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A few days ago, I randomly tossed this out on Twitter without context:

Technical writing requires assuming the reader is simultaneously highly intelligent and utterly ignorant, without making them feel like you think they're utterly ignorant.

That shit is hard, yo.

Someone asked for ideas on how to achieve that goal, and it seemed like a topic worthy of discussion so here we are.

A year ago, I published my first solo book, Thinking Functionally in PHP. The reception has been extremely positive; almost everyone that's read it (that has bothered to talk to me about it) has found it clear, helpful, and enlightening. Mission accomplished!

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the book's publication, I am happy to make two announcements.

First, Thinking Functionally in PHP is now available in Russian! The translation is by Alexey Pyltsyn, who is responsible for the Russian translation of the PHP documentation as well as numerous other tech book translations.

Second, to celebrate the anniversary both the English and Russian editions are now on sale! For today and tomorrow, the minimum price for the English version has been reduced to just $20 USD. The Russian edition's introductory price for the next week is only $10 USD. (Both prices are only through those coupon links.)

If you haven't picked up a copy yet, now is the time. If you have, it's a great time to gift a copy to a friend or colleague. :-)

I was asked by php[architect] a while back to review "Functional Programming in PHP, 2nd Ed" by Simon Holywell. I've been sitting on this review for a while, so it's time to finally get it done.

For those who haven't noticed yet, the latest in a expected long line of Drupal books for this year has been published: David Mercer's verbosely-named "Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6". It is not a book for the experienced Drupaler; it's target market is people picking up Drupal, and the web for that matter, for the very first time.

Personally I think David has done a great job with it, but then I am biased; I was the tech reviewer for the book. :-) If you want an unbiased opinion, pick up a copy yourself and give it a read. Then you'll know how good it is. As an added bonus, 5% of all sales through Packt's web site are donated to the Drupal Association. Everybody wins!