Ethan Banks

@ecbanks

All Of Ethan’s Podcasts And Articles For July 2017

| 3 minutes to read

Packet Pushers Weekly Podcast

Packet Pushers Network Break Podcast

Datanauts Podcast

Priority Queue Podcast

Citizens of Tech Podcast

  • Eric and I are having a long think about this show. Still. Not sure where we’re going to land. We like making it, but we also like having time in our lives without stress. Making this show is fun, but is also stressful.

Video

NetIntro Book

  • I finished a chapter on the Internet of Things and began a chapter on Cloud Computing. This project is wrapping up. Russ White has been writing up a storm. A couple of other contributors stepped up to the plate and are adding a few additional chapters. Russ has also begun the editing process. His extensive previous experience as a published author shows.
  • If you’re considering writing a book, I cannot overstate how hard it is to make the time to write for such a project, even when you’re merely a secondary author like me. In my case, the time needed to get a chapter down involved mostly weekends. Off and on since December, I’ve been writing Saturdays and Sundays–not all day, but enough hours to keep me from doing other things like trail running or hiking. In other words, contributing to a book is a big deal that will keep you from doing things you might otherwise like to be doing.
  • Writing copy for a book is more than stringing together a bunch of blog posts. More research and fact-checking are required, as ambiguity and equivocation (laziness) are much harder to get away with. There’s also the need to be sure you have a good handle on your topic, which seems obvious…but here’s the thing. As a book author, you’re presumably knowledgeable about your topic before you ever type a word. However, that’s not good enough. You need to consult a variety of other sources to be certain that what you think you know is accurate, that you’re hitting all of the points that are appropriate, and that you’re not biased. From there, you need to execute solid writing that has flow, communicates clearly, and that the reader can grasp.
  • Depending on the format, technical books might have more peripheral content than blog posts, such as sections of additional reading references, review questions and answers, and diagrams. All of this takes time. In my experience, the peripheral content takes half as much time again as the writing of the body copy.
  • If you travel often and think that you’ll get a lot of writing done on plane, I wish you success with that strategy, as I haven’t had much luck. I have an iPad with a keyboard that fits on my lap or on a seatback tray on the plane comfortably. However, if the person in front of you tilts their seat back, the space you’ve got for your iPad gets awfully cramped. If the person sitting next to you needs their space, you might not have anywhere to rest your arms and type. Even in the most advantageous of seating circumstances, the best I’ve done typing on a flight is a couple of hours before some part of me (arms, legs, wrists) becomes too uncomfortable to keep at it.

Newsletters

EthanCBanks.com

  • I retooled the site with a new theme. This is hardly worth a mention normally, but I’m happy to have found the Typology theme. Worth every penny. I’ve installed an awful lot of WordPress themes in my decade of blogging on the platform, but Typology is truly exceptional.
  • Writing next. I am traveling this month, which does cut into my writing time, as most events I travel to are heavily scheduled.

Other

  • I was the guest in a written interview on NetworkCareer.net. I dispensed my perspective on career for networkers in these times of technology change. I also shared the human angle, something I think is overlooked by engineers trying to get ahead.