Injecting the CCP virus into BTC highs

What is BTC? For those of you who’ve followed the rise of digital currencies, you’ll know that BTC is a ticker symbol or abbreviation for Bitcoin, which emerged in 2008-2009 as the first decentralized cryptocurrency, and smashed all-time-high (ATH) prices in December 2020 from $20,000 to $27,000 USD per Bitcoin. Will another round of COVID-19 stimulus checks pump the BTC price even higher?

What is the CCP virus? Meanwhile, almost everyone knows about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, also known as the “Wuhan virus” or “China virus” that causes the COVID-19 disease, which first emerged in December 2019 from Wuhan, China, but was kept secret for weeks by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Conversely, will another round of COVID-19 stimulus checks devalue the USD even lower?

CCP Virus & BTC Highs

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA content designer/engineer at Wipro. Although the shift from IBM to Wipro in 2017 triggered an annual barrage of content migrations and conversions, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t noticed the shocking geopolitical and financial tremors over the last few years. So my question is: How will IBM deal with the USD impact of the CCP virus and BTC highs?

Investigating the IBM approval of TPP

Batman vs. Superman! Democrat vs. Republican! This year, 2016, has without doubt witnessed a lot of battles — cinematic, political, and ideological. So why not post something a little bit different? This time, I’ll talk about IBM vs. TPP. Or more accurately, IBM’s support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and Trade in Services Agreement (TISA).

To save time, I’ll focus on TPP. So what is TPP? According to Wikipedia: “The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)… is a trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim countries [which aims to]… promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs… raise living standards; reduce poverty…” But do these noble goals help the sovereign nations? Or the multinational corporations that defy them?

TPP, TTIP & TISA

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. I never expected to write a political post. After all, I’ve avoided politics for the last two presidential cycles. So what changed this cycle? Good question. Maybe I’m beginning to see that this isn’t about Democrats vs. Republicans, but about Globalism vs. Americanism. And as my multinational employer, IBM is supporting globalism.

Animating ideas in Adobe Captivate 9

Adobe Captivate 9! Wow, have 5 months passed by already? Just like last year, this year continues to be consumed with my pursuit of TRIRIGAFEEDIA and TRIRIGA UX. On top of that, since March 2016, I’ve had the unique opportunity to investigate the popular eLearning authoring tool, Adobe Captivate, as an exciting new way to deliver our IBM TRIRIGA content. But first, I needed to tie up a loose idea.

Back in September-October 2015, inspired by the MinutePhysics YouTube channel, and the Grovo microlearning provider, but months before Adobe Captivate was even an option, I experimented with a 1-minute proof-of-concept (POC) video. I spent about 26 hours to storyboard, script, and design the slides. In March 2016, I wrapped up the final 4 hours to record, edit, and sync the audio with the video.

TRIRIGA UX Lesson 1

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. The idea was to prove that a 1-to-2-minute “microlearning” experience can be effective for more mobile, on-the-go eLearning. Guess what? It proved its point. It took about 30 hours, but I’m still proud of it. So, since then, I’ve tried to carry the same tone, pace, and flow to my Adobe Captivate lessons. But did it work in Captivate?

Delighting users by killing XML robots

The Force Awakens! Or in this case, my ongoing battle with DITA-XML awakens! In the 1st and 2nd episodes of my controversial “Killing XML” trilogy, I explored the rising external forces of social media and mobile apps. But in this 3rd episode, with the rise of socio-mobile, I’ll explore the rising internal forces of human voice and user delight, which are often choked by content cost and maintenance.

Recently, while catching up on old PDF issues of Intercom, the monthly magazine by STC, I found a February 2015 article that advocates this “delightful” approach for technical docs. In his article, Barry Grenon observes that technical writers “default to a formal style” that sounds robotic and encourages “remaining invisible”. By focusing on cost and maintenance, writers fail to engage or delight users.

STC Intercom: February 2015

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. Let me ask you this. If you’re anything like me, a seasoned technical writer with years of DITA-XML experience, how do you know if you’ve forgotten to “delight users”? Well, it’s easier to see it if you’re also a blogger. But if you’re not, do you notice yourself stripping away your unique voice or personality from your content?

Rewriting the rules for TRIRIGA docs

Veni, vidi, vici! TRIRIGA, TRIRIGAFEEDIA, and TRIRIGA UX! But to start off, happy anniversary! Believe it or not, November 2015 not only witnessed the 2nd anniversary of my quiet “bright blue” tech blog at jay.manaloto.ibm, but also the 10th anniversary of my tech career at TRIRIGA. From the old TRIRIGA days of co-locating at the office to the global IBM days of telecommuting from home. Not a bad deal.

So why have I returned? To be honest, I was always going to return. But this year has been especially consuming, fascinating, and satisfying with my exploration of new TRIRIGA territories, namely TRIRIGAFEEDIA and TRIRIGA UX. With the former, if you remember, I created “an experimental WordPress hub that collects feeds”. With the latter, I recently dove into the world of Google Polymer.

TRIRIGA UX Article 1

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. I’ve always been pretty transparent about the origin of my TRIRIGAFEEDIA blog. But now that IBM has announced the releases of IBM TRIRIGA 10.5.0 and IBM TRIRIGA Application Platform 3.5.0 with its UX Framework, I can finally reveal the origin, design, and development of my TRIRIGA UX Articles. Wanna find out?

Pouring Polymer onto TRIRIGA docs

Google Polymer! What am I talking about? First, let me ask you this: Have you ever designed your own websites in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? Or edited your own blog posts and switched from rich-text view to HTML view? In any case, if you’re a technical writer or developer, you’re probably familiar with HTML tags — tags like [a], [div], [img], and [p] — the basic building blocks of traditional HTML.

But what if a new web standard emerged where HTML tags were no longer the basic building blocks? What if the new building blocks were widget-like components that rendered visual effects in a single custom tag or attribute that formerly required dozens or hundreds of tags and attributes? This is where Web Components step in, a new set of W3C standards being developed by Google.

Polymer Topeka Demo

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. Next, let me ask: Where does Polymer step in? Based on these Web Components standards, Polymer is a growing library of pre-built reusable components also being developed by Google. Can you imagine a sliding or rippling tap effect added to your app with a single custom tag, instead of dozens of traditional tags?

Bouncing into responsive IBM design

Responsive web design! By now, if you’ve been casually following the social media activity across technical communication, content marketing, and content strategy, you’ll know that responsive web design (RWD) is one of the hotter trends and topics this year. In fact, if you recall, my first mention of RWD was back in July when I reviewed the IBM Service Engage portal. My review was rather mixed.

Since then, I began to wonder how other IBM and IBM-partner websites have tackled, or not yet tackled, RWD. After all, websites “that are designed to be swipe-friendly on a mobile browser might not necessarily be scroll-friendly on a desktop browser”. The exploration was enlightening. While some of you might applaud my praises, others might heckle my harsher criticisms. Just being honest.

IBM Design

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA information developer at IBM. With the eyes of a casual surfer, I’m going to sail through a handful of websites, and gently pull on them until they either fall apart or bounce back into place. Will IBM websites do well or poorly? Will IBM-partner websites do better or worse? Will RWD save websites from mobile-app domination? Let’s see what happens.