It's an odd experience shipping physical products. I finished writing the book in September and there've been little things to do here and there, but it's been mostly out of my mind since then because I've go so many other things going on. I've gotten so used to finishing something and having it go into use that it just feels weird to have this delay before the books go out. Even now it doesn't quite seem real yet, because I haven't seen a copy of the physical book yet. I hope that my copies are on the way.

I had a similar feeling when I as working on the Newton at Apple. Talk about lag time. We had to finish our software much earlier than I was used to, because that software was going into ROM, and there was lead time for that, coupled with the vacation schedule of our production partner in Asia. Working on something physical, like a piece of electronics, or a book is definitely a different feel from just tagging a bunch of files in CVS, jarring them up and pronouncing it done. Of course, not all software is done that way, but more and more software is getting done that way.