Archive for April 2004

Gnooks is a seld-adapting engine that helps you find new writers based on writers you like. Also, enter a favorite writer and it creates a map of related writers. It does the same for movies and music. There’s a section called Web, but it works differently from the others. Very cool! Book lovers, go straight there!

Another resource is WhichBook.net to find something to read. Go through the checklist to look for the kind of book you want to read next. The selector also allows you to find a book based on your preferences in character, plot, and setting.

Yes, I saw Stand by Me. Yes, I watched “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (STNG), which premiered the season I started dating my husband then boyfriend, a fan of the old series who liked “Deep Space Nine” better. He introduced me to the show and it was responsible for one date every week except during reruns and summer break. Heck, I caught Wil Wheaton’s appearance on “Jeopardy!” wearing a tacky mudflap girl sweater.

Knowing he was a step-father to two young boys, I wondered what kind of impression he made if he wore such a sweater on an intelligent TV show. Not my business, but call it strike one. I started blogging before Wheaton came onto the scene, so it was tough to miss him when he hit it big in blogworld… strike two. The book deal with O’Reilly threw the curveball to make strike three.

No, I was not a member of the “I hate Wesley Crusher” crew. Rather, I liked the character. For once, a smart kid who didn’t wear five pound thick glasses with pimply skin. Instead, he was a teen heart throb.

As of this writing, the book ranked 540 in sales on Amazon plus it received five stars from 40 reviews. Why did I review it when it needs no help and I couldn’t find bad things to say about it? Determined not to like him, he undermined my efforts with his writing and sense of humor. He won me over.

Those interested in Star Trek and famous people will want to go straight to the last and largest chapter in the book, “The Saga of SpongeBob VegasPants.” With 110 pages of material, only about 35 of it is devoted to the other four stories and an enjoyable read they were.

Aunt Val, his aunt, sounded like the aunt we all had or wish we had. His writing about her provided a glimpse of Wil (he would want us to be on a first name basis – after all, I am older by just a notch!) as a nephew who cared about his aunt. He experienced the thoughts and feelings we did when a loved one died.

Ironically, I was sitting outside watching my kids play on a perfect Texas afternoon when reading about his playing Hide-n-Seek with his step-sons. While playing the game, he went back in time remembering different parts of his life. Of course, this led me to do the same in recalling the bike rides in my neighborhood and playing kick-the-can at camp.

The sweet yet simple moment between him and his wife in the rain upped my respect for him. Hollywood marriages failed left and right, faster than a blink. Something about his words said this was real.

The ultimate respect earner… this guy did geeky things like wearing an Atari t-shirt, writing the book on Red Hat Linux with Open Office, and staying up for 72 hours to stuff the ballot on a startrek.com poll to ensure V’ger (Voyager) didn’t beat STNG.

As a kid, I wrote a couple of fan letters and either didn’t hear back or got the templated response. Disappointed, but I was just a kid. Wil got a nasty brush off on the STNG set setting off “office gossip” where everyone knew about it. He humorously cussed his hands off about the famous person (what, me spoil it?). Bold move. Most of us would freak out in fear of the political aftermath.

Were you ever the unlucky fan near the end of the line waiting for an autograph? His perspective of the person sitting in the chair with pen in cramped hand was an eye-opener. Fire fighters, administrative assistants, and teachers have noble jobs, but don’t become famous like actors. Acting is a job and with the job comes admirers who want to be friends or possess something whether it’s an autograph or a worn outfit.

He recollected his days at work just as a friend would over a cup of coffee or in instant messaging. Instead of hearing about days in the world of a corporate office, it took place on a set and at a convention.

Dancing was worth reading. No more jealousy over Wil Wheaton’s online and book authoring successes. He earned it.

VITAL STATISTICS:
TITLE: Dancing Barefoot
AUTHOR: Wil Wheaton
PUBLISHER: O’Reilly & Associates
PUBLICATION DATE: January 2004
ISBN: 0596006748
FORMAT: Paperback
PAGES: 115
PRICE: US$14.95

Looking for a person with strong management skills and technical knowledge in the areas of hardware, networking, facilities, tech and desktop support, and project management? A person who has a sense of humor and is well-liked by those who work for him? I’ve got just the guy for you and he is rarin’ to go. Email me.

Nick Wreden’s 10 Rules for Corporate Blogs and Wikis points to Blogging in Corporate America, which provides a download of Michael Angeles‘ presentation on using weblogs on the intranet and how to make them useful for knowledge management. It also includes a brief history of Web publishing.

I believe my team would benefit greatly from a blog or wiki because we create massive amounts of documentation. It’s painful to find, manage, and use through Windows explorer. Our department is moving to Panagon for use as the library (or KM system) for housing our projects and processes. I’ve played with many different CMSes and it is not one of the easier ones to use from what I’ve seen to date. However, it’s holding documents used by over 5,000 people. Can’t say how many CMSes would meet the demand of a large audience located around the USA and on many different servers.

Ironically, a co-worker forwarded me the links to two Web sites for updates on union contract negotiations that are currently underway. One is in weblog-style and it’s tastefully done. It doesn’t have the “emotional” wording typically used when writing about such a topic.

Corporate blogging is going to grow and become as commonplace as having Word and PowerPoint loaded on our PCs. They might not be called blogs, but the concept is similar and they will be used for:

* brainstorming
* creating, editing, and approving docs
* status reports / updates
* doc library
* staying connected with customers / clients
* marketing and news updates to public

…and on and on. However, corporate blogging won’t succeed without participation just like meetings don’t go well when the right players don’t attend.

The Man in Blue uses the same code in his form templates and changes the style using CSS. See how it works here. On this page is the basic form without style. Click on a Vertical Form, Columnar Form, Horizontal Form, Margin Form, and Fieldset Layout to see these styles applied to the basic form. Cool, eh? All with the magic of CSS.

You can view the CSS by using Liorean’s ViewStyles bookmarklets. It’s a great tool for learning CSS. There are other useful bookmarklets. Take a look and see what you like.

I read about Eats, Shoots & Leaves in an article last year and look forward to reading it. The book is available for sale in the US beginning on Monday. The Punctuation Nazi states the author is not “an uppity British twit.” Just a person who is serious when it comes to punctuation. Sounds like the book is right up my alley. Maybe I should end that with an exclamation point.

The Plain English Campaign is “are an independent organisation fighting for crystal-clear language and against jargon, gobbledygook and other confusing language.” Its campaign is targeting public information, such as forms, leaflets, agreements and contracts.

The site has free guides on how to write plain English, dealing with specific issues, and A to Z glossaries, one of which is a legal glossary.

*Amen*.

PR Opinions found a great newspaper correction to a correction. I guarantee you’ll smile or laugh. Thanks for a much needed chuckle, Trevor and Tom.

Paul is staying in management shape with Intel IT Manager Game. It comes with everything expected of an IT manager – underappreciation, low paid salary, tight budgets, and bored employees. Oh, Maalox or Pepto Bismol is not included. You’ll have to bring that with you.

Computer Languages History is a chart of 50 computer languages. Not enough? Try The Language List that contains around 2500 languages.