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The Matrix

Submission + - Google's knol completes Wikipedia cycle (chrisblanc.org)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "When they wanted to take out Microsoft Internet Explorer, they pumped money and developers into Mozilla Firefox, making it as corporate of a project as IE. Result? Many people use it, believing it to be a real alternative, while Google slowly slackens its support into the background.

Finally, Wikipedia: Google needed a way to provide some kind of standard result for any search query, because too many people were spamming. So they encouraged wikipedia, knowing that its content would eventually get out of hand.

Now, they've introduced Google Knol, which is a wikipedia clone — except that it's hybridized with a group blog, and is only open to select contributors. Thinking of Associated Content or Reddit? Yeah, me too.

It's a good way of acknowledging what Wikipedia tries desperately not to let the world know. Most wikipedia articles are written by relatively few people, maybe 2% of the contributing audience. They are augmented by another 10%-20% of the people there. The rest of the people on Wikipedia perform really obvious monkey tasks like plagiarizing websites that are expert in their area, so the Wikipedia page appears above them in search results. This was basically a giant web real estate grab.

With Knol, Google is starting where Wikipedia left off.

http://www.chrisblanc.org/blog/web/2007/12/17/googles-knol-and-what-it-means/"
Toys

Submission + - XML describes knitting, patterns (knitml.com)

Submitted by
Writer of Fiction
Writer of Fiction writes: "KnitML is a community standards effort aimed at defining a universal, machine- and human-readable system for describing knitting patterns.

http://www.knitml.com/blog/static.php?page=about-knitml

* Automatically convert English measurements to and from metric measurements
* Size a pattern up or down to any size, not just the sizes that come with the pattern
* Recalculate a pattern for your gauge rather than the one that came with the pattern
* Explicitly write out mathematically complex directions (e.g., "increase 34 stitches evenly over 171 stiches")
* Alter the pattern using an easy-to-use graphical editor (or create new KnitML-based pattern from scratch)
* Preview the result of a pattern using graphics"
The Matrix

Submission + - The future of humanity requires more reading (chrisblanc.org)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "In my life, the one factor that has made the difference between misery and delight has been learning. I didn't write "education," because there's a difference, but finding the truth (loosely defined as how things work consistently in the shared reality we call physical space!) of any discipline, matter, notion or act has always made me feel free from the great weight of negative "what could be" that we call fear. It's like a darkened room not made light, but I have a map, now.

If those results are in any way true, I'm stubbornly not going to change. I think the rest of the world should. This blog isn't that complicated. More people need to get acquainted with this style of writing so they can appreciate the beauty of learning, especially from books, which get good when they start at this level (the best books are usually far more articulate, and less bloggish). Learning is fun. Reading is power that requires oppressing no one. Pass it on.

http://www.chrisblanc.org/blog/culture/2007/11/27/reading-level-and-future-humanity/"
Security

Submission + - DOS vulnerability in Mac OS X (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "For some, the infallibility of Apple's Mac OS X is so absolute that, despite reports that state the contrary, they continue to believe no harm can ever come. It is this sort of smug attitude that is the single greatest threat to the security of the platform. Choosing not to believe, or rather ignore, security experts is bad practice. But who knows? Every once in a while, the security vulnerabilities that those experts report could prove to be actual threats.

One such example is a new report by Heise Security stating that there is a newly-discovered denial of service vulnerability in Mac OS X, 10.4.11, 10.5 and 10.5.1 that can lead to kernel panics. The problem, according to the company, stems from an "integer overflow in the load_threadstack function in mach_loader.c when processing Mach-O binaries."

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/12/11/heise-warns-of-denial-of-service-and-vpn-flaws-in-os-x"
The Matrix

Submission + - When death comes gently (alsa.org)

Submitted by
anonymous
anonymous writes: "Vincent, then only 50 years old, noticed one day that as he read the evening paper under his favorite tree in the garden, that a finger on his right hand stiffened to the point where he couldn't control it. As months passed, the peculiar sensation overtook other fingers. The couple consulted a neurologist. He diagnosed that Vincent had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Meta was told there was no cure for the disease. "He was very brave as the disease took over his mobility," Meta recalls. "I was scared out of my wits, but I had to be brave too."

http://www.alsa.org/alsa/honorees_sanborn.cfm"
Media

Submission + - Technical Writing changes with the times (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "What characterized technical writing during the early digital years was what we might call a WTFM mentality, for "write the fantastic manual" (or words to that effect). When software or hardware development was done, the tech writer came in on contract and produced a manual, then vanished from the process except for occasional updates. The task was to produce the manual as the last task before shipping.

With the change in our society brought by digital technology has come a change in what the fantastic manual might be, both in form and content. In the 1930s, an egg-beater was a separate tool from a mixer; in the 1950s, they were interchangeable attachments to a motorized mixer base; in the 2000s, they are different rotation patterns programmed into a mixing unit which hooks up to the network, serves a web page of usage statistics, and probably stores recipes to boot.

http://user-advocacy.blogspot.com/2007/11/technical-writing-in-transition-part-ii.html"
Privacy

Submission + - BSA forces businesses to self-incriminate (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "The letters will then state that the BSA is willing to avoid court and settle amicably — if the company audits its computers to see whether they contain unlicensed copies of software made by the group's members.

That turns out to be the key step. Usually, companies go along, and report to the BSA's attorneys what they've found. With that information, the BSA will demand payments, plus penalties and attorneys' fees, for the unlicensed software.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071125/ap_on_hi_te/bsa_audits;_ylt="
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's future: Amazon.com for software (chrisblanc.org)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "Microsoft, which despite all the flak hype has the enviable position of being its own most aggressive competitor, and still the purveyor of the operating system most of us use. Like any big outfit, it tries to be everything to everyone, and so there's always plenty to criticize, although lately some of the critique has hit critical mass. When we look at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that this is temporary and there is a plan in the works. Microsoft's media flaks should pay attention to their audience, because the people who buy Microsoft products as power users (which means they're the people the rest of us will emulate) are those who do want a company to have a plan, or they're not going to be excited to support it.

They're tossing around a number of ideas, like the "cloud" operating system, but something tells me this is impractical for the same reason that running thin clients on rented AOL mainframes was. More likely, they're going to strip down the operating system, sell you a subscription plan that installs updates automatically and adds features as you need them (for a fee, of course). This subscription plan will be ambitious in that it will, in addition to getting you software that comes with your subscription to Windows, including security updates, get you new software components and will sell you third-party software. It'll be like an Amazon.com for software.

http://www.chrisblanc.org/blog/information-technology/2007/11/15/the-microsoft-future-amazoncom/"
The Media

Submission + - News misreports migraine findings (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "People who get migraines have structural differences in their brains notably in the cortex area that processes pain and other sensory information from the body, scientists said on Monday.

Hadjikhani said the study illustrated the seriousness of the migraine. "It has to be taken seriously because it can induce changes in your brain," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071119/sc_nm/migraine_brain_dc

The article is not about how migraine sufferers are different, but about how migraines affect their brains."
The Matrix

Submission + - Rogue cell phone hacks 911 (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "Operators at the Black Hawk County Consolidated Communications Center said that they received about 400 calls from the same cell phone last week and that no one seems to be on the other line.

Officials can't locate the phone but have figured out that it is an old line not currently associated with a cell phone provider. Such phones, once charged up, can still place 911 calls under Federal Communications Commission rules set in 1994.

The cell phone can't receive calls, and emergency workers haven't been able to track the owner through service records, either.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071118/ap_on_fe_st/odd_rogue_cell_phone;_ylt=slashdot"
The Matrix

Submission + - Office Pitfalls: The Inflexible Devotee (chrisblanc.org)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "It's no great secret that most people dislike their corporate jobs, and yet aren't quite willing to commit to the insanely higher workload of having their own company. Many of us take the middle path, which is working on contract, because although we don't get benefits we also don't have to put up with that feeling that our career hinges on the personalities involved. As a contractor, you see many workplaces, and over time, you start to see the patterns in function and dysfunction which regulate them.

The type I'm going to talk about today is the office ruled by what I call "the inflexible devotee." This person looks at a company as a long-term investment, and so will start and work their way up, but the consequence is that when they do finally get promoted to management-level positions, they are unwilling to cede much control and so either micromanage or undermanage.

http://www.chrisblanc.org/blog/psychology/2007/11/19/office-studies-the-inflexible-devotee/"

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