Ello faithful.  Christy and I are going on week three now in the hotel in DC.  She’ll be heading back to Forest tomorrow to start packing up our stuff for the move in the next couple of weeks.  We’ll be back in an apartment on March 19th, with a stable net connection, etc.

As per our announcement a few weeks back, E29 will be halting custom services for the time being so that we can focus on being just a product company.  CS was a nice way to build the base of our business, but now that I have a day job as well, I want the freedom to be able to work on ideas and products, and not worry about the 5 CS jobs that we’re enqueued.  This will also eliminate the annoying release delays that we have experienced on our products.  I look at other companies and see them pushing releases back weeks, months, even years, and I wonder, why do their customers put up with that?

So, in that respect, we are committing ourselves to a timely release schedule for our products.  With E29, you won’t have to worry about reading an exciting product announcement, only to have to sit for 2 years waiting on the actual product.  Don’t get me wrong, we won’t be sacrificing release quality just to make a date, but I think that a few extra days of testing is acceptable, and 2 years of “it’s coming, I promise” isn’t.

A word on my day job, I love it.  Absolutely love the job, my coworkers, and the company that I’m working for.  Cairo understands what it takes to retain quality employees, and they treat you with the respect that you deserve.  Alba and Raymond ( President and CEO respectfully ) are very talented, and powerful executives in the DC area, and they deserve the power and respect that comes with their titles.  I have never felt so at home at a job before, and the benefits / accommodations that they have given me are without a doubt the best that any Fortune 500 company could have.

The other developer that I work with has three master degrees, and was formerly a rocket scientist.  Yeah, I feel a bit under qualified at times, but my boss is very impressed with my track record and the work that I’ve done so far in just the three weeks I’ve been at Cairo.  It’s amazing how well I work without a bunch of bullshit pressure and stress from mismanagement ;)  For anybody in the dark, I work for a government contractor in DC, as a developer.  I can talk from time to time about what I’m working on, but most of my job has to be under wraps.  But, I can say that I love it
I definitely see myself retiring at Cairo, while scratching my managerial itch with some quality offerings from E29.  I’ve got the first public release of Mocha, the first maintenance release of our free anti-spam component, and a maintenance release of Serenity lined up in the coming weeks ( as soon as I get back in an apartment with a better net connection ), and we’ve got a pretty exciting announcement lined up after that.  I think a lot of people in the community will be anxious for the first release of our new, top secret product once it’s announced, and I can say now that we’ll be pushing out the first beta in June.

For now, bed time.  You guys keep it real.