shout out

It took me a while to notice, but Vienna 2.1.1.2109, which was released a month ago today, added support for Pukka as a posting client. Vienna is an open source RSS reader with many great features such as:

• a built-in tabbed browser
• full AppleScript support
• feed display styles
• smart folders

Vienna will automatically detect if Pukka is installed and provide it as an option under Article -> Blog With....

I come from a UNIX and open source background, so I've always liked the model of small tools fitting together to create useful workflows. I've modeled Pukka in this way and the addition of support to Vienna (alongside existing support for NewsFire and NetNewsWire) continues this tradition.

Thanks, Vienna team!

Big congratulations to Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software! Looks like Red Sweater has acquired the development rights to MarsEdit, which is what I'm typing this blog post in right now. MarsEdit was originally a spinoff of NetNewsWire -- I remember when they got split up into separate apps (and my license for NNW turned into a license for each). Then Gus Mueller of Flying Meat worked on it a while. Now it looks to be picking up again, which is good news for Mac bloggers. Brent Simmons, the author of NNW and MarsEdit, also gave me a big shot in the arm when he added support for Pukka to work alongside MarsEdit for blog posting in NNW early last year.

I met Daniel (and Brent and Gus, for that matter) at C4 last fall and I know that he's been probing around for potential apps to take over. And I saw Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba's post alluding to this news, but I couldn't quite put the pieces together last night.

This is truly cool. Great job, guys!

Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire fame mentions a holiday sale going on right now for his and NewsGator's other products. If you don't have NetNewsWire or MarsEdit, go check them out!

Pukka has had NetNewsWire integration from the start and Brent was kind enough to add support for Pukka way back when.

Apps working together in harmony... it's enough to warm the cockles of your heart.

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the folks who purchased Pukka yesterday to support Child's Play Day. I definitely saw a boost in sales and I've passed on the proceeds to the charity. I can't wait to see the grand total from all of the developers!

I'm happy to announce that tomorrow, Code Sorcery Workshop will be participating in a charity day for Child's Play. The short version is that all (yes, that's 100%) of the proceeds that I gather from Pukka for tomorrow, December 7, will go towards Child's Play. If you've been thinking about registering, now is a great time to do so!

Child's Play is a Seattle-based charity that provides games for kids in children's hospitals over the holidays. Here's a quote from The Seattle Times:

"Child’s Play is putting the media’s negative portrayals of video games to shame, and showing the world that gamers are good people, too."

For me, gaming was a big part of my childhood that influences me to this day. Problem solving, teamwork, and just general escapism (in moderation) are great things, and I think that it's wonderful that I can put my programming skills to use towards helping brighten the days of children who are hospital-bound over the holidays.

So again, if you are on the verge of registering Pukka, what are you waiting for? And while you're at it, check out the other great software developers who are participating as well. Thanks to Mike Zornek of Clickable Bliss for coming up with and organizing the idea.

Just wanted to post a note that I went to Steve Wozniak's local iWoz book signing tonight here in DC. It was mentioned as the first time a book has sold out in advance of the author arriving. Congrats Woz! While it was a little too crowded to 'meet' him in any meaningful way, I hope I left a mark when he signed my MacBook Pro! He was generous enough to also sign my copy of iWoz.

I'd also like to note that though I've been a little quiet lately, work is happening behind the scenes. I've recently moved to freelancing and have freed up some more time to work on Pukka and other forthcoming projects. I'll try to live by the adage of "under promise, over deliver" so that's all I'll say about that for now ;-)

Keep the feedback coming in and I look forward to releasing some new goodies in the near future!

By the way, I wanted to give a shout out (and I've added a new blog category called "Shout Out") to Potion Factory for their new beta application, Tangerine. Sadly, while I have a penchant for delicious-looking applications, I don't work out with an iPod. However, my wife is already saying how much this will help her with her workout planning. So, congrats to Potion Factory and keep up the good work! It's great to see new, innovative applications for the Mac from lots of developers -- everybody wins!

Sorry for the radio silence here, but we're happy to announce that our Chief Gnome Wrangler got married early this month and was on honeymoon for a couple of weeks. Expect more news and updates soon now that we're back.

Also, we'd like to give a shout out to Billable by Clickable Bliss. We got a chance to meet Mike at the somewhat recent CocoaDevHouseWashington when he showed Billable in its near-final stages and we wanted to post our congrats! We wish you much luck, Mike!

I forgot to mention last week that Josh Teague Studios and I have been working together on user interface ideas for Pukka. He provided the original inspiration for the design of the private bookmarking in the last release and we've been talking about other directions things could go in. Have a look at his ideas here and be sure to check out the rest of his portfolio!

Luis and I are happy to announce that we're getting CocoaDevHouseWashington off the ground! With some help and inspiration from Blake, the host of CocoaRadio, we are having the first meeting tonight at Murky Coffee in Arlington (map here).

Whether you're new to Cocoa, an old hand, or just curious about Mac development, feel free to stop by. I'll speak for both myself and Luis and say that we're both friendly and approachable, and I'm sure the others coming are as well.

See the wiki for more details and if you're local, we hope to see you there!