phyllostachys 42.4: Minute Tech 004

Minute Tech 004 - What is a Document?

Show notes/transcript:

Hello, this is the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you on Saturday & Sunday, October 12th & 13th, 2007
We take a few minutes to talk about technology

This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 4 - what constitutes a document?

004 - document - what constitutes a document?

tech news - Youtube, one of many online video sites, having been gobbled up by the Google (the new Borg?), can be both a source of entertainment and a source of learning. Periodically, though I might troll the site for vids of lego figurines engaged in light-saber duels and going to pieces over their day-to-day anxieties, I've also used Youtube to variously catch up on the news surrounding Bungie's new game Halo 3, and solidify my recent learning of wu style tai chi. My teacher won't yet let me include him in video documentary....but many others have done so for posterity's sake.

Youtube:

Lego figurines
Bungie's Halo 3
Wu Style Tai Chi

tech question - What constitutes a document?

A document (noun) is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate.

A document. A collection of words: a letter, a recipe, an agreement, a newspaper, a pamphlet, a sign, a chart, a map (insofar as it includes words in key's, indexes, etc.)

you can create a document with paper and pencil, pen, quill or crayon, or on the computer you can use everything from a basic text editor such as vi on Linux, Edit on ms-dos, Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac, to publishing programs such as Quark, Pagemaker, or Apple's new Pages program.

podcasting tidbit: Listening to podcasts is a similar activity to reading a paper or magazine, or watching your favorite shows on the one-eyed baby sitter: you can pass away the time with aimless talk (many tech podcasts have "after-shows" which are far more entertaining than the show content), or you can find extremely on-point information for your interest areas. One such podcast, John Foster's Beer School, initially sounds like aimless conversation...but suddenly the tun's of information jump out at you, if you're in a receptive mindset, and sends you scurrying to google, wikipedia and the local library for further information on the arts of beer-making and the horticultural aspects of grains, hops and yeasts.

Show notes:
Tech item - we discuss the uses of Youtube: watching vids on Lego figurines, Bungie's Halo 3, and Wu Style Tai Chi

Tech question: What constitutes a document?

Podcasting: podcasts can be aimless, or highly directional - in this way, they are similar to the media forms that preceed them: newspapers, magazines & television.