Pownce

Alright. It's pretty cool. I signed up for a Pro account, but errors in the system have prevented me from actually getting my account. Add me up on Pownce! My username is "sintaks".

Tuplix Launched! (oooOOOooo... screencasts...)

After much waiting, Tuplix is finally launched. Break out the champagne! (We did.)

But... what is it?

Two years ago, I didn't know either. It was supposed to be this be-all/end-all solution for managing your site's content, so far as I knew. After working with XAVIOUR, TechMeridian's custom-application-development-environment-slash-CMS, for a year, I thought maybe it was supposed to be a replacement... a sort of... XAVIOUR v3. I then left TechMeridian after about a month of confusion and frustration, right when Tuplix development was revving up. I sold my soul, got a job at RightNow Technologies, and spent the next six months there, sulking. I then spent three months freelancing, playing World of Warcraft, and learning Japanese. Good fun.

I was then contacted by TechMeridian, after months of silence, and asked if I was available to help with some client work while Tuplix development continued. A few weeks later, and here we are. Tuplix is a working product, made for real clients (and already being purchased by Big Companies). I'm proud of TechMeridian for the work they've done. Hopefully this will open the door to the Grail of Web Development: being able to drop client work to make your own fun stuff.

So here I am, in the office, blogging when I should maybe be working. I have a screencast compressing, and am almost done with my list, so I don't feel so terrible. Plus I'll be here for like 10 hours today, sans overtime... Oh well. No complaining. That's what myGripe is for!

So what is Tuplix?
Tuplix is content-editing for the masses. When I worked for Zee Creative, we were constantly making these sites with five or six pages, and had to tie them to a DB just so the client could edit those... five or six pages. While it's not the "wrong" use for PHP/MySQL, it's a bit overkill, and led to quick, one-off sites with hard-coded IDs and wasted time.

Tuplix is perfect for these types of sites. One merely creates the site files, then places a specific CSS class in the containers she wants editable. Add them to Tuplix, tell Tuplix which CSS class you used, and like magic, you can make changes to your content. All your files stay on your server (though they make a round-trip to Tuplix servers for Processing, Editing, and Publishing). There are no special codes you have to stick in your site files, no stupid arrangement for separating content out. You could, in fact, design a site not knowing what Tuplix was, and then adapt it to work inside Tuplix in mere minutes.

And that's what TechMeridian is counting on. They're hoping that users with static sites will see Tuplix and ask their designer to make it work. They're hoping that designers will start accepting clients with Tuplix in mind. But then... they're not hoping very hard.

Like I said, TechMeridian is talking with Big Companies about Tuplix, and Big Companies are talking back. Whether this means some kind of liberal licensing agreement or outright purchase is yet unknown. Until there is some solidarity, we're keeping it low-key, relying on word-of-mouth and our own connections to spur users into trying it.

(Pause for an hour while I finish a screencast, take two phone calls, and hunt down some cookies...)

Anyhow... I've lost mental context now. I encourage everyone to try out Tuplix. First off, it's free. Well, there's a free account, anyhow... and it says active as long as you log in every 30 days. If you like it, upgrade. It's month-to-month, with no contracts and no setup fees. If you're a web-shop, and you're looking to save some programming time, contact us about possible co-branding opportunities. Who knows? It could happen.

Paximus Maximus,
Mase