March was insane... I still can't believe that I wrote as much as I did. Besides trying to blog 1-2 times a week, I also wrote...
New Book
Completed my 3rd book:
Ubuntu: Powerful Hacks and Customizations. Technically, this is the 2nd edition of my
2nd book. (Long story about why the 2nd edition has a new name. It's one of those things that is outside of the author's control.)
When I first wrote
Hacking Ubuntu, the focus was on Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake). However, Dapper is past its support for the desktop edition and the server edition has about a year of support left. Also, with each Ubuntu release there are major changes. While the hacks worked well for Dapper, a few had problems with Hardy Heron and some didn't work for later releases. With this new book, I fixed the hacks so they would support Dapper Drake, Hardy Heron, and Karmic Koala. They should also be good for the next Ubuntu versions (but since Lucid Lynx and Maverick Meekat have not yet been released, I cannot guarantee everything).
One would think that revising an existing book would not be as time consuming as writing a new book from scratch. However, that really isn't the case. It takes almost the same effort to revise an entire book for the latest operating system releases.
Documentation
I've been finishing up the documentation for the photo and image analysis software. The software is geared toward law enforcement. I am not planning a general, public release because the learning curve is just too steep for the average person. Instead, the release will be initially limited to US law enforcement. (I'll probably change my focus to non-US law enforcement later this year.) When investigators testify on the witness stand, they cannot just say "I pressed a button and it drew a picture". They actually need to understand the algorithms. So my technical documentation explains the algorithms, provides sample use cases, and details the known limitations. I finished the writing last month -- over 100 pages for the technical documentation plus a 16-page guide for common scenarios and an 8-page installation guide.
I still have a little more work to do with the documentation. My friend, Chris Hanson, has been a godsend -- he's provided me with great example images. Unfortunately, I will need a few more pictures. Specifically, I need a few 100% computer generated images that are professional and high quality. If you are a professional graphic artist and can make high quality images similar to those found at the
CG Society, please let me know! (I don't need custom graphics, exclusive rights, or a transfer of copyright. I'm hoping to find an artist who already has a sample portfolio and is willing to let me include one or two images.)
Papers and Code
I also wrote a bunch of white-papers including two that were over 100 pages. In total, I wrote nearly 200 pages last month and completed over 500 pages in papers, reports, and a book.
Not everything I wrote was in English. I did a ton of programming --
sloccount claims I wrote 3 months of code in one month, using C, Perl, Shell Script, and HTML. And while my college didn't recognize C or Perl as a foreign language, I think they really should count.
