Unfortunate Adwords

Google should consider suspending its automated Adwords service during times when the media is covering mass tragedies. Here’s a screenshot from a Chicago Trib story on the Newtown shootings that I just opened.

Maybe someone at the Trib noticed it, since reloading the page brings up a cellphone ad.

Out Now

Consider this excellent holiday gift for your family, close friends, small relatives, and students. Only $40 in softcover. Think of the smiles on their faces when they unwrap this—priceless!

Seriously, though, I’ve edited more than a couple of collections in my career and this text if far and away the one I’m proudest of. Thanks to my co-editor, Stuart Selber; the great contributors we had (listed below); and David Morrow and the rest of the staff at U of Chicago Press.

And check out the list of Table of Contents:

Introduction

0 “Introduction” Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber

Part 1: Mapping the Field

1 “What Are the Boundaries, Artifacts, and Identities of Technical Communication?” Richard J. Selfe and Cynthia L. Selfe

2 “What Are the Work Patterns of Technical Communication?” William Hart-Davidson

3 “How Can Technical Communicators Fit into Contemporary Organizations?” Jim Henry

4 “How Can Technical Communicators Develop as Both Students and Professionals?” Kelli Cargile Cook, Emily Cook, Ben Minson, and Stephanie Wilson

Part 2: Situating the Field

5 “How Can Rhetoric Theory Inform the Practice of Technical Communication?” James E. Porter

6 “How Can Work Tools Shape and Organize Technical Communication?” Jason Swarts

7 What Can History Teach Us about Technical Communication? Bernadette Longo and T. Kenny Fountain

8 “What Is the Future of Technical Communication?” Brad Mehlenbacher

Part 3: Understanding Field Approaches

9 “How Can Technical Communicators Work in an Ethical and Legal Manner?” J. Blake Scott

10 “How Can Technical Communicators Plan for Users? Antonio Ceraso
11 How Can Technical Communicators Study Work Contexts?” Clay Spinuzzi

12 “How Can Technical Communicators Evaluate the Usability of Artifacts?” Barbara Mirel

13 “How Can Technical Communicators Manage Projects?” R. Stanley Dicks

Part 4: Developing Field Knowledge

14 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Genre?” Brent Henze

15 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Writing?” Ann M. Blakeslee and Gerald J. Savage

16 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Information Design?” Karen Schriver

17 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about New Media?” Anne Frances Wysocki

18 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Collaboration?” Rebecca E. Burnett, L. Andrew Cooper, and Candice A. Welhausen

19 “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about International Environments?” Kirk St. Amant

List of Contributors

Index

Golden

[Larger sizes and additional images at Flickr.]

Two rolls of color film shot during fall colors. Back to black and white Fuji Neopan 400. Still trying to figure out how grey works.

Yard With Orange Orb

Shooting with Fuji Velvia 50 slide film and the Leica M3. Raw scan (no Photoshop tweaking). Larger sizes at Flickr.

(Kids, this is where Instagram came from. You know, when photography still had a soul.)

Inbox Zero

This only lasted about a nanosecond but it still felt weird, like a disturbance in the force.

COIN CLEAN RESTROOM CLEANING

Deck

When we started this in June, it was going to be a 3′ x 3′ landing with steps.

Anyone who receives this bill…

ANYONE WHO RECEIVES THIS BILL WILL BE BLESSED WITH ALOT OF MONEY BUT ONLY IF YOU COPY THIS MESSAGE ON TEN OTHER BILLS

[larger version]

stand

Larger versions at Flickr.

Error 404

I like Boing-Boing’s minimalist take on the Error 404 message: “We’re as confused as you are.”

Which, now that I think about it, is also the foundation of Google’s minimalist aesthetic. “Let’s go see what asking the whole web at once gets us!”