Episode 11: Big Red Diesel

The Spring Break episode in which Joe and Christian take a break from solving the world’s legal problems to talk about the technology and culture of writing. We start with some listener feedback, and then Joe reports on an accidental experiment he performed with his car lights. Moving on to email, we discuss a number of bad habits, including needless attachments and clicking on links. Then, the big daddy: Microsoft Word. We discuss what Christian thinks is horribly wrong with it and the excellent, usable alternative to the whole concept of the WYSIWYG word processor. We argue. We close with Memphis. Christian's spouse conducts various noisy activities in the background. And Darcy barks. Never fear: we'll get back to the law stuff next week.
This show’s links:
Episode 1 with Sonja West (http://oralargument.org/1)
Charlie Jane Anders, Great Fast Food Glasses of Yesteryear (http://io9.com/5422249/great-fast-food-glasses-of-yesteryear/)
Wikipedia on Headlight flashing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlight_flashing)
Please don’t send me Microsoft Word document (http://en.nothingisreal.com/wiki/Please_don't_send_me_Microsoft_Word_documents)
John Gruber, On Top (http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/on_top)
John Gruber, Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
David Sparks, The Joy of Text (http://macsparky.com/blog/2011/2/10/the-joy-of-text.html)
Paul Jacobson, Could MultiMarkdown Replace Word for Lawyers? (http://pauljacobson.org/2013/03/09/could-multimarkdown-replace-word-for-lawyers/)
Markdown for Lawyers (http://www.whiteheadlawllc.com/technology/ediscovery/markdown-lawyers-ii/)
Markdown cheatsheet (https://www.penflip.com/Penflip/help/blob/master/Markdown.txt)
Brett Terpstra, The iOS Text Editor roundup (http://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/)
Scrivener (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php), a writing app for Mac and Windows
Case study (http://literatureandlatte.com/casestudies.php?show=david_sparks) on using Scrivener in a legal practice, featuring David Sparks
Ulysses (http://www.ulyssesapp.com), a writing app for Mac
Byword (http://bywordapp.com), a great text editor for Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Editorial (http://omz-software.com/editorial/), Christian’s favorite markdown editor for the iPad
Typography in ten minutes (http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html) from Butterick’s Practical Typography (http://practicaltypography.com/index.html), see also his Summary of Key Rules (http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html)
Ben Carter, Typography for Lawyers: One Space, Double Spacing, and Other Good Ideas (http://bluegrassroots.org/home/typography-for-lawyers-one-space-double-spacing-and-other-go.html)

The Spring Break episode in which Joe and Christian take a break from solving the world’s legal problems to talk about the technology and culture of writing. We start with some listener feedback, and then Joe reports on an accidental experiment he performed with his car lights. Moving on to email, we discuss a number of bad habits, including needless attachments and clicking on links. Then, the big daddy: Microsoft Word. We discuss what Christian thinks is horribly wrong with it and the excellent, usable alternative to the whole concept of the WYSIWYG word processor. We argue. We close with Memphis. Christian's spouse conducts various noisy activities in the background. And Darcy barks. Never fear: we'll get back to the law stuff next week.

This show’s links:

Episode 1 with Sonja West
Charlie Jane Anders, Great Fast Food Glasses of Yesteryear
Wikipedia on Headlight flashing
Please don’t send me Microsoft Word document
John Gruber, On Top
John Gruber, Markdown
David Sparks, The Joy of Text
Paul Jacobson, Could MultiMarkdown Replace Word for Lawyers?
Markdown for Lawyers
Markdown cheatsheet
Brett Terpstra, The iOS Text Editor roundup
Scrivener, a writing app for Mac and Windows
Case study on using Scrivener in a legal practice, featuring David Sparks
Ulysses, a writing app for Mac
Byword, a great text editor for Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Editorial, Christian’s favorite markdown editor for the iPad
Typography in ten minutes from Butterick’s Practical Typography, see also his Summary of Key Rules
Ben Carter, Typography for Lawyers: One Space, Double Spacing, and Other Good Ideas