Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with technical

How can I show group availability based on its members?

mrzarquon — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:19:57 -0800

I work with a team of engineers supporting sales people. I need a good way to communicate to the sales people when are times we are available for meetings and when are times we are not. What tools have people used to communicate this, quickly and effectively? Sharing every team members calendar with them makes it impossible to sort (since they aren't looking for a time we are all free, just one of us), and we would like to prevent certain sales members from continually scheduling meetings with their 'favorite' engineer. The end goal is for the sales person to be able to determine when is the best time someone from our team is most likely to be available, so they can schedule a time with their customer really quickly (ie, they are on the phone with them right then) without having to wait on us.

What software (one time, subscription, or free, as long as it works) have folks used to accomplish this (if any)? What should I be googling for or what terminology should I be using to help solve this? In essence, we should almost be manageable like a google calendar resource (ie, a Room) but also as real people calendars as well (show up when available, disappear when not).

We've looked at the common scheduling portals (genbook, etc), but from what I've been able to glean, most of them are all aimed towards helping you find the one person you should book with (and therefore don't provide any abstraction). Building something for ourselves hasn't been ruled out, but if there are existing tools that do all of this (awesome) or part of it (slightly less awesome but still useful) but can be extended, then that works as well. I also realize that no software will fix a process problem, but being able to visualize our teams availability in real time will help us know when we are starting to over extend ourselves as well.

In a perfect world, the software would allow for a sales person to enter in a week or two of when they would like to hold a meeting, the type of meeting (onsite or just webex / phone / remote), and maybe specific subjects from a pre defined list. It would then parse the teams calendars and provide a calendar view showing from green (being available) to red (unavailable) for time slots around the length of the meeting needed.

Availability would be determined by who wasn't already booked in a time slot, with a 5-10 minute buffer around that existing meeting (if onsite, it would factor in half day travel the day before / after, when the last time a person had done an onsite meeting previous), if they were qualified in the subject needed for the meeting, and how many people were free for that slot.

So a 30 minute general technical call could be a bright green time slot across the week view during the times that two or more team members were available and met the criteria, while the times where no one was available would be bright red, and times where one person was available or it was close to other meetings would be something in between.

Other criteria:
Should be something that can be checkedul from a webpage
Has to be able source calendar info from google apps calendar

Why do different phones / platforms respond differently to mobile sites?

lucullus — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:48:13 -0800

When businesses make mobile 'friendly' sites, is there a consistent rule of thumb for detecting mobile devices, and behaving appropriately? For example, I'm looking at one site on an iPhone and a Lumia 920 (Windows 8). On the former, it presents a much simpler site, clearly optimised for mobile use, and on the latter it just presents the usual site.

I'm aware there's some sharing of device information, and also aware that you can make a 'responsive' site which is smarter about how to behaves in different screen sizes, but I wondered if anyone could suggest why you might have a site which detects and deals with the iPhone but not the Lumia / Windows 8 ...

What are the technical fundamentals of dance I should practice?

losvedir — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:42:17 -0800

What are the "Hanon Piano Exercises" of dance? That is, what are technical drills I should do briefly every day to become better at dancing? Whenever I tackle a new skill I generally like to start with the technical fundamentals and drill and drill and drill. When I took piano lessons I had this book of scales I had to do every day to get my fingers comfortable with the various movements they'd be making when playing real pieces. When I started to take up ping pong, I would stand at the table for an hour and serve, serve, serve to try to get the motion down.

So what would the equivalent be for dance? I'm in my 20s, male, and currently a terrible dancer. I think I could probably improve my rhythm and my flexibility at the very least.

Ideas for things I'm looking for:

* Play songs and tap my foot to them on the on-beats, then the off-beats, alternate tapping my foot and clapping.

* With music playing work on moving my hands independently to my feet, say step on every beat, hands go out once per measure.

* Count along with a song and try to identify the time signature.

* A certain stretch which would help me be more flexible in a way that's helpful for dancing.

* Rubbing my head and patting my stomach.

* A progression of movements to practice repeatedly - twist head, lift shoulders, sway hips, tap foot.

I dunno, those kinds of things. Little drills and techniques I could work on as building blocks before I even get to learning real dance.

As for styles -- I'm open to anything really. Realistically, I'd probably most likely dance hip-hop or techno-dancey styles if I went out to club with friends, but I'm open to more technical drills, say for ballet, because I think mastering movements in any way would be helpful.

Life after PC build

sarahdal — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:50:42 -0800

I recently built myself a PC for the first time since the 1990s and really enjoyed it. What fulfilling hobby can I grow from this? When I was a teenager in the 1990s, I used to love building and tinkering with PCs. Then I went off to Uni, and other interests took over. I hadn't really touched anything other than laptops until a few months ago, when I took a chance and built my own PC for gaming, using the build-a-pc subreddit and the various helpful sites they link to.

I really, really enjoyed it and I'd love to get a hobby out of this - something about putting together a load of technical kit myself and then seeing it all lit up and working. But what should I do? Electronics? Programming? Is there some sort of advanced pc-building I can do?? I have absolutely no idea what to do next!

Has anyone got any ideas?

As indicated below, the headline is a reference to same.

TheNewWazoo — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:59:22 -0800

How do you edit writing written in a different dialect than your own? I'm very soon going to be responsible for editing some English technical/business writing by a team in a highly multilingual south-Asian country. I'm used to editing documents written by Americans or by European writers, where I find the language is usually pretty close to British English. Altering their words doesn't change the writer's voice much. In this case, that's just not true. I recognize that English is a first language for these writers, but that the rules of grammar that they use day-to-day are simply different (and if the English-speaking world all voted on the rules... they'd win). As a result, there are some constructions that are clearer to me when phrased in different ways, but not necessarily clearer to the author.

So, given that I don't want to have to spend the time re-writing every sentence to fit my ideas of clarity, and I also don't want to give the impression that the authors are somehow wrong in their perfectly reasonable use of language... how in the heck do I approach this?

We're writing documentation about human or technical processes, with occasional forays into technical explanations. My/Our audience is strictly internal, and pan-global, but I'm not an editor by trade; I'm simply their supervisor, but I'm ultimately responsible for the quality of their work.

Technical writing for a physicist?

Fillus — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 05:42:43 -0800

I might be hired as a technical writer soon. I'm not sure this would be the right job for me. I need some advice. Hello MeFis!

In the following day I might be offered a job as a technical writer from a big high-tech company. However, I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to accept it. There are several reasons for that:

1) I have a Master's degree in theoretical physics. I've read on several websites that only a minority of technical writers have a technical background like mine. Coming from such a background, I'm not sure the job would be intellectually satisfying.

2) I don't really know what the job is. It's really hard to determine if I'm going to appreciate the job before I actually start doing it every day.

3) It's a long-term commitment. They are looking for someone who would be willing to stay 4 or 5 years at least, because the training period is quite long. Of course, this is not the army and I could always quit whenever I feel like it, but ethically it just wouldn't be right to accept the job and plan in advance to leave after two years.

4) What kind of career can I expect? I have the impression that technical writers stay technical writers. Furthermore, I'm not an English native speaker and this might put me at a disadvantage in the job market, even with a good experience in technical writing.

So, as you can see I'm a bit hesitant. If someone could give me some advice, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks a lot! :-)

(Don't hesitate to correct my mistakes!)

How can I print to a Post-It on a budget?

NBJack — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:11:00 -0800

I'm looking for the ability to print to a post-it. 3M wants too much. Any knock-offs or alternatives I could try? Must fit in a standard print tray. Ideally, I can print straight to the medium and cut/tear/punch them out to post on a wall. 3M has printable post-it paper, but the costs seem to be around $0.50 per post-it. I'd prefer the cost to be a tenth of that, even if I can only get it in bulk.

I'm willing to hear any alternatives. Other things that would work:

A tiny printer (no really)

Post-it-like glue for any paper surface

Post-it-like adhesive tape

Printing services that can make something like this for a reasonable cost

Bonus points if I can choose the color.

I know how to fix a Mac, now I need to know how to break one.

joshrholloway — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:47:52 -0800

How can I make a Mac app crash reproducibly with the solution being to trash the app's preferences and have them rebuild automatically? I am setting up a technical test for someone, and I want to test their Mac troubleshooting knowledge. One of the most basic Mac troubleshooting steps is that if an app is having issues, delete or isolate the preference file(s) so they get rebuilt with defaults the next time you launch the app.

I'd like to set up a reproducible scenario like this, but the Mac apps I'm trying to break are much more resilient than I had hoped.

Does anyone know a way I can get an app to crash or have trouble repeatably that would be fixed by trashing the preferences?

Breaking Bad News

ignignokt — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:58:21 -0800

How can I not bum people out when I tell them their software idea will be more costly and/or may not work as well as they think it will? I'm a software developer, and periodically, people that have not worked in the software industry will ask me what I think of a software project idea. Usually, they are very excited about and attached to this idea.

I try to start with what's good about it, but I usually see some combination of following:

1. It will take much longer to develop than they think.
2. Their idea as it is too vague for anyone to be able to work on it or even estimate at what it might cost.
3. It can't work as they described.

I try to point out these things as non-judgmentally as I can and to suggest an alternative way to solve the problem their product would address (usually using existing software). Inevitably, they are crestfallen and/or disbelieving. Sometimes, I get the impression they think I'm being negative for just for the sake of crushing their dreams.

When I'd do this in work situations, people rarely had a problem with it. How can I do this with "non-technical" people also, so that no one comes away from the talk with bad feelings?

I know some people will never take this kind of information well, but it seems to happen every single time I talk to someone about this. What do you do?

I may be doing some consulting down the line, so this would be handy to know for that situation as well.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

holterbarbour — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:20:31 -0800

What is some bizarre and amusing industry-specific jargon? In the course of working with a shipbuilder on something, I've come across some absolutely terrific specialized vocabulary such as "toilet mushroom", "monkey bridge", "scupper plug", "buster pump", and "butterfly nuts". One of my other favorite pieces of specialized vocabulary is from the steel industry: "pickle liquor".

There must be MANY more terms like these in various industries that would have an outsider scratching his/her head. I would love to know what amusing terms everyone has heard (along with a quick definition in layman's terms).

A tradesman's life for me?

SampleSize — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:36:21 -0800

I'm starting to think I'd like to learn a trade, but I don't know which. I have no experience and have been a graphics guy (half corporate, half freelance) since graduating college with a BA in psychology (I'm 37 now). I really like the idea of making something, of being able to fix things, of having a skill that is useful in its own right, and of not sitting in front of a computer all day. I'm willing to go to school and/or apprentice, but I'd like to have the possibility of making decent money (>$60k) after doing it for a 2-3 years. I've browsed a bit on the Occupational Outlook Handbook and pulled out a couple that looked interesting:

Medical Equipment Repair: Seems to have very good prospects and the possibility of making good money, but I don't think it's really a skill I could use outside of repairing medical equipment.

Small Engine Repair: Unfortunately, doesn't seem like you can make much money, but I find the idea of being able to fix real, useful stuff very exciting.

I'd love some first-hand suggestions and thoughts. I'm just starting to poke around, so I'm open to anything.

£50 a month to host two small (Plone) websites?

bollockovnikov — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:23:01 -0800

I think my friend's small company might be getting ripped off. I need advice as to what is acceptable pricing for building and running a couple of websites. So my friend works for a 3 person outfit. They required a simple, no fuss website, which they can easily add content to for news updates, etc. usual stuff, but constant attention to the content is important, and new sections to the site might be needed at the drop of a hat, when new projects are implemented.

They chose a particular design company, who also setup and run the hosting of the site. The first year of hosting was free, but they had to pay for the design and implementation.

The site is good, but misses some key features they have asked for. They find it doesn't quite fulfill all their needs, and not being very technically savvy, they also run two or three other services (such as a NING community) to fill in the gaps.

They ask me to help them out with tech stuff occasionally. I hadn't realised how spread out their web presence was until they showed me. I am torn as to the advice I should give them.

The design/hosting company sent them an email after a year saying:

"Now your free year of hosting is over you will have to pay £50 A MONTH".

I said that this was a lot, especially since the design fee was paid ages ago and the site doesn't really live up to all expectations. I said they could do a similar job with a wordpress site, in fact, they could use wordpress to seamlessly link all their different web needs together. Cheaply. I believe this is true, and that hosting it elsewhere would be much cheaper, but I am also aware that for a small outfit time is important. They have neither the time nor the tech knowledge to deal with backend website stuff (like implementing wordpress).

They sent a message echoing my concerns to the company, who replied this way:

"The two sites are hosted on our shared infrastructure. I understand your colleague's comments about hosting charges - hosting for simple web sites can be purchased for as little as £5/month.

However, both the sites are built using Plone (http://plone.org/) which requires slightly more complex hosting than static or PHP based sites. I realise that of course I would say this, but £25/month for hosting a Plone site is well below the average market rate.

The service is made up of the following:

* Space on our shared servers
* Guaranteed bandwidth of 10Mbps
* Unlimited data transfer each month
* Nightly full backups, retained for 30 days
* Access to our outbound email infrastructure
* Access to our DNS infrastructure
* A share of the operational cost of running the server
* Regular security patching of the application stack
* Regular security patching of the underlying operating system

The key point is that we manage the entire process for you rather than, say, one of the cheaper PHP hosts where you would have to manage the security of your own application."

Again, I believe most of these features are pretty standard on a regular hosting account. They are s small outfit and don't need shitloads of bandwidth. the company know this, or they should.

Are they getting ripped off? I'm sure PLONE is great, but is it necessary, especially for a small outfit? Should they demand a backup of their site and move on to wordpress etc? Or should they stick with the company, but ask them for a much more dynamic design and an update for their money?

What do you think?

Thanks

Where can I find an IT support refresher course?

karizma — Thu, 19 May 2011 12:56:24 -0800

I need to brush up on and refresh my memory of various topics in the area of IT technical support for an interview. Can you help? So after over a year of unemployment, I have been fortunate enough to earn a phone interview for an IT technical support analyst position. Yay!

The position is basically a tier II help desk support and desktop support role in a Microsoft-centric company. Duties in general would consist of assisting users with technical problems or questions involving Windows, Office, network connectivity, and PC hardware. Other duties and projects are likely to include a Windows 7 migration, hardware refreshes, browser upgrades, etc.

While I have done this type of work in the past, I have been unemployed for over a year and have not been "thinking" computers, hardware, software, etc. much during this downtime. I'm rusty, I need to brush up, and I'd to feel more confident in my knowledge going into the interview.

I would love to get your suggestions on websites I should check out to refresh my memory on supporting Windows (XP thru 7), Office, PC hardware, networking, etc. The more current, the better. I would be especially interested in sites that offer "cheat sheet" or Cliffs Notes-style guides since I have only about a day to prepare.

Thanks everyone!

which programming language shouldi learn to be best employable.

radiosilents — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:41:10 -0800

let's assume i'm decently technically minded, and entirely burned out on my current job (technical support). let's further assume that programming is vaguely attractive and something i think i could do, and that i would like to be employable at 50-65k a year. what language do i learn? why?

Nonfiction book on management and leadership, targeted towards women in a technical, men-dominated field?

stefnet — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:49:57 -0800

Can anyone recommend a nonfiction book on management and leadership, targeted towards women in a technical, men-dominated field? I'm asking this for a friend. Books that she is already aware of include:

"No One Path: Perspectives on Leadership from a Decade of Women in Technology Award Winners
http://www.womenintechnology.org/content.asp?contentid=1021

I also bought a book called "It's Not a Glass Ceiling, It's a Sticky Floor", but that's more about career development than leading in a male-dominated work environment.
http://www.shambaughleadership.com/stickyfloorbook/"

Looking for Serious Bowling Online Resources

johnstein — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:42:07 -0800

I need serious bowling resources. (online forums, buying guides, technical discussions, SCIENCE!, etc) I've bowled a LOT in my life. My relatives owned the bowling alley in my small town and I worked there for years ($2 bucks an hour + all the free bowling I could squeeze in before leagues started, which was usually 10-20 games).

I've never really had any formal coaching/training except from my parents/uncles (who have bowled all their lives) and lots of practice with my brothers.

At my best, I probably averaged 190 or so and mainly used my Dad's old bowling balls after he upgraded (often yearly).

It's been almost 10 years since I've bowled in a league and I'm wanting to get back into it, but I haven't bought a bowling ball in over 10 years, and even then, I didn't do a bunch of research beyond price.

So, I've got a pretty good intuition on how to bowl and roughly the style of shot I want to throw (mid-range, stroker, not-a-crazy-hook-shot), but I honestly have no clue where to look for good technical information.

Ideally, I'd like to find a decent online-forum that encourages technical discussion of bowling mechanics and even have good information on the types of bowling balls available these days.

All of my google searches are flooded with flashy advertisements or cater to the complete beginner (here's how to hold a bowling ball and how to throw it, etc) or the "laser lights" type of bowling experiences.

Anyone know of any good resources?

How can I become a professional computer literacy tutor?

xenophile — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:37:07 -0800

Recently, I've found that I enjoy and am good at teaching people basic computer literacy and helping them with other technical issues. Is there any way I can turn this into a job in Austin? Here are some examples. My mom was overwhelmed by setting up her cell phone account, and by dismantling her voicemail service and then setting up a new answering machine. I did all that for her, and in the process I could clearly see why it was confusing for someone who didn't learn the "language" of technology growing up (she's 70).

Last night, I helped a 60-ish friend of mine learn how to use a USB drive to transfer Word files from one PC to another. One of the PCs uses Word 2010 (which of course has been "improved" again by an increasingly young team of programmers who write programs that are increasingly over the heads of older folks) and the other, Word 97-2003.

I showed him how to save files to different folders, save docx as doc, safely remove the USB, put a USB icon on the desktop, and find files and folders. I also helped him install some extra virus protection.

I enjoyed this very much. I think this sort of tutoring is increasingly necessary, and I've seen how tech knowledge gaps can handicap people and allow them to be taken advantage of (computer viruses are one example; my mom hemorrhaging money for voicemail when an answering machine will do is another).

I'll be moving to Austin by the end of the week and will immediately start job-hunting. I'm a writer by trade, but I do have teaching experience (as a grad student). I also have experience writing instructional manuals. Teaching people step-by-step ways to use their technology is like that, except verbal. Any suggestions on where to start looking for basic tech skills tutoring jobs?

Helpful Books on "Help"?

swift — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:16:26 -0800

Great books for a newbie software help system writer/maintainer? I'm using RoboHelp 9, and have no formal technical writing training.

I'm not too concerned about the mechanics of RoboHelp itself (which has extensive built-in help, as you might imagine), but am looking for some guidance or canonical texts on writing and organizing help articles and technical documentation.

Should I stay or should I segfault?

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:39:07 -0800

Seeking advice on troubles with a project at work. What started out as a great project hasn't gone well of late, and I'm considering leaving. (I think this sounds oddly like a relationship question, and in a way it is. 16-bit snowflake details inside). I work as a programmer at a large company. About 18 months ago, I started a project with another guy to upgrade a piece of sub-par technology that we have (that is very central to our business). This project was quite ambitious, and something that I'm quite passionate about. The project has gone fairly well technically, in that we produced something that works fairly well, with some rough areas, and shows lots of promise to my mind (I'm obviously biased, but we have some supporters who confirm this point of view). We did this in a reasonable period of time for the project involved.

In terms of adoption however, things haven't gone well. The most obvious customers for our project are not really long-term thinkers (in my opinion, but members will admit this privately). They are a large group, and have reacted in a variety of ways (with some supporters), but the main decision-makers have subtly discouraged adoption within their group. There doesn't seem to be too much debate about whether our project is superior, it's basically coming down to a question of priorities (and by this, I mean that their main motivation seems to be to avoid committing to any extra work, no matter what the future consequences). Naturally enough, we did seek their approval before starting this project, which we got. What we didn't get was actual commitment, which I recognise as a mistake in hindsight. A change in management hasn't helped us here either.

My management is quite supportive of this (the project would be gone now, otherwise), and it would probably be beneficial career-wise for me to continue, regardless of how things turn out. I should add that we now have more people resources than we started with, though the project almost certainly wouldn't survive my leaving it. We've done some soul-searching of late, and some compromises have been made on both sides. However, this essentially means some changes in direction, and longer timelines to deliver (which i would estimate as being over 6 months away). Our customers still haven't fully committed to the project, but have agreed to some measures to make our lives less difficult.

This situation periodically upsets me, and I'm starting to feel somewhat depressed. I have trouble making progress at work when I'm not focussed. I feel like I've done an enormous amount of work, just to have the opportunity to do more work. I'm becoming very uneasy at the idea of another 6 months in project limbo. Though I'm not sure what I would do otherwise, I'm not worried about finding other opportunities. What does the hivemind recommend I do about this?

Where can I be a businessperson working with geeks?

rainydayfilms — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 08:48:27 -0800

How can I find a workplace that is largely geeks but requires a business person to do things like manage people, conduct business development, etc? Industries and specific companies would be super helpful. I am a good businessperson (strategic, no nonsense, smart) and love thinking about business problems. I also dislike some of the BS inherent in corporate life (tedious meetings, bureaucracy, and especially stupid people).

In a future career move I would like to be around really smart and capable geeks. For example, I have worked with lawyers, market research people and technology geeky people and I always get along really well with people who have these very specialized skills because I have two qualities that they like: I have curiosity and respect for their skills, and I do not waste their time (do my own due diligence before asking for help, prepare for conversations, follow up effectively).

I've thought about the following companies/types, and would also appreciate any insight from anyone with experience of them:

Google: seems awesome, but is it really corporate? (I like engineers)
Consulting: wouldn’t want the crazy lifestyle of Bain/BCG/McKinsey – is there a boutique firm with better lifestyle?
Start ups: how to find a good one?

More details on me if it’s helpful:

Experience:

I have worked in entertainment for almost all of my career (aside from internships at a magazine and with a non-profit, ill fated first job in fashion, and waitressing). I have written for TV, directed for TV, produced for TV, edited for TV, have an MBA from a top 5 school and currently work at an executive level at one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, with strategy and corporate sales experience. I’m in Los Angeles and would prefer to stay here.

Personality:

I cut to the point pretty quickly. Probably my biggest strength and my biggest weakness (I’m very tell, not ask), and people either love it (thank you for not wasting my time, being clear) or hate it (you didn’t dance around my feelings). I will do best in an environment where at least the people above me love it.

All that being said, I’m friendly and get along really well with a wide diversity of people. I am an extrovert yet sales does tax my limits of extroversion (I don’t want to stay out drinking really late with co-workers, thank you).

I am very confident and am a woman in a largely male workplace, which can be challenging. At the same time, working with all women (I have done that a few times) is a world of passive aggression I do not want to visit again. Ideally it’s 50/50 men/women, but I’m comfortable with 70/30 if I am respected and given opportunities for advancement. (I do tend to be well respected and well liked by smart men, stupid or insecure men tend to dislike me/find me threatening - I know, at least 50% my problem for probably treating them as if they are stupid)

After reading that - what pops into your mind as the perfect company/industry?

Technical Trainer Job Interview Help

white_devil — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:38:45 -0800

Help me with what I should expect from a technical trainer job interview. I just got a call from a company I've been contracting for in a product management position and they want to interview me for a technical trainer opening. The position involves a product portfolio I've worked with on both the product management and technical side for the last 8 years. I've also done marketing and project/product management presentations for many of these products in the past. The issue is I've never interviewed for this type of job before and don't really know what to expect. I trained plenty of folks while in the Air Force but it was always in one on one, hands-on type environments. I just wonder what type of questions I should expect and what types of experiences from my career I should stress. Thanks for any insight in advance!

Get files off an OS X hard drive

slowtree — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:27:07 -0800

Recover Files from an partially corrupt hard drive My Wife has a 3 year old Intel Imac who's hard drive was on its way out. She took it to a local Tech and had the hard drive replaced. We now have the old drive and she would like to recover some Photoshop files that are still on it. Assuming its not completely dead, would we be able to purchase an external enclosure and use it to plug it into the mac? If this was a windows PC i would be more on my game but I'm not familiar with OSX and how the drives are partitioned . We basically hope to drill down to the specific folder and recover the old actions she had configured. What type of enclosure should we buy and will this even work?

How To Topics?

MrningLight — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:16:22 -0800

I have a technical writing background but haven't written a technical piece in a long time. Can you come up with some good topics for me to write about? I can't seem to think of anything. I have a minor in Technical Writing from the 90's. I also created a proprietary manual a few years ago that I have no access to.

I'd like to create a few basic "how to" pieces that illustrate how I write such documents.

Thanks!

Dawn

Has nothing changed in the past 8 years?

pwnguin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:25:04 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good technical / business writing book? I took a technical writing for engineers class in undergrad, and kept the book, which I find myself referring to when writing resumes, job applications and proposals. But sometimes I wonder how relevant it remains in an era where most writing happens in email. I also wonder if the resume writing and cover letter advice is well received by people making hiring decisions.

For those who prepare written documents regularly on the job: is there a better book people working in the field recommend for preparing and formatting reports, proposals, and other written communication?

Hiring managers: are there books with advice you like on the subject of resumes and cover letters?

Help me find an off the shelf video system for documenting a technical process.

jackofsaxons — Sat, 01 May 2010 19:53:57 -0800

Help me find an off the shelf video system for documenting a technical process. I'm looking for something that is conceptually similar to the system that Google uses for scanning books. The idea is that a person sits at a desk performing a technical task, assembling and disassembling different items, and there are multiple cameras that are pointed at the item they are working on. The person can trigger video recording of their task, and either all of the cameras record at the same time, or different cameras can be triggered for different points of view.

I don't even know what to call something like this, but does it exist?