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Scotty's Engineering Log
Scott Hudson's blog on XML, DocBook, Sci-Fi and Storm Chasing | 
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 Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Presenting at XML-in-Practice 2009!
I've just been accepted to present at XML-in-Practice 2009, September 30 - October 1, 2009 at the Arlington Hilton near Washington DC! My presentation entitled, Professional Publishing on a Shoestring Budget, will discuss how to optimize your multi-channel publishing processes using the latest approved DocBook v5.0 schema and the DocBook Publishers schema. Details on the conference are available at the XML-in-Practice website. I hope to see you there! Labels: conference, DocBook, XML, xml2009 Monday, July 06, 2009
DocBook Publishers Schema Version 1.0 now available for public review
Well, we finally got all the i's dotted and the t's crossed! The DocBook Publishers schema is available for public review. This is an effort I chaired to support the needs we've seen in the publishing industry. Many publishers spend considerable amounts of time and money developing and maintaining their own custom schemas and output rendering. This standard tries to address the unique needs of publishers, while building upon a standards-based platform to reduce cost and ensure consistency. Key publishers involved in this effort have included: O'Reilly, John Wiley and Sons, and Penguin UK, so this was not developed in a vacuum either! Here's the notice from OASIS:
You can also take a look at all of our content samples on SourceForge here: Labels: DocBook, publishers, publishing Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The End of the Bloodline
It is with a heavy heart that I blog tonight. I had to put my faithful friend, Duncan, to sleep today. He had cancer and was beginning to suffer. I couldn't let him suffer any longer. It hurts because I had his grandfather and father as well. We weren't able to continue the bloodline, so this is the end of an era. His grandfather, Laddie, saved me from a rattlesnake bite as a boy. He barked and barked to get the adults' attention and got between me and the rattler. He took a bite right on the hard part of his nose. He survived and lived many years, chasing cars on the ranch. If it weren't for Laddie, Sr., neither Duncan nor I would be around! 
Laddie, Sr. and me in 1983 We were able to breed Laddie before he died in a car chase incident, and named him Laddie as well. 
Laddie, Jr. and I in 1989. Laddie, Jr. was a faithful friend through Jr. High, High School and even survived through my college years. He was cool, because I taught him to shake and give High Fives! He and I also had many adventures at night when I was supposed to bring in a load of wood for the fireplace. We were able to breed him as well, and named his son, Duncan. 
Laddie, jr and Duncan
One of my most favorite photos of my lovely wife Dawn and Duncan 
Laddie, jr and Duncan at our first house Duncan had the sweetest personality of the line. He was so gentle with the kids, and always a faithful friend. He liked to snuggle and lay in your lap when he was younger. He lasted over 14 years, which if you convert dog years to human years, is a pretty good run. 
Duncan and his house He had a tough time getting out of the house the last 2 days, and was starting to dehydrate, despite having several water bowls around. His testicles were the size of softballs because of the cancer, and he was down from 75 lbs to 42 lbs. He also started yelping periodically over the last week. I can only assume he was starting to be in pain. 
Saying goodbye to my friend why is it so hard? I miss you, Duncan. 
Connor says goodbye. He had a really tough time, but knew it was time. 
Collin says goodbye. He was brave, like his namesake and tried to comfort us all. 
Caileigh tries to be brave. She wanted to have a special burial for him, but we will settle for a memorial stone that we will make. 
Holly says goodbye. Not sure what she'll do without her companion. 
Caileigh says goodbye. It tears me up just looking at the picture, because I feel the same way. We took him at 3:30pm today. Thankfully, it had clouded up and was cooler, so he was not too hot or uncomfortable. We all needed the rain on our face afterwards to accompany our tears. Collin fed him treats in my lap right up until he fell asleep. He passed quickly and gently, just like his personality. We all miss him terribly. 
Caileigh makes it all better with Caileigh's Smiley Face Pancakes! Caileigh made dinner for everyone to cheer us all up.  Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Star Trek Easter Egg sweepstakes winner!
Woohoo! I won the STAR TREK Easter Egg Sweepstakes, and they are sending me an official Phaser prop from the film! I guess seeing it 3 times opening week (twice in IMAX) helped! It is the best Star Trek film yet, so I'm very excited to win! It's also fun that this "ties" together my two favorite Sci-Fi universes... Here are some photos! Friday, May 15, 2009
Vote DocBook!
Nominations are open until May 29th. Please vote for DocBook in the Best Project for the Enterprise category. If you want to do the same, click here! Get the word out using your social network and vote! Labels: DocBook, opensource, sourceforge Monday, May 11, 2009
DocBook: A Successful Open Source Project?
A few weeks ago, I found an interesting article on gauging the success of Open Source projects. Since I contribute to several open source and standards initiatives, I thought I'd put the article to the test with the most prominent of these: DocBook. To give a little history, DocBook has been around since 1991. It is a very robust content model and considered the "de facto" standard for technical documentation. Given it's broad adoption, does that necessarily mean it is successful? Why? The article provides a 9-point checklist, so I'll address each of these in turn.
In consideration of these 9 items in the checklist, I would posit that DocBook is, indeed, a very successful open-source project and well worth considering for your documentation. I'd also like to point out to the naysayers that DocBook is NOT dead! In fact, it is more active than ever! The latest version of the standard (v5.0) has been in development for the last several years and is expected to reach official OASIS standard status some time this year. The DocBook TC is also establishing subcommittees to address industry-specific needs. The first of these is the DocBook Publishers subcommittee, which is addressing the needs of the publishing industry (as opposed to computer hardware and software documentation industry). The specification for an official Publishers schema was recently approved and will be available for public review shortly. If you have specific needs in publishing, documentation, or content management, we would be very pleased to assist you. Please visit the new Flatirons Solutions website at: http://www.flatironssolutions.com Labels: DocBook, opensource, standards Saturday, May 09, 2009
Star Trek: Boldly goes where no [Trek film] has gone before!
I saw the premiere of Star Trek last night. In short, absolutely stunning - especially in IMAX format! The special effects, sound effects, and soundtrack were awe-inducing. Fellow Trekker Bill Petro has an excellent review here. SPOILER ALERT: There were quite a few nods to the original series and the movies that I loved, including the creature from Ceti Alpha (ST:II), the Orion girl, Captain Pike, the Phase Cannons (loose tie to Enterprise), Sulu's swordfighting... I was hoping there would be a little tie-in with the Star Trek: Enterprise show (perhaps having Archer or Trip mentioned), especially since it was a prequel too. Perhaps the explanation of the altered timeline negates that whole series... I REALLY liked the use of Captain Pike in this film, so I'm OK with this approach. It might also have been fun to have Number One or Dr. Boyce in there (can't remember if the latter was killed in the attack...). Complaints? Only a few: The Uhura relationship. It just didn't feel right to me. Also, since they got a Russian for Chekov, I was hoping they'd also get an actual Scot for Scotty. The englishman they got was OK, but still not quite what I'd hoped. Bones almost stole the show. He was hilarious and absolutely in character. Spock and Kirk were also very well played. In all, a very welcome re-start to the franchise. One I hope will continue to boldly go...
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