If you use Dropbox to store photos and save space on your iPhone or iPad, there may come a time when you want to share those photos to a social network or with a friend. In order to do so, you'll most likely have to save them to your camera roll first.
As it happens, Dropbox gives you an easy way to do this. Here's how:
Launch the Dropbox app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
Find the photo that you'd like to download to your camera roll in your Dropbox app.
Click on the Download button in the lower right hand corner.
Now tap on the option for Save to Photo Library.
The photo will export directly to your iPhone or iPad camera roll.
Once the export is done you can hop right into your Photos app and upload it to whatever service you'd like.
Peter Relan is best known for his gaming and mobile incubator YouWeb, which spawned Crowdstar, Agawi, Spaceport, OpenFeint and others. Today, the serial entrepreneur is announcing that YouWeb will no longer be incubating any additional companies, and Relan will be moving on to a new venture.
With this move, Relan will be sunsetting the operational roles he took across a number of companies he co-founded. For example, he stepped in as the CEO of Crowdstar in 2011, and stepped down from the role last fall. He will remain in a chairman role of his companies, he tells us.
YouWeb had differed from other accelerators in that it was extremely early-stage, almost pre-Y Combinator incubator. YouWeb chose individuals based on talent, and entrepreneurs came in with no team, business model or idea. The individual was given $100,000, and developed a business or app in-house, with Relan advising the startup along the way. YouWeb usually incubated about two entrepreneurs per year.
OpenFeint was acquired by GREE a few years ago for over $100 million, and Facebook acqui-hired the team behind Spaceport. Mobile gaming company CrowdStar is still alive, having raised another $11 million in new funding last year. In total, Relan says that YouWeb companies raised $60 million in capital, and saw $120 million in three exits.
He adds that YouWeb generated three times the cash multiple for investors (YouWeb raised around $2 million in outside funding). YouWeb won?t be shut down entirely, as the entity will still have ownership in the incubator?s startups. But the entire YouWeb team will be moving to Relan?s new company.
With all of the YouWeb companies now matured to full-fledged companies, Relan is setting his sights on something larger. He plans to expand the concept of YouWeb at a larger scale, and will be launching a studio-like organization that goes beyond mobile gaming. He adds that the new company will give greater focus on mentorship, not on co-founding or operational roles. ?I was an operational co-founder and now I will become a mentor,? he explains.
We?re seeing more and more serial entrepreneurs are forgoing traditional VC roles in favor of creating company-building studios. As Relan tells us, his new venture will have a slightly different take on this model by focusing on mentorship. Stay tuned.
With unleashing the immune system on cancers all the rage in pharma research, Genentech has sealed a deal with the U.K. drug developer Immunocore to tap its T cell receptor technology for attacking tumors. Genentech, a Roche ($RHHBY) subsidiary, has agreed to pay $10 million to $20 million per cancer target and more than $300 million in development and commercial milestones for each of the programs.
Just weeks ago, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche highlighted data at the major ASCO meeting from clinical studies of an immunotherapy called RG7446 for a range of cancers. Analysts expect powerful new immunotherapies like Roche's PD-L1 antibody and other experimental therapies from Merck ($MRK), Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) and others to drive an eventual $35 billion market. Roche, which is the world's top provider of cancer drugs with products such as Herceptin and Avastin, expands its foothold in the immunotherapy field with the Immunocore deal. ?
"We believe Immunocore is the leading company in T cell receptor biology and drug development and an excellent partner for Genentech in this area," James Sabry, Genentech's senior vice president of partnering, stated. "We are delighted to have initiated this significant partnership with them. We hope this collaboration will lead to breakthrough therapies for cancer patients with unmet medical needs."
Abingdon, U.K.-based Immunocore formed in 2008 through a spinoff from the German biotech MediGene to focus on advancing the T cell receptor technology. T cell receptors identify misfit molecules such as cancer cells, triggering immune attacks on disease molecules. Immunocore's special sauce is its technology for linking engineered T cell receptors to anti-CD3 antibody fragments, forming bispecific antibody compounds called ImmTACs.?
Normally, there are too few cancer-identifying peptides on the surfaces of tumor cells for soldier T cells to recognize them as diseased, enabling the cancer cells to operate below the radar of the immune system, Immunocore CEO James Noble told FierceBiotech in an interview. To overcome this escape mechanism of cancer cells, the company engineers T cell receptors to home in on as few as 10 of the peptides on the surface of cancer cells, and the anti-CD3 fragment serves as a recruiter of natural T cells to attack the tumors.
"What we're trying to do is close the window of escape where it's just below the radar of the T cell system but above the radar of the natural kiler system," Noble said.
It's taken more than a decade and some serious feats of bio-engineering for Noble and Immunocore co-founder and chief scientist Dr. Bent Jakobsen to reach this point. They originally embarked on developing the technology through an Oxford University spinoff company called Avidex in 1999. Avidex ran short on capital in 2006 and was sold to MediGene. Noble spun off the T cell tech again, this time from the German owner, in 2008 with the formation of Immunocore and had raised about $40 million for the new company prior to the Genentech deal, the CEO said.
Immunocore, which has 55 employees, has advanced its lead drug candidate IMCgp100 into Phase I clinical development for patients with melanoma. The deadly skin cancer has been one of the prime targets for many of the immunotherapies in development from Roche and the other major players. That program isn't included in the Genentech pact, which is the startup's first pharma deal.
- here's the release
Related Articles: ASCO confab highlights immunotherapies, 'breakthrough' drugs and small victories Genentech steps into spotlight with closely-watched cancer immunotherapy Cancer drug developers are blazing a faster, cheaper path to approval Genentech nabs FDA approval for T-DM1 cancer killer
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Treasury Department watchdog who detailed Internal Revenue Service mistreatment of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status says he has no evidence the IRS also mishandled progressive groups' applications.
In a letter to Congress, the inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, acknowledged that the term "Progressives" appeared on a list of terms used by IRS screeners from 2010 to 2012 to look for applicants with potential problems that would merit close scrutiny. But he said there was no evidence the IRS set aside progressive groups' applications because they appeared on that list, which was aimed at finding groups that may have engaged in political activity ? which could affect whether they were granted tax-exempt status.
George said his investigators have "multiple sources of information corroborating," including interviews with IRS employees, emails and other documents, that tea party groups' applications were set aside for close examinations. But he added, "We found no indication in any of these other materials that "Progressives" was a term used to refer cases for scrutiny for political campaign intervention."
George's explanation did not satisfy Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.
At a hearing of that panel Thursday at which IRS chief Danny Werfel was testifying, Levin said he wanted that committee to have George testify at a future session. Levin and other Democrats say George's report last month revealing IRS mistreatment of tea party groups unfairly focused on conservatives and omitted mention of progressives.
"Our committee, in its oversight role, has an obligation to fully understand the manner in which the inspector general conducted his audit, and at what direction," Levin said.
The congressman, to whom George sent his letter, said that applications from progressive groups were sent to a different group of screeners within the IRS and that George failed to investigate that.
Under questioning from Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., Werfel said his own investigation of his agency's behavior had produced no evidence to contradict George's finding that progressive groups' applications were not set aside so their political activities could be examined. But he later said there was "a diversity of political labels" among the groups whose applications were set aside for further review.
Some progressive groups seeking tax-exempt status have complained about facing lengthy delays and detailed questions from the IRS.
It is unclear whether progressive groups faced the same extent of mistreatment as conservative organizations. Dozens of them ran into delays exceeding a year, and many received scores of detailed questions that officials have since said were overly intrusive, including demands for information about their donors.
The back-and-forth came as Werfel answered questions from Congress for the first time since revelations that progressives joined the tea party on a list of groups whose applications for tax-exempt status drew extra scrutiny.
Camp criticized a report that Werfel issued this Monday, six weeks after President Barack Obama named him to head the troubled agency.
Werfel wrote that he found mismanagement but no purposeful wrongdoing at the IRS in a report that also pointed to the officials who have been replaced and other changes he has made. Camp said that conclusion was "incomplete" because Werfel did not interview several former top IRS officials, including former commissioner Douglas Shulman.
Democrats seem determined to shift the focus to this week's disclosure that the term "Progressive" was also on the agency's watch lists.
IRS regulations allow tax-exempt social welfare organizations to engage in some political activity but it cannot be their primary mission. The agency must decide whether each applicant's activities meet those vague guidelines.
The IRS has been under withering fire since May 10, when an agency official acknowledged that it had targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt designations for tough examinations. Until then, IRS officials had insisted that conservatives had not been singled out for such treatment.
Some Republicans have suggested that the focus on conservative groups came from the White House or other Obama allies.
There has been no evidence of that so far. Instead, according to investigators and testimony from IRS workers to congressional committees, workers in the agency's Cincinnati office that handled tax-exempt applications developed the lists to help them find groups that merited additional scrutiny.
Obama and members of both parties in Congress have said such targeting is inexcusable. At least five top officials, including former acting Commissioner Steven Miller, have been removed.
Now that Russian ships can stop in Cyprus, having personnel in Syria isn't worth the risk.
By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / June 27, 2013
In this May 17, 2013 file photo, Russian sailors are seen aboard the Admiral Panteleyev Russian war ship moored at the Cypriot port of Limassol. Russia?s Defense Ministry said Thursday it had replaced all its military personnel with civilian workers at the naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, the only such outpost Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.
Pavlos Vrionides/AP/File
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In a surprise move, Russia has pulled all its military and nondiplomatic civilian personnel out of Syria. That includes a complete evacuation of the naval supply station in the Mediterranean port of Tartus, which is often discussed as one of Russia's key reasons?for its long and stubborn support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.?
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"We have neither servicemen nor civilians in Syria anymore. Or Russian military instructors assigned to units of the Syrian regular Army, for that matter," a Russian defense ministry spokesperson is quoted as telling the Moscow business daily Vedomosti yesterday.?
The Tartus naval supply station, Russia's only military base outside the former USSR, has been effectively closed, Russian deputy foreign minister and special Middle East envoy Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed in an interview with a Turkish newspaper. He insisted that the base, which housed about 70 fulltime military technicians to service visiting Russian warships, was of no strategic importance to Russia.?
"It's just a technical facility for maintaining ships sailing in the Mediterranean," he said.?
That answer seems a trifle inadequate. The obvious question is: Why abandon Tartus now, given that the Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean has never been so large??
Earlier this month Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will maintain a permanent naval flotilla in the region?for the first time since the collapse of the USSR more than 20 years ago.?"This is a strategically important region and we have tasks to carry out there to provide for the national security of the Russian Federation," he said.?
The Russian Navy has been holding?almost nonstop maneuvers in the eastern Mediterranean?for more than a year, and currently has a 16-warship task force in the area.?
"The first and likeliest reason for the closure is that Russia doesn't want to risk the lives of 70 military personnel stationed at Tartus," says Vladimir Sotnikov, expert with the official Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.?
"Now that the battlefield initiative in Syria's civil war is in the hands of the Assad regime, Russia might fear some [rebel] provocations against our people. Another possible reason may be to help promote the Geneva-2 talks. We have information that Russia, the United Nations and the US have agreed to a format for the talks. So, perhaps Russia wants to dispel impression that its position is based on some desire to hold on to this station," Mr. Sotnikov says.?
"In any case, Russian ships have the opportunity to go to Cyprus for supplies and maintenance, and it's safer for them to do so right now," he adds.?
Russia has also been steadily evacuating the estimated 30,000 Russian citizens living in Syria?since early this year, and yesterday the Ministry of Emergency Services reported that it had extracted another 130 Russians from Latakia?in northwest Syria and flown them back to Russia.?
Other Russian analysts agree that, whatever the reasons for Russia's personnel pullout, it probably doesn't signal any change of the hard, pro-Assad position that Mr. Putin most recently reiterated at last week's G8 summit?in Northern Ireland.?
"Russia's position hasn't changed. In fact it's getting tougher," says Sergei Strokan, a foreign affairs columnist with the pro-business Moscow daily Kommersant.?
"The reasons behind this evacuation probably come down to security. That base's importance has been greatly overrated in Western reporting. It just isn't that big a deal. So, I guess the thinking is, why risk some major incident that the rebels might stage by attacking Russians at this sensitive moment when all the hopes are pinned on a new Geneva peace conference?"?
One day, brands might pay Facebook to become downloadable sticker packs. Facebook just launched its first branded sticker pack for messaging -- a collection based on the new Universal film Despicable Me 2. While the studio didn't have to pay to have them appear in the sticker store, and they're free for users, Facebook might eventually be able to charge brands for the viral exposure.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? In a major victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California.
The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits.
The other was a technical ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court's declaration that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. That outcome probably will allow state officials to order the resumption of same-sex weddings in the nation's most populous state in about a month.
In neither case did the court make a sweeping statement, either in favor of or against same-sex marriage. And in a sign that neither victory was complete for gay rights, the high court said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California and roughly three dozen other states. A separate provision of the federal marriage law that allows a state to not recognize a same-sex union from elsewhere remains in place.
President Barack Obama praised the court's ruling on the federal marriage act, which he labeled "discrimination enshrined in law."
"It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people," Obama said in a statement. "The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he was disappointed in the outcome of the federal marriage case and hoped states continue to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
The ruling in the California case was not along ideological lines. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia.
"We have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the 9th Circuit," Roberts said, referring to the federal appeals court that also struck down Proposition 8.
In the case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's liberal justices.
"Under DOMA, same-sex married couples have their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways," Kennedy said.
"DOMA's principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal," he said.
Some in the crowd outside the court hugged and others jumped up and down just after 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday when the DOMA decision was announced. Many people were on their cell phones monitoring Twitter, news sites and blogs for word of the decision. And there were cheers as runners came down the steps with the decision in hand and turned them over to reporters who quickly flipped through the decisions.
Chants of "Thank you" and "USA" came from the crowd as plaintiffs in the cases descended the court's marbled steps. Most of those in the crowd appeared to support gay marriage, although there was at least one man who held a sign promoting marriage as between a man and a woman.
Kennedy was joined in the DOMA decision by the court's four liberal justices.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and Scalia dissented.
Same-sex marriage has been adopted by 12 states and the District of Columbia. Another 18,000 couples were married in California during a brief period when same-sex unions were legal there.
The outcome is clear for people who were married and live in states that allow same-sex marriage. They now are eligible for federal benefits.
The picture is more complicated for same-sex couples who traveled to another state to get married, or who have moved from a gay marriage state since being wed.
Their eligibility depends on the benefits they are seeking. For instance, immigration law focuses on where people were married, not where they live. But eligibility for Social Security survivor benefits basically depends on where a couple is living when a spouse dies.
The rulings came 10 years to the day after the court's Lawrence v. Texas decision that struck down state bans on gay sex. In his dissent at the time, Scalia predicted the ruling would lead to same-sex marriage.
Massachusetts was the first state to allow gay couples to marry, in 2004. When same-sex unions resume in California, there will be 13 states representing 30 percent of the U.S. population where gay marriage is legal.
The other 11 are Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Outside the court, gay marriage proponents celebrated both wins.
May the marriages begin," said the Human Rights Campaign's Chad Griffin, who helped spearhead the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8. The two same-sex couples who sued for the right to marry also were at the court Wednesday.
In New York City's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, where a riot in 1969 sparked the gay rights movement, erupted in cheers and whooping.
Mary Jo Kennedy, 58 was there with her wife Jo-Ann Shain, 60, and their daughter Aliya Shain, 25.
She came with a sign that could be flipped either way and was holding up the side that says "SCOTUS made our family legal".
They have been together 31 years and got married day it became legal in New York.
The broadest possible ruling would have given gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. The justices said nothing on that topic in either case.
The decisions Wednesday have no effect on the roughly three dozen states that do not allow same-sex marriage, including 29 that have enshrined the bans in their constitutions.
The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, had been struck down by several federal courts.
The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.
Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.
Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man. And now she is eligible for a refund.
___
Associated Press writers Connie Cass, Jessica Gresko and Bethan McKernan contributed to this report. McKernan reported from New York.
BOSTON, Mass.?The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Eastern Region joined with Investors Against Genocide (IAG) this month in urging mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments to avoid investments in companies with ties to genocidal regimes worldwide.
ANCA-ER Executive Director Michelle Hagopian and ANC of Eastern Massachusetts activist Dikran Kaligian with supporters of Investors Against Genocide following the June 18 shareholder meeting at Fidelity.
Michelle Hagopian, the ANCA-ER?s executive director, and ANC of Eastern Massachusetts activist Dikran Kaligian represented the ANCA at Fidelity?s June 18 shareholder meeting as part of an outspoken group of anti-genocide advocates.
Six mutual funds recorded votes at Fidelity?s shareholder meeting on the proposal presented by IAG, which reads, ?Shareholders request that the Board institute transparent procedures to prevent holding investments in companies that, in management?s judgment, substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egregious violations of human rights.? These funds bring to 40 the number of Fidelity funds that have had ?genocide-free investing? on their proxy ballot.
The preliminary voting results in favor of the proposal ranged from a high of 29.19 percent to a low of 24.13 percent, which are comparable to results on similar proposals at Fidelity in 2008 and 2009.
?Fidelity continues to own large positions in PetroChina, a company widely recognized as the largest business partner of the government of Sudan, which is currently bombing, starving, and displacing massive numbers of its own civilians in several regions,? said Eric Cohen, the chairperson of Investors Against Genocide.
?This year marks 10 years of the genocide in Darfur, and it is the 5th year that Fidelity has opposed genocide-free investing. As a result, people investing with Fidelity are still inadvertently linked to companies tied to the atrocities in Sudan,? he said.
Fidelity?s website claims, ?We are sensitive to the ongoing tragedy occurring in Darfur and, like most others in the world, we are repulsed by genocide and all other crimes against humanity. ? That said, we have concluded that when it is appropriate to remain actively invested in a company, we will do so, thus retaining the ability to oppose company practices that we do not condone.?
?Fidelity?s anti-genocide statements need to be backed up by concrete action,? said Hagopian. ?Tuesday?s shareholder meeting showed that millions of Americans want their investments to be genocide-free. Mutual funds are the most common investment vehicle for family savings and retirement plans in America. The ANCA and IAG will continue to speak out at these shareholder meetings as part of an international campaign to end all financial support for genocidal regimes.?
Although federal law prevents U.S. oil companies (and most other U.S. companies) from operating in Sudan, Fidelity and other American financial institutions are major investors in the foreign oil companies involved in Sudan that are helping to fund that government?s continued genocide and crimes against humanity. As a result, ordinary investors, through their mutual funds, family savings, and pension plans entrusted to these financial institutions, are inadvertently investing in genocide.
IAG, a Boston-based non-profit organization coordinating the anti-genocide shareholder action at Fidelity and other financial institutions, including Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase, and Franklin Resources, is engaged in an effort to encourage legislation and regulatory changes to address investments in companies that help to fund genocide.?For more information, visit www.investorsagainstgenocide.org.
In March, the ANCA San Francisco-Bay Area teamed up with IAG to advance a similar anti-genocide proposal to shareholders at Franklin Resources, the parent company of Franklin Templeton mutual funds.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's top court was expected to deliver rulings on Wednesday in two high-profile cases with national implications on gay marriage, an issue that stirs cultural, religious and political passions in the United States as elsewhere.
At 10 a.m. EDT, the nine justices of the Supreme Court were due to convene in Washington to issue rulings in the last three cases of its current session, two of them on same-sex marriage.
The court was due to rule on the constitutionality of a federal law that denies benefits to same-sex married couples and a California state law that bans gay marriage. Those cases, argued in March, could shape the debate over whether gay men and women should have the right to marry.
There are many possible outcomes, ranging from a broad decision proclaiming a fundamental right for gays to marry, which most experts say is unlikely, to more narrow decisions that are limited in scope.
Both cases came before the court with opinion polls showing growing support among Americans for gay marriage but division among the 50 states. Now, 12 states recognize it; more than 30 states prohibit it; and others have laws somewhere in-between.
The federal case concerns the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which limits the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal benefits. It permits benefits such as Social Security survivor payments and federal tax deductions only for married, opposite-sex couples, not for legally married same-sex couples.
President Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law in 1996 after it passed Congress with only 81 of 535 lawmakers opposing it. Clinton, a Democrat, said earlier this year that times had changed since then and called for the law to be overturned.
The DOMA case before the court focuses on whether Edith Windsor of New York, who was married to a woman, should get the federal estate tax deduction available to heterosexuals when their spouses pass away.
Windsor's marriage to Thea Spyer was recognized under New York law, but not under the federal law. When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor was forced to pay federal estate taxes because the federal government would not recognize her marriage. She sued the government, seeking a $363,000 tax refund.
President Barack Obama's administration initially defended the law but in 2011 Attorney General Eric Holder said the law was unconstitutional. The administration asked the Supreme Court to strike the law down. During oral arguments in March, it appeared the justices may be poised to do so. Obama is the first sitting president to support gay marriage.
The California case involves a state ballot initiative, called Proposition 8, which was approved by voters in 2008 just months after the state's high court said gay marriages could proceed.
A federal judge struck the law down in 2010, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. Proponents of the ban appealed, setting in motion the journey to the Supreme Court.
The two couples who filed suit were Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, from Berkeley, and Jeffrey Zarrillo and Paul Katami, who live in Burbank.
The cases are United States v. Windsor, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-307 and Hollingsworth v. Perry, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-144.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Will Dunham)
Google improves location-aware and voice-controlled features for Now
An update to Google Now is bringing two new types of cards, TV shows and Google Offers, to users starting today. For those who have an internet-connected TV on the same network as their mobile device, Google Now can now listen to the show you're watching and offer more information -- such as actor or show details -- right on your device. For Google Offers users, Google Now will show reminders for upcoming saved offers when you're near a store that you can use the offer at, which expands on Google's current location-aware shopping and research cards.
Additionally, the latest update also includes a new voice action to play music from Google Now. You can now say "Play [artist name]", and a prompt will pop up letting you select your preferred music app from the ones you have installed. The app will then open and begin playing from the artist you asked for.
The new TV show card is U.S.-only for the moment, but the other new features should be available for everyone. You can grab the latest updated Google Search (which is Google Now) app from the Play Store link above.
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The Chicago Blackhawks celebrate winning the Stanley Cup.
The Chicago Blackhawks may have been far from home when they hoisted the Stanley Cup, but the friendly confines of the visitors' locker room at TD Garden seemed to have provided a suitable spot for a celebration.
After receiving the Cup from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on the ice following a stunning rally in the late moments of Game 6, the Blackhawks eventually made their back to their dressing room. With the champagne and beer already on ice, they raised a few bottles, cans and glasses along with that very special Cup.
The next-gen mech shooter Titanfall would not be possible without Microsoft?s Xbox One cloud services, according to Respawn Entertainment engineer Jon Shiring. The cloud is tied into Microsoft?s controversial online policies for the new console, and it?s been the subject of confusion and ire from gamers. Shiring took to?Respawn?s blog?to explain the benefits from a developer?s perspective.
According to Shiring, Microsoft?s dedicated servers are the perfect solution to a long-standing problem. Console games with online multiplayer aspects typically use player-hosted servers because dedicated servers are expensive and tough to implement, but dedicated servers offer a superior experience. Microsoft?s dedicated cloud servers allow Respawn to implement more and better AI, physics, and environments, eliminate the ?host advantage? that plagues many online games, thwart some forms of cheating, boost matchmaking speeds, eliminate the need to pause the game when the host player quits, and improve visuals and audio by taking full advantage of the console hardware and leaving other tasks to the cloud processors.
The cloud services aren?t limited to Xbox One games either, and Respawn uses them for the Windows PC and Xbox 360 versions of?Titanfall as well. Respawn approached both Sony and Microsoft about this problem, and Microsoft was the one to implement a solution, Shiring writes.
?Microsoft realized that player-hosted servers are actually holding back online gaming and that this is something that they could help solve, and ran full-speed with this idea,? he writes. ?So they built this powerful system to let us create all sorts of tasks that they will run for us, and it can scale up and down automatically as players come and go.?
?We?want to focus on making awesome games, not on becoming giant worldwide server hosting providers,? he continues. ?The more time I can spend on making our actual game better, the more our players benefit.?
UFC 161 wasn't the greatest of cards, but some fighters did stand out. Who stood out for you? Speak up on Facebook or Twitter.
No. 1 star -- James Krause: In 2009, Krause had two fights in the WEC. He lost to Donald Cerrone and Ricardo Lamas and missed his chance to get into the UFC when it merged with the WEC. Krause kept training and kept fighting, putting together a seven-fight win streak in promotions like Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Shark Fights.
He was ready when the UFC called and asked him to fill in at the last minute for a tough match-up with Sam Stout. He not only had an entertaining fight with Stout, he finished him with a guillotine with 13 seconds left in the fight. He won both a Fight of the Night bonus and a Submission of the Night bonus, totaling $100,000.* After years of training and fighting in smaller promotions, that money is an excellent reward for keeping the faith.
No. 2 star -- Shawn Jordan: Perhaps it's just that Shawn Jordan is a really busy guy. He has many items on his to-do list, and he doesn't have time to waste on knocking out a fighter. He quickly finished Pat Barry, earning the TKO in 59 seconds. Next item on the to-do list? Heading to the bank to cash his $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.*
No. 3 star -- Stipe Miocic: Does it actually take throwing a kitchen sink at Roy Nelson's head to knock him out? Because Miocic's strikes were just short of kitchen-sink-level, and Nelson remained standing. That Miocic was able to put such a beating on Nelson showed that he is back to being the striking stud he was before being knocked out by Stefan Struve.
*UFC bonuses are paid out after fighters have passed their post-fight drug tests.
AMMAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh.
In Syria, rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has announced a campaign to recapture the rebel-held north after seizing a strategic town this month.
After months of deliberations, Washington decided last week to send weapons to the rebels, declaring that Assad's forces had crossed a "red line" by using nerve gas.
The move throws the superpower's weight behind the revolt and signals a potential turning point in global involvement in a two-year-old war that has already killed at least 93,000 people.
It has also infuriated Russia, Cold War-era ally of Syria, which has sold arms to Assad and used its veto at the U.N. Security Council to block resolutions against him.
Russia has dismissed the U.S. evidence that Assad's forces used nerve gas. The White House says President Barack Obama will try to lobby Putin to drop his support for Assad during this week's G8 summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
After meeting Cameron in London, Putin said Russia wanted to create the conditions for a resolution of the conflict.
"One does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras," Putin said.
"Are these the people you want to support? Are they the ones you want to supply with weapons? Then this probably has little relation to the humanitarian values preached in Europe for hundreds of years."
The incident Putin referred to was most likely that of a rebel commander filmed last month cutting into the torso of a dead soldier and biting into a piece of one of his organs.
Both sides have been accused of atrocities in the conflict. The United States and other countries that aid the rebels say one of the reasons for doing so is to support mainstream opposition groups and reduce the influence of extremists.
DOUBTS OVER CONFERENCE
The U.S. plan to arm the rebels also places new doubt over plans for an international peace conference called by Washington and Moscow, their first joint attempt in a year to try to seek a settlement.
After meeting Putin, Britain's Cameron said the divide between Russia and the West over Syria could be bridged, although they disagreed about who was at fault.
"What I take from our conversation today is that we can overcome these differences if we recognize that we share some fundamental aims: to end the conflict, to stop Syria breaking apart, to let the Syrian people decide who governs them and to take the fight to the extremists and defeat them."
Britain has not said whether it too will arm the rebels, but the issue is contentious even within Cameron's Conservative-led government. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister from his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, said: "We clearly don't think it's the right thing to do now, or else we would have done it."
Under its new posture, Washington has also said it will keep warplanes and Patriot surface-to-air missiles in Jordan, an ally whose territory it can use to help arm and train rebel fighters. Washington has 4,500 troops in Jordan carrying out exercises.
Washington has not ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, perhaps near the Jordanian border, although it has taken no decision yet to do so.
Jordan's King Abdullah rallied his own armed forces on Sunday, telling military cadets: "If the world does not help as it should, and if the matter becomes a danger to our country, we are able at any moment to take the measures to protect the country and the interests of our people."
Washington hopes its backing will restore rebel momentum after Assad's forces seized the initiative by gaining the open support of Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, which sent thousands of seasoned fighters to aid Assad.
Just a few months ago, Western countries believed Assad's days were numbered. But with Hezbollah's support he was able to achieve a major victory this month in Qusair, a strategically located rebel-held town on a main route from Lebanon.
FIGHT FOR ALEPPO
Since then, the government has announced major plans to seize the north, including Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and commercial centre, largely rebel-held for nearly a year. The United Nations says it fears for a bloodbath in the north.
Rebels say they are fighting back against government offensives in the north. An opposition operations room in northern Aleppo said fighters had destroyed an army tank and killed 20 troops at Marat al-Arteek, a town where opposition sources say rebels are holding back an armored column sent to reinforce loyalists from isolated Shi'ite villages.
"Assad's forces and Hezbollah are trying to control northern rural Aleppo but they are being repelled and dealt heavy losses," Colonel Abdeljabbar al-Okeidi, a Free Syrian Army commander in Aleppo, told al-Arabiya Television.
He said Hezbollah had sent up to 2,000 fighters to Aleppo and the surrounding areas, but expressed confidence the opposition would prevail.
"Aleppo and Qusair are different. In Qusair we were surrounded by villages that had been occupied by Hezbollah and by loyalist areas. We did not even have a place to take our wounded. In Aleppo, we have a strategic depth and logistical support and we are better organized," he said. "Aleppo will turn into the grave of these Hezbollah devils."
Battles were also fought inside Aleppo itself, where thousands of loyalist troops and militiamen reinforced by Hezbollah have been massing and attacking opposition-held parts of the city, driving rebel fighters back.
Opposition activists said the army was also airlifting troops behind rebel lines to Ifrin, in a Kurdish area, which would give access for a bigger sweep inside the city.
"For a week, the rebel forces have been generally on the retreat in Aleppo, but the tide has started turning in the last two days," said Abu Abdallah, an activist in the area.
Hezbollah's support for Assad, a follower of the minority Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels has increased fears of sectarian violence spreading into neighboring countries.
In Lebanon, security sources said gunmen had shot dead four Shi'ite Muslim men in an ambush in the Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian frontier. It was not clear who was behind the shooting.
Lebanon is still rebuilding from its own sectarian civil war, fought from 1975-1990. Fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites was also behind most of the violence in Iraq in the decade after the U.S. invasion of 2003.
(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Guy Faulconbridge, Costas Pitas and Andrew Osborn in London; Writing by Peter Graff)
Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Current pesticide risk assessment falls short of protecting biodiversity
This news release is available in German.
Washington/Leipzig/Sydney. The pesticides, many of which are currently used in Europe and Australia, are responsible for reducing the regional diversity of invertebrates in streams and rivers by up to 42 percent, researchers report in the Proceedings of the US Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Mikhail A. Beketov and Matthias Liess from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, together with Ben Kefford from the University of Technology, Sydney and Ralf B. Schfer from the Institute for Environmental Sciences Landau, analysed the impact of pesticides, such as insecticides and fungicides, on the regional biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters using data from Germany, France and Victoria in Australia. The authors of the now-published study state that this is the first ever study which has investigated the effects of pesticides on regional biodiversity.
Pesticides, for example those used in agriculture, are among the most-investigated and regulated groups of pollutants. However, until now it was not known whether, or to which extent, and at what concentrations their use causes a reduction in biodiversity in aquatic environments. The researchers investigated these questions and compared the numbers of species in different regions: in the Hildesheimer Boerde near Braunschweig, in southern Victoria in Australia and in Brittany in France.
In both Europe and Australia, the researchers were able to demonstrate considerable losses in the regional biodiversity of aquatic insects and other freshwater invertebrates. A difference in biodiversity of 42 percent was found between non-contaminated and strongly-contaminated areas in Europe; in Australia, a decrease of 27 percent was demonstrated.
The researchers also discovered that the overall decrease in biodiversity is primarily due to the disappearance of several groups of species that are especially susceptible to pesticides. These mainly include representatives of the stoneflies, mayflies, caddisflies, and dragonflies and are important members of the food chain right up to fish and birds. Biological diversity in such aquatic environments can only be sustained by them because they ensure a regular exchange between surface and ground water, thus functioning as an indicator of water quality.
Protection concepts fall short of requirements
One worrying result from the study is that the impact of pesticides on these tiny creatures is already catastrophic at concentrations which are considered protective by current European regulation. The authors point out that the use of pesticides is an important driver for biodiversity loss and that legally-permitted maximum concentrations do not adequately protect the biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters. New concepts linking ecology with ecotoxicology are therefore urgently needed. "The current practice of risk assessment is like driving blind on the motorway", cautions the ecotoxicologist Matthias Liess. To date, the approval of pesticides has primarily been based on experimental work carried out in laboratories and artificial ecosystems. To be able to assess the ecological impact of such chemical substances properly, existing concepts need to be validated by investigations in real environments as soon as possible. "The latest results show that the aim of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to slow down the decline in the number of species by 2020 is jeopardized. Pesticides will always have an impact on ecosystems, no matter how rigid protection concepts are, but realistic considerations regarding the level of protection required for the various ecosystems can only be made if validated assessment concepts are implemented." The threat to biodiversity from pesticides has obviously been underestimated in the past.
###
Bettina Hennebach
Publication
M.A. Beketov, B.J. Kefford, R.B. Schfer, and M. Liess (2013): "Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates". PNAS, Early Edition. 17 June 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305618110
Institute for Environmental Sciences
University Koblenz-Landau
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ralf B. Schfer
Tel.: 06341 280-31536
schaefer-ralf@uni-landau.de
Centre for Environmental Sustainability, School of the Environment, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia
Dr. Ben Kefford
Tel.: 61 2 9514 4087
Email: ben.kefford@uts.edu.au
Links
"Digging from bothe sides" in: "Chemicals in the environment" (page 6)
http://www.ufz.de/export/data/global/44068_ufzspezial_okt_2012.pdf
Study: Pesticide authorisation procedures fail to adequately protect biodiversity in rivers (Press release 31 May 2012):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=30499
Pesticides pollute European waterbodies more than previously thought (Press release 13 October 2011):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=22196
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Current pesticide risk assessment falls short of protecting biodiversity
This news release is available in German.
Washington/Leipzig/Sydney. The pesticides, many of which are currently used in Europe and Australia, are responsible for reducing the regional diversity of invertebrates in streams and rivers by up to 42 percent, researchers report in the Proceedings of the US Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Mikhail A. Beketov and Matthias Liess from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, together with Ben Kefford from the University of Technology, Sydney and Ralf B. Schfer from the Institute for Environmental Sciences Landau, analysed the impact of pesticides, such as insecticides and fungicides, on the regional biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters using data from Germany, France and Victoria in Australia. The authors of the now-published study state that this is the first ever study which has investigated the effects of pesticides on regional biodiversity.
Pesticides, for example those used in agriculture, are among the most-investigated and regulated groups of pollutants. However, until now it was not known whether, or to which extent, and at what concentrations their use causes a reduction in biodiversity in aquatic environments. The researchers investigated these questions and compared the numbers of species in different regions: in the Hildesheimer Boerde near Braunschweig, in southern Victoria in Australia and in Brittany in France.
In both Europe and Australia, the researchers were able to demonstrate considerable losses in the regional biodiversity of aquatic insects and other freshwater invertebrates. A difference in biodiversity of 42 percent was found between non-contaminated and strongly-contaminated areas in Europe; in Australia, a decrease of 27 percent was demonstrated.
The researchers also discovered that the overall decrease in biodiversity is primarily due to the disappearance of several groups of species that are especially susceptible to pesticides. These mainly include representatives of the stoneflies, mayflies, caddisflies, and dragonflies and are important members of the food chain right up to fish and birds. Biological diversity in such aquatic environments can only be sustained by them because they ensure a regular exchange between surface and ground water, thus functioning as an indicator of water quality.
Protection concepts fall short of requirements
One worrying result from the study is that the impact of pesticides on these tiny creatures is already catastrophic at concentrations which are considered protective by current European regulation. The authors point out that the use of pesticides is an important driver for biodiversity loss and that legally-permitted maximum concentrations do not adequately protect the biodiversity of invertebrates in flowing waters. New concepts linking ecology with ecotoxicology are therefore urgently needed. "The current practice of risk assessment is like driving blind on the motorway", cautions the ecotoxicologist Matthias Liess. To date, the approval of pesticides has primarily been based on experimental work carried out in laboratories and artificial ecosystems. To be able to assess the ecological impact of such chemical substances properly, existing concepts need to be validated by investigations in real environments as soon as possible. "The latest results show that the aim of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to slow down the decline in the number of species by 2020 is jeopardized. Pesticides will always have an impact on ecosystems, no matter how rigid protection concepts are, but realistic considerations regarding the level of protection required for the various ecosystems can only be made if validated assessment concepts are implemented." The threat to biodiversity from pesticides has obviously been underestimated in the past.
###
Bettina Hennebach
Publication
M.A. Beketov, B.J. Kefford, R.B. Schfer, and M. Liess (2013): "Pesticides reduce regional biodiversity of stream invertebrates". PNAS, Early Edition. 17 June 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305618110
Institute for Environmental Sciences
University Koblenz-Landau
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ralf B. Schfer
Tel.: 06341 280-31536
schaefer-ralf@uni-landau.de
Centre for Environmental Sustainability, School of the Environment, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia
Dr. Ben Kefford
Tel.: 61 2 9514 4087
Email: ben.kefford@uts.edu.au
Links
"Digging from bothe sides" in: "Chemicals in the environment" (page 6)
http://www.ufz.de/export/data/global/44068_ufzspezial_okt_2012.pdf
Study: Pesticide authorisation procedures fail to adequately protect biodiversity in rivers (Press release 31 May 2012):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=30499
Pesticides pollute European waterbodies more than previously thought (Press release 13 October 2011):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=22196
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
After three decades, Warner Bros. has successfully resurrected its Superman franchise with Zack Snyder's darker, more violent take on the marquee superhero.
"Man of Steel," directed by Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan, debuted to $125.1 million at the Father's Day box office to score the top opening of all time for June. That figure includes $12 million grossed Thursday night from special Walmart screenings, putting the actual three-day figure at $113.1 million.
Either way, "Man of Steel" eclipsed previous June record-holder "Toy Story 3," which debuted to $110.3 million in June 2010. All told, grosses for Father's Day weekend were up a staggering 51 percent over last year, with "Man of Steel" capturing 60 percent of the market.
More from THR: 'Man of Steel' nabs $170 million in promotional dollars
"The movie is a perfect blend of a superhero who reaches not only the fanboy audience but the family audience as well, with great results from both," said WB president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman.
"Man of Steel" is a notable win for WB and Legendary Pictures, which co-financed the $225 million tentpole. In 2006, WB and Legendary's "Superman Returns" did OK business at the box office, but not enough to mark a new chapter for the franchise.
"Man of Steel" opens exactly 30 years after "Superman III," the third entry in the wildly popular Christopher Reeve franchise. There was one more title in that series, "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace," although it fell flat at the box office in summer 1987.
This time out, British star Henry Cavill stars as Clark Kent, aka Superman, which sees his character trying to hide his superpowers and live a normal life on Earth. Amy Adams stars as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon takes on the role of the menacing General Zod. Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane also star.
David S. Goyer penned the script based on a story he crafted with Nolan. Warners and Legendary turned to Nolan as a producer on the project after he successfully revived the Batman franchise with his "Dark Knight" trilogy. In the summer of 2005, Nolan's "Batman Begins" opened to $48.7 million and had incredible staying power.
"Man of Steel," while drawing mixed reviews, earned an A- CinemaScore, portending strong word of mouth. The pic skewed male (56 percent) and was fueled by older moviegoers, with 62 percent of the audience over the age of 25. IMAX theaters did big business, taking in $13.3 million (12 percent of the total gross) to likewise score the biggest June opening of all time. Overall, 41 percent of the revenues came from 3D screens.
Photos from THR: 'Man of Steel's' New York premiere
Overseas, "Man of Steel" is opening day-and-date in 24 markets, and did huge business in the U.K. and Southeast Asia. The film's take through Friday was nearly $30 million, but full weekend numbers weren't immediately available.
Coming in No. 2 Friday at the North American box office was Sony's innovative end-of-the-world comedy "This Is the End" with a stellar five-day debut $32.8 million. The R-rated pic, opening Wednesday and marking the directorial debut of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has already made its $32 million budget back.
"This Is the End" stars Rogen opposite Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson.
In the comedy, the actors -- all playing fictional versions of themselves -- meet at a star-studded party at Franco's house when the apocalypse begins and they're forced to work together to survive. The film is based on a short film created by Rogen and Baruchel in 2007 titled "Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse." Rogen and Goldberg also co-wrote the scripts for "Superbad," "The Green Hornet" and "The Watch."
Several other studios also had reason to celebrate. Summit's magician heist pic "Now You See Me" placed No. 3 in its third weekend with $10.3 million for a domestic total of $80 million.
Universal's "Fast & Furious 6" hit $636.9 million in global grosses to become the No. 1 title in the action franchise, besting the $628 million earned by "Fast Five." Domestically, the action tentpole placed No. 4 in its fourth weekend with an estimated $9.4 million, pushing its North American total to $219.6 million.
Paramount and Skydance Productions' "Star Trek Into Darkness" continued to enjoy strong legs, jumping the $200 million mark at the international box office to put its worldwide at $412.2 million. The pic earned $17 million over the weekend at the foreign box office from 57 markets for a total $201.7 million -- 60 percent ahead of the 2009 "Star Trek" and a result of Paramount's massive international marketing campaign.
Universal took the No. 5 slot domestically with the Jason Blum-produced thriller "The Purge," starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey. The pic grossed $8.2 million in its second outing for a cume of $51.4 million -- 17 times the film's $3 million production budget.
More from THR: Ethan Hawke's low salary for 'The Purge' turns into millions
The news wasn't so good for Hawke's second film in the marketplace, Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight," which expanded nationwide, grossing a tepid $1.5 million from 897 theaters to place No. 13.
Nor did the scenery didn't get much better for Shawn Levy's Google comedy "The Internship," which tumbled 60 percent in its second weekend to $7 million for a domestic total of $31 million. The 20th Century Fox film, starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, placed No. 6.
Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" rung up strong business at the specialty box office as it debuted to sold out crowds in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The movie, from A24 Films, took in $210,000 for a location average of $42,000. It marks the director's best opening since Lost in Translation.
Documentary "20 Feet From Stardom" got off to a solid start, grossing $52,000 from three theaters for a location average of $17,404. Radius is distributing the film.
Our team at Atlassian has just started presenting a series of workshops for other Atlassians, on how to write effectively. People are very appreciative of the knowledge they gain in the workshops. In turn, we technical writers learn a lot from the participants. We see how much other people value our own skills. And we get a fresh look at writing and documentation, from another viewpoint. What?s more, the workshops are fun and invigorating. Added value all round!
I?m sharing the idea and content of the workshops in this post, because we?re finding them so valuable. It?s very rewarding as a technical writer, to see how much people value our knowledge and skill. It?s also interesting to see how much they appreciate a guiding hand in what we consider the very basics of writing a technical document.
Sometimes we forget just how much we know.
Before the session, the technical writer liaises with the manager of the team about to attend the workshop. We discuss the primary focus, and find out whether the team has any current plans to write documents or blog posts. Just recently in our organisation, a number of teams have put strategic initiatives in place to write and blog more. So our workshops come at a good time.
We also ask the participants and team leads to think of documents that need writing, so that their post-workshop assignments can be real documents.
After the session, the participants complete their assignments and choose one of the available technical writers to do a review. The review is a half-hour one-on-one chat, focusing on the document and any further questions the participant may have.
Kicking off the workshop
[The next few sections in this post contain the content of the workshops. The content is on a page on our internal wiki, which the technical writers use as a basis for the workshop. Participants can also use the page as a reference after the session.]
In this session you?ll learn how to write documents that people will find, read, and get what they need from. The aim is to provide a practical guide to help you get started quickly, and to put you in touch with the technical writers who can assist with reviewing your work.
We cover two types of document:
A ?how to? guide on the corporate intranet.
A blog post on the corporate external blog.
Getting started on a document
How do you write a document? One word at a time? not!
The big picture is the important thing.
Sit back, think, and plan the document before you start.
While writing, if the words don?t come, make a note and continue writing. Preserve the big picture. Come back later to fill in the gaps.
Talking to your audience
Who do you want to read the document? Who are the people you?re writing for, and what do they already know?
Think about those people carefully. Make a mental picture of a person who has the characteristics of your target audience.
Use that imagined person to make all decisions about your document.
When in doubt about wording, speak to the imagined person out loud. Write down what you said. Write it down immediately, while it?s fresh. [I usually tell an anecdote here, about how some writers stick a picture of a person on their computer monitor, and talk to that picture.]
If there?s more than one audience, consider writing a separate document for each audience. For example, consider separate documents for administrators and ordinary users.
The structure of a page
[The aim of this diagram is to illustrate that a page should have a number of headings, with short bits of text between them. After a quick look at the diagram, we discuss the sections in more detail below.]
Structure of a page
State the purpose and audience at the top
Tell people who the document is for, and what it will help them do. This will let them know if it?s the right document for them.
Separate the concepts (?what? and ?why?) from the task (?how?)
Some people already know the concepts. They?ll skip past that bit and go straight to the ?how?. Other people know how to do something ? they?ve found the right spot in the user interface, or found the right form on the intranet. But they want to know why they should do it, or what it means.
Use ?chunking?
Split the content into easily-digestible chunks. Keep them short.
Use plenty of headings, so people can find the chunk they need. Research shows people?s eyes jump from heading to heading as they skim a page.
Lead your reader by the hand
Give clear, numbered steps. Don?t skip any steps.
People have come here because they?re stuck. Don?t worry, they?ll go away again as soon as they?ve got the idea.
Add related topics and/or next steps
Send the readers away immediately if they?re in the wrong place. After that, don?t send them away until you?re sure they?ve got what they need. So, keep links to a minimum in the main portion of the page.
At the top: In the section about purpose, add links to documents the reader may need instead of this one. For example, if you have separate documents for administrators and users, link from the one to the other.
At the end: Put related topics and next steps at the end, when you?ve finished with your reader.
Examples from our product documentation
[At this point, the workshop participants have already absorbed a lot of theory. It's a good time to show them some examples of good and bad design. Use these examples as a discussion point. Ask the participants what is good or bad about each page.]
Our current style is to put the related topics at the top on the right, instead of at the bottom. We?re discussing a change, because the design doesn?t work too well on mobile devices.
Instead of a warning macro, we?ve used a panel (uncoloured) with an exclamation icon. There?s some discussion about coloured panels, and whether people skip over them when reading a page. See the references to ?banner blindness? in the resources section below.
[This is a good place to break for a quick chat about banner blindness. Find out what the workshop participants think about it, and how they themselves read a document.]
Not-so-good structure
[This is a page that has grown organically, with contributions from many people over a long period of time. It's had a revamp in the latest version of our documentation. The link points to an earlier version.]
No indication of what each section is for, and whether you need to do them all.
Other comments? [This is a good place for discussion amongst the workshop participants.]
Language and style
[This section contains a few key tips on language and style - the bread and butter of technical writers, but not necessarily well known by other people.]
Keep it short and simple
Use simple words and short sentences.
Use active voice rather than passive
[Explain the difference between active and passive. Hold a bit of a discussion here. This is a difficult concept for many people.]
Examples:
Passive: The chocolate was eaten by the technical writer.
Active: The technical writer ate the chocolate.
Why use active voice? It?s shorter. And passive voice can be confusing, because sometimes it doesn?t say who must do what. Imperative (command) is even better, when appropriate.
Bad:
?Your browser must be configured to xxx.? Reader thinks: OK, so I?ll assume someone has already done that for me when setting up my machine.
Good:
?Configure your browser to xxx.? Reader thinks: OK, I?ll do that now.
Clarify technical terms and abbreviations
Explain important concepts at the top of the page.
Spell out each abbreviation the first time you use it on a page. For example:
If you?re using IE (Internet Explorer), ?.
?with regard to Workplace, Health and Safety (WHS).
Titles
The title is your most important tool for helping people find your document. This is especially true on a Confluence wiki, where people use the quick search a lot. The quick search is based entirely on the page title.
Put the key information at the beginning of the title.
Make the title describe the purpose of the document.
How to go about writing a page
[After quite a bit of conceptual and theoretical information, the workshop participants welcome a practical guide at this point.]
Step by step:
Decide on your audience.
Write the purpose. First write it for yourself, then refine it for the audience. This helps to form the content of the page.
Write the title.
Outline the document by creating the headings.
Fill in the details. Keep each section short.
If unsure, or struggling to find the right words, make a ?TO DO? note and continue. Come back later. Hint: I use ?xxxxxxxxxxxxxx? instead of ?TO DO?. It?s quick to type, strangely satisfying, easy to search for, and stands out when I?m reviewing the page. [This bit often leads to some animated discussion amongst workshop participants. Some of them already do something similar. Others love the idea, and smile with delight.]
Review the content yourself:
Have you included everything you intended to include?
Can you cut anything out?
Should you split the document?
Is your language and tone right for the audience?
Ask someone else to review the page. As any writer will tell you, it?s impossible to review your own work. Your brain knows what you wanted to say, and that?s what your brain will see even if that?s not what?s written.
If possible, do some user testing. Grab a colleague from a different department. Get a different perspective!
Watch the page, and update it based on comments.
More about structure, at space level (specifically for Confluence wiki)
[It's time for more theory.]
We?ve already talked about the structure of page. The structure of your space also important. People often need to browse to see what?s available. Perhaps they don?t know what to search for, but they do know the general area they?re in.
Scenario: Jack searches for ?proxy? and finds a page. But it?s not the one he wants. So he looks at the nearby pages.
How:
Group related topics under a common parent.
Use the Documentation theme to show the space structure.
Making sure people find your page
Already discussed:
Structure of a wiki space
Page titles
Links to related topics
In addition to the above, let?s look at SEO (search engine optimisation) both internal (on the intranet, for the Confluence search engine) and external (on the corporate blog, for Google etc).
These are the key points for making sure people find your page or post:
Make the title meaningful, with important words near the beginning.
Make sure the URL contains real words. If you are blogging on Confluence, don?t use special characters like ??? in a page title, because the resulting URL will not contain words.
Decide the key words for your post. These are the key concepts, and the ones the people are likely to look for when searching.
Put your key words at the top of the post, in the introductory paragraph. This ties in well with our structure, where the first section contains a introduction and a summary of the story.
Put your key words in the headings in your post.
Tools
Templates and blueprints ? make some of your own.
Use the spell checker in the browser.
Gliffy is great for simple diagrams.
Other hints
Writing is a creative process, and it keeps happening even when you think you?ve stopped! You?ll find yourself thinking of stuff to add to your document at odd times. While walking in the bush. Or in the middle of the night. Make a note. Email yourself. Put it on Remember The Milk. Whatever works. Such ideas are gems. Don?t lose them.
Optimise your page for people using mobile. No section and column macros (on Confluence wiki). Short sections with lots of headings.
Limit the number of note- and warning-boxes to a maximum of two per page. Using more than this can indicate an organisational problem in the text.
Writing blog posts
[This is just a summary. We have another workshop that focuses on blog posts.]
Your blog post is likely to be technical, so the process of writing it has much in common with writing a technical document.
Here are some quick pointers:
Maintain a character in your blog, so that people can start seeing it as a friend. Blogging is a social activity. Be yourself! Otherwise it?s difficult to maintain a consistent persona and people will soon pick it up if you don?t sound real.
If you?re writing on the corporate blog, ask for guidelines about the tone and style to use.
Write each post around a story or a ?hook?. This will give the post a theme, making it easier for you to write and easier for people to read.
Make sure the title reflects the main story. This will attract readers and give you a good position in search results such as Google or Bing.
Add structure to the content. Yes, even in a blog post. Put headings in the post itself. Split the information into easily-readable chunks.
Give plenty of factual information, preferably hard-won. That?s what people value. Code samples and screenshots are great.
Link to other people?s blogs. If your idea is an expansion of something someone else has written, include a mention of where you got the idea. If you?ve seen someone?s post about a related topic, link to it. The other bloggers appreciate this and will start linking back to you in return.
Be nice, positive and sincere. If you disagree with something, say so but be constructive. Some bloggers are successful by being horrid, but to make that work you have to be really good and have a curl on your forehead. I don?t like nastiness, manipulation or one-upmanship, so I wouldn?t recommend it.
Resources
Kurt Vonnegut:
Here?s my all-time favourite: Kurt Vonnegut?s How to Write With Style.
The best thing about Kurt?s guide is that it illustrates his principles so perfectly. This excerpt is from the section called ?Sound like yourself?:
?lucky indeed is the writer who has grown up in Ireland, for the English spoken there is so amusing and musical. I myself grew up in Indianapolis, where common speech sounds like a band saw cutting galvanized tin, and employs a vocabulary as unornamental as a monkey wrench.
This bit is pretty cool too:
Pity the readers
Avoiding framed and decorated text boxes:
[Link to your corporate style guide here.]
That?s the end
In designing the content of the workshop, my aim was to give the participants as much practical guidance as possible in a short space of time. I picked the top things we technical writers know, about how to make a document work.
To add variety to the one-hour session, I chose a mix of theory and discussion sections. The sessions to date have been lively and interactive. We ask participants to complete a feedback form a week or so after each session.
The actual writing happens after the session, in the participants? own time. They can then request a one-on-one review with a technical writer, before publishing their document either internally or for the whole wide world. Participants have expressed their thanks and said the content is useful, and have indicated a wish to attend a follow-up session.
What do you think of this type of workshop, and its potential as a way technical writers can add even more value to our organisations that we already do? I?d love to hear if you have run something similar within your own organisation too.
One day, brands might pay Facebook to become downloadable sticker packs. Facebook just launched its first branded sticker pack for messaging -- a collection based on the new Universal film Despicable Me 2. While the studio didn't have to pay to have them appear in the sticker store, and they're free for users, Facebook might eventually be able to charge brands for the viral exposure.
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Public release date: 17-Jun-2013
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How do you write a document?
