Bruno Lowagie's Online Gazette

We're back in Belgium after two weeks in the US. High time to look at our Google Analytics pages for June:

Nothing special, just business as usual as predicted.

During our previous visit to California, we were invited to Washington DC by the CEO of an American Company. We also wanted to visit Dries (Acquia, Drupal) in Boston, so we planned our vacation so that it started in Washington DC and ended in Boston.

All books were bought in second hand stores or book sales. I think I've spent less than 60 euro for the lot.

Writing about technical topics is fun because it's a job that allows you to try out a variety of things before you actually start writing about it. This morning, the first 30 pages of my white paper about digital signatures were sent to all the subscribers of our news letter. I'm very curious about the feedback I'll get.

After writing my second book in 2010, I thought it would take me another 3 years before my taste for writing would return, but no: I'm very eager to write new material, and I'm grumpy if other work gets in the way.

I just saw an announcement on LinkedIn about how Apple, iBooks and the iPad Reshapes Education in Maine.
This reminds me how "cutting edge" the talks at the iText Summit were:

As usual, you can find the changelogs on the itextpdf.com site, but let's also describe in words what has changed:

Last Sunday was father's day in Belgium, and this usually more or less coincides with my birth day. I'm not that fond of my birth day. I've done far more interesting things in my life than 'just getting older', but nevertheless I've received plenty of birth day wishes on Facebook (and even some on Twitter).

I've just written 9 pages of a new book. If I succeed in finishing, that will be my third book. It's not about iText for a change. I'm writing a book in Dutch entitled 'Nijlpaard voor Kerstmis' ('A hippopotamus for Christmas'). It's about the year my wife and I spent in the hospital with our son who had cancer. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish it because I'm reviving everything that happened whilst writing. And when I do finish it, I'm not sure if I'm going to publish it. It's a very personal story.