To learn who wrote the first user manual for computers, go to Ed Malone’s column in the IEEE/PCS online newsletter.
Dr. Malone has agreed to write a quarterly column for the newsletter of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. As this first column shows, Ed has been doing extensive research in the history of technical communication and is able to present the results effectively.
Archives for January 2008
Who Wrote the First Computer User Manual?
January 23, 2008 by
Where Did Your Steak Come From?
January 22, 2008 by
People are becoming more concerned about the origins of their foods, including beef. In his PhD dissertation, David Wright (assistant professor of English and Technical Communication) studied the efforts of the US Department of Agriculture to use RFID devices implanted in cattle to trace them from origin to use. The cattle industry was not receptive to the proposal to implant Radio Frequency Identification devices in their stock.
On Friday, January 18, Dr. Wright was interviewed by Wayne Huebner, host of radio station KMST’s TechnoFiles program. You may listen to the full interview in MP3 format here.
Librarian, Trucker, Novelist . . . and Mother
January 20, 2008 by
What do English majors do when they graduate? All kinds of things, as I hope to discuss here. One of our graduates, Angelia Sparrow (BA, 1991), has established herself as a writer of erotic fiction. Ms. Sparrow maintains a professional Web site, The Den of Debauchery.
Visitors to the Den will find links to information about Angelia and Naomi Brooks, with whom she shares the site, links to samples of her fiction, to publishers, reviews, and other goodies. The site is well-designed, a relief when so many sites seem to emphasize flash animations and other glitzy effects.
Ms. Sparrow’s fiction — like all fiction — will not be to everyone’s taste. Her fiction covers a range of erotic tastes and experiences. She also presents dark fantasy themes and settings. The sample story I read on her Web site is a crisply written ghost story with a homoerotic theme. The style is simple and straightforward, which presents the ghost-theme quite effectively.
Here’s an excerpt from an email she sent me:
I left the CBU library in 2005, went to truck driving school and now have an auto parts delivery run that gets me home every night.
I sold 14 short stories and a novel last year. My second novel, Nikolai, came out January 18. I have 5 more stories and another novel in the editing process for publication this year. My goal is 20 published pieces this year.
Ms. Sparrow also includes information about her husband, Richard, a physics graduate of Missouri S&T (back when it was UMR) and a high school teacher. Their children are in junior high and high school.
Just a Couple Days Before Classes Start
January 12, 2008 by
The spring 2008 semester for Missouri University of Science & Technology starts on Monday, January 14. Here it is, Saturday, January 12, and I’m putting together course materials. (I suspect I’m not alone in that!)
This is the university’s first semester as Missouri S&T, rather than the University of Missouri – Rolla. We’re all making the transition in how we refer to the campus, with some uncertainty whether it is "MST," "MS&T," or "Missouri S&T." Officially, "mst" is reserved for our email and Internet domain, not for print or speech. However, it’s only three syllables versus four or seven in the other possibilities.
"S&T" is a good designation but a little too obscure right now. The Rolla Daily News uses it, so maybe it will spread.
I did quite a bit of class preparation back in December but still have plenty to do. I’m teaching Creative Writing for the first time in several years and using Blackboard for the first time for that class.
For a department chair, preparing for a new semester means much more than writing up (or revising) the course syllabus. It also means making sure all the courses taught by the department have teachers assigned to them, that everyone has appropriate office space, that the courses have sufficient enrollment.
In fact, I’ve been constructing the class schedule for the fall 2008 semester.
My colleagues in the department are doing their preparations (or have already completed them); some of my students have already visited Blackboard. Unfortunately, there won’t be much there until sometime late today or tomorrow.
Enrollment for this spring semester is slightly higher than for last spring. This weekend, the population of Rolla will expand by several thousand. The campus has felt very empty recently; that changes soon.