Slightly Off Topic: An Odd 21st Century Urban Moment

Normally here at Notes from the Metaverse we tend to the serious, the technical, and the educational. We are veering slightly off-course today because of a unique occurrence over lunchtime. Please bear with me, and know that This Actually Happened:

So I’m walking around downtown Milwaukee after lunch today, when I encounter a large group (perhaps a dozen?) of black-clad women huddled on the corner of Plankinton & Wells, in front of the tapas bar. They’re involved in a bit of discussion about goodness-knows-what.

List of Bohemian Rhapsody cover versions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As I turn the corner so as not to disturb them, one of the women sees me, comes over and asks “Do you know Queen‘s Bohemian Rhapsody?” Well, yes I do, most of it anyway. “Can you sing it with me?” Another part of the group joins us; one asks “Do you know the ‘Scaramouche’ part?” Well, no (actually should have said “I don’t think anyone really knows that part for sure,” but … I digress).

Anyway, after some additional pleading, I agree to perform, and we settle on the opening part. By the way, did I mention that I had my black jacket on? I did fit in with this ensemble of four or five women in black. Another woman produces a phone/camera (one can never say with certainty anymore). I get my soda out of the frame, and declare “OK, now I’m officially terrified.” The Scaramouche woman tells me not to worry, they’ll delete it right away. We sing (a capella) the opening of Bohemian Rhapsody “Is this the real life, is this just fantasy…” up to “open your eyes, look up to the skies and seeeeee…” when someone calls it a wrap.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I see one of the other women (not part of the singalong) carrying a sign identifying the Sojourner Family Peace Center, the most prominent domestic-violence shelter in our town. I don’t get a chance to ask about that, and the sign doesn’t appear in the video.

The women thank me, and go on their merry way (after taking a still shot of the parked UPS truck a few feet down the street). Yes, I still have my wallet.

So after all this, I can say that I wasn’t ever really terrified. If you see this thing on YouTube, let me know. I’ll be happier if it has a Creative Commons license, but I won’t be angry in any case. Besides, my wife wants to see it!

If you happen to be one of the women described here, I’d love to hear more about this project. I hope you got what you needed.

For the rest of you: Feel free to share your odd urban moments or impromptu public performance stories, or even your memories of Freddy Mercury, in the Comments.

Related articles

• Drunk Man On New York Subway Sings Bohemian Rhapsody [Video] (myq105.cbslocal.com)

A techwriter dies and goes to heaven...

Reblogged from Tech Writer News:

Originally posted on The Humane Experience blog; reprinted here with permission. By Michael Hughes.

A techwriter dies and goes to heaven and she finds herself at the pearly gates before St. Peter. He looks over her record and decides she is worthy to enter heaven.

"We've upgraded our services recently," he tells her, "so that you now have access to a more personalized heaven experience.

Read more… 677 more words

While I don't do theology on this blog (or much of anywhere), and I definitely would replace the coffee with Diet Mountain Dew Code Red... I'd be pretty comfortable in any of these scenarios. Don't want to brag (OK, maybe I do), but I have actually heard some of those words from devs! Happy New Year to all!

Tips to Become “Influential”

Last week, I was a little bit flummoxed to learn that MindTouch had named me one of the “400 Most Influential in TechComm and Content Strategy.” As honored as I felt to be part of this list (see my other site for an initial reaction), I’m still not quite sure what I did to earn such a high place (57) on the list. This is probably a good thing, as otherwise I might be plotting to make the Top 50 next year.

As a longtime blogger, and WordPress author, I do get the occasional question from people along the lines of “Can I get rich and famous from blogging?” My answer is usually the same lines: “It’s been done, but it ain’t easy.” Well, I am not rich (at least in the financial sense), and I’m only (very) slightly famous. Apparently, however, I am at least a little bit influential, so I do have some vague notion (maybe) of how I got here. Can I share?

Find experienced people who can help

When I first became a technical writer, my predecessor in the job moved to the marketing department of our company. I asked a lot of questions and soaked up all the information I could—not just about the software we documented, but about tech writing as a profession. Among other things, she shared with me a stack of publications from the Society for Technical Communication (STC). What a good idea that was!

Find a professional organization in your niche

Finding STC connected me with hundreds of other folks who had my job (or something similar) looking to become better at it. When I first started going to meetings of the Rocky Mountain chapter, I met people I was actually in awe of, but were still friendly and helpful. I learned more, and got more involved as time went on. STC is not a perfect organization (does such a thing exist?), but I’m still involved.

When that first tech-comm job ended and I came back to my hometown, I found another group of kindred spirits at BarCamp Milwaukee and Web414. Scroll through the archives here for some thoughts on what I’ve picked up from them over the years. One of the best things I picked up was an early acceptance of Twitter as a communication tool!

Go to conferences

My annual routine includes as many BarCamps, tech comm conferences, and WordCamps as I can attend. Most years, that’s only one or two of each, but I pine to see more. What’s great about conferences? Even if you don’t get to travel to some exotic location, you can get out of the daily routine and learn something new. There’s meeting and hanging out with a different set of people too.

I’ll remind you that WordCamp Milwaukee is coming in June, WriteCamp will be around that time, and BarCamp Milwaukee is the first weekend in October.

Share what you know

When you learn something, don’t hoard that knowledge. Whether you just retweet an interesting link, write a blog, or start speaking at conferences,it’s important to share. In my early days on Twitter, somebody out there suggested that a key to success on Twitter was to “always be linking.” Just don’t make your links all about yourself!

Have a personality, but don’t parade your ego

Here’s a generalization: Most people don’t care for people who just talk about themselves. When you’re interacting with people at all these events I’m suggesting you participate in, aim to be nice, and aim to be helpful. Whether you’re online, in print, or in person, don’t be the know-it-all (even if you think you do know a lot). Always remember that you’ve been wrong before, but maybe not now. Never be afraid to just listen, too. That is how you learn things.

I don’t know for sure whether these practices turned me into an influential character, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be doing what I do without these practices. Many thanks to all who have helped me over the last decade or so. Quite a few of those folks are also on the MindTouch list, but many others are outside the field.

Happy New Year! May you be influential in your niche too!

Somewhat Shameless Self-Promotion: WordPress in Depth

Image via Wikipedia

We’re not especially into the hype and commercialism that often slips into the blogosphere. At Notes from the Metaverse, the goal is to empower ordinary folks to use technology to find their voice and get things done. I hope this blog helps you navigate the occasionally treacherous waters of open source technology, especially desktop Linux and WordPress. I firmly believe that good content is the most important SEO tool there is.

That said, if you happen to know someone who is thinking about starting a blog in 2012, or wants to take advantage of all WordPress has to offer, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy of WordPress in Depth.

I have to say that I’ve been amazed and humbled at some of the reviews for the second edition that have appeared at Amazon.com. Indulge me for a minute while I show you some of the quotes that warm my heart (even if the spelling isn’t always perfect):

It is well-written for people like me who know there way around a computer but don’t consider themselves too technical.  –Michael Gallagher

This book WordPress in Depth, is easy to understand even when talking about the professional side of WordPress. –S. Nichols

Some manuals have the detail but not the clarity required to be user friendly. This one delivers the information in a clear manner and is well organized. It describes putting up a WordPress blog in a chronological manner that would allow the reader to sit down at the computer with the manual and just work their way through the process.  –Lou Belcher

I was very happy to receive this book because I am interested in starting a blog and I have absolutely ZERO experience with WordPress and very limited experience with any kind of programming at all, but I am pretty good at following “recipes.” To push the analogy, WordPress In Depth (2nd Edition) not only gives you the recipes, but teaches you how the various ingredients chemically react to one another to produce a result. Some chefs want to know that stuff; others just want the cake to come out right. This book is for the former.   –S. Rudge

Bud Smith and I worked hard to make the new edition more “in depth,” yet still friendly to the rank beginner. Admittedly, not everyone agrees that we succeeded.

Thanks to the inevitable lag in publishing schedules, the book doesn’t cover some of the newer embellishments in WordPress, but watch this space for help on that score soon. If there’s something in particular you want to know about, please leave a comment here.

You can find WordPress in Depth wherever you find quality computer books (and I know that’s harder than it used to be), be it in your town or at your computer. It comes in paper and electronic versions.

As the pitchman always says: If you liked either edition of WordPress in Depth, tell a friend. If not, tell me, in the Comments. Ideas for future editions are greatly appreciated too. What have you had trouble learning in WordPress? What features excite you most?

While you’re still in the book shopping mood, you might also want to check out these recent releases:

• Bud Smith, my outstanding collaborator, never stops writing. He’s got Using iPad 2 out now.
• Rochelle Melander, the WriteNow Coach, inspires writers in Milwaukee and elsewhere with her blog and workshops. She’s also a friend of WriteCamp Milwaukee, which makes her a all-round terrific person. Her latest, Write-a-Thon,  is something I’ve been meaning to get since before it came out, but I procrastinate.

And so concludes our marketing interlude. I’ll return to helpful content sooner than you think!

Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I hope it’s a good one! And may 2012 be the best ever!

Preparing to Install openSUSE 12.1 from Scratch

You may already know, but openSUSE released v12.1 of the community distribution this week. With a new number before the decimal point, I thought it would be a good time for a fresh, clean install on my aging laptop. I could just upgrade my existing v11.4 installation, but I like to see what the new install looks like from time to time. Doing a clean install also means I can share the process with you too.

Clean installs do require a bit of preparation, though. You will be wiping your partitions, so you want to preserve your existing data, and a bit of your configurations before embarking on a new install. In this post, I’ll share what I did.

1. Review Existing Repositories in YaST

While you can find software to do just about anything with just the default repositories in openSUSE, sometimes you need something that isn’t in there, or even in the community repositories that you get access to with every installation. Fortunately, the openSUSE Build Service (OBS) allows anyone to create packages to distribute with openSUSE, or any major Linux distribution.

When you use the 1-Click Install option, the packager adds his/her  repository to your system so you get all the updates. Checking what packages come from what repositories can save you some time later.

As I write this, it occurs to me that the repo list is probably stored in /etc somewhere, but you will still want to write down the repo names and the relevant packages that to install on 12.1.

2. Full Backup

Speaking of packages I got from a non-standard repository, I use BackInTime to handle regular backups of my /home drive to my ever-trusty Seagate FreeAgent external drive. It backs up that info weekly, and is a no-brainer to set up. Nonetheless, I wanted to ensure that everything got backed up before the uninstall/reinstall, so I wanted to make my own archived /home drive, and also the /etc space (where system configuration files tend to be kept).

I thought that would be a simple task with KDE‘s handy Ark tool, but I ran into a permissions issue. Apparently the place I wanted to back up to was restricted to Root! So using the Krusader file manager in Root mode, I was able to change the permissions for the backup folder, and perform the backup; shrinking the 25GB on my /home path to just 9GB. Data is safe!

3. Understand Your Partition Table

Now some people might get angry with me, but I still have the occasional need for that Microsoft operating system. Lots of folks still use it, and the appropriate screen shot is still helpful for my readers (thanks, all of you!). So I’ve been running a dual-boot system for pretty much this entire millennium. Maybe you don’t have to, so you can skip this step. Otherwise, I highly recommend knowing what your system currently looks like. the openSUSE install program should recognize everything that’s there already, but in the off-chance that something goes wrong, if you know how Linux already sees your drive, chances are better it will stay that way.

Again, YaST helps in this regard with the Expert Partitioner module. This tool will reorganize your drive if you need it to, but I’m just going to look at the table now. I wrote down the current partition table, noting that the physical drive was split up into eight pieces (including an extended partition that holds just about everything). I made careful notes of the file system on each partition (so I know where Windows sits) and the size of each. After I wrote it down by hand, I took a screen shot  for additional peace of mind. I should be able to recreate that during the install.

4. Release Day Arrives: Let’s Pull Down Torrents!

As I awoke on the morning of November 16, openSUSE v12.1 was released. I went straight to the download site, and downloaded the torrent files for the full 32-bit DVD release, and LiveCDs containing the GNOME 3.2 desktop and KDE 4.7.2. I can’t make DVDs with this laptop, but I suspected that I could be of help to others if I got all the stuff. The Transmission torrent client went to work as I did the same. When I got home from work, all three files were downloaded to the FreeAgent drive and seeding other people’s downloads.

I guessed right, as my share ratios indicate the DVD is by far the most popular form of download. Interestingly, the GNOME LiveCD has maintained a slight edge over KDE every time I’ve checked the ratios.

BTW, If all this talk of torrents and share ratios have you scratching your head, please let me know. This post has gone on too long already, but I’m happy to take up the topic later.

5. Burn the KDE LiveCD

So let’s see: Data’s backed up; we know where to find random packages, we know where to install the new version and got the installation program. All that’s left is to put the install program on CD. For that task, I use K3B, the excellent CD/DVD burning tool that comes with KDE. Throw a CD-RW into the drive, go to Tools > Burn Image, and point to the openSUSE-12.1-KDE-LiveCD-i686.iso file. Another dialog comes up, where I ask K3B to confirm the data is valid on the CD after writing it, and 10 minutes later, I have a CD ready to go.

In the next post, I’ll tell you how the install went. In the meantime, let me know how you prepare for a new install. Fewer steps? Always just a dist-upgrade?

If you’ve already upgraded to openSUSE 12.1, I’d love to hear how it went, and what you think. Of course, if anything went badly, please file bug reports!

A Weekend Like No Other (with no BarCamp)

Image via Wikipedia

This was supposed to be my review of BarCampMilwaukee6, with all the usual comments on what I learned, what I shared, and how much fun I had with the always-unique band of BarCampers. Only problem is that I missed it, for the first time.

I don’t know if this qualifies as a legitimate excuse, but there was a unique confluence of sporting events in Wisconsin last weekend:

• The Milwaukee Brewers faced the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first two games of the National League Division Series (btw, that Miller Park photo up there was taken by my friend, Jeramey Jannene)
• University of Nebraska made its Big Ten Conference debut in Madison against the U of Wisconsin-Madison
• The Denver Broncos came into Lambeau Field in Green Bay to play the Packers

Like 225,000+ other Brewer fans, I tossed my name into the virtual hat to get what limited seats might be available for a playoff game at Miller Park. Astonishingly, I was one of the 5500 names selected to buy tickets for the Division Series. At the time, nobody knew when the games would be, so there was a chance that BarCamp wouldn’t be affected at all. But I had a plan, just in case the games were on the weekend: I’d buy tickets for the Sunday game, and go to BarCamp Saturday.

When the time came to actually login and buy the tickets, the Virtual Waiting Room was not kind to me. By the time I got through, there was just standing room available for Game #2. Didn’t want to spend $25 to walk around the ballpark, so I dropped out.

What I didn’t know at the time was that my brother-in-law got tickets for Game #1. After he offered me one of his tickets, I was on Plan B: I’d see baseball on Saturday, and go to BarCamp Sunday. This is what happened last year, when I went to the Farm Aid show at the same location. This would be fine.

Until Thursday. I was working hard when I got a call from my boss’ boss. This sort of thing never happens. Any worries I might have had about the subject of the call were dissipated early. The CEO was wondering if I might be interested in using his tickets to the Packer game Sunday.

For a multitude of reasons, I said ‘yes.’ I was immediately glad I didn’t get those Sunday baseball tickets. But now what? Plan C goes into effect: Baseball Saturday afternoon, BarCamp in the evening (I could forego the Badger game), Green Bay on Sunday.

We had a great time at Miller Park Saturday afternoon. What I was not expecting was that my back would suddenly start acting wacky the instant I came home from the ballpark. I literally could not get out of my chair without great pain. So I was hosed.

With several big doses of ibuprofen and a long car ride to Green Bay, I somehow managed to make it through the football game too. It was my first time at the Temple of (American) Football, and it was certainly unforgettable. But I felt pretty bad about missing my favorite (un)conference. This will be different next year.

Anyway, if you’d like to see what we all missed, here’s the schedule.

If you went to BarCamp, please share some highlights in the comments. Feel free to denounce me for my wicked choices too.

Have you ever had a conflict between two or more events that you had major passions for? How did you resolve it? Was it the right decision? Comment below.

One more thing: GO BREWERS!!

BarCampMilwaukee6 Just Two Weeks Away!

Have I mentioned this lately: I love conferences! There’s not much better times than the opportunity to get together with folks of like interests, like mind and similar skills, get away from the day to day and schmooze. Occasionally, even learning takes place. For serendipity and wide-ranging topics, few conferences beat the ones falling under the  BarCamp umbrella.

A week from Saturday (October 1), BarCampMilwaukee 6 opens at Bucketworks on South Fifth Street in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood. If you happen to be within traveling distance, you should come. You will meet fabulous people, eat marvelous food, play with assorted ideas and toys,and probably get a t-shirt too. For the second year, there will also be KidsCamp, which should be great fun. As always, there will be robots, too. Did I mention it’s all free of charge? Unless, of course, you want to make a donation.

You can peruse the Conferences and such category here to learn more about all six versions of BCMKE. Register for BCMKE6 at the site. Watch this space for further reminiscing.

And speaking of conferences, watch this space too for some WordPress news.

Some Quick Hits: openSUSE Strategy, WordPress Upgrades, and Some Pointers

It’s summer in Milwaukee, and I haven’t been spending too much time in front of a keyboard lately. You’re surprised?

Anyway, I do have a lot of things on my mind, and here are some of them:

• openSUSE Strategy Vote: This is directed at the 267 formal Members of the openSUSE Community who have not yet voted on the proposed strategy document: As I write this, you’ve got less than 24 hours to cast your ballot.  The proposal has a 90% approval rating right now (and I voted Yes, if you care what I think); but unless at least 35 more members vote, bumping turnout over 50%, the strategy won’t be adopted! The statement doesn’t take long to read, you can vote No, or even abstain if you like, but please make your voice heard!
• WordPress v3.2: In the offhand chance you haven’t heard: WordPress released v3.2 (aka Gershwin) over a week ago! There’s even been an update already! Much more to say about this soon, but goodness knows if you haven’t upgraded yet, what are you waiting for?
• Some Personal History: If you’ve read my About page, or checked out my main website, you know that I’m a technical writer by profession. I wrote a brief account of my “Adventures in Publishing: Finding a Gig as a Computer-Book Author” for the webzine associated with the venerable Technical Writing mailing list (TechWr-L). You may find it interesting.
• Getting Yet More Social: You may have heard about this new little social network called Google+. It’s really been flying under the radar, don’t you think? I’ve been playing around there this week. If you’re there, connect with me here. If you’re not there, and are anxious to learn more, my Invite button is still showing. Drop a line with your name and email address to gplus-at-michaelmccallister.com. I’ll see what I can do.

That’s all for now. Expect to be hearing more from me on these and other riveting topics as the summer presses onward.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

As we approach the end of 2010, I hope everyone enjoys whatever holiday(s) you celebrate. Whether your celebrations are secular or religious, indulgent or ascetic, reflective or just plain magical, let’s have some fun!

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled technical talk next week.

In Praise of Understated Themes

Been visiting a lot of WordPress sites lately—an occupational hazard of the beat. I have to admit I’m moderately astonished at how many WP bloggers choose gaudy themes that scream for attention to the design, often at the expense of the content.

I don’t want to point fingers, but you know the symptoms of the type:

• Gigantic heading fonts
• In-your-face bright colors
• Flashing ads that seem like the modern equivalent of blink tags

Now often there is good information contained on these sites, but sometimes you wonder whether the design is really serving the content, or the content is there to bring attention to the pictures (or more precisely, the ads).

Now of course one great thing about blogging is Attracting Attention to Yourself. If we just wanted a diary to keep our thoughts together, we’d probably just buy a blank book and put pen to paper, or get some use out of our favorite word processor. No, we want to have (crave, even) readers. And the experts tell us posts should be brief (I think mine have gotten shorter over the years) to accommodate short attention spans. But the big fonts and graphics that seem to overwhelm all else … underwhelm me.

Notes from the Metaverse has had approximately two themes since moving to WordPress.com some years ago, and I think I changed the header image in the current theme (Regulus, a really old theme from Ben Gillbanks) once. I really like that there’s not much to the theme besides that header image.  This allows you to focus on the content. I’m a little flashier with the colors over at the other site with Caribou, from James R Whitehead at Spectacu.la, but I’m playing with a new one, The Erudite, from Matt Wiebe that seems to be more like me.

One of the other great things about blogging is that you get the opportunity to improve your writing skills by “publishing every day” (or at least every week or two). So take advantage of that opportunity. Don’t be tempted to devalue your writing or information-gathering skills by grabbing that ostentatious theme. Let your content shine, and the readers will come.