Speaking at

This BookBlog is closed
February 04, 2004	08:39 AM | Comments (2900) | TrackBack (1073)
Ok ... experiment failed. This bookblog is now closed. (But YES, the book is progressing - it's just the blog which is closed). I will continue writing about the process in my regular blog at http://www.ingorammer.com/Weblog/. Thanks for listening!

Maximum Flow
August 24, 2003	01:23 PM | Comments (4402) | TrackBack (1153)
Writing is like software development in a way that it allows you to reach a state of total flow in which you disconnect from the environment around you. In the last couple of hours, I've been writing about distributing applications in Windows Forms and ASP.NET environments, and about stateless components and stateless services as the core foundation for scalable applications. Right now I'm heading into clustering, load balancing and availability of distributed apps. I'm also constantly improving the outline of the whole book and the story it's going to tell - Microsoft OneNote at it's best! On a more personal note, I managed to complete yet another online IQ test yesterday after reading about it at Benjamin's blog. Apart from outputting the raw IQ score, it also calculates a person's Intellectual Type. For me it came to the following conclusion: Your Intellectual Type is a Facts Curator Like a meticulous collector, you've fed your brain a unique set of facts and figures over the years. Words, numbers, you've got it all. That's what makes you a Facts Curator. Whether or not you intend to absorb every piece of information that comes your way, your mind has certain steel-trap qualities to it. You are a knowledge sponge. You have almost enough words in your head to fill a dictionary, and you're equally adept when it comes to manipulating numbers. You can also detect important patterns in number sequences, and probably remember the mnemonic devices you were taught in grade school. You may feel comfortable in classroom settings where absorbing details is critical. You're also able to learn from example and piece together all the little facts in life to get to the big picture. That's why you never stop accumulating information as you walk through life. I couldn't resist the tempation to buy the full report, which sports a detailed analysis of the various profiles of intelligence. Apart from all this information, it also suggests various "carreers in which you would excel". The #1 suitable job for me according to this test is ... drumroll ... Tech writer. Now, that's fun. Today's emotional index: 9++ Current stats Pages: 41 Paragraphs: 364 Lines: 1214 Words: 13519 Characters: 69248

The danger of overloaded words
August 21, 2003	07:34 PM | Comments (6487) | TrackBack (1047)
Today, I've started the second chapter after finishing the last parts of the introduction. I've spent the best part of the day writing about layers, tiers, and The Danger of Overloaded Words. I was able to reuse some ideas from an article I've written some months ago but which I decided not to publish. I didn't publish it because, well, it seemed such a great idea for a later book. I also thought about the issue that most graphics and illustrations in tech books look pretty dull. It's basically white squares with black borders on white background. Boring, huh? While looking for a book along the lines of "The Dummy's Guide To Great Black And White Illustration For Tech Books", which by the way regrettably has not been written yet, I actually stumbled upon the following. Sounds fun even though it won't help too much with the figures in my book, there's just one "Evil Scientist" here. I guess I might as well focus on content instead of form. Writing in general was a little bit harder today as I had to deal with lots of - definitely nice - distractions, starting from furniture for the new house, discussing an upcoming consulting project, arranging travel for a conference in Frankfurt, and preparing conference proposals for another conference in Frankfurt and one in Pretoria. Yes, guys, I'll fly to South Africa in November. Katja and I are really looking forward! Today's emotional index: 9 Current stats at end of day Pages: 25 Paragraphs: 191 Lines: 773 Words: 8914 Characters: 45807

Writing again ...
August 20, 2003	07:43 PM | Comments (2713) | TrackBack (1104)
The interesting thing about writing a book is that, at the end of the process, you simply feel as if you've said everyting that could possible be said. Your head is totally empty because all the thoughts of the previous months went right from your brain into Microsoft Word. I know quite a number of authors who are therefore convinced time and time again that "This Was The Last Book They Are Ever Going To Write". It never is. It just takes some time to build up enough strength, drive, and the necessity to communicate before you can start to write another book. After the two Advanced .NET Remoting books, I too thought that I would never be able to build up this drive again. I was wrong. Fortunately. It's just too great to unfold your thoughts and vistions to words, sentences, and stories. I'm home again. Oh, yes, in case you wondered: it will be a technology book. Today's emotional index: 9 Current stats Pages: 12 Paragraphs: 103 Lines: 423 Words: 4968 Characters: 25259

Starting a New Book - to write, that is
August 20, 2003	12:18 AM | Comments (2837) | TrackBack (1092)
During the last 16 months, I received (and mostly answered) roughly 3,000 emails from developers around the world. Most of them dealt with .NET Remoting related stuff, but a large percentage also asked questions which were just too difficult to explain in a single email. I therefore finally decided to write a new book and will in the tradition of Jeff Prosise's Book Blog keep a continuous log about my experience of writing. Today, I finished the first couple of pages after spending the better part of yesterday with writing, and rewriting, and rewriting again the first page. I waited that long to start my third book because I felt that I would have nothing to say in the meantime, so I should better be quiet. This has changed yesterday. I now have something to say again and I won't stop for the next few hundred pages. Emotional index: 9

Copyright by Ingo Rammer in 2003.