Monday March 21, 2005
Three new baseboard heaters were installed yesterday. The range hood fell off the schedule truck I think (schedules are like that as I seem to recall), but should appear sometime in the not too distant future. One of the baseboard heaters isn't working - OR the thermostat that controls it has finally bit the dust - same outcome in any case.
When the guys were gone and the furniture was moved back where it was previously, I started poking around with getting a new blog tool set up and customized for my girl. It was fun to get into geeky stuff again, and I kept detailed notes but I'm not happy with the (ahem) lack of documentation of the customized style. After installing two different versions of the blog tool itself thinking maybe the style was older than the latest and greatest, I am seeing the same things. Boo Hiss.
There's a different style that appears to have been developed by a more (um) professional coder. So today's idea is to give that one a shot and see if it works better and has fewer things I'll have to tweak.
And yes, I have RTFM (well, more like scanned it) - the one for the tool itself. This second style actually has an M and the guy's tag line is "My motto: RTFM".
A new motto for (some) open source software projects should be WTFM (Write) or even better: WAFRM or WAFUM (Readable and Useable) Hmmm they could be combined into WAFRUM. Now that I think about it WAFUM is enough. Useable should imply Readable and could even stand for User. Seriously, some of the open source projects I have perused have forgotten that the world is not populated solely with members of that project. I know, I know - it's not easy to forget all the things you now have on autopilot from years of building the latest killer app. For a start, try pretending you're writing for a person who has just joined your team. After that works (because a new team member has used it and prompted modifications) try pretending the user you're writing for is a tester. It's just a short leap to writing for the rest of the world now. You can arrange your document to help ROTW get up to speed, really you can! It just takes awareness and discipline. C'mon, I know you can do it...you're a smart bunch of people - you write applications - something not too many of the general population can do.
There's a payoff, too. The more people who can use your application sucessfully - meaning to solve the problem they have or perform a service WITHOUT the help of their geek friends to get it working, the more downloads and exposure and thanks you'll receive. Guaranteed. Thanks for the easy installation and setup along with thanks for the application doing what the user expected. Oh, and this may be more of a motivator - the fewer questions from confused people will be clogging up your support forums and you can spend time doing things that are more fun than replying to them. (Or not replying and losing them as part of your fan base.)
Back to reality: Coffee and sunshine to start the day can't be all bad now can it?
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