Flying Meat’s latest bit of software goodness, Acorn, has been receiving excellent press and reviews around the web since its release some months back. Recently Scott Stevenson, frequent provider of fine analysis of the Macintosh and Cocoa programming at the Theocacao blog, did a small review of Acorn.

Scott overviews many of the interesting approaches Gus has taken with Acorn’s user interface and gives much praise to the application’s take on simplicity and convention. He goes on to discuss the image filtering UI in Acorn which prominently features design and coding by the flock here at RogueSheep. You’ll find a similar filtering experience in our Magma Effects InDesign and Illustrator plug-ins.

We are glad to see more and more folks fall in love with Acorn and are proud to have been able to help provide a portion of the features and user experience for those users.

Not only is RogueSheep buddy, Mike Lee, an accomplished fashion expert, he is now a bona fide author.

My congratulations go out to Mike for his first published work, Mac OS X Leopard: Beyond the Manual. I know how hard it can be to juggle several serious commitments at once. Between developing Delicious Library 2.0, spending time at the tailor getting fitted and playing chicken with Buicks in the street its hard to imagine he also found time to co-author a fine technical tome. I guess its all in a day’s work for the world’s toughest Mac programmer.

Judging by the post-event comments I’ve received in the past few days, the first annual RogueSheep holiday party appears to have been a smashing success. A lion’s share of the praise is directed at the excellent venue and delectable catering.

If you are looking for a place to host an event for 50-150 people in Seattle, do yourself a favor and consider the Uptown Hideaway. It would be hard to imagine a more cozy, charming and well-concieved venue. The ambience is inviting, the fireplace is cozy and the floor plan allows you to create a variety of little party ecosystems. To top it off, the proprietors are super-friendly and focused on helping make sure your event is one to remember.

The Hideaway is just one part of the story though. Our catering was provided by Elemental Catering, headed by my good friend Scott Yockey-Jones. Scott and I have known each other since high school and have been roommates on several occasions. I’m no stranger to his legendary feats in the kitchen, yet I was not even close to prepared for the refinement of his craft that the last few years have brought. Like a food samurai he masterfully brandished his culinary katanas and created an unforgettable feast that was fit for an emperor. I’ve never had a better field roast and I’m still dreaming about about those plump roasted potatoes, all smothered with his inventive Emerald Goddess dressing. Don’t even think about having anyone else handle the sustenance for your next business event.

Finally, I have to give a nod to our friends at Blue Highway Games for helping to provide the entertainment for the evening. They loaned us a a generous pile of traditional board and party games to make sure no one was left idling. If you are looking for the best in no-batteries-required recreation, head over to their beautiful store on the top of Queen Anne. They stock a huge variety from all around the world and have plenty of tables and chairs so you can do a little socializing and sampling directly in the store.

We managed to make a handful of snapshots that in retrospect don’t even come close to representing everyone that made it. While many looked sharp, Mike Lee outdid us all with his dapper duds. As the winner of Best Dressed, Mike will receive the gift of one free bug fix in Delicious Library courtesy of the sheep, or a round of scotch on me at the next Xcoders meeting.

If anyone adds photos from the party to Flickr, consider tagging them with RSHoliday.

Thanks again to everyone that came out to celebrate with us. Those of you that did not were missed and I feel its fair to say missed out. We are already looking forward to next year’s bash.