Erdos Had The Number First

I love docbook. I used to be a Lout user. But then, bowing to peer pressure, I went back to LaTeX and was happy for a long time. LaTeX had much to offer, and my reports were typeset well. The problem was that LaTeX made certain things harder than it should, and it’s PDF output left something to be desired. And, well lets face, I was young and LaTeX was old. (this is as funny as I get, you know).

Then I found DocBook. A buddy of mine had been using it for a while, and he talked about how great SGML was, and how much you could do with it.

So I gave it a try. At first, things were slow going. I was a SuSE user, and setting up a working SGML environment was not as easy as it was under Debian. I also worked a lot in Windows, and getting a working SGML environment in Windows was a trial for a neophyte such as me.

So I switched to Debian, and the XML dtd’s came around and the rest is history. It’s great. There is a fantastic book by Bob Stayton that shows you how to do an aweful lot of great things with XSL and docbook.

The only problem I have with docbook is that it is SO G*&!%AMN HARD to create rtf documents. I have people I work with you will only accept word documents, and word documents with a certain template. I’ve tried commercial products, I’ve tried a lot of stuff. What I have to do now is

1. Process document with Openjade (but only if it doesn’t have XIncludes, which I use)
2. Hand edit the produced rtf document in word so that it works

I know there is a way to do what I want, the thing I fear is that I might have to learn RTF to accomplish it. Or may buy FrameMaker :).

The first manager is dead. Druckers works changed my life. It’s funny to say that and not be, in any way, ironic about it.
Peter Drucker’s Monumental Legacy

He probably changed your life, too, and you don’t even know it. As the man who Changed Management, his work has probably done more to shape modern times than most. He wrote till the end. If I, at his age, enjoy a gram of the wisdom he possessed, I would call myself hppy.

Never Push When It Says Pull

It’s funny, but the advice that this guy gives out seems to be perfect for those of us that are, well, not perfect.

It’s imposing to look at, as it sits there on my shelf. It’s like
1000 pages, 300 of which are footnotes [1]

I saw some guy on the train reading it today. I wanted to ask him
what he thought, but I’m timid and it was morning on the el and nobody
talks to each other and who am I to buck that trend.

But Wallace is a gifted writer. And that doesn’t matter one god damn bit.
This book was great, it’s just the ending that sucked.

If I can digress a little bit here and wonder why is that endings so
often suck? Endings are hard, but so are beginings. But people focus so much on the beginings of things, and try to to think about their endings.

Birth Death
Marriage Divorce
Hire Fire

Like college students thinking it’s love because they’re too young to tell
the difference between the passion of passionate passion and hormones and
capital L Love.[3]

But back to the book, the first 100 pages are tough. Strange characters are introduced, situations are set up, Canadian politics are discussed, time is spent
in Alston [4]

And then, the story begins to form. That formation is gripping, the
people involved are compelling. I will also say that if Mr. Wallace
is not one of Bill’s friends, then he’s at least met him once or twice.
His depictions of addiction are terrifyingly accurate. So few stories of addicts
touch of the real[5] horror of addiction, and that is life after
substance. Wallace does. He covers it in detail, all the little crap
about dancing and cooking and how when you get clean you might have to
deal with the reason that you started with your substance in the first
place and how that (the dealing with the You in all of this) is not
easy or fun or anything else besides hard. And who am I to even say
what it is.

And there is tennis. Lots of tennis. And bugs. It’s a great book
really, it is. You should read it. Just be prepared. And be prepared
to get pissed off.

I’m not sure why I’m so mad about this book,especially as I read what
I’ve written. I did like it. But the ending Dear God! The Ending!

The Horror. The Horror.

Partly, it’s probably because I basically read the book twice. And
partly because as I lay in bed trying not to get thrown to the floor
in the North Atlantic, I read this book. I slogged through this book and
carried it with me across two continents. And this book, this book with
such promise and a middle section like Britney Spears, let me down, like an
album by Britney Spears.[6]

Footnotes:
[1] Some of those are wildly funny,inaccurate, astute and could be
fashioned into a free-standing book themselves.

[4] Which is the 8th ring of hell

[5] as far as I’m concerned

[3] Look at me, I’m some kind of old foggy talking about hormone crazed kids.

[6] Did I really end with a reference to Britney Spears’ body?