You should write a book, vous

The last day of last year, I stopped thinking, "I should write a book," and began writing the book.  It is about nothing in particular unless the subject of me is something in particular.  Time will tell if its worth reading after its been written.  No harm in getting started.

How?  I could write it in Microsoft Word but I've found Word to be cumbersome on very large documents.  Besides that, I want to write it in a format the is incredibly easy to rearrange and restructure.   My brain doesn't work linearly, neither does my life.  Since at different times, I may wish to write about diffecrent times, I may, at a later time, decide to change the order of things.  That's a bit tricky in an unstructured document. 

docBook

A structured document, such as xml, would be ideal.  I found an XML standard called docBook that is exactly what I want.  I'm trying to find a docBook editor, like MS Word, that will allow me to write naturally, and store the content as docBook compliant Xml.  Even better, I want a web-based solution that I can use anytime I have an internet connection from any computer!  I want the Google solution - everything on the server.  One step at a time....

docBook in MS Word

To start, I thought I'd give it a try in Word. I created a new Xml Document.  I noticed the right pane indicated I could use a schema.  I had just downloaded the shema for docBook, so I gave the a try. 

 Nifty!

Word loads the schema and provides contextual selections based on you place in the document.  Book is the first tag.  You can select items and click a tag and Wod will wrap your selection with that tag.  I like the interface as well, its less cluttered then traditional xml tags.  For this xml to worth a dang, make sure to click "Xml Options" and check "Save data only".  If you don't, you'll get all the garbage Word uses for formatting. 

Altova Authentic

The next thing I tried was Altova Authentic.  I downloaded the desktop and the browser versions.  I tried to set up the browser version but there is this proprietary thing called an SPSData stylesheet needed and I can't find the dang thing anywhere.  Its authored using their StyleVision product.  Frantly, I don't want to have to create some special stylesheet thing for this, I just want to have rich support for an xmlSchema.  Altova makes XmlSpy as well.  Since this is considered the de-facto standard xml editor, I won't give up on them quite yet.  I installed the desktop version and, viola, there were those elusive SPS documents.  In fact, there's a docBook template.  I didn't quite understand the interface.  There's an "add.." link that allows you to add stuff, but what?  I'll bet it would make sense to read the manual (RTFM) but I am not inclined right now to learn something non-intuitive, for this purpose.  What I want is a simple text editor that supports xml schema in a way similar to Visual Studio.  UNtil they respond to my inquiries, or I take a minute to review the user guide, I'm giving up on them now.

Visual Studio.net

I then tried referencing the schema in Visual Studio.  You do this by creating an Xml Document, right clicking in the text window and selecting "properties"...  One of the properties is "Schemas".  I found I had to include the schemas in a sub folder in the project for correct consumption but as soon as I did that, WOW!  I think VS just took the cake.  This is exactly the sor tof intelligence I am looking for.  Unfortunately, not easily web-enabled.  Its not a dotnet executable, either, so no reflector for quick cheats. 

Custom

Looks like I may have to write some xpath against the schema and provide my own intellisense.  I really want to keep it simple.  All I want is a internet accessible place to add chapters, paragraphs, etc.   I'm sure there is something out there, I just haven't found it yet.

I'll be continuing on the subject of this post as I learn more.

I spent about 11 hours on my car stereo this past weekend.  I got two of four speakers installed!  I will do the other two next weekend. 

I could have paid someone to install my car audio but I wanted to make sure it was done right.  I had an amplifier installed at HiFi Buys about three years ago and they not only did an awful job, they fried my existing stereo.  They replaced it with an Alpine but took three days consisting of 16 hours to get it finished.  When they were done, my clock no longer lit up on the dash board and there was a huge crack in the plastic behind the fold-down rear seat.  You get what you pay for!

Whe I've finished the door speakers, I will replace the head unit.  That shouldn't take but an hour. 

Following that I will install two amplifiers.  Small, inexpensive ones, of course!  These will take several hours.  They require lots of wires be run.  It annoys me that car stereo equipment requires thicker wire than an arc welder but, according to all the newgroups and wire guage tables, it is really necessary.  When I have the amps in place, I will need to build a box for my sub and get that installed as well.  The box should take a day and the install only a minute and 5 seconds. 

From that point forward I will be smiling every time I have to drive somewhere, everytime traffic crawls to a stop, everytime the light turns red in front of me and every time the clock tells me it is time for my commute home. 

What a concept!

First let me begin with a moment of silence to all the electronic toys I have dismantled with intention of correcting some (unusally minor) defect only to snap a tiny piece of molded plastic necessary for reassembly. Of course, once you snap it, you know how to get it apart without snapping it, but then it is too late. May you rest in pieces.

Often, I attempt the super-glue repair, but its never quite enough skrumph. ...if only I owned a plastic injection moulding machine, I could fashion a wood model of a brace and then create a cast from the mold and then, oh then, I'd be back in buisiness.

Friendly Plastic is really all I need.  I could have saved many injured machines from the landfill doom had I owned a little hunk of moldable plastic.  Of course, that's assuming I can adhesive the new to the old...  

Much of this is the "Rog" in me. (Roger is my pop).  You can't throw it away if it can be fixed, even if you don't know how or where to fix it or don't have time to fix it.  We had two of those huge old wooden console TV's in our basement growing up.  Neither worked.  They might still be there.  There is a billiard table with no rubber bumbers (the ball doesn't rebound from the banks) and there were as many as nine cars in our yard at one time (four of them were mine).  Now, finally, all that training will pay off!

Recently, I have tackled a few projects which had been previously outside my area of comfort or knowledge.  One was indeed my wireless keyboard.  My brother paid me the favor of dumping a coke skraight down the middle of it the week I got it.  Two years ago.  I got it dried out but, over time, dust settled in on the sticky and eventually the buttons would not return to the up position “without tapping it lightly against a hard surface a few times” (we know that means slamming it repeatedly, screaming obsceneties).  So I dismantled it, finding it to be both simple and brilliant.  There were probably fifty screws in my jar by the time I got to the meat of it but I didn't break anything and now its sparking clean and wrks perfectly.  I also build a bench/toy box over the holiday.  Brad guns, routers, circular saws...  fun!  I clear-coated it with automotive enamel.  Not standard but super durable and...  eyeing that old decrepid Porche in my father-in-law's yard with a new ferver. 

The point is: when something seems to hard to be done or likely to end in failure, assess the cost of doing it anyway.  If the cost is only time, ie: it's already broken, dive in.  Go ahead and break it more.  You'll likely gain little bits of knowledge with each disaster, until, one day, someone mentions friendly plastic and the clouds blow away.