A Good Site for Technical Writers

There is a common perception (especially among managers) that technical writers are just wordsmiths and almost anyone can write documentation. While writing skills are important (and rare), so are technical skills, especially in a software development. In one of my later performance reviews, my manager told me "I didn't realize how technical your job is." I'm glad he said that, but I wish he'd figured it out a few years earlier. 

Although I've been retired for more than five years, I'm still interested in developments in the technical writing field. Recently, I came across a new (just over a year old) web site aimed at technical writers called Technically We Write. As you might guess form the name, it's aimed at writers who have a technical orientation although the articles cover more than just tool use.

Recent articles include:

Structured writing in Microsoft Word. "Let your document structure speak for itself by using Outline View."

The job's not done until the documentation is complete. "Which came first, the program or the documentation? It's both."

How to transition into technical writing. "Technical communication is an exciting career opportunity for everyone."

High academic and low academic. "How we write is as important as what we write."

A look back: technical writing with ‘ed’. "Technical writers on early computer systems used this simple but powerful editor." (I remember ed, and not fondly).

I wish this site had been around when I was working. 

Movie and TV Reviews - June 2024

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in June. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. 

Movies

• Die Hart 2: Not as good as the first one. It was a pretty silly idea in the first place and the second one stretched it too far. (Prime)
• Civil War: The politics don't make any sense, but that doesn't matter in a very well-made movie. It's a grim picture of what the future might look like in the United States. 

TV Shows

• Star Trek: Discovery (season 5). Pretty much a total waste of time. This is the last season and I won't miss it. (Paramount+)
• Sugar. This started out as a noirish private eye story and turned into something quite different and much more interesting. I hope there's another season. (Apple TV+)
• Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. A four-part documentary about Stax-Volt, the iconic Memphis-based soul and R&B label. This is one of the best music documentaries that I've seen. I liked the way they showed how the social and political environment of the sixties and seventies influenced the music and how the music influenced society. Well worth watching. (HBO)
• Happy Valley (season 3): One of the better British police procedurals. Although  the emphasis in this one is more on the family life of the lead characters than the police elements (normally something I don't care for), it's carried by the incredible performance of Sarah Lancashire, and the other actors are all first rate. (Acorn TV)
• The Chelsea Detective (season 2): Another British police procedural with the  usual elements set in the exotic London borough of Chelsea (yes, I'm being cute), but one of the lead characters lives on a houseboat. This is one of the better ones. (Acorn TV)

Featured Links - July 2, 2024

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Summer flowers

•  How to trim a video on Windows 11 or Windows 10. "Windows has a hidden video editor that will let you trim videos — no Clipchamp necessary." I didn't know the Photos app could edit video. 
• Pollution From Epic Ohio Train Wreck Put 110 Million Americans at Risk. "A new study found traces of hazardous chemicals from the East Palestine disaster in 16 U.S. states." And probably a lot of Ontario, too. 
• Study: Scribes in ancient Egypt had really poor posture as they worked. "There were degenerative joint changes in the spines, shoulders, knees, hips, and ankles."
• New study reveals comet airburst evidence from 12,800 years ago. "Researchers continue to expand the case for the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis. The idea proposes that a fragmented comet smashed into the Earth's atmosphere 12,800 years ago, causing a widespread climatic shift that, among other things, led to the abrupt reversal of the Earth's warming trend and into an anomalous near-glacial period called the Younger Dryas."
• The Insurance Apocalypse Conversation America Won't Have. "A predictable disaster unfolds apace."
• Last Dangerous Visions Table of Contents. As well as the TOC for the book to be published in October, the article shows which stories were in Ellison's planned version as of 1979. 
• Exploring the WordStar file format. "As an early entry in word processing, WordStar’s file format is quite simple." This article might be useful if you still have some WordStar files tucked away in the dark corners of your hard drive. It was the first word processor I used, but I switched to WordStar 2000 and then Microsoft Word for DOS. 
• What everyone gets wrong about the 2015 Ashley Madison scandal. "Nine years after hackers targeted Ashley Madison, the dating site for wannabe adulterers, many people still don't grasp what was truly chilling about the scandal, says Annalee Newitz." She reported on the original hack in 2015.
• Decades later, John Romero looks back at the birth of the first-person shooter. 'Id Software co-founder talks to Ars about everything from Catacomb 3-D to "boomer shooters."'
• To Ban or Not to Ban? When the Issue is Masks, There’s Really No Question. "Mask bans are ableist, racist, and likely unconstitutional. As enforced, they almost surely will violate the Americans with Disabilities Act on a regular basis; the text of the North Carolina ban bill that says, in effect, “not meaning to violate the ADA,” is ludicrous in the face of how the bill will surely be implemented."