At least once a week when I’m reading, or editing, copy related to work I’ll skim over something and realize that what I just read makes no sense. Sure, the words are […]
Three sentences in a trench coat pretending to be a coherent thought
3 ways to reduce technical debt in content: Avoid bare URLs, events and analyst content
Infrastructure and code aren’t the only things in your organization that incur technical debt. Content marketing on blogs is a major offender. Here’s just three things to cut down on technical debt […]
reMarkable 2 and its unremarkable software: Substandard tools hobble excellent hardware
The reMarkable 2 is a nifty piece of engineering. It’s about the size of a thin college (U.S.) notebook, responsive and feels as close to writing on paper as a tablet is […]
Make your sentences poorer, get out of the three comma club
There’s a running gag in the show Silicon Valley about a character obsessed with being in the “three comma” club. Being a billionaire, in other words. When he loses enough money to […]
Changed history forever
People often try to fluff up the importance of an event or person by saying it “changed history,” “changed the course of history,” or “changed history forever.” (Or something along those lines, […]
9 phrases we should stop seeing in tech journalism
“This reporter” – Just use the first person. It might have worked for Edward R. Murrow, but with tech journalism – particularly blogs – it sounds like a ridiculous affectation. If you […]
Writing ledes, writing for feeds…
Too many ledes in tech publications and blogs suck. I’ve been doing more editing and more content curation lately. The upshot of that is noticing a lot of really boring, fluffy, slow-to-the-point […]
Peak vs. Pique
Here’s another writing pet peeve — when folks confuse peak (or peek), and pique. Here’s an example of proper usage: I live in Denver, Colorado, so I have a lovely view of […]
Vim tips: Folding fun
The problem with writing and editing on a computer, versus having words on paper, is that it’s usually hard to compare text from different sections of a document when they don’t fit […]
How to make money writing, the query letter (or email…)
Prior to taking the job I have now as editorial director for Linux.com, I was a freelancer for about six years, writing for Linux Magazine, Enterprise Linux Magazine, UnixReview.com, Linux Weekly News, […]