Cloud Computing is the future of business software. The cloud changes how most companies use and develop and think about software. Instead of hosting a huge IT department a company will buy services as needed from a cloud service provider. Find out on the details about how this will impact you and your company at the cloud architecture overview by Bett Correa.
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This blog will be insights and lessons learned on how to get more out of life while giving back to the world. My philosophy stems from my view of the world: 1. All work should leverage our talents. 2. All work should allow us to get into Flow. 3. All work should allow us to be creative. 4. All work should be helping our neighbor, and never hurting them. I'll share my daily life and experiences plus books I am reading that help each of us be our best in all areas of our lives.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
How to write and publish your own non fiction book
Do you dream of writing your own non fiction book?
Well stop dreaming and start doing. It’s not anywhere as hard as you think.
One year and one month it took me from the time I started writing my book to the day I published it on amazon.com. I followed these easy steps, and you can too:
1. Come up with your book topic. Make it something you know very well. I dug in deep for mine: Software Architecture. When I wanted to become an architect no one could tell me how to do it. I had to blaze my own trail. After I became one, several developers at my office asked me how I did it. I decided to give a speech on it and it was very well received. That’s when I knew I had a good topic for a book.
2. Write an outline. This can be sections and chapter headings. Brain storm on this for a while and ask people what they think. Don't worry too much about the order of the chapters at first.
3. Make a schedule. For the first 9 months I only wrote on air planes. This was not a good option. In September 2011, I realized I needed to get serious. I started making a schedule where I had to write every weekday morning. I forced myself to write 700 words a day. If you want to finish a book you need to be disciplined. Check your word count and don't stop until you've meet your scheduled word count. An eBook should be between 35 and 50k words. Many printed books author's fill up their books with repetitions and filler because people don't want to buy a paper book unless its 300 pages. But with online books it doesn't really matter how long they are.
4. Write. Don't worry about how good it is. Just write your work count everyday.
5. Reread and fix any issues.
6. Send it to your trusted friends. I send it to about 30 of my trusted friends to review and give me advice. Some I took, some I didn't. But the encouragement they'll give you will get you through the hard part. That’s right, you are about to get into the hard part now that you've finished your first draft.
7. Find an editor. Ask around and you'll be able to find one. Thankfully I found one who is friends with my family. He was just fantastic! He just published his third book, Chuck Van Soye.
8. Review one more time. Make any changes you need to.
9. Hire a professional designer to design your cover. People buy books based on their covers. Make sure its professional and catchy. Put your cover as the first page on your book.
10. Make sure your illustrations look passable. They should at least be somewhat professional looking. Remember that older Kindle's don't do color, so use gray scale.
11. Use all the standard Word formatting for Headers and bold, paragraphs. These transfer directly into Kindle. You might need to remove extra spaces between paragraphs as they make your pages look empty.
12. Create an Amazon.com account. It only took me a few minutes to fill out the information. You don't need an ISDN number to publish your book. It doesn't cost you anything to set up your account. You don't need to pay anyone to set it up for you. You can do it yourself very quickly.
13. Create new Title. Fill in all theMeta data about your book including you as the author under Contributors. Upload your word document with the front cover as the first page in the book. Leave this as color because it will show up on amazon.com's search pages.
14. Select your royalties model. They have two. 35% is for books priced between $.99 and $200. Then they have a 70% based on 2.99 to 9.99.
15. Click Publish. It takes 12 hours for them to process your book, but then it will be available for download. If you find any issues you can update the document or any of the meta data after the 12 hours. Until that 12 hour window is over, the links for editing your book are grayed out.
Now you can write and publish your own book in 15 simple steps. Good luck!!
You can read my newly published book on software architecture at http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
Well stop dreaming and start doing. It’s not anywhere as hard as you think.
One year and one month it took me from the time I started writing my book to the day I published it on amazon.com. I followed these easy steps, and you can too:
1. Come up with your book topic. Make it something you know very well. I dug in deep for mine: Software Architecture. When I wanted to become an architect no one could tell me how to do it. I had to blaze my own trail. After I became one, several developers at my office asked me how I did it. I decided to give a speech on it and it was very well received. That’s when I knew I had a good topic for a book.
2. Write an outline. This can be sections and chapter headings. Brain storm on this for a while and ask people what they think. Don't worry too much about the order of the chapters at first.
3. Make a schedule. For the first 9 months I only wrote on air planes. This was not a good option. In September 2011, I realized I needed to get serious. I started making a schedule where I had to write every weekday morning. I forced myself to write 700 words a day. If you want to finish a book you need to be disciplined. Check your word count and don't stop until you've meet your scheduled word count. An eBook should be between 35 and 50k words. Many printed books author's fill up their books with repetitions and filler because people don't want to buy a paper book unless its 300 pages. But with online books it doesn't really matter how long they are.
4. Write. Don't worry about how good it is. Just write your work count everyday.
5. Reread and fix any issues.
6. Send it to your trusted friends. I send it to about 30 of my trusted friends to review and give me advice. Some I took, some I didn't. But the encouragement they'll give you will get you through the hard part. That’s right, you are about to get into the hard part now that you've finished your first draft.
7. Find an editor. Ask around and you'll be able to find one. Thankfully I found one who is friends with my family. He was just fantastic! He just published his third book, Chuck Van Soye.
8. Review one more time. Make any changes you need to.
9. Hire a professional designer to design your cover. People buy books based on their covers. Make sure its professional and catchy. Put your cover as the first page on your book.
10. Make sure your illustrations look passable. They should at least be somewhat professional looking. Remember that older Kindle's don't do color, so use gray scale.
11. Use all the standard Word formatting for Headers and bold, paragraphs. These transfer directly into Kindle. You might need to remove extra spaces between paragraphs as they make your pages look empty.
12. Create an Amazon.com account. It only took me a few minutes to fill out the information. You don't need an ISDN number to publish your book. It doesn't cost you anything to set up your account. You don't need to pay anyone to set it up for you. You can do it yourself very quickly.
13. Create new Title. Fill in all the
15. Click Publish. It takes 12 hours for them to process your book, but then it will be available for download. If you find any issues you can update the document or any of the meta data after the 12 hours. Until that 12 hour window is over, the links for editing your book are grayed out.
Now you can write and publish your own book in 15 simple steps. Good luck!!
You can read my newly published book on software architecture at http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
You Can Be a Software Architect
Today I published my book, You Can Be a Software Architect.
http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
Be the first to read it!
http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
Be the first to read it!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
My Upcoming Book
With in the next few weeks I'll be publishing my first book! Its called You Can be a Software Architect.
It’s a step by step guide on how to go from developer to software architect. I decided to write the book after getting asked by many people how I became an architect.
I started writing the book in January of 2011. I finished the first draft on November 1st 2011. I then sent the book to about 30 trusted friends who gave me lots of comments and suggestions.
Here you go!! I've published it on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
Be the first to read it!
It’s a step by step guide on how to go from developer to software architect. I decided to write the book after getting asked by many people how I became an architect.
I started writing the book in January of 2011. I finished the first draft on November 1st 2011. I then sent the book to about 30 trusted friends who gave me lots of comments and suggestions.
Here you go!! I've published it on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Software-Architect-ebook/dp/B007BDIRF4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329796975&sr=8-1
Be the first to read it!
The Thinker
The thinker is one of the phases of existance you might get trapped in. This is when you spend your time just considering your next step with-out actually doing it. You read and research, and maybe even discuss and debate, but never take action. You might say, "I am not ready yet. I need to do more study. People will make fun of me. I'll be a laughing stock! I am not qualified." Self doubt fills you in this phase.
The way to get out of this phase is to start small. Do something small to learn that you can do it. Once you succeed or fail, note down the things you learned. Then try again with something a little bigger or more complex. Keep trying and growing. Make sure you get feedback from your mentors. Work on one thing during each practice, and focus on it. Then afterwards review the results. Don't try to change too much at once. Focus on only one improvement at a time.
The way to get out of this phase is to start small. Do something small to learn that you can do it. Once you succeed or fail, note down the things you learned. Then try again with something a little bigger or more complex. Keep trying and growing. Make sure you get feedback from your mentors. Work on one thing during each practice, and focus on it. Then afterwards review the results. Don't try to change too much at once. Focus on only one improvement at a time.
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Key to being Succesful in College
My sister is almost done with her last semester at community college. I asked her what the key to being successful in college is. She has a B average or higher.
Her secret is doing her home work right away, but then she admits, "But I don't actually do that."
So this leads me down the path, all of us know the right things to do to be successful in life: Discipline, organization, hard work. But how many of us actually do it?
If you’re a self help book junkie, you know all the best ways of Getting Things Done, but do you do them? Is life too intolerable to actually life day to day like that?
Last year I did so much accomplished so much, and I am very glad I did. But what was the price? I know that I enjoyed it, but was it too stressful? Did I miss out on anything important?
What we need to ask ourselves is what do we really want out of life? What do we want our lives to be about? What we need are some priorities. For me its this picture represents mine.
Next, after the priorities are created, tactically, simply look at each element in your day and ask which of these priorities this task will meet. If it does not meet any of your priorities ask you’re self why you are doing it? It is a waste of time. Start eliminating those time wasters. If I am thinking about eating a big bowl of ice cream, I have to ask if this meets my health priority.
So this answers some ways of being successful, but not fully. You need to also be more strategic. Start planning goals for each. Such as, I am going to spend more time praying everyday. Or for example, I am going to plan a romantic valentine’s dinner with my husband to meet my goal of spending more time with my family.
Make sure your use your calendar to manage the important events, otherwise they will never happen.
The next challenge is over scheduling. What if you have so many fantastic opportunities which mean your goals in each area? How do you know when to say no? If you figure out, please let me know!!
Her secret is doing her home work right away, but then she admits, "But I don't actually do that."
So this leads me down the path, all of us know the right things to do to be successful in life: Discipline, organization, hard work. But how many of us actually do it?
If you’re a self help book junkie, you know all the best ways of Getting Things Done, but do you do them? Is life too intolerable to actually life day to day like that?
Last year I did so much accomplished so much, and I am very glad I did. But what was the price? I know that I enjoyed it, but was it too stressful? Did I miss out on anything important?
What we need to ask ourselves is what do we really want out of life? What do we want our lives to be about? What we need are some priorities. For me its this picture represents mine.
So this answers some ways of being successful, but not fully. You need to also be more strategic. Start planning goals for each. Such as, I am going to spend more time praying everyday. Or for example, I am going to plan a romantic valentine’s dinner with my husband to meet my goal of spending more time with my family.
Make sure your use your calendar to manage the important events, otherwise they will never happen.
The next challenge is over scheduling. What if you have so many fantastic opportunities which mean your goals in each area? How do you know when to say no? If you figure out, please let me know!!
Monday, January 30, 2012
The benefits of social media
My friend Arleen asked me and some of her other friends the following questions. I wanted to share my answers to see if you also have the same benefits from social media and smart phones as I do.
Arleen quit Facebook two years ago.
THE QUESTIONS:
1. What am I missing? (In other words, what are the pros of using sites like Facebook and Twitter, of owning smart phones and of using them to text? What can you do with social media and smart phones that you simply cannot do without them?)
Just as a preface, the goal of my life is to do things that matter with people I enjoy being around. Social media facilitates this purpose. I'll go through each and explain.
Twitter: I get my news by following my favorite authors and commentators on Twitter. Their opinions are very challenging to me. I also found out about Steve Job's death on Twitter. I am able to drive traffic to my blog through twitter where I post my new posts regularly. I find it very useful for promoting my events and finding out "what’s going on." Especially on SOPA and PIPA. Its just such a great way of sensing the buzz.
Facebook: FB as I like to refer to it has helped me in so many ways. Let's start with professionally. I am now a professional Improv actor. I have shows weekly. I can post that I am having a show and my 600+ friends will know and maybe consider coming. When my improv troupe has a show in another city, I can search my friends by city to let those specific ones know I'll be in town with the group so they can come out and watch. I can also find out about improv shows that my friends are putting on and classes occurring in the area. When someone comes to a show, they can quickly join the FB group to follow our improv group and get updates on what we are up to.
I am the division governor in Toastmasters. We use FB to promote events and share pictures from recent events. Post videos of speech winners. Share news and tips.
FB has also improved my personal life, as I can see pictures from my little brothers and sisters in Key West and keep up with their many activities. I can also IM with them easily if we are both on at the same time. This has allowed me to stay in their lives even though I can rarely get the time to call them. We also post our poems for our poetry contests which are such a good time.
For my swing dancing, I can keep up on bands playing and parties. I can also advertise parties I am having quickly and easily. I also make so many new contacts from swing dancing who I can quickly look up and then find out what other interests we have in common. Often they are in some other one of my interest groups and then our paths might cross in other areas. For example, just last night I met someone who might become the illustrator for a comic book that I came up with last year. Its sort of a Count of Monte Cristo idea and I've been looking for an illustrator who can help me make it happen. We met on the dance floor got to talking about what he does and decided to do it right there. Now I can find him quickly on FB instead of having to trade a lot of contact information.
My Smart Phone (iPhone): Why do I LOVE my iPhone? Let me count the ways:
1. Last year I finished 55 books, most of them I listened to on my iPhone. Audible.com app allowed me to do that. I listen to books whenever I am driving, showering, cooking, walking, doing house work, shopping, ect. I have an Audible.com membership which gives me a discount and one free book a month. Its so convenient because its with me, I have a iphone amplifier in my bathroom, a jack in my car, and headphones for other times.
2. The economist app allows me to listen to the economist word for word.
3. Email - I can quickly reply to emails without having to sit down at my computer. This allows me to be free but make sure I don't miss anything important in my improv troupe, Toastmasters, or any of my other activities.
4. MAPS!! I used to get lost all the time. Now I have my google maps on my iphone and trust me. It’s saved me so many times but especially when I am travelling.
5. Kindle app allows me to read a book from my huge kindle library especially the Bible when I am in Church.
6. Pandora app allows me to listen to almost any kind of music by letting me select an artist or song I really like and it then creates a radio station based on that preference. I am still just getting into this, but its 3.99 a month and so worth it! My favorite stations are Whitetown and Wade in the Water. You can book mark artists and songs so that you can find more by them on iTunes and buy the song if you want.
7. Chess app allows my husband and I to play each other any where. We really love this.
8. Calendar allows me to add events as people invite me during a conversation and make sure I don't double book which is so embarrassing!
There are of course a couple of down sides:
1. I often don’t look up the exact directions to somewhere till I am in my car ready to go, or even at a stop light which has caused me some problems with ending up at the wrong place because I typed the address in incorrectly. I now force myself to get the directions programmed in before I leave my house.
2. Sometimes during a dinner with my wonderful husband I get tempted to check my email or texts. I just have to force myself to not worry about it.
2. What would be (or is) the worst part(s) about trying to communicate and/or maintain any kind of relationship with someone who doesn't text or use social media?
Well who knows how much you’re missing. My life is enriched everyday by my social media and smart phone.
Arleen quit Facebook two years ago.
THE QUESTIONS:
1. What am I missing? (In other words, what are the pros of using sites like Facebook and Twitter, of owning smart phones and of using them to text? What can you do with social media and smart phones that you simply cannot do without them?)
Just as a preface, the goal of my life is to do things that matter with people I enjoy being around. Social media facilitates this purpose. I'll go through each and explain.
Twitter: I get my news by following my favorite authors and commentators on Twitter. Their opinions are very challenging to me. I also found out about Steve Job's death on Twitter. I am able to drive traffic to my blog through twitter where I post my new posts regularly. I find it very useful for promoting my events and finding out "what’s going on." Especially on SOPA and PIPA. Its just such a great way of sensing the buzz.
Facebook: FB as I like to refer to it has helped me in so many ways. Let's start with professionally. I am now a professional Improv actor. I have shows weekly. I can post that I am having a show and my 600+ friends will know and maybe consider coming. When my improv troupe has a show in another city, I can search my friends by city to let those specific ones know I'll be in town with the group so they can come out and watch. I can also find out about improv shows that my friends are putting on and classes occurring in the area. When someone comes to a show, they can quickly join the FB group to follow our improv group and get updates on what we are up to.
I am the division governor in Toastmasters. We use FB to promote events and share pictures from recent events. Post videos of speech winners. Share news and tips.
FB has also improved my personal life, as I can see pictures from my little brothers and sisters in Key West and keep up with their many activities. I can also IM with them easily if we are both on at the same time. This has allowed me to stay in their lives even though I can rarely get the time to call them. We also post our poems for our poetry contests which are such a good time.
For my swing dancing, I can keep up on bands playing and parties. I can also advertise parties I am having quickly and easily. I also make so many new contacts from swing dancing who I can quickly look up and then find out what other interests we have in common. Often they are in some other one of my interest groups and then our paths might cross in other areas. For example, just last night I met someone who might become the illustrator for a comic book that I came up with last year. Its sort of a Count of Monte Cristo idea and I've been looking for an illustrator who can help me make it happen. We met on the dance floor got to talking about what he does and decided to do it right there. Now I can find him quickly on FB instead of having to trade a lot of contact information.
My Smart Phone (iPhone): Why do I LOVE my iPhone? Let me count the ways:
1. Last year I finished 55 books, most of them I listened to on my iPhone. Audible.com app allowed me to do that. I listen to books whenever I am driving, showering, cooking, walking, doing house work, shopping, ect. I have an Audible.com membership which gives me a discount and one free book a month. Its so convenient because its with me, I have a iphone amplifier in my bathroom, a jack in my car, and headphones for other times.
2. The economist app allows me to listen to the economist word for word.
3. Email - I can quickly reply to emails without having to sit down at my computer. This allows me to be free but make sure I don't miss anything important in my improv troupe, Toastmasters, or any of my other activities.
4. MAPS!! I used to get lost all the time. Now I have my google maps on my iphone and trust me. It’s saved me so many times but especially when I am travelling.
5. Kindle app allows me to read a book from my huge kindle library especially the Bible when I am in Church.
6. Pandora app allows me to listen to almost any kind of music by letting me select an artist or song I really like and it then creates a radio station based on that preference. I am still just getting into this, but its 3.99 a month and so worth it! My favorite stations are Whitetown and Wade in the Water. You can book mark artists and songs so that you can find more by them on iTunes and buy the song if you want.
7. Chess app allows my husband and I to play each other any where. We really love this.
8. Calendar allows me to add events as people invite me during a conversation and make sure I don't double book which is so embarrassing!
There are of course a couple of down sides:
1. I often don’t look up the exact directions to somewhere till I am in my car ready to go, or even at a stop light which has caused me some problems with ending up at the wrong place because I typed the address in incorrectly. I now force myself to get the directions programmed in before I leave my house.
2. Sometimes during a dinner with my wonderful husband I get tempted to check my email or texts. I just have to force myself to not worry about it.
2. What would be (or is) the worst part(s) about trying to communicate and/or maintain any kind of relationship with someone who doesn't text or use social media?
Well who knows how much you’re missing. My life is enriched everyday by my social media and smart phone.
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