Sunday, July 23, 2006

A new generation of space enthusiasts Mike Taht and I see the the value of the space shuttle program differently, but I will admit to a certain excitement being in Orlando last Monday when the shuttle landed at Cape Canaveral. I dropped the kids off at DisneyWorld just in time for them to hear the sonic booms as the shuttle passed overhead (I missed it, driving the car on the freeway). Then, on Wednesday, we went to Kennedy Space Center for the full tour, including the Apollo/Saturn V display that's new since I was last there (in 1993). Son Willy had been pretty uninterested in the history of NASA and the manned space program— that is, until he walked into the building and saw a Saturn V rocket mounted overhead, then watched a film of an Apollo launch. Now he's hooked. 7:21:15 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

10 things to remember Michael McDonough's "Top Ten Things They Didn't Teach Me in Design School" could be a list of the top ten things no one teaches at any school, and applied to pretty much any discipline. #2 is especially relevant to technical writing: "95 percent of any creative profession is shit work." There's very little creativity, much less glamor, in the work. #9, "It all comes down to output," is also worth keeping constantly in mind; I forget it much too regularly. 7:13:11 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Summer reading, part 2 What I read in Florida: The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson. The book is gathering tremendous buzz, and I'd say it's well deserved. Anderson does a good job of explaining the concept, how it works, how to exploit it, why not every market is long-tail, and even describes some long-tail markets I wouldn't have thought of. My only quibble: it seems to me that, historically, resources that we have thought to be largely without cost (water, oil, air, trees) have eventually turned out to have tremendous costs in the long term. Digital storage has been getting less and less costly, but at the same time software and digital media have grown bigger and bigger as storage grows cheaper. Just because the cost of additional storage is trivial right now doesn't mean it will be the case forever. Consider, for instance, the power demands of Google's new data center in Washington. Eastern Standard Tribe, by Cory Doctorow. I love the way Cory grabs some current tech, combines it with a vivid imagination, and turns it into a plausible and only slightly SciFi story. Very clever, very smart, very fun. A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore. I have enjoyed all of Moore's books, and A Dirty Job is no exception. The first few pages were painful to read (they brought up some very unpleasant memories), but the rest of the story redeemed itself. Not many writers can get away with making fun of death, but Moore's done it, more than once. Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman. Not as compelling as American Gods, but certainly worth the read. There are also a few uncanny connections to A Dirty Job (Moore provides a cover blurb) that made it sometimes a challenge to remember which book I was reading. Also finished reading through Tom Peters' little Design book, one of his Essentials series. I always like reading Peters[~]he gets so excited! This book spends a bit too much time on branding, but some of his points on design are worth absorbing, especially as I'm working to get "design" adequately defined for my own use. 5:20:23 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

© Copyright 2002-2006 Fred Sampson. Last update: 8/1/06; 8:54:36 PM.