We do have some adventures. We might seem like the boring type. You know the type that gets up in the morning, saunters over to the coffee pot blurry-eyed, paces until the coffee's done and then, after waiting three minutes for the Bunn to be done - pour a cup and shuffle off to the computer to see how much money rolled in overnight.

Well, that's not true. Despite what those TV advertisements might make you think, being in business on the Web isn't as easy at it looks. There are around one billion Web sites. That's one Web site for every six people on the planet. As of last report, our main site, thundercloud.net was the 110,000th most popular site on the Web. That might not seem so hot to you, but think of it, there are 999, 890,000 sites less popular than ours, including Chuck's Corn Pone Recipes and Millie's Mixed Drink Guide.

The web keeps growing. More sites are being born every day and we're all drowning in a sea of sites. Each of us will only get a chance to visit a minuscule number of sites compared to the vast number of sites there are on the Web. Think how much we're missing. Amazing.

There are sites dying every day. Sites that started out with high hopes and inspired passion. The Web is no place for those with wild dreams and no patience. Many excellent ideas and sites have drowned in the roiling sea we call "The Web."

Keeping your head above the water is not easy when the sea is placid and the winds are light. But when those seas turn angry you have to be willing to fight for your life. And you have to be tough. And you have to be patient and be willing to wait for the storm to subside.

It's no secret that we've been struggling lately. The economy, despite all the attempts by countries all over the world to end the recession, is still terrible. But, before you quit reading and think this is going to be a whiney plea for funds, I assure you it's not.

The past couple of months, we've asked our subscribers and site visitors to lend us a helping hand by making donations. But, then we thought it would be better if we offered some nice incentives for donations - like our flash drives. That way, folks who donated, would get something of value in return.

So, how is this working out for us? It's helped us get by. It's help us a great deal. July, August and September are normally slow months for us anyway. The kids are out of school for the summer and then in late August and early September the kids go back to school, school clothes and school supplies need to be purchased, etc. So it's not a particularly busy time on the Web nor is it a particularly good time for sales. Normally - and I say normally - our busy season starts in October and runs through February. We don't know what to expect this year since we've never seen a year like this. It's an adventure. We're not sure what kind of adventure, but it's an adventure nonetheless.

So what are we doing to help ourselves so that we can continue to plug away here on the Web and secure our place on the Web in future? We're trying all kinds of things. We hope some of them work out. We really don't like having to ask for donations to stay afloat on the sea of this recession. So, while we're busy looking at new ideas and trying out different things, we're also fighting to stay on top of the sea and now allow ourselves to get swallowed up by it.

One thing is for sure. We'll never forget the folks who have helped us during this very difficult time. Whatever we come up with in the future, we will be mindful of those who have lent us a helping hand. We'll never forget it. Just like the folks we've helped over the years never forgot us.

We're still answering every email we receive. Just last week, we spend a lot of time helping a lady whose ISP insisted we were spammers and insisted they (her ISP) didn't censor, block or delete her email. We worked with her (or I should say EB did) until we had proved that the ISP was not telling her the truth. They were using some off-the-wall, free, spam filtering and she wasn't' getting her newsletters because of that. We are not spammers and we're not on any spam list...yet her ISP denigrated us and tried to make her think we were. Luckily she's been with us for a number of years and knew better. Once we sent proof to the ISP that we are not spammers, the ISP never wrote back to her or to us. So we're not sure if this lady will get our newsletters at her normal address or not. She'll probably have to get a Gmail account just to get the newsletter she paid for.

As we do every week, we helped dozens of people last week - not just with using our software but with normal computer-related problems too. Sometimes I feel like we're the mom & pop grocery store of old being pushed to the brink of extinction by the big boys. We offer service and they offer the razzle-dazzle and convenience. We're tough though. We're fighters. We still believe that if we treat people right they'll treat us right. We still believe we have a place on this ever-growing sea called "The Web". It might be a tiny niche, far from the madding crowd, but a nice, comfortable niche where we can thrive -- and we can survive.

We're not angels though. Sometimes we get angry when someone attacks us unfairly and probably write things we shouldn't. But, we're human. And it's because we're human and because we take time to care and to help those who ask for our help that, I think, we're still hanging around on the Web. Tens of thousands of sites have simply disappeared. Victims of neglect or carelessness or just tired of the struggle to keep up with the changes taking place on the Web.

Most of the changes taking place on the Web are fueled by big money. Venture capitalists are again pouring big bucks into the Web. The hot trend now is cloud computing. And whether we are for it or against it, it is the future of the Web. HP is introducing something called a "Dream Screen". It's a computer that isn't. It's just a touch-screen monitor with Internet capability that lets you use programs on the Web - in the cloud. It's not Windows, it's not Linux, it's not Mac, it's a computer that isn't and it's a perfect example of how big cloud computing is - and it's going to be even bigger.

Just because something is popular though, doesn't mean it's good. We can see a lot of potential risks involved with cloud computing, even if the servers on which cloud computing applications are running are totally secure. People still use weak passwords. Why? So they can remember them. But using weak passwords in the era of cloud computing are not only foolish but dangerous. As we move more and more into the cloud, more and more personal data is going to be stored in the cloud. If the only thing between that data and a criminal is a password like patty824, then Heaven help us all. Identity theft will be ubiquitous. But if you leave your keys in your parked car in a big city, do you really think it won't be stolen?

We're keeping up with things and staying on top of things and you can continue to count on us to tell you what we really believe and to alert you to the dangers you face and that you will face on the Web - without resorting to the scare tactics and sensationalism so prevalent today. We all live in the same world. We all breathe the same air. We all surf the same Web. We all face the same dangers and we have a responsibility to you to keep telling you the truth without hype, without hyperbole, without sensationalism. We don't believe in taking obscure risks and making an entire newsletter devoted to scaring the daylights out of you.

Perhaps it's our commitment to ferreting out the truth and being optimistic about the future that makes us who we are.

H. G. Wells once wrote, "We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery."

Time passes. Things change. People change. Nothing and no one stays the same. We've learned a lot from the tough lessons this economic recession has taught us. We will be better for it - we really believe we will

Thanks to all of you who've helped us and to those who've been our friends over the years. We are hopeful for the future and we are working on new things and trying new ideas. We hope that in the coming months we will be able to share them with all of you.

You've been great to us and we'll never forget how you've helped us during this very difficult year.