Tony Chung: Creative Communications

When I saw The Other Coast (image) comic strip in the paper this morning, I had to laugh. So much of today’s communications media: phone, text/SMS/MMS, email, TV, online publishing—are only available as long as there is enough storage to keep them. The Way-Back Machine on the Internet Archive helped me recover my Tablet PC Blogs posts in a jam, but if all the hard drives in the universe were full, what would have happened then?

In contrast to my post about what happens on the Internet living forever, I present the alternative view. My friend Wayne Radford, the self-proclaimed “King of Poco”, put this bug in my ear over lunch one rainy afternoon. The short version is that our online publishing efforts, though wide reaching, are only temporal.

Continue reading: Internet—forever but not permanent

50110 Comments »http://tonychung.ca/2009/02/internet%e2%80%94forever-but-not-permanent/Internet%E2%80%94forever+but+not+permanent2009-02-19+07%3A03%3A09Tony+Chung

A search for “How do you force Google to reindex your site?” returns several tales of woe from developers caught in the midst of updating their websites, but found Google already indexed their content, errors and all. When we least expect it, search engine spiders work their magic. However, when we most need to update our indexed pages on Google, we are forced to wait. And wait. And wait. What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet—forever. I consider this a joke because this has always been, but so many people think it’s something new. On the Internet time stands still: At the same time, people can be judged for their failings even as they are praised for their achievements.

Continue reading: What happens on the Internet stays

1081 Comment »http://tonychung.ca/2008/12/what-happens-on-the-internet-stays/What+happens+on+the+Internet+stays2008-12-17+09%3A37%3A31Tony+Chung

So I says to my wife, “you know, I’d really like to work as an independent contractor for awhile and really get to see the world.” The following day, my manager told me that they’d lost my contract as a technical writer. I wanted to say, “Would you like me to help you find it?” Instead I played it cool. “Great! Lots of time for blogging.” As I wrote my last full post on November 6, obviously I didn’t spend as much time blogging as I thought. What did I do instead? It couldn’t have been because I ran out of things to say.

Continue reading: WHY I haven’t blogged

2431 Comment »http://tonychung.ca/2008/12/why-i-havent-blogged/WHY+I+haven%27t+blogged2008-12-02+18%3A00%3A27Tony+Chung

Now that I have your attention: A fellow Tech Writer (Tina—I mean Holly Harkness) turned me onto a Wired magazine article about how blogging has lost the spontaneous, personal feel, now that there are so many of them out there. According to the writer, Paul Boutin, one would have more success being heard by contributing to the Facebook-, Twitter-, Flickr-, or YouTube-ospheres, rather than the blogosphere.

From the beginning, blogs have always been about conversation and sharing. Yes, several have advertisements on them. Yes, several have hired pro writers (for instance, Duo Consulting hired me). And yes, many do read more like online magazines than personal observations from the field. But nobody’s forcing you to read them. You can select what you want to read.

Continue reading: Blogs suck, and absolute blogs suck absolutely

912 Comments »http://tonychung.ca/2008/11/blogs-suck-and-absolute-blogs-suck-absolutely/Blogs+suck%2C+and+absolute+blogs+suck+absolutely2008-11-07+04%3A18%3A42Tony+Chung

The Service Canada Centre for Youth (SCCY) program, under a different name, helped me find my first summer job in 1986. All my friends were working at McDonald’s; I was a junior “professional”. This job paid me enough to explore Expo 86 in Vancouver, buy new clothes, and date the receptionist. Job hunting had never been easier in my life.

Continue reading: Canada helps students to find summer jobs

334 Comments »http://tonychung.ca/2008/06/canada-helps-students-to-find-summer-jobs/Canada+helps+students+to+find+summer+jobs2008-06-29+02%3A26%3A55Tony+Chung

Today I received an email from Aopen.com. I must have signed up for an account seven years ago when I registered my AK-73(pro)A motherboard. The problem with this email is that it’s all in Chinese. Even after all these years, I’d remember that I registered in English. I don’t write Chinese. Nor do I speak it, much to my grandmother’s chagrin (rest her soul). Plus, I couldn’t even guess as to where an “unsubscribe” link might be found, as there was nothing in the common sections of the email that even resembled one.

Continue reading: Free translation fun for Friday

321 Comment »http://tonychung.ca/2008/06/free-translation-fun-for-friday/Free+translation+fun+for+Friday2008-06-27+18%3A20%3A28Tony+Chung

Last month, while catching up on old Drew Marshall shows, I found myself drawn into the back story of The Shack, a book by William P. (Paul) Young. Before the end of the 35 minute interview I had already received my confirmation email from Amazon.ca that my order was on its way. I felt compelled to read this book not for the story (which intrigued me slightly), but rather for the back story of how this book went from being a Christmas present for his kids to a self-published work selling over a half a million copies.

Continue reading: My visit with The Shack

263 Comments »http://tonychung.ca/2008/06/my-visit-with-the-shack/My+visit+with+The+Shack2008-06-23+06%3A46%3A16Tony+Chung