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We just got word that 9.3 is now shipping. We should have a 9.3 compliant release of Geocortex Essentials for ArcGIS Server out the door shortly after we receive 9.3 and are able to address any major changes made between the release candidate and the final release.
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Today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest day of the year. At our latitude it starts getting dark around 10PM and gets light again at 4:30AM.
Growing up in Sechelt on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, we had a family friend with an ironic sense of humor. Whenever anyone wished Eddie a happy solstice or commented on it being the first day of summer, he’d solemnly lament, “Well, it’s all downhill from here.”
Technically, the days do start getting shorter from now on, but this is beside the point (we have more daylight than we know what to do with and in the next few weeks we start to enjoy the best few months of weather all year). I now enjoy saying this too, and never tire of the exasperation from those on whom the irony is lost.
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The Optimizer team has been heads down, working towards the first release of Geocortex Optimizer for ArcGIS Server. It's been a great challenge. Like most software projects, there are never enough calendar days to implement the large number of good ideas we would like to incorporate into the product. The textbook I used in a recent project management course suggests that 1 day spent in planning is worth 4 days spent in implementation and testing. Given that I only have 20 business days to finish optimizer implementation, I computed I could stretch my implementation time to 65 days by planning for 15 and implementing for five. Just kidding, Steve.
I like to use UML class and sequence diagrams when designing features. To create them, I've tried both Microsoft Visual Studio and Visio. Visual Studio class diagrams look nice but unfortunately, Visual Studio has no support for sequence diagrams. Visio is ok, but really is more of a drawing tool than a design tool. The UML tool I settled on was Visual Paradigm for UML. It is a full featured, reasonably priced UML tool that despite a few quirks and a number of bugs that I've learned to work around, works quite well. If you're into UML, check it out. It might be what you're looking for.
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We've been running webinars for several months now, and judging by the level of attendance we're seeing on a regular basis, people seem to like them. So much so, we've added several new ones.
If you've attended one, you'll know that we like to show our host's picture (usually one of our account managers) before the webinar starts - it ties into our people-centric culture and gives attendees an idea of who they're talking to.
Steve Maddison is a Latitude account manager based in Toronto, but we don't have a standard staff photo of him yet. A few months back we needed a headshot for his webinars, but were stuck - should we use a hastily scribbled cartoon? Happy face? TAFKAP symbol?
The sales team chose Fabio. 
For reference, at right is a shot of Steve in Amsterdam last year on his way to the ESRI European User Conference. If Steve grows his hair out a bit and spends a year or two in a tanning booth, they'd be almost indistinguishable.
Interestingly, not a single person has commented on the photo.
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John introduced me to ColorZilla, a neat FireFox add-on, which allows you to sample pixel colors from web sites.
Being able to quickly determine R,G,B values is handy when integrating a web site color palette into your map.
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Our training team has become overtaxed of late given the significant amount of things our clients want to learn! This is great from the perspective that our clients are looking to become self-enabled (we do every thing we can to make our users self-sufficient); bad when you consider the amount of travel and overhead this involves as we try to manage our growth.
Solution: bring workshop oriented Geocortex Essentials and IMF training to locations close to our users, using ready-made training facilities provided by ESRI.
We're announcing three dates and locations to start; a pair of workshops in the United States and one in Europe. Our goal is to see what kind of response we get and go from there. Things are looking positive so far; early feedback seems to suggest we need to add some more rooms and dates!
To learn more and to register, visit our new training page.