Autumn Update

Autumn is upon us, and as I write this the chill of October is slowly creeping it’s way down through Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. The trees are changing slowly — sometimes from the top down — but the golden colors of autumn are definitely starting to shine through. The weather is perfect for wearing hoodies and jeans, although the nights are starting to get a bit cold. I’m still chugging away at my new long-term contract job, working with a bunch of great guys at a startup company in Burnsville. Working here is great because everything I do has a direct impact on the customers, I’m not just a faceless cog in the gears of commerce. We’re getting new clients everyday and the pace doesn’t look like it’s going to let up.

The Plogger community has been in full effect lately, providing the team with invaluable feedback and suggestions for making the product better. The old idea of programmers being completely isolated from their user’s needs is over. We have been working very closely with our users, sometimes even personally debugging problems on their own servers. I think this will make Plogger a product of the community and ultimately a better piece of software.

Some interesting “plug-ins” for Plogger have surfaced as of late. Although I wouldn’t call these “plug-ins” because they require you to hack the core, they do provide some very interesting effects. Check out Sourcematic’s “Thumbnail Navigation” and “Random Picture” plug-ins over at his site. I love to see community innovation like this to help extend and enhance the work we’ve done.

That’s about it for now. Oh, you should really go check out NetVibes if your an RSS junky. It’s like a homepage on steroids, so much interactive AJAX it makes my head hurt. The way this app feels is so smooth and seamless. Check it out!