2007 can be summarized in one word: busy. Thank you to our customers, employees, and partners who helped make this year better than even my high expectations.

The first year of the blog saw just over 100 posts. The second saw just under 25. And given the current forecast, the posts will continue to be a bit light in 2008.

I was just catching up on some blogs, and I saw this post from Thomas Ptacek.

We’re still alive… but holy crap are we slammed.

Funny… I was going to submit a similar post this week. Apex is in the same boat.

I like Thomas’ brevity. Though, unlike the Matasano folks, you probably won’t see us resume to our normal posting schedule early next week… probabably more like middle/late next month! Things are really hot here.

According to NIAP CCEVS:

Beginning 1 October 2007, for FY08, the NIAP CCEVS office will begin accepting US Government PP compliant (basic, medium or high) and EAL 4 or above products in support of National Security customers. Product submissions meeting the above criteria will be queued and validation resources allocated as they become available. Detailed letters of intent identifying DoD or IC customers will continue to be required.

There is still a bit of discussion and concern around the Fee for Service validation plan, so things will certainly be interesting.

September is a busy month (even by our standards!).

It’s time for the semi-annual (or so it seems!) posting on the Apex Assurance blog.

We’re looking for a Ruby on Rails developer, either part-time or full time. If you’re interested or know someone who is, please send an email to careers@apexassurance.com.

I’ll save all the HR/marketing spiel. That’s not my specialty.

Has it really been almost two months since the last post? Wow. I’m sure your RSS reader is freaking out… and no, it doesn’t have a bug.

Anyway, things have been extremely busy lately, and I’ve been thinking about the blog. Just not writing. Customers come first, then the company, then the blog. The first two are completely consuming us.

And believe me, there are many interesting things going, and I’m hoping you’ll see several big announcements soon.

Update: I must have had beer on the brain when writing this, as indicated by the striken text

I do apologize for the draught drought in posts recently. We have just been swamped! I’m just back from over a week of travel. You would think (well, at least I think) going through four hotel rooms, three rental cars, and getting stuck in airports because of the snow would leave me ample time to craft witty, insightful posts. Unfortunately though, that has not been the case. Customers come before blogging.

Stay tuned, be patient, and check back… there is so much going on, and eventually I’ll have the time to put down some thoughts!

Fortune recently released its best companies to work for. I’ve worked for two on the list: Cisco at #11 and Ernst & Young at #25.

Where was Apex Assurance? We must have come in around #101 … maybe next year.

I’m sorry for the drought in posts lately. 2007 has really started out with a bang, and we’ve been delivering like mad.

Stay tuned!

We’ve hit the first anniversary of the Apex Assurance Blog. There are over 100 posts, and while sometimes a headache, it is a lot of fun to maintain this. Thank you to those to read the blog, offer comments, and send me informal questions/comments off-line.

We’ll keep it going in 2007.

I was reminiscing with a college friend earlier, and we were talking about a class titled “CS 142″ … CS for Computer Science and 142 for the course number. Not skipping a beat, I called it “CS 140-2″ … yikes.

This week is full of travel. Drive to DC. Fly to NYC. Fly back to DC. Drive to Columbia. Drive back to DC. Then back home. And all this after traveling just before Thanksgiving, then traveling for Thanksgiving,

No talks this time; it’s all client work. Intense yet fun work. Last night, after taking my customers to dinner, then working more at the hotel, a very strange thing occurred. I was in the bed pounding away on the laptop keyboard. The room lights were on, and the TV was off. Well, I drifted off and woke up around 3am. The lights were on, the laptop was hibernating, and I had no clue where I was.

Literally, I woke up and didn’t know where I was. Here was my stream of thought:

Boston? No. Chicago? No, that was a couple of weeks ago. DC? Wait, I was there yesterday. Or is that today? Why is my laptop turned off? Why didn’t I turn off my room lights? What the hell is going on?

Finally, after probably 20 or 30 seconds that felt like an hour, I looked out the window and saw NYC. So I stumbled around, turned off the lights, and went back to sleep.

It was a very freaky incident.

And my mail client saved the draft before the machine hibernated! Here is the last part::

… should resolve the issue. Additionally, we need to ensure that the aaoaiasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooooooooooo4444444444444toi”

Too funny.

I’m sorry for the draught in posts lately. Things have just been extremely busy. I’ve got about 20 posts in draft form… just random thoughts and musings. Hopefully soon I’ll get to the point where I can just sit down and develop the thoughts!