RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has been described as the oldest new technology! It has been around for about fifty years, its value in identifying Aircraft in flight during the Second World War was quickly realised by the British Air force. The following forty years the technology was mainly used in security applications, building access, road tolls and key fobs.
� Where your rental property is located and the number of previous claims made, not only by you, but by others living in the same area.What is sure however is that RF is here to stay, with major pilots and positive proofs of concept across many industries: food and drink, aerospace, libraries, government, transport, retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, logistics, auto industry, security etc. The IT and Building Industry have an enormous opportunity here.� DeductiblesSometimes it may be beyond a companies or individuals budget to hire a professional writer to address their technical documentation. Although in an ideal world all technical documentation should be produced by a highly trained expert, unfortunately we do not live in an ideal. In the same way that many people will attempt to repair their own home appliances, many people will attempt to write quality technical documents. Just as fiddling with a toaster can result in electrocution, attempting to write technical documents from scratch without prior advice will ultimately result in failure. As a rough rule of thumb you should always seek to employ a specialist, but if for whatever reason you can't and you are the poor unfortunate that has had documentation duties foisted on them, don't despair. This brief guide outlines some of the core skills you will need to bring to your writing, technical conventions to be aware of, software packages you can consider, and definite things to avoid. Hopefully even if you have never written a sentence in your life about anything vaguely technical you will have at the very least, a broader picture of what technical writing entails.We need to discuss the privacy issues much more, the benefits to humanity the trade off between lack of privacy and benefit. No one for sure wants to see George Orwell�s vision become reality, but ubiquitous sensor and emerging technologies have the ability if deployed correctly to make a positive contribution to our lives. And we need to appreciate that other parts of the world, hungry for success are less concerned with privacy issues and are fast exploiting these technologies.Planning for perfectionSmart Granite worktops will soon be in vogue. The granite will carry a number of transponders and a extra large embedded antenna to insure that all food items placed on the worktop will sync with all the other smart utensils, enabling everything in the kitchen to automatically communicate: washing machine, fridge, cooker, extractor, toaster, microwave, radio, lights, central heating, wall tiles, floor, all door locks etc etc. See Do Stone Smart Granite worktops at www.dostone.co.uk. Nasty bacteria on the cutting board will self clean as will the sink and recycle basket. No child in this kitchen will ever pull a boiling pot of rice upon herself. In-build safety / security will be a standard module in every smart kitchen. Energy efficiency also should save household fuel costs by 20% .There is little doubt that healthcare services are moving back to the community where it used to reside. Hospitals will be places for focused operations and all other healthcare issues will be dealt with from the home perspective. Most elderly people prefer independence and deserve dignity. But it is not always possible for relatives and friends to pop in daily to insure all is well. Imagine if your elderly Grandparents lived hundreds of miles away?Healthcare absorbs a lot of taxpayer�s money. Globally around 14% GDP!Technical writing is not regardless of what you may think, an easy job. It requires expertise, patience and a very odd mixture of skills. Just like any other job, you can learn how to do it, but even that tuition will not necessarily make you any good at it. To be a good technical author, you have to be anal yet creative, focussed yet communicative, and a flexible expert. This, as you can probably imagine, is no simple task. Although you may think creating technical documents is easy, creating accurate, consistent and timely documentation to a high commercial standard is a highly challenging role. Regardless of your budget, in the long run it will provide significant ROI if you hire a specialist. After all, they will be able to do in days, what you tear your hair our attempting to accomplish in weeks if not months.Being Patronising - Although technical documentation should be clear, it should never be patronising. You are not creating documents to be read by morons but consumers and clients. You should always write to the skills level of your audience, but no matter what technical level people are on, they are not morons. Even children get offended when patronised, don't make that mistake with someone who is paying your salary, child or otherwise.As the old clich� goes, everyone's a critic. This is particularly true of most sane people's reaction when faced with technical writing. As was highlighted in the example of the video recorder above, technical writing can be impenetrable to the end user. If this is the case, it is because whoever wrote the documentation, didn't bother to identify their audience and write to their level. It seems an obvious point to make, but one that is often overlooked, that the user of the documents your are creating, may not actually be an expert. Obviously if you are creating a document on a particular specialist product for a particular advanced user group (a good example could be auditing software for computer system administrators) then you will need to compose this is an entirely different way than if you are creating for example, a technical manual for mass market computer software aimed at the inexperienced home user. One of the first tasks you must accomplish before you even put pen to paper, of finger to keyboard, is to identify who the user of your documents will be and construct documents aimed at that particular target group(s). If you get this stage correct, it should avoid your documents being thrown across rooms in annoyance!Could you afford to replace all of these things?Conclusion / Shameless self promotionBefore diving headfirst into creating the documentation, draft out each section first. This will allow to reorder if the documents being created do not have a logical 'flow' without seriously having impact on the project. Many technical documents (especially for more detailed products) are made up of numerous (and in some cases practically countless) iterations. This is because the product shifts and changes over time, and one of the principal duties of a technical author is to keep abreast of these changes, and to ensure that they are all well documented. Good technical authors will always push their documents through as many drafts as humanly possible, refining on each draft, until they reach a position whereby they (and their employer) is satisfied that the documentation is timely, accurate and a true reflection of the product or process it documents.However, we may need to rethink the way we teach our engineering, medical, in fact all students. Ten years ago it was sufficient to teach a civil engineering student about programming in addition to their core subjects. But now with massive technological change and real world awareness how do we insure our professionals are up to speed in the multiplicity of knowledge required to make strategic policy decisions.The British Nuclear Group is deploying Ubisense sensor solution to map and identify radiation levels and the location of each worker to increase employee safety and efficiency.Choose the right tool for the jobSmart packaging can indicate if the correct drug is taken at the correct hour and help people to better manage their medication. No one will believe in ten years time that mobile phones were used for voice only. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark RFID mobile phone are becoming an essential tool for the automatic capture of critical medical data in the community. Thus an internal sensor implant could forward key data via your mobile to your doctor. However, improved national security safeguards are essential.The cost of rental insurance is based on several factors:We are at the dawn of integrating convergent technologies, and if we get it right we can offer future global cities some great solutions. Emerging environmental problems may be solved by emerging technologies. Let�s just do it!Let a Draft inIf a fire should destroy or damage your home, your landlord�s insurance will cover the structure. It won�t cover damage or loss of your belongings. Neither will it provide for the cost of temporary housing for you and your family.What is Technical Writing?Another thing to keep in mind is that jewelry, valuable collections, and guns are usually covered under a separate policy or �rider�. If you own these kinds of items, be sure to tell your insurance agent. You don�t want to find out after disaster strikes that they aren�t covered or that they aren�t covered for their true value.Are you beginning to see why rental insurance may be a very wise investment?One way you can reduce the cost of your rental insurance is to check with whichever company insures your car. If they provide rental insurance you may be eligible for a multi-line discount.� Whether you choose to be reimbursed for Actual Cash Value or Replacement Costs (more about that in a minute)Overuse of humour - People do not read technical documents to be entertained, they read them in the hopes of successfully completing a process, or extracting information. Unless it is relevant to the end user, avoid humour wherever possible. If you are writing a book, fine and good. If you are writing a manual, avoid humour like the plague, as more often than not users will miss the joke and just end up loathing the patronising idiot that wrote the documentation.Who in your organisation / company or home are responsible for looking into the horizon to anticipate the changes and innovations coming fast forward? To be able to exploit technology we must be open to the idea of new technologies, new business processes, changing the way we work, think, and live. People always come first and our perspective will determine how future technology will be adopted. Thus a big RFID / emerging technology debate needs to happen to insure we don�t waste this opportunity before us. I am working with Two Four Productions to bring this debate to our TV screens, so if anyone wants to get involved please do contact me.Communicate - that's what you are paid to do!
We are at the dawn of integrating convergent technologies, and if we get it right we can offer future global cities some great solutions. Emerging environmental problems may be solved by emerging technologies. Let�s just do it!
Author: Dermott Reilly
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