Jul 01, 2010 in Society
To commemorate the occasion of Canada’s 143rd birthday, I swapped out my outer space Firefox persona for a more patriotic message.
Canada Rocks Firefox Persona
Show your patriotic colours and load the theme on your own browser!
Feb 10, 2010 in Technology
This post is a little old, since I gave up on Windows PCs in general and switched to a MacBook Pro last October. Essentially, I grew tired of combating hassles with my laptop hardware, uncooperative Windows updates, and—the piece de la resistance—Trend Micro Internet Security randomly deciding to cut off one Internet service or another, even when the firewall program wasn’t enabled.
I figured that I should still complete this post for the benefit of those who may still be suffering through the Windows XP/Trend Micro Internet Security hassles. I still run a similar setup in a Virtual Box on my Mac, so the solution on the next page is still valid to me.
Jan 02, 2010 in Strategy
Tony Chung: Creative Communications
Several technical communicators have had a hard time reconciling the value-add proposition for renewing their membership with the Society for Technical Communication. Some have been very vocal about the society’s lack of support, lack of expertise, lack of understanding, and lack of relevance for the communications field. In blunt terms, the STC is a dinosaur, with a business and operations model that doesn’t fit the current trends. Some of the outspoken include volunteers like myself who thought we could help initiate and support change from the inside. Fortunately I am involved in the very active Society for Technical Communication – Canada West Coast Chapter, which is experiencing a new wave of volunteers who thrive on connecting within this community. As well, I participate in a couple of really experienced special interest groups, the Single Sourcing (officially), and Contractors and Independent Consulting (locally).
After the 2006 summit a fellow chapter member observed that technical communicators are expanding from the traditional plan/interview/write model into the facilitation and editing of user authored content. This exciting trend from writer to enabler has always appealed to me, because I’ve always been on the periphery of traditional technical writing. While I am technical and I love to write, I also have a passion for music and multimedia, web design and programming, graphic design and illustration, and performing. It’s been difficult finding jobs that match my level of interest in technology and my love to write. That said, I’ve found lots of work in the web development arena, and am excited at being able to harness these skills and abilities in my current job, along with writing and editing.
In this post I describe at length why the STC has me for at least another year.
Continue reading: Just renewed STC Membership for 2010 — here’s why
Sep 28, 2009 in Technology
I meant to write about tools to restore the data from FUBARed SDHC memory cards last year. This week at least a couple of co-workers told me about their SD and micro-SD cards becoming unreadable, possibly due to their computer’s lack of support for the SDHC format.
While this could be true, even though my computer’s built-in SD card reader claimed to support the SDHC format, I encountered similar problems.
In this post I talk about a couple of free and commercial tools that helped me recover lost space when my card reader mysteriously stopped supporting my SDHC card, and recover lost photos from corrupt Compact Flash cards.
Apr 13, 2009 in Technology
It astounds me that a company as large as Microsoft can’t develop better help systems to accompany their products. While most people complain that Microsoft merely releases lousy products, I am one of the faithful who believe that the products are fine, but badly, poorly, confusingly, terribly supported.
Case in point: MS Word’s string Replace() function, not discussed in any official VBA reference.
Apr 04, 2009 in Technology
If you’ve tried sending me email at anytime on April 4, 2009, there is a great chance that I didn’t receive it. I screwed up. Badly. I was trying to be smart, by modifying my DNS record and Host (A) settings to increase my privacy. However, I forgot to set up the MX record. To fix this will take more trouble than it’s worth, so I have restored my original DNS settings.
While the new settings are happily propagating the Internet, if you need to reach me, use the phone, facebook, or twitter. I will test the server settings later tonight, but I probably won’t be checking email at least until Monday.
Mar 11, 2009 in Technology
My friend/coworker who first instigated my Mac obsession sent me a link to a demo of an in-prototype phone that is being touted as the new iPhone killer. It would have to be, as it’s still in demo phase and the manufacturer is already locked into a deal with Sprint.
Engadget’s Josh Topolsky demoed the Palm Pre on Jimmy Fallon live. I don’t usually follow Engadget, and I don’t stay up late enough to watch talk shows, so I’m fortunate that Engadget posted this video so I could see this new device in action.
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