And so the blog begins. I haven't had much use for blogs, but now I'm working on a book and will (one of these days, I sure hope) have something to promote, and voila -- I now have a use for blogs!
My name is Ron Burk. I was the editor of the magazine Tech Specialist, which turned into Windows/DOS Developer's Journal, which turned into Windows Developer's Journal (gee, it's been so long, I'm not sure if I even spelled it right). I departed before it got renamed again and then vanished into the ether.
Sometimes, I run into people online who remember my name and ask what I'm up to. Mostly, since leaving the magazine, I sat around, living off my ill-gotten gains, and wrote whatever piece of code I felt inspired to write. I learned a lot about Linux programming (mostly networking related things), and refused to learn a darn thing about .Net (not that there's anything wrong with .Net!).
A few years ago, I took a detour and learned a whole lot about cancer, or rather, a whole lot about a very narrow slice of the cancer world, which just goes to show you can learn a lot about anything if you're sufficiently motivated, since I never even had a Biology class in high school.
But all along the way, there's always been this book (remember seeing the word "promote" at the beginning of this rambling post)? I can no longer remember how long ago I started it, but I do know that at least two machines have died out from under me while I was working on it. It started out as a small project and has grown into my (future) masterpiece, my life's work, my final word on computer programming. I'll finish it, or it will finish me, and I'm not taking bets on which is more likely at this point. Nevertheless, with a few hundred pages written (of which I figure at least a couple hundred will survive editing), it's not too soon to start thinking about promoting. Hence, the blog.
