Let's Get Back to a Richer Quality of Reading and Writing.

 

A special thanks to Paul Stenning at The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive, which is where I found the Heathkit material mentioned in both the article and video.

  What Have We Done to the Written Word?

Have Articles, News Stories, Books and other documents become too brief and chopped up to be truly useful to anyone looking up information?

On March 11, 2023, I wrote a short blog post entitled "Oh, for the Love of Manuals!" regarding the decline in quality of manuals and the written word in general. Not only is it sad to see the discipline of writing go downhill, I am now of the opinion that the lack of good quality material whether it be factual or storytelling has an effect on the whole person.

A lack of explanation results in ambiguity.

Think about it, an abridged piece of writing demonstrates how the author's thought processes functions. Usually showing off lack of depth about the topic at hand. Sometimes the author's train of though can be fallowed, while at other times the lack of detail is frustrating for the reader. I was perusing a manual the other day and part way through the text they they showed a screen capture of an icon. Nowhere in the text did they define whet  where this icon was in the program, much less give it a name and it was a bad screen capture to boot. How did this pass into the final printing of this book? I know people like to be able to zero in on snippets of a document now, but sometimes a little more detail would certainly help. Here's an example of the icon from the manual.(Now that the image has been enlarged by four times, I can just see enough detail to recognize the icon.)

Enlarged image of icon shown.

 Nowhere in the book does it name the icon, it just says what it does, and really, can you tell what it is?--I can't.

Even if your preferred choice of format is audiobooks the same issue holds true. The difference in writing in the literature created only 30 years ago is astounding. Listen to this introduction from Carl Sagan's book "Pale Blue Dot" (or read it via the Open Library). The video below is hosted on YouTube and is part of the " carlsagandotcom" channel The wording used is eloquent and accessible, whether it is read or listened to this text is inspiring. Carl Sagan took the time to describe his vision. He didn't optimize the ideas for fast consumption, nor did he make any assumptions on what the reader already knew. This is why this three minute clip from YouTube is so widely appreciated. It is a story unto itself. When was the last time you heard or read something like this? This is writing,and it achieves its goal of informing fully and inspiring.

Imagine the textbooks Carl Sagan and others read when they were going through their various courses. Difficult to read perhaps by present-day standards, but well worth the effort. Even the illustrations would be well thought out in books and manuals, for example from a 1961 Heathkit: manual. In less than a page it describes clearly the technique for proper soldering. Click the picture to enlarge:

Excerpts from the 1961 Heathkit
Compact Hi Fidelity Speaker System
manual model number AS-193 from
The Heathkit Schematic and Manual Archive.
Used under provisions:
"Fair Dealing" Canada and
"Fair Use" United States.
(Click image to enlarge)

 

The writing and diagrams in this manual is simply marvellous. Dare I say it is bursting with well-written information.

So how did we get from concise written guidance to "blurry icons"? One thing is for sure, in the soldering example, it is not assumed that the reader knows anything. Whereas in the blurry icons scenario the text assumes that that the reader does. It is to the point where they don't even describe the blurry image. Clearly we have gone too far in the direction of making everything a snippet of knowledge...  at least they could've provided a keyboard shortcut 😀.

This overly abbreviated trend in the media and knowledge industry also has a side effect on how people learn. Especially if they are only exposed to abbreviated documents as they are beginning to think critically. Indeed how as Google and other search engines affected the way people educate themselves  and the depth to which that knowledge goes, or lack of thereof.

Here's a question: How much time do you think has been invested in creating this text so far? The answer is over two hours (and a good eight hours later I am still at it) . Why, because first the soldering example had to be found, checked for copyright, and edited graphically from two printed pages down to one graphic. So even though I use voice dictation which makes entering the text for the most part rather painless, there is a fair bit of work that goes into these kind of things. The Internet is not a place to just upload things without checking. Not if you want your content to last.

But this article really is about the thought processes that are going on, as related to the use of knowledge and actually how we think. The depth to which those thoughts go and the understanding that is the result. 

I marvel at minds that can seemingly just absorb and understand information. For me it's a much more effort intensive thing. I may have to go over something several times in order to really grasp the concepts. I do this willingly because it is only then your horizons expand. The other reality that must be accounted for is that everything takes time. Even though we may want to get something completed quickly, quality must trump everything else even when we are on a deadline at least to some extent. Yep in other words quality takes work.

Which brings up another point: With the ability now days for people to, how shall I put this, " Copy and Paste " just about everything you really have to resist that urge, because it can make the quality of the  final product go down the toilet if one is not careful. (Have you looked at YouTube lately 👀 .  Somebody post something original and within hours there are legions of copycats). However the creators that do put in the work and I can think of a few that only post every few weeks, really do come out far ahead.

To sum up. In order for people to do better in their lives they should seek out more detailed explanations and experiences. Do your best to try to get away from the "brief answer" mindset. In the long run you will benefit greatly and the experience you gain will even make your own brief answers better than the rest when you need to use them. And at the end of the day your brain will thank you 🙏.

Have a great day Patrick....

PS: Wait! This article is about to get a little longer with an example of the downsides of the overly brief approach to writing.

As many of you know I usually try to produce a short video to go along with each article. It takes time but usually the process follows smoothly. This time around however I decided to use a new tool to create the end credits of the video. I like to include all of my sources and licensing information just to keep things transparent. I wanted to create a scroll of text which included still images. My video editor was not up to the task so I decided to use an add on which according to its brief description could do exactly what I want.

The documentation however is a disaster and that includes the video tutorials all except for a few which ultimately saved the day. Most of the documentation was overly segmented and again assumed the reader was fully versed in the philosophy of use for this particular software. A simple scroll with pictures took about a week to do, and I don't know how many articles and videos I watched and read. Fortunately once I found a good bunch of videos the project was completed within the hour.

The point this_so is that all of the information is segmented and fragmented. Did the company who created the software ever sit down and really consider who the product and documentation was aimed at.?… I don't think so, and  even the official material is fragmented. I'm avoiding mentioning the product name simply because it is not about the product, it is about the information supporting the product. Perhaps though the most annoying aspect of this hunt for information was the fact that the online documentation does not mention what version the information applies to.,and like all software, there are different versions over time and between computers. So I'm begging anyone who reads this… If you write documentation, please indicate right off the bat the version numbers it applies to.

The other issue is that maybe it's more a case of a fault of the search engines. A friend last night was mentioning that now days in 2024 it is much harder to find the information you are looking for online.

Oh, for the Love of Manuals!

Photo by: Todd Ehlers License:  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

First I must apologize for those of you that have noticed the site hasn't been updated in a few days. This was due to a software problem, and yes also to due to a lack of clearly written manuals. So this particular topic is very pertinent.

I won't mention any brand names but suffice to say two things conspired to keep me busy for the last 48 hours.

1. An error in one of my accounts cost of shutdown of some of my software, right after I paid a not a substantial amount of money to renew a subscription.
   
   
2. A good deal of my software is bought and paid for, and that act of buying something used to mean that you got a decent instruction manual. Well those days are long gone. It is one thing to abridge something is it is another thing to completely miss large chunks of information.

This is what caused my conundrum for the last two days. Instruction manuals have now been shortened and abridged to such a point that they give nope your understanding of what is going on. Nor do they provide the author of the document a clear understanding of what is going on or how to accomplish a task. This is a recipe for disaster and very time wasteful.

If I see one more book indicating that I should "click on a tiny icon" (not even bothering to give it a name) I made last go insane. The other thing that is sadly missing now days is detailed descriptions of features or if the information is included it is so broken up with hyperlinks and options as to make the text completely unreadable.

Then of course there is the most common problem. The software update you just received completely changes how the program operates and thereby makes the manual null and void.

The photo at the top of this post is of a 1973 Heathkit (Wikipedia article) manual, which while being brief were incredibly well written. They had to be, because you were assembling electronic kits. This just goes to prove that it is possible to be brief and get give sufficient information. Even the books in my elementary school gave more information about a given topic and what you find in most periodicals today.

Each morning I am rather astounded by what passes for newsworthy material. One problem I see is that in order to keep companies visible on the Internet they must produce material every day and unless you've got a staff of thousands, okay that was a bit of an overstatement, the quality will inevitably go down. This blog is a perfect example each day I miss publishing usually results in the loss of 50 views.

Still there must be some way to maintain quality. Because quality really is the cornerstone of knowledge. It is what enables you to go beyond the written or spoken word because the concept has been fully conveyed. To do that takes time and effort.

Anyway this is just very quick blurb. Just to get things back on track.

 I'll write more tomorrow. Patrick

PS:  It looks like Heathkit store is back in business! I don't know if they ship to Canada yet but I see they have the next generation of their famous "digital clock" which I built when I was a teenager. I have to find out if they ship the Canada and if they do. Well how can I not build another one.

Tips on Building Websites

 I've been building webpages and doing computer-related work for quite a few years now and in that time I've seen people excitedly jump on the "You Simply Must Have a Webpage." bandwagon. Of those people, the ones that decide to do it themselves, usually end up frustrated within the first month because they do not understand how people use the Internet. The scenario usually goes something like this:

Even if there website hostess provided them with guidelines and templates on design, there is a tendency to override the rules and create a webpage that is laid out much like a book or a magazine and in which the placement of photos in relation to the topic of the text is important. Then they are horrified when a friend shows them their page on a smart phone or tablet because they initially of tried to over format the content, resulting in pictures and text being out of place and generally very difficult to navigate on a smart phone or tablet. So rule number 1:

Do not over format your content. Make sure that your text and photographs make sense no matter where they are. Modern webpages are designed to be very flexible and they will automatically adapt to the device they are displaying on. When creating your page think more about the message you are conveying and less about the precise formatting.

Another pitfall people find themselves in occurs when they are choosing their colour scheme. Colour varies greatly from one screen to another. Your purple on black text might look great on your set up, but be absolutely useless to someone on a tablet.

Although modern systems will automatically download a great variety of fonts which does improve the chances of the webpage text looking the way you want, don't pick something really obscure. There is a reason why most websites stick to well-known fonts like "Arial" and "Times". These are more likely to be accessible to most devices. That is also the reason why if you are actually tinkering with webpage code itself (HTML- HyperText Markup Language ) most of the font and formatting options have been removed and are now exclusively in a language which only deals with formatting. (CSS - Cascading Style Sheets)

The other issue that is common with people designing a webpage for the first time is they don't resize their photos before uploading them to the website. To be clear I'm referring to the actual file size of the photograph or image. Modern cameras can capture a huge amount of detail that is just unnecessary for images displayed on the Internet. Not only that but large file sizes contribute to bandwidth usage on the visitor device. This can also really slow down the loading of the webpage if the device has to scale down an image. Unless you have a particular need for a high resolution photo you should make sure that all your photos and graphics are no more at most in an megabyte. Preferably one third of that. There are many services online that will resize photos for you. Also as was discussed above make sure the photo looks good across a few different devices. Extremely bright or dark photos can be problematic especially if they rely on a lot of shading. 

• A good place to start working with graphics for free is  https://www.canva.com/  Although this site focuses on the actual creation of graphics, as is often the case, the best way to learn is by doing.
• If you would rather download image editing software GIMP (GNU Imaging Manipulation Program) is excellent. Be aware though, the learning curve is quite steep. The program is free and open source.

While we are on the topics of images and photos please take the time to ensure that you have the appropriate copyright clearances. Many images can be freely reused provided that you indicate who the original author was and whether you made any modifications to the image. The Creative Commons is an excellent place to get images in this regard.

Modern websites use a variety of software. While you're keeping the content of your site up-to-date make sure that software is equally up-to-date. Many website hosts provide a "Managed Site" option which simply means they take care of the software side of things allowing you to focus on your material. This is a serious option to consider if you are not technically minded. One of the ways websites get hacked is that the software is not maintained and hackers will ultimately find flaws they can utilize to getting.

Also once your masterpiece of the website is close to finished, for the first time, because there will be and should be revisions, make sure you connected with services like "Google search console". This will not only help get you on the search engine listings, Google will also notify you of any potential problems related to the visibility of the website.

Tools like the the Google Search Console will take some homework on your part if you're not technically inclined and it by no means guarantees that your website is going to be an overnight smash. Getting your website listed in a way that will appear on search engines regularly and effectively is a whole other field in itself known as "Search Engine Optimization" and involves among other things understanding the phrases people use when they search on a particular topic, titling the individual pages and posts of your website in a meaningful way, and that's just the beginning. One thing you can do though is make sure the content of your website is up-to-date and regularly add new content. Think of what keeps drawing you back to your favourite websites. It is probably the new content they put up in a timely manner.

Finally, a website won't automatically generate traffic, rather it is where you want your traffic to end up at. One of the simplest ways to generate traffic is to make your website address part of your signature on all public posts. Then if the content on your website is engaging, over time people will come back.

To summarize:

• Don't be too concerned about the layout of the images and text. The information you are conveying should make sense regardless of the formatting.
• Keep the colour scheme simple. Check the website on a number of different devices.
• Keep your photos and file sizes small. Under no circumstances upload a photo directly from a modern camera.
• If you're using someone else's picture or artwork make sure to check the copyright and give them the required credit.
• Search engines have their own requirements for getting your content listed. This can take some ongoing work on your part.
• Keep the content of your site up-to-date.
• Keep the software which runs your website up-to-date. If you do not know how to do this ask your website host about a "managed site" option.

That's it. Wow, and to think this article started as an afterthought yesterday when I was helping someone straighten out the formatting on their webpage.

• There are several other articles on the blog dealing with various aspects of website creation and upkeep. You can simply click this link to see the most current list of documents, or at any time, use the search box on the site to search for the keyword "website" or just click here to automate the search.
  

Take care Patrick

Your Internet Garden

In recent months I have had several occasions to clean up websites with various issues and a few common points have become clear:

There is a mistaken belief among website owners that once a website has been created and is on the Internet it needs no more attention... Nothing could be further from the truth!

Websites should be viewed as gardens, in that:

• They take a fair bit of planning and preparation.
• Look beautiful when their brand-new and,
• Wither and die if not maintained. In the case of websites, they become horribly infected with malware etc.

If you read nothing else, please understand, that all websites must be maintained usually on a weekly basis. This is because, even if none of the content changes, the various components which make the site work frequently have updates. I have seen many wonderful sites run into serious problems just because no one checked them on a weekly basis.

This started out as a short article, but then I went down the rabbit hole, as I thought of the various questions asked of me in the last few weeks. The short take away is this: If you don't know how to do maintenance, for your own peace of mind, get someone who does.

The following text, briefly breaks down the various aspects of the website one needs to be aware of particularly if you are going shopping for a new site. As I said, I went down the rabbit hole, so if you're not technically minded or don't want to be bored to death :-) feel free to skip the following. Just remember to take care of "your Internet garden".

All the best, take care, and feel free to keep on reading...

Patrick Clark

There is confusion about the various services involved which must come together in order for a website to exist and what each of the services are actually responsible for. I.e. the domain name registrar, the hosting company, the actual software which makes up the website, and the web designer. Many companies offer all these services in-house as a single package and while this is very convenient one still needs to understand the various aspects.

If you are in the market for a website, especially if this is your first, please read on, because the choices you make initially can have a major impact later on down the road. 

A suggestion: if you are planning to do a business related website and this is your first endeavour. I strongly recommend that you consider creating a alternate website not related to the business in order to get some initial experience of the process, and work involved. Start with something, perhaps related to a hobby. The experience you gain will be invaluable, later on.

Aspect 1. The website address and the Domain-name  Registrar. People understand that this is the website address they type in to their browser and magically a site appears. But in reality this "website address" is completely separate from the website you were actually looking at. As a matter of fact, there are specialized companies, called Domain-name Registrars which sell website addresses. Once you buy an address, it simply means that no one else can use that exact same one. Also, having a website address, does not mean you automatically have a legal copyright. If you are planning to use the domain name in business, you need to check with a legal representative before buying the domain.

Domain-name  Registrar company controls what happens when someone types in your website address in their browser. This can get fairly technical. You will have a separate account with this company just for maintaining your website address.

Aspect 2. The Website Hosting Company. This is the company that stores the files which make up the website and make it available on the Internet. They do not provide domain names. The domain name must be "linked" to the website. (In technical parlance this is called updating the DNS.) Again, you would have a separate account just for maintaining your website.

It is very important to understand that these two aspects of the website are completely separate and hence the need for two accounts one, with each company.

Aspect 3. The Software That Makes up the Website. Modern websites use different software. This can have a major impact if you decide later on to move your website to another hosting company. For example, as far as I know, a website created on WIX cannot be moved over to a company that uses WordPress software. So it is wise to ask the hosting company before spending a great deal of design time on a website, whether the website can be moved. (Sometimes called migrating.)

Aspect 4. The Web Designer. This is the person responsible for creating the design of the website. They will have to deal with both The Domain Name Registrar and the Website Hosting Company. Be very clear at the onset about what their duties are. Also make sure you have a plan in place should they leave.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list but it does cover the obvious basics. Owning and running a website cannot only be profitable, in either the monetary, or in other ways, it can also be a lot of fun. But it does take commitment and you must embrace change. That is the very essence of the Internet, change and evolution.

Until next time! And who knows on what topic :-)

 

PS: There are several other articles on the blog dealing with various aspects of website creation and upkeep. You can simply click this link to see the most current list of documents, or at any time, use the search box on the site to search for the keyword "website" or just click here to automate the search.