Modern web development takes more than just HTML and CSS with a little JavaScript mixed in. Clients want more responsive sites with faster interfaces that work on multiple devices, and you need the latest tools and techniques to make that happen. This book gives you more than 40 concise, tried-and-true solutions to today’s web development problems, and introduces new workflows that will expand your skillset.

I’m very proud of this book, and extremely grateful to my coauthors for pitching in and making the book even better that it could have been.

Land The Tech Job You Love

This is honestly one of my favorite books, and I’ve bought many copies of this for people I know looking for jobs. If you’re a college student or just starting out in your career, this is a great guide for getting a great job instead of just a job.

Learn To Program

Pragmatic Thinking And Learning

This book helps you understand how you learn so you can adapt to learn more things faster. It’s recommended reading for my interns, and to pretty much anyone else working in a field that demands constant learning.

Using JRuby

It’s no secret I love Ruby, but JRuby lets me use Ruby on a lot more platforms, and it’s super efficient. This book is a great way to learn how to make Ruby play nicely with Java code, so whether you’re a Ruby developer or a Java developer, you’re going to learn a ton.

SQL Antipatterns

This is a must-read if you work with relational databases, or even if you think you know relational databases well. It’s fun to read, and it has a lot of interesting solutions.

There are, of course, so many other great books there, but these are the ones I’ve bought numerous times as gifts for other people. These are the “go to” books for me.

It was also nice to prove to myself that I had what it takes to actually write some tunes again, instead of just wasting time aimlessly.

The eight songs I ended up with are a varied mix of done. I had two more songs that didn’t make the cut because they had vocal parts that didn’t sound very good at all. That’s probably because I haven’t done any singing in a long time. But I did end up with about 39 minutes worth of some pretty good material.

It’s all electronic music, in a few different styles. It may not be for everyone, but then again, I don’t care because I write music that I like to listen to. If others like it too, then that’s just frosting on the cake.

So, without further ado, here are the 8 tracks that make up “26 Days”.

1. Out Of The System
2. Louder And Faster
3. Put It In Drive
4. Missing
5. By My Two Hands
6. New Day
7. Sleepwalking
8. Broken Promises

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.

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.

Teddy Bear from Brian Hogan on Vimeo.

Here’s a cute video of Lisa and Ana doing the “Teddy Bear” song that Lisa learned from her talking teddy bear toy.

Reading my book, just received from the printers.

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.

The writing process is interesting. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before, and yet there are a lot of parallels to the rest of the things I do in the computer field. One thing’s for sure… people have no problem telling you what they don’t like!

Reaction to my book is mixed, and I have come to terms with the fact that I’m probably not going to be able to please everyone, and so I’m spending part of my weekend framing the book a little differently.

For now though, it’s time for some sleep. I have a big project day ahead of me tomorrow.

When I went to RailsConf in May, I was immediately shocked by the way Chad Fowler, one of the conference organizers looked. For those that don’t know, Chad was a pretty big guy, but he must have dropped at least 60 pounds (or more) since I last saw him. He looked so different that I didn’t even recognize him

Chad’s a pretty busy guy. He’s been writing a great book over the last year and basically being an all-around good guy in the Ruby community. It was at that point that i thought “well, now I have no excuse.”

So, I started watching what I eat, and have been working out more, trying to find a good routine. This is going to mean a little less time with some of my other hobbies, but I think it will definitely pay off in the long run. I’m not going to be religious about it, but I am going to get back to the way things used to be by being more active and taking lunches to work instead of eating crappy campus food.

Should be interesting to see what happens next.