Adobe Lightroom

A lot is being said about Adobe's new digital photograph application, Lightroom. I'm going to say something different--that I'm happy to see several Minnesoooootan engineers involved in the creation of a new Adobe application (congratulations!).

Over the past 10 years, it seems this town has become sort of an accidental Silicon Prairie. The short and non-specific story goes something like this.

In the mid 1990s, circumstances drew an Adobe employee back here. This led to the creation of a local development office. Later, he and some other folks left that office and started a new company which was subsequently acquired by Macromedia.

Meanwhile, across town, an NWA pilot created Jasc Software and Paint Shop Pro, which was acquired last year by Corel.

Adobe, Macromedia, Jasc, Corel. Maybe Apple and Microsoft can get on the stick and follow suit. :-)