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Currently, I am at home recovering from a recent surgery and so have been putting some extra time into my computing experience, aside from work responsibilities, to get my mind away from the physical experience of recovery. I am amazed at all of the Open Source programs that are available to users, it is really sometime quite remarkable.

Before my current employment with Qpay, I used a program called Open Office to do all of my word processing. Open Office is an open-source venture basically sponsored by Sun Corporation and the suite includes all the basic programs you will find in Microsoft Office: word processing, spreadsheets, simple databases, simple presentations, and a few other features. In fact, I used Open Office to write my book “365 Great Affirmations”. It was a superb experience. Today, I have a licensed copy of Microsoft Office on both my work and personal computers, but this is because I was able to afford the $150 cost of Microsoft Office for Small Business. However, not everybody is so fortunate.

Open Source is a real solution to the dilemma of expensive, mainstream software programs like Microsoft Office. The only problem you will find with Open Source programs is that of “help” or “assistance”. You might find yourself quite alone if you find an issue that you cannot resolve. You might have to consult a bulletin board or go online to join an Open Source community of some kind that has a focus on the program or suite you are using.

I recently tried to upgrade my Adobe Robohelp to the Adobe Technical Communications Suite, but experienced some corrupted files in the installation process. I was unable to resolve the matter, so finally decided to return the product and now I will only get my money back after about two weeks after the original shipping office tells their accounting office that I in fact shipped back the flawed DVDs. Adobe technical support was unable to help me get the Suite installed. Considering this experience along with the cost of the suite, I lost respect for Adobe and also the facade of the big software vendor name. I essentially tried to upgrade so I could also learn more with Captivate and Photoshop. But, it was not worth it. So, I let Adobe go, literally.

Now, I am going to try to find an open-source alternative to Adobe products. I will try to find a replacement for Robohelp, Captivate, and Photoshop. I am sure I am not the first person to cross a bridge like this where installation left your machine with some files installed and some other corrupted files that needed to be removed, but of course the uninstall feature of Windows still didn’t work. It is situations like this that has motivated the open-source movement from the beginning.

Where do I stand, at the end? Overall, I favor open-source, but will grant at least Microsoft a concession because both MS-Windows and MS-Office have performed exceptionally well in my experience. However, for other vendors, sorry, I am going open-source. Adobe is officially on my black list. Their software is not only over-priced, but also over-rated. Adobe treated me as a third class citizen and really did not fulfill its role to support the expensive cost of its product. So, it is time for me to move on and have faith that open-source is waiting for me, albeit with exceptional alternatives.

Do not let the issue of support deter you from going open-source. Don’t think for a moment that because you paid money to a company like Adobe that you will get support and respect for your business. Most of the help personnel are outsourced and located in India and outside the continental USA. It is most unfortunate. What is the solution: trust the open-source movement. Go online, find communities that support the programs you are using. You will make new friends and also discover that you can solve installation, end-user, and other issues that you thought you could not face, previously, on your own.

All The Best,

Keith

As we progress through life - adolescence, early adulthood, adulthood, and ahead, we learn alot, all of us. It is a blessing that through the Internet we can subscibe to literally hundreds of blogs and learn side by side with others through their experiences. This post is in that same spirit: sharing something that I have learned to benefit anyone who reads this blog, unconditionally.

What is the lesson or truth I wish to share? Quite simple. What we need to do is let go of ALL things that are not top priority. What are our most immediate (top two or three) concerns and needs? Write this down on a piece of paper or into your e-device (computer, iPhone, Blackberry, PDA, etc). This way, you can optimize your energy and truly focus. In this process, you will accomplish far more than if your energy was spread out over more projects or concerns, and you progress very little with each one. Simple enough? I certainly hope so.

All The Best,

Keith

When we turn on the television these days, there is an overwhelming amount of news about recession, crisis, and impending doom. It can truly seem overwhelming. However, we must remember something, and that is the simple truth that focus can deliver us from any potentially disastrous situation.

What we need to do is let go of things that are not on our top priority and literally let someone else worry about that. What are our most immediate concerns and needs? You should write down an answer to this question with no more than three or four statements. This way, you can optimize your energy and truly focus. In this process, you will accomplish far more than if your energy was spread out over more projects or concerns, and you progress very little with each one. Focus affirms a direction we have taken and that will eventually take us to our destination. This is not empty talk, I am speaking from direct experience on this one.

Go ahead and narrow your “essential worries or concerns” list to maybe three items, maximum. You will be really glad you did. After a while, as you invest more time and focused energy on these two or three items, eventually you will get things resolved and accomplished. You will have arrived at the summit of the mountain you just climbed. Well done

All The Best,

Keith
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The other night I saw a movie that I actually had to watch again. Why? Because of the great acting, scenes, and also controversial message of the movie, which was fiction yet inspired by true events.

In the movie Nothing But The Truth, a reporter of a prominent Washington D.C. newspaper finds out from a source that a neighbor of hers was actually a CIA operative in Venezuela during a controversial time when the White House was potentially involved in an assassination attempt there. According to the movie, U.S. Federal Laws prohibit an individual (the reporter’s source) from revealing the names of CIA operatives, as this potentially represents a breach in national security (again, according to the movie).

So, the majority of the movie is a battle between the federal government (Department of Justice, who has a special prosecutor on the case, played by Matt Dillon) and the reporter who is not willing to disclose her source. The prosecutor does not want to jail the reporter, but only wants to get the name of the source, but due to her strict confidentiality per the code of journalism of non-disclosure, she does go to jail and faces some tough times.

Ultimately, the message of the movie is about the First Amendment Right of Speech and how this stands up to issues of National Security and whether the federal government can successfully compel a journalist to reveal his or her sources, thereby forcing the journalist to breach his or her professional ethics code because of a potential breach in national security. In the movie, the journalist’s attorney, played by Alan Alda, was able to present the case to the Supreme Court, but they eventually ruled 5-4 in favor of national defense, thereby supporting the federal prosecutor’s efforts to force the reporter to reveal the name of the source.

I do not have any definitive answers to this issue, but it certainly was a movie that compelled me to watch twice. One of the greatest rights of a human being in the United States is the freedom of speech. However, does this Constitutional Right lose its status of “inalienable right” if there is a serious matter of National Security? Food for thought, especially when you consider just how the Mass Media is a main aspect of our modern society and culture.

As a Technical Writer, I spend most of my time documenting the front-end of computer software, that is, the user interface. A Technical Writer can also be asked to document source code itself, and that can be done with one of many open-source documentation tools available on the Internet today. However, one aspect of software development which often goes unnoticed by Technical Writers are databases. Many times, databases are closely monitored and controlled by administrators who only reveal database details to developers upon request, and they keep control and monitor databases very closely and carefully.

Should a Technical Writer worry about documenting a database? I believe so. A Technical Writer should, at the least, document the overall topology of the computer system which would necessarily include the databases and where they stand in relation to other aspects of the system. However, this still remains quite a superficial documentation of a database. My recommendation to Tech Writers who want to document a database is to go online and download a good book about SQL, which stands for Structured Query Language (SQL) which is used in both the open source MySQL database as well as the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 system. There are a few differences, but SQL is pretty much a standardized database language for database management.

I recently downloaded this one book about SQL. This is why I have entitled this blog post “Don’t Underestimate Your Database”. There is alot to learn and understand if you really want to write some meaningful documentation about the database, because you can end up documenting even specific queries and what they mean, so that laypersons reading your documentation can understand. Here is just an overview of the topics that this e-book contains, and believe me, this is more than just a one weekend reading, this book will require at least a month of hard-core study and practice before you can jump into a database and really catch on. Check it out…

1. Installation
2. Designing a Relational Database
3. Managing Databases, Tables and Indices
4. Manipulating Data
5. Retrieving Data
6. Operators
7. Functions
8. Multiple Tables
9. Exporting, Copying, and Importing Data
10. Transactions
11. Security
12. Performance Optimization
13. Backup and Recovery
14. Working with PHP and JAVA
15. Working with Dot Net (Microsoft)

See? Was I right or what? Believe me, databases are many times really big and comprise at least one-third of the computing environment of a company, at least in terms of hardware configuration, let alone code and data storage. So, spend some time to get to know the back-end of your system. You will be glad you did. One day someone might approach you and say “Hey there Tech Writer, where is the documentation on our database?” And, surprisingly, you will surprise them with a well-written and in-depth analysis of your company’s database and related components.

For those of you who have not yet heard, Microsoft has recently launched a new search engine as part of its Windows Live interface that is called “BING” (http://www.bing.com). At this point of my computing experience, I am pretty well-centered in Google. I have my homepage as www.google.com and also have a google e-mail account as my primary e-mail account. However, I must be fair: so far from what I have tested, BING is pretty cool and really generates some good results. I have searched on some pretty funky concepts, and the search results seemed to be on par with Google search results. OK, Microsoft good job so far, now can you really keep up with Google? Unfortunately, only time will tell us which search engine will prove better.

Over the past year (May, 2008 through May, 2009), I made over one-hundred posts to this blog, focusing primarily on technical writing and software. I have made only a few posts that relate to the complimentary side of professional life: one’s health. Should we take our health for granted? I say not. To have good health - in body and mind, we need to do our homework and take appropriate actions so that we can plan a course of action that will maintain our health over the long haul. When we are young, we think we can abuse our bodies by eating junk food, not exercising, and doing things that are potentially destructive. However, this lifestyle will soon catch up to us and then the suffering begins, unless you are some kind of god and not a human being.

I have decided to dedicate this post to Dr. Phil’s book called “Self Matters”. It is a great read. It will give you suggestions about mapping out a lifestyle that will, in the end, contribute positively toward your professional life and growth and stability. Dr. Phil is a tremendous individual in many ways, and I have enjoyed many of his books, this one being my very favorite.

Like many people, I have experienced the joy of health and the challenge of illness. The question is, how can one minimize the effects of illness and physical disabilities and stay on track with one’s life and one’s profession? Well, these kinds of questions are addressed in this book written by Dr. Phil. Again, he is an amazing individual and I really value what he says. He is truly dedicated to making the human experience the best that it can be and in this way, we can actualize in all of our activities, especially our professional ones.

Dr. Phil - Self Matters - one of his greatest books and I believe that this book will give you insights that are better than many other books when it comes to looking at your life as a whole and creating a bright future that includes sound body, mind, and spirit. Let me know your comments after you have read this great book. Thanks, Keith

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to everyone in the USA. If you get the chance, stop by your local Border’s Bookstore (that is, if there is one close by, otherwise just go online to www.borders.com), and you will see an amazing assortment of sales on books. Last night I picked up several books for exceptionally cheap prices and these prices should continue through today (Monday). So, for those of you who enjoy a good book or really need to buy a book on something specific, Border’s just might have the book you need at a great price. I found a remarkable Oxford Guide to Philosophy for $9.99 (US). I believe the normal price for this book is around $35.00 (US). Check it out, and you just might make a great discovery and addition to your book collection.

There is nothing more important for your career than information. You could even say that information is at the heart of “street” smarts, assuming you agree with me that information is at the heart of intellectual smarts. One of the biggest challenges of my work as a Technical Writer is the researching and discovery of relevant and useful information. You see, it is important that I write documents that my readers will grasp and remember. Technical Writers are not in the business of re-presenting existing blog posts, book information, or articles. Rather, it is our business to understand what we are documenting, so that readers can see things with a new degree of insight and understanding. And that begins with the development of one’s knowledge base.

I remember when I got my first Pentium One machine back in 1996 and American Online was still the leading dial-up web access around. At that time, you needed to order a copy of Encarta from Microsoft, or a similar encyclopedia-type program to have access to latest and most relevant information for your career, generally speaking (unless you were in graduate school, of course, then you would need your university’s library). Since then, times have changed drastically, and there is information available to you on the Internet that is absolutely incredible, and mostly for free.

I have downloaded over the Internet probably close to one-hundred e-books of all types: business, programming, database management, word processing, website development, and much more. When I say e-books I am talking about books from great publishers like Addison Wesley, Microsoft, Wrox, and McGraw Hill, some of the most prominent names in the publishing industry. How have they been able to provide such incredible books online? I’m sure that these books are posted hoping that one day you will actually buy the hard copy, and then they make money at that level. That is the extent of my vision about that.

The benefit of having great e-books like these, along with websites like Wikipedia and Wiktionary, are beyond measure. I have been able to challenge my current and present understanding of things continuously and to the point where I am constantly revising documents that can be improved, due to new understanding on my part.

This was the original vision of Bill Gates when he started his career with computer technology: the more information that people have at their disposition will radically help them with their lives, especially their professional lives. Information helps us to evolve as people because our minds are always wanting to achieve new levels of understanding. It will be fascinating as the Internet moves into its next phase beyond Web 2.0 called “The Symantic Web”. Huxley was right, it is a “Brave New World” and the availability of information helps us stay up-to-date and able to participate in this amazing period of technological history.

All The Best,

Keith

I love to work and I have to really program myself to relax and take a vacation. However, we cannot deny the fact that our lives are dualistic and we must treat each side of “the tao” if you will. In other words, if you put in a good and productive week, you should spend at least one day without working.

If you work for a whole year, you should put aside at least two weeks to relax and take a vacation. Why am I saying this? It is because when I first graduated from college, I worked more than sixty (60) hours a week between two different jobs. By day, I worked as a word processing specialist (in Boston) and by night and over the weekend worked as a bartender. However, after two years of this kind of lifestyle, I started to get repeated colds and got sick frequently. So, I eventually dropped the bartending and stayed with computers. During those two years (1989 through 1991) I experienced what it was like to burn the candle at both ends. At the beginning, there was a total adrenalin rush, but when holidays rolled around or as the summer rolled around, I realized that I had no life and that I was only a super-working-geek. It was no way to live, no matter the paycheck.

I wish for all of you who subscribe to this blog or who are just surfing the blog much better. I wish you a balance between work and your personal life. Take time to enjoy things that can nicely compliment your work: friends, family, music, theater, travel, continuing education classes, arts and crafts, sports, games, books, movies, good food and conversation, just to mention a few. Please, get a life because if you only focus on your work, one day as you step out of your workstation or usual work location, you will say to yourself “wow, so much work, and it is as though I am without any kind of outside life.” Again, facing something like this can indeed be avoided.

For example, many times when I get home after work, I practice my guitar. Many times, my girlfriend and I go for a nice brisk walk. There are many things to do that can nicely compliment your busy week and total dedication to your job and career. It is well worth it. Why? When you finally return from your personal activities, you will feel refreshed and will have new energy for your work. You will return with new insights into things perhaps you delayed over the past weeks or months. This is the magic of enjoying life a bit and creating a balance between work and personal activities.

If you are curious about the image of the beach above, it is from the beautiful coast of Cancun, Mexico, one of my very favorite vacation getaways of all times.