The purpose of Poetslife is to promote the art and discipline of American Tactical Civil Defense for families and small businesses and to contribute practical American civil defense preparedness guidance for all Americans through my articles in the The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA.ORG) Journal of Civil Defense and leadership as the volunteer Vice President of TACDA.

1/23/2006

Best Intranet Web Designs

All usability depends on two big questions: who are the users, and what are their tasks? Jacob Nielsen

Jacob Nielsen, "the world's leading expert on user-friendly design," has declared the 10 Best Internet Web Designs for 2007 and the 10 Best Intranet Web Designs 2006 for business and government websites, and you can bank on his picks more than any Hollywood or Wall Street award. He has a stellar record in this area.

1/22/2006

The O'Brien Chronicle

If I accomplished nothing else in this life, I take great pride in helping to preserve http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/the-o-brien-chronicle for future generations an important piece of Irish history, The O'Brien Chronicle

He was one of the Wild Geese, whose legacy continues through the Irish Brigade in the Civil War to the Fighting 69th today.

It is the story of Bernardo O'Brien who was dispossessed of his vast lands and castles in 1622, imprisoned in London, put on a ship to the New World, and spent decades warring in Brazil and eventually found his way back to Europe in hopes of getting back his land.

Friar Martin McDonnell who spent decades with indigenous people in the upper Amazon actually saved it by locating the ancient manuscript in San Paulo National Brazil Library, then translating from over seven languages and 15 dialects. 

I just spent 10 years trying to get it a wider audience.
 
The Wild Geese, and particularly Joe Gannon, although in utter disbelief about the tale because of how fantastic and strange it was, eventually put it on there website, thereby preserving it for future generations.

Martin also had a large number of the Irish Magazine An Claideam Soluis, which he saved from the dustbin of history in the 1950's when the Catholic University library was throwing them out and where he was getting a PhD in Irish Studies, he saved them and gave them to me to preserve (somehow).

After much research, I gave to the American Irish Historical Center in New York City and to a guy in Ireland who I knew was a self-taught Irish scholar and who would use them well. 

As all the leaders in the Easter Rebellion are well represented in its pages, and it is written in both Irish and English, it is a rich resource for anyone studying that period of Irish history.

Martin's stories in Brazil as a Franciscan with the indigenous people almost rival O'Brien's. 
Twelve years ago he suffered cardiac arrest and saw the white light. 
As he says, he was skipping confidently into heaven happier than he had even been and told St. Peter "I'm ready" only to be told by St. Peter, 
"No, we're not ready for you yet." Martin says he shook his fist at St. Peter and said, "You dirty rat!" and woke up in a hospital. 
He was given a few weeks to live...12 years ago. 
Anne has to be given great credit for his recovery and the quality of his life since that time.

 THE O'BRIEN CHRONICLE

Over the next several months, THE WILD GEESE TODAY will be presenting a most unusual and fascinating document: The story of an Irishman in colonial South America in the 1600s, written by the man himself, and hidden away in an archive in Brazil for several hundred years. It was translated from the original Old Spanish and Portugese by Martin McDonnell, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, and sent to us by fellow Marylander Bruce Curley. It is a story of one of the first of what we now call THE WILD GEESE, before the term was actually even in use. We are certain it will be of great interest to many of our readers.

Here is Bruce Curley's introduction, followed by the first installment of the O'Brien Chronicle itself, just as McDonnell translated it. Other installments of the story are to follow.


I first met Martin McDonnell in 1989 in Maryland at a silent retreat at St. Mary's. While everyone else walked around piously reciting rosaries or in silent prayer during breaks, Martin continued talking, loudly. His speech, squeaky and stilted, intrigued me. So I got talking to him late one night. I found out he had recently suffered a massive heart attack and lost a percentage use of motor functions, including speech, which accounted for the unusual sound of his voice.

As the boats passed across the five-mile wide Chesapeake Bay and we stood on a bluff, he unraveled a tale he called the O'Brien Chronicle, written by an Irishman to support his petition to the King of Spain, seeking to regain the land he lost in battle in the early 1600s. 

The chronicler, Bernardo O'Brien, eventually reached what is now Brazil. But, as you will read, there is far more to the saga. Martin had translated this nearly 400-year-old story, and 10 years ago was struggling to tell me that he had seen O'Brien's story, written in O'Brien's own hand, in his own words. I told Martin I would visit and look at his manuscript. I did, and O'Brien's story stunned me to silence.

For many people, Irish history is a country, a party, a flag, a poem, a series of battles against tyrants, a song, or even a religion. But as The O'Brien Chronicle demonstrates, Irish history is really the sum of ways in which Irish men and women have sought to preserve a collective memory against unbelievable odds. Bernardo O'Brien is an Irishman whose story transcends time and space.

Martin, then Friar Martin McDonnell and living in Bahia, Brazil, had noticed little blond-haired, blue-eyed children. Knowing how far and wide the Irish had been scattered, he went looking for evidence of Irishmen in early Brazil. Martin had been researching in the national library for a number of years when he met a nun from New York who told him about an extraordinary narrative in the library's archives. Martin then pulled and translated the document -- The O'Brien Chronicle -- which is written in a number of languages and dialects. Martin's years of work to make this story accessible continues the ancient tradition of Irishmen preserving the stories that are our history.

Many of the Irish have struggled to pass on their history, despite the best efforts of the Vikings and, later, the British to obstruct them. Without the many inventive ways that this story has been preserved by bright, courageous Irishmen and women -- from the ancient bards who memorized lines, to the hedge priests -- much of that history would be lost. Like those bygone heroes, Martin has struggled to give voice to a part of our past. I believe he has received God's blessing in this quest, ensuring that this piece of Irish history survives. We are immensely richer for it.

A special note of thanks must go to Martin's wife, Anne McDonnell, for refusing to allow the doctors to end life support after Martin suffered his stroke, going against the advice of her doctors. She is proof of the point made in the book "Cultural Selection" -- that the woman who shares a man's life is the most important force in determining whether his creative work lives through the centuries or quickly disappears.

Now we have begun a new millennium. And again, long-neglected Irish people who used a variety of ways to preserve their memory and accomplishments are coming to light. When asked to explain a poem, Robert Frost said: "What would you have me do? Explain it in other and less good words?!" Enough introduction! Here is the story of the O'Brien, "of the house of the Count of Thomond." God bless him. ... God bless all the brave Irish men and women and children who continue the struggle.

-- Bruce Curley

 

THE O'BRIEN CHRONICLE

BERNARDO O'BRIEN'S BRAZIL

The Brazil that Bernardo O'Brien visited during the early part of the 17th century was much less settled than the coastline of North America. Brazil was first discovered in 1499 by Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (who could not claim it due to the Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494). It was claimed in 1500 by Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral, who landed on the far eastern tip of Brazil. Cabral had had not been searching for land in that direction; he was actually intending to sail to sourthern Africa. 

The Portugese had found that the best way down the African coast was to sail far out toward the western Atlantic. Cabral had merely been blown further west than usual and thus struck the coast of Brazil. Though this was only eight years after Columbus, colonization did not develop as rapidly in the south as it did in the north. The early years of Brazil's history is that of Portuguese exploration more so than colonization. 

One of the first valuable commodities the Portuguese began to take home were red and purple dyes from Brazilian wood, which the Portuguese called pau-brasil, thus the origin of the country's name.

In early years of European involvement, Brazil was plagued by numerous groups or marauding bands called bandeiras, who made a living rounding up Indians for sale as slaves on the few European mines, plantations and farms. The most effective enemy of these slave traders were Catholic missionaries, especially those from The Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. 

Their Indian settlements, known as reducciones, were often the safest places for the native population. It was not until the 1530s that the Portuguese first began to colonize the coastline of Brazil. By then, other European nations, most notably the French, were attempting to exploit some of the riches of the Brazilian coast, as well, and the Portuguese needed to think of solidifying their claims on the rich natural resources of this emerging area. 

By midcentury the Portuguese had developed a system of political control, with the settlement of Salvador in the Bahia region as its capital. In 1580, the Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms were merged under Philip II of Spain. This union would last until 1640, which encompasses the period leading to and including the time when Bernardo O'Brien was in Brazil. 

These years were marked by increasing conflict between Philip's combined kingdom and other Europeans, with the English and Dutch, who were their traditional enemies on the continent, now presenting the most serious problems.

Though the English had a presence in Brazil, it was by far the Dutch who would be the biggest thorn in the side of Spanish/Portuguese Brazil. Through the 1620s and '30s, the Dutch would send many strong forces to Brazil and would seize large portions of the country at various points. The Dutch would finally be defeated in Brazil, but not until 1654. 

All of these countries will come into play on the pages of the The O'Brien Chronicle. O'Brien first comes to Brazil with an English expedition and later is in contact with the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and other Irishmen; soldiers, explorers and colonists of these countries move through his narrative at various points. 

Like so many Irishmen forced to leave their country and use their wits to make a new life, O'Brien must keep those wits about him on many occasions, playing one side off against another in the shifting tides that sweep him off in one direction and another throughout his narrative.

This then is the Brazil of Bernardo O'Brien's world. A region that is ostensibly owned by the recently merged Spanish/Portuguese Empire, but one which is highly coveted by the English and Dutch, who will take it by force, if possible. It is a dangerous world, indeed, for this son of Erin, a world in transition, where friend and foe are never certain, but it is a world he seems highly adept at negotiating.

Part One - To The Amazon

Captain General Sir Bernard O'Brien del Carpio says that Sir Cornelius O'Brien, his father, being in Ireland a noble Gentleman of the house of the Count of Thomond, one of the oldest and most illustrious of that Kingdom, and lord of three estates on which he had three castles, was imprisoned by the English in the year 1622, and accused that in the wars of that Kingdom he had taken the side of the Catholics, and had engaged in service to the Crown of Spain, and they confiscated his inheritance and property.

At this time, the petitioner, being 17 years of age, was in England, in London, where there was also an English Gentleman named Sir Henry Roe, who had been a companion of Sir Francis Drake and of Sir Walter Raleigh, on their voyages. To whom several Counts, and titled persons of England, with a commission from King James gave a ship of 200 tons with artillery and outfittings to follow up the discoveries of Sir Francis and Sir Walter, and set foot upon and populate on the great river of the Amazon, of whom land news had been received, and was quite famous as being rich, and of great fertility, and had not yet been settled by white people. 

Sir Henry Roe set forth in this vessel in the year 1621 with 124 persons, and among them went the supplicant without telling his relatives or friends, so great was his desire to see (other) lands and new things.

They arrived at the bank of the Amazon river and, going some 10 leagues, arrived at the port, and site of the Indians named Sipinipua. They made friends with them, explaining at first by signs, until they came to understand the language, which is called Arrua. 

They went up the river about another 60 leagues in their ship to a site, which the natives previously called Patavi, and was later known here as Cocodivae. Here Sir Henry landed 16 persons, 12 Irish and 4 English, who were servants of the Irish, all Catholics, leaving the petitioner as Captain and ordering that they preserve the friendship of the Indians, and sustain themselves there until he sent aid from England or Ireland, and for this purpose he left with him a great quantity of rosaries, bracelets, knives, mirrors, spinning tops for boys, whistles, combs, hatchets, and various other things. This same Sir Henry setting out in his vessel did not send them aid in three years.

In the interim, the Petitioner soon learned the language of the Indians, although he had gained their friendship, nevertheless for his safety, as well as that of the other 15 Christians, he built a wooden fort, surrounded by a cavity of earth, and for defense kept 40 muskets, powder, munitions and other arms. Those Indians were obedient to many different masters, whom they called Bateros, and had among themselves continuous differences and wars. 

Their weapons are swords of wood, hatchets of stone, with wooden handles as thick as two elbows, bows, and arrows of cane with tips of stone, or bone, or very hard wood, wooden darts longer than the height of a man, rigged up at the tip like the arrows, and some with both poison and large wooden rings with four corners. 

The petitioner having gone to the aid several times of those on his site and county with musketry and government would win for them a victory, and thus earned their devotion and obligated them to himself, so they regarded him with tobacco and cotton, and gave him native food and drink.

Among the Irish were four good students, and Latins, who endeavored to bring the knowledge of God to the Indians, who had no religion but adored something called Numen, which was not even a deity. The Christians persuaded more than 2,000 of them that there was a God, a heaven with rest, and hell with torments after life.

As the end of the year that the petitioner had been there, with four more of the Irish, taking five muskets and supplies he went up the Amazon river about 700 leagues by water and land, taking always about 50 armed Indians as guides, aides, and interpreters from one people to another, and four canoes. 

They reached a land where they saw no men, but many women, which the Indians call Cuna Atenare, which means "strong women", and the Christians (call) "Amazons." These bind their right breasts flat like a mans', artificially, so they will not grow, to enable them to shoot arrows, and the left (breasts) large, like other women.

She sent him three of the most-prized women she had, and asked him to come speak with her.

They are armed like the Indians. Their queen, who is named Cuno Muchu, which means great woman or lady, was on one of the islands of the river. 

The petitioner sent her in his canoe an Indian woman as ambassador, and with her a mirror and a shirt from Holland as a present, and sample of the merchandise he was carrying, and if she liked it, she would speak with him and send a hostage 

She sent him three of the most-prized women she had, and asked him to come speak with her. He did, she asked him if it was he who had sent her the present, he said yes. She asked him what he wished, he said peace and permission to pass to her kingdoms and take care of of things there. 

She said she would grant his (petitions), and gave three slaves in exchange for the merchandise. He made her wear the shirt from Holland, with which she found herself putting on airs, and at the end of one week, when he had left, promising to return, she and her subjects indicated that they were sorry to see him go.

The Petitioner went up the river by land, where here were Indians so fierce that in no way were they pleased about it or disposed to speak to them. Then he returned down the same river, and then by another river which one flows from it, and flows through the land called

Harahuca, where there are crystalline stones and other resplendent things which the Indians regard highly as being a cure for melancholy and illness of the spleen. They went down this river to the sea of the North, where the river is called Serenem, from there by land they came to the mouth of the Amazon river, and from there they returned to their fort at Cocodivae.

About this time, there arrived on the Amazon river a ship from Holland, whose captain was named Abstan. They sent word asking the Petitioner if he would mind if they settled nearby, and if he would give them an interpreter to deal with the Indians, and they would live in friendship, and do things as he wished. 

He answered them that he had 4,000 Indians fighting out of devotion to him around there and he would have more if he were (attacked) and he intended (to) preserve the river with them alone, or even expand to more land, therefore the Dutch should leave. They went from there to the Coropa river near the conquest of Gran Para, where they began selling the population aid from Holland, and sending back tobacco and cotton.

 


1/13/2006

Wind Turbines, Alternative Energy, Solar

Ever since I worked at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, CO in 1980 (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL) as an intern from Johns Hopkins, I saw how critical alternative energy is to the future of this nation. Twenty-six years later, alternative fuels are even more important.
(This is why I own stock in Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. ENER, which makes fuel cells, flexible thin-film solar panels for use as a roof, and other solar products. And the time for these products on the market HAS arrived, because I paid the tuition for my 20-year old's mechanical engineering junior year at the University of Maryland's tuition with this stock. Now...if we could just replace all those hot, sun absorbing, energy wasting roofs with energy use reducing cool roofs and energy generating thin-film solar roofs...)
I saw wind farms in Wyoming. It is a proven technology and it generates large amounts of electricity these days. 
We have a dangerous dependence on leaders of foreign countries who are hostile to our people and our nation. Worse, we are supplying the money that may one day be used against our children, just as when we sent
Imperial Japan the scrap metal in the 1930's that they used against us in the 1940's. (I can still remember my departed mother saying she had a history teacher at Germantown High School in Philadelphia in the late 1930's who would say over and over, "Don' they understand that the scrap metal we are sending them will be used to kill our boys one of these days?!." He was considered a nut before Pearl Harbor and a wise man afterwards.)
Solar Garden Lights - bring them inside and light up your kitchen and bathroom during power outages
Solar Electric Carports
PowerFilm - recharge your laptop, Ipod, smart phones and other electric devices with the sun, off the grid...
The solution to our "addiction to oil" will take millions of small steps...like this simple solar garden light. Many of the technology breakthroughs I saw as an intern 1980 at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) are readily available at your local or big box hardware store or on-line. Hundreds of durable and bright outdoor solar illumination products (driveway signs, lights, address signs, etc.) are now on the market.
I have two dozen solar garden lights on my property. They are made of aircraft aluminum and the photovoltaic cells on the top are superior to the earlier versions. They give me soft, free light at night. And during the last power outage, my family brought them inside and used them for light. They are good for 12 hours of light with each daily charge. Solar is now a thriving business and can meet the needs of our power-hungry toys.
Now...if I could only decide what fuel cell car to buy

1/11/2006

Ben Franklin at 300

Well done is better than well said. Ben Franklin
Franklin Forum on Innovation: Inside the Art and Craft of Innovation at Knowledge Wharton
Ben Franklin at the Rosenbach
Mr. Benjamin Franklin
Pennsylvania History
John F. Kennedy said during his brief 1000 days, when presenting a dinner group at the White House of the greatest intellectuals in the nation, I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thimas Jefferson dined alone. He could have as easily said Benjamin
Franklin, who was born in 1706 and would be 300 years old this year...let the party begin.
There are number of ways to get to know the practical genius of Ben Franklin tied to this 300th anniversary celebration. Here are a few to consider.
The Pew Charitable Trusts have given $4 million...that's right...to get the party going. Their exhibit, Benjamin Franklin - In Search of a Better World, will appear in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Atlanta and Paris. In Philly, see it at the National Constitution Center. And don't forget to visit Franklin's legacy at The Franklin Institute.
[Information in the above parchment used with Permission of The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary.]
A quick way to get an idea of the genius of Ben Franklin is to visit Franklin Court and Underground Museum between 4th and 3rd and Market and Chestnut Streets two blocks away from Independence Hall toward the Delaware River in Philadelphia's historic district. It shows a frame of where his house once stood and exhibits of his post office, printing press and in the underground museum, you can view a wonderful timeline of his inventions...the indoor toilet, bifocals, iron furnace stove, divers flippers, broadside printing press, flexible urinary catheter, lightning rod, the fire fighting company, fire insurance, odometer...the list is almost endless.
Other websites worth looking at for Ben Franklin events include:

  • Independence Visitor Center - A huge visitor's center next to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall with "information, history and adventure"
  • GoPhila What to do, where to stay and eat in the city and surrounding area
  • The Franklin Institute - Ben's birthday events at The Franklin Institute.
  • The Electric Ben Franklin - A storehouse of Franklin information, including a links page with everything from Ben's verse to his ideas of natural rights and federalism from his dealings with and printing treaties that had been negotiated with the Iroquois

1/10/2006

Eric Finzi and His Art

Eric Finzi is an artist of revolutionary range and vision. 

He has taken a formless and chaotic medium, resin, and given it discipline and form...on wood...aluminum...and copper. I present a few samples of his recent resin work here. 

To see more of his work, visit his art website: www/ericfinzi.com.

To see where Eric Finzi's art is on display, visit his news page and gallery.

In keeping with Robert Frost's command when asked to explain a poem, "What would you that I do? Explain it in other and less good words?"

I repost Eric's statement on his Website about the process he uses to create these revelations.

Working with epoxy resin is like trying to control chaos, thus providing a formative substance that might be characterized as born entropy. Resin painting is a type of performance art.

There is also an element of danger added as the fumes are sweet but deadly. The process begins with the mixing of the resin and its catalyst; a chemical reaction ensues and time becomes an important dimension in the work.

The painting is planned, like a play, with Act I, Act II, etc. 

The painting you see represents the summation of many layers of chemical reactions, all moving with their own velocity to a final polymerized end. The challenge is to control the flow of resin using heat, cold, wind, gravity and viscosity as artistic tools. Syringes, needles and a propane torch are the resin painters brushes.

The paintings are temperature dependent and exude an organicity that defies their inanimate status. The polymerized painting portrays its temporal history as it captures the slow flow of resin.

These paintings continue to move after human hands have ceased to touch them. Their final destination can't be known until a day after starting the painting , when all Brownian motion has ceased and the flecks of paint are trapped like a fly in amber.

The painting you see is the final scene of a moving picture whose history is encoded in layers of resin. 
Not that Eric needs me to add anything about his art, but I was fortunate enough to tape him about his creation process. 

I would have liked to have put it up here so you could see him speak for himself. Unfortunately, the Sony software I tried to install crashed my system...badly...and I had to do a complete system recovery. So, until I can get video software that XP likes, I will have to type out Eric's words, as here.

[One blog note: I video interviewed Eric in 2003 when he visited our rebuilt house after the fire. His destroyed art was what allowed us to rebuild our kitchen because USAA was able to call the Walter Wickiser Gallery in New York where Eric had a show to confirm he was a "real" artist. Because he's also a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, USAA...like others...often find it hard to believe he runs a medical practice while creating so much art. Well, I was 18 and Eric was 16 when we met at the University of Pennsylvania, and I can assure you he's that kind of Renaissance guy.]

"These paintings are made with epoxy resin and paint and made with multiple layers. I basically work using the different polymerization times of the resin, depending upon the temperature of the resin, and waiting a certain amount of time before I put the paint in, before I pour it, which is why it has multiple layers.
This is why it looks like it's sort of glazed with many layers of paint glaze, but it is actually all made out of resin. I work with this toxic resin and I've got a hood on and I have a compressor pumping air over my head. I basically suck in air from one end of the ware house and it travels 60 feet to the other area of the warehouse.

I walk around inside this room I constructed out of thin plastic sheet walls so you can see through. I can see out. I walk around connected to a hose so I can breath through a hose so I don't have to breath through a mask or a filter
...but I can see out...so I just mix up my resin. I have my paints in a jar. I make the paints liquidy.

I even have a water bath where I incubate the resin so I can control the temperature...I can feel it in a cup...and the resin. If I want to polimerize quickly I stick it in a water bath and it gets hot. Then I wait until it is a certain temperature. Then I know its ready to do a certain type of thing.
I either pour it out or squirt it out using needles, hypodermic needles.Those are my current tools, pretty much.

Me: "This resin technique of yours...does it have a name?

Eric: No.

Me: So... you can invent one
.
Eric: Yeah...it's the Finzi resin technique (laughter).

I tried an experiment once, just once, four years ago when I was working with resin but making sculptures that weren't flat. I tried an experiment and it looked promising and spent a summer playing around with it...and thought... this could be interesting if I could figure out how to get the paint in there and how to manipulate and control it. Now, I've figured out how to control it.
Even though my paintings looks like they are random and has that look to it, I'm in control and I know which way things are going to move. It's not a random piece. Because I can push the paint out of the way or use compressed air or get the bubbles out with a propane torch.

I do the whole thing flat because otherwise the paint would run off the whole thing. When I think the painting looks good, I take a torch and go over the entire painting. The latest thing I'm doing is using other base materials, like aluminum.

Eric painted this portrait of me that is in my Poetslife blog profile. It's a long story, but I don't have the painting anymore. All I have is this photo from a "Sixties" party we had when I was at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies living on Capital Hill at 6th and E. Capital Street, which is why I am peering out of the corner of this photo/painting in the bottom left. 

Here are a few more photos of Eric's work.





1/06/2006

Technical Writer List Server

Technical writers are a group of professionals who face great demands from the corporate and government sector. They must often create order from chaos, clear words from dense words, and clean visuals from blurry originals.
Oftentimes, they must search through mountains of documents to find the nuggets that help others to understand an item, procedure, tool, concept, theory, graphic, Web contnet, software, hardware, diagram, table, DVD, brochure...whatever medium is asked by superiors...and they must do so under very, very tight deadlines...therefore...it can begin to feel like the rock is about to fall...any day now.
Technical writers understand each other...and the unique demands each faces each day. Thus..the importance of the technical writer list server, where technical writers can gather over the Web, trade war stories, exchange advice and point to where help is to be found. Technical writers are a group of professionals who help the world run...better...faster...easier. I tip my hat to them.
I encourage any tech writers who are wondering about any task they face each day...what software to use to capture photos best, how to convert a PDF back to Word...how to get programmers to share their design document...to visit the Google Groups technical writers list server (bit.listserv.techwr-l) for the "how to."
And I recommend that, if you choose to make your living doing technical writing, you reach out to the other technical writers out there, by joining the national Society for Technical Communication...and a local chapter like STC Washington, D.C. Baltimore and by joining the technical writers list server. I show a random post taken from the technical writers list server, below. It demonstrates the format where this wisdom can be viewed, mined, and used in practical ways to do a better job each day.

I don't know Goober Writer, but his words give the flavor of the individuals who make this profession such a fascinating and interesting craft


Reply to Author Forward Print Individual Message Show original Report Abuse

From: gooberwri...@yahoo.com (Goober Writer) - Find messages by this author
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:00:06 -0800 (PST)
Local: Wed, Oct 29 2003 11:00 am
Subject: Re: Re: What is "technical" writing? (Was: RE: What to do?)
Reply to Author Forward Print Individual Message Show original Report Abuse
When an engineer learns to write about engineering topics, he or she does not study "engineering." He or she studies "writing." The skills that allow an engineer to write about technical subjects are writing skills.

Technical writing is *taught* in engineering programs (such as Northeastern University), but that doesn't mean that writing is an engineering discipline. In no way should the act of writing enter this equation. This is all about core communication skills.

The "engineering" aspect (IOW, "technical") is required for anything concerning a technical concept. The "writing" aspect (IOW, "communication") is required for anything being conveyed from one person to another.

So what is "technical writing?"

It's the clear communication of technical information and concepts to another person or party.
Whether an engineer learns to write or a writer learns in-depth technical concepts is moot. The fact is that someone needs BOTH to succeed in communicating information about technical "stuff" to ANYONE else (techie and Luddite alike).

You gain NO advantage from ignorance when approaching the task of communicating technical information. The argument of "being on par with your audience" is pure and utter crap. You need to know your stuff.

If you're writing about a UI that traps user input and saves it to a database for later queries, you really should know the ins and outs of how that entire system works. That way you can clearly communicate the facts to the audience at hand.

True, data entry people don't need to know about SSL, encryption, why some things get hashed and others don't, and so on. But, YOU knowing why is important so you can make an intelligent call as to what to communicate, to whom, how, when, and why.

A technical writer doesn't need to be the person who developed the tool being documented, but that writer should know all there is to know about that tool so they have the knowledge and expertise to know what info is important for whom, and how best to communicate it.

THAT is technical writing.
Goober Writer
(because life is too short to be inept)

"As soon as you hear the phrase "studies show",
immediately put a hand on your wallet and cover your groin."
-- Geoff Hart

12/30/2005

Zillman Virtual Private Library

Marcus P. Zillman gets it...the potential of the Internet. (Interestingly... He uses bots to plumb the Internet overmind (data mining, subject information blogs, information tracers, news aggregates, Internet MiniGuides, etc.) to penetrate it's outer reaches for useful information.
He helps you conduct searches, research and surf the Internet more efficiently. How necessary is that? For example, here is his employment resources link At his Virtual Privary Libarytm I even found out my alma mater, The University of Pennsylvania, has a virtual library. Thirty years of magazines, alumni news, and other literature from them and I never knew.

Check out his reference information, white papers, search engines, and blogs. What a wunderkind. He's a national resource.

12/28/2005

Blue Ocean Institute

The Blue Ocean Institute works to create a new relationship between us and the ocean...before it is too late (which even the staid Financial Times writes about). They do so by using science, art and literature to create a new ethic where we understand how vital the blue planet is to our past, present and future.


[Most photos courtesy of NOAA.]

Since the ocean contains 97 percent of the earth's water, we should be careful about how we use it. The Blue Ocean Institute understands that and I wish them great success.

They are accepting sea story submissions from anyone who loves the sea. Here are a few poems I've written over the years with a sea theme that I sent. For my children's children, I'm very glad they are trying to change public policy to reflect the importance of the ocean and marine life.


Who hears the fish when they cry?
Henry David Thoreau
This stream,
which space families will need
as they populate galaxies past our knowing,
feeds a river with hundreds of thousands
of its brothers and sisters

and an ocean
that is so vast
we will know galaxies
before we will know its mysteries
is home, to fish,
so many fish
as there may be stars
in not just our galaxy,
but all the galaxies we will know.
When fish cry,
we should weep
for the galaxies
and the children
we'll never know.


The Return

The land beacons
with fruit and wheat
and wildlife abundant,
so I crawl from the sea,
seaweed draped and brine
permeated to the shoreline.

And I am one now,
my mother and family
are close by laughing
and the waves beat
their eternal rhythm softly,
faintly familiar but forgotten
because there is so much
between now and the return.

The football flies high above
the waves, drops back,
drops to a friend now laughing
by the waves until it lands
by a girl I've been watching
for hours who reciprocates
with a hair toss and shy smile,
and the din of the ocean
is silent for some years.
For a time, there is so much
to be done on dry land.

One day my own baby
is on my shoulders
frightened by the waves
and their ultimate calling.
I laugh at him, of course,
confident after so many years
with the sea and its waves
that I've mastered them,
felt their power and captured it,
taken it on and rechannelled it
to a life beyond these shores.

The land that beckoned
so many years ago
kept its promise.
It gave me the means
to support a growing family.
Good and sweet
foodstuffs abundant.
Clean, clear water,
even in cities, and shelter
from all but the fiercest storms
that claimed many far away
but left us safe and dry
at higher land elevations.

Now...this wheel chair
and these grandchildren
and great grandchildren.
If I could only tell them
of that journey from the sea
and all the lands between,
the seascape and landscape
and each is so dependent
on the other for life.
Of how the shoreline
is the altar upon which
the inner life should know
how tenacious and beautiful
and brief this life on dry land
looks when the sea beacons
like the ocean waves, at this end.

They show me the baby
and I hope I can recognize him.
I wish my body still answered
my thoughts, but we both know
it can never be so again.

I hear the waves clearly, though.
Through it all, the years and cities,
wars and the news media drumbeat
into my head, all spread before me
as on a screen, I still hear the waves.
My family looks at me with such
concern and pity, but it is not the time
or place for pity. I hear the waves
on the shore...WWOOOOOSHSHSH...
WWOOOOOOSHSH...WOOSHSH...

I hear their tender and light-filled call,
and I surrender...I surrender.
From the time I crawled from the sea
they've been calling me to them again.
No more crawling inland...
...it is time to answer the sea?s call..
it is time to return..

Fenwick Island, DE
June 19, 1997


12/24/2005

Future Dust

Hear a reading of Future Dust here.

Future Dust

"I'll never look like that!"
I said to myself when we were offloaded
from the Lakeland Air Force Base Officer
Training School bus and heard the upperclassmen
bark orders at us, the arriving class,
and saw the triple rings under their eyes.

Six weeks later, I looked like that
as I stood at the attention outside my room
on Saturday Morning Inspection
(as one upperclassman stood
outside my room looking at every detail
of my appearance for deviations
"Details will save your life!"
repeated by my teachers so often
it is forever burned into my mind,
and another ran over every detail in my room
from the folds in the mattress
to the spacing between my socks).

I broke after they left
to scan my demerits book
aware that so much depended
on my finally bringing those demerits down:
my graduation, the cohesion of my flight, honor,
the future of the United States of America.

And there it sat, like a turd
the inspector left behind
from his white-gloved hand:
"Future dust." When the inspector returned
for questioning, I fired it right at him,
"What's 'future dust', Sir!?"
"I'd have had a perfect inspection
but for that demerit."

"Come over here, son."
he said in a thick Southern drawl.
He opened the blinds to let in the sun
and pointed at the air.

"What's that?" he said,
a thin grin opening on his face,
all the muscles in his future fighter pilot's body
preparing to press the red button on the joystick.
"Dust, Sir." I stated.
"Wrong, Officer Candidate Curley!
That's future dust!
In a few minutes it will land on your desk
and you failed to prevent it!
Therefore, you Sir, are guilty!
Guilty of letting down your flight
Guilty of failing to prevent future dust!"
Three demerits. Good-bye!

As our teachers told us so many times,
they were preparing us for war.
Waging war has rules and surprises,
and surprises repeated often enough
become the rules of warfare.

Like future dust,
Or the future dust of a company
that fails to plan for the next bear market,
or the future dust of a family death,
or the future dust of the lack of preparation
for the next war and the deaths that will result,
or the dust of skyscrapers brought down
by fanatical Mohammedian jihadis,
or the future dust we will find
clogging the oxygen filters
of our interplanetary space ships.

So many years later,
I now know they were right.
We all must be eternally vigilant
to prevent future dust from landing,
if we are to have any chance at all
of a life in the space dust of the future.

Lament for American Hands and Hearts

A father will not be coming home tonight, or ever.
He was among 45 passengers
On a routine American commercial flight, Flight 93
When terrorists, Satan's gift to the forces of evil,
Unjust war, pestilence, anger, murder, envy and all mortal sin,
Slit the throats of some mothers who were stewardesses,
Bound them, sprayed mace at the men, who tried to help,
Herded them into the back of the plane,
Rushed the pilots, murdered them, and hijacked the plane.
Nevertheless, this father Thomas Burnett
Calmly phoned his wife to say,
I know we're all going to die.
There's three of us who are going to do something about it.
As Mark Bingham phoned his mother to say,
I just want you to know I love you.
They organized and planned in nanoseconds,
And acted with fearlessness in minutes.
They overpowered the murders before them,
Charged down the 33 rows and 290 feet of 767 aisle,
Kicked down the locked cockpit door,
And 3 unarmed average Americans
subdued 4 armed, vile, and unclean Bin Laden terrorists
Because they overheard the terrorists plans to turn
The civilian airliner into a war missile
To kill more innocent civilians
In a new kind of war the terrorists
Decided and stated for decades ago, had no rules.

The unarmed Americans fought bravely and well.
They pulverized the puny terrorists who,
Now stripped of their most advanced weapon surprise
Cowered beneath the first and fierce counterstrikes
Of many future ones from average Americans
Until we drive these terrorists back to the caves
From which they emerged,
As their caves become their tombs,
As we carry forth the spirit of those who fought and died
Above the Amish Pennsylvania countryside
Who put into practice the ancient Amish saying,
Hands to work and hearts to God.

Academy of American Poets

Christopher Marlowe...such great promise cut short so soon...
This is the "Writing Basics" page on the Academy of American Poets website. There is much good writing and poetry of legendary American Poets on the website, but this is where you get the tools of writing that go beyond just the mechanics of writing.
And because they are a national organization, you look on the National Poetry Map page for writing resources near you.
Oftentimes, the closest many people get to poetry is reading or hearing one at a wedding or other life event. Here are links to poems for that purpose.
There are thousands of poems and hundreds of American poets on the Academy of American Poets website. It is, after all, THE Academy of American poetry, and it is stunning to consider it developed outside of academia.
"The Poet" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, below, is just one example of the library of poetry to be found at the site. Poetry is meant to be heard, and the site has many audio versions of poets in their own voices reading their work. 
Like Edwin E. Aldrin, the pilot of the Gemini 12 spacecraft who explored outer space, dive into your inner space with a visit and read and hear a few poems.


The Poet

A moody child and wildly wise
Pursued the game with joyful eyes,
Which chose, like meteors, their way,
And rived the dark with private ray:
They overleapt the horizon's edge,
Searched with Apollo's privilege;
Through man, and woman, and sea, and star
Saw the dance of nature forward far;
Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times
Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes.
Olympian bards who sung
Divine ideas below,
Which always find us young,
And always keep us so.
A moody child and wildly wise
Pursued the game with joyful eyes,
Which chose, like meteors, their way,
And rived the dark with private ray:
They overleapt the horizon's edge,
Searched with Apollo's privilege;
Through man, and woman, and sea, and star
Saw the dance of nature forward far;
Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times
Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes.
Olympian bards who sung
Divine ideas below,
Which always find us young,
And always keep us so.

12/23/2005

Usability, Software and Web Credibility

Photo Source: NASA
"Usability applies to every aspect of a product with which a person interacts (hardware, software, menus, icons, messages, documentation, training, and on-line help). Every design and development decision made throughout the product cycle has an impact on that product's usability.
As customers depend more and more on software to get their jobs done and become more critical consumers, usability can be the critical factor that ensures that products will be used." Denise D. Pieratti, Manager Usability Analysis & Design, Xerox Corporation
My definition of usability is minimal effort for maximum results. Others say it is that technology should work and not make you feel stupid, or that usability is anything that gives us the tools to build better software and Web content.
Whitney Quesenbery's definition of the basics of usability is the best I've found.
As for you...why should you care about usability? If you work on the Web, create content for the Web, or use the Web...you should care about usability. For example, by incorporating just one usability technique, paper prototyping (sitting down with your software development team and using 8 x 11 inch pieces of paper and Post-itr notes to create prototype web pages BEFORE coding...you can save thousands of dollars in programming costs and staff hours by avoiding errors with this simple exercise. For more information on usability engineering, visit the World Usability Day website.
I belong to the Society for Technical Communication (STC). They have a number of special interest groups whereby you may attend seminars, meet, and learn from some of the experts, or just read up on the body of knowledge known as technial writing. STC has a number of special interest groups where you can gain in-depth knowlege in your particular interest, such as usability.
Visit the Website of the Leonardo DiVinci of usability, Jacob Nielson:
http://www.useit.com/
Denise D. Pieratti, Manager, Usability Analysis & Design, Xerox Corporation, describes the steps involved in usability engineering as:
User and task observations observing users at their jobs, identifying their typical work tasks and procedures, analyzing their work processes, and understanding people in the context of their work
Interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires meeting with users, finding out about their preferences, experiences, and needs
Benchmarking and competitive analysis evaluating the usability of similar products in the marketplace
Participatory design participating in design and bringing the users perspective to the early stages of development
Paper prototyping including users early in the development process through prototypes prepared on paper, before coding begins
Creation of guidelines helping to assure consistency in design through development of standards and guidelines
Heuristic evaluations evaluating software against accepted usability principles and making recommendations to enhance usability
Usability testing observing users performing real tasks with the application, recording what they do, analyzing the results, and recommending appropriate changes
In reply to the question, "What does your poem The Road Not Taken, mean?" Robert Frost said, "What would you have me do...explain it in other and less good words?"
So...I refer you to the following Web links to find out about how vital usability is to useful software and hardware in this digital age.
Why are tech gizmos so hard to figure out
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2005-11-01-usability-cover_x.htmThe Secret of Making things work
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4393468.stm
Pushing the right buttons requires a human touch
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/pushing-the-right-buttons-requires-a-human-touch/2005/10/31/1130720481954.htmlUsability and User Exprience Design: The Next Century
Book Review: Institutionalization of Usability A Step-by-Step Guide
http://www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/0505-institutionalization.html
Usability in Sweden
http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p1/program/artikel.asp?ProgramID=406&Nyheter=1&artikel=726365
Usability question comes of age
http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/05/stories/2005110519080400.htm

But what good is usability without credibility? They are interdependent principals. The more credible you website, the more useful. If you can use the software...that's great, but is it believable? Nowhere is this more true than on the web. Once your software is easy to learn and useful, do you then use it to create credible material?
There are 5 principles of Web credibility:
  1. You must prove there is a real organization behind your website
  2. Your website needs to provide sensitive (important inside) information
  3. All statements should be backed up by third-party evidence
  4. There has to be proof that the organization is growing and has clients
  5. Your website needs to have an air of professionalism and confidence
Usability testing, done right, can make your burden easier.
For how to do usability right, visit Jacob Nielsen.
And see Zillan's White Papers for how to do it right.