Aspirations

A public beta of Aspire is now available for download.

I wanted to thank the various people who have tried out the earlier "preview" incarnations of Aspire, and provided such thoughtful and useful feedback! The program is much improved (and more stable!) thanks to you.

I hope it will be a quick journey from this public beta to the official 1.0 release.

During the beta period, the same special pricing as for the preview applies. This means you can purchase a license now, which gives you all the upgrades to 1.0 and in fact any 1.x version, for only US$19, compared with a regular price of $39.

Of course, this price goes up once we release.

Please try out this beta, and let me know any problems you run into, and of course any other suggestions you may have.

A very good post by Tim O'Reilly about why you should work on stuff that matters. He elaborates... (a) work on something that matters to you more than money, (b) create more value than you capture, and (c) take the long view.

While I'm not much of one for new year's resolutions, some people do seem to be fond of them. I wish a few less were, particularly those who will be rudely crowding up the gym for the first few weeks of January. But I digress...

Resolutions or not, January is a good time to take a fresh look at things, a chance to get a new perspective, to rethink your priorities. Particularly given the sharp changes in the economy the last few months of 2008, this is probably relevant for more people than ever.

Best wishes to you and yours for 2009!