Month: August 2008

Don’t be the secretary

I’m about to head into a two day, brainstorming style, workshop. I was invited along as there will be a lot of useful information flying around, and it’s the beginning of a new stream of work. I will spend the next two days with the people who know most about our product and have already made it clear that my presence will be participatory, not dictationary!

I was quite adamant about this, to the point of being slightly abrasive, as it’s something that happens a little too often. Whilst they may not realise it but asking a technical writer along to “take notes” is basically asking us to sit quietly in the corner and “write stuff”. Because that’s what we do, right?

Part of me gets really annoyed when this type of thing happens, but part of me realises that I probably do the same to other professions. What we, as technical writers, consider important is not the same as that of the developers or engineers and that will never change.

I’m happy that, when I was invited to the workshop on the premise of “taking notes”, it only took a quick chat to persuade the technical architect that what he really wanted from my presence was actually the main focus of the workshop. Whilst we will be reworking (prototyping) some code, it’s not anything we can use and so the bulk of the output from the two days will be in the form of guidelines and best practice information.

And that I can help with.

Can't Blog, Won't Blog

I should write up my thoughts on the Olympics as they are now over.

I should mention that I managed a 15 minute jog this morning.

I could write something about the cat.

I could write something about my sister’s engagement (party next week).

I could write about the Wii Fit we were given as a present on Friday night.

I could write up how old my Gran is looking these days, and how many memories it brings back of watching my Grandpa slowly fade.

I could publish the beginnings of a rather crap short story I’ve had sitting in draft for months.

I should ask if anyone knows the maximum dimensions for hand luggage on a Ryanair flight.

But I can’t, I won’t.

This may be the fault of Twitter – if I’m updating there I’m still getting my ‘communicate with people online’ fix out of the way – or it may just be because I can’t be arsed.

No, that’s not true. It’s not because I don’t want to but because I just can’t seem to get started on anything. I had hoped procrastinating on the topic may have helped but, alas, no.

Next week will be a busy one, both at work and at home, so don’t expect much from me here. Mind you, no doubt I’ll be twittering for Scotland. Catch me there.

The post with no title*

I was working at home yesterday as our car decided it was bored with it’s old brakepads and would quite like new ones please, and no it wouldn’t stop making that horrid grinding noise (which meant new rear discs as well, ouch).

I also had another physio session, more ultrasound and another lung-busting, leg shredding session on the “stepper”. After that, 30 squats with my heels raised whilst holding a medicine ball out in front of me was… interesting. I’m taking the approach that in the long term it will only make me stronger, right?

That aside I took advantage of working from home to run some lengthy backups of my home PC, and I also managed to update 3 WordPress blogs to version 2.6.1. As long as you haven’t hacked any of the core WP files the process is rather simple and only requires a few steps. All in, excluding upload time, it takes less than 5 minutes.

Last night we went to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX in Glasgow. It was quite something, some of the scenes are stomach-tiltingly awesome and the sound was loud enough to rumble your seat! As for the film itself, I thought it was excellent, a little drawn out but carried well. Needless to say Heath Ledger was the star, and I do wish they’d cast Maggie Gyllenhal in the first movie as well (way better than Katie Holmes).

And, finally, I updated my iPhone with the latest version of the software and, as before, it was a smooth and simple process. Admittedly they do seem to replace the ENTIRE operating system, meaning a 270-odd MB download, but I did read a few reports of people still having issues. It is certainly in the minority though, and to paraphrase a comment I read on this very issue “what the hell do you guys DO with your iPhones that you are continually having problems?”.

Or, to paraphrase a colleague of mine “sucks to be you!”.

* Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that this was originally posted with no title, and also that when I did add a title I used the word “tittle” instead. Which, apparently, one reader believes are “happy boobs”.

Lazynet iPhone request

Dear iPhone Developers,

This may exist already, but if it does I haven’t seen it. I’d really like an application that turns off all system sounds except the alarm clock between preset hours. If it could be activated when the iPhone is docked that would be even better, and finally if it could somehow keep the display turned on then that would be excellent!

You see I’d quite like to use my iPhone as an alarm clock.

Now, I can do that right now by setting an alarm but that means that I’ll still have email notifications playing. Of course I could turn them off every night, and back on in the morning again but that’s a little bit more hassle than is needed.

I also like having a clock next to the bed so that I know the time when I wake up, so keeping the display turned on would be great (especially if I can use the Digital Clock app).

Hmmmm, ok I think that’s it.

Ohh and yeah, I’d pay a couple of quid for this. Get to it!

Sincerely,

Gordon “Probably could build it himself but can’t be arsed” McLean

Modest Mentoring

Scott Nesbitt over at DMN Communications recently posted about mentoring and yes, I am quite flattered that I am mentioned…

I have been a team lead/manager at three different companies, cutting my teeth the first time as the youngest and most inexperienced member of the team at Dr. Solomon’s (the anti-virus people, bought by McAfee) standing in for a couple of months whilst a new department head was hired. Needless to say I didn’t do much mentoring there, as I was still largely learning my trade.

The second position was my best learning experience, with a small company that went through a couple of boom/bust cycles. I learnt a lot about myself, the role of technical communications within a software company and as I was hiring and building a team I spent a fair amount of time mentoring some of the technical writers I worked with.

But not all of them.

I’ve never been afraid of hiring someone with more experience, better knowledge or better skillset. Part of that is acknowledging my own weaknesses, and partly it is knowing that a good team requires the right people with a good range of complementary skills.

That said, I have worked with a few less experience technical writers and I do enjoy that process and the challenges it can bring. As I’ve recently been trying to allude, the considerations our profession requires can quite perplexing, and it’s good to talk through such things as, frequently, I too will learn something from those discussions.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think that being a good mentor is as much about listening and learning as it is about guiding and teaching. I should really run this past my parents as they are both teachers and I’m sure will have a view on this kind of thing.

Today though, the role of mentor is fulfilled in a different way. We all have access (limited or otherwise) to some very very smart people in our industry, and whilst I do bemoan the noise on such places as TechWR, it’s true to say that I’ve learned a lot about what I do (and why I do it) from some of the people on that mailing list.

With that in mind it seems to me that the wisdom of the crowd is the new mentor, and that the next time someone asks us why we bother with blogs, twitter, mailing lists and so on, that that is the answer we give.

After all, everyone needs a mentor.

A night in Edinburgh

For the past few years my mate Keith has worked in Edinburgh producing the lighting for the Military Tattoo. I’ve never managed to get across to see him, or any of the Edinburgh Festival before, until yesterday.

He gets accommodation for the few weeks he is there, and as luck would have it there was a spare bed last night. So I packed an overnight bag and hopped on the train, meeting Stuart who was coming through for the night. There were no real plans, just a few beers, dinner and maybe a show if the mood took us.

And we did just that, partaking of a few shandies, and a rather good Thai meal in a nice restaurant tucked away down Old Assembly Close (I think, it’s a couple down on the right from Fleshmarket close). We then managed to get a couple of tickets to watch the Jim Rose circus. Keith knew someone who was working on the show so we got in for nothing which was just as well as it was gratuitous nonsense.

That said, I can now say that I’ve seen a woman spurt blue paint from her arse onto a canvas… can you?

It was a good night, followed up by pancakes and bacon for breakfast. However I am a little fuzzy still, age making hangover recovery just that little bit longer.