A Week of Tech Treats
Did you know this was TV Turnoff Week? I didn't, strictly speaking, adhere to it, but then, my addiction is my computer, not the TV. It has been a tech-filled week, in several ways. Monday evening I finally made it to an EAC meeting where the panel discussed magazines on the Web. It was a good opportunity to find out what's going on behind Today's Parent and the new Globe and Mail magazine for small business. Alas, the third panel member amused himself by typing on his laptop while the first two were talking about their experiences. Then, when his turn came, he left the laptop open between himself and his audience. I thought, at first, it was simply that he had his speaking notes on it and would need to refer to them, but no. He spoke off the cuff and really had no excuse for being so rude.
Later in the week, I was explored some of the delights of my recent memberships in two tech-related associations: ACM and CM Pros. The Association for Computing Professionals dates from 1947, when computers filled large rooms, I think, but now they offer me goodies like the Safari bookshelf, free access to hundreds of O'Reilly books about the stuff I need to know. I took "Excel, The Missing Manual" to my online bookshelf so that I could look up the formula that was torturing me recently in a simple spreadsheet I use for tracking content documents.
The Content Management Professionals connection is one I made at the recent STC Conference. Lots to learn there and lots of papers, articles and forums to learn from. I've already signed on to contribute to their newsletter.
My final tech treat for the week is just for fun. I signed up for and downloaded Second Life, an online virtual world game -- strictly for research purposes, you understand. And as an antidote to my addiction, tomorrow I will cruise the booths of the Needlework Show.