As if either one isn’t difficult enough to deal with by itself:
Obesity, depression provide double-whammy to heart
I’ve decided that all professors should be required to print, right there on the syllabus next to the name of the required texts, the price of said texts. Every single damned one. Because if they actually paid attention to what they’re asking every student to buy, perhaps they’d stop and think, “Is this necessary?” Or I’d hope so, anyway.
- Medical terminology: A short course, 3rd edition. Chabner, D. (1999) – $19.95.*
- The language of medicine, 7th edition. Chabner, D. (2004) – $46.95? I can’t even FIND this version an Amazon. Oh, wait—I found the publisher’s site. List is $48 and it isn’t even scheduled for release until 1/30/04.*
- Health writer’s handbook, Gastel, B. (1998) – $32.99*
- The Non-Designer’s Design Book, 2nd edition. Robin Williams. $19.99*
- The Non-Designer’s Type Book, Robin Williams. $24.99
- The Non-Designer’s Scan and Print Book, Robin Williams. $24.99
- The Non-Designer’s Web Book, Robin Williams. $34.99**
- The Practice of Technical and Scientific Communication: Writing in Professional Contexts. Jean A. Lutz and C. Gilbert Storms (eds). (1998). $31.95
- Writing a Professional Life: Stories of Technical Communicators on and off the Job. Gerald J. Savage and Dale L. Sullivan (eds.) (2001). $30.00
- Taming Microsoft Word 2002. Jean Hollis Weber. $8. ***
- Principles of Web Deisgn, Farkas & Farks (2001). $47.33
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common-Sense Approach to Web Usability. Steve Krug. $35.00*
- Information Architexture: Blueprints for the Web. Christina Wodtke (2003). $29.99*
*New to SPSU, at least, so no used ones available.
**I am seriously hoping that Robin Williams does not decide to publish something like The Non-Designer’s Potty Training Book, because I fear it would end up on the required reading list for this course.
***I’m still using Office 2000. No, it isn’t good enough. Add that to Pagemaker 7, Photoshop 6, and Adobe Acrobat 5 (writer, not the reader) as required software. Learning Framemaker is just “strongly suggested.” I know that the educational versions of these programs cost WAY less than the retail prices, but they’re still damned expensive.
I realize that I could probably find cheaper prices on many of these online, and I will be searching. Anyone who has any of these books and doesn’t want them, feel free to send them my way!
Total: $388.17
I also found it amusing that one professor said that we must have, “A computer with processing speed adequate for graduate-level tasks.” Huh? That isn’t exactly a technical spec, doc.
We’re also supposed to use Zip disks to transport our work to and from school. Not floppies, nope, not allowed. I don’t happen to own a Zip drive, although I came across three old zip disks while cleaning the office. I don’t remember where they came from or why I have them, but they would be reusable—if I had a Zip drive. And I don’t.
One of the classrooms I was in today had no Zip drives in the PCs. When I asked about that, I was told, “I don’t know why, but they’re supposed to.” Well, that makes it all better! If they’re SUPPOSED to be there, I’m sure they’ll magically appear!
I’m glad we already have a scanner, as we need one. We aren’t allowed to use ANY clip art for the graphics course, period. So I’m thinking a digital camera would be damned handy. But we don’t have a working one.
