1.       Your technical writer may have written a 500 page manual on how your product works but you sure don’t have time to read that beast. Why not ask the author directly? Your technical writer probably knows more about the product than anyone else at the company.

2.       Who is constantly interviewing marketing and upper management for the latest product definitions and behaviour? Not you.

3.       When Quality Assurance finds a bug they don’t cross-check your code, they check out the documentation. Guess who wrote the documentation.

4.       Does your product spec give little insight into the user interface? Your technical writer thinks like a user. They do not think like you. Trust me on this.

5.       Or maybe you have a really great idea for a product improvement but the thought of writing a proposal to the decision makers puts you off as much as writing an essay in English class did. Technical writers love writing essays. In fact, if they’re on-board with your idea you cannot find a better advocate.

There were many naysayers when this “magical device” first came out. It’s nothing but a glorified iPod Touch they cried. No front-facing camera. No multitasking (until the Fall that is, when iPhone OS 4 comes out). No USB ports, and so on.

Well I’m not one of those nitpicking technocrats. I think that the iPad is like a shiny piece of the future, straight out of Star Trek. It’s amazing. But here’s the thing: I don’t even own a laptop. Never have. I own a Desktop computer – gasp – built piece by piece from scratch in the dirty streets of the Yongsan electronics market in Seoul, South Korea. That was six years ago. I’m not exactly an early adopter.

These days, however, I’ve been thinking of switching to a laptop. Sadly I won’t be able to build it myself. But at least I’ll catch up to the crowd. Maybe ten years from now, iPads will be as ubiquitous as laptops are today. If so, I may think about picking one up for myself.

Yes, it’s the phone system I’ve been writing those 400-page Internal Product Specifications for. Synapse is basically a VoIP-based telephony network that integrates into an existing LAN network. What this means is that you don’t have to buy fifty phone lines because it runs over the internet. I won’t bore you with the details, so why don’t you take a look at a promo video cooked up by the AT&T marketing guys (Quicktime). BTW, I also worked on the text in the User Interface (the display) and I can honestly say that this is the most user-friendly business phone you’ll ever use.

Baby’s nontoxic nursery: Preparing a healthy space for your newborn. What paints should you choose when decorating baby’s new room? Surrounding your new child with noxious fumes is the last thing you want to do.

Lawn warfare: Pesticide and herbicide use in Canada. I interviewed the PR person from the David Suzuki Foundation as well as a professor of biomolecular chemistry to write this one.

Get in the habit: 10 easy ways to shrink your carbon footprint. This one is self explanatory. But did you know the concept for a carbon footprint was derived from those newfangled desktops in the early 90s that stood upright instead of lying flat?

In it for the money: Green initiatives that are good for our ecology economy. This is one of those slightly cynical pieces. The intro comes from a really funny ad for IBM that you can watch here on Youtube. The art department did an awesome job with this one.

The eco dilemma: Why electric cars won’t save the world. Once again, an alternative look at a green deus ex machina (a term, incidentally, that I had originally used in the intro - but my editor wisely replaced this rather academic term with “save the day”).

Selenium and cancer: Good news and bad. A short piece on the links between cancer and an antioxidant called selenium.

Two very short pieces: Cleaning our lakes - about a government restriction of phosphates, and When TVs die - about the switchover from analog to digital and the potential aftermath of discarded TVs in our landfills. 

So, here it is.  There are lots of links that don’t work, but that’s not the point. The point is to preserve this little piece of history so that when Geocities dies, Negotiating Reality lives on. See you when I see you.

Even if you’re not into this genre, and admittedly, I’m hardly the target audience either - do you know how lucrative this market actually is? A few years ago, I got a book called “The Art of Romance Writing” as a gag gift, but am now seriously thinking of writing a racy novel and retiring on the inevitable movie deal.

Local writer and social media consultant Monica Hamburg talks about how to tap into the hidden job market online in her excellent blog post. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Java programmer or a hairdresser - creating an online presence and fostering a network can benefit you. If nothing else, it’s way more fun than cold calling!

Well, I’d like to wrap up 2008 on a personal note and let you know what’s been going on in my life - besides from recently getting engaged, which I’m really excited about.

On the work side of things, I recently extended my contract at Vtech by another 6 months. I asked for more money, which they were happy to give me. It’s been a great experience no matter what happens. I’ve been working primarily on a business phone system, but have also helped out with the Internal Product Specification (IPS) for an internet radio, which I quite enjoyed. This product recently made its debut at CES and was reviewed on Engadget. It’s nice to be able to finally talk about this stuff! I have one at my desk and really enjoy it - I can totally recommend this nifty little device. The guys put a lot of love into this one.

I enjoyed writing this article because, well, I’m a SME when it comes to being cheap. Let’s just say that being a student has taught me how to stretch every dollar. And my hefty student loans will ensure the continuation of my pauper-like existence for some time to come!