Mini Interview - Humdinger

Friday, 26 June 2009 11:08

Humdinger recently won June's Thank You Award for his work on Haiku's documentation. Customary now, we follow-up with an interview.

How old are you and what do you do to pay the bills?

I'm 37 years old and currently work as a technical writer for a company that creates repair manuals for one of the currently "thriving" automobile companies...

In your nomination, it says you were 'hard at work to make sure Haiku has some good documentation'. How difficult (or easy) was it to accomplish this task? Have you done other things these past two months that we missed and that you'd consider even more interesting or successful?

Difficult, easy... it's neither, I guess. Foremost it's time consuming: writing, taking a screenshot, write some more, rewrite something else, go back and update that screenshot and so on. Then you have to look out for any changes and enhancements that are introduced while Haiku matures.

One thing is to find the right amount of detail. You don't want to describe every menu and button which label pretty much says it all already. On the other hand, not describing it can disorient the reader, making her wonder why there are gaps in the documentation or if it may be outdated. Anyway, I try to be sensibly thorough, figuring I or anybody else can come back later and change or remove things.

I honestly have to say, that these past two months I wasn't actually that active in the documentation department. Apart from a few quick corrections and additions it was pretty much on the backburner. Most time-consuming were the translations of all the Google Summer of Code and Haiku Code Drive interviews I posted on the Haiku Gazette. Not that I consider these translations a big success, but it's sort of a tribute to all the students and mentors.

What would you love to have that would make working on Haiku easier?

Though I run in VirtualBox most of the time, I'd say a driver for the nVidia 7600GS of my notebook would be great. Right now I have to boot in VESA fail-safe mode which is stretching the picture to my widescreen resolution. It's blurry and I just cannot look at it for more than a few minutes to confirm something before I have to boot back to VirtualBox in Ubuntu.

Which interesting book, band, podcast, website, magazine, movie, TV show etc. would you like to recommend to our readers?

Let's see... As a book, I'd say Bill Bryson's " A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a nice read. It recounts how scientific discoveries were made and how we came to know what we know about life, the universe and everything. No hard science by any means, but an entertaining discourse that has the gist of it right.

For a podcast, I recommend the Geologic Podcast of George Hrab, a hilariously funny and intelligent musician. Tends to rant sometimes, but hey, who doesn't if he's passionate about something?

The James Randi Educational Foundation is another highlight. While the weekly Swift blog leaves you either amused about the abounding irrationality or distraught for the unscrupulous exploitation of the same by frauds, it's the forum that really shines. Some very bright people are posting there. I mostly read the science section, but stray over to conspiracy theories or the paranormal when I need a laugh.

What else... Oh, yes: I think "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" still rules. :E

Thanks everyone who voted. Personally, I find being nominated for a Thank You Award is honour enough. Winning is just the icing on the cake. Nevertheless, winning for once in my miserable life sure feels good. j/k

Seriously, thanks guys!

Comments

0 # One more recommendation... — Humdinger 2009-06-26 14:07

Hey! I just happened upon a comment by looncraz (remember him?) at OSNews, in which he's casually analysing the hugely complex global warming topic...
If anyone likes to get a nice introduction to the "controversy" I recommend this 12 part lecture. It's altogether about 2 hours long, but IMO really worth watching. Especially if you don't have the time to research it all by yourself. Separating the wheat from the chaff isn't easy and this is a very good starting point.

0 # The URL — Humdinger 2009-06-27 01:29

I used HTML for the URL, which apparently doen't work, though I think it did in the preview. Anyway, here it is:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyuKOtIryis&feature=related

0 # karl 2009-06-27 04:58

You have to wrap the url with bbcode or the icons in the toolbar.

0 # Geo — Humdinger 2009-06-27 14:28

Thanks, Karl, I managed on the second try... :-)

BTW, if anyone tries Geo's podcast: episode 121 is... er... different than his usual stuff. Try something from the archive as well. 118.1 is a nice reading from Balticon, for example.

0 # eightbit 2009-07-16 09:58

It's nice to see your being recognized for all the labor you've thrown into the documentation. It's also nice to see the "face" behind the mirror mask!

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