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November 28, 2009

How

Fast forward a few years to the end of Grammar School, which for me was my 6th grade year and in a different school. Moving between the 5th and 6th grades is not recommended. I really hated to write, and I was just clumsy. I was defiant. I took the zero on that 3rd grade story, and began my downward slide in the field of spelling. Writing was no longer fun. It was a chore. Writing a final draft of an essay or a paper with a ball point pen and a bottle of white out is tedious, if nothing else.
 
If I could only use a typewriter, it might help take some of the pain out of the task. I even got the task of typing up the program for a 6th grade play. I was given three ditto-masters, which did not allow the use of white-out. I goofed up the first one badly, and this was after typing a corrected draft to work from. The ancient IBM Selectric that Mom had was an awesome machine, and it was like firing a gun every time you pressed a key.
 
It took a long time for me to re-embrace words, and the whirring of that Selectric was became hypnotic. Every time I sit in front of a keyboard, that whirring becomes the sound of the engine in my brain that spins out words. I got exposed Video Display Terminals in Junior High though a special after-school program, and learned a bit of BASIC in the 7th grade.
 
I quickly learned where the backspace key was. The ability to correct a mistake told me exactly one thing: paper is for artists and printers, not typing on with a typewriter. The backspace key — called Rub Out on some terminals — quickly became my favorite key. Aside from the space bar, it was the only key that I knew the exact placement of. Later, the ability to backup, insert, remove, copy, paste, etc., all re-enforced my silly notion that composing at a keyboard was more efficient and effective than using pencil, paper, typewriter, etc.
 
Getting to High School and into the computer programming class a year early as a Freshman, my time-on-keyboard began to increase, as did my skill at pounding the correct keys on a QWERTY keyboard. The special keys still made me look down, but I was quickly learning the finger patterns that correspond to the keywords of the Applesoft BASIC language. It was somewhere along the time when I was writing tons of code in BASIC and my teacher came along with a barbed compliment in the form of a five point deduction on a working piece of code.
 
"You can solve lots of problems with code, but you've got to give accurate instructions. Spelling matters."
 
I began to work on tools that would let me take my programs and stuff them through a spell checker. It was not easy, but I made it happen using Applesoft and disk I/O. I came up with a way to spell check my code. I figured that if I could get close, well, I should get a chance to correct it, and I did, but it was extra work. Punctuation was another matter entirely, and over the years, I've had to work to get it up to par. I edit out way too many comma-splices, but that's what a dynamic editor is for.
 
I got through College on a copy of WordPerfect if I remember correctly. I even re-used my old Epson FX-80 from my Apple //e. Where a current laser printer could print several pages per minute, the FX-80 ran for several minutes per page, so finding a typographical error on a document that takes so painfully long to render, helps make you be a slightly better proof reader on the screen.
 
Of course, I have a standard office mini-tower machine at work now, and I use other regular size computers once in a while, but the bulk of my key pounding is on a portable computer of one kind or another. Having been slapping the backspace key for three quarters of my life, I've gotten used to learning a different keyboard now and again. You are truly best-off if you don't get frustrated easily and take a good look. It can take up to two weeks for me to get really familiar and up to speed on a new keyboard.
 
Because I use portable machines allot, I tend to favor the short-throw scissor mechanism that is found in quality laptops. Full size is a big plus, and is not to be underrated. Because I play Final Fantasy XI, on Consoles, Laptops and Computers, I've acquired a number of keyboards that litter my living room, and accompany me on travel as a backup, just in case. Go ahead an laugh, but a serious rider has his own saddle, and I have my own keyboard.
 
When it comes to work, I still use a full size, monster keyboard with a throw so long you can almost get your fingers permanently wedged between the keys. While not my idea of a good time, I usually limit my interaction on these junkers to running diagnostic tests, etc. I'm not planning to write a book on a junker, just run a machine now and again. When I am done, I toss said junker keyboard underneath my lab bench until I need it again. Somehow, when you're getting paid, things are a little different.
 
The How of Writing includes not only the physical act of writing, but the placement of words on the page, or on display. With varying tab widths, and little need to worry about the cost of paper, the indent to begin a paragraph has been largely replaced by a line break. This gives an electronic composition an almost road-stripe appearance when you look at the forest and not the trees. More white space means more time to think, and in an e-mail, the presence of additional white space invites the reader to read even more "between the lines." It is for this reason that I struggle to keep the single line of white space, and treat it as a punctuation mark.
 
Like a comma, white space influences the cadence of the reading experience. I've never been a speed reader, but I am sure that you need to pay attention to punctuation, and sometimes, you need a clue to slow down and spend an extra moment. In the case of extra space between paragraphs, it gives the reader an opportunity to reflect or briefly create a new realm or context of consideration, such as a comment or an inset quote that requires special attention. The block formatting of text helps when display widths are uncertain, or there is a difference between the width of the entry window and display window.
 
It was during the update of this entry that I encountered and unfortunate error that lost some inspired work. While it may have been possible to recover the work, I did not record the error code, and when I pressed the back button, the text in the entry window reverted to when I originally opened it. Navigating forward to get the error code did not work, and I got a page expired error. Talk about a blogging experience? Here it is live and real. How will I prevent it? It's called WordPad folks. It was included in Windows XP, and it is a Rich Text editor just like the blogger post entry window, so I should have little difficulty with a cut an paste operation.
 
By using a simple external editor, you can save yourself the loss of a hour or more of precious work, if you are doing the written-word thing. It might be worse when I go forward with experiments and other techniques, we shall see. Like I did in the past, I will now be moving work from one realm to another to accomplish the spell check. I'm such a spell-check addict, that if spell check were a pay-per-use on some editor in the cloud, I would go broke or learn to spell better really quick. To protect myself from going broke, I claimed the idea beforehand in the original post. Is it a coincidence that my original recording of the idea of pay-per-use spell check was swallowed by Google? Time will tell. I made a timestamped file right after the event with the idea, so I'm covered. I am sure that I can subpoena the records if necessary. There were many successful saves in the session, and I have confidence that there is plenty of storage space at Google for the log file with every differential update.
 
This is the first data loss that I have encountered in the three months since I started using Blogger. The only other problem that I encountered has been with the hard-return expansion setting. I never came to peace with that setting, and every time I open a draft for re-editing, I have to take out all of the line breaks. This is not a problem for my short update daily blog, which is designed to be a minimum of one full window, if slightly more. It works out to about 250 words. This blog is a different story, and it is more than annoying to have to collapse the paragraphs every time.
 
I am sure that I am in for a new set of problems using WordPad. You probably have other solutions, perhaps even using a full-blown publishing application to crank out html code that you just post via direct update, and you'd never consider using the editor provided for fear of the unknown or some other equally valid reason. I just know I got burned and I don't like the feeling at all, and it's all part of the blogging experience. I'll write more as I try the copy-paste method of using the spell check in the still open Blogger window, after I finish re-recording the lost keystrokes.
 
This brings to mind the experience I had when working on a term paper in High School. Having finished the paper at a friend's house, and writing a tidy summation and nice ending, I leaned back in satisfaction and stretched. My foot hit the power switch on the power strip, and I had not saved the file to the floppy. Then, like now, I am recovering. The only loss event that I can compare to these are the disappearance of five years of outbound e-mail at work. 95% of what I said survives in the form of reply messages or carbon copies as my reply filters through the chain of command, so it's fairly recoverable. In this most recent case, we all benefit from my unfortunate experience.
 
Regardless of the media you present on your blog, a general format or structure for updates can be helpful. I just did what I normally do when confronted with a subject and message box, I started writing like it was an e-mail in an existing conversation that did not need an address. I also leave the title blank until the end, at least on my fictional blog. This blog is a bit more directed, and as you have guessed, you can expect to see all five H's and I think you already got the W. For now, the title is coming first, and I am apt to shuffle the order due to the importance of the new information contained herein.
 
I admitted earlier that I like to work ahead, and since this is a new project, I am going forward to get the pipeline filled. This is the reason that the data loss was only a minor annoyance. While it is a rarity, it does happen, so please be prepared, and used the appropriate tool for the job you are doing. It's always good to have a backup, and every minute of good writing time is valuable. In the case of writing these long format updates, the use of an external editor is a good choice, I still like the immediacy of the regular post editor, and the fact that the cloud can support publishing applications through a standard browser. The internal editor is also adequate for minor edits and spell check, but be sure to take the edits back to your external editor before you save.
 
For the record, the paste operation into the Blogger editor box worked as expected, and what was displayed with the line breaks in WordPad was displayed in the online Old Editor with no breaks between paragraphs. This paragraph is going in via the Editor, just to tempt fate. An autosave occurred 1 minute ago. It brings up a missing comment, that if I were to go from Blog to Book, I would insist on the paper saving re-formatting of the single blank line to an indented paragraph. I am sure a professional editor would agree.
 
The paste-back for the save did not work exactly as expected the first time, but using WordPad as an external editor will work if you remember that WordPad uses the line break as a paragraph indicator, and that you have to add an extra one if you want it to show up on the blog. If you do this, it appears when you paste it in, and it is stable going though the normal draft process. As long as you do not add more paragraphs, you will not affect the spacing. Do the paragraph adding in WordPad, and fix the innards in the internal editor. Rough cut and polish. The cycle of writing.
 
The tools available today are useful and effective, allowing a myriad of expression types to blossom and flourish. For those that can and do read the manuals for their gear, and experiment with all of the settings and adjustments to expand the creative palate, there is an infinite canvas of expression and communication, with the potential for synergistic growth to be explored and populated. How you adapt your skills and bring you own brand of blog to the world is your gift. Explore it. Express it.

November 22, 2009

Welcome!

Not long ago, I knew nothing about blogging except that I had fun reading one particular blog and kept checking back when the author went on hiatus. I read the entire thing, from the first post to the current, and at times, laughed myself silly and had people wonder what I found so funny. Yes, I was in my cubicle, and yes, I was on my break time. It took several days to read all of the posts. I just left an extra browser window up for the several days that it took.

Over the years, I have flipped through various blogs that I have come across, and been intrigued with the depth and detail of the illustrations, storytelling and the myriad subjects that drive people to express themselves in the blogosphere. I gave thought to the idea of starting a blog, and after due consideration, I satisfied all of the criteria that I'd distilled from a few years of observation and a fair bit of research.

Considering that I was an HTML illiterate, and knew it, I counted on my strong background in Computer Science. I learn what I need to when I need to. So far, so good, but that lack of knowledge definitely influenced the concept and scope of my first blog. Things are going well, and there is enough material now that it qualifies as an online novel. I'll let you go find it.

When you are in control of when you post, if you are just starting out, there is a danger of burnout. It happens. Only discipline can overcome this danger, by preventing it in the first place. You have to know your limits, or set them in advance. This is not my first blog post, and I do maintain a blog with daily update frequency. There are some tricks to pulling off such an ambitious project. Even users of Twitter have discovered, micro-blogging is still writing, even with all those abbreviations that they use.

If you are anything like me, writing consists of pushing the correct buttons on a keyboard, and there is an optimal size for these buttons. If you're going to write a blog, it's probably going to involve typing, so get a good keyboard. If you're a keyboard slouch, a text oriented blog might not be for you. Writing by hand and scanning the posts might be an alternative, but that will still involve interacting with a computer, scanning the original, and then stuffing it into the same editor that you use if you were a written word blogger. I think typing is much more efficient, and it takes less equipment.

Perhaps a photo-blog is more your style. This works, and I do agree that a photo is worth 1,000 words or more, but there is one small problem — photos take space, and that means that they will take time to transfer across the various segments of the Internet. If you're on a cable modem, you've got great download speed, but the upload speed may not be to your liking. If you're an accomplished photographer, and size your images for the Internet, then go for the photo-blog approach.

Video blogging is yet another approach, and You Tube is a popular site for hosting your own videos in the format of a television channel. Pod-casters can produce their own audio programs and distribute them as well. Some blogs become multimedia archives, and that's one of the reasons that I've created this blog — to provide a vehicle for experimentation and then talking about how I do some of the things that I do.

Regardless of the main medium of your blog, you're going to be using a computer and that is a task that I've integrated into my world. I even studied computers in College and got a nifty certificate for doing that piece of work. I've written lots of code in several languages, and in all of the cases, the comments, like this, are more important than the code itself. Writing code is really a dual audience publication — for the compiler and for you, because you're not going to remember why you wrote the code the way you did — but I digress.

The central theme here is that Blogging is a creative activity that will require time. What you write on a blog, you intend for anyone and everyone in the world to read, and perhaps comment upon. While there is some degree of control being an blog author, you are still putting yourself out there to be judged, and even inviting it. Only time will tell if the risk is worth it for you.

I've managed to carve an interesting niche in the blogosphere, and I am enjoying watching it grow. I've had some of my friends tell me that they want to blog, and ask me how I do it. It is for these people, that I create this site. Call it my technical support self, I consider this blog a time saver. I've been asked often enough personally, that by writing this blog I will ultimately save time and help all those that ask. Therefore I share my experience, and I invite other bloggers to chime in and share theirs via comments. Feel free to plug your blog and advertise your wares.

If you're thinking of starting a blog, and you're interested in support help, just use the contact link on the right and send off a message. It'll just prove that you've learned your way around a keyboard.