TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
--- Dan Emory <danemory -at- primenet -dot- com> wrote:
> Exactly what do you mean by "standard fonts and layouts?" If you use
> Distiller
> rather than PDFMaker, you can embed all the fonts in the document,
> making it
> truly independent of font availability on a particular platform.
Sure....as long as those illiterate end users know to turn off that "use
local fonts" options. And if you use some weird ass font - oh say like
Futura - it looks like hell.
> As far as graphics are concerned, the display and print quality depends
> on a lot of factors, all of which can
> be controlled to produce quality graphics using Adobe's postscript print
> driver and Distiller.
> Also, have you ever heard of the EPSI graphic format?
You know, I spend almost an entire week farting around with graphics in
Frame (a hefty $3000 for my client) to make them look better and not a
damn thing worked. Oh we tried every format known to man. It was hopeless.
They always came out grainy. Sure, if I wanted the files to be like 589MB
I could have gorgeous graphics. But, all the users would need to have
P4-1500s with 512MB of RAM to view the darn thing. And since we HAD to
maintain Acrobat 3.0 format - our options were limited.
I've since just accepted it as a fact of PDF. I've yet to see a doc out
there that has solved this problem - so I don't feel bad when our docs
have grainy images.
> It's easier to upgrade to the latest version of Reader than it is to
> upgrade to the
> latest version of Internet Explorer. Yet no one seems to worry about
> users with older versions of Explorer when they design websites.
And that has what to do with PDF? Like it or not, most users just don't
upgrade. Its why we stick with 3.0 format.
> >Yeah, but they (non-literate web designers) could frag your sorry ass
> >in Half-Life Counter Strike any day of the week.
>
> If I were like you, Andrew, I'd immediately complain to Eric about your
> ad-hominem attack
> on the configuration of my backside. But I don't give a whack, so don't
> worry about it.
Oh brother...Dan, its a figure of speech that simply means we can play
Counter Strike better than you. It was a joke. Forget I said it.
On a side note - I have come to realize that playing Half-Life is one of
the best things I've ever done to bond with IT nerds. All I have to do
when I want to buddy up to a networking geek is ask him what his handle is
on the Counter-Strike servers. Before you know it - we're old pals.
> >Did it ever occur to you that reaching the "lowest common denominator"
> is
> >how you sell products, make money, and in turn hire consultants like
> you?
>
> Depends on whether you're selling athletic shoes or high-tech software.
No it really doesn't. This is actually the failure of many companies and
to some extent entire open-source movement. When you assume everybody
possesses the EXACT same knowledge you do - you're basing everything on a
transient foundation. If your technology cannot reach the masses, easily,
it will suffer.
The free-source movement suffers from this. It has no centralized
management of information. As such, it is prohibitively difficult to
locate information you need. This also creates an atmosphere where the
barriers to entry are enormous. In order to learn about open-source
technologies, you have to wade through volumes of unfriendly material. Its
not fun.
I consider myself a pretty savvy network guy - but there are iterations of
FreeBSD and Linux that simply confound the hell out of me. And its
hopeless going to the web for help. It takes me weeks just to sift through
newsgroup postings to find the nugget of knowledge I need.
Personally, I think technologies are moving toward "dumber" audiences so
they can embrace more people. The technology industry for a long time has
been accused of excluding people and creating massive barriers to entry.
These barriers have been coming down for decades now and, like it or not,
some of the companies we all hate: AOL, Microsoft, and Cisco have helped
bring technology to the masses and in the process DOMINATE entire sectors.
I'd say the "lowest common denominator" approach is resoundingly
successful and profitable.
I think this also brings up an interesting phenomena in technology. As
technologies mature, they leave the "geek stage" and enter a "commercial
stage." When they are in the geek stage, geeks horde knowledge and create
barriers to obtaining it. This allows them to dominate the information and
the technology. Eventually, this information does leak out and businesses
begin exploiting it.
When the technical information becomes commonplace, there are always these
geeks that become enraged over it. Their baby has grown up and become an
adult and they're suffering from separation anxiety. Its also a power
thing. They have lost their power and their angry about it.
I remember a networking girl I knew back in the late 1980s. She was BIG
time into the Internet. At that time the Internet was young and still
pretty unknown. As the 90's progressed the the Internet explosion
happened, she became more and more bitter about everybody using the
Internet. She had 5000 word essays on her personal web site about how AOL
and Microsoft were "destroying" the Internet and ruining its potential.
She was wrong. These firms have boosted the Internet and helped give her a
high-paying job.
The dumbing down of technology is therefore a natural part of its
inclusion into our society. If you're on the wrong side of that process,
its natural to feel angry. You're knowledge is no longer as special as it
used to be.
Andrew Plato
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
