This is the personal web site of Brian P. Hogan, a web developer, author, and musician living in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He develops web sites with HTML5, JQuery, and Ruby. Brian makes web sites like Rails Mentors, FeelMySkills, SnippetStash, and Rendera. He is the author of Web Design For Developers and is the owner of New Auburn Personal Computer Services LLC, a technology consulting firm that helps small businesses and startups do awesome things on the web. You can hire him to help you solve your problems too.
This week I start my new part-time job as a Development Editor at the Pragmatic Bookshelf, the publisher I’ve worked with on my last two books. They’re wonderful people, and I’m honored to have the chance to work with them to help authors bring their books to completion.
For those unfamiliar, a Development Editor works with an author to help guide the book’s progress. It’s part content editor, and part project manager. I’ll be reviewing chapters, making suggestions on content, ensuring that things are clear, easy to follow, and are written in the appropriate “house style”, but I’ll also help set short and longterm goals for the book’s progress. I’ll manage the technical reviews and help the book along in the production process. Best of all, I’ll be able to share what I know about book writing with other aspiring authors. It’s all very exciting, and it goes hand-in-hand with my love for teaching and mentoring people. I won’t be responsible for copy-editing the book though. Spelling and grammar corrections happen at the end of the process and the Pragmatic Bookshelf has an absolutely amazing copy editor who makes everyones book better.)
I’ll be starting off with one book, and picking up a second very soon. I have no idea what this means for my consulting business long-term, but after 15 years of coding for money, I’m excited for a change. I’m extremely grateful to Dave, Andy, and Susannah for giving me this opportunity.
My current book HTML5 and CSS3: Develop With Tomorrow’s Standards Today is now available as a “beta book” download from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Beta books are a great way to read a book before it’s finished and participate in shaping the book before it reaches production. Buyers get to read the book early, participate in forums and submit errata, and in exchange they get updates about every two weeks and a final copy of the book once it’s done.
From the site:
HTML5 and CSS3 are the future of web development, but you don’t have to wait to start using them. Even though the specification is still in development, many modern browsers and mobile devices already support HTML5 and CSS3. This book gets you up to speed on the new HTML5 elements and CSS3 features you can use right now, and backwards compatible solutions ensure that you don’t leave users of older browsers behind.
I am having a blast working on this book, and I’ve had great support from the publisher and my technical reviewers. If you haven’t considered writing a book before, you really should give it some thought. It’s a very difficult but rewarding journey.
Some students and friends of mine have been out looking for jobs lately, and as developers, it’s not always clear what you should wear. Dress too nicely and you’ll look like you won’t fit in. Dress too casually and you run the risk of insulting people or appearing that you don’t care enough to dress up for a job interview.
Obviously the first thing you could do is just ask someone who currently works there what you should wear for an interview. Don’t ask directly, but perhaps inquire during the phone screen what the dress code is, and then dress a bit higher than that.
Another great piece of advice I’ve heard is that you should “dress like you’re going on a first date.” I like how that one sounds.
But another thing you could do, which I did, is just turn it over to Twitter. I asked my followers what our peers are wearing to job interviews, and I got some great replies.
Some people really insisted on dressing up for the interview, but “dressing up” had a lot of different meanings.
I wear a modern suit and tie to dev interviews. When I interview devs, I expect them to dress professionally. Dress matters.
i did wear a suit and tie to my job interview but realized i was overdressed as all those were in casual…although I don’t think I’d dress casual for another interview… just because I think it would make a better impression not to.
I just received my copies of my book today, and that brings this chapter of my life to a close. Three years of work, two rewrites, a lot of frustration, and close to 3000 copies sold so far. I’m pretty proud of this book, and while there are a ton of things I’d do differently, I am glad I don’t have to do a third rewrite.
However, I’m not done writing. I’ve started something new, and I’ll let you all know more about that very very soon.
Carissa : 256 days remaining.
Lisa : 143 days remaining
Dad : 262 days remaining.
Brian : 32 days remaining.
Ana : 123 days remaining.
Claudia: 17 days remaining.
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