333 hours.
3333 hours / 168 hours per week comes out to nearly 20 weeks, not
counting time to change tapes, empty the chad bucket, and replace
the burned out punch.
It's really quite amazing to think that 30 or 35 years ago, paper tape and punch cards were the media of choice. I took a Fortran programming course in university in which we used punch cards. I don't think my kids have ever seen a punch card. Now we have hard drives that store a good fraction of a terrabyte and we carry the equivalent of 1,000 vinyl LPs worth of music in a portable MP3 player the size of a deck of cards.
Boingboing posted a picture and brief story about a 1975-vintage hard drive. The platter was almost three feet across and it weighed 35 pounds. The capacity was 256K (kilobytes, not megabytes!) Now I can buy a device the size of my thumb that has 1,000 times the capacity (and has an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and plays MP3s too).
It'll be interesting to see what we're dealing with 30 years from now.
