How long to write a book?

I just received volume 4 of Christopher Alexander's "The Nature of Order". I am not going to read it until I have also received the third volume. I am waiting for the day when all four volumes have been received, and I can read the volumes one after another.

According to the author, the four volumes were the result of 27 years of effort. Of course, he did not spend all his time on the books in those 27 years. However, I do understand how writing a book can consume an author.

He is not the only one spending decades writing books. Donald Knuth started his "The Art of Computing Programming" in early seventies. He quickly published the first three volumes, out of possible seven volumes; spent a decade on computer typography; and his fourth volume has been annouced for more than a decade now, I don't even remember. When his volumes are done or when he dies, whichever comes first, I will buy the whole set of that set of books. Right now, I already have most of his books.

So, is it worth spending decades on writing a set of books? I don't know. I am not good enough to have enough materials to writing a whole set of books. I might be able to get away writing one book here and one book there; I will never be able to writing a multi-volume book in one area.

My dream is to be able to spend a few months writing the book I have in mind for more than a year now. This will remain a dream until who knows when.

The Start

I finally started writing something I have been thinking for a while now. Of course, I had a few false starts before, thinking that I could do it. However, every time, I found out that I had insufficient understanding of what I wanted to write.

Not that I know everything I want to write this time, for some reason, it just felt right for me to start writing. Many areas are still not clear in my mind. And I am sure what I think I understand right now will turn out to be either misunderstanding or worse.

But I might as well start writing when I feel that I am ready for it.

I was thinking that maybe I could write about my progress here. Nah.

Worm Writers

I heard from the radio that they caught the writer of the Sasser worm. The culprit turned out to be a high school in Germany. Nothing surprising there, not even the fact that the writer is a high school student. Actually, most worm and virus writers are probably very young, under 15 years old. Of course, labeling them "worm writers" in many cases is probably charitable as they most probably simply copy some worm or virus toolkits out on the Internet, and simply change some of the particulars and then float them on the Internet.

Still, it is sobering to know that all these so-called hi-tech systems can be compromised by a few kids. Who bears the responsibilities of securing these systems? Is it Microsoft's responsibilities that the Windows operating system be secure to a certain extent, more than a kid can compromise with minimal knowledge of the operating system but abandon amount of enthusiasm? Or, as many people believe, it is the owner's responsibilities of securing the systems to prevent compromises?

I tend to believe both are responsible. I think securing a house is a useful analogy. When we buy a house, we expect the house to be reasonably secure, with reasonably secure doors, reasonably good locks, etc., all relative to the neighbourhood the house is in. The idea is that a high-school kid on a lunch break should not be able to walk in your house with little or no effort to break in. Of course, an ordinary house will not prevent a professional thief from breaking in. That is just the way life usually is: we cannot remove all risks. So, when we buy an operating system, one that is expected to be connected to the Internet, it is perhaps the operating system vendor's responsibilities to make it secure enough that a high-school kid cannot hack into it with little or no effort. Professional hackers are a different story.