By Becky Rude

Last issue we looked at EBSTC newsletters from the 70s. This issue includes excerpts from newsletters written in the 80s. I hope you find them as entertaining as I did!

Better Manuals: After All These Years

Most of the seminars I attend at conferences do not have a significant effect on what I do at work. But occasionally a talk is so well done that I get a fresh outlook on technical writing. The 1989 International Technical Communication Conference (ITCC) had a fair share of such insightful moments, especially with regards to writing manuals…

I will start with the two most humorous and quotable comments that I can recall. They were both made by [Edmond] Weiss. He began one of his talks by noting, "If the computer was human it would never get out of the shower, because shampoo bottles read 'lather, rinse, repeat'"…

  • Golden rule of documentation —never put into a manual something you loathed when it was put to you.
  • Guessing is not understanding.
  • Users of manuals are constantly forced to distinguish the important from the irrelevant.
  • Down with the paragraph. Nobody reads blocks of text anymore. We must use such things as itemized lists, italics, graphics, bullets, charts, and diagrams.
  • Leadership in developing manuals is not coming from technical writers. It's coming from human factors people. Yet technical writers have become the best users of computing systems and they should get more involved in the development of documentation design and improved computer interfaces.

—East Bay Log, August 1989, Russell Kahn, East Bay Chapter President

Laughing Communicators

It's been several days since computer comic St. Silicon spoke at the STC Chapter meeting and I'm still exhilarated about the experience. How wonderful to sit for an hour and just laugh.

I should mention that St. Silicon is a professional comic who …has appeared all over the country at conferences… Also, the talk gave him an opportunity to promote his book, "The Binary Bible," which he sold after the meeting at a deep discount.

I find myself reading from the "Bible" during breaks at work and inevitably cracking up from the contents. Here's a few listings from its glossary.

Buffer-IN What you take to cure Information indigestion.
Mt. Sign-on The place where the Ten Commandments were downloaded.
PCness Envy

The fear that someone else's computer has more RAM than yours.

—East Bay Log, June 1989, Russell Kahn, Outgoing East Bay Chapter Program Manager

Calling Saint Silicon

Saint Silicon, also known as Jeffrey Armstrong, is a computer evangelist who has been featured in publications as diverse as the San Francisco Chronicle and Discover Magazine. His commissioning came one stormy night in his Santa Cruz home. Lightning struck his satellite dish, he says, while he was at his computer keyboard. When he came to, he lifted up his head and there on the screen was the "Keyboard Prayer."

"Our Program who art in Memory, Hello be Thy Name. Thy Operating System come, Thy Commands be done, at the Printer as it is on the Screen. Give us this day our daily Data, and forgive us our I/O Errors as we forgive those whose Logic Circuits are faulty. Lead us not into frustration, and deliver us from Power Surges, for Thine is the Algorithm, the Application, and the Solution, looping forever and ever. Return."

—East Bay Log, February 1989, no writer listed

Note from Becky: Jeffrey Armstrong apparently retired from appearing as Saint Silicon a few years ago. He is now a motivational speaker, astrologer, and author. See his Web site.

A New Kind of Technology

If you have trouble organizing your documents, try Stapler, a useful and versatile desk accessory. Available in many models and styles, Stapler can be used to hold together multiple pages of an article or memo, to attach a routing slip to your revised draft, or as an attractive paperweight…

It's not necessary to use the install disk to install Stapler. Simply place it right on your desktop next to your computer. The Stapler User Manual gives you all the information you need to install Stapler properly.

Stapler is a cinch to use. After printing a multi-page document to a laser printer, remove the sheets from the printer tray and tap them gently on the tabletop or another flat surface to align their edges. Then insert the upper-left corner of the papers into Stapler at the desired angle, and press Stapler firmly…

Stapler starts at $1.99 for the manual version (electric models are also available). The package includes Stapler, a User Manual, and a package of compatible staple hardware (electric models also include a power cable and plug). Stapler is fully compatible with both Macintosh and IBM.

—East Bay Log, April 1989, no author listed

Have We Changed?

From STC Intercom, Special Report

Today's "typical" STC member is a college graduate, a writer or editor in the computer industry, uses a computer or word processor daily, and commands an annual salary of $34,000. This profile of the Society for Technical Communication membership emerges from an analysis of the responses to a recent survey...

—East Bay Log, January 1989

A Book for All Time

The Writer's Pocket Almanack by R. John Brockmann and William Horton, published by InfoBooks, Santa Monica, California, 1988, 182 pages, $7.95

Although I make it my practice to not judge a book by its title, here is a title that you can take to the bank. In The Writer's Pocket Almanack, John Brockmann and Bill Horton have indeed fulfilled the promise of its title. They have published a book rife with clever and timely quotations, maxims and common wisdom clearly germane to those of us who make our living crafting with words. This little book even fits in your back or jacket pocket. But beneath the surface of this work is an extraordinary commentary on the art, science, magic and toil of written communication through the ages.

The "Broken Quill Award" is a particularly interesting feature that appears throughout this work to present exemplary poor writing, poor thinking and generally bad ideas. One of my favorites goes to an Australian Defense Department manual for this entry:

3.3.12.3.2.2.10 POINTER SEQUENCE
see paragraph 3.3.12.3.2.1.12

…The Writer's Pocket Almanack is a clear winner in the growing field of books about books…

—East Bay Log, January 1989, Christopher Juillet

Note from Becky: This book is hard to find, but you can still order it on Amazon.com for only $9.95. I'm waiting for my copy!

The Color of Printers

For those of you who need any more reason to attend our February meeting, I've booked a demonstration of a truly important product in our profession: the first Postscript color printer…

The truth is Americans have always been wild about color, which makes sense, since life is in color. When was the last time you watched a black-and-white movie, read a black-and-white magazine, shot a roll of black-and-white film, or ate a chocolate cream pie? Sorry, scratch that last part, just wanted to see if you were reading closely.

…Why haven't color printers and color photocopiers followed the trend? Economics, of course: they cost too much. But that may be changing and perhaps the QMS Colorscript will help usher in the inevitable.
Here's what Publish! magazine had to say about the Colorscript 100:

Are you still spending days waiting for expensive Cromalins before you can see the results of your full-color work? For $21,995 up front, plus maybe a dollar per page for consumables, the Colorscript 100 gives you 300-dpi color proofs on demand...

…And remember, once the technology is in place, prices are bound to come down. Maybe some day you'll tell your kids: "I remember the first time I ever saw a quality desktop color printer. It was back before the turn of the 21st century, back in 1989..."

—East Bay Log, February 1989, Russell Kahn

Budget Buster

Electronic publishing systems have been our most popular meeting topic, and again in February we had a large turnout when Qubix Graphic Systems of San Jose demonstrated their technical illustrator's workstation.

…Qubix provides electronic versions of the standard drawing tools: T-square, triangle, pencil, eraser, French curve, template, and compass. Drawing is done with a sonic pen (similar to a light pen, but with finer definition), and the keyboard is used mainly to type callouts, name files, and call up menus.

…One stand-alone workstation costs $65,000... The price includes a 19-inch screen, Sun 68000 microprocessor, 4-megabyte memory, 160-megabyte hard disk, 60-megabyte tape backup unit, 300-dot/inch Canon laser printer, Unix operating system, all software and fonts, and two weeks of training. Justifications for the cost include reduced drawing time, ease of making changes, and rapid response.

—East Bay Log, March 1986, Bruce Harris

The Devil Mountain Views -- Mar/Apr 2002
(ebstc.org/newsletter/front.html)
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