Launch!

So, it definitely has been a while since the last update, although I had always expected that due to the last bullet point in this list. In brief, what I've been occupying myself with includes:
  • Mid September was mostly filled with work, mainly just increasing the stability of what I've been working on so people can use it for longer without it breaking...
  • Near the end of September, everyone from Google visited the Hunter Valley for three days! They put us up at some vineyard/golf-course/retreat type place, some of the time was having meetings and mingling with the rest of the office, but there was also time for a pub trivia night, a wine blending & cooking classes lunch, a poker tournament (2nd place out of 30 or so!) and even laser clay pigeon shooting. An enjoyable 3 days, for sure. Driving up was also interesting, as it was on the day of the massive dust storm, so the entire way was red and dusty...
  • Even closer to the end of September, I was lucky enough to visit Adelaide again for my Grandmother's birthday (special thanks to D-and-J of D-and-J Higgins for flying me over!). It was great to catch up with almost all of my closest relatives (including those normally in Victoria!), although that resulted in a very packed, albeit satisfying weekend.
  • Then, right at the end of September (I guess technically 1st Oct here, but Sep 30 in the US) wave launched its "Consumer Preview". While still not a full open launch, we decided that we were basically stable enough, and with enough features, that we could open up to move to around 100,000 regular users. Users are coming in through an invite system designed to get collaborative groups on together, so currently we're growing at quite an amazing rate (and having all the fun related to getting many many more users :p).
So that's about it, mainly the launch has been what's kept me amazingly busy for the last month or so. It should be able to slow down for a little bit now (e.g. tonight I've just come back from a cruise around Sydney harbour with some Anita Borg finalists) and so I've had the chance to get my tax return in (first tax return the goverment has ever had to pay me! hurrah) plus boring stuff like car service and dentist/specialist stuff.

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