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I've been writing end-user documentation since I started programming. In the early 90's, the user manuals for the apps I wrote won awards in the industry for which the associated software was developed. That's back when I was a programmer, documentation writer, tester, and tech support. When you work tech support on your applications, you learn a valuable lessons with regards to quality of code and quality of documentation.
The REAL problem is that developers aren't held to as high a standard as they used to be, and they're not exposed to the other aspects of software development. Granted, end users are generally f*ckin idiots, but that's when you learn that your UI and docs have to be tailored for those users.
Lastly, end-user documentation is NOT a marketing tool.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: developers aren't held to as high a standard as they used to be, and they're not exposed to the other aspects of software development
True. I worked as a grunt contract programmer while I was in college [some time during the early Cretaceous]. One of the most useful jobs I had was in a technical writer slot. I learned how to write, which most engineers do poorly if at all. As a tech writer you (hopefully) learn how to put yourself in your audience's position. Ultimately this makes you a better programmer, especially if you do UI.
Software Zen: delete this;
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: When you work tech support on your applications, you learn a valuable lessons with regards to quality of code and quality of documentation.
As the kids say, "this". 
TTFN - Kent
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A new file type format added in Windows 10 can be abused for running malicious code on users' computers, according to Matt Nelson, a security researcher for SpecterOps. Because it was so hard to find those settings before (hidden in Control Panel!)
An XML file with a link to an executable?! No one thought this might be a problem?
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Quote: Nelson contacted Microsoft, but the OS maker did not consider this a vulnerability in the OS.
I guess we'll have to wait for a few thousand PCs to get compromised / infected via this route before they deign to fix it.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I was going to call you cynic, but then I remembered we are speaking about the current Mocosoft  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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The browser maker is now serving replacement ads to as many as 1,000 volunteers who agreed to help test out the company's plans. Not ad block, but ad replace?
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Easy answer: $$$$$
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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A new attack prompted OpenBSD's developers to disable hyperthreading by default. When you've lost OpenBSD, you know you're doomed
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I read up on this earlier. It sounds like yet another exploit that can be reproduced in an artificial setup, but it really hard to make practical in the real world.
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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been rather candid since his departure from the worlds leading software providing company. Kick more chairs?
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Advice #1: Don't hire Steve Ballmer.
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Boom. Best answer in #1.
TTFN - Kent
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The Wi-Fi Alliance officially launches its latest protocol, which offers new capabilities for personal, enterprise, and IoT wireless networks. And should be hacked any moment now
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I decided to go and look at a bunch of C code bases, and it took me no time at all to find some interesting examples of this approach. Someday they'll get ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
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Kent Sharkey wrote: ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
"Never before has any voice uttered the words of that tongue here in Imladris!"
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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goto fail;
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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When it comes to messaging tools, people have started to show greater interest in whether encryption is used for security, and the same for websites -- but not so much with email. Thanks to the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, however, email security is being placed at the top of the agenda. Now the phishing requests will be secure!
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OpenAI, which Elon Musk co-founded, has been taking on top Dota 2 players with the bots since last year, and now it's gunning for a team of top professionals in an exhibition match at one of the biggest events in eSports. Sure, teach the AI how best to kill groups of us. What's the worst that could happen?
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That new technologies could actually be bad for us, by sapping our attention or ruining our memories, is an argument that goes back to Socrates. You see? I'm only trying to help.
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What?
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Upcoming additions to the WebAssembly standard may render useless some of the mitigations put up at the browser level against Meltdown and Spectre attacks, according to John Bergbom, a security researcher at Forcepoint. WebAssembly *is* the new Flash?
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In this and subsequent posts, I hope to convince C programmers to give ‘2017 era C++’ (which is entirely unlike 2003 C++) another good look. It ain't your Daddy's cout
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In the decades since Enrico Fermi first posed the question that encapsulates this paradox (“Where is everybody?”), scientists have attempted to explain this disparity one way or another. "Alone again, naturally"
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