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I’m excited that the error catching that I put in place helped me identify the problem and ultimately helped me fix it. Getting back into the code over at Overrated-Underrated always pulls at me to devote more time to it and make it what I want it to be. I haven’t been able to do that recently but the pull is definitely still there. And I’m glad.

The fun part about this was how quickly it came together. I started yesterday and today there is a live application. Like I said, it’s not full featured, but it’s working and I really wanted to get it out there. Hopefully other people will think it’s useful as well. Check it out and let me know what you think.

The highlights for me were the law session. It was really informative about how the law deals with intellectual property and how to go about protecting yourself and your intellectual property. It’s something that I’m very interested in because of the ramifications it has on the web. There is constant debate about copyright, and ownership, especially in the area of user-generated content. So I paid close attention and asked a lot of questions.

Overall I would say that it was a very beneficial investment of a day, and $85. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about starting their own business. It’s not just in Seattle either. SCORE is a national organization. I think they said that there are 55 chapters nationally, so look them up on www.score.org.

Thanks for reading.

Recently we have teamed up with MidMarketer to develop their web presence. We’re really proud to work with such an outstanding organization and feel that the final product is a great launching point for their organization. Below is a snip from a MidMarketer press release.

MidMarketer believes there are a growing number of mid-sized organizations that need help focusing marketing strategies, executing the right marketing tactics, deploying creative campaigns and measuring change. MidMarketer has answered this need by launching MidMarketer.com – the only online resource dedicated solely to the marketing efforts of mid-sized companies.

We are also part of MidMarketer’s Certified Resource program which “engages potential marketing resources in a certification process and only certifies certain marketing products or service organizations that demonstrate a tailored offering to mid-sized organizations.” We’re really excited about the opportunities that will arise because of this distinction. We wish MidMarketer all the success in the world and will continue to work with them to improve and enhance MidMarketer.com.

There are some things that we are committed to as a studio.

• Shooting straight. Your time is important. We don’t want to dance around with each other. We want to work with you to solve problems. Despite our killer moves on the dance floor, our skills are better suited for solving marketing problems. We do know some dance instructors if you’re interested.
• Building relationships. We want to establish and cultivate relationships with clients, vendors and employees. We weren’t born to walk alone.
• Being an innovative force on the web. We work in a field where every day there is something new and progress being made to improve the web as a communication medium. We are committed to being involved in that progress.
• Serving others. Again, we’re not alone in this world. Often we need help, and others do too. Our studio respects that and cherishes the opportunity to be involved in serving our clients, community and world.
• Being a sustainable business. We are in it for the long haul. We are committed to being around for a long time to come. We are also committed to helping our world be around for a long time.
• Staying small. We don’t want to be all things to all people. We’re a specialized team. We know marketing on the web. We love partnering with agencies and organizations with different strengths. That allows us to continue to develop our area of expertise and develop quality products. It also means that we get to work with smart people who are really talented at what they do. What’s not to like about that?
• Providing value. We’re not a discount studio. Just like your products and services, our services have value. Being compensated appropriately allows us to provide our clients with the attention and service that is a cornerstone commitment for our studio.

I’ve included in this blog space previous posts from my blog. I’ve removed posts that aren’t pertinent to Vigilanteweb. Some of the posts are old, and outdated but I thought they should be included as well. Take a look around and make yourselves at home.

Recently Google added Google Docs to the mix. In early March of 2006, Google acquired Writely. They have now integrated into the rest of their product offerings. In fact, I’m writing this blog post (and will be able to publish it to the blog) in Google Docs.

This shouldn’t earth-shattering news for anyone. This is precisely why Google acquired Writely in the first place. To create an online word-processing application that could be added to Google’s existing applications (Gmail, and Google Spreadsheets) and that would compete with Microsoft’s Office suite.

I definitely like where this is headed. The software that’s been created is so very usable. I held off using Gmail at first, I didn’t really get it. I was in the process of switching computers and needed a common place to get email, so I set it up to receive all my email, via Gmail. And I fell in love. It’s easy, it’s smart, and it’s always there. I don’t ever have to worry about not being able to get into my mailbox. At least I haven’t yet. I don’t think I’ll ever switch back to a desktop mail application. Similarly, I doubt if I’ll ever use desktop apps again for writing documents, or doing spreadsheet work. I simply don’t have to. Google has made it so easy for me to do it all in one place, with consistent UI features.

He and I had worked together to develop a piece of software that is being used internally. For the initial part of the development my role was to define the requirements, basically acting as the client, and Ryan’s role was to architect and develop the software that we needed. I felt like we had a good rapport and communication in this phase of the project. Now that the base requirements of the software are in place it is time for me to dig a little deeper into the code that runs the software. It’s written in Ruby and uses XML for data layer. I’ve worked with XML quite a bit in the past so I’m comfortable working with that, but I haven’t had too much experience with Ruby. I’m messed around with Ruby on Rails a little bit, but I certainly don’t have expertise with Ruby. Ryan, on the other hand, has been writing Ruby code for years and is very comfortable. So this pair programming experience was a great opportunity for me to learn and see some XP principles in action.

I was able to see how unit and acceptance testing work in action. Testing is a major part of feedback which is a core value of Extreme Programming. Ryan and I worked together to write tests and then write just enough code to make the test pass, and then move on the next test. I was able to see the value in writing these tests. They allow the developers to see, on a very granular level, when and where a piece of code in an application are not working as they should. Testing also gives the developers confidence in writing new code on top of legacy code. If testing is used all along the developer can see that legacy code remains valid even when they introduce new code on top.

I would say that my first experience with Pair Programming was definitely a good one. I feel like I was able to learn and also contribute to the project.

Last year around this time, Jason Kottke made a move from his fulltime job to become a fulltime blogger. A year later he reminisces about his year and says that he will not continue on using the “micropatronage” model. I was not one of his micropatrons (although I thought about it and talked about putting it in my budget), but I thought that this was a spectacular idea and one that I fully support. It is disappointing to hear that Jason has chosen to move on and pursue different things. I know that I have really enjoyed his work, as I’m sure many others have as well.

Another move was announced recently as well. Derek Powazek posted today that at the end of the month he will be leaving his job with Technorati to pursue other opportunities. In his post he descibes his job at Technorati and some of the high profile projects he’s worked on.

Cameron Moll recently posted about his choice to not pursue a position with Apple after they had shown interest in his services. He mentioned in his post about the balance he wishes to keep in his life and that he and his wife had to look closely at the pros and cons of taking such a position, and what that would mean for their family and standard of living.

I commend all of these guys. I think it would probably be pretty easy for them to maintain the status quo and just continue down the path of least resistance. But they each have chosen to blaze their own trail in make decisions that are best for them and their families.