Fred Craven, Editor
Apple Computer was the pioneer again. This time it wasn't an easy to use interface or fruity colors but the new trend of "X". They had got up to version 9 of their operating system so next up was 10. They called it X. Not to be outdone, Microsoft came out with the dubiously named XP. Now X is the big catch letter for current software. However, I want you all to know that the trend of X has nothing to do with this being the first issue of Volume X. No, this actually is the 10th year for our newsletter.
But first a minor correction. Every one of our Tech Topics from last year had the wrong volume number of VIV. Although it looks like a Roman numeral it's not. VI would be 6, and IV would be 4. I certainly wasn't trying for 64, that would be LXIV. No, it was suppose to be 9 or IX. C'est la vie.
"But wait" you say, "this newsletter is not Tech Topics it is A Consultant's View. Yes, you are correct about that, so I thought a little explanation might be needed.
Prairie Trail software started publishing a newsletter in its third year—this later became Tech Topics. Both of which were very technical in nature. Then we added A Consultant's View which was shorter and aimed at our non-programmer audience.
Technical content has become more complicated, and often difficult to relate in a printed newsletter—why would a programmer want to hand copy a couple pages of free code when he could copy it directly from a web site? Likewise, we have been offering more technical information to our non-programming recipients.
Therefore, this year we have brought the two together into one. I chose to use the title A Consultant's View because I liked the way it looks. However, we have retained the format of Tech Topics, putting it all together in a size somewhere inbetween the two newsletters.
If you have any input, if you want to recommend us to a friend or client, If you have moved, or even if you want to be removed from our mailing list, just let us know. We always like to hear from you. ♦