Always in beta

As Wassim says, we're always in beta. He is very fond of making broad all encompassing statements and although in this case he was talking about PowerSQL and DB Optimizer and the work we do at Embarcadero, I feel this is true in life.

As we go through our days, weeks and years, it is very rare that we're able and ready for all the challenges that we're going to face. This isn't to say that we don't succeed, only that things rarely go exactly as planned and that life being what it is tends to hand out it's fair share of surprises.

Beta means many things to many people. If you're a rock climber, getting good beta about a climb essentially means tips on how to get up the wall or cliff. In software, it means that a particular program is almost finished but not quite. Generally when software goes beta, a limited group of people are asked to use the software and evaluate it. I there are any problems, they can be addressed before it's sold or released to the public.

Two products that I am working on have just gone beta and are designed to help you rise to the challenges in your life and succeed. DB Opimizer 1.0 is a lean, mean tuning and profiling machine. PowerSQL 1.1 is the next iteration of our SQL development IDE that is targeted at application developers. Both have some wildly innovation features and an easy UI that is sure to delight. Check them out.