Monday, October 24, 2005 A few months back I mentioned that White Peak Software is working on a new product to be released next year. That product, code name Vertigo, is a new type of email client for the PC. The current plan includes 3 editions to Vertigo: Basic, Personal, and Business editions. The Basic edition is a simple to use email client but the Personal and Business editions will go beyond what other email clients such as Outlook offer.
I have shared my vision of improved communication software with many people over the 6 to 12 months. A common response I get from some is "Why write a PC version of an email client?" This response typically comes from consumers who use online email such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo for personal emails. My response is always the same, "Not everyone wants to or can work with email while connected."
For lots of users there are times when a person needs to catch up on emails while traveling on a plane or train. Or maybe that person is staying at a hotel in another country that does not offer a broadband Internet access or all you have is dial-up access to the Internet. And there are still others who want to do more with their email data such as track statistics, generate reports, and integrate/share the data with other locally run application.
I'm not the only one who believes there is a need for local email. As Rafe Needleman put it:
"People who need to work when they are disconnected--and that's most of us--need a PC with an e-mail application, a modicum of processing power, and local storage. For us, online e-mail applications--be they consumer e-mail like Yahoo or Microsoft's corporate solution, Outlook Web Access--are useful adjuncts to local e-mail applications. They are not a replacement."
Will this ever change? I believe this will change within my lifetime but I don't see it happening before 2010 or 2012 at the earliest. It requires that we are always connected to the Internet, which is not the case for so many people today. Or it might require a new way of integrating local programs with web-base application. It's hard to time what the right answer will be, and how or if the browser will become the platform. I do know, however, that there is a need for local email programs like Vertigo and this need will continue for years to come. posted by Kirby | October 24 08:39 AM | comments (0)
Sunday, October 23, 2005
First major snow fall of the season at Killington!!! A foot of the white stuff. posted by Kirby | October 23 03:49 PM | comments (1)
Friday, October 21, 2005 Here's the latest in "stupid patents" news. The U.S. should end the madness and get rid of software patents.
Updated: Tim Bray's response to the claim. posted by Kirby | October 21 03:09 PM | comments (0)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 Danny Thorpe, Borland Chief Scientist, posted an entry on the Delphi Roadmap for 2005-2006. But the really interesting read are the comments, which include responses from Danny. posted by Kirby | October 12 06:42 AM | comments (0)
Sunday, October 09, 2005 Speaking of marathons, my sister-in-law and her husband, aka Brooke and Josh, are running the Chicago Marathon today. Click here to see the results of their run, which is updated at various check points.
Updated:
My friend Tim is running a marathon at Disney World in January as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. The team is raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. You can make a donation to this great cause and/or check Tim's training status from his new Tim in Training web page. posted by Kirby | October 9 06:58 AM | comments (0)
Friday, October 07, 2005 It started yesterday with Boz Elloy then Nick Hodges. Nick went one step further by suggesting all Delphi developers extend thanks to the Delphi R&D, QA, and Doc teams for creating a great development tool. And now I would like to join in.
I like to give a huge Thanks to the Delphi team at Borland. Delphi has been my favorite development language and tool since the time (9 years ago or so) when I was first introduced to it by my friend Tom. And while I also work with other languages, Delphi remains my tool of choice whenever possible especially for building desktop applications. posted by Kirby | October 7 11:28 AM | comments (1)
Wednesday, October 05, 2005 By the way for those interested in a good article on VCL.NET versus WinForm, give Craig Stuntz's article Choosing Between VCL for .NET and WinForms a read. posted by Kirby | October 5 01:53 PM | comments (0)
Back in April I blogged about re-compiling Delphi source code from the 90's into a .NET managed assembly. Delphi (and possibly C++) is the only language I know of that provides this level of support. While many Classic VB developers are porting legacy code to VB.NET or C#, I continue using Delphi code that has been unchanged for more than 7 years.
One of the next big things coming out of Redmond that will affect Windows developers is Avalon, now called the Windows Presentation
Based on my experience of moving Delphi code to .NET, I'm confident that Delphi code I write today as well as code I've written over the years will require little to no change with I'm ready to adopt the new presentation framework from Microsoft. posted by Kirby | October 5 01:43 PM | comments (3)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005 Writeboard, a by service from the folks at 37Signals, is live. Looks interesting. Anyone want to try it out with me by collaborating on new text for the White Peak Software web site? posted by Kirby | October 4 01:48 PM | comments (0)
David I has posted the slide with the latest Delphi and C++ Builder road map through 2008. posted by Kirby | October 4 01:36 PM | comments (0)
