Well, that’s the christmas presents problem solved for this year….
Six printed copies of my latest book arrived in the post today. Very nice. I’ve had a quick look and not found anything wrong yet - which is rather nice.
Well, this is exciting. The final draft of Begin to Code: Building Apps and Games in the Cloud has arrived. I’ve got a couple of days to go through it before the book goes to print on Tuesday next week. It’s taken pretty much a year to do. 545 pages plus another 35 or so in the online glossary. Over 50 code samples, 25 sample applications and 67 videos. Phew….
I had plans to do things today. These had to change a bit when the last three chapters of the book arrived ready for their final editing pass. The good news is that the book is now looking super good. The bad news is that I think I know what I’ll be doing for the next day or so….
I’ve made a tiny video about the videos I’ve made about Begin to Code: Building Apps and Games for the Cloud. This one gives you a look at the kind of things that we do.
Today I recorded 8 demo videos and every one of them failed in some way. By half way through I had a “I wonder what is going to go wrong this time” running gag going in each recording. The good news is that I’ve now finished all the videos for the book. All 67 are complete and uploaded. Now we have to make sure that the QR codes and the links in the book text all line up.
More videos recorded. More faults found and fixed. A good day.
My latest book is now a thing. You can even pre-order it on Amazon.
I’ve been editing the chapters of the new book. Today I sent Chapter 9 through with my edits in place. Folks were pleased, but confused. I hadn’t sent them Chapter 8. Turns out that there is a difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. I thought I’d sent it through but it seems I only thought about sending it.
Anyhoo, the chapter has now been sent and I’ve only got three more to edit before the book is completely complete.
When I said it might be a fun idea to record video walkthroughs for all the “Make Something Happen” exercises in the new book I really should have considered what this involves. I’m now up to 40 videos and counting. They’ve been fun to make though. You can find them here.
Writing the glossary for the Begin to Code Cloud book. Spent quite a few minutes trying to decide whether or not to include a definition for the word Glossary.
I’m currently doing the author review pass for the Begin to Code Cloud book. This is the part where I incorporate the comments from the editor and reviewer to produce what should be the final version of the text. As part of it I’ve decided to record a video for each of the “Make Something Happen” elements in the text. These are the practical exercises that help you understand the content. The book contains complete walkthroughs in the text, but I thought it might be useful to also provide video walkthroughs too. How hard can it be? Actually, it’s turning out to be quite fun.
I’m using the wonderful Camtasia program which provides fantastic screen and video capture along with a very powerful editor. It can also publish videos straight to YouTube. I’ve made a template and now it is just a case of running through the exercise, adding the start and end sequences and then sending out the video. The book will contain links and also QR codes that the reader can use to find the videos directly from the page.
I’ve created a playlist for all the content. It is all directly in the context of the book. You can find a book draft here. I’m doing the videos in one take, it is rather like giving a live lecture as I talk about and demonstrate the code. It is adding a bit more time to the editing process, but I think it is well worth it.
More JavaScript and hardware fun for the Begin to Code the Cloud book. When you press the button above everybody viewing the page will see a message in their browser. Amazing stuff.
A while back I was talking about creativity and Abba. The composers in the group said that song writing was like a hunter waiting outside a cave for a bear to come out. You just had to hang around until an idea appeared and then make sure that you grab it.
I agree with this way of looking at it. For the last few days I’ve been working Chapter 6 of my book. Then today I discovered that what I’ve actually been working on is Chapter 7. All the content works well, but I’ve got a chapter ahead of myself.
Sometimes it seems that the wrong bear comes out of the cave. Now I’m waiting for the “Chapter 6 bear” to arrive……
Alex has been in touch asking if I could write a book for intermediate/advanced JavaScript programmers. Thanks for the kind words Alex. And the good news is that I think I might be working on exactly what you want.
I’m working on Chapter 6 of Begin to Code Cloud at the moment. I’ve spent a page discussing Ethics (will what we are going to do make people unhappy), privacy (will what we are going to do breach privacy) and security (what might the program be exposed to that could cause it to be compromised).
People might find it strange that these things are going into programming text, but I think they are really important. The section will be in the draft version fairly soon, so keep a look out for it.
You can find the first part of Begin to Code: Building Applications and Games with the Cloud here.
I’ve rather enjoyed writing Chapter 1. I’d love to hear what you think of it.
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
Make your own programming language. Find out more here.
