The Magnet Blog

nirav May 16th, 2007

Writing is one of my passions. I actually started as the founder editor of India’s first ezine - MagNet (which we later converted to a software company!) Most of the people write really bad emails, let alone technical documentation, articles or reports. It’s not just the English usage, it’s not just the punctuation but it’s much more.

I was talking to someone about technical writing. Wanted to suggest some resources so that he can polish his writing style and be ready for bigger assignments. A little bit of web surfing opened may doors. If you are interested in writing, planning to write an article, or dream of authoring a book, I strongly recommend going through these resources.

• The Elements of Style by William Strunk is a classic book on composition and plain English.
• Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style covers grammatical rules, style and usage. His explanations on usage of some common (and not-so-common) words is fantastic.
• An early piece from AskTog talks about How to Publish a Great User Manual - and is complete with good advice as usual.
• Docsymmerty has lots of resources for technical writers. Including common errors and “Getting a Technical Writing Job, Even If You Have No Experience“.
• Norman Fenton’s “Improving your technical writing” is a superb collection of practical recommendations. You should read it if nothing else!

I guess I too have a lot of reading to do next

• resources , style , talking , wanted , suggest , polish , Recommended Reading , Writing and Speaking , writing , technical , Technology
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Prakash May 15th, 2007

Hi yesterday I read a beautiful artical on Time Management for Web Designer. As web designers, we are usually met with strict deadlines while dealing with two, three, four (or more!) other projects. It can be tough to keep yourself balanced enough to accomplish everything within the time allocated. This is where time management steps in.

• Friends , ecommerce , tomorrow , Personal , Blogs
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Magnet May 14th, 2007

* With fontypython (Which is unstable now), you can play with any fonts without actually installing it to system (who needs fc-cache now?). Here is simple method to use it. Thanks Daniel for upload and Donn C. Ingle for writing this simple but useful program.

• Localization , OpenSource , Linux , Debian , python
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nirav May 14th, 2007

Went to Surat at Masi’s place for the weekend. It was a great time out. Enjoyed a lot with the family. I think I have not done such variety of things on a single outing yet.

• Bumpy rickshaw ride to home from Surat station - zig zags and passing through small lanes to avoid traffic.
• Lot of good food, and lot of sleep! Sleep is one thing I hadn’t had enough of for the last two weeks!
• Jokes and leg pulling every other minute - almost! It was a laugh riot.
• Played carom, cards, badminton and even raced
• Went shopping
• High speed ride in Chevrolet Optra, with torso out of the hood!
• Some good music, and bad chorus by us
• Read The Book of Life by J Krishnamurti. Very interesting, and deep
• Met school time buddy Piyush and Hetal - wonderful home
• Drove around the Surat city
• And of course, some good dose of ice cream
• Good discussion with Neha about relationships
• Great time with Mom, Dad & Nikita
• Did puja at Kamrej temple
• A little bit of photography here and there
• And the maddening rush of Flying Queen train on a Monday morning

Amazing! I loved the trip!

• surat , place , weekend , Personal
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nirav May 11th, 2007

Vaishali told about the new Yahoo! Web messenger. And it’s all done in Flex (and PHP)! It looks good, works well, and is a good example of things to come! They have made the panels look much better with rounded corners et al, and have kept the standard Flex look for drop downs and text boxes.

Overall, it works well and looks good! I knew Yahoo! is doing a lot of things with Flex after Yahoo! Maps, but this is a good example of what’s possible.

• told , works , good , things , vaishali , messenger , Flex , yahoo , Flex & Flash , PHP
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