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The Writers Workbench

8/23/2019

I've decided to have another Trump-Free morning. And also catch up on another of my "The Writers Workbench" columns.

This one considers a technology called "mesh networking," but don't worry it's something that's very basic and might be of use to a lot of people. It's very similar to what a lot of people call signal boosting though works a little different -- and in this particular case, really wonderfully.

If your home is set-up in a way that you have a difficult time getting a good, clear, strong Wi-Fi signal throughout the place and have some dead spots, then this is for you. Google Wi-Fi is a mesh networking product that is surprisingly extremely easy to set up (among other things, its app walks you through it step-by step) and even better, works wonderfully well.

As always, rather than reformat the original article, here it is all ready at its home on the WGA website.

The Writers Workbench

4/9/2019

It's been a while, but time for another of my tech columns, The Writers Workbench, that I do for the Writers Guild of America, As I've noted in the past, since it's a bother to code the code column for this site and it's already coded for the Guild's site, it's SO much easier to just provide the link to it here.

The format has evolved a bit over the years -- I've been doing the column for maybe 18 years or so. What I explain in the introduction.is that I'm going to try just covering one product per column -- along with the small "TWW Notes" at the end. If any columns come along where it's convenient to compare a range of similar products, I'll continue to do that, but I think one product at a time at this point will let me post a few more columns than I've been doing and keeping them more up-to-date than having to wait on companies sending me their latest products when they're finally ready.

Anyway, this month is a a look at an oddly-designed, but very good surge protector, the Powramid, made by the company Accell. which has turned out decidedly odd, but very good products in the past. You can find the column here.

The Writers Workbench

4/9/2019

It's been a while, but time for another of my tech columns, The Writers Workbench, that I do for the Writers Guild of America, As I've noted in the past, since it's a bother to code the code column for this site and it's already coded for the Guild's site, it's SO much easier to just provide the link to it here.

The format has evolved a bit over the years -- I've been doing the column for maybe 18 years or so. What I explain in the introduction.is that I'm going to try just covering one product per column -- along with the small "TWW Notes" at the end. If any columns come along where it's convenient to compare a range of similar products, I'll continue to do that, but I think one product at a time at this point will let me post a few more columns than I've been doing and keeping them more up-to-date than having to wait on companies sending me their latest products when they're finally ready.

Anyway, this month is a a look at an oddly-designed, but very good surge protector, the Powramid, made by the company Access which has turned out decidedly odd, but very good products in the past. You can find the column here.

Writers Talk

11/18/2018

The guest on this week's 3rd and Fairfax podcast from the Writers Guild of America is TV writer Erica Messer who is the showrunner in charge of the series, Criminal Minds. She talks about that show and her career that began writing for Alias, as well as such series as Charmed (the original, not the current remake) and The O.C.

Writers Talk

8/11/2018

On this week's episode of the 3rd and Fairfax podcast from the Writers Guild, the guest is Dan Futterman who talks about starting his career as an actor, and becoming a writer of the films, Capote and Foxcatcher, and also co-creating the Hulu series, The Looming Tower (about battles between the CIA and FBI before 9/11), as well as writing extensively for HBO's In Treatment.

The Writers Workbench

8/10/2018

It's been a while since I've posted one of my "The Writers Workbench" tech review columns, so tonight we'll jump right back in. This month it's pretty low-tech at the core -- light bulbs -- though in different incarnations that you might be used to. The first device is quite low-tech but very versatile and clever, the Luminoodle -- basically a cord with lights embedded in it, though there's more to it than that. The second is a Smart bulb for those who might be interested in controlling your light bulbs but don't yet want to wire your residence as a Smart Home.

As always, since the column is written for the Writers Guild of America, and they've gone to the effort of formatting it all for their site, I'll provide the link to it there, rather than go through the headache of reformatting it all over again on these pages.

Writers Talk

4/7/2018

On this week's edition of 3rd & Fairfax, the podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is writer and showrunner Jason Katims, who talks about his career as showrunner for such series as Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, Roswell and About a Boy, among others, as well as his new show, Rise, which he developed.

Writers Talk

5/28/2017

On this new 3rd & Fairfax podcast, the guest is writer Mike Schur who talks about the range of his impressive career that started with being put in charge of the "Weekend Update" segment of SNL with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, moving on to the writing staff for The Office for its first four seasons. From there, he co-created Parks and Recreation. And then co-creating Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Finally, he gets into his latest series that he created last season, The Good Place. As I wrote on this pages earlier here, I love the show and am a big fan of its charm, whimsy and inventiveness, and particularly its willingness to try "different." One "Spoiler Alert" -- if you're still catching up on the show, there is a discussion of the season finale. As you might imagine, it's a lively and fun interview -- as well as charming and even at times self-effacing.

The Writers Workbench

8/17/2016

It's time for another Writers Workbench column, though this month there's nothing high-techie about it. There really isn't anything techie about it, period. Because the column deals with products that are of interest to a writer, or sometimes someone in the entertainment industry, that takes into consideration things for a home office -- or what you might want to use as part of a freelance business. And that sometimes means lugging your office and work around with you.

So, this month we look at an attache from (of all places) a very good tech company, as well as a piece of small luggage for a business trip.

As always, because it's so convoluted to format the column, and because it's already been formatted on the Writers Guild of America website, for which it's originally written, I'll make it simpler all around and just link to it here.

The Writers Workbench

9/30/2015

It's time again for another edition of The Writers Workbench. And this month we have another column on, of all things...portable chargers. Amazing, yes, I know. (The last one though earlier in the year was on solar chargers only, so we're back to more standard ones -- though each with a difference.)

I don't quite know why I like portable charging, but I find the technology so fascinating and often elegant and multi-functional. For instance this month, there's a portable charger that you can easily carry with you -- but it comes with cables that let you use the device to jump-start your car.

As always, it's a convoluted process to code the column, so rather than go through all that, I'm just going to link to the already-coded column on the Writers Guild of America website, which you can find here. It's also on the Huffington Post, but because the column is written initially for the WGA Online, this is the slightly-more comprehensive first, with more photos and TWW endnotes.