Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Geoff Hart's piece on tech comm myths, originally printed in STC's Technical Communication and reprinted on the TECHWR-L site, caught Scoble's notice: Ten technical communication myths. Technical Communication: Ten technical communication myths. When you pay closer attention to the rules you obey, consciously or otherwise, and question why, you can start to recognize the disabling aspects of a myth and begin taking steps to free yourself from those constraints. [The Scobleizer -- Celebrating the Geek lifestyle] My favorite is Myth #6: You can Make a Bad Interface Easy to Use Through Superior Documentation. I keep telling people that the main reason I'm interested in HCI and interface design is that a bad interface is impossible to document, while a good interface doesn't need documentation (or better yet, documents itself). 7:28:42 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Scary stuff Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts. The group, which included 20 Nobel laureates, said that the White House has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals. By James Glanz. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Of course the White House denies politicizing science, but the scientists know better. We've seen what happens when dogma trumps science--dark ages, curtailed progress, stigmatized scientists. Bad deal. Likewise: Panel Urges Bush to Fund Climate-Change Research. President Bush's plan for clarifying the causes and impacts of climate change can succeed only if the research is shielded from political pressures and if budgets grow, a panel said. By Andrew C. Revkin. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Seems Bush would rather spend billions on pie-in-the-sky missions to Mars instead of saving the planet we have. 7:15:12 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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