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New books!

WOrking on my latest book, Mastering System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 , was a long process. However, Monday I got to experience my favorite part of the writing process -- getting the box from the publisher with the author's copies. There's just Read More...
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2008 02 27

Devin

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Expanding Alaric's world...and getting mine expanded in return

Recently, we decided to do something about a problem we've been noticing with our kids. While they're both avid readers, they both tend to re-read the same books -- tens of times serially if we'd let them. Alaric was not happy when we temporarily banned Read More...
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2008 02 23

Devin

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A footnote in history

I'd like to toss a hypothetical out there for y'all to ponder. Say, for the sake of argument, that you're an editor for a technical book publisher. You have a line of books that you want to make roughly equivalent to textbooks in layout and feel. Now, Read More...
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2007 09 27

Devin

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A writing question

For the past few years, I've had two novel ideas eating my brain. Last night, however, I finally made the decision to put both of these ideas on the shelf and work on another book. While I care about these ideas passionately, I do not yet have the confidence Read More...
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2007 08 4

Devin

2 Comments

And it's about time, too

I finally managed to do two things today that I've been trying to do for several years now. I've had the idea for a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast in my head for several years, and had finally gotten enough of the world-building details worked Read More...
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2007 02 6

Devin

1 Comments

A nine-word poem

My friend Mir was telling me about a writing challenge she's been working on lately on one of her web forums; someone posts nine words and then people write a poem incorporating them. I decided to do something different: write a poem in nine words. Read More...
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2007 01 26

Devin

1 Comments

Prose, Pros, and Wannabes

Elizabeth Bear did a very bad thing: she started a new LJ community called novel_in_90 . The basic premise is that of NaNoWriMo -- commit to working for a specific amount of time on the same writing project, building the discipline to plug away at attainable Read More...
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2007 01 6

Devin

(Comments Off)

Drive-by memeing

First, I would like it to be known that I am only doing this under protest. I don't usually participate in blog memes, because most of them are damned silly. However, I got tagged on this one by Paul in what looks like a fairly typical spree of spreading Read More...
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2007 01 6

Devin

0 Comments

Compassion is for the weak

One of the things I like about 3Sharp is that I have a great group of co-workers. We can be heads-down in the middle of the most amazingly deep technical discussion and without batting an eye (or dropping an ASCII smiley) transition into the most esoteric Read More...
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2006 10 3

Devin

0 Comments

3Sharp releases an anti-phishing study

Today, my company released a report comparing several anti-phishing technologies , including a beta version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7. I note this because I was one of the researchers and authors of the report. Needless to say, we're Read More...
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2006 09 28

Devin

1 Comments

That would be why I love her

I'm still chuckling about the words that passed my wife's lips fifteen minutes ago: "I try not to read books that encourage my homicidal tendencies." You see, I've finally gotten around to getting A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) from Read More...
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2006 07 31

Devin

3 Comments

WritEx #1: A Boy and His Dog

I'm making an effort to extend my writing skills by writing up several epsodes from my life. Some of these I'm writing up just because they're a good tale and I've been told I need to, while others are intended to be reused (with suitable alteration) Read More...
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2006 07 30

Devin

1 Comments

Looking up

I had a pretty nice weekend than has gone a long way toward getting my attitude back close to being fit for human consumption. On Saturday, despite the now-standard insomnia and sleeping in late, we got out of town up into the mountains to a party at Read More...
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2006 07 17

Devin

0 Comments

Best hopes for Jim Baen

SF editor Jim Baen is in the hospital after a serious stroke on Monday. The folks at Baen Books are posting updates on their web forums (registration required to follow the link). Specifically, here's the latest info: Jim Baen is in the ICU after a stroke, Read More...
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2006 06 15

Devin

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I've talked about it long enough, I need to just do it

For a while now, I've been kicking around the idea of writing a book on Christianity. All this recent fuss over The Da Vinci Code just convinces me of two things: today's Amercian Christian churches serious need a well-placed slap upside the head and Read More...
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2006 05 29

Devin

7 Comments

The next step of my Master Plan

I've reached another milestone on my personal plan for world domination: my first tech magazine article has been published. I talk more about it over on my work blog . Read More...
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2006 04 1

Devin

0 Comments

Kids, don't try this at home!

Today, I did something I'd never done before. It was risky and a bit scary, and I don't recommend it as a general procedure for everyone. Yes, I upgrade my new Window Mobile Pocket PC. What made it risky was that I upgraded it to the ROM images that didn't Read More...
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2006 03 7

Devin

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Well, that's no good

Chatting with my sister just now and I realized that a lot of my problem with this current chapter is that it deals with the people side of the process. And as you all know, I'm such a dynamite people person, so clearly this is my strength. Not. I also Read More...
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2006 02 19

Devin

0 Comments

teh sux0r

As you may remember, the local bookstore closed down last year. Today, I found out that our charming little hole-in-the-wall CD shop will be closing down in 6 weeks or so. This bites, because Steph and I try to support small local shops even if it means Read More...
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2006 02 19

Devin

0 Comments

Oh, yeah, Chapter 3 is up

Chapter 3 of my DCAR ebook is now online, details on my work blog. If you need to read about these things, enjoy. Read More...
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2005 12 22

Devin

1 Comments

Feeding the monkey on my back

Every now and then, I look up from the keyboard and wonder why the heck I'm blogging. I've been blogging for work for 14 months, and I still don't have any really good feel for how many readers I have. Some days, it feels like five or six. Well, this Read More...
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2005 12 9

Devin

0 Comments

Sick days and publication news

Both kids woke up with an excess of phlegm, so we kept them home from school today. Sounds like a good day for them to work on updating their web sites and blogs, especially since I just handed out the URLs to the members of my family. In other news, Read More...
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2005 10 25

Devin

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First brush: Amazon reviews

I finally remembered to check the Amazon reviews for the Exchange Server Cookbook tonight. I was amused by this line: Other recipes [I guess that's the preferred term] assume you have an Active Directory server on your network, and show how to integrate Read More...
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2005 10 7

Devin

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Pencils, pencils, two for five!

If anyone other than my family knows where the title of this post comes from, I'll be impressed. I have belonged to a certain online community for many years, the only one that I've joined that requires a subscription payment. While there have been occasional Read More...
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2005 08 29

Devin

1 Comments

My new ebook on email DCAR is now available!

DCAR (Discovery, Compliance, Archival, and Retention) is a big topic these days. I've done some work with 3Sharp in this space, and I have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to write an ebook for Windows IT Pro on the topic. The first chapter Read More...
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2005 08 17

Devin

1 Comments

Miscommunication

I hate it when I blow a deadline. I will point out, however, that it's hard to keep a deadline when one's editor fails to inform you of it. Looks like I'll be writing another magazine article this weekend. The last one was for Exchange anti-spam tools; Read More...
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2005 07 13

Devin

0 Comments

Ups and downs

Up: Community Server 1.1 is out and I've got it installed on my laptop so I can play with it before upgrading here and at work. I've even got it installed as source code and built it myself; I've got some ideas on functionality I'd like to add in. A good Read More...
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2005 06 20

Devin

6 Comments

Late night thoughts

Once again, I'm up far too late, trying to fix a raft of computer problems. This time I'm reinstalling my Exchange organization, migrating DNS zones, and trying to install a new reverse proxy web server. The usual. I've got my iPod playing away -- I love Read More...
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2005 06 8

Devin

0 Comments

The Next Day; a beginning

[Editorial note: The Next Day is a working title for now. I do not plan on publishing it on the Internet at this time, beyond what is here. I will be starting to work again on Silicon Cats and new chapters will be posted as they are completed.] They were Read More...
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2005 05 28

Devin

0 Comments

This King kick and the power of words

Several months back, I bought the fifth novel ( The Wolves of Calla )in Stephen King's Dark Tower series for Steph. After we read it, we got the final two books from the library and read them. Since then, I've been on a bit of a Stephen King kick. I haven't Read More...
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2005 05 28

Devin

1 Comments

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