Jonathan E. Sisk Biography and Bibliography

 

Jon started in the Pick industry as a Technical Support Specialist for Microdata Corporation in Irvine, California.

In 1981, Jon left Microdata and formed JES & Associates, Inc., in Irvine, California, the home of the Pick industry. His first act of business was writing and producing "The Reality Pocket Guide" from start to finish in 30 days and in time to have the first printing of 200 copies at the Microdata Users (MICRU) Conference in New York City.

While JES was formed as a consulting business, it soon became clear that a need existed for independent training for the Pick Community. Jon developed and introduced the first independent training courses and started a cottage industry for independent Pick training.

This attracted the attention of the man himself: Dick Pick - the originator and namesake of the Pick Operating System - who invited Jon to write what would become his most famous book, "The Pick Pocket Guide".

This was truly a "right place, right time" situation for Jon as Pick & Associates - who soon after changed their company name to Pick Systems - was busily porting the Operating System to a wide array of processors. Jon was retained by many of the new Pick licensees to provide training, consulting, and even custom versions of the Pocket Guide for their implementations. The Pick Pocket Guide spawned a half-dozen custom versions.

In 1982, Jon and co-author Steve VanArsdale produced the first Pick textbook: "Exploring the Pick Operating System". This was the first Pick book to appear in retail stores.

He then followed that up with the first textbook on the Pick/BASIC programming language, "Pick/BASIC: A Programmer's Guide".

As the JES organization grew and expanded, Jon traveled the world teaching courses, speaking at industry tradeshows, user conferences, VAR meetings and and often keynoting at corporate meetings.

In 1990, Jon took over the monthly technical magazine "The Pick User Digest", renaming it "The DataBase Digest". Each issue contained program listings and technical tips aimed at Pick technicians. It ran for a couple of years before the reality set in that producing a monthly magazine with no advertising revenue was probably not a good business model.

In 1991, Jon wrote "Encyclopedia Pick" - an all-encompassing document that would cover every last bit of information in the Pick database. Jon not only produced the towering document - the first edition was nearly 1500 pages - but in the process also developed a database of the documentation which could be used on-line as a Help subsystem. Like an early Wiki, it was complete with hyperlinks to related topics and allowed collabarative contributions, several years before HTML and the Web showed up. The on-line help version was dubbed "EPick", and Pick Systems continued to call it that until after Dick's untimely death in 1994, when they renamed it to "REF".

From about 1984 to 1994, Jon served as the Series Editor for "The Pick & Unix Library" for Tab Books, a division of McGraw-Hill. In this capacity, he enlisted other talented individuals to write books in their area of specialization, which he edited and managed through the production process.

All throuhout his career, he also wrote columns for a number of industry publications, including Byte Magazine, PickWorld, International Spectrum, Spectrum Tech Digest, RDBM Computing, IPUA Journal, Computing News & Review and Engineering Enterprise.

From 1995 to 1997, Jon wrote monthly columns on Internet technologies for the industry publication "Computing News & Review", which was later sold and renamed "Database Trends & Applications".

In early 2000, Jon was part of the team that bought Pick Systems out of Orange County Probate Court. He joined the company as vice-president of Training & Education. Shortly after the acquisition, Pick Systems merged with Omnis Software and became Raining Data Corporation (NASD: RDTA).

Later in 2000, Raining Data purchased the training assets of JES. This provided a permanent home for the fine people and library of JES training materials.

Since leaving Raining Data, Jon has consulted with and participated in several startup ventures and has served as Chief Editor and co-developer of the Pick-based NuWiki with Binary Star Development Corporation.

He and several of his renowned industry associates now offer 1 on 1 training on a wide array of topics.

 

Bibliography

• The REALITY Pocket Guide, First, Second, Third and Fourth Editions (JES Publishing)
• The Pick Pocket Guide, First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Editions (JES Publishing.)
• Exploring the Pick Operating System, First and Second Editions (Hayden Books)
• PICK/BASIC: A Programmer's Guide, First and Second Editions (TAB/McGraw-Hill)
• The Pick Pocket Guide "Desk Reference" Edition, First and Second Editions (TAB/McGraw-Hill)
• The Ultimate Pocket Guide, First and Second Editions (JES Publishing)
• The CIES/Pick Pocket Guide (JES Publishing)
• Secrets of Peak Performers ( Howland Publishing)
• Microprocessor Operating Systems: Volume III (Microcomputer Applications Publishing)
• The Pertec Pick Pocket Guide (JES Publishing Co)
• Encyclopedia Pick (Advanced Pick Technical Manual) (Pick Systems)
• EPick, AP/D3 On-Line Help (Pick Systems)

The Pick Library

• Pick for the IBM PC and Compatibles, John & Dale Winters
• Pick For Professionals, Advanced Methods & Techniques, Harvey Rodstein
• The Pick Perspective, Ian J. Sandler
• Programming With IBM PC BASIC & The Pick Database System, David Clark

Other titles edited

• Desktop Video Production Using The Commodore Amiga (Tab/McGraw-Hill Publishing Co.) (Produced but unpublished.)
• Using Prime Information, by William Winter (Produced but unpublished.)
• Everquest Companion: The Inside Lore of a Gameworld (McGraw-Hill/Osborne) 2003