Hey gang,

After about the tenth email that showed up in my in-box over the past couple days, I guess I should jump in...

I know this is going to sound like Clinton (did not have sex with that woman) or Gates (we are not a monopoly), but Pinnacle and FoxTalk (and me) had nothing to do with setting up these awards. Seeing the mistakes, the categories, the mistakes, the available choices, the mistakes, the parameters, and, oh, yeah, the mistakes, well, we're pretty bummed as well.

The vendors who were misrepresented aren't well served, nor is the community at large. And it sure makes Pinnacle/FoxTalk, the supposed "sponsor", look bad as well - which is really not the goal of being a sponsor.

I'll add a few more items that I was puzzled about...

- One of the books (my DevGuide) listed has nothing to do with VFP

- There are lots of good 3.0 and 5.0 books that are still valuable (Heck, I've still got Winchell's 2.0 book here - it contains the classic Models of Maintainability chapter.)

- Page through FPA, the vendor list, or any number of websites or other conferences and you'll see a number of other third party tools that weren't included

- West-wind.com is missing from list of websites (as are other websites for other vendors)

- Visual Extend is missing from the frameworks

- Is SmartTools a framework?

- R&R and Crystal don't belong in the same class as SFQ/FF

- One of the training company names is spelled wrong

- Several other companies were left out of the training company list
completely

I've spoken to the folks at Pinnacle and we're all pretty embarrassed about being associated with this mess. Well, like Shaq said when he became a rapper and a movie star, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Whil