Blogs

Deb's Blogs

Deb's professional/technical blog about computer software and hardware, network security, mobile phones, home theater, digital photography and assorted tech toys and gadgets.


Deb's personal blog about where and how she lives on the shores of beautiful Lake Ray Hubbard, with commentary on local issues, restaurant reviews, books and movies she's enjoyed (or not) and other random thoughts.

Deb's take on politics, law and current events. Warning: there's probably something here to offend everybody!

Deb's articles and thoughts on policing, self defense (law enforcement and civilian) and personal security.

Deb's thoughts and advice for working and aspiring writers: the technicalities, the business and the lifestyle.

FAQ: All About Blogs and the Lady Who Writes Them

Q: What's a blog?

A: Short for "web log," a blog is a daily, weekly, monthly or whenever-you-feel-like-it update of what's going on in the life of a person, family or group. Think Star Trek. You know: "Captain's Log, Stardate 5943.7" (and for a fascinating discussion of the star date system of measuring time used in Star Trek, see http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~djc/startrek/stardates/).

Blogs are not to be confused with Wikis, which are collections of web pages that can be edited by anyone, at anytime, from anywhere (see the WikiWikiWeb FAQ at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiGettingStartedFaq for more information on Wikis).

There are a number of different types of blogs; for a discussion of the differences, see the article titled "What's in a Blog?" by David Ness on the web at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dness/Blogs/WhatsinaBlog.html. Blogs have become tremendously popular over the last few years; there is even special software that can be used to make blogging easier. Popular blog programs include Movable Type (http://www.movabletype.org) and Greymatter (http://www.noahgrey.com/greysoft/). You don't even have to have your own Web site to create a blog. Instead, you can use services such as Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/).

Q: Who's Deb Shinder and why would I want to read her blogs?

A: Debra Littlejohn Shinder began her working career as a legal assistant for a small law firm and then went into municipal government, following in the footsteps of her father, who retired from the city of Dallas after 32 years of service and promptly went back to work for the city of Seagoville (a small Dallas 'burb). In the 1980s, she served in positions of City Secretary, General Government department head and Personnel Director for the cities of Balch Springs and Seagoville, TX. She served two years on the Seagoville City Council (1988-1990), became fascinated with law enforcement and went to the police academy (graduating as valedictorian of her class) and served as a reserve training sergeant for the Seagoville Police Department in the early 90s. She also served as an executive officer of the Seagoville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors during that time. At the same time, she worked as a training coordinator and instructor at the North Central Texas Regional Police Academy in Arlington, and taught at the Criminal Justice Training Center at Eastfield College. She moved to Little Rock, AR in 1995 when she married her husband, Dr. Tom Shinder, whom she met online. It only took a couple of years for her to get him back to Texas, and they now live on Lake Ray Hubbard just east of Dallas, with their two "grandcats" and an elderly Spitz.

Tom and Deb turned their love of computers and technology into a dual mid-life career change, and studied together to earn their MCSEs in 1997. They started doing web design and network consulting for small businesses and municipalities, and soon were teaching network engineering classes at Eastfield College, Deb's old "stomping ground"). They have written five books together and contributed to over twenty others. Deb has written two books on her own, "Computer Networking Essentials" for Cisco Press and "Scene of the Cybercrime" (www.sceneofthecybercrime.com) for Syngress Publishing. Their books on Microsoft's ISA Server 2000 and 2004 have been bestsellers. They also write articles for a number of tech publications (online and print) and Deb is editor of the WinXPNews (www.winxpnews.com) and the Windows Server Security Journal (www.elementk.com). Deb and Tom do contract work, providing whitepapers, product documentation, marketing material and Web content for Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Sunbelt Software, GFI Software, Network Engines and other large and small technology companies.

Deb has led an interesting life (in addition to her government, police and computer experience, she has written fiction, poetry and songs, has delivered 12 babies and assisted at over 40 other births as midwife's assistant, loves to read and learn about new things (current interests are Russian history, submarine warfare, home theater, digital photography and bird watching). Deb is the luckiest person she knows. She's never won the lottery (yet), but in addition to being born to the best parents in the world and marrying the greatest guy in the world, she was lucky enough to give birth to the two most fantastic kids in the world. Her daughter has been in the navy for the past nine years, currently teaching at the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, IL, and her son is a senior at the University of Texas at Dallas, majoring in economics. Deb is a political conservative on fiscal issues and a libertarian on most social issues. She enjoys lively debate and regularly annoys both Democrats and Republicans with her views.

To get to know Deb better, check out her biography, her personal homepage and her family photos. Recognizing that she can please some of the people some of the time but probably can't please all of the people any of the time, Deb hopes to be able to make her blogs inspiring, infuriating, and/or fascinating enough to hold your interest.

Q: All right, Deb, you seem qualified to write a blog. But why do you have so darn many of them?

A: Maybe it's because I'm an over-organized, obsessive-compulsive Virgo, but I believe in the old adage of "a place for everything and everything in its place. I see so many blogs where the authors write about any and everything, mixing professional, personal and everything in between.

I figure that just because you want the benefit of my technical expertise, that doesn't mean you care a whit about my political views, or you might like my advice on becoming a successful writer without having to wade through accounts of my last vacation.

So I've separated my blogs into five different categories to make it easier for readers to find those aspects of my writing that they're interested in, and not have to be bothered with the rest.

Q: Okay, okay - I'm convinced. So where are these blogs, anyway?

A: I thought you'd never ask. Here are the URLs (or you can click on the buttons at the top of the page):

Deb's technology and computer security blog: http://deb-tech.spaces.live.com

Deb's personal/local: http://lakerayhubbardnet.spaces.live.com

Deb's political/current events blog: Coming soon

Deb's law enforcement and self defense blog: Coming soon

Deb's writing blog: Coming soon