Author Archives: rlhamilton

From dmr to DITA (DocBook, too)

I was sorry to hear of the passing of Unix and C language pioneer Dennis Ritchie. I only met him a couple of times, but found him to be gracious and humble, despite being one of the smartest people I’ve … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Ada Lovelace Day

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day (findingada.com), I’d like to honor a woman who is completely unknown in the publishing and software worlds that I normally inhabit. When I knew her, in the late 1970′s, Rosemary Killam was a professor … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Comments Off

The Wiki Dilemma

There was a new review by Tony Chung of Alan Porter’s WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit at TechWhirl this week. The review got me thinking about the use of wikis, and more generally, about why wikis are … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

IEEE Customization

A while back (2007, to be exact), I wrote a DocBook XSL stylesheet customization (fo for pdf) that converts a DocBook article into the format specified by the IEEE for their conferences. I’ve revived the customization, and am posting it … Continue reading

Posted in DocBook | Comments Off

Monden-san

An appreciation of one of my favorite managers, who left us too soon. Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Social Media is not an option

If you think you can ignore social media, if you think it is an option you can take or leave, think again. Sooner or later it will find you. This week, the Society for Technical Communication (STC) proved this in … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | Comments Off

The Official Indie Book Reviewer List

Reviews are critical to the success of your book, but it is difficult for niche publishers to get a review from the “mainstream media.” The major newspapers and magazines are overrun with books to review, and they are unlikely to … Continue reading

Posted in Book Review | Tagged , | 1 Comment

It’s not the tool, it’s the writer

Every musician has heard the old saw, “it’s not the instrument, it’s the musician.” If you give Pat Metheny your beat-up Strat copy and a practice amp, he’ll still sound like Pat Metheny. The same thing holds true in technical … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 3 Comments

Does a manager need to be an SOB to survive?

In a recent article on BNET, The Real Reason for Bad Bosses, Jeffrey Pfeffer highlights a common, but little noted, paradox. To be a good manager, you need to be positive, supportive, and warm, but to be perceived as strong, … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 3 Comments

What STC can learn about certification from the FAA

As the STC develops its certification program for technical communicators, there are lessons that can be learned from the way the FAA certifies pilots. Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , | 9 Comments