specializing in digital media technologies

I came across the Ubiquity plug-in for Firefox the other day. If you use your browser a lot, and really like cool, cryptic ways of saving you steps, I could see this being revolutionary (on a personal level). I came across this after reading some stuff about my favorite utility, QuickSilver; the premise and usage of Ubiquity is comparable. Ubiquity allows you to tie other services into the current Web browser. For example, in this video, by one of Ubiquity’s creators at Mozilla, they show how to use Ubiquity to add a Google map to an email, then add a note to their calendar, without ever leaving the current browser window. Later in that same demonstration, part of a Web site is translated from Japanese to English, again, without leaving the current browser window. For more information, also see the other videos by Aza Raskin, http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/, and https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9527.

To be clear, Ubiquity is still in a beta format, and it’s pretty geeky stuff. But if you’re the kind of person that likes cutting edge (but still useful) ideas, and/or, if you have some time to kill, check it out.

A while back I stumbled upon (using the sweet Firefox plug-in, StumbleUpon), this discussion of the 20 things you should do, or the applications you should install, after performing a fresh install of Ubuntu Linux. Now, I’m primarily a Mac person, but if I need to use Linux for basic or desktop needs, Ubuntu is by far the distribution of choice (for a Linux server, I’m currently using CentOS). I like Ubuntu because:

• You can test it by running it from a CD on your computer, without doing an actual install.
• If you do want to install it, that’s quite easy.
• It just plain works.

I’m not trying to start a debate as to which version of Linux is best, or as to whether you should use Linux at all, I’m just saying that I think Ubuntu Linux is sweet. (Although I’ll add as an aside, that I occasionally see messages from people new to Linux claiming that it’s the greatest thing ever and they wonder why everyone doesn’t use Linux; I do wonder if such people are still using Linux so religiously six months later.)

Anyway, some of the things mentioned in the article are eye candy (which doesn’t make them irrelevant) and others are quite useful, like installing the core Microsoft fonts (Times New Roman et al.). Another product, Wine, will let you run some Windows applications in Ubuntu, if you have that need. Then there’s a few links to multimedia utilities, from browser plug-ins to video and audio players.

A nice article, a good site, worth a read if you’re using Ubuntu or even thinking about it.

Last month I started discussions with the Studio B agency, which represents technical writers. Studio B is a bit different than the agency I used to be represented by (I’m not currently represented by an agent) in that they can represent book writers in full, which is the kind of representation I had before, or work with writers on an individual project basis, primarily for online articles. I’ve been speaking with Studio B under these latter pretenses, initially with the intent of writing articles on Adobe Flex and AIR.

Anyway, the point in this post isn’t to dicusss my history with agents and agencies, rather to point you towards Studio B’s Web site. I am frequently asked about what steps one would take to get published. The answer isn’t a secret, you just need to come up with a good idea and follow the publishers’ guidelines for submission. Studio B has quite a bit of good information on their site for getting published, including this article on writing winning book proposals. If you click on the “Studio B for Authors” link, you’ll find several other articles that are well worth reading. Finally, I will say that you don’t necessarily need an agent in order to get published (I signed with an agent after already publishing three books) but some argue that it is worth your while to have one. Regardless of that decision, if you’re interest in writing, check out those articles on Studio B’s Web site for some great, no-nonsense information.