we have idiots who commute backwards, who live in Atlanta and work in the suburbs. Yes, we now get rush hour in both directions. . .
I do a reverse commute in Minneapolis--live in the city, work in the 'burbs. Why? Because I like living in the city and my job happens to be in the 'burbs. I'm a contractor and I've been through a couple career changes since college; if I had to pull up stakes and move every time I got a new job, I'd never unpack.
I hate rush hour and deplore commuting. But it's a good job. And I like my little house, which we bought before the real estate market went crazy. So I spend an hour a day in my car. I can tolerate that.
Draw a circle around a metro area where the jobs are. If you anticipate changing jobs at some point, and you don't want to endure a horrifically long commute, the smartest move is to find a dwelling somewhere near the center of the circle. Then the drive to any job in the metro area is bearable. But if you buy yourself a house out on the fringe of that circle, Murphy's law says your next job will be on the opposite side. (That's not the main reason I choose to live in the city, but it's a factor.)
...the good companies own our souls and we can't not give in to them.
Oh yeah? Just watch me.
I played both the Oddworld games on the PS1 and was crazy about them--so much so that when I found out that future Oddworld games would be exclusive to the Xbox, I dutifully lined up on launch day to get my Xbox and Munch's Oddysee (sic).
MO was decent enough, although I heard it was rushed out to meet launch date. Hoping for better, I waited and waited for the next one. Checked the fansites and game news sites periodically.
Over two years later, I'm still waiting. Or rather, I was still waiting. Last week I got fed up and sold off my Xbox and games. As far as I'm concerned, Oddworld is over. They haven't even announced a tentative release date yet, and anything they could produce at this point would be too little, too late. I was a loyal fan from 1998 through 2003, but now? The hell with it.
Funny thing is, I have the infected files it installs, like shimgapi.dll. (Or had, I should say. Did a system restore to a restore point from the weekend.) Wonder if I did pick those up from trying to open up the.pif in Notetab...
Somehow I seem to have gotten this stinking thing. If anyone can help me puzzle this out, I'd appreciate it. Consider this: I do not open dodgy email attachments. The only remotely weird email attachment I got was at 9:30 tonight (more on that in a sec).
So I get home and I have two odd emails. One is from a legitimate looking source (and the IP matches the From address; I ran it through Sam Spade tools because I was suspicious) basically indicating that I had tried to send a suspicious.scr attachment to them. This email was plain text, no attachment. So I think "whoa, sounds like I got a worm, how did that happen!?"
This email was addressed to an email address I use for a blog. Not my main email.
Second weird email was from another legitimate-looking source, RE: Test, and it appeared to be bouncing a suspicious attachment back at me: a file.zip that contained file.txt (many spaces).pif. I knew better than to just open that thing. I opened Notetab and dragged the file onto it. Binary file, yada yada.
So how did I get this thing without ever opening a suspicious attachment? Possible exception of what I dragged into Notetab, but surely that wouldn't execute a.pif? And even if it did, why did I get the "you sent us a virus, dimwit" automated email from somebody else four hours earlier?
Is there a way to get this thing without opening an email attachment?
I've wondered about this issue too, since I'm a W-2 employee of a contracting agency. I've never consulted a lawyer about this, but my hunch all along has been that there's a giant loophole here.
The client company dropped you because of the disability. Since you're not their employee, they can probably do that.
The contracting agency dropped you because they can't bill the client for your hours now. Since they're not discriminating against you -- they're just responding to client demands -- my guess is they're not legally responsible.
I could be wrong. Like everyone says, talk to a lawyer. Just my two cents.
How will that help? All that means is that users will get used to typing in their root password every time they install something. And they'll type it in just as happily for EvilWare PrivacyInvader Pro as they do for Fluffysoft Bunnies(tm).
Argh, I wish I hadn't just posted; I have mod points, and this should be modded up. (Insightful AND funny...)
I had one of the old Epias without built-in MPEG support... and I just noticed comments about using a card with hardware support for this stuff... So maybe it's possible. (sigh) Never mind.
I had a Via Epia "800mhz" that I intended to use as a low-end media center. It couldn't even smoothly decode DivX files, much less encode stuff like a PVR would. It was worthless.
Wait until (a) you have kids who want to read books and watch movies, and you're already strapped for cash because it costs a fortune to raise a family; and/or (b) someone in your household gets laid off, and you need to start trimming back the entertainment budget. Then the pennies you pay toward the library via property tax start to look like a real bargain.
...the tech writer's MAIN job (in my experience) is to supply the presentation and formatting to largely-existing content.
Argh. No no no no. That's a misconception. Maybe some writers work that way (over on Techwr-L we call them "font fondlers") but most of us don't--or at least the good ones don't.
Typically I either (a) start from scratch, interviewing subject matter experts and doing my own research; or for some short docs, (b) get a "draft" from the subject matter experts that I then edit, expand on, overhaul, or chuck out the window and totally rewrite (depending on the quality of the draft). Rarely does even one sentence stand unchanged.
Surely you don't try to generate complete documentation -- for a non-trivial amount of information -- including both the content AND the finalized presentation all at once?
Sure I do. I'll tweak formatting later on, but generally I do most of the headers/layout tables/graphics/bold/styles/etc at roughly the same time as the writing. (Working with screen captures is usually a nice break from writing, and gives me something painless to do on sluggish-brain mornings before I'm ready to tackle verbal nuances.) I sure don't write it all and then go back and add formatting.
Seeing the formatting--headers, bold, tables, boxes--helps me visualize the structure of what I'm working on.
I would think you'd go back when you're done and worry about consistent presentation, additional formatting, etc.
I go back and proofread for formatting just about the same way I proofread for writing and technical accuracy.
The key as the author points out is to totally forget about presentation when you're *trying* to focus on content.
No; presentation matters. We've all had moments, probably daily, where we paused in the middle of writing an email because plain text wasn't going to convey what we meant. We want to emphasize a word or set something apart from the main body of the message. After several years of working in Word (and Wordalikes like AmiPro), I think in formatted text. If I had to write in Notepad, I'd have one hand tied behind my back.
Granted, I'm not a novelist, I'm a tech writer. Formatting is important to what I do--for clarity, emphasis, visual appeal. This "write it first, then format it" idea may work for you... but not for me, and not for a lot of people.
An employee who starts their day with a big panic because they hit some bad traffic and are going to come realllly close to the magic 7:30 is/not/ going to be in top form that day.
Nice point. I used to be in a situation where if I was two or three minutes late, the secretary would give me the evil eye on the way in, and if I was five minutes late, she'd make a snide comment. If I hit some traffic or was late getting out the door in the morning, by the time I arrived I was already in a foul mood because I knew I'd be facing Joan the Enforcer. The distracting bad mood would fade by late morning, if I was lucky...
CNN: "Who's targeted by music swapping suits?" http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/downlo ading.music.ap/index.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- The targets of the first lawsuits against music fans who share songs on the Internet include an elderly man in Texas who rarely uses his computer, a Yale University professor and an unemployed woman in New York who says she didn't know she was breaking the law. . ..
MSNBC: Similar article via AP.
ABC: I didn't search long enough to find it, but I'll bet it's there.
Another option is the Sony "Fontopia" in-ear headphones that have a closed design. It's only certain models, I think -- mine are MDR-EX70LP.
If I turn the MP3 player all the way up and hold the 'phones six inches from my ear, I can't hear the sound (i.e., my coworkers can't hear my music, ever).
They block out external sound pretty well, even at low volumes.
(1) what are the general opinions of programmers on technical writers Programmers think we're lowly worms unless we demonstrate reasonable tech expertise and an ability to learn fast without pestering them too much. (2) is there someone out there who has first-hand experience in technical writing who can tell me about the work and their experiences; Typical process--find out about project. Read any existing docs. Talk to subject matter experts (developers, QA, support). Plan and write documents. Route for review. Edit, rewrite, review, ask questions, rewrite, edit, grouse to family about poor interface design, rewrite, test stuff, review, edit, find out about last-minute changes, slap forehead, edit, edit, edit... (3) what software is used mainly in the process; Usually some of the following: Word, RoboHelp, Framemaker, Acrobat. Photoshop if you do your own graphics/screen caps, maybe. (4) what seems to be the average pay? You'd make more money programming. I would like to diversify my education, so that I won't be searching very long if layoffs come around. Jack of all trades, master of none? There aren't many tech writing jobs out there, and there are plenty of hungry writers floating around. If tech writing is only a fallback for you, it will be harder than you think to land a TW job.
Pick a career path, something you will actually like, and go with it.
I'm with you. There is something deeply satisfying about crafting a clear, concise, easy-to-read, impossible-to-misunderstand sentence.
That's why you and I are tech writers. That is why a lot of these guys should NOT be tech writers: if they think this stuff is boring, they are fantastically ill-suited for the thing we do day in, day out. I cringe when I hear people contemplating tech writing because they think it's lucrative (ha; you're better off programming) or they think tech writing jobs are falling off the trees (HA!).
What, boiling water isn't hot enough to cause serious injuries? Spill some in your lap and find out.
Read the facts of the case. Coffee served at home is typically 135-140 degrees; McDonald's was holding their coffee at 185-190 degrees, which is hot enough to cause third-degree burns. (The woman in the lawsuit was hospitalized for eight days; she had third-degree burns over 6% of her body and required skin grafts.)
The warning printed on the cup is, unfortunately, a classic case of "fix it with documentation": a bad product decision that the writer has to try to protect users from. It's a pity McDonald's didin't let the warning writer tell the truth--Warning: Coffee has been held near boiling point, may cause extensive and excruciating injuries if spilled, which is not unlikely since our own research indicates that most customers drink this stuff in the car immediately after purchase...
Try $499 for an Apex 27" (iffy brand). Or $699 for a Samsung 27". Or $999 for a 30" widescreen flat-face CRT from Samsung or Philips. Or $1299 for a 32" HDTV Wega CRT...
Need I go on? (This was from a quick search at Best Buy.)
If a system outside the modem/router can't access port 135 on the machine in question, you are REASONABLY safe for a few minutes until you have time to install the update.
If a system outside the router can't access port 135, why is it safe for only "a few minutes"?
I don't know if grc.com is the end-all of network security, but according to their port probe, my port 135 was "stealthed" just from the router NAT, even without ZoneAlarm running...
Yeah, I was a solid INTJ in high school and college. The kid who never spoke in class but turned in excellent papers. Then I went to grad school and had to do some teaching. To be effective as a teacher, I practically needed a personality transplant. After adapting to that job for a couple years, I took the MB test again and was an ENFP.
Imagine my amusement a couple years later when I had stopped teaching, left grad school, and gotten a writing job: when I took the test, I was once again an INTJ. And there I happily remain.
Up to 18 months for covered employees, as well as their spouses and their dependents, when workers otherwise would lose coverage because of a termination or reduction of hours.
Up to 29 months is available to employees who are determined to have been disabled at any time during the first 60 days of COBRA coverage and applies as well to the disabled employee's nondisabled qualified beneficiaries.
Up to 36 months for spouses and dependents facing a loss of employer-provided coverage due to an employee's death, a divorce or legal separation, or certain other "qualifying events".
I wish it were 3 years for people who were fired/laid off/etc. I have a good friend who's approaching the end of her 18-month COBRA coverage, and she has a chronic medical condition that would make individual coverage prohibitively expensive. If she goes without coverage for about two months, then pre-existing condition clauses may apply in future group coverage for her. It's a nightmare. She will have to take absolutely any job she can get that has medical benefits, or face life-threatening illness because she couldn't afford her meds.
No, the power supply should only be drawing the amount it needs to power your system. The stated wattage is the maximum wattage, not constant output. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...)
Slashdot Mirror
And you just know KenJen would run the categories. :)
I can see it now --
What is... (tilts head, shows the "I'm taking a wild stab at it" expression that usually precedes a correct answer) a... mensch??
I love that guy.
we have idiots who commute backwards, who live in Atlanta and work in the suburbs. Yes, we now get rush hour in both directions. . .
I do a reverse commute in Minneapolis--live in the city, work in the 'burbs. Why? Because I like living in the city and my job happens to be in the 'burbs. I'm a contractor and I've been through a couple career changes since college; if I had to pull up stakes and move every time I got a new job, I'd never unpack.
I hate rush hour and deplore commuting. But it's a good job. And I like my little house, which we bought before the real estate market went crazy. So I spend an hour a day in my car. I can tolerate that.
Draw a circle around a metro area where the jobs are. If you anticipate changing jobs at some point, and you don't want to endure a horrifically long commute, the smartest move is to find a dwelling somewhere near the center of the circle. Then the drive to any job in the metro area is bearable. But if you buy yourself a house out on the fringe of that circle, Murphy's law says your next job will be on the opposite side. (That's not the main reason I choose to live in the city, but it's a factor.)
...the good companies own our souls and we can't not give in to them.
Oh yeah? Just watch me.
I played both the Oddworld games on the PS1 and was crazy about them--so much so that when I found out that future Oddworld games would be exclusive to the Xbox, I dutifully lined up on launch day to get my Xbox and Munch's Oddysee (sic).
MO was decent enough, although I heard it was rushed out to meet launch date. Hoping for better, I waited and waited for the next one. Checked the fansites and game news sites periodically.
Over two years later, I'm still waiting. Or rather, I was still waiting. Last week I got fed up and sold off my Xbox and games. As far as I'm concerned, Oddworld is over. They haven't even announced a tentative release date yet, and anything they could produce at this point would be too little, too late. I was a loyal fan from 1998 through 2003, but now? The hell with it.
I don't have a Radeon AIW 9600 or a 3Ghz processor gathering dust in my closet. I have a Voodoo Banshee card and a 300mhz Celeron in there.
Does anybody really have top-of-the-line parts just sitting around as spare parts?
Funny thing is, I have the infected files it installs, like shimgapi.dll. (Or had, I should say. Did a system restore to a restore point from the weekend.) Wonder if I did pick those up from trying to open up the .pif in Notetab...
Somehow I seem to have gotten this stinking thing. If anyone can help me puzzle this out, I'd appreciate it. Consider this: I do not open dodgy email attachments. The only remotely weird email attachment I got was at 9:30 tonight (more on that in a sec).
.scr attachment to them. This email was plain text, no attachment. So I think "whoa, sounds like I got a worm, how did that happen!?"
.pif. I knew better than to just open that thing. I opened Notetab and dragged the file onto it. Binary file, yada yada.
.pif? And even if it did, why did I get the "you sent us a virus, dimwit" automated email from somebody else four hours earlier?
So I get home and I have two odd emails. One is from a legitimate looking source (and the IP matches the From address; I ran it through Sam Spade tools because I was suspicious) basically indicating that I had tried to send a suspicious
This email was addressed to an email address I use for a blog. Not my main email.
Second weird email was from another legitimate-looking source, RE: Test, and it appeared to be bouncing a suspicious attachment back at me: a file.zip that contained file.txt (many spaces)
So how did I get this thing without ever opening a suspicious attachment? Possible exception of what I dragged into Notetab, but surely that wouldn't execute a
Is there a way to get this thing without opening an email attachment?
I've wondered about this issue too, since I'm a W-2 employee of a contracting agency. I've never consulted a lawyer about this, but my hunch all along has been that there's a giant loophole here.
The client company dropped you because of the disability. Since you're not their employee, they can probably do that.
The contracting agency dropped you because they can't bill the client for your hours now. Since they're not discriminating against you -- they're just responding to client demands -- my guess is they're not legally responsible.
I could be wrong. Like everyone says, talk to a lawyer. Just my two cents.
How will that help? All that means is that users will get used to typing in their root password every time they install something. And they'll type it in just as happily for EvilWare PrivacyInvader Pro as they do for Fluffysoft Bunnies(tm).
Argh, I wish I hadn't just posted; I have mod points, and this should be modded up. (Insightful AND funny...)
Spyware on news.google.com?? Or was there a particular link you had in mind?
I had one of the old Epias without built-in MPEG support... and I just noticed comments about using a card with hardware support for this stuff... So maybe it's possible. (sigh) Never mind.
I had a Via Epia "800mhz" that I intended to use as a low-end media center. It couldn't even smoothly decode DivX files, much less encode stuff like a PVR would. It was worthless.
Wait until
(a) you have kids who want to read books and watch movies, and you're already strapped for cash because it costs a fortune to raise a family; and/or
(b) someone in your household gets laid off, and you need to start trimming back the entertainment budget.
Then the pennies you pay toward the library via property tax start to look like a real bargain.
...the tech writer's MAIN job (in my experience) is to supply the presentation and formatting to largely-existing content.
Argh. No no no no. That's a misconception. Maybe some writers work that way (over on Techwr-L we call them "font fondlers") but most of us don't--or at least the good ones don't.
Typically I either (a) start from scratch, interviewing subject matter experts and doing my own research; or for some short docs, (b) get a "draft" from the subject matter experts that I then edit, expand on, overhaul, or chuck out the window and totally rewrite (depending on the quality of the draft). Rarely does even one sentence stand unchanged.
Surely you don't try to generate complete documentation -- for a non-trivial amount of information -- including both the content AND the finalized presentation all at once?
Sure I do. I'll tweak formatting later on, but generally I do most of the headers/layout tables/graphics/bold/styles/etc at roughly the same time as the writing. (Working with screen captures is usually a nice break from writing, and gives me something painless to do on sluggish-brain mornings before I'm ready to tackle verbal nuances.) I sure don't write it all and then go back and add formatting.
Seeing the formatting--headers, bold, tables, boxes--helps me visualize the structure of what I'm working on.
I would think you'd go back when you're done and worry about consistent presentation, additional formatting, etc.
I go back and proofread for formatting just about the same way I proofread for writing and technical accuracy.
The key as the author points out is to totally forget about presentation when you're *trying* to focus on content.
No; presentation matters. We've all had moments, probably daily, where we paused in the middle of writing an email because plain text wasn't going to convey what we meant. We want to emphasize a word or set something apart from the main body of the message. After several years of working in Word (and Wordalikes like AmiPro), I think in formatted text. If I had to write in Notepad, I'd have one hand tied behind my back.
Granted, I'm not a novelist, I'm a tech writer. Formatting is important to what I do--for clarity, emphasis, visual appeal. This "write it first, then format it" idea may work for you... but not for me, and not for a lot of people.
An employee who starts their day with a big panic because they hit some bad traffic and are going to come realllly close to the magic 7:30 is /not/ going to be in top form that day.
Nice point. I used to be in a situation where if I was two or three minutes late, the secretary would give me the evil eye on the way in, and if I was five minutes late, she'd make a snide comment. If I hit some traffic or was late getting out the door in the morning, by the time I arrived I was already in a foul mood because I knew I'd be facing Joan the Enforcer. The distracting bad mood would fade by late morning, if I was lucky...
CBS News: "Download Suit Targets 12-Year-Old"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/28/tech/ma
CNN: "Who's targeted by music swapping suits?"
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/downl
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The targets of the first lawsuits against music fans who share songs on the Internet include an elderly man in Texas who rarely uses his computer, a Yale University professor and an unemployed woman in New York who says she didn't know she was breaking the law. . .
MSNBC: Similar article via AP.
ABC: I didn't search long enough to find it, but I'll bet it's there.
Another option is the Sony "Fontopia" in-ear headphones that have a closed design. It's only certain models, I think -- mine are MDR-EX70LP.
If I turn the MP3 player all the way up and hold the 'phones six inches from my ear, I can't hear the sound (i.e., my coworkers can't hear my music, ever).
They block out external sound pretty well, even at low volumes.
(1) what are the general opinions of programmers on technical writers
Programmers think we're lowly worms unless we demonstrate reasonable tech expertise and an ability to learn fast without pestering them too much.
(2) is there someone out there who has first-hand experience in technical writing who can tell me about the work and their experiences;
Typical process--find out about project. Read any existing docs. Talk to subject matter experts (developers, QA, support). Plan and write documents. Route for review. Edit, rewrite, review, ask questions, rewrite, edit, grouse to family about poor interface design, rewrite, test stuff, review, edit, find out about last-minute changes, slap forehead, edit, edit, edit...
(3) what software is used mainly in the process;
Usually some of the following: Word, RoboHelp, Framemaker, Acrobat. Photoshop if you do your own graphics/screen caps, maybe.
(4) what seems to be the average pay?
You'd make more money programming.
I would like to diversify my education, so that I won't be searching very long if layoffs come around.
Jack of all trades, master of none? There aren't many tech writing jobs out there, and there are plenty of hungry writers floating around. If tech writing is only a fallback for you, it will be harder than you think to land a TW job.
Pick a career path, something you will actually like, and go with it.
I'm with you. There is something deeply satisfying about crafting a clear, concise, easy-to-read, impossible-to-misunderstand sentence.
That's why you and I are tech writers. That is why a lot of these guys should NOT be tech writers: if they think this stuff is boring, they are fantastically ill-suited for the thing we do day in, day out. I cringe when I hear people contemplating tech writing because they think it's lucrative (ha; you're better off programming) or they think tech writing jobs are falling off the trees (HA!).
What, boiling water isn't hot enough to cause serious injuries? Spill some in your lap and find out.
Read the facts of the case. Coffee served at home is typically 135-140 degrees; McDonald's was holding their coffee at 185-190 degrees, which is hot enough to cause third-degree burns. (The woman in the lawsuit was hospitalized for eight days; she had third-degree burns over 6% of her body and required skin grafts.)
The warning printed on the cup is, unfortunately, a classic case of "fix it with documentation": a bad product decision that the writer has to try to protect users from. It's a pity McDonald's didin't let the warning writer tell the truth--Warning: Coffee has been held near boiling point, may cause extensive and excruciating injuries if spilled, which is not unlikely since our own research indicates that most customers drink this stuff in the car immediately after purchase...
Try $499 for an Apex 27" (iffy brand).
Or $699 for a Samsung 27".
Or $999 for a 30" widescreen flat-face CRT from Samsung or Philips.
Or $1299 for a 32" HDTV Wega CRT...
Need I go on? (This was from a quick search at Best Buy.)
If a system outside the modem/router can't access port 135 on the machine in question, you are REASONABLY safe for a few minutes until you have time to install the update.
If a system outside the router can't access port 135, why is it safe for only "a few minutes"?
I don't know if grc.com is the end-all of network security, but according to their port probe, my port 135 was "stealthed" just from the router NAT, even without ZoneAlarm running...
So how am I going to get this worm?
Yeah, I was a solid INTJ in high school and college. The kid who never spoke in class but turned in excellent papers. Then I went to grad school and had to do some teaching. To be effective as a teacher, I practically needed a personality transplant. After adapting to that job for a couple years, I took the MB test again and was an ENFP.
Imagine my amusement a couple years later when I had stopped teaching, left grad school, and gotten a writing job: when I took the test, I was once again an INTJ. And there I happily remain.
I wish it were 3 years for people who were fired/laid off/etc. I have a good friend who's approaching the end of her 18-month COBRA coverage, and she has a chronic medical condition that would make individual coverage prohibitively expensive. If she goes without coverage for about two months, then pre-existing condition clauses may apply in future group coverage for her. It's a nightmare. She will have to take absolutely any job she can get that has medical benefits, or face life-threatening illness because she couldn't afford her meds.
No, the power supply should only be drawing the amount it needs to power your system. The stated wattage is the maximum wattage, not constant output. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...)