Quick Fix: Can't pull up pages or slow loading in Flipboard? Try Taptu

Category: Tech Today

Flipboard is a great platform for reading with its well-designed interface and access to a whole range of websites. One issue users may experience with Flipboard, however, is pages not loading fast enough (or in countries like China) won't load at all after you click an article. A popular alternative is Taptu, a newsreader comparable to Flipboard in functionality and coverage. Although it lacks the visual aesthetics of Flipboard, Taptu aggregates articles fairly quickly and is able to display content (even from restricted sources) by pulling up minimal text and images - an advantage for readers who prefer just the essentials.

Note: In Shanghai, I found Taptu worked much better in pulling up content than Flipboard, though Flipboard was still usable and still worth installing on my iOS devices. Pulse, another popular iOS app for reading online articles, couldn't pull up any content at all due to China's Great Firewall.

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Do you still use a LiveCD, LiveUSB or set up a Dual boot? Part 2

Category: Linux

Dual boot

Back in the day, there were users who strongly believed everyone should dual boot. My older brother used to install Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 back-to-back for various reasons. In the last six years, I preached dual-booting Linux to all Windows users who are scared to migrate completely to the latest Linux distribution.

These days, however, I hesitate to encourage having two operating systems at once. Having two OSs on the same machine (not through virtualization) may provide plenty of security in case one OS failed, but it could also have an odd impact on productivity and sometimes cause more trouble than its overall worth. The primary reason for dual booting with Windows before was to maintain access to Windows-only applications - which isn't a strong argument for dual-booting any longer. I'd rather have one machine dedicated to Windows and several Linux machines than have one Linux-Windows dual boot.



 

Despite all the criticisms leveraged by the media and mainstream users toward Windows 7 and Windows 8, both are actually quite exceptional platforms. If you absolutely need Office or Adobe products, consider getting a second system only for Linux rather than installing Windows 8 and Linux on the same machine. Setting up file sharing between Windows and Linux is easier than ever over a network and there's no longer any reason to install the two operating systems side-by-side. I'd add that if you want to seriously learn ArchLinux or FreeBSD, installing a standalone machine provides a better experience than a dual boot.  Plus, consider using a Linux LiveUSB with persistent storage - less overhead and hassle.




Some Linux users also go through a phase of dual booting two Linux distributions (I stayed on this path for a long, long time). However, the gains or convenience of having two Linux OSs really wasn't much compared to comfortably managing and becoming exceptionally well-versed in one distribution.


Too much of a good thing (meaning SSD storage and dual booting)
Photo credit: Alex and Bobby


Despite my preference for committing my machines to one OS, I can't ignore that there are still strong reasons for many users to dual boot:

1. Cost. As a guy who struggles to make ends meet, I understand how buying a second machine just to install a different OS can be a challenge. Tons of people who visit CNET and PCWorld boast about having several smartphones and ultrabooks but most people can barely afford just one decent machine. Dual booting lets you learn two platforms at the same time and keep you updated with the ever-expanding IT landscape.

2. Windows withdrawal symptoms can be tough. Linux is easier than ever to learn and use and worldwide adoption is encouraging. Despite being a self-proclaimed Linux evangelist, however, I still believe Windows is very, very relevant. For new Linux users, it offers a safe haven when PackageKit breaks, KDE starts twitching like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction and Unity causes disunity and Gnome becomes a gremlin.

3. Windows or MacOSX dies on you. It happens. Years of tech support will tell you that it's often the user and not the operating system's fault why a system suddenly breaks down. Thankfully, when Windows or MacOSX fails, Grub (or whichever boot manager you're using) is still there to give you the option to load openSUSE or Lubuntu in your darkest hour.

4. MacOSX. MacOSX fans rave about Apple's OS, but even longtime users accept that the changes in MacOSX aren't as 100% perfect as the Apple zombies want you to think. There are other reasons why so many users dual boot MacOSX with Windows or Linux other than Windows applications/Linux flexibility - productivity, desktop environment, comfort, aesthetics . . . Not everyone blindly worships or ignores the imperfections of MacOSX.

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Do you still use a LiveCD, LiveUSB or set up a Dual boot? Part 1

Category: Linux

The tech landscape has changed so much that both smartphones and tablets can manage Linux, Windows and MacOSX systems remotely. From Air Droid to very easy remote access, even the most devout supporter of LiveCDs, LiveUSBs and dual booting Linux systems will give pause. Apps these days are extremely powerful and I encourage students and users alike to try out great Android and iOS apps for managing their hardware.

For Linux users, the availability of fast wireless Internet, efficient network installs, rolling releases and Android renders some of the classic advantages of Linux LiveCDs and LiveUSBs somewhat irrelevant. Does it still make sense to burn a LiveCD, LiveUSB or set up a dual boot in machines?

Linux LiveCDs

Apple has dispensed with optical drives in most of their machines and most Apple users don't even have a Super Drive along with their Macbook Air.  Windows users may not be completely aware of it but some of them haven't pressed their optical drive eject button in awhile even before netbooks were introduced to the market. Ultraportables like the Acer Aspire S7 and hybrids like the Lenovo Yoga  have prospered without optical drives. Why should users pop out their drive trays when games can be downloaded via a service like Steam or install applications and games directly to an iPad or Android phone via an app store?




I love LiveCDs. I used to have tons of LiveCDs of old releases of Mandriva, openSUSE and Fedora just for reference. I even have the old Ubuntu disc Canonical used to ship for free. These days, however, I test new releases using a LiveUSB instead. I haven't totally abandoned LiveCDs, however, and use them in the following scenarios:

1. When repurposing old laptops and PCs, I run old versions of Ubuntu or Fedora LiveCDs especially if the portable doesn't have enough USB ports for a LiveUSB. I still have a Knoppix LiveUSB for those days when you have to exert a bit of effort to fix a Windows system. Linux Mint and openSUSE LiveCDs have also proven useful to have around too when working with legacy machines.

2. Imaging desktops and portables are better done using a Clonezilla LiveCD if your target device is a USB external drive or even a network drive.

3. When traveling or moving from country to country, I always have a Linux LiveCD (and a LiveUSB) packed somewhere in case my laptop dies, Windows hiccups or (knock on wood) I have to buy a new laptop.

LiveUSBs

LiveUSBs serve the same purpose as a LiveCD in many ways, but both the medium and USB sticks are less common now due to tablets and SD cards. Most people are probably content with the prodigious power of iOS, Android and Windows 8 for their tasks. I may be in the minority but I still feel uneasy going to work without a LiveUSB and use them for the following scenarios:

1. Extracting files from Windows and Apple machines is a cinch with a Linux LiveUSB. Your IT department may frown on the practice but sometimes it takes forever when a system breaks down.

2. I was shopping for a portable early this year and while hunting I had three LiveUSBs with me to test various hardware components. One had OpenSUSE KDE to test hardware compatibility and performance. Another had Fedora Xfce for even stricter tests on hardware/network compliance and the last LiveUSB carried ever dependable Lubuntu.

3. LiveUSB is the best way to test a newly released distribution. I've long retired as a distro-hopper and I've stopped being an early adopter. Before upgrading to a new openSUSE or Ubuntu release, I have to test the distribution on my netbooks and laptops first. Creating a LiveUSB is less wasteful than burning a DVDR and it's fairly easy to do over the Terminal or using a GUI like Unetbootin. I'm a huge fan of VirtualBox but testing out a distribution via LiveUSB or LiveCD is a different (and occasionally more accurate) experience altogether.




4. When fixing that laptop, a LiveUSB is one of the best tools to have around. My Windows 7 Lenovo machine recently started crashing all of a sudden and I needed to check if it was a hardware fan issue (the machine was running hot) or a recent Windows update conflicting with Lenovo's proprietary utility. I reached for my friendly Knoppix LiveUSB for a quick diagnosis. I ran also the same test with my beloved Acer Aspire 5500Z when its optical drive refused to load an openSUSE LiveCD.

5. Teaching or introducing Linux to kids is extremely fun. It's great to see their eyes grow wide as they watch you pop in a USB drive and completely change their machine. The effect actually works on adult Mac and Windows users too. LiveCDs aren't nearly as impressive as LiveUSBs when spreading the Linux experience.




Continued in Do you still use a LiveCD, LiveUSB or set up a Dual boot? Part 2

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CorelDraw Basics: Drawing an App Advertisement in Perspective Part 2

Category: Tech Writer

Continued from CorelDraw Basics: Drawing an App Advertisement in Perspective Part 1

Adding the App screenshot

To add a screenshot of an app or any piece of software to the tablet illustration, it is best to use a high-resolution image. A vector illustration is preferable to a bitmap screenshot, but a clear image still works in most cases.

1. Click File then Import... and select the image to be added to the vector tablet. This example uses a PNG screenshot of the SkyDrive user interface taken using Lightscreen.

2. Select the screenshot using the Pick Tool. On the Bitmaps menu, click 3D Effects then 3D Rotate...




3. In the 3D Rotate window, increase the Vertical (and Horizontal) values. Click the Preview button to view changes.

4. If needed, position the screenshot over the tablet drawing to check if the angle is appropriate.

5. Since using the 3D Rotate effect on a bitmap would add "white space" to provide depth, place the screenshot "inside" the display or a separate vector object using the PowerClip tool.

Click Effects then PowerClip. Click Place Inside Container... and use the arrow to point to the tablet's "display" or a closed object. In the screenshot below, the Pen tool is used to create a closed object matching the dimensions of the rotated bitmap. The Outline Tool is then used to make the vector object drawing "disappear".




6. Reposition the rotated bitmap inside the tablet drawing.

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CorelDraw Basics: Drawing an App Advertisement in Perspective Part 1

Category: Tech Writer

A basic product and software illustration doesn't require high-end CAD tools or drafting skills to produce. CorelDraw's useful bitmap and vector effects can make quick work of challenges in making a compelling ad for a tablet or smartphone app.

Note: The CorelDraw article used in this article is CorelDraw X3.

In this example, a flat drawing of a generic tablet is used in combination with a screenshot of an app or web service like SkyDrive.

1. Draw a tablet using the Rectangle Tool. Using the Shape Tool, make rounded corners by clicking on the handles and dragging to change the angle.

2. Add a small circle in the center of the bezel to serve as a webcam.

3. Use the Contour docker to add an extra "window" in the rounded rectangle to represent the display. Adjust the weight of the lines by using the Outline Tool.

4. Using the Pick Tool, select all the objects and click the Arrange menu. Click Align and Distribute and then Center to Page Vertically.

5. Click CTRL+G to group the objects.

6. Click and drag from the left ruler to create a Guide. Click the new guide once to display the rotate handles. Rotate the guide at an angle. Create another vertical guide and rotate the guide in the opposite direction, making sure that this second guide intersects the first guide at a point. This will serve as a reference point or "vanishing point".

7. Using the Pick Tool, position the tablet as needed within the two reference guides.

8. Click Effects then Add Perspective. A thin red dotted mesh will appear over the tablet. Click the corners and drag the points so the tablet aligns with the two guides. You can adjust the mesh points at any time by clicking the Shape Tool. Adjust the angles as needed to get the desired perspective. In this example, the tablet is meant to appear as if it's laid out on a table. To clear the perspective mesh and start over, click Effects then Clear Perspective.




Continued in CorelDraw Basics: Drawing an App Advertisement in Perspective Part 2

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Web Service Review: Behance.net Part 2

Category: Tech Writer

Fresh graduates and non-working professionals shouldn't worry. They don't need to show off actual final designs and paid work - Behance is a platform to show that they know how to use today's tools. Even the choice of software really doesn't matter. Skills and creativity are visible even if the artwork was made using open-source software such as Gimp or Krita or more commercial suites from Corel or Adobe. Users don't need to compete with the amazing work posted in Behance or feel insecure about their work at all. Posting work in Behance is proof a user can work with illustration and design regardless of profession or industry.

Although I work mostly with words, I uploaded a few old vector projects I worked on that I'm actually allowed to publish. I don't expect anyone to view my portfolio, much less give me "appreciations." However, I do find it invaluable to have some presence online that show proof I can work with Corel Draw, Paint Shop Pro and Adobe products. For job seekers looking for a professional platform to show off their work and get a leg up in the design or media industry, Behance is perfect.

What about DeviantArt?

DeviantArt is great fun. It's a free and open community in every sense of the word with artists sharing their dreams and their creativity. There are tons of great homages to comic book characters, movies, and more recently, TV shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood. With Marvel and DC experiencing an all-new level of popularity (which I have mixed feelings about since I prefer the old 70s-80s books), there's a mishmash of fan art and designs from Batgirl to Tony Stark. DeviantArt has some of the best independent artists in the world. However, design and digital media professionals may be put off by the lack of professionalism in the community and in the site. In Behance, you would see contributions for real companies like Marvel Comics, Coca-Cola, Ferrari and Warner Brothers plus advertising designs for foreign companies from all around the world. In DeviantArt, on the other hand, you're more often than not going to encounter people who don't care where you've worked or what you do for a living. Instead, the artists are more prone to making cracks at other people's designs or criticizing how the drawing just doesn't work (even if it's just a rendering of the Hulk).

DeviantArt is lively and inspirational and I can't remember how many times I wish I could post 3D digital redesigns for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future and characters from Silverhawks. Unfortunately, adding DeviantArt in your resume or LinkedIn won't exactly impress headhunters or maybe even other art professionals especially when your most popular artwork is putting Kate Upton in Wonder Girl's costume.

Dealbreaker

Besides communicating with other artists, Behance.net also lets you sell your work or put up a professional site. However, it's a single feature that convinced me to sign up for Behance and post a few of my works. One of the most important aspects of any web service is the ability to delete any uploaded content and remove traces of yourself from the service. It's not just about privacy or copyright. It's about maintaining your identity online. Unlike the old web interfaces of AOL and Yahoo, Behance makes it very easy to remove all associated work and delete your account. A quick trip to the Account Settings then the Privacy tab lets you disappear from Behance forever. For me, that's one of the best features of Behance and which is why after 2 years of meditating on this decision, I forked over my email to sign up.



For examples of what a simple portfolio might look like, visit http://www.behance.net/unsolicited and click some of the images.

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In Memory of Bruce Lee

I remember Time Magazine publishing a hack piece on Bruce Lee in a special about influential people around the world in 1996. I remember being severely annoyed by the author, Joel Steinn, who not only didn't understand Lee's legacy but insulted Asia at the same time. It was difficult to accept that the Time Magazine editors would allow such an unprofessional, poorly researched and politically incorrect piece to appear on print.

Mr. Lee is one of those rare celebrity icons who has grown more popular as the years go by. Unfortunately, the kids and people today who have only discovered Mr. Lee have a misplaced image of this fantastic iconoclast. In many ways, his true identity and ideas were severely marred by countless books, "students" and "acquaintances" who allegedly knew him and thought they understood his teachings. It's easy for Westerners to gloss over Mr. Lee's nationalism, his arrogance and violent temper. It's also easy for everyone to assume that everything researched about Mr. Lee is true. Mr. Lee as seen today is a Photoshopped image expertly edited and sharpened using filters. Fighting arts enthusiasts and Bruce Lee fans gush about his kicks and punches when they had no idea who the man really was. No one really did, not even at the height of his career in the 60s. Why should people assume they understand him any better now? He died early, just like some of the greatest thinkers and performers in history. Most of his thoughts were unwritten and even his next film was left undone.


All screen captures from Enter the Dragon (1973)
 

Mr. Lee's contribution to the world cannot be fully measured and it's sad that so many people worship him only for his devotion to the fighting arts, his movies and the media published by the Lee estate (which allowed books Mr. Lee himself would more likely not have approved of). On the other hand, modern skeptics can easily criticize and question his legacy as irrelevant, little understanding that the 60s and 70s were a different time and our standards don't apply.

As much as I liked reading and watching his films while growing up (and tolerating the ridiculous references to him in other films and shows), my favorite experience involving Bruce Lee wasn't watching his fight scenes or legendary scowl. In my opinion, he was at his best during a black-and-white interview where he attempted to share his thoughts on fame, fighting and living. Unlike the vacuous celebrities of Hollywood today, that interview (which was collected in a documentary and later entitled "In His Own Words") gave viewers a peek of an extremely intelligent and effusive gentleman who understood something but couldn't quite put a finger on it. In that short clip, Mr. Lee was charming, mesmerizing, smug, eloquent and a total show-off (he demonstrated a straight leading while seated in front of the interviewer). Many of the words he said in that interview are repeated and quoted out of context today. In fact, I have a notion that if Bruce Lee had survived a few more years he would be furious about all the misconceptions, inaccurate books, and martial art schools devoted to him - a sad, unfortunate consequence of being a legend.




Rest in peace, Mr. Lee.

Note: The world is currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of Bruce Lee's death.

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Web Service Review: Behance.net Part 1

Category: Tech Writer

I'm no photographer and unlike most people with a DSLR, I don't associate the size of my camera (or the price of the camera) with photography skills. My idea of taking a good action photo is webbing the camera to a wall and setting the automatic timer while fighting bad guys . . . but I recently decided to scrape enough dollars to buy a better camera than my aged point-and-shoot Canon. So there I was reading camera reviews over at non-photography sites and generic sites such as PCMag, CNET, and PCWorld. Now, I like a good technical discussion as much as the next guy but what I quickly noticed in the camera forums was everyone either had "camera-envy" or thought they were "The God of Photography 2013". My beloved Physics professor and my Philosophy of Aesthetics instructor would turn over in their graves if they found out so-called "photographers" argued more about types of sensors, brands and lens kits than about how to take a picture or how nice a photo looked. You can tell the hobbyists from the real photographers not by how pedantic they were but how a contributor adds a link to their photos or portfolios. Most of the "photographers" focused on explaining how X lens were awful or Y brand was better, but a serious ILC/DSLR user would provide a URL with a gallery of photos using different types of hardware and under different conditions.

This is what sites like Behance.net is for. To show, not tell. Unlike the 80s (and even 90s), hardware and software is infinitely more affordable - anyone can buy a Wacom, a decent ILC and learn Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Anyone, including your 79-year old grandma, can learn vector design or digital photography and claim they are illustrators, designers and artists. Instead of paying for rent space in a mall or expensive gallery, however, people use the Internet today to showcase their work. If you're a designer looking for your next job or project, a digital portfolio has more efficacy than a well-written resume.

LinkedIn and Adobe

There are advantages to choosing Behance over other digital portfolio sites. The two most obvious reasons to select Behance is its association with Adobe and LinkedIn. Regardless of how you feel about Adobe's recent changes to their business model, most designers and professionals use Adobe products despite the prohibitive price and occasionally dodgy releases (FrameMaker cough!). If you're already subscribed to Adobe's cloud service, then Behance can only help promote your work. Behance is a standalone networking site for media and digital professionals and is more than enough if you want to connect to advertising companies and media agencies as well as independent professionals. Users can add their work experience and skills in their Behance profile and follow industry professionals from established advertising agencies and even artists from Marvel Comics. However, your professional horizons expand tenfold if you link your Behance account with LinkedIn, which allots space in your profile to display your published work.

If I was a design professional or digital artist, I'd stick with Behance and forget about LinkedIn. Behance works because of its strong ties to the professional community and advertising industry. Unlike LinkedIn, which can be annoying, overloaded and misleading, Behance focuses on what the user can do and not how many people the user knows or professional associations the user cultivates. After uploading your projects to Behance, you can provide your Behance URL link to other professionals or add it to your business card. Even if no one "follows" your portfolio, views your work or gives you a thumbs up, you have a digital portfolio you can call your own that you can refer to during interviews, art festivals and when trying to impress that goth girl at the art museum.

Interface and usage

Behance has a similar interface to most DYI blog or website providers with options to add text, change backgrounds, add tags and specific details about your work. I noticed that Behance is surprisingly slow compared to other services and once crashed when I tried to cancel an upload of an image. In addition, uploading a cover of a project can be frustrating since the service doesn't automatically resize the image but has a specific resolution limit (which you have to crop anyway). Otherwise, the experience is straightforward and non-threatening. Although the uploader accepts different types of files, Behance works best as a visual medium, not that layouts and ebooks are totally out of the question.

It's very, very easy to "cheat" when working with digital tools and media (hey, that's what machines are for). I'm one of those people who admire artists who still work with traditional media like oils and pastels. However, I also know that it takes time and real effort to create complex bitmap and vector designs. Times have changed and browsing through the images in Behance proves just how creativity has evolved due to technology. I'm very easy to impress when it comes to digital art and design and it was pretty rare that I found any work on Behance that I found disappointing (except when I look at my own page).

Unlike other digital art sites I've visited, the members of Behance are generally very supportive. Criticisms are constructive perhaps because it's a professional community and not a free-for-all type of social networking. Users actually manage their behavior very well and filter their own works too, making sure that the works they upload are their best.


Continued in Web Service Review: Behance.net Part 2

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Repurposing PageMaker 6.5/7.x files Tip: Export to HTML

Category: Tech Writer

Adobe products are as expensive as ever, particularly with Adobe's controversial new subscription pricing scheme being launched this year. To repurpose or reuse content from old .pmd PageMaker 7 or PageMaker 6.5 files, export the book or document as HTML.




PageMaker exports .pmd files to fairly clean though older version of HTML markup. Once exported to HTML, reusing the text and moving images are much easier. There are many open source applications that can work and convert old markup of HTML to HTML5 or XML. In addition, there are many editors such as Bluefish, LyX and XML Copy Editor that can facilitate transition to XML, Docbook and even EPUB.




Note: Exporting to PDF using PageMaker is also a good option though extracting the data is a bit more work than with HTML.

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Comic-Con in Spirit

I totally wish I'm in California right now attending the San Diego Comic-Con. TV shows such as Sherlock (2011) and Game of Thrones make attending those chaotic events worth the plane ticket now more than ever. In the 80s, fans of comic books, manga/anime and popular media were a small and humble minority, who shyly admitted they had a trunk of He-Man (1983) action figures or ROM Spaceknight (1979) comic books only when asked. Now everyone is coming out of the woodwork proudly showing off their loyalty to their favorite fictional characters and stories. It's a sad example, but the same thing occurred after Michael Jackson died - people who wouldn't be caught dead singing or dancing to his songs ended up blasting "Smooth Criminal" from their iPods and Bose car sound system.



Consoling myself by revisiting Taipei Computex photos. She'd fit right in hall 2 of the convention center.
Photo credit: Alex and Bobby.

It's both a sad and happy time for those who have grown up with comic books from the 70s, animation from the 80s and classic literature characters. Although Marvel comic books today (and in the last twenty years) are a heap of garbage and I'm pretty sure the The Amazing Spider-Man sequel will be terrible especially after they added that mini-me kid, it's nice to know that after more than 30 years members of Keepers of the Flame (a no-prize for anyone who can define what that is) can console themselves with a fair celluloid version of Thor and an impressive live-action version of Captain America after more than 40 years. Sadly, people these days have no idea that there's a reason why Bucky should have stayed dead and that Gwen Stacy never had brothers (and Captain George Stacy wasn't anything like Dennis Leary). Poor 70s-80s fans like myself have to sit down and take the abuse from Marvel and ignorant kids who think Deadpool is a great character. And no, I'm sorry, but Hawkeye is still a circus dumb*ss loser no matter what Bendis, Whedon or any ignorant comic book writer says (Green Arrow had an excuse).


Comics were fun and used to make sense. And the monster books were awesome!
Scan from Tomb of Dracula#3 (1972)

Still, it's now a very different time. My Medieval Literature Professor (Hi Ms. Pyle!) used to remind her students that people from this era had no right to judge the stupidity, ignorance, depravity and violence of any time period, including the Dark Ages (no relation to 2013 intended). Each milieu lends itself to a different perspective. PCs now include smartphones and tablets. Linux and Android rules. Bill Gates is a philanthropist and Steve Jobs passed away and inadvertently established a Church of Zombies. The Japanese are now more known for Death Note, Bleach and Maria Ozawa than Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and Hitachi. China is taking names and the U.S. of A is led by a guy named Obama not Reagan, Clinton or Bush. And so it is today, when publishers, artists, TV show networks, filmmakers and comic book writers are more interested in making money than staying straight and true. And Spidey? Sigh. Spidey is now this guy:


Screenshot from Spider-Man (1967) episode "The Terrible Triumph of Doctor Octopus"

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FrameMaker Basics: Aligning Numbered Paragraphs

Category: Tech Writer

The process of creating automated lists in FrameMaker is different from standard word processors and formatting and aligning text can be confusing for users new to the application. However, once a user gets accustomed to working with Paragraph Designer first, before applying formatting to text, the process eventually becomes easier.

To align numbered paragraphs:

1. Select all the paragraphs to be numbered.

2. In the Paragraph Designer pod, click Commands, then New Format.... Enter a name for the Paragraph Tag.

3. Click Create.

4. Click and drag the top marker on the ruler to specify the first line indent. You can also click the Basic button on the Paragraph Designer pod and enter a value in the First: box.

5. Click and drag the lower marker to set the alignment of the rest of the lines of paragraph text. Move the marker so that there is enough space to accommodate a tab stop, period and the paragraph number.



6. Add a tab stop in the exact same position as the lower marker by clicking at a point just below the ruler or entering a value by clicking Edit... in the Tab Stops area. The tab stop will provide the space between the number and the text. Click Update All.

6. In Paragraph Designer, click the Numbering button.

7. Check Autonumber Format.

8. In Building Blocks list, select <n+> and then add a period. Select \t to add the tab stop.

9. Click Update All.

The text alignment of the list will be retained even if you add columns or a side head to the document.

Note: You can also use other Building Blocks such as <a+> to format the type of numbering/list. You may have to modify the lower marker or tab stop to adjust text alignment.

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FrameMaker Basics: Aligning Numbered Paragraphs

Category: Tech Writer

The process of creating automated lists in FrameMaker is different from standard word processors and formatting and aligning text can be confusing for users new to the application. However, once a user gets accustomed to working with Paragraph Designer first, before applying formatting to text, the process eventually becomes easier.

To align numbered paragraphs:

1. Select all the paragraphs to be numbered.

2. In the Paragraph Designer pod, click Commands, then New Format.... Enter a name for the Paragraph Tag.

3. Click Create.

4. Click and drag the top marker on the ruler to specify the first line indent. You can also click the Basic button on the Paragraph Designer pod and enter a value in the First: box.

5. Click and drag the lower marker to set the alignment of the rest of the lines of paragraph text. Move the marker so that there is enough space to accommodate a tab stop, period and the paragraph number.



6. Add a tab stop in the exact same position as the lower marker by clicking at a point just below the ruler or entering a value by clicking Edit... in the Tab Stops area. The tab stop will provide the space between the number and the text. Click Update All.

6. In Paragraph Designer, click the Numbering button.

7. Check Autonumber Format.

8. In Building Blocks list, select <n+> and then add a period. Select \t to add the tab stop.

9. Click Update All.

The text alignment of the list will be retained even if you add columns or a side head to the document.

Note: You can also use other Building Blocks such as <a+> to format the type of numbering/list. You may have to modify the lower marker or tab stop to adjust text alignment.

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Working with the Microsoft OneNote Ecosystem Part 1

Category: Tech Today

OneNote , Microsoft Office's note-taking application, can be managed using three ways. One, through the Microsoft Office OneNote installed on your Windows machine. Two, through the OneNote app on your iOS, Windows Phone or Android device. Three, through SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service. Functionality in each platform varies, with OneNote on a Windows 7 or a Windows 8 desktop via Office the most complete in terms of managing your notebooks. On the other hand, although the OneNote app for mobile devices doesn't have all the features of the Office version, it's also the most useful since all your notes are with you while you work or move around.

With the recently upgraded iOS version installed on my iPod and iPad, I have access to my notebooks whether I'm commuting or relaxing on the sofa reading a 1980s issue of Spectacular Spider-Man or watching Ripper Street. Although I work mostly on Linux desktops and PCs, I also have OneNote on my Windows 7 machines at home and at the office (Microsoft Office 2010 and Office 2007 Enterprise respectively). My Windows 7 machine still serves an important purpose despite my inclination to do most of my writing in Fedora or openSUSE - I can rest easy knowing that my OneNote notebooks are backed up automatically on my Windows 7 machine apart from the copy saved on SkyDrive. Finally, I often take notes using Cherrytree for Linux and arbitrarily write on text editors such as Leafpad (LXDE) or Kwrite (KDE) and a quick visit to SkyDrive on a browser lets me "share" my notes to my iOS and Windows machines.

The trick to OneNote is the same feature that makes Google's service habit-forming to so many users - to use OneNote efficiently, you have to use a Microsoft login. I'm still using my laughable hotmail.com account for all my Microsoft services. Critics of Windows 8 have derided the decision of Microsoft to add more emphasis to the Microsoft account (they conveniently forget that Google had made their business from this very approach), but the single sign-on works for users who know how to manage their workflow well.

Comparisons to EverNote is misplaced. Most of the reviewers from other sites dismiss OneNote, clearly having never used the desktop or the app for an extended period of time for real work (habits and biases are hard to break). Researchers and serious writers focus on essential details and the lost art of precise note-taking involves filtering out unnecessary information - not linking, pasting or copying everything you can get online. The "lack of options" of OneNote for mobile and SkyDrive is actually a strength to the right user and even integration to Office 365 is just additional icing on top. I highly recommend serious Microsoft Office users to install the OneNote app on their mobile devices and integrate it into their workflow. For non-Microsoft Office users, the OneNote app can still be useful especially if you signed up for a free Outlook and SkyDrive account. Regardless of your feelings toward Microsoft, Microsoft products are unavoidable in the enterprise and it's best to take advantage of some of their excellent offerings.

Continued in Working with the Microsoft OneNote Ecosystem Part 2: SkyDrive and iOS app

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openSUSE Basics: Application Preference

Category: openSUSE

OpenSUSE will automatically associate file extensions with applications installed on your system. As you install more applications using your software manager, the list of applications associated with a file type grows. Moreover, the default application that opens that filetype actually changes. For example, HTML files can be linked to several browsers, word processors, text viewers and text editors.




To manage the applications associated with a filetype:

1. Open a folder using Dolphin File Manager and right-click on any file with the file extension. Click Properties.
2. On the Type: item, click the monkeywrench icon.




3. On the Edit File Type window, select the applications and click Remove. Use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to rearrange the sequence of the applications. For HTML files, for example, developers might want to prioritize editors like Bluefish or Kate.

4. Click Apply then OK.

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Apple On-Site Tech in China

Category: Tech Today

I've previously written about the dying iMac G5 at the office. The PowerPC and ATI Radeon 9600-equipped Apple machine runs on Mac OSX 10.4 with a ground-breaking 768MB of RAM (cough). Unfortunately, due to standard IT regulations, I'm not allowed to run Linux on it nor fiddle around with the hardware.

A few days ago, it went through a fairly common PC issue (for its hardware and age) of booting up and dying after 3 minutes. I needed to pull files from the system but was warned to stay away from a screwdriver so I ended up cannibalizing a power cable from another iMac and getting a few files off before it died again. My Shanghainese colleague filed a ticket and requested for a third-party Apple technician, who arrived the next day.

Now, I really didn't know what to expect. As a former Dell technical support rep/trainer, I've spoken and worked with dozens of on-site Dell technicians - a mixed bunch of bad apples and genial itinerants. At lunch time, a 6'1, Tibetan shaved, bespectacled and extremely sweaty Chinese onsite tech arrived and grinned shyly at me. He carried a Jansen backpack and a drenched faded Maui & Sons shirt (which seemed oddly appropriate). Instead of Apple's Reality Distortion Field, the third-party tech sported an Odor Distortion Field that made my colleague wince. I can't really blame the tech. Summer in Shanghai doesn't get as hot as Bangkok, Manila, or Bullhead City in Arizona but the humidity is much worst. At 34 degrees Celsius, you can still shoot hoops outdoors but in Shanghai you're better off sitting in an air-conditioned room reading Sherlock Holmes or watching Harrison Ford sweat in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I had already surmised that the iMac's issue was either the fan, the power block (where the power plug connected to the power supply) or a failed RAM. The gentleman had to pop the chassis open. I was worried that the dripping sweat of the tech would lay havok on the poor aged iMac's board - visions of urban legends of exploding MBs danced in my mind.

Hygiene aside, the onsite tech knew what he was doing. The repair ticket already described the issue so after verifying the symptoms he set off to work immediately without asking any questions. I was a bit surprised he didn't ask me if I had backed up my files or if anything untoward had happened to the iMac (like dropping the chassis or spilling tea on the vents for instance). I realized that he was probably the tech handling all 18 iMacs at the company and knew this iMac like the back of his hand. Accustomed to standard tech support procedures, however, I was still somewhat taken aback.

It takes a certain amount of assertiveness to get the iMac G5's rear panel off quickly (and detach the stand) and he did just that. He unscrewed the power block, yanked it off and inspected the heavily clogged vents. He pulled out the RAM and quickly tested functionality in another iMac (which he dismantled as quickly). Unlike Dell technicians, he wasn't chatty nor did he ask for a glass of water or head to the toilet at any point. He took parts from another old iMac, picking out a healthy DIMM and getting a cleaner power supply. No electrostatic wrist strap. No pressurized air can. Just a small screwdriver toolset no doubt rusty because of the owner's active sweat glands. The third-party tech got everything everything done in less than 15 minutes without a single drop of sweat falling on an Apple-approved part. He gave me a lopsided grin and told me to contact him if anything else happened.

Any Apple devotee present would probably berate the shy tech for manhandling the worshiped iMac in such a way (I myself balked when he almost tore off parts from the board). However, he earned my respect, sweaty and sour as he was. He was getting paid peanuts for a task untested, rude and lazy techs in the US (and in other parts of the world) are paid handsomely for. The Chinese gentleman was fast and efficient, friendly and not arrogant and smug (which I'm sorry to say is a common trait for users and techs alike).   

The prognosis? The iMac G5 hummed to life and was back to work. But I still want to pop in a Fedora or Debian LiveCD.

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Quick Fix: Timezone and System-config-date issues in Fedora 18 Xfce

Category: Linux

Users running the Fedora 18 Xfce spin may encounter issues where the System-config-date item in the menu or using Application Finder will not run the System-Config applet. Users may also encounter time zone and clock changes on reboot.




To correct frequent time clock resets or to change time zones:

1. Launch Terminal and on the command line, type system-config-date

2. Click the Time Zone tab and verify the time zone. If the system clock keeps resetting, uncheck or check System clock uses UTC.




3. Click OK.

4. To test changes, reboot system, launch Terminal and enter date

*Congratulations to the hard-working Fedora team for successfully releasing Fedora 19! Fedora hats off to these brilliant developers! Download the new release now!

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Analyzing a Hoax Email Job Offer

Category: Tech Today

With unemployment at incredibly dizzying heights everywhere, it's easy to be seduced by a job offer. It's sad that there are people out there who are taking advantage of the desperation of jobhunting new graduates or professionals who have been let go due to the global economic downturn.

Hoax emails are more carefully planned out then ever before with the false recruiter maintaining contact and asking for requirements. They also target overseas applicants from countries well-known for their globe-trotting workers. These "headhunters" even pretend to "process" the papers for an interim to complete the illusion of anticipation for the jobhunter. Desperation and the seductive promise of financial security after long weeks/months of jobhunting can make anyone vulnerable to such cruel designs.

However, in the same way real headhunters research applications using social networking and search engines, you can validate a job offer too.

Initial Contact

The first email is often coursed through a well-known medium such as LinkedIn or as in the example below, Monster.com.

There's an effort to make the email as professional as possible but the initial email already has suspicious signs that betray the sender. There's no specific job position named in the email. In the example above, John Kyrle High School is real and the address can be validated using Bing or Google Maps. However, their website does not list any openings. More importantly, the recruitment manager's contact details and his name are vulnerable to an extended search. A quick call to the school shows that there is no such person as "Richard Burffett". The email address also makes use of a free email service (Microsoft's Live.com domain) and the email intentionally misspells the school's name. Finally, a dead giveaway is the use of the expression "kinda match the requirements" - a recruiter from a British school would never use such informal language.

In this example, John Kyrle High School is well-aware of the scam and has already posted warnings on their website. A diligent jobhunter would immediately dismiss the email. However, some may not be as fortunate and proceed to the next step.

Acknowledgement Letter

Once documents are submitted, an email is sent acknowledging receipt. Note the grammar, the sentence structure and the poorly typed email.

The Contract Letter

The most disturbing and convincing portion is the contract letter. This step is more likely the most planned save for one point - no personal contact was initiated or offered at any point during the process. No interview occurred. The whole interaction only happened over email and highlighted by a contract that has too many perks and too impressive a job offer.

The last email is cleverly written with official sounding names, a reference to a Barrister Jane Darwin and the UK Boarder Office. The school in question had already noted the existence of hoax email on their website but if an entity or institution wasn't aware of such criminal activities then the poor jobhunter might be deluded by the contract.

The contract written in MS Word itself is poorly written (formatting alone is suspicious), but could trip up a casual and eager fresh graduate. The eventual outcome, of course, will involve money and a bank account. Once personal information is disclosed, anything from a siphoning of funds to identity theft will occur.

Final Warning

The Internet is a useful tool for information as well as crime. The likelihood of people being led astray by such scams are increasing as more and more people get online. As developing countries increase access to broadband and as wireless Internet becomes ubiquitous, more effort should be given to educating the casual user. Hoax emails have been around since the beginning of the Internet but they have become more and more sophisticated with social networking assisting criminals go about their schemes.

For jobhunters looking for an opportunity to get free from their unenviable position, take caution and be wary. The easy way is often misleading.

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What Applications Support PageMaker Files?

Category: Tech Writer

The discontinued Adobe PageMaker was a popular publishing application during a time when both commercial and desktop publishing were focused on print and not digital. Being given the task of reusing or even archiving PageMaker .pmd files can be a challenge especially if PageMaker software is not available. Very few applications support the .pmd file extension and unlike recent file formats isn't XML-based. Even open source software such as Scribus doesn't support .pmd. There are a few options, however, if a serious task of archiving or repurposing .pmd files is necessary:

1. An original copy of PageMaker 6.5 or PageMaker 7.0. If a copy or boxed set of PageMaker is still available at the company or lying around in storage, then it can still be installed on a laptop/desktop or even better a virtual operating system (Windows 2000 or Windows XP come to mind). A full installation is less than 200MB in size and performs like greased lightning even on VirtualBox on a mid-range workstation. Although the .pmd format wasn't prone to file corruption or malware, installation on today's production systems isn't recommended since the venerable PageMaker hasn't seen a security update for more than a decade now.  During the setup process select Compact in the options to conserve resources. Export all the .pmd files to PDF using the options in the File Menu or through Acrobat Distiller. Even a legacy version of PDF is supported in the latest Adobe products and on freely available applications. In addition, exporting to PDF ensures that extracting text or images can be done if ever the need arises. See #2.

2. PageMaker-exported PDF files. If the .pmd files were backed up properly, they should have a corresponding PDF available. Unfortunately, publishing houses back in the day were so focused on print that some never exported their files to PDF, which was then a controversial format that not all enterprises supported. PageMaker PDF files were created using Acrobat Distiller and follow the same Postscript code used by Adobe today. Although the resulting PDF will not be as secure as PDFs produced today (and may not display in today's tablets or mobile apps), they can be viewed easily in any machine whether you're using Linux, Windows or MacOSX. There are also plenty of tools online that can convert, edit and extract content from these PDFs.   

3. Adobe InDesign CS2 and later. Adobe used to release a PageMaker package with InDesign, which brought back the familiar controls for veteran PageMaker users. Recent versions of InDesign support .pmd natively. Even the MacOSX versions of InDesign (from CS2) support .pmd out of the box. If the .pmd was well-designed and includes plenty of images, InDesign is the best application for repurposing PageMaker files (as Adobe intended it to be). Paragraph Styles are retained and Text Frames are maintained as long as the original fonts used are available on the system.






Take note, however, that poorly designed .pmd file will not improve once opened in InDesign. The example in the screenshot below had text frames sequenced in such a way that when they are printed on a desktop printer, they can be folded into a book. In InDesign, the .pmd file will appear in exactly the same way and once exported to PDF can't be read in proper sequence. Adobe InDesign will also not allow the user to save to .pmd as it can now be saved only as an InDesign file.




4. Adobe Framemaker. Framemaker, which is PageMaker's distant cousin, also supports .pmd and like Adobe InDesign, will save the .pmd to its native format. Styles are maintained and will appear in the Paragraph Designer and Character Designer pods. However, since Framemaker doesn't always handle Text Frames in the same way as InDesign and PageMaker, text may appear cut off. In some cases, you will have to modify the text frames individually to display the text - which will of course ruin the original PageMaker layout.



Unless the PageMaker file was a straightforward left-to-right, up-to-down layout, Framemaker may also interpret the .pmd file differently resulting in a different look from the original. Framemaker excels in text formatting, however, and is recommended for very simple but text-intensive .pmd files which require reformatting (for example, a novel). If Framemaker is the only available software, it is recommended that the user starts with a fresh Framemaker document and manually move the text from an open .pmd file rather than "fix" layout issues from an imported PageMaker book or document.

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