I wanted to drop in with a better-late-than-never congratulations to our MDA winners Farzad, Michael, and Cameron! Great job, gents! Hopefully, you guys have stopped with the cardiovasculatory arrhythmia and your stress hernias have subsided by now… That was an intense competition and you guys braved your way from start to finish. Congratulations is not a strong enough word for you.
Our finalists also deserve gigantic congrats - they put in a hell of an effort, and I hope to see their ideas get picked up by someone else. They’re too compelling (and monetary!!!) not to be.
Which brings me to my point: Suggestions and publicity for the finalists!
Richard, Whistler desperately needs to be made. The guys who made Tangerine seem like an obvious bet, as does Rogue Amoeba. I think even Ambrosia does some audio stuff. I’d love to see you pitch Whistler to these guys. And if not, there’s been some pretty cool action in the forums from Dennis Cox.
Hijack looks like it’s a go no matter what. A lot of interest sprung up around it, both open and closed source. There’s enough interest there that I’m not too worried about this one.
Dan has been making noises as though there’s interest in Blossom, but I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes. I can’t think of a company offhand that fits Blossom perfectly, so I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions here. I should mention, though, that a version 1.0 of Blossom isn’t too tough to achieve: Take one part Accessibility API, one part Launch Services, and one part published plant growth algorithms and shake vigorously with MiracleGro™ until sprouts form.
Ground Control looks like it may be sorted, with the inimitable and perennially non-PC Steve Streza pretending to develop once he’s gotten Spewbular sorted out. :)
Finally, it looks as though Bubble Fish might see the light of day. Which would be very cool!
Maybe you’ve heard of that Atmosphere program, too? Expect to see lots more about in in the next few days as I’ll be soliciting feedback from you guys a lot. There’s also a bit of upcoming press regarding it, check out Switzerland National Public Radio next Saturday 11/11/06. Be sure that you can parlur frann-kaise if you tune in! I’m told that Cameron, Phill, John, and I will also be showing up in next month’s MacWorld.
So stay tuned!
Jason Harris
ShapeShifter/Chicken of the VNCJason Harris has been coding up spiffiness and silliness for about ten years, working on such diverse projects as a solid-state quantum computing simulator for electron waves in GaAs semiconductors and a Monte Carlo simulator for electron transport in nanostructure devices. He also wrote insane, down-to-the-metal microcontroller assembly language code for Octofungi, a robotic sculpture. In the Mac world, he's the primary author of ShapeShifter, Mighty Mouse, ThemePark, and heads the open-source Chicken of the VNC and Paranoid Android projects. He digs mountain biking, skateboarding, art, martinis, loud music, and creating oddly euphonious phrases. He never wears shoes if he can help it and can dance like a mofo!
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