About

The Writer’s Technology Companion is a guide through the world of the tools we use to write — digital, analog, and mental. Inside these pages, you’ll find tips, instructions, and reviews of all manner of tools, with a special emphasis on the needs of writers.

I’m your guide, Dustin M. Wax. I’m a Las Vegas-based museum director, college instructor, and former freelance writer. I’ve published multiple academic works, including a book called Anthropology at the Dawn of the Cold War: The Influence of Foundations, McCarthyism and the CIA (Pluto Press, 2008), as well as Don’t Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.

For several years, 2007-2010, I was project manager and contributing editor at lifehack.org, a site devoted to personal development, organization, and productivity. There I edited the work of over 25 writers for a site read by over a million unique visitors a month. I think it’s fair to say I know a thing or two (maybe even more!) about the writer’s life.

Two notes about reviews

Unless noted otherwise, all reviews on this site are of products I have bought myself, using my own money. If I do accept a free product to review, it will always be with the condition that I can write an open and honest evaluation based on my personal experience. Any positive review you see on this site you can consider my own personal endorsement and a direct reflection of my actual use of that product.

And that’s key: all my reviews are based on my particular experience with a product as a writing tool. For instance, while I do sometimes draw, if I review a pencil it will be in terms of how that pencil is for writing. Likewise, there are products that might be fine products but they simply do not fit my own personal style of working. I have, for example, moved almost entirely away from online task managers, despite the fact that many of them are well-designed tools that may work perfectly well for someone else.

Privacy Policy

The privacy of this site’s visitors is important to me.

I recognize that the privacy of your personal information is important and will never sell your personal information to third parties. However, The Writer’s Technology Companion does collect some of the following forms of information due to the nature of the Internet, and also includes third-party ads that may collect and use the following forms of information:

  • Log Files
    As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
  • Cookies and Web Beacons
    We may use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to future features, such as forums.
  • Email Addresses
    The Writer’s Technology Companion offers an email update list, and also allows you to receive notifications when someone responds to a comment you’ve left. This information is used only for the explicit purpose you’ve designated.
  • Third-Party Agents
    We also use third party advertisements to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

While I have no control over third-party users of your information, I do not willingly offer private information (such as email addresses or other identifying information) to any outside parties.