Penny and Palmer - English mastiffs weighing 200 lbs. apiece - are the official Scandia Consulting mascots. Besides serving as our protectors, they frequently offer their keen canine insights into our work. (Sample recommendation: "How about an iPhone app that helps us locate neighborhood squirrels?")

If you'd like to learn more about the rest of the Scandia team, please call 401.566.3000 or email info@scandiaconsulting.com.

Scandia founder to author the first official Umbraco book.

Scandia Consulting founder Nik Wahlberg has reached an agreement to author the first official book on the Umbraco content management system.

Umbraco User's Guide will be published by Wrox (Wiley Publishing) and distributed across all major book stores. It is scheduled to be available starting April 25, 2011.

The book was originally started by Paul Sterling, who has since been hired by Umbraco. Paul will remain on the project and contribute where applicable. "It's been a long time coming, and I'm thrilled to get started," says Nik.

The subject matter is aimed to appeal to content editors, developers and users alike. As is standard practice in programmer-to-programmer publications, it will contain a comprehensive set of code samples throughout as well as sample applications. Also, it will cover in detail installation, document types, master pages, multilingual sites and much more.

Keep up to date by following the project on Twitter: @umbusersguide.