I use Captivate for a good amount of my business and my clients are very pleased with its output. It kept me from having to become a complete Flash guru in order to create simple Flash-based software demos.

Reconciling this with my penchant for using MadCap’s Flare software it must be understood that I back the best product for the best price. Right now I am a fan of Captivate, however there are some issues to consider, including the longevity of the product’s output.

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I’ve had several new clients talk to me about how to get their best bang for the buck when starting a SOHO-based web presence. Since Technical Communication is best built with a community in mind, this also fits for most Tech Writers and basically anyone willing to accept feedback.

With few exceptions, I recommend blogging. Here’s a great resource on corporate blogging etiquette that I found online quoted from http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/company-blogging-101/:

Company blogging 101

The easiest time to make a blogging gaffe is when you’re starting out. When you’re about to start blogging, ramp up slowly:
1) Ask someone experienced to read the first several blog posts you do. They can flag inaccuracies or tell you if you misjudged the tone of a post.
2) Write a few posts that you’re willing to throw away. You still get the practice, but without as much pressure.
3) Do a guest post or two on someone else’s blog first. At Google, we have lots of official blogs. It’s better to try things out as a guest before you step into the spotlight on your own blog.
4) Practice on forums first. For example, Google has a lot of discussion and help forums where Googlers chime in from time to time. For Googlers, that’s a great place to start. For other companies, find the most relevant forum and practice chatting with people (make it clear that you work for your company so that people don’t think you’re astroturfing).

blog,corporate blog,blogging 101,SOHO,web 2.0,technical communication

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Commander of the first African-American Unit  to fight for the Union in the Civil War, radical visionary and supporter of women’s suffrage, said in the essay titled:  Ought women to Learn the Alphabet? 

“There are duties devolving on every human being—duties not small nor few, but vast and varied,–which spring from home and private life and all their sweet relations. 

The support or care of the humblest household is a function worthy of men, women and angels…From these duties none must shrink, neither man nor woman; the loftiest genius cannot ignore them; the sublimest charity must begin with them. 

They are their own exceeding great reward; their self-sacrifice is infinite joy; and the selfishness which discards them is repaid by loneliness and a desolate old age. 

Yet these, though the most tender and intimate portion of human life, do not form its whole.  It is given to noble souls to crave other interests also, added spheres, not necessarily alien from these:  larger knowledge, larger action also; duties, responsibilities, anxieties, dangers, all the aliment that history has given to its heroes.  Not home less, but humanity more…”

There’s an argument for what responsible parenting is all about. 

Love,

Mom

web 2.0,website,website monitoring,bandwidth test,MadCap Flare,web authoring

I found this site while doing a security check of one of my clients’ access logs. I like it because it gives the quick load times of page elements.

Pingdom Tools

The Full Page Test loads a complete HTML page including all objects (images, CSS, JavaScripts, RSS, Flash and frames/iframes). It mimics the way a page is loaded in a web browser.

The load time of all objects is shown visually with time bars. You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file.

Every test also shows general statistics about the loaded page such as the total number of objects, total load time, and size including all objects.

Note: This version doesn’t load objects included in JavaScripts. We have also put a limit on the number and size of the objects that are loaded (to prevent the tool from downloading movies, for example).

I tested it with a site newly updated with MadCap Flare v2.5, redgriffins.org. Red Griffins is a quickly thrown together site I haven’t touched in three and a half years since going to the April 2004 decommissioning ceremony of my former squadron VS-38 known as the Red Griffins. I was a new daddy just a week later, and it’s been on the go ever since then.

films,blade runner,bladerunner,ridley scott,1982,80s films

So I came across this great little gem in surfing the web. My brother Mike and I are both fans of the Scott brothers (Ridley Scott and Tony Scott) and their great contribution to thinking man’s action films.

(Re)Visualize ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘I’m Not There’ » bigscreenlittlescreen.net

Blade Runner: Final Cut will be released to select theaters in late 2007 for a 25th-anniversary run, with a special edition DVD that includes the original theatrical version, the director’s cut, and “The Final Cut“, which will incorporate newly shot scenes and effects.

Mike and I grew up loving this movie from the moment it first came out. I mean, I was only ten or so and he was eight, but that’s always been the standout moment of the early ’80s. Watching it on TV when they started playing it on network, or with those old VHS tapes (rental of course) we had a great time.

I think I could quote the entire movie. I know he could.