tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86825199259022035272011-12-14T20:34:34.405-08:00The best way to write is to write. A blog about technical writing in Los Angeles, LA in general, and other things...techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-19071069305184949282011-01-02T11:01:00.000-08:002011-01-02T12:00:18.530-08:00

Listening to Ann Wilson's rendition of Get Together last night, I thought it was a good sentiment for the new year.Below are the song and lyrics of a beloved song of mine, recorded most famously by Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods in the 1970's, but Ann's is every bit as beautiful (listen to it on good headphones or good speakers).Enjoy, and my best to all of you.Get Together(Chet Powers)

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-75955871832934007342009-08-23T08:31:00.000-07:002009-08-23T09:59:56.032-07:00

As promised, here is part two of Bruce Wiseman's latest article, detailing who's "pulling the strings" on the financial crisis.If you still think that "these things just happen," then I suggest you get comfy on the couch again and wait patiently for the next episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. We'll check in with you later. THE GOLDMAN CONNECTION: PART 2NEIL LEVINTHE DERIVATIVES BOOMThe

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-37813747178247738212009-08-20T17:46:00.000-07:002009-08-23T09:10:36.397-07:00

I received Bruce Wiseman's next installment on the global financial meltdown today, and you have got to read it. It goes like this:Dear Friends,The following is the first of two installments of an article exposing the activities of Goldman Sachs, the most powerful investment bank in the world.All of the names of Goldman employees are linked to a chart which gives the overall picture of where

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-69022905584651252632009-07-21T13:11:00.001-07:002009-07-21T14:25:07.336-07:00

Last August I had the pleasure of attending a concert on the Santa Monica pier featuring Peter and Gordon and Gerry and the Pacemakers. It was a truly memorable night that also included Badfinger songs played by Peter and Gordon's keyboardist and former Badfinger member Jeff Ross, and, leaving the audience in shock and awe, Joan Baez coming up from the audience to accompany Peter and Gordon on

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-24597480377002665992009-07-21T09:06:00.000-07:002009-07-21T12:54:55.550-07:00

I received another great reminiscence letter from my dad recently about a lovely family tradition practiced in Lincoln Heights in the "old days" - late night serenades.My dad, who is in his eighties, comments that he does not know how his Sicilian immigrant parents and their contemporaries managed to accomplish so much, which echoes what I have been thinking lately about our fast-paced twitter

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-23504600247105654872009-07-04T10:42:00.000-07:002009-07-04T11:03:01.051-07:00

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-91128211833946877692009-07-02T14:02:00.000-07:002009-07-02T15:10:49.829-07:00

Last week I was preparing my next "power of the artist" installment, to express my lifelong awe of musicians. Then... the whole world, it seems, gasped at Michael Jackson's premature demise. So, after a slight pause and some edits, here is the entry.About a month ago while listening to an L.A. radio station that plays "deep rock," meaning songs that aren't typical radio fare, and which you

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-85040678707598950942009-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:002009-06-29T13:54:35.408-07:00

Attended my first-ever Mustang car show yesterday morning in Torrance.Joe Gosinski, owner of Chicane Sport Tuning is the guy who transformed my 1993 Mustang GT 5.0 convertible into a pretty-scary-to-drive high-performance vehicle, and this was his 1st Annual Cruise 'N Show. Let me tell you, there were some gorgeous cars. The majority of the vehicles in the show were post-1993 body style cars, but

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-34482488607919799792009-06-27T10:50:00.000-07:002009-06-27T12:41:52.539-07:00

If you have switched from Microsoft Office 2003 to Office 2007, you know how much the user interface has changed (er...completely). I know I've spent many hours hunting down particular functions that I know are there but haven't been able to intuitively find.Be that as it may, here are a couple of different ways to view the formulas contributing to a cell's value.1. Change cell display to show

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-34864381078212529882009-06-23T18:28:00.000-07:002009-06-23T23:00:04.780-07:00

Whether or not you agree with Mark Twain's statement that "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed," the daily news reports of more and more federal controls being proposed (and instituted) - national health care, global and national financial market regulation, military cyber security, nationalization of banks and U.S. companies -

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-79540370261495073682009-06-19T11:11:00.001-07:002009-06-19T14:39:30.809-07:00

When Bruce Wiseman commented in his May 2009 essay Hitler's Bank Goes Global, "Let’s call it government by Goldman, shall we?", I made a mental note of the allusion but did not pursue it. (Wiseman also mentions Goldman Sachs connections in his first article on the subject.)However, today, I read a very interesting (although complex for me) essay by economist and professor Michael Hudson entitled

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-78702240690560301632009-06-17T18:00:00.000-07:002009-06-17T18:34:35.195-07:00

No, this blog entry is not about tech writers huddled in a dim corner of an empty conference room, whispering about how to overthrow Western Civilization by writing bad instruction manuals. It is the latest article by Bruce Wiseman discussing the machine that is driving the global financial crisis. Kind readers will recall Mr. Wiseman's first installment in March, The Financial Crisis: A Look

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-38625427715525818722009-06-17T13:24:00.000-07:002009-06-17T18:35:56.376-07:00

In the news today, the Federal Reserve has "allowed" a handful of banks to repay their TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) funds.That as a whole the TARP-recipient banks didn't lend was interesting, but predictable, given the TARP requirements. That they want to repay the funds as soon as possible to get out from under the attendant regulations is just slightly more prudent than applying for the

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-57824349214849354642009-03-25T16:56:00.000-07:002009-06-17T18:38:33.765-07:00

In an earlier blog entry about marketing oneself in the 2009 job market, I suggested creating a blog to showcase one’s talents. That was my primary intention in starting this blog (though it has gained additional value for me; namely, I do like to write and post my photos). The blog was also a vehicle to keep my job board and social networking profiles current – such as the LinkedIn “What are

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-33111210659289500652009-03-19T23:16:00.000-07:002009-06-17T18:38:50.268-07:00

My line of work requires pragmatism. First and foremost, a good technical writer must know that she is imparting the correct information in the documents she writes. This involves varying degrees of research, particularly when a business process or a piece of software is still evolving and design documents have not kept pace with current development. So last fall, when the economic calamity in

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-25197415714458431712009-02-17T18:12:00.000-08:002009-03-26T15:09:11.701-07:00

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, as was my dad. This is a story about L.A. back in the good old days. Its telling requires a little background.My dad's parents emigrated from Sicily at the turn of the century (the 20th century, not this one). In the early 1920's they moved from New Jersey to California, to remove themselves, as the story goes, from an increasing involvement with the... Cosa

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-35902235498781571902009-02-11T17:12:00.000-08:002009-06-17T18:39:24.030-07:00

Long ago, when I was a teenager, my brother had this great pair of Sennheiser headphones. Lo these many years I've pined for my own pair, but never purchased any. There may be better brands, but something about the Sennheiser's clarity and crispness has always particularly appealed to my ear. So as an early Valentine's Day gift, my daughter and I treated ourselves to new Sennheiser ear buds for

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-17620992626162278992009-02-10T14:38:00.000-08:002009-06-17T18:39:47.878-07:00

Over the past decade, I have produced technical documentation in numerous Los Angeles corporate settings: For banks, manufacturers (including printed circuit boards, semiconductors and audio equipment), IT solutions outsourcing firms, and software companies, to name a few. In each case, the documentation process fell under the aegis of a different department in the organization. For some of these

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-65152424510388147212009-02-01T19:07:00.000-08:002009-06-17T18:40:08.302-07:00

I am not a technical recruiter, but I surely do appreciate the ones I've known. I certainly rely on them as a source of contract technical writing assignments. So in my quest to make myself more known as an active candidate, I decided to see what bright ideas might come from reading up on how technical recruiters do what they do, the tools they use and how they think.This led me into the

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-2193541021416882392009-01-27T16:28:00.000-08:002009-03-26T18:47:15.111-07:00

Well, sometimes her trusty chauffeur drives her around Los Angeles, and they take photos. Downtown LA near 4th StreetDowntown LADowntown LA - Garment DistrictLincoln Park - former home of the Luna Park Zoo, which housed the largest collection of certain animals in the US in the 1930's. My dad grew up in Lincoln Heights. He has a great story about the zoo that I will have to dig up.

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-40641086687441862872009-01-25T15:09:00.000-08:002009-03-26T18:48:23.056-07:00

If, like me, you are pounding the Internet pavement in search of a contract position, you need to make yourself look current. Here is my list of how to market yourself as an active contract candidate: --Make sure your excellent resume is posted on the major job boards. --Visit the job boards frequently (even if you receive email alerts), and read the descriptions of positions in your field of

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-30984831693768776182009-01-23T09:23:00.000-08:002009-03-26T18:48:50.882-07:00

Today's post is tangentially about a bad tech writer habit of mine. While engrossed in a project, I tend to eat and drink while I'm working. This leads to meals I haven't noticed I've eaten, and empty coffee or tea cups which I'm sure I've just refilled. I believe this has its roots in what I call the independent contractor economy of motion mindset, roughly described as "the faster you get the

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-39789305118277658162009-01-22T11:33:00.001-08:002009-03-26T18:49:41.475-07:00

This morning I was reminiscing over one of my most memorable technical writing assignments: a project to create a product-technology-sales book to complement a training film take-off on the movie Men in Black.The year was 1999. The client was Alpine Electronics of America, the awesome car audio company. The assignment was to introduce the company's new products and technology to Circuit City's

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8682519925902203527.post-29593891477005581112009-01-21T13:24:00.000-08:002009-03-26T18:50:13.953-07:00

All right. I am job hunting. As a contract technical writer, I am prepared to have to do this from time to time. In fact, the last three Christmas holidays I have been without a project. It's nice to have free time for holiday activities and family, but it's better if such a break can be predicted. The last two years I have been on projects that were scheduled to extend through or past the

techwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06209831679296159819noreply@blogger.com0