Magazine articles on aspects of computing published world-wide
by Paul L.G. Morris: an experienced and respected Computer Advisor.
Paul's Writing on Computing:
Paul has written extensively for magazines over the past 5 years on various topics relating to computers, the Internet and websites. Many of these articles have been written to enable the 'learner' to benefit, yet still hold the interest of the more experienced reader. Paul would be pleased to discuss commissions for articles.
His writing started off with programming articles for the specialist magazine 'iSeries News' - this is published in the US for a world-wide audience. The articles ranged from tutorials to techniques for coding specialist applications. In addition, there was a monthly 'hints and tips' column that ran for about a year. Paul was also selected to write their first blog.
In parallel, Paul wrote articles for the UK edition of the magazine that covered areas not found in the US/International edition.
Finally, Paul has written other articles published on this website and elsewhere. Some of these have often been aimed at the non technical reader.
Computing, Internet and Website Writing:
Published on this Website: These are articles written by Paul Morris; please contact Paul if you wish to publish them on the web or elsewhere.
Top SEO Tips
Many small businesses often ask me how to get to the top of the Google rankings. In this PDF document, Paul gives his Top SEO Tips.
What is blogging? - Blogging for business
At its most basic, blogging is an on-line diary where you can record information, opinions, pictures and anything else to inform the world what you are about. Blogging for a business gives a simple method of providing a regular update of information for your clients. This can be done on a regular basis by people without any particular web skills. For small businesses Paul describes the advantages and mechanisms of blogging and how it can help a business.
RSS News Feeds
This is a technology that, in short, allows people to see some of the content of a web site without needing to directly visit it. A good example is the BBC using it to deliver news headlines to your desktop. This does have business uses for delivering information to your customers. Information on this Paul has split into 2 articles: a user guide and a technical guide
Podcasting
This gets its name from the ubiquitous Apple iPod, but it can be used to deliver any audio tracks, including those you make yourself (about your products and services), to the computer and (optionally) a portable MP3 player such as an iPod. In this article, Paul discusses podcasting and how it could help a business.
Web Audio
In this note Paul discusses different ways to put soundtracks on your web pages. It may not suit everyone, but can add to the quality of the web site if used wisely. This document describes audio on the web.
The following items have been published by the specialist computing press and others. Four are published by iSeries News UK and can be viewed on their iSeries 365 site with search parameter of 'Paul Morris'.
A guide to RSS News Feeds
iSeries News UK January 2006: This is a detailed look at using RSS newsfeeds for your business - it was based on two documents (available here as PDF documents): a user guide and a technical guide
Better Photographs
Ceredigion eBusiness Club Newsletter, Spring 2005: Many websites are spoilt by poor photographs. For this item Paul gave some tips for taking better photographs for the website.
Marketing your web site
iSeries News UK May 2005: This detailed some ideas for the better marketing of your web site. It can be read in this PDF document.
How to spec out your web site
iSeries News UK April 2005: In this article, Paul gives some tips on developing a specification for a web site. The detail can be read in this PDF article.
Getting it right
iSeries News UK January 2005: There are many bad practices on the web, this article highlighted some of the issues that make a web site poor. You can read more in this PDF version.
Back to web school
iSeries News UK June 2004: This describes Paul's views and experiences on learning web design by distance learning. You can see the original item in this document.
Should you wish to commission Paul to write for you, please feel free to contact him.
Specialist articles published in iSeries News (US/International edition)
Note: to view these on the Web you need to be a subscriber. However the full list can be seen in the Author Article List. I cannot reproduce them here as all rights were assigned to the magazine.
Subsetting subfiles
This article describes an original technique that I developed for subsetting subfiles on the iSeries (AS/400). The technique enables a large list of records to be subsetted by different criteria enabling the operator to quickly locate specific records. (June 2006).
Java Quick Take
I initially called this 'Java for Beginners by a Beginner' which sums up what this was about.
A Customer Search Utility, in 3 parts
This customer search utility finds customer records by various criteria, is easy to use, and can be incorporated into a package as a "swap-in" replacement. Part 1 (August 2005) discusses the utility's files, the rationale behind the code, and the trigger programs. Part 2 (November 2005) looks at the batch programs that build the index files. Part 3 shows the interactive search facility (February 2006).
Enhancing Databases with Trigger Programs
Trigger programs are a useful way to add functionality to a database without making changes that could impact the rest of the system. And it's easy to add your own logic if your database already has trigger programs defined. (July 2005)
ILE Refresher
ILE provides a structure for calling programs in different languages. Modules, service programs, and activation groups help you unclutter your code. This is an overview of how ILE supplies the basis for pre-built, language-independent components for your applications. (April 2005)
Enhancing Databases for Packaged Software
When you must work with packaged software, you may need to modify its database to prepare for future updates. This article considers some ways to add to the functionality of an existing database without changing the database structure. (February 2005)
Simplify Job Monitoring
This job monitoring utility lets you build in your own alert methods such as e-mail, a paging message or mobile phone text message to inform you when problems occur on your system. (May 2004)
Working with APIs, Part 2
This walk through the CHKOBJSRCR program shows how to create a user space, fill it with a list of data, extract records from the user space, retrieve information about source members using other APIs, and more. (April 2004)
Working with APIs, Part 1
Overcome your fear of programming with APIs by learning how easy it is to use them. Part 1 of this article compares two ILE RPG programs - one that calls programs using PLIST and another that uses prototype calls. (December 2003)
Side-by-Side Subfiles
When your users can display two subfiles at once on the same green screen, it's much simpler for them to compare recourse, search for duplicate data, and perform other functions. (September 2003)
Regular Tips Column
In addition, I suggested a series of monthly technical tips demonstrating good and bad code that I had come across. The title was The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and has been published in the following issues: July 2005, March 2005, December 2004, November 2004, October 2004, September 2004, June 2004, April 2004, March 2004, February 2004, January 2004, November 2003.
Paul's iBlog
Finally, following a suggestion for a series of articles, I was invited to write the first blog for the magazine during 2004. This was primarily on my experiences on learning Java. This can be seen at Paul's iBlog
Specialist articles published in iSeries News UK.
Writing for the US magazine also lead Paul to write for the UK edition of the magazine known as 'iSeries News UK' which, although still a technical read, does not go into the depth that the parent magazine does. Not all these articles are published on the UK website.
Classifying customers and products:
Within this article, I discuss methods of designing databases to flexibly classify customers and products. (May 2004)
Who pays for this machine to be fixed:
In this article I address issues within a Service management System describing the difficulties in determining who is responsible for equipment being maintained.(April 2004)
Double entry stock keeping:
Here, I explore a way of keeping stock records, by comparing with the way the General Ledger keeps account transactions. (January 2004)
AR transactions:
This item explores a design for Accounts Receivable transactions in a database. (June 2003)
Classifying Customers:
This item describes issues in classifying customers and proposes a solution to some of the issues. (April 2003)