tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59872012010-03-11T18:11:41.822-05:00A blog by Keith Soltys. Things that interest me: science and technology, music, technical communication, computers and software, science fiction, and whatever else I feel like writing about.Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.comBlogger4028125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-33040894482978214072010-03-11T11:50:00.000-05:002010-03-11T11:50:00.780-05:00

Here's a rather depressing article (that may depend on where you live) about the death of the North American suburb. Acres of emptiness.The scale of the devastation caused by this type of land use is immense. In addition to building over farmland with bloated single-family houses, residents must rely on automobiles for all transportation needs, as there are no sidewalks on the main road that

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-29879112620873387872010-03-11T06:11:00.002-05:002010-03-11T06:11:00.502-05:00

Since my post last weekend, I've been looking at options for publishing this blog after Blogger discontinues FTP publishing. It looks like setting up a WordPress blog on my soltys.ca site it the best option. I do need to investigate how I can get my current blog content into the new blog - a quick Google search indicates it's possible, although it might involve some serious fiddling.I've been

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-78220805978728941452010-03-10T19:09:00.001-05:002010-03-10T19:23:37.679-05:00

Thanks to Karl Schroeder for the link to this video, which shows a 3D view of what the surface of Titan might look like, based on radar mapping from Cassini. Neat.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-37342220396035902912010-03-10T06:38:00.004-05:002010-03-10T06:51:52.553-05:00

MadCap Software will be offering two one-day training sessions on MadCap Flare in Toronto.The first course, on April 23, is Advanced CSS (PDF link) taught by Neil Perlin (who is also doing a one-day session on topic-based authoring as part of the STC Toronto education day).The second course, on May 14, is Advanced Single Sourcing, taught by Mike Hamilton.Both courses are $599. The location, at

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-40876238833280450442010-03-09T06:03:00.000-05:002010-03-09T06:03:00.178-05:00

Here's an interesting summary of and commentary on an article by Saul Carliner, “Computers and Technical Communication in the 21st Century”. Having taken a course from Carliner, I can vouch for his knowledge of the field and his presentation skills - I'm sure the article is both well researched and entertaining. It's part of a technical communication textbook, which I just might track down.I

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-66544548719394848222010-03-08T06:13:00.000-05:002010-03-08T06:13:00.247-05:00

If you've used Word for any kind of technical documentation, you'll know that its numbered lists are not stable. Lists have a tendency for numbering to break, either loosing the numbers completely or making inserting or deleting new items impossible. There are workarounds - the best known is probably using SEQ fields. This requires a bit of work to set up and use but is generally completely

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-18744286783359730002010-03-07T10:44:00.003-05:002010-03-07T10:51:26.570-05:00

Widespread use of antibiotics by modern agribusiness is contributing the the rise of superbugs - bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics. This is the first time since the 1930s that doctors have faced infections that have no treatment.“We are seeing infections caused by Acinetobacter and special bacteria called KPC Klebsiella that are literally resistant to every antibiotic that is F.D.A.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-40256214277805115732010-03-06T08:53:00.001-05:002010-03-06T09:13:50.176-05:00

Featured links for the week of March 1, 2010:SF writers talk about which gadgets make them feel like they're living in the futureGoogle buys DocVerse, will add online collaboration for MS Office docs to Google DocsDon't remake these 21 movies, film these SF books insteadWorkin' on a content farm, writing for (low, low) pay

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-47738174163143722712010-03-06T08:26:00.002-05:002010-03-06T08:35:50.567-05:00

I've just received a notice from Blogger that they will no longer support FTP publishing after May 1. I use FTP to publish my blog to my own domain, which is hosted by DotEasy, along with my web site and e-mail. So I'm going to have to figure out how to migrate my blog to Blogger's servers (hopefully without changing the URL or at least providing a redirect), or migrating to another platform (

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-40819683690666034782010-03-05T06:00:00.000-05:002010-03-05T06:00:06.474-05:00

Popular Science has long been one of my guilty pleasures. I know I should be reading real science magazines like Scientific American and Nature, but PopSci is a lot easier to digest and more fun to browse. Now they've done us a real service by scanning entire 137-year publication run and putting it online, and even better, it's free.It's not perfect - the articles are scanned and you can't browse

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-56784329194318751822010-03-04T19:13:00.003-05:002010-03-04T19:18:10.040-05:00

Thanks to Neil Gaiman for posting this truly awesome video by OK Go, called This Too Shall Pass. You've heard of Rube Goldberg machines - this is the ultimate. I can't even begin to describe how neat this was to watch and I can't imagine how many takes it must have taken to get it right.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-77744888281109083552010-03-04T11:59:00.001-05:002010-03-04T11:59:00.518-05:00

Here's a great cartoon explaining why libraries shouldn't use DRM (digital rights management) on their audio books, and why users will end up pirating the books anyway.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-20606649222491858482010-03-04T06:20:00.000-05:002010-03-04T06:20:00.881-05:00

As if it wasn't hard enough to get people to use online help, there's now a bug in Windows that can infect computers when a user presses F1, the key that's always been the standard key to open online help in an application. The vulnerability exists in the way that VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer. If a malicious Web site displayed a specially crafted dialog

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-11557089943320128102010-03-03T20:43:00.002-05:002010-03-03T20:48:47.603-05:00

Here's an article describing a nasty little group in Amarillo, Texas calling themselves the Army of God (which is more or less what Hezbollah translates to). Lest you think they're just the usual run of right-wing wacko uber-Christian crazies, keep in mind that until 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in the U.S. was by a ultra-right militarist. And they don’t just talk about this. They’ve posted a

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-40415821847606606272010-03-03T06:21:00.002-05:002010-03-03T06:45:00.021-05:00

MadCap Software announced the release of Flare 6 today. I found out about it on Tom Johnson's blog about three hours before the e-mail from MadCap arrived in my inbox at work. So of course I downloaded it and installed it as fast as I could manage. On first glance, it doesn't look that different from Flare 5, though it's obvious they've been making some subtle but welcome usability tweaks in the

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-74571132390223500702010-03-02T06:16:00.000-05:002010-03-02T06:16:00.202-05:00

Scriptorium are having a sale on their book Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8. You can buy a downloadable PDF of the book for $14.99 or get the PDF and a printed copy for $19.99.Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8 shows you how to: * Use FrameMaker’s word-processing features—format text with paragraph and character tags, design complex tables, insert

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-89914940569357481572010-03-01T20:38:00.001-05:002010-03-01T20:40:33.406-05:00

Artist Robert McCall has died. His art pretty much defined the space age for many of us. LifeHacker has a gallery of some of his work.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-25018833935658112662010-03-01T19:22:00.002-05:002010-03-01T19:22:00.099-05:00

I've known for a long time that Firefox supports multiple profiles, but I've until I read this LifeHacker article, I didn't realize just how useful that feature could be.Instead of installing every single extension for every task into the same Firefox profile, why not separate them into separate profiles, organized by task? Think of Firefox like an Operating System for the web, and each profile

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-18275900051779945732010-02-28T18:01:00.000-05:002010-02-28T18:02:24.183-05:00

It's our game!

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-58435920657900179532010-02-28T09:53:00.002-05:002010-02-28T09:59:29.382-05:00

HotDocs is an annual festival of the best Canadian documentaries. They have now set up an an online library with hundreds of documentaries. The site is nicely set up, with a choice of HTML or Flash interface. You can browse or choose categories with pre-set playlists, although there doesn't appear to be a search function for the site.Canada has a long and rich documentary film tradition and it's

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-56116049713743927432010-02-27T17:23:00.002-05:002010-02-27T17:28:48.368-05:00

This is great news. The seminal British cyberpunk TV series, Max Headroom, will finally get a DVD release.“Max Headroom” starred Matt Frewer as a reporter whose mind is downloaded into a computer to create a virtual clone who exists in the digital world. Amanda Pays, Jeffrey Tambor and W. Morgan Sheppard also star in the series, which ran for 14 episodes on Cinemax and ABC in 1987 and 1988. Set

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-3297164992597180782010-02-26T07:38:00.003-05:002010-02-26T07:49:36.032-05:00

Featured links for the week of February 22, 2010:Choosing the right style guide, some useful adviceWhich health supplemnents work? - Another good infographic, and useful too.Typeface - create a typeface from a webcam image of your faceSix reasons why your wiki isn't working

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-7214870907334429012010-02-25T11:34:00.000-05:002010-02-25T11:34:00.546-05:00

The Effing typeface, designed by Alex Merto, was designed as an ode to the letter F. It's made up of a bunch of suggestive and naughty elements. Maybe NSFW if your work environment is conservative. Others may find it funny.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-12659802051076380922010-02-25T06:22:00.000-05:002010-02-25T06:22:00.424-05:00

Very interesting article in Wired about the new mirrorless, large sensor cameras that are hitting the market. The Sigma camera illustrated in the article is especially interesting because you can use an adapter to mount pretty much any brand of lens on it, including lenses for 35 mm. film cameras (which can be found cheap in any used camera store). I would love to have the F2 28 mm. Vivitar lens

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5987201.post-42259103119940689152010-02-24T19:18:00.004-05:002010-02-24T19:20:18.304-05:00

The TMX Group, the company that runs the Toronto Stock Exchange where I work, now has a blog. It'll be interesting to see if this tentative step into social media percolates down into the depths of the organization where I dwell.

Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11022139065377254628noreply@blogger.com0