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May 22, 2005
On Writing Well
I like doing things that have a body of theory behind them. For example, I prefer taijiquan to kickboxing, as a martial art, as it has deeper theory. I prefer hill walking to jogging on a treadmill. So when I started blogging, I went looking for its theoretical foundations. I found them in the principles of good nonfiction writing. I bought two books: The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, and On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. Tim requested that I write a review of them and, as I haven't finished The Elements of Style yet, I decided to write about On Writing Well.
The book is unusual for a writing guide. Firstly, it is a good read. It is actually hard to put down. Advice on writing is given clearly and simply. That is part of it. However, Mr. Zinsser illustrates his points with personal anecdotes, and this is what makes the book so interesting. In the chapter entitled A Writer's Decisions, for example, he uses an account of a trip he took to Timbuktu. He walks us through the article he wrote, paragraph by paragraph, explaining what he wrote and what he was thinking at the time. Between the travel piece and its explanation, you get an idea of the author's personality. He's interesting. It makes his book interesting.
He is passionate about the craft of writing, and that comes through in a few humorous digs at bad writing. For example:
He or she may think "sanguine" and "sanguinary" mean the same thing, but the difference is a bloody big one.
Humour livens up the advice too:
Don't get caught holding a bag full of abstract nouns. You'll sink to the bottom of the lake and never be seen again.
Secondly, the book covers more than just grammar and rules for composition. It covers the whole craft of writing nonfiction. There is a section on forms of nonfiction writing, such as travel writing, sports writing, biographies, and business writing. There are a few paragraphs on the relationship between an author and an editor. This is useful information for a professional, and interesting for an amateur blogger like myself. There is a chapter on interviewing people too. It explains how to conduct an interview, how to quote people, and the ethical responsibility that a writer has to be faithful when using a quotation. The author also explains why you would want to quote someone in the first place. He uses quotations effectively himself, and these make his point very clear. The author includes a story about an article he wrote about Mount Rushmore. Instead of describing the place himself, he interviewed the people that worked there. I cannot think of a more evocative way of describing Mount Rushmore than one of the quotations he got:
"In the afternoon when the sunlight throws shadows into that socket," one of the rangers, Fred Banks, said, "you feel that the eyes of those four men are looking right at you, no matter where you move. They're peering right into your mind, wondering what you're thinking, making you feel guilty: 'Are you doing your part?'"
In short, On Writing Well is an informative book. It covers the whole craft of non fiction writing in about 300 pages and it is written well.
Posted by JohnC at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2005
Impulse buy
I am not normally a person that makes impulsive purchases. Normally it takes days, if not weeks, of deliberation before I buy something. Yesterday I bought a piece of software less than twenty minutes after I heard about it. The software I bought was NetNewsWire 2.0. It is a weblog feed reader, for Mac OS X, that allows me to manage all the RSS and ATOM weblog feeds that I read regularly.
I found the software via a posting on Tim Bray's blog. The post was simple and direct:
It’s out; while I don’t see anything obvious that wasn’t there in the betas, that doesn’t make it any less neat. If you’re on Macintosh and you’re still using a Web Browser for most of your Web Browsing, stop doing that and go get this.
I went to the site, downloaded the 30 day trial, and launched the application. This is where I was first impressed. The application came preloaded with about 25 feeds, and these loaded almost instantly. Impressive. I then went to check out features. Did it support ATOM? It did. Did it allow grouping of feeds? Yes. Was it easy to add a feed? Oh yes, indeed it was. When the New Subscription menu item is selected, a little dialog box is opened with the contents of the clipboard pasted into the text field. It is highlighted, so a single key press will get rid of it. However, this feature makes adding feeds easy. My previous RSS reader was Thunderbird and it was painful to add feeds, so this was a definite selling point.
There were a few other features that impressed me. The software has multiple layouts, including a three column view, which is invaluable on the Mac, where screen space is scarce. It comes with a couple of really nice cascading style sheets, and it allows users to use their own. This will be another reason to fire up StyleMaster.
Purchasing was quick and easy via kagi.com. The license cost me $30, and that entitles me to all 2.x updates. It looks like my RSS reader needs are taken care of.
Posted by JohnC at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
Don't get a job. Make a job.
Paul Graham has a new essay up at his site. He discusses how the traditional career, of school, college, and corporate job, may not be the best one for smart young programmers. Starting a business may be better for them, even if it is just to build a CV. It is worth a read.
Posted by JohnC at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
Hiking and Hitchhiking
I went on my second long hike last Saturday, around Lough Iolar and up Tonelagee, again with Min, Jim, and Al. It was a good 10km walk, over slightly boggy ground - not surprising, as we were in Wicklow - in pleasant, if changable weather. We had good visibility, occassional sunshine and a stiff breeze.
Lough Iolar was beautiful. It is not the best named place, as there wasn't an eagle in sight, and the lake was only at 500m above sea level. However, Tonelagee is very well named. In Irish it is called Tóin le Gaoith and it was windy up there. It was cold too, and we were treated to hailstones once or twice. The hike up was worth it though: there were some fantastic views.
On Sunday, I took it easy, met some friends for lunch, and went to see the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. There has been some debate, regarding the changes made to the movie, and the material that was left out. For example the Golgafrincham B-Ark was left out. Some fans think that the changes ruined the movie, and many miss their favourite jokes. However, I really enjoyed the movie. The changes were in the spirit of the books and the TV series (I haven't heard the radio series yet), with the same jabs at human nature and same attention to detail. The trip to Vogosphere was hilarious, with a subtle hint at the origin of the Vogons' bureaucratic nature. Casting was near perfect, in particular for, Alan Rickman, as Marvin, and Stephen Fry as the Guide Narrator. The only actor that didn't fit was John Malkovich. He just wasn't funny. Overall, though, the movie is funny, enjoyable, and true to the spirit of Douglas Adams's creation. Go see it.
Posted by JohnC at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2005
NIN - With Teeth
I bought the new Nine Inch Nails album last friday and I have been listening to it ever since. Fintan has got there first with the review and he is pretty much on the ball. However, I thought I would add my own impressions.
There is one outstanding thing about the album; there is much less production than previous NIN albums. There is less distortion, less mucking about with perceived distance, and less stereo effects. This is an album that five guys can play live on stage. In fact, NIN are doing just that. Unfortunately, there are no Irish dates, and all the UK dates are sold out. Oh well! Next time.
As regards the tracks, I have completely different favourites to Fintan. My favourites are Right Where It Belongs and Every Day Is Exactly The Same. These are complex tracks with nihilistic lyrics, the sort of thing that I enjoy. I am particularly happy, as there are two versions of Right Where It Belongs on my CD. Sunspots and Love Is Not Enough are worthy additions too. Mopey nihilist, me? Not at all. ;-)
Posted by JohnC at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2005
Marketing, eh?
I used to think that marketing was a fancy name for advertising and promoting a product. The marketing department would come up with a catchy name for the product, design a slick advertising campaign, and wait for the orders to come in. I used to think that marketing was persuading customers, through advertising and promotional material, that they wanted the product. I used to think that the product was a secondary consideration to a marketing department; that marketing was used to persuade customers to buy products that they didn't really need. As such, I used to think marketing was a bit of a sham, something that could be eliminated if you just made good enough products.
I now think differently. The change was prompted by a book: Beyond Software Architecture, by Luke Hohmann. The book describes the relationship between marketing and the technical architecture. The two have strong influences on each other: good technical architecture makes marketing the product easier, and good marketing make software development easier. How? Well this is the secret that I learned: marketing is concerned with markets. Advertising is just a small part of it. It is concerned with defining markets, classifying markets, understanding markets. It is concerned about customer needs, customer goals, and customer fears. It is concerned gathering customer requirements, the ones that customers will part with cash to have fulfilled.
Beyond Software Architecture illustrates the various ways that marketing and software architecture interact. There are chapters on installation, deployment, upgrades, and configuration. Branding gets its own chapter, where there is a discussion on the effects that a name change can have on user documentation, source code control, and installation programs. There is a section on how the licensing model that you choose, influences the technical architecture, and vice versa. For example, you can sell plug ins to a software product if its architecture supports plug ins. Alternatively, licensing a product based on the number of transactions it handles, requires the architecture to be able to track such data.
I found the chapter on product versioning and release management particularly useful. There is stuff in there that would really have helped on my projects. Synchronizing releases with the market rhythm is something I will be doing from now on: it can help to prioritize features. For example, a number of customers may want some features, and classify them as high priority, but the market rhythm can tell you when they need the features. That is very useful information when creating a development schedule.
If you design software, I'd recommend this book as a way to learn how to create products that will sell. If you are in marketing, I'd recommend this book as a way to learn what software architecture can do to make your job easier.
Posted by JohnC at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)