2020-9-16 02:20
Readers,
I just added "Quotations from the HighLight Zone" to my shelf. It is a departure from my usual technical/business focus -- I thought that adding something lighthearted for the general reading audience would be fun and appropriate, given all the covid19 doom talk. It crosses many boundaries and includes quotes from unknowns, kids, journalists, dead people, and others. If you do read it, I'd love a review on Amazon. It would be particularly nice to get suggestions for a second edition, which may be out in 2021 or 2022.
I hope you are doing well and reading a lot. Reading is one of cheapest and easiest ways to get into another world for a while; it lets the brain, in some strange way, rest and work at the same time. We can't help but think about our problems. Reading gets us away from them for a few moments.
Hello Readers,
Update during the pandemic (April, 2020):
Like many others, staying at home has been an opportunity for me to think about interesting topics for my readers (and me too!). I thought Regular Expressions, as implemented in R would be a useful niche for those working with complex patterns. There are many books (big books) on regular expressions on the market. Most are either specific to a language or attempt to cover many flavors of regex, such as Python, JavaScript, .NET, etc. Regular Expressions in R makes it simple to implement code that will work for sure in the R language. I ran every line of code in RStudio and used knitr to display the output.
Outside the technical track: After writing a dozen or so books, I've begun to accrue shortcuts and efficiencies that I'd like to share with others. Everyone in the real world wants to produce more quality writing with fewer hours of effort. Techniques range from voice-to-text, indexing, creating Word macros, and working with outside providers. Self publishing and to a lesser extent traditional publishing have more technical and organizational hurdles that most know. I'm writing the book I would have paid big dollars to have a few years ago. There are many books on plots, characterization, writing style, grammar, and so on. Few cover the nitty-gritty, plebeian steps needed to put a book on the shelves, ready for sale. Look for "Writing Mechanics" in 3-5 months (August-September, 2020).
My R series has sold pretty well and I intend on continuing the series. Many developers and data scientists prefer Python; I'm in the planning stages of a series of short, practical books on Python and some of its major libraries, such as Pandas. The intent in all these is to get the beginner up and coding in minimum time. For most people, endless drill before seeing results is discouraging.
Best wishes to all as we fight through the health/economic devestation of Covid 19.
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I really appreciate the reviews and comments I've received on my books. Writing is almost as fun and challenging as jumping off a cliff and growing wings on the way down. I'm writing on data science, small business, consulting, and miscellaneous (i.e., whatever pops into mind that morning). In statistical packages such as R and Python, new routines and algorithms come out every day. In some ways it is like the European age of exploration, where the unexpected discovery becomes expected.
I had been writing articles about IT audit for quite a few years when my editor said "Bill, I think you have a book in you." So that's how I got started; part time at first and now at least half my time is at my two desks, separated by a swivel chair -- computer desk for doing the work and antique desk for blue sky thinking.
By writing a "tiny data science" series I want to add my bit to democratizing algorithms, statistical tools, and GUI analytics packages. Everyone, not just the specialists, needs access to power beyond Excel. Each of us can drill down on 3, 4, 5, or even 10 disciplines. What we cannot do is drill down on all disciplines. Perhaps an accountant wants to use the predictive power of the simpler machine learning packages. She wants to know only enough to run the software and does not want to become a guru. There's just not enough time to be a guru in accounting and R (as an example). So one of my goals is to create small, easy to read and follow technology books for those who want to increase their analytics capacity but have their primary focus on other domains. Do you have to be an automotive engineer to drive a car?
You can also see my blog feed here. Blogs differ from books in that they can cover a much wider range of topics. I'm interested in business, technology, history (especially ancient and medieval), social/demographic trends, and sometimes just quirky things of interest. As with my books, let me know any blog topics you'd like to see.
For some reason the term "intellectual" is out of favor. But it is really not as snobbish as it sounds. There are those with great wealth and IQ, who are not intellectual -- their focus is on topics that help them reach specific life goals. That's fine. But others have more curiosity about economics, history, medicine, broad changes in society and other -- not necessarily money-making -- topics. So to be an intellectual simply means you have a wide range of interests. Some of those interests will help you succeed in business, academia, or other formal environments. Others simply provide the pleasure of knowing, something the philosophers have always told us will last a lifetime.
Best regards, Bill Yarberry
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OK. Here's my standard business marketing blurb:
William A. Yarberry, Jr., CPA, CISA, is Principal consultant, ICCM Consulting LLC, based in Houston, Texas. His practice is focused on IT governance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, security consulting and business analytics for cost management. He was previously a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers, responsible for telecom and network services in the Southwest region. Yarberry has more than 30 years experience in a variety of IT-related services, including application development, internal audit management, outsourcing administration and Sarbanes-Oxley consulting.
His books include The Effective CIO (co-authored), Computer Telephony Integration, $250K Consulting, DPLYR, 50,000 Random Numbers, Telecommunications Cost Management, and GDPR: A Short Primer. In addition, he has written over 20 professional articles on topics ranging from wireless security to change management. One of his articles, "Audit Rights in an Outsource Environment," received the Institute of Internal Auditors Outstanding Contributor Award.
Prior to joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, Yarberry was director of Telephony Services for Enron Corporation. He was responsible for operations, planning, and architectural design for voice communications servers and related systems for more than 7,000 employees. Yarberry graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Chemistry from the University of Tennessee and earned an MBA at the University of Memphis. He enjoys reading history, swimming, hiking, and spending time with family.
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