Happy Anniversary to CMX and my fellow CMX'ers!!

Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make this site the success it is. And of course a huge thank you to all of our loyal subscribers, we wouldn't be here without you. :-)

Wow...hard to believe it's been 5 years! I have to say it's been a hell of a ride, and one I've thouroughly enjoyed and been proud to be a part of.

Fours years ago, on March 31st, 2003, Community MX went live with their very first tutorials. It was a crazy time, exciting and scary at the same time. Was the web ready for this type of business model? Would they accept it? Lord knows there were plenty of "naysayers" out there who were very vocal with their opinions. But we didn't listen to them...we believed in what we were doing, we truly believed that there was a market for what we were doing. And it sure looks like we were right.

2000 + articles later, we are still going strong. Each and every business day we have released two new pieces of content...it might be a tutorial, an article, a review, a JumpStart or an extension...you never know what you'll find. We've heard from several folks that it's like Christmas morning every day. And other than weekends and major holidays, we've never missed a single day. That's a lot of Christmas mornings! :-)

I am so proud to have been a part of this endeavor from the very beginning. Honored to be associated with such an amazing group of people. Experts in their fields, with so much knowledge I am in awe at times. While we have had some partners go, and new ones come, the majority of the "founding" partners are still very much a part of CMX today. Ray West, Tom Muck, Bill Horvath, Kim Cavanaugh, JoJo (Adrian) Senior, Jim Babbage, Stephanie Sullivan, Danilo Celic and myself have been here since day one. In the last four years we have welcomed many new partners on board, all of whom have helped shaped CMX into what it is today. Heidi Bautista, Arman Danesh, John Gallant, Holly Bergevin, Joseph Balderson, David Stiller, Robert Reinhardt, Chaz Chumley, Paul Davis, Kim Dudley, Chris Flick, Tom Green, Sheri German, Zoe Gillenwater, Knut Kubenz, Gordon Mackay, Steve Schelter, Rob Williams, Derrick Ypenberg and our newest partner Bevi Chagnon. Each and every one of them has so much to offer it's mind boggling at times :-). Such an amazing group.

But, all the talent in the world isn't enough...without our loyal subscribers, we wouldn't be here, it's that simple. I'd like to offer a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of them. They are the "community" in Community MX, they make it what it is today, a resource like no other.

So, here's to the last 4 years...and to the next 40!! Happy Birthday Community MX! I can't imagine being anywhere else. :-)

Three years ago today Community MX opened its proverbial doors and released our first two pieces of content. It's hard to believe that that was three years ago! I can still remember that night as if it was yesterday, the excitement among the partners was palpable...MSN messages were flying, emails were whizzing back and forth, woohoo's were everywhere. :-)

When within minutes we had our first subscriber, our very own Craig Hartel, I felt like we had just won the lottery. To this day Craig holds a special place in my heart. :-)

Since that day three years ago, we have continued to grow and expand, but have never lost sight of our main goal: to provide current compelling content to our subscribers each and every business day. Each and every business day, a few holidays excluded, we have released two pieces of fresh new content. And with the exception of one day when the content appeared a few hours late (senior moment on my part...I plain forgot to do it, lol) we have never missed. Never. 1544 articles, extensions, tutorials and JumpStarts. That's quite an accomplishment and one I am very proud of.

Our subs are not the only ones to benefit from this vast repository of knowledge...I have learned more in the past three years than I would have ever thought possible. I swear sometimes I've picked stuff up by osmosis. :-) I couldn't be prouder to be associated with what I feel is the greatest, brightest, most talented group of geeks on the planet. I have made great friends and had a blast along the way. Who could ask for more?

We have so many things planned for the next three years, even the next three weeks...stick around, grow old with us, the best is yet to come!

Let's see, what MM stuff do I possess? I have:

• 1 Long-sleeve TMM shirt
• 1 short-sleeve TMM blue polo-type shirt
• 1 Coldfusion Mag-lite type flashlight
• 1 TMM black jacket
• Numerous pens and keychains
• CD car visor
• The memory of an amazing box of chocolates (Bill, the brand was Recchiuti and they were to die for!)
• A stainless steel travel mug (thanks Angela!) although all the writing has long since worn off. I tend to use my CMX Partner one the most now
• A fairly cool messenger type bag
• Several TMM pins

I think that's it...I really want one of those flash drives now after reading how many people have them...and a backpack...and a </hassle> shirt...ok, I'll admit it...I'm a schwag addict. :-P

I'm passing this baton to:

1. Robert Reinhardt
2. Danilo Celic
3. Paul Newman
4. Sheri German
5. Adrian (JoJo) Senior

When DWMX was first released, I was thrilled to see the tabbed document windows. I loved them! It took me all of about 5 minutes to get used to them, dependent on them even, lol. Then DWMX 04 was released. The tabs were still there, but now they were at the top of the window. I hated them at the top. Just could NOT get used to them...it just seemed more natural to have them at the bottom of the window. But time went by and I must have gotten used to them because I stopped being bothered by them. The other day I found myself using a computer that didn't have MX04 installed, only MX. I kept looking up top for the tabs, over and over. Having them at the bottom now seemed as awkward as they did on top when MX04 came out. And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks :-)

One night, a long time ago, when I had a lot of empty time on my hands, I decided to create a copy of the color chart that I could put on my server for easy access when I was color-challenged. Had I known how long it would take to do, I might have thought twice. :-)

I'm sure there are many copies of this exact page online, but since I always seemed to forget to bookmark them when I found them, I thought I would save myself the searching. Hopefully, it can save someone else time as well. Enjoy!

I got this list in an email and while I normally don't pass these things along, this one tickled my funny bone. And it's Friday, so what the heck. :-)

1. Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?
2. Why is it that no matter what color of bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?
3. Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
4. Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
5. On electric toasters, why do they engrave the message "one slice"? How many pieces of bread do they think people are really gonna try to stuff in that slot?
6. Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
7. Why is it that no plastic garbage bag will open from the end you first try?
8. How do those dead bugs get into those closed light fixtures?
9. Considering all the lint you get in your dryer, if you kept drying your clothes would they eventually just disappear?
10. When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart than apologizes for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well, it isn't all right so why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"
11. Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
12. Is it true that the only difference between a yard sale and a trash pickup is how close to the road the stuff is placed?
13. In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
14. How come we never hear father-in-law jokes?
15. If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife told you to do it?
16. The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends, if they're okay, then it's you.

Have a great weekend folks!

As I was surfing around the 'net today, it occured to me just how much the internet has affected our day to day life...well at least my day to day life. I find myself turning to the computer to do lots of daily tasks that I used to do other ways. For instance, I have cnn.com set as my homepage, and several times throughout the day I will refresh the page to see what's happening out there in that big wide world. If I'm making plans for an outing or a trip, I find myself going to the Weather Channel to check out the forcast for that day or location. In conversation, if someone asks a question that I don't know the answer for, my first thought is to Google it and find the answer. If I'm thinking about going to a movie, but would like to read the reviews first, I'm likely to head on over to movies.com and read up on it. Need a phone number? Why drag out that heavy cumbersome phone book when a quick trip to infospace will give you the number you need in a couple of quick clicks. Tired of the same old dinners week after week? Looking for new recipes? Recipe.com to the rescue!

Pretty much anything you want to find can be found on this thing known as the Internet, from the obscure to the ridiculous. Trying to think of the name of a certain song, and it's right on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't remember and it's driving you nuts? Hit the search engines, you're bound to find the answer. Heard about an interesting idea and you'd like to know more? Search engines to the rescue. Looking for the best price on that sexy new iPod you're craving? Pricegrabber.com will do the research for you. Have the urge for some sun and sand, but a limited budget? Don't fret, expedia.com has you covered.

More and more I find myself turning to the net....perhaps the next thing I should search for is a support group for internet addictions. I'm sure they have an online group.....right? ;-)