Cancer

Business forms and records management professionals were told this week that I have tonsil cancer so I decided to go public in the blog.

I appreciate the concerns people have had and while it was very emotional at first,  I have moved on and it's no longer a major emotional issue for me. My wife, Trish, is still coming to terms with it and finding it difficult as are many of my friends.

The doctors told me that because of the location, surgery was out of the question and chemotherapy was inappropriate. The only possible solution was radiation and due to the location was very dangerous in itself.  So my decision was to leave that alone as well.

Having decided not to go down the radiation path, my quality of life is far better than is would have been otherwise, so I'm getting on with life. I have difficulty speaking clearly, so courses are out of the question for now, but I'm continuing to write books and articles.

The story of how I found out can be downloaded here. I can also send an update to anyone who asks.

UPDATE - The Form Designer's Quick Reference Guide

The QRG is somewhat out of date so I've decided to update it and need some advice.  I've had some responses from BFMA members that have been a great help, but I'm now back into writing and the more info I can get the better.

The book covers both paper and electronic forms.

I'd like to know the following if you have the time to respond:
* Are there any entries that you think need technical updating?
* For those who have the book, is there anything you have looked for and found it not there?
* Are there other entries that you think, from your experience, should be covered?

Remember that each entry is generally only a brief summary as it's more like a forms dictionary, so it isn't meant to replace Forms For People as a textbook. But I believe it is important to include as many of the terms a forms analyst is likely to come across.

If you don't have the book, I've produced a list of the current topics that can be downloaded here.

All the help you can give will benefit the wider forms community.

Now iPhone working as well

The woes of technology. Not only did the iPod fail, but the brand new 3G iPhone failed as well only this time stopped completely. Started by not syncing applications from the iTunes Store on my Powerbook. Phone went back to Apple and they reinstalled OS and other software.

But it still wouldn't sync. So out of desperation I connected it to the iMac that also had access to the same Apple account. This time sync worked.

So the conclusion? There's a problem with my iTunes software, not the iPhone itself. Don't know how to fix it yet, but at least the phone is now working well.

Now for a funny follow-up. When I got home there was a text message from the store that had sent the phone to Apple for repair letting me know that the phone was ready. But the message was sent to the phone that they had in the store.

iPod restored at last

After a couple of months of trial and error I eventually got my iPod to come back to life. Problem was that it had locked with a little padlock appearing on the desktop icon. Nothing would clear the lock and none of the proposed solutions worked.

Today I decided that I couldn't do any more harm since it wasn't working anyway, so I just went into the Mac's Disk Utility and erased the iPod.

IT WORKED! The lock disappeared and then iTunes restored from the backup.

BFMA Forms Symposium

The Business Forms Management Association has issued the catalog for the 2009 Symposium to be held in San Antonio Texas in April. You can get a copy from our web site at http://www.RBAinformationdesign.com.au.

I wish I was able to go, but it won't be possible this year.

The Symposium is a fantastic place to meet other forms professionals and to learn the latest about forms technology and related issues.