Portfolio

Many links to publications provided below are unfortunately defunct.
I've retained them here for posterity. Original documents available on request.
Sites I've worked on or built are linked to from the Career section.

Major Publications

Author of "The BeOS Bible", a 1,000-page exploratory reference for Be's media-optimized desktop operating system, published by Peachpit Press in March, 1999. This book represents five years of involvement with BeOS and 10 months of intensive research and writing. The BeOS Bible sold more than 50,000 copies before going out of print.

Author of "MP3: The Definitive Guide," published by O'Reilly and Associates March, 2000. This 400-page book was the most technically oriented MP3 guide on the market, and received high marks from reviewers at Slashdot.org. The book has sold more than 30,000 copies.

Author of nearly 100 reviews, columns, essays, and analytical pieces on computer industry trends, products, and people for ZDNet, Byte, Wired, PC Magazine, InternetUser, Windows Sources, Tripod Online, The Utne Reader, and others.

Technical Tutorials for the Knight Digital Media Center

From 2007 - 2011 I wrote or co-authored dozens of technical training tutorials for KDMC. A complete list can be found in the Tutorials section of this page. Highlights below.

• CSS Layout with HTML5 A follow-on to the HTML101 and CSS101 tutorials - leads students through the soup-to-nuts process of site layout with CSS. Incorporates a smattering of HTML5 semantics.
• WordPress I wrote nearly all of the WordPress for Journalists tutorials shown on this page, covering everything from operational basics to installation to plugins, themes, widgets, and advanced site management.
• Twitter for Journalists This deep dive into Twitter for journalists became one of KDMC's most popular tutorials, and went viral in the journalism community for months.
• Building an Ad Platform with DFP Serving ads isn't as easy as it sounds, but Google's Double-Click for Publishers goes a long way toward streamlining the process, maximizing revenue, and keeping performance high. This tutorial explains ...
• HTML 101 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is simple document markup languaged used for creating Web pages and other information viewable in a Web browser. This tutorial is a crash course in basic ...
• CSS 101 HTML is for setting the logical markup of documents on the web, but has nothing to do with how those documents appear - that's a job for Cascading Style Sheets, ...
• PHP 101 PHP has emerged as the most widely used server-side web programming language in use today. PHP makes it easy for web pages to interact with databases, present different kinds of ...
• Data Visualization for Non-Programmers Data visualization is the process of transforming dry, difficult to comprehend collections of data and transforming them into attractive graphics, illustrations, and videos that can be comprehended quickly by readers. ...
• Search Engine Optimization — Basics (co-developed with Jerry Monti) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making the content you publish appear near the top of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Your SEO skills make it easier ...
• FTP Made Simple Once you've created a web site, you'll need to upload it to a public web server, where the rest of the world can enjoy it. If you're not working with ...

Articles for MacWorld

Put Weblogs to Work (July 2003). Overview/review of primary blogging systems and desktop posting clients available at that time.

Serve It Up (November 2002). Technical how-to/overview on turning any OS X machine into a PHP/MySQL development platform. Later hosted a panel at MacWorld Expo on this topic.

BeOS and MP3-Related

Excerpts from the BeOS Bible are available online, as is the entire BeOS R4.5 update. The book has been reviewed in several places, links here.

The web site for MP3: The Definitive Guide includes links to reviews of the book. O'Reilly and Associates maintain a separate site for MP3:TDG. Both sites include links to excerpts from the book and related essays not included in the book itself.

A self-published article documenting my personal transition from BeOS to Mac OS X in December 2001, Tales of a BeOS Refugee, was linked to widely.

I wrote a monthly column on BeOS-related issues for Byte.com for more than two years. Pieces of note include: A complete index of all 30 Byte columns is freely available.

I've written approximately half of the 600 BeOS tips and tricks at The BeOS Tip Server (as well as creating and maintaining the site itself).

Staff editor, contributor, and Senior Advisor at BeNews. A few of the dozens of pieces written for them:

• Stinger: What It Is
• Overcoming Limitations in BeOS 5 Personal Edition
• First Look at BeOS 5 Pro Edition
• DVD on BeOS -- Where It's At

Nearly two dozen pieces of commentary and analysis on BeOS are available at ZDNet's BeHive. Some highlights are listed below. These articles are growing quite long in the tooth at this point...

• BeOS vs. Linux? No Such Fight
• Will Tractor Apps Pull Be Forward?
• Booting into the Intel Space
• All the World's a Database
• Bracing for Culture Clash
• The Stability Milestone
• It's Dark in the Box

In addition, I've written a number of reviews on BeOS releases and software products for PC Magazine's FirstLooks and SecondLooks divisions:

• BeOS Release 5
• BeOS Release 4
• BeOS, Version 3.1
• Is This OS to Be?
• Gobe Productive
• BeBasics and Get-It

Commentary and Analysis for InternetUser

• XML Unearths Missing Link
• Perl 101
• Generate HTML from a Database
• The Five-Minute Web Server
• A CSS Primer
• Why Microsoft.com Swapped Java for DHTML
• The New Crop of DHTML Editing Tools
• A Fistful of DHTML
• Message in a Bottle: How Streaming Works
• Spare the Rod and Spoil the Web
• Beware Web Standards
• HTML 101: The language that makes the Web go 'round
• GIF 89a: Funky Animation Without Fancy Tools (byline incorrect)

Web Tutorials for Tripod

• Database to Web Tutorial
• Making the Most of Multiple Processors

Windows Sources and ZD Internet Magazine

• Authoring Tools Step Forward
• Create a Virtual Meeting Room
• 32 Ways To Build A Better Web
• Take Control Of Your Code
• Cosmo Worlds 2 Ups the 3D-Authoring Ante

Miscellaneous

• Numerous articles on music and technology for The Utne Reader (not available online; print copies on request).
• Contributing writer to Hermenaut, the Journal of Heady Philosophy for Teens, February 1995 - present. For example: Understanding Liberace: Grooving with the Fey Heckler
  
• Staff writer for Cadence Journal of Jazz and Blues, September, 1993 - October, 1994 (these reviews can be read here).
  
• Contributor to Pagan Kennedy's Platforms: A Microwaved Cultural Chronicle of the 70s, St. Martin's Press, March, 1994 (see P-Funk: Can You Get to That?)
  
• Other publications: poetry in Chinquapin (1988); Fine Madness (1990); Boog Literature (1992).
  
• Staff writer for The Cuestonian, Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, Calif., 1986
  
• Editor/founder of the first newspaper of The Entrance High School, NSW, Australia, 1983

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