Russ Olsen's Blog
December 27, 2025
Overdrive now available in the Kobo store!
Overdrive is no availbale for your kobo reader: here
Overdrive now in paperback!
My novel Overdrive is now available in as a paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Overdrive-Ligh...
November 9, 2025
Eloquent Ruby Beta On Sale!
The second edition of Eloquent Ruby is now available as a beta book.
November 1, 2025
Affinity Suite Now Free
So there is news about my favorite set of content creation tools, namely
Affinity.
If you aren't familiar, Affinity makes a great suite of applications along the lines of which you can get from Adobe. There's a photo editor, a vector layout package (think Illustrator) and a page layout program. The best thing about the Affinity products was that you can buy them once and they are yours. You know, that old fashioned thing where you download the program onto your machine and you are done paying the company. I take it back, that's not the best thing: The best thing was that the Affinity products just worked.
What has happened recently is that Affinity was bought by Canva and well, there were concerns. Were all of these tools that I like about to see the end of their life? Apparently not. Canva has made the Affinity suite free. You just have to register for a Canva account and be online when you install the Affinity program and then you can use it without cost and even without an internet connection. So apparently without Big Brother keeping an eye on you. Check it out here.
Of course no one knows what time and the whims of corporations and the market will bring, but for the moment I'm cautiously optimistic.
Affinity.
If you aren't familiar, Affinity makes a great suite of applications along the lines of which you can get from Adobe. There's a photo editor, a vector layout package (think Illustrator) and a page layout program. The best thing about the Affinity products was that you can buy them once and they are yours. You know, that old fashioned thing where you download the program onto your machine and you are done paying the company. I take it back, that's not the best thing: The best thing was that the Affinity products just worked.
What has happened recently is that Affinity was bought by Canva and well, there were concerns. Were all of these tools that I like about to see the end of their life? Apparently not. Canva has made the Affinity suite free. You just have to register for a Canva account and be online when you install the Affinity program and then you can use it without cost and even without an internet connection. So apparently without Big Brother keeping an eye on you. Check it out here.
Of course no one knows what time and the whims of corporations and the market will bring, but for the moment I'm cautiously optimistic.
October 29, 2025
The Difference Between a Novel and a Technical Book
Between working on the 2nd edition of Eloquent Ruby and writing the novel Overdrive, I've been struck by how much overlap there is between writing fiction and writing technical stuff.
For example, the one needs to be entertaining, flow from scene to scene and pop up with surprises every now and then. And the other one is a book long made-up story.
For example, the one needs to be entertaining, flow from scene to scene and pop up with surprises every now and then. And the other one is a book long made-up story.
Eloquent Ruby Beta Is Almost Ready
Putting the finishing touches on the beta release of 2nd edition of Eloquent Ruby, which should be available sometime in the next week or so.
This has been a long, long journey but the finish line is at least out there on the horizon. I mean, who writes a book with 746 separate code examples?
This has been a long, long journey but the finish line is at least out there on the horizon. I mean, who writes a book with 746 separate code examples?
