Weekly Update

March 16, 2008 · Posted by Peldi in Company · Add a comment

Let's see, what did I do this week.

Website:

I wrote a few more pages, including the Privacy Policy (I know, fun). Still too many broken links though, I'm not at a state where I want people to see the site yet. I'd say I'm still a few weeks away, so please refrain from advertising my site to anyone.
I set up Google Webmaster Tools, interesting stuff
I coded up a monthly newsletter with CampaignMonitor. Head over to http://www.balsamiq.com to sign up for it, I'll be sending the first test newsletter out soon.

Coding:

I worked on the desktop version, which I'm calling "Mockups on AIR" to see if I can take advantage of some AIR buzz. This version of Mockups is important because it bridges the online/offline worlds (a shortcoming of many web apps today) and it supports full keyboard shortcuts without me having to go crazy with hacky javascript (for now). I am going to give a version of it away that only has a few features, with the full-featured version (with open/save/save as/export png features) available for free to people who bought the plugin. I don't want to sell it as a standalone product though, I don't think it's worth my time at $20-$50 bucks a pop. Try it out! http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/desktop (if you want to know the temporary user/pwd to unlock all the features email me).
I set up CruiseControl. This is totally awesome. I check in a feature or a fix, and within 2 minutes my website is updated with the latest build, of every variation of mockups that was touched by my check-in. Just like magic.
I added 12 new icons (bringing the total up to 71) and the following control types: Image Placeholder, Street Map, Charts (Line, Bar, Column, Pie), Cover Flow and a Formatting Toolbar (so that you can mock up a text editor). This brings the number of controls available to 53, which I think is plenty for version 1 (but if there is something you really miss let me know, it takes me about 10 minutes to add a control type).
I refactored some code and fixed some annoying bugs related to clicking and dragging. The app should feel much smoother now. Try it out! http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups/live

Beta and others:

I added my friends R### and R###, thanks for joining guys
I Installed Parallels and Windoze so that I can use Captivate and Quickbooks in it.
I am looking for quotes to add to the website regarding Mockups or Balsamiq as a whole. If you have been using Mockups and have something (hopefully positive) to share and want to get a little free publicity, don't be shy! See Andrew's quote on this page http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups for an idea of what I'm looking for.
I should be getting my business tax number this week. Once that's set up, I can get a bank account, CPA and all that good stuff.

Ok I think that's enough for now. Oh and I also worked full-time at Adobe and prepared some for the big move to Italy. No big deal. 😉

Until next week, Peldi