The Golden 80s

The barbaric act of Hartal was enacted by Marxist-led political parties in my home state of Kerala , in the name of protest against high food prices. The Word MVPs site I frequent regularly has an interesting and long article on Conditional Cross-Reference Labels for Numbered Headings , while PowerPoint earned some flak from the US military. Alternet ran an excellent article on the deleterious impacts of industrial agriculture on the environment and Bangalore daily Deccan Herald published a dubious article supporting GE crops. It was refreshing to read about the rise of new generation of British poets (I am currently reading poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy's poems anyway) and an interview with well-known science fiction author Ray Bradbury , who has never been to college. Noted defence analyst K Subramanyam writes on Communication intelligence in the backdrop of the phone tapping allegations by opposition politicians in India.

The debate on whether "and/or" is correct or not refuses to die down. It was pleasing to see an entry on 'and/or" in the Chicago Manual of Style FAQ site (Look at the March Q&A section). In the March Q&A, CMOS says, "... and/or “can often be replaced by and or or with no loss in meaning." For multiple choices, CMOS says use or . . . or both . Despite knowing this, we make mistakes, right?

What is the plural form of phenomenon? School kids will tell it is phenomena. But what happened to " phenomena " in this newspaper report? Pachauri said: "Given the variations in the ocean currents, wind patterns and related sedimentation as well as other phenomenons related to the weather..." The news report also has other usage issues. "The six-member Pachauri Committee, tasked to examine the possibility of cutting a canal through land mass between Dhanuskodi and Rameshwaram,..." Tasked to? When Task is used as a a verb, 'with' follows it. It can be "tasked with" and not "tasked to". The third paragraph has a spelling mistake in "environemntally", that too on World Earth Day!

Can the legendary 5 Ws' and one H, widely used in journalism, applicable to technical writing as well? I had this doubt after I viewed a presentation titled, How to Write . Let us look what 5 W's and One in journalism. It means: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Does who, when, and where matter for a scenario where a user is operating a software? I have my doubts. Anyway, this is an interesting point and I will keep it in my mind whether 5Ws' and One H can indeed be a guideline for technical writing. In journalis, the inverted pyramid style evolved due to space constraints in a newspaper. For a newspaper, space is a very important thing, because ads occupy some amount of space in a newspaper page. Moreover, the technique was also useful to readers who want to get all the necessary information by reading the first paragraph or lead. It is difficult to apply the same in the strictest sense to a user manual. While space is finite in a newspaper, it is not so for a user manual....

Agile Development : Software development based on an iterative and incremental approach. Regular feedback and frequent changes effected to plans to develop a software. See Agile Manifesto for more. API : Short for Application Programming Interface. According to Webopedia , An API is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for developing software products. Application Server : A software (set up in a centralised location) used in intranet/internet environment to query databases or for business processing. Batch Process : A process that runs a series of commands or processes. Build : Generally, a pre-release version of a software program. There will be many builds that will be tested before the final product is shipped to the customer. Burndown chart : In Agile software development, this chart tracks sprint progress so that project managers can decide which items must be removed from the sprint backlog and moved to the next sprint. CSV File : Short for Comma Separated Value file, which ...

It was sad to read that India's efforts to launch the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle(GSLV D-3), powered by indigenously developed cryogenic engine, failed to succeed. Read the report in the Times of India .

The following minds do not find space in newspapers and magazines published in India: Agnes Helle r - Hungarian philosopher Héctor Abad Faciolince -Colombian novelist, essayist, journalist, and editor. He has studied Medicine, Journalism, and Philosophy. Claire Denis , the well-known French film director. Uladzimir Arlou becomes first laureate of “European Poet of Freedom” award. French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter Geert Lovink -media theorist, net critic and activist. Javier Cercas , writer and Professor of Spanish literature. Rosa Monter o is an award-winning journalist and author of contemporary fiction. Manuel Rivas is a Galician writer, poet and journalist, and founding member of Greenpeace Spain. Michal Hvorecky is a Slovak author and winner of many prestigious awards. Robert Pinsky is a well-known American poet, and the poetry editor at Slate. Krzysztof Varga -Polish writer and journalist. Jonathan Safran Foe r is an American author best known for his novels Everything ...

Hurt Locker means a state of intense physical or mental pain, says the MacMillan dictionary. Hurt Locker won the Best Movie Oscar this year.