June 30th 2010
Have you ever been on the internet or received an email containing information that seems too good to be true? How often do we check out the information we read before passing it on to everyone in our address book. Forwarding false information to our friends somehow lends credibility to this false information. And so the loop continues until at some point no one knows the truth. Eventually after months/years of circulation the urban legend is born which is defined as a fictitious body of information accepted as truth. When we provide technical writing to our clients, the one thing they depend on is the validity and accuracy of the information being presented to the end user. So the next time you receive an email or look up something on the internet, check it out before passing it on.

Steve Nichol for TPA, Inc. (www.tpainc.ws)

June 2nd 2010
Global Spec newsletter reported today that "Machine Tool Sales Indicate Recovery." Strong evidence of an economic uplift is indicated by the latest data for machine tool sales in the US. Sales totaled $258 million in March this year — up over 58% from February. The $548.53 million total for 2010 so far is more than 33% ahead of the first quarter of 2009.

If manufacturers are buying new machine tools, they apparently are gearing up for increased production. For those of us who depend on the manufacturing sector to buy our services, this is good news.

Steve Nichol