Tech Writing Success Newsletter: October 28-November 1

Welcome to the Tech Writing Success Newsletter (a companion to the LinkedIn group Daily Technical Writing Success ) for October 28 to November 1.

The week included five fresh episodes for my new podcast AI for the Masses . It features short episodes for busy professionals and covers the most important AI topics. Plus, I'm accepting new clients currently. If your organization needs accurate documentation and technical writing that goes above and beyond, reach out to me. I offer reasonable rates.

Weekly Digest

Every week, this digest brings you convenient access to the five text articles and 11 podcast episodes that I publish. Podcast links are to Spotify, but episodes are also available on Amazon Music , Apple Podcasts , iHeartRadio , and several other platforms.

Monday >> Navigating the Cloud: Tools for Tech Writers

• Read article
• Listen to podcast

Tuesday >> Ultimate Workstation for Technical Writers

• Read article
• Listen to podcast

Wednesday >> Charlie Brown & the Relentless March of Technology

• Read article
• Listen to podcast

Thursday >> Rockets Everywhere: The New Era of Aerospace Innovation & Reusability

• Read article
• Listen to podcast

Friday >> Understanding AI Hallucinations in Technical Writing

• Read article
• Listen to podcast

In the Industry this Week

It was another eventful week in tech and AI . Apple released new Macs nearly every day this week, I did another podcast episode with biztech guru John Bailey, and Amazon announced the delay of a fresh Alexa based on AI upgrades. Speaking of AI, a hallucination produced a fake Halloween parade in Dublin that attracted thousands of people.

More Magnificent Macs

Apple had some fun teasing the press this week by not scheduling the rumored media event to reveal new Mac computers. Poor Apple. Once so secretive that they could have been working for the CIA and MI6, everyone now seems to know about Apple releases before their official announcements.

This week, Apple released new versions of many Mac computers, including the iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook laptops. While the world is always hot for a new MacBook Pro, the real attention getter has been the redesigned Mac Mini. Not having experienced a format update for 14 years, the new Mini truly lives up to its name and is roughly half the size of the outgoing model (now barely larger than an Apple TV).

But what got most of the tech media's attention were the new M4 chips populating the motherboards of these impressive desktop and mobile models. In 2019, Apple kicked beleaguered Intel out the door and replaced their silicon with its own M series. Like everything from Apple, these are designed by Apple in California and made in China.

Apple also increased the minimum RAM memory in all Mac models to 16 GB. The company is notoriously stingy with RAM, so this was perhaps the biggest news of the week from the company. However, true to style, the Cupertino tech giant will still charge you $400 to take a Mac Mini from 24 GB to 48 GB of RAM. Ouch, Apple, I hate you. Now when can I order a new Mac Mini?

Curt & John Talked Again

Once again, Thursday brought a new episode of the Curt & John Talk Tech and AI podcast. This is old school one-on-one audio podcasting at its best with IT and marketing veteran John Bailey from Las Vegas. This week we focused on aerospace companies Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and SpaceX and then shared our lust for the new Mac releases.

This new podcast, always under an hour out of respect to your busy schedule, is gaining the attention of IT professionals who want to leverage emerging technologies such as AI to improve their careers and competitiveness. While many think their job will be replaced by an AI-powered robot, it is actually other humans with superior AI skills that will put the AI-ignorant in the unemployment line. We help you survive the disruption.

Listen to the new episode, "Space Truckin, Robo Vacuums, and Mac Mini Lust " now. Subscribe to never miss an educational episode.

Amazon Postpones Alexa AI Upgrade

Amazon quietly postponed its planned October upgrade of Alexa with enhanced AI powers to next year. According to Bloomberg, Amazon has also eliminated access to the beta of the new Alexa and its highly anticipated "Let's Chat" function.

According to The Verge, the new Alexa fronts for an especially rotund large language model (LLM) in an effort to help Alexa understand more complex questions. However, in the process, the new version has lost some of its ability to deal with simple queries (including setting a countdown timer or dimming a light).

According to Engadget, "As ChatGPT began to rise in popularity in the summer of 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wanted to see if Alexa could compete if it had an AI upgrade. Jassy reportedly started peppering Alexa with sports questions 'like an ESPN reporter at a playoff press conference' and its answers were 'nowhere near perfect.' It even made up a recent game score for Jassy." (A sign of AI hallucinations , the subject of Friday's article.)

Polestar Begins Sales

Swedish automaker Polestar on Friday announced that it has delivered the first batch of American-made Polestar 3 SUVs to customers in the United States and Canada. The cars, fully electric and competing with similar models from Rivian and Tesla, are made in Ridgeville, South Carolina and will serve markets in North America and Europe. I sorta love a Swedish company building cars in America to sell them in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. That's international capitalism at its finest.

Polestar's primary production is in Chengdu, China. However, China-made EVs carry a 100 percent tariff in both the U.S. and Canada, making the Ridgeville plant a smart move. North American Polestar 3 customers can also use Tesla's Supercharger network—comprised of more than 17,800 charging stations—with a $230 adapter. That's sort of a big deal.

Jalopnik Exposes EV Depreciation

On Monday, Jalopnik published an article about how the owner of a 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid edition has suffered significant depreciation of the value of his vehicle after only two years. "Conner's 2022 Model S Plaid cost a whopping $140,940 after options and fees. Since the car was delivered, he has driven it 37,191 miles. A recent post on X [formerly Twitter] from Kyle shows Tesla's trade-in value for the car is a paltry $46,400. In just two short years, the car's value has tanked $94,540."

Of course, this scenario questions the intelligence of spending $150K on a fast electric car that is trending with hipsters and celebrities. But one of my Eight Pillars of Technical Writing is objectivity, so I'm going to avoid shaming rich guys who ignore market trends and don't consider the downside.

While this is an isolated case of a particular high-end model, it begs the question of total cost of ownership of some electric vehicles, particularly premium models. While fuel and maintenance are typically less than conventional ICE (internal combustion engine) cars, losses in value like that above may turn the economics of such purchases into a losing bet for some electric car owners.

Halloween Parade Hallucinated by AI

It's appropriate that I wrote about AI hallucinations this week. In Dublin, Ireland, thousands of eager children and parents attempted to attend a Halloween parade that was promoted by an AI-generated ad. The only problem: The parade wasn't real. It did not exist.

According to Engadget, "The My Spirit Halloween website advertised the completely fabricated Macnas Halloween Parade, which was supposed to take place from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on the streets of Dublin. News of the parade quickly spread online and it even received a news ranking on Google." I think this is the largest public gathering of humans due to a AI hallucination ever.

Tech Writing Pro Tip: Improve Your Hashtags

It was another week of watching otherwise capable IT professionals make mistakes in social media . One of the most common is too many hashtags. Did you know that each social media network has a limit on hashtags and that they are relatively low?

LinkedIn, for example, advises a max of only three hashtags, while X wants no more than two. While posts featuring larger numbers of hashtags aren't removed by an angry bot, they do typically reach a smaller audience.

I strongly recommend the use of hashtags to increase your audience reach . However, use of too many or inappropriate hashtags is strongly discouraged. Learn more in my recent article "How to Use Social Media Hashtags ."

Comments of the Week

My sincere thanks to those who take the time out of their busy schedule to comment and provide feedback. You are a core element of the IT and technical writing community that I am trying to build and are always appreciated.

Amaeti Usoro , a technical writer from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, commented on my article "Tips & Tricks for Remote Tech Writers ."

"This is detailed and informative. As someone already on the journey of technical writing, I'm eager to know more and gain insights from valuable resources like this to help land a remote job. Thank you, Curt Robbins."

Surya Prakash Gupta , a managing director from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, responded to my article "Mentoring is Important in Technical Writing " with the following.

"As a senior technical writer, I have had the privilege of mentoring several junior writers over the years and have found it to be incredibly rewarding. Not only does it help the mentee develop their skills and knowledge, but it also allows the mentor to stay current and learn from the mentee's fresh perspective."

Coming Next Week

Next week will feature more informative articles and podcast episodes for IT professionals and technical writers.

Thank you for subscribing to the Tech Writing Success Newsletter and sharing this information with your followers and colleagues. Together, we can build a technical writing community that is educational, fun, and that boosts our companies and careers.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer