Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
You Should Purchase Flare?
I routinely receive emails from Madcap Software, the company that sells Flare, which is a direct competitor to RoboHelp. Usually, I don't invest a lot of time, if any, in reviewing the email, but I just did. When I went out to the case study for HP - http://www.madcapsoftware.com/case-study/hewlett-packard-enterprise-uses-madcap-flare.aspx - I wasn't blown away. In fact, the first help system I reviewed didn't have icons in the output:
So then, I went to look at another example, and saw an entirely different look & feel from the first system:
Now, I understand that there are different audiences and such, but it looks as if the authors at HP really don't know what the hell they are doing. First of all, there's the icons not displaying in the first screen capture; in the second screen capture, the layout of the glossary is totally different. That took me back to the case study where I read this:
To me, that tells me that whether you use Flare or not, there will be inconsistency. Why is the Glossary in the first screen capture laid out with the letters across the top while the Glossary in the second screen capture does not have those letters? If Flare is such a great tool, why would it allow icons to not display and why would the authors chose to have two Glossaries with different layouts?
I don't have the answer.
So then, I went to look at another example, and saw an entirely different look & feel from the first system:
Now, I understand that there are different audiences and such, but it looks as if the authors at HP really don't know what the hell they are doing. First of all, there's the icons not displaying in the first screen capture; in the second screen capture, the layout of the glossary is totally different. That took me back to the case study where I read this:
The information engineering team also makes extensive use of snippets, variables, and conditional tags in MadCap Flare to maximize content reuse for its different outputs.
To me, that tells me that whether you use Flare or not, there will be inconsistency. Why is the Glossary in the first screen capture laid out with the letters across the top while the Glossary in the second screen capture does not have those letters? If Flare is such a great tool, why would it allow icons to not display and why would the authors chose to have two Glossaries with different layouts?
I don't have the answer.
WM Season is ON
SPOILER: "It doesn't really feel like WrestleMania season until Undertaker arrives."
Okay. Read more.
Okay. Read more.
Star Wars Meets Calvin & Hobbes
http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/a25560/star-wars-calvin-hobbes/
Editor's Note: It is with great surprise that such an iconic comic strip like "Calvin & Hobbes" label had to be added because of this post.
Editor's Note: It is with great surprise that such an iconic comic strip like "Calvin & Hobbes" label had to be added because of this post.
Awesomeness from Veritas who is based in Des Moines
There was a time - December 2015 - when joining this band as its drummer was something I was thinking about pursuing. I had some email conversations about auditioning but I bailed. Hearing this, though, it makes me wonder what could have been.
This is really strange. I was writing this post as I was listening to the tune and didn't get back to youtube.com to pick another video before this tune began:
That is really strange.
This is really strange. I was writing this post as I was listening to the tune and didn't get back to youtube.com to pick another video before this tune began:
That is really strange.
Judging the Cover by the Original
I had never heard Iggy Pop so when I saw that Metallica played "T.V. Eye" with Iggy Pop in Mexico City, I watched the original first:
Then I watched the cover.
Damn You Steve
I have many talents. Watch this video.
I do not have the ability to create the animation that Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) http://www.gobblynne.com did.
Zero.
None.
Well done, Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne), very well done.
I do not have the ability to create the animation that Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne) http://www.gobblynne.com did.
Zero.
None.
Well done, Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne), very well done.
When A is Unequal (in EVERY way) to B
In my Indeed Job Alert email, I saw this:
Ever curious, I went out to the ad to review it and what I viewed made ZERO sense! How does a company advertise the position "User Experience Writer" with this description:
The analogy that sprang to my mind was to release a movie trailer that has "Star Wars" as the first words that are seen, but the first character you see is Captain Kirk.
DUH!!!
User Experience Writer has absolutely nothing to do with that text?!? Read the original ad below:
Working at TaxAct used to be a good idea as taxes are not something I know a lot about and so I had always thought, in the deep crevices of my mind, that working at TaxAct would require me to master a new subject matter. It would be added to the list of other industries I've worked in:
Editor's Note: The decision to use the labels "idiots" and "stupid people" are a result of extensive arguments behind-the-scenes.
Ever curious, I went out to the ad to review it and what I viewed made ZERO sense! How does a company advertise the position "User Experience Writer" with this description:
The Manager, Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) is responsible for the management, configuration, testing, security, business process design and maintenance, data integrity, and end-user system training for various Human Resource systems. This role manages data integrity, feeds, and reporting. The position leads and unleashes the capabilities of Workday.
The analogy that sprang to my mind was to release a movie trailer that has "Star Wars" as the first words that are seen, but the first character you see is Captain Kirk.
DUH!!!
User Experience Writer has absolutely nothing to do with that text?!? Read the original ad below:
Working at TaxAct used to be a good idea as taxes are not something I know a lot about and so I had always thought, in the deep crevices of my mind, that working at TaxAct would require me to master a new subject matter. It would be added to the list of other industries I've worked in:
- life insurance
- hazardous materials management
- telecommunications & billing
- equine management
- fleet management
- medical devices
- education
- disaster recovery (current)
Editor's Note: The decision to use the labels "idiots" and "stupid people" are a result of extensive arguments behind-the-scenes.
Monday, March 6, 2017
A Drum Solo with a Twistie
From See Metallica Guitarists Join Lars Ulrich for Drum Solo in New Live Show Segment, it appears that Kirk, James, Lars, & Rob are playing a drum solo in the middle of "Now That We're Dead," as shown below:
Pretty sweet!
Pretty sweet!
Think Before You Take Little Kids to R-Rated Movies
Warning: The article @ the other end of this link has the f-word in it. Click cautiously... Parents: Think Before You Take Little Kids to R-Rated Movies
1000 CDs for $500
From CL > milwaukee > for sale > cds / dvds / vhs - by owner
Not interested.
rock country,jazz,classical,soul,etc.
$2 each
buy 1 or buy all
Not interested.
Some Statistical Fodder
This is a snapshot of my external hard drives, showing the space used and space free:
The amount of space used is equal to 5 TB. I noticed Best Buy has a portable 4 TB external hard drive on sale this week for $119. While I am still gathering the duplicate file statistics for the M, N, U, and Z drives, I do know there is 0.396946556521 TB (396.946556521 GB) of duplicate files on the y: drive. Once I know the statistics for the M, N, U, and Z drives, I can determine if a new 4 TB drive would benefit me. What would be REALLY cool is if I could copy all of my duplicate files to a single drive as a means to keep files as a backup.
* The M & N drives are shares on the MyCloud device.
Drive Letter Used Free M* 1.46 TB .859 TB N* 1.46 TB .859 TB U 1.55 TB 274 GB Y 1.69 TB 1.94 TB Z 1.76 TB 52.96 GB
The amount of space used is equal to 5 TB. I noticed Best Buy has a portable 4 TB external hard drive on sale this week for $119. While I am still gathering the duplicate file statistics for the M, N, U, and Z drives, I do know there is 0.396946556521 TB (396.946556521 GB) of duplicate files on the y: drive. Once I know the statistics for the M, N, U, and Z drives, I can determine if a new 4 TB drive would benefit me. What would be REALLY cool is if I could copy all of my duplicate files to a single drive as a means to keep files as a backup.
* The M & N drives are shares on the MyCloud device.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Home Finale for the Men
Today is the Iowa men's basketball home finale against Penn State. The team is on a 3 game win streak, defeating Indiana, Maryland, and Wisconsin. The Maryland and Wisconsin games are significant because they were outside the comfort of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. There are two seniors on the team - Peter Jok and ... Jones, who has been hindered by injuries throughout his career. He has not been a significant contributor to the team this season. I hope Iowa wins today and I hope they go at least two games 'in' when the Big Ten Tournament begins as doing so is likely the only way they play after today. The "experts" have stated that the team will not make the NCAA Tournament. I'm really hoping they do, somehow, play in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT tournament.
Chaos, Not Order
I'm a sensible kind of guy. I like order more than chaos, especially when it comes to the future. I realize that is often not possible, but I also realize when simple order could have been applied. After the video below, there's a list of 24 movies that are tentatively being released in 2018. They are not presented in alphabetical order and they're not presented in release date order. Is it cliche to think one of those orders would be appropriate?
My use case for a video about future movie dates is to open up my hard-copy calendar and make a note on the release date. Especially for the summer movies, when we are likely to be in Elkader, it's information I'd like to know. The movie theater in Elkader is a cheap way to see a movie as a 3D movie is $6 and a non-3D movie is $5. I cannot count how many movies I've seen in Elkader over the years.
I digress. Here's the video about summer 2018 movies.
My use case for a video about future movie dates is to open up my hard-copy calendar and make a note on the release date. Especially for the summer movies, when we are likely to be in Elkader, it's information I'd like to know. The movie theater in Elkader is a cheap way to see a movie as a 3D movie is $6 and a non-3D movie is $5. I cannot count how many movies I've seen in Elkader over the years.
I digress. Here's the video about summer 2018 movies.
- Han Solo | 0:19
- Avengers: Infinity War | 1:01
- The Predator | 1:23
- Bad Boys for Life | 1:46
- Pacific Rim: Uprising | 2:23
- Ant-Man and the Wasp | 3:00
- Wreck-It Ralph 2 | 3:32
- Black Panther | 4:08
- Aquaman | 4:38
- Tomb Raider | 5:05
- The Incredibles 2 | 5:40
- Jurassic World Sequel | 6:07
- Mission: Impossible 6 | 6:37
- A Wrinkle In Time | 7:00
- The Flash | 7:30
- Jungle Book | 8:07
- Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them 2 | 8:37
- Mary Poppins Returns | 9:08
- Avatar 2 | 9:43
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure | 10:15
- Ready Player One | 10:49
- Rampage | 11:22
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas | 11:50
- Deadpool 2 | 12:24
Friday, March 3, 2017
Task for Me
Speaking of Chicago Open Air 2017, I need to work on creating youtube.com playlists for the bands that are playing. Sure, there's this:
but I want to have more than one tune per band because these 41 bands are more than one tune. In fact, the selected tunes are not always a good or even realistic representative of the band's material. Lamb of God's "The Duke" may be a new tune, but it is atypical of their material.
41 days prior to the concert is Saturday, June 2, 2017, which is also Alex's high school graduation party. I have 91 days, from today, to create 41 playlists on youtube.com so ready Set GO!
but I want to have more than one tune per band because these 41 bands are more than one tune. In fact, the selected tunes are not always a good or even realistic representative of the band's material. Lamb of God's "The Duke" may be a new tune, but it is atypical of their material.
41 days prior to the concert is Saturday, June 2, 2017, which is also Alex's high school graduation party. I have 91 days, from today, to create 41 playlists on youtube.com so ready Set GO!
Slayer Does The Spitting
After seeing What If Old-School SLAYER Wrote METALLICA's "Spit Out The Bone"? It Would Sound Pretty Brutal, I definitely agree it would be brutal. The picture below displays as you listen to the tune on youtube.com, which is very funny in how it counterbalances the unfunny music.
I am just asking because the idea came to my brain. What if Slayer heard this and decided to actually cover it in concert? AND what if they added that cover to their Chicago Open Air 2017 setlist?!?
Did you hear anything funny in that video? I did not. For reference, this is the original tune by Metallica:
I am just asking because the idea came to my brain. What if Slayer heard this and decided to actually cover it in concert? AND what if they added that cover to their Chicago Open Air 2017 setlist?!?
Did you hear anything funny in that video? I did not. For reference, this is the original tune by Metallica:
8609 Days in Pursuit of an Answer to the Question
Editor's Note: After careful deliberation, this post has been deemed too personal to publish on this blog. The contents of this post have been printed and placed within Volume III, section IV, of the spiral notebook used in the Ten Year Project. The labels for the post are provided as a clue about the contents of this post.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
As Long as there's a Long Soapy Shower
Two and a half men sexy moments of Kandi & Courtney all seasons
Two and a half men sexy moments all seasons Part 2
Two and a half men sexy moments all seasons Part 2
Lightrider
Lightrider - Overture
Lightrider - Parade of the Tiger
Lightrider - Orion
Lightrider - Come On In
Lightrider - Parade of the Tiger
Lightrider - Orion
Lightrider - Come On In
Unhappiness Abounds
So, yes, this is a political post. The first video from this article - Democrats Are Never Happy - trimmed down the referenced scenes too much. Thus, here are the 9 times, from that article, with the full youtube.com clip.
Editor's Note: Of the 9 movies above, pre-existing labels existed for 2.
Here are some of the joyous occasions that Democrats didn't celebrate.
- When the Apollo 13 crew made it back to Earth safely.
- When the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviet Union.
- When a coach with a checkered past led his basketball team to the championship in Indiana.
- When President Thomas Whitmore delivered a speech announcing our independence from an alien invasion.
- When the One Ring was destroyed.
- When the heroes from the Battle of Yavin were honored for their bravery.
- When Hagrid returned to Hogwarts the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after being suspended.
- When President James Marshall was rescued after Air Force One was hijacked by terrorists.
- When the Pride Lands celebrated the circle of life.
Editor's Note: Of the 9 movies above, pre-existing labels existed for 2.
Silence for 47 Days
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday which means, yes, another Lenten season is upon us. I am trying something new. I have turned off my cell phone and will leave it off until Easter Monday. Yes, I realize you may have no idea if that is a "big" deal or not, but yeah, it kind of is, to me. I have been told I am on my cell phone "too much" and so, I think, turning it off for Lent is a good thing. In fact, I know it's a good thing because, in comparison, I know that I will not look at it during the workday. I also know that I will not have the temptation to look at it for updates about sports, entertainment, or political news when I could be spending that time with my undivided attention focused on my family.
I am not a holier than thou kind of guy, but I did have a revelation last night. After Karen, Alex, and I attended 6 PM Mass for Ash Wednesday (I played drums), we went to Culver's for supper. When I went to get ketchup, after giving Alex his drink cup, I noticed the people in the booths as I walked by. Families, couples - it didn't matter who it was - all had their cell phones out. In one booth, Person A was showing Person B something on Person A's cell phone; in another, a dad and two teenagers all had their cell phones out. Again, I'm not holier than thou, preaching "all cell phones are inherently evil" and "what has our society become when we'd rather look at a cell phone than each other" to anyone reading this.
But it did make me pause.
And think.
Not using my cell phone for 47 days (Wednesday, March 1, through Monday, April 16) is something I can do. In the BIG picture, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days. He was told, every day, by Satan, that he could 'get out' of his torture by committing a sin and putting another God before 'the REAL God' but Jesus didn't. I'm certainly not Jesus - not in any shape or form, but the suffering Jesus went through for me and the fact that he died to take away my sins puts a silent cell phone into perspective.
At least for me.
I liked today's Thought for the Day (source:https://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/on-becoming-tolerant/)
I am not a holier than thou kind of guy, but I did have a revelation last night. After Karen, Alex, and I attended 6 PM Mass for Ash Wednesday (I played drums), we went to Culver's for supper. When I went to get ketchup, after giving Alex his drink cup, I noticed the people in the booths as I walked by. Families, couples - it didn't matter who it was - all had their cell phones out. In one booth, Person A was showing Person B something on Person A's cell phone; in another, a dad and two teenagers all had their cell phones out. Again, I'm not holier than thou, preaching "all cell phones are inherently evil" and "what has our society become when we'd rather look at a cell phone than each other" to anyone reading this.
But it did make me pause.
And think.
Not using my cell phone for 47 days (Wednesday, March 1, through Monday, April 16) is something I can do. In the BIG picture, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days. He was told, every day, by Satan, that he could 'get out' of his torture by committing a sin and putting another God before 'the REAL God' but Jesus didn't. I'm certainly not Jesus - not in any shape or form, but the suffering Jesus went through for me and the fact that he died to take away my sins puts a silent cell phone into perspective.
At least for me.
I liked today's Thought for the Day (source:https://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/on-becoming-tolerant/)
When someone disbelieves us, we usually argue back and try to prove our point. Yet we find that the more we talk, the less people listen. Unable to convince them, we end up frustrated.
Instead, when someone challenges my words, I should think about whether they might be right. Rather than stubbornly clinging to my point of view, I could embrace this as an opportunity to learn. Even if I am correct in my thinking, if I become able to understand someone else’s point of view without getting angry or refusing to listen, I become tolerant.
12 Seconds of Bliss
There ought to be a contest to name the 10 songs that are in that snippet.
Editor's Notes:
- This love story is appropriate for this post: My music library is swelling even more
- These are the tunes:
- Seek & Destroy
- Ride The Lightning
- Master Of Puppets
- Blackened
- Thorn Within
- Fuel
- Purify
- Cyanide
- Now That We're Dead
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