Category: Writing

Just writing

It feels so good when you stop

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 17, 2003

I am so burned out from the push to finish the draft this last week. It got to the point that I was coding PHP into a Java class, and I kept looking at some Python, trying to figure out why it looked funny (it’s Python, it’s supposed to look funny).

And then I had to install .NET to finish the review of the C# API, and that hosed my W2K system up for a bit.

Have I mentioned how grateful I am for such a patient editor? Simon St. Laurent is every tech writer’s dream. And Dorothea Salo has been my content and “interested but RDF naive” tech editor, and has been doing a splendid job. I’d link to them, but even that’s too much technology at the moment.

Dorothea asked me if I was upgrading to Movable Type 2.6. I’m not sure if I replied to her email (Dorothea, if I didn’t, sorry, but this last week has been a mess.) However, I think I’m at my limit of tweaking right at this moment. The thought of going out to my server and playing around with Perl modules, well, it makes me want to stick my head in a snow bank outside, and just leave it there.

It seriously does.

Writing

Completed first draft of Practical RDF uploaded

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 17, 2003

I just uploaded the completed first draft of Practical RDF. You can read about it, and download the chapters at the book weblog. I was delayed with the upload trying to get a couple of RDF applications/APIs working this weekend, one last time, but finally had to give them up for a lost cause.

At this time, I have so much alpha/beta code on my laptops, I’m surprised they haven’t gone up in smoke. *POOF* Everytime I boot up my Windows machine, 7 different framework/application servers battle it out for supremacy in memory.

“I’m loading first!” “No! Me!” “I’m Bigger!” “I’m prettier!”

Joking about alpha/beta aside, I am impressed at the quality of the material I covered. So much of it was easy to install, use, intuitive, and worked very well. Who said that the only implementation of RDF is RSS? What a load of bunk that is!

Now, I need help from all of you. Those of you with a few cycles of extra time and a modicum of interest, please visit the site and review a chapter or two. Don’t expect much — these are still a work in progress. However, every little feedback helps.

Writing

Rah

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 15, 2003

In case it got lost in the discussion about politics in the last post, I finished the book.

Rah.

Writing

Draft if finished, world didn’t end

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 14, 2003

In between covering our windows with plastic and applying duct tape around any cracks and crevices, I finally finished the first draft of Practical RDF tonight. I need to do some clean up and re-numbering and then will repost the chapters one more time for one final review. In a few weeks, if we survive imminent biological and chemical devastation, and if O’Reilly’s publication process isn’t co-opted for the upcoming non-UN sanctioned war against Iraq, the book will finally head towards the printers. Lots of work to get to this point.

Despite the long hours this week on the book, I still managed to keep up with the duct tape defense. I’ll have you know I treat the Homeland Security recommendations as seriously as I treat the Department of Homeland Security.

After all, terrorists took down the Twin Towers with box cutters; why can’t we defend ourselves against weapons of mass destruction with duct tape?

Writing

Can’t spill coffee on a digital book

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date February 7, 2003

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

One very nice perk of being an O’Reilly author is getting full membership in O’Reilly’s online digital book library, Safari. I think about the 34 boxes of books I have stored back in San Francisco and can’t help but feel that digital is really the way of the future. At least for technical books.

(I still like the feel of a ‘real’ book when I snuggle under the covers in bed for a nice read before heading off to sleep. I love the feel of the covers in my hands, the sound of the turning page, the illustrations and type face, and the slightly acrid, dusty smell you get sometimes with an older book from the library.)

When I was out at Safari tonight, looking something up about Python, I noticed that one of the book’s I helped write and organize for O’Reilly last year, Unix Power Tools 3rd edition, is currently Safari’s most read book.

Don’t you like the unexpected gift the most? That was a very nice little egoboo to help me as I work away with Practical RDF.