June 2011 Archives

I've just had to do something I really hate to do. I just spent a couple of hours (closer to 3) summarily dumping blog comments. I had to do that because I ended up with nearly 4,000 comments waiting in my "pending comments" box.

To all the people whose comments I wiped, please accept my apologies. I didn't want to do it, but I had to. I teach three college classes; write two regular blogs; research and write numerous articles on high technology; spend six hours a week pumping iron in the gym; and pump out a couple of novels a year. Once in a while I like to say Hi to my wife. There are only so many hours in a day.

At this point, only about one in ten comments I receive get published, anyway. There are many reasons for that, so I thought I'd post a quick entry suggesting some dos and don'ts that, if you follow them, will up your chances of having your comment see the light of day, and might just reduce the amount of stuff I have to wade through every day.

DO

* Do be patient. Fielding comments is low on the priority list compared to everything else, such as writing new entries. It often takes me a while, but I try to read every comment.

* Do feel free to express your opinion in a comment to this blog.

* Do feel free to disagree with any position expressed in any posting. That just makes a healthy environment for ideas.

* Do fee free to suggest blog entry topics. I often take up subjects suggested by commenters.

* Do use standard English. It's amazing how many comments are unreadable because of simple errors in English. That includes spelling, sentence structure and using the right word to say what you mean. Nobody expects you to be letter perfect, but try hard. Even if English is not your native language, you want what you have to say to be heard. That won't happen if what you say is unintelligible.

* Do think about what you want to say before you start writing. There is always a "take home lesson" for everything you write. That's a phrase or two that you expect your readers to recall later on. If you don't know what you wanted to say in the first place, how will anyone else figure it out?

* Do write out what you want to say before you put it into the comment text box. Many commenters have commended me on how clear my writing is. That's the result of editing. I typically run everything through several (5-10) revision cycles before posting it. My latest novel, which is in the production stage right now, has already been through 11 separate revisions, and most of those revisions were proofread 3-5 times. You can start on a separate word-processor document, then copy and paste into the comment box when you're satisfied that what you've written actually says what you want to say. Nobody expects you to spend a lot of time revising a blog comment, but you need to take the time to make sure it says what you want it to say.

* Do sign with your name, or at least a "handle" that serves as a name. Your handle should NOT be a marketing message! "Buy my stuff" is not a valid handle. Neither is "my stuff's the greatest thing since sliced bread."

DON'T

* Don't expect a response. Generally, I don't respond to blog comments unless I have a specific reason for wanting to. If I do, count yourself lucky. Less than one out of a hundred comments get a response.

* Don't use profanity. This is a G-rated (well, at least PG) blog. Profanity in comments won't see the light of day. My own writing varies from G to XXX, but I know when and where to say what.

* Don't repeat comments. A lot of commenters write basically the same message in comments to multiple entries. That just fills up the space, and ticks me off because I've got to sort through it. I can tell, and will dump repeated comments in a heartbeat.

* Don't include your marketing message. It's my blog. If you want to sell your product or service, start your own blog. Yes, I often promote my books. That's the point: I promote my books in my blog. You don't promote your stuff in my blog. If you try to, I'll just toss your comment into the dustbin.

* Don't fill up my pending comments box with long strings of text that mean nothing. That's a variation on the old denial-of-service attack. But, it doesn't work here. It takes you a lot longer to paste a pile of rubbish in the comments textbox than it does for me to hit the delete key.

* Don't use blog comments to yammer on about something that you want to talk about, but which has nothing to do with the blog. Put that content in your own blog.

* Don't imagine that sucking up to me by piling a lot of praise into your comment will get your marketing message published. I get plenty of praise. If I see a marketing message, your comment's gone!

Those, I think, are the main things to think about when writing a blog comment.

Happy Motoring!

Variously called tablet PCs, tablet computers, or convertibles, mobile computing devices combining fully functional keyboards, touch screens, and all the performance and features you expect from a business laptop computer are solutions for business professionals on the go.

The iPad was not the first tablet computer. The tablet computer has been around for on the order of two decades. The original tablet computer was not a skinny undersized Internet connection device. It was a super-laptop.

In a fit of marketing hubris worthy of Microsoft, Apple hijacked the term "tablet computer" to paste on their oversized but underfeatured smartphone. The iPad is, in network-systems parlance, essentially a "thin client."

Now, I've never much liked the term "tablet computer," anyway. To me it evokes images of Edward-Gorey-esque illustrations of graveyards. I guess from that point of view, I'm perfectly happy having it applied to the physically thin, usefulness-challenged iPad thin client, which actually does look like a Colonial American slate gravestone that has been torn away from its rightful job keeping the mouldering corpse of a Revolutionary War hero from climbing out of the ground to pester third-millennium technogeeks who just wanna surf the Internet while pretending to pump iron at the gym.

"I'm resting between sets," they usually tell me.

I dunno. When I rest between sets, I'm usually waiting for the stars to clear from my vision, my panting breath to re-oxygenate my blood, and my heart rate to return to normal after exhausting my major muscle groups with nearly three-hundred pounds balanced on my shoulders. The last thing on my mind then is clearing out spam from my email inbox, or finding out what Lady Ga-Ga has been up to today.

But, different strokes ....

So, what were tablet computers during the first 90% of their existence?

Doc Manchek, a main protagonist in my novel Red is seen using the original style of tablet computer to run through his email during a stopover at the Driskill hotel in Austin, Texas while traveling by motorcycle across the southern United States. This description, which was drafted, edited, and ready for publication before Apple brought out their pathetic version, shows what is essentially a full-service laptop computer fitted with a touch screen.

Of course, just pasting a touch screen on a laptop-computer display would make a very clumsy package. To properly operate a touch screen, you've got to have it sitting against a fairly solid surface. Otherwise, poking it in the heat of doing whatever you're wanting to do with your portable computer, from ordering electronic parts online to writing the Great American Novel, or even just shoving email spam into the trash bin, would result in bouncing around of the display, knocking the whole thing off your lap, and possible premature failure of the display hinge. To avoid such unpleasantness, tablet computer makers developed an interesting display-hinge arrangement that allowed the user to either raise the display screen over the keyboard, as in a regular laptop, or flip it entirely over to cover the keyboard so it could be used like the current generation of tablets.

Being a complex enhancement of a top-of-the-line mobile-computing solution (which at the time meant a laptop), the thing cost about double what you could get a high-performance business-oriented laptop for. It was economically justifiable only for people who really needed touch-screen-oriented applications as well as keyboard applications. For the vast majority of casual consumers, who just want to download music videos from the Web, it was rediculous overkill.

Some of us, however, wanted them in them in the worst way. When Apple started yammering about coming out with a tablet computer at a bargain price, we started salivating.

When we actually saw the iPad, however, our faces fell. No keyboard. You try hacking HTML code without a keyboard! Or, writing anything more extensive than a text message. Worthless for professional use. In addition, the thing seemed to lack enough horsepower or memory to do decent graphic illustration. Basically, it was a smartphone that was too big to hold up to your ear!

So, it's not a smartphone. It's not an ebook reader. It's not a real computer. It's too big and heavy to shove into your pocket. It's a thin-client Web appliance.

I'd still like to get myself a real tablet computer.

I guess they're now called "convertibles."

I saw an ad for one of them the other day for less than $600. Maybe next time I get paid.