We have a thing for Gummy Bears here at the Fuser office - it's unhealthy and caused my first cavity ever, but sometimes you have to sacrifice for deliciousness.  Roque left for a week in Germany with his family, and when he returned he brought us AUTHENTIC Haribo Gummy Bears.

 
We considered not eating them, but in the long run realized that was just not the most responsible decision.  So this morning we tore open the bag and spent a few minutes taking in the different flavors (and prettier colors) of German Gummy Bears. 

 Look at all these great flavors:

This one is my favorite:

Thanks, Roque!  Anyone know of a good dentist in the Boulder area? 

(Very Off Topic) P.S. We're considering some ideas to make logging into Fuser easier.  Take the survey on the home page and let us know which idea you like best! 

Last week, the Fuser team was treated to an afternoon at the movies for a little team bonding and a tiny break from developing and testing.  Kevin planned a fun day which included riding the bus as a team (I opted out of this part after a harrowing experience recently on public transit), ice cream cones, slurpees, popcorn and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Regardless of everyone's personal thoughts on the movie (some loved it, some hated it, others laughed their way through it), we had a fantastic time together as a team. 

The rowdy Fuser bunch at the theater:

Kevin's got popcorn! 

PS - I'll work on the bus thing, I know it's the right thing to do. 

This morning, the Wall Street Journal ran an article written by Vauhini Vara on ways to keep up with all the social networking and email services available today, and Vara mentions Fuser as a great option for keeping up with both email and social networking sites.  You can read the article here.  Vara delves into the headache that comes from managing too many accounts, and offers lots of great tools for keeping up with your social sites, including fellow Boulder based Startup Socialthing!  Vara also interviews a great Fuser user, L.P. Neenz Faleafine, who talked with Vara about Fuser.com and all that we have to offer.  You can also check out Neenz's blog post "Top 10 Reasons FUSER ROCKS!"  Thanks, Neenz!

After the release of our MySpace application, we wanted to add the same pizazz to our Facebook application - and some new functionality.  You can now open multiple messages and compose windows at a time, and we show you the read/unread status of your messages and bulletins from within the app.

A few weeks ago we changed the way the Fuser Facebook App looks on your Facebook profile page:

And this week, we added the popular tabbed interface of our MySpace application to our Facebook app, complete with in-line reply functionality.  What do you think?

We're psyched about our new Welcome page, and can't wait to hear your feedback.  Say good-bye to the orange and grey of 2007 - Fuser's now a little brighter and bubblier, and we couldn't be more thrilled.  We've got more in store for Fuser this year, so stay tuned to see what's coming next!  

 This spring we put together a co-ed Softball team, and we were all really excited to play - Springtime in Colorado, a non-competitive rec league and 5 Monday nights out on the field as a team - what could be more fun? 

The start of the season looked promising: We lost our first game 15 - 11, but really figured out how to work together as a team during that game.  Here we are feeling pretty good about our chances for the season after Game One:

Remember that "Springtime in Colorado, what a great time to play Softball" thought?  Well, after Game One, it snowed the next two Mondays, resulting in our Softball season being condensed into two nights of double headers.

Remember that "non-competitive rec league, it's just for fun" thought?  Well, let's just say we lost every game we played and our total score for the season was 97 - 17.  Keep in mind we scored 11 of those in Game One.

But, we did have fun on the field as a team and we have pictures (thanks Scott and Dave!).  We kept our spirits high despite the rough losses, and we were all really good (most of the time) at laughing at ourselves in the dugout.  Who wants to play next year?!

We love Twitter at Fuser and we know a lot of you do, too. We heard a lot of requests for Twitter support in Fuser, and now it's here! We tried to build a Twitter client with functionality that we think would add a lot to any Twitter interface - including the ability to see which of the people you're following are following you back.

 If you don't have a Twitter account, it's a cool mix of blogging and IM.  You can answer the question "What are you doing?" and send out your status to a community of followers. It's fun and a bit addictive, so check it out at www.Twitter.com. You can add Fuser to your Following list, too.

 Add Twitter to your Fuser account by selecting "Add/Edit Services" in the footer of the page, then selecting "Twitter" from the Left hand navigation. Let us know what you think!
 

We heard that the Fuser home page needed some updating, and we agreed. We spent some time making improvements and adding new functionality to this page - now you can move the information panes around so that you can see your most important information first, read the blog from within Fuser, and take our survey with fun questions so we can get to know you a little better.  

We want to know where to go from here - what kind of information is important to you when you log into Fuser, and what could you do without?  Are you a weather nut who can't live without the latest forecast update?  Are you always searching for the latest headlines and breaking news?  Or do you just want to see your basic email and social networking information?  Let us know what you think of the redesign and what you would love to see on the Fuser home page.
 

In February, MySpace announced that they would be opening up their developer platform and allowing third parties to build apps for MySpace.  After building a Facebook app last Fall, we knew that this was something that we wanted to do on MySpace as well.  We quickly started building the Fuser Myspace Application, which lets you view your Facebook wall and messages without leaving MySpace, and we pushed the app live a few days ago.  We are excited to have released in the first wave of applications approved by MySpace and are excited about the possibilities of the MySpace Developer Platform. Check out this review of our app by Mashable. Wired also gave a brief overview of several of the first MySpace apps to be published, including Fuser.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

Java consoles tell us what kind of error is occurring in your Fuser session.  When you are running into a bug in Fuser, or encounter an error message, we'll most likely ask for a Java console so we can see what's causing the error in your account.

So how do you send us a Java console? 

1. Close and restart your Browser.  If you're using Firefox, you may have to download an add-on first at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/141 )
2. Under "Tools", select Sun Java console ("Java Console" in Firefox). 
   
3. Click "Clear" in the window that opens up, and keep that window open.
4. Log into Fuser and repeat whatever step was giving you errors (ie adding your accounts, opening a message, etc).  You should see messages scrolling in the Java console during this step.
5. When you see the problematic behavior occur, logout of Fuser, press "Copy" in the Java Console window, and paste the Console into a text file to send to us.

We're really excited about our new Fuser Facebook App, which allows you to check your MySpace messages, bulletins and comments within Facebook.  We originally released this app in mid-December, but just added the ability to reply to and delete your MySpace communications from within Facebook, too.   Check out this post on the Fuser Facebook app from Mashable.

 Add Fuser to your Facebook profile!
 

A few weeks ago we rolled out a new Fuser release that we're very excited about.  We've been hearing from a lot of our users that the speed still wasn't up to par, so we spent another two months concentrating mostly on making Fuser faster.  We also added support for the most requested email accounts - including Lycos, Excite, Google Apps and Operamail.  We've got some fun ideas for 2008, so keep in touch and let us know what you'd like to see in Fuser.

The Fuser office is in downtown Boulder - we have a fantastic location and there's always a lot to see and do around town.  I have always wanted to go ice skating on the One Boulder Plaza Ice Rink, so Kevin and I made plans to head up to the rink on a Wednesday at lunch to take advantage of discount skating.  When planning our outing, we didn't know that the Wednesday of our choice would be one of the coldest days in Boulder this winter, but we bundled up and walked up the street to the rink anyway.  Interestingly, no one else from the Fuser office chose to spend their lunch skating on the rink in the freezing cold with us, but they did send us with a camera and video camera.  We had a great time skating, drank delicious hot chocolate from The Tea Spot, and headed back to work.  Next time, though, I think I might bring some mittens along.

                                                 About to fall, but smiling for the camera.

                                    
                                                Kevin grooving to the music on the rink

                                            Taking our last lap before heading back to work.

                                                        At long last, here is the video!

 
 

In what appears to be an on-going effort to improve my health I find myself “hitting the gym” from time-to-time. Actually, time-to-time is the real problem in that last sentence and that’s why I recently changed time-to-time to most of the time. Kinda depressing isn’t it? I’m constantly fighting a battle between a healthy weight and my friends calling to go out for dinner and drinks.

I spend most of my time sweating the pounds off on the treadmill.  The treadmill is not only a great way to get the cardio I’m looking for, it’s also one of the best places that I’ve found to think about all the stuff I did during the day, all of the stuff that I didn’t get done and those few emails I forgot to write.  I need one of Brad Feld’s Treadputers, that way I wouldn’t lose my thoughts while I’m logging miles at the gym.

All that thinking on the treadmill starts to build up towards the end of the workout. I start thinking about all of the people I need to communicate with and those emails that I didn’t respond to during the day. By the time the treadmill beeps telling me my workout is complete, I’ve collected a number of tasks, emails and ideas that need to be taken care of or noted. If there was only a way for me to send an email to myself to remind me of all of that stuff I thought of on the treadmill. And, maybe check in on my work email to see what’s happened since I left the office.

Luckily my gym has one computer where members take few seconds to check one of their email accounts or browse their favorite website. This is where Fuser has brought it all together and simplified my life. After a great workout I hop off the treadmill, speed across the room to the computer and log into Fuser. Trying to keep all of those great things I thought about on the treadmill on the tip of my tongue I quickly compose a new email to myself. Then with the flick of a button I filter out all my email accounts except for my work account and breathe a sigh of relief as I realize that everything is okay at the office.

Chris Dannen at Fast Company wrote a great blog post: "Technology: Are You A Loser?".  Chris offers a great review of Fuser as well as insight into the struggles that inevitably go along with aggregation. 

Check out this great blog post by ThePaisano.  Pai has great thoughts on the evolving space that Fuser is a part of as well as great new technologies - check out his blog!

Check out these reviews of Fuser and let us know what you think!