On Tap For This Week:
Here's what I'm working on for this week, and the weeks ahead:
I'm going to post the VS.NET Version Commander on InterscapeUSA.com later on in the week, after I'm done with ScrollingGrid (wasted too much time on the Commander today anyways). I'm going to go ahead and make it available free of charge (let no one say that I don't give away freebies), and it will be fully supported. I'll be doing some work tomorrow and Monday to rearrange Interscape's sites, to better handle the templating across the various sites. Once that's done, the new support areas will be online and ready to go.
I've also decided to break out a really interesting part of ScrollingGrid and sell it as a separate, inexpensive component. It will help bridge the gap to one of the really neat features in Whidbey, and is a fairly unique way to solve a long-standing .NET problem. I'm told it will be finished in two weeks, but I have a feeling it will be done sooner than that. We'll have to see. ScrollingGrid will launch sometime before Tuesday, and after the aforementioned project is finished, we'll issue a minor point release to deal with the modifications we made to some of the internals, due to ripping apart it's guts for this new component.
This week I'll also be launching a new aspect of our Business Services Team, called Interscape Merchant Services. We've teamed up with a really great credit card processing company to provide .NET developers with an exclusive discount on processing. I can personally guarantee the rates we'll be offering are the lowest rates we can possibly offer. And with a 98% acceptance rate and no setup fees, you'll be up and running without any out-of-pocket cost. They have a completely automated online sign-up process (I signed the document using my mouse on a drawing surface on the web page) and they'll pay you $1000 if they can't beat whatever rates you have now. We'll have more details later on in the week of course, but we're pretty excited.
The last server control that is in active development right now is one that has been in the pipe for a very long time. It really couldn't have come at a better time, because it's a great demonstration of what's coming in Whidbey, and how to accomplish the same stuff in 1.X. It will be part of a new brand of server controls, much more advanced that the line of Codeside Assistance™ controls we currently offer. It's basically a super-composite control that handles all the UI generation for accomplishing a single, complex task without having to write a single line of code. It's a solution we're working on in coordination with Paul from Xheo.com, and it's the first of many that will operate in this manner. I'll be talking more about this one in December, when we're closer to launch.
Now, I've been talking about the difference between a proof-of-concept and a solution this week for a reason. All these things on their own are great in their own right, but we take these concepts one step further, and combine them to provide complete solutions. The Interscape Merchant Solution for Developers will launch later in December (possibly after New Years) , and will be the first end-to-end solution for .NET developers to add credit card processing to their website without writing a single line of code. I'm extremely hopeful that a lot of you will find this very useful, but we'll see what happens.
Two other big announcements are coming in December. We'll reveal the identity of our mystery coder, and announce a very exciting edition to our Codeside Assistance line. By the end of February, we'll have 12 products alive and kicking. Think it can't be done? Oh yes it can. You may look at my past track record and go “yeah right, he can't code that fast.” Well, you'd be right. My company can get more done now because I don't have to code anymore. I have four dedicated and hard-working teammates helping me out, which is one of the reasons I can talk about this stuff more. These guys have been working really hard to make these concepts a reality, and I'm comfortable talking about it because I'm confident it will happen much closer to our target time frame than we have been in the past.
And I haven't even talked about what's coming in 2004 yet. Man I love this stuff. My hope is that you will too. Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated.