Special Note!
TechTrax is currently on hiatus for the months of July and August, 2004...taking
a little mental health break! But we'll be back at the beginning of September
with a new issue. Remember, click the Archives button above to catch up on
your studies. You'll find over two years worth of terrific, free tutorials
and technical information.
It's raining, it's pouring! And raining and pouring and raining and pouring
and storming and raining and... Well, you get the picture. Our dogs are fearless
protectors of their home. But when the biggest one gets a whiff of impending
rain, she becomes a wimp. Actually, she used to.
For years storms upset this tough dog. But after weeks and weeks of them,
she looks as bored about it all as the rest of us. Doesn't even phase her
anymore when thunder crashes and shakes the house. She looks more annoyed
that something disturbed her nap!
My sinuses are still making me nuts...the Des Plaines river has been spreading
out all over the Chicagoland area...viaduct roadways have become wild river
rides...and I awoke the other day to see the city of Gurnee on the news as
it was almost floating away! Guess where I work!<sigh> To all of you who
have been battling the midwest floods with boats and sandbags...we wish you
good luck! And today the newscasters reminded us that all this water will
bring a summer load of mosquitoes and a huge threat of West Nile Virus. Joy! The
Day After Tomorrow movie is a documentary about the midwest, right?
And just to make me feel better, one of my current
students emailed me with
his lessons from Alaska to tell me what wonderful memorial day weekend weather
he enjoyed! ALASKA! Thanks Jessal...I sincerely hope you freeze your butt
off this winter!
I guess I shouldn't complain too much, we did get a few short breaks in the
weather this last weekend. So Greg and I jumped on the motorcycles on Memorial
Day and headed to the cemeteries to pay our respects to some of our relatives
and others who have given their lives in service of their country. I know
we have many service men and woman
as subscribers. Our thoughts were with
you this past weekend, as always. We wish you a safe and speedy return to
your families!
But, as I've said before...the good thing about rotten weekends is that it
lets us keep focused on the job at hand and allowed us to get a terrific
issue of TechTrax compiled for you before we take a little, much needed vacation.
In case you are not aware of this fact, TechTrax will be going on hiatus
for the next two months. This will be the last issue for the summer, but
we'll be back with a new issue in September. Stay tuned.
To keep you busy, we have lots of great stuff for you in this issue. We got
all our winners at the end of last month and have been distributing prizes
all over the globe. You can read about them in our Winner's
Circle article. And I also took Jon Peltier's advice that Pie
Charts are not only tasty, but useful, and compiled all of last
month's user Survey data. Don't miss that article. It's kinda fun to
see where you fall within the pies. Oh, and to those of you who offered to
help with some further document questions...thanks so much. I'll be in touch,
soon.
We've also managed to entice a few new authors to join our group. This month
they start off with their teases to make sure you come back in September
to read what they have to say. Microsoft MVP, Terri
Stratton, joins us. As
a Tablet PC MVP, Terri will be introducing us to some way cool technology.
I know I'm anxiously watching the Tablet PC market, because I WANT ONE! I got
to play around with a bunch of them at the MVP Summit and they are just too
cool. Thanks for coming on board, Terri!
Also, in our Survey some of you mentioned that you wanted to learn graphic
design and Quick Books. It just so happens I know a couple people who
can explain that stuff. Danielle
Teska recently acquired her degree as a designer and will be here teaching
you Graphic Design, as well as discussing many different software programs.
And
Luke
Rush...mild mannered bookkeeper by day, wild man whenever he can get away
with it...will be here showing you how to use Quick Books! They've each submitted
their intro articles this month, so be sure to see what else they have to
say come September. Welcome and thanks...Luke and Danielle!
Oh and we did hit 5,000 subscribers. Okay, who had May 11th, 2004 at
12:40:00 PM? Give that person a cookie! In fact, we zoomed passed 5,000
when a pile of gamers discovered that Matt
Billock is over here giving away
coding lessons! So to all you gamers who recently joined us...WELCOME!...we're
glad you're here and we hope this land isn't too boring for you. We're now
nearly up to 5,300 subscribers! Thanks also go to Linda
Johnson and Geetesh
Bajaj who recently touted the benefits of reading TechTrax in their
forums.
Before I take
my leave, I also want to thank all of you who take the time to click the
article Rating buttons to add your opinions and comments. We're getting some
great feedback and it only helps to make sure you get more and better information
from us in the future. Please also don't forget to vote for us at Cumuli.com...the
bigger the voice we have here in our little  readership community, the
more you'll be heard! (Sounds strange, I know...but trust me, it helps!)
And if you have words you want heard, remember to use our Feedback button
on the top menu, too. We'll keep it open during the summer and do what we
can to help you out.
But also remember to check out all the Author's
bios. Many of them run technical
support groups where you can get your geek fix while we're taking a break.
Don't forget the MouseTrax
Resources page where you'll find lots of useful
links. And if you need consulting help over these months, remember you have
some top talent here in TechTrax. See our Consulting
page before you start
pulling your hair out!
Well, it's about time for me to take another dose of Tylenol Sinus and I'd
better check to make sure the dogs haven't floated away. Have a wonderful and
safe couple of months.
Until we meet again in September...enjoy and take
care!
 
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