If you’re Homo Sapien then you’ve probably heard that song by Yael Naïm. Name not ringing any bells? You know, it’s the one that goes something like this: “La-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la…” Still not getting it? Okay, it’s the song from the MacBook Air commercial. Yes, you know the one (and if you still have no clue, check out this YouTube video).

The song is called “New Soul” and was handpicked by Steve Jobs for the MacBook campaign. As a result, Naïm, a previously unknown French-Israeli singer, became the first Israeli solo artist ever to have a top ten hit in the United States.

The power of the tech industry to elevate an artist to stardom is a relatively new phenomenon, but one that a flagging music industry desperately needs.

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DocTrain chugged along today and picked up some speed with a heavy emphasis on social media. As with yesterday’s post, I’ll give you the skinny and the slides on each presentation as well my pick for ‘what’s hot’.

Great people, good food, and leading-edge content. Kudos to the organizers and to the Marriott Pinnacle for hosting this terrific event. And a huge thanks also to the Westcoast STC for the opportunity to attend.

Here’s the best of the rest:

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The conference proper kicked off today with some excellent speakers across the board. There were a lot of presentations, so I’m going to keep it short and give you the gist of each one along with my personal “what’s hot” recommendation on something juicy, cool or just plain geeky that I gleaned from the talk. If the slides for the talk are available online, I’ll embed them as well.

So without further ado, here’s my take on the presentations that I attended.

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Today I attended a pre-conference workshop on Simplified Technical English (STE) at DocTrain West. Berry Braster, director of Tedopres, presented the benefits of writing documentation using standardized, unambiguous English, especially when materials are being translated into other languages.

The implementation of STE involves developing a company-specific dictionary and using documentation software to aid in the mechanical side of ensuring uniformity of language across the board. The goal is to ultimately reduce costs and facilitate quality assurance. If you’re interested, here’s an abbreviated version of Berry’s powerpoint presentation:

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The May edition of alive magazine is out, and I have two articles published in it this month. A few months ago I interviewed stress guru Eli Bay about his relaxation techniques. Take a deep breath, relax for a few minutes and read his insights.

I also wrote a short piece on the rise of the mosquito population in our new era of rising temperatures. Mosquitoes love warm, moist climates, and they’re getting a lot of that these days.

For most of the rest of this week, I expect to be blogging exclusively on DocTrain West, which I’m attending this week.