kernel newbies (and others): as someone who's been on this list for a while and spent a fair bit of time writing for the benefit of the general public, i have some thoughts and questions, and would appreciate any feedback. as some of you probably remember, i'm the author of a column for beginning kernel programmers that was published at linux.com a while back, links to which can be found at my current web site: http://www.crashcourse.ca/wiki/index.php/Kernel_newbie_columns because of changing commitments, i had to put that column on hold back in october, but i have every intention of resuming it in the near future and picking up where i left off, and here's where i'm open to suggestions as to the most effective way to go about this. the obvious strategy would be to keep doing it at linux.com, given the massive readership, but i emailed a while back making the offer and haven't heard back. the other option is to simply do all of that at my current web site -- crashcourse.ca -- which is, at the moment, suffering from some neglect but is being totally redesigned by top women. i mean, *top* women. it's going to be all drupal pre-7 and, once it's ready in a few days, it would actually be more convenient to host all the columns there since i have total control and can fix errors instantly. in short, the column *will* be resumed at some point and i'm just pointing you at where it *might* end up. moving on. the other option is that, a couple years back, i was given the chance to become the new maintainer of the linux kernel module programming guide (LKMPG) -- http://tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/. but thinking about it, it's pretty clear that that would be somewhat redundant since there would be a *huge* amount of overlap. not much point in repeating myself to that extent. and part of my plan regarding my columns is to go back, clean up the *existing* ones, make them hang together even more smoothly and, eventually, turn them into something resembling LKMPG that would really represent a short course in introductory kernel programming, available freely online. now, why am i investing that much time writing for other people for free? first, i like writing and, yes, there's some altruism there and if you get some benefit out of what i've written somewhere, that's great. the other reason, not surprisingly, is that i use all my writing to promote myself, so if people around where i live (an hour outside of toronto, ontario) need linux training or consulting, they might get ahold of me. and, as it stands, i recently finished a contract and am looking for another one, but at the same time, i would dearly love to get back to doing more linux and linux-related training so if you're in the market for some linux education at your company and it's geographically convenient, drop me a line. (aside: i think i mentioned that i recently joined forces with the guys at free-electrons.com in france, and am helping to update a lot of their online docs: http://free-electrons.com/docs/. i'm doing that as volunteer work, primarily because, like everyone else, i have access to all of that material for training so it's in my best interests that it be as current as possible.) ok, i'm almost done so hang in there. as it stands, i have some options for new contracts locally that represent your basic 40-hour week and it's interesting work and it pays well and i would have no problems taking it. but in a perfect universe, i would be training, say, 7-10 days a month, maybe a little consulting, and spending the rest of the time continuing to write for the general public. and that, of course, requires finding that training work. so, bottom line, i'm available for linux and other open source training contracts, either in the greater toronto area or, heck, even further afield (ottawa is certainly doable). and since i have very little overhead, i can guarantee that i would cost ***way*** less than many training providers. (oh, and i'll certainly listen to offers of consulting as well, let's not forget that.) finally, to wrap things up, i realize this has been shameless self-promotion so i apologize for abusing the mailing list to this extent, and if you want to keep up with all the changes i mentioned above, your best bet is to get a twitter account and follow me on twitter, where i will post regularly on new content that's been posted, new blog posts i've written and so on: http://twitter.com/rpjday so i'm not going to spam the list again with a post like this -- just follow me on twitter and you'll stay informed. on that note, i think i've said my piece and i appreciate your patience if you made it this far. rday p.s. i'm waiting to hear back whether i'm going to get a tutorial slot at ottawa linux symposium next month. if i do, i'll probably do my standard "writing and running your first kernel module," so if that interests you and you're going, i'll announce it as soon as i hear one way or the other. -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry. Web page: http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday ======================================================================== -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
