Dear All, We are on track to announce a release of CakeTalking within a week. We plan to ship that release by end of the month. I will post details in a few days. Until I do, I won't give any further specifics. I am sorry if some of you are feeling neglected because I have not discussed details of ongoing development publicly. Anyone who is in this business will tell you that it's not a good policy to discuss features under development for a number of reasons. For one thing, sometimes development for a particular feature fails. It would not be fair or prudent to promise something that we ultimately could not deliver. As many of you know, Dancing Dots is the exclusive distributor for CakeTalking for SONAR, a product developed by David Pinto. David is an independent developer who does not work for Dancing Dots as an employee or as a consultant. When David creates and tests something that I believe is ready for sale, I will help him to sell it. Just like that popular commercial over here with the man who tells us that his company "will sell no wine before it's time" neither will we release something before it's been fully tested and the relevant information can be included in CakeTalking's tutorial documents and online help. That being said, I am seriously considering the option of offering prerelease test builds for future releases of CakeTalking to customers who understand the potential risks of using something that has not been fully tested yet. Even if you don't use CakeTalking, you can probably guess the answer to the following question: Is CakeTalking perfect? Of course not. Is any piece of software? But, in the end, the question is: does CakeTalking offer significant value because of the ease of access it affords blind users and because of the usefulness of the hundreds of pages of detailed tutorial information and the handy online help it includes. I'm happy to report that our sales numbers indicate that the answer to that question for a sizeable number of people is still a resounding "Yes". Of course, there are alternatives which, as Phil pointed out, is a good thing for blind people. (Since I know that you can't see me I will tell you that, before writing that last sentence, I put on my blind-guy hat). Actually, I put my blind-guy hat right on top of my business-owner hat. :) Let me assure Blue Wings, Phil Muir, and anyone else who may have any doubts that I personally am as committed as ever to developing, adapting, marketing and supporting technology to benefit blind musicians. Are all of our customers happy about what we do all of the time? Or, for those of you who run your own business, are all of your customers happy about what you do all of the time? I think you can guess the answer to that one too. After 17 years in business, what I can say is that my skin continues to grow even thicker. Still, I know that I am blessed to run a business that helps so many people and provides for my family at the same time. OK, as the saying goes, watch this space for more details soon. And let me be the first to wish you a very merry Christmas! Regards from Dancing Dots, Bill Bill McCann Founder and President of Dancing Dots since 1992 www.DancingDots.com Tel: [001] 610-783-6692 PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq