Every year at this short stretch of time between Christmas and the beginning of the new year, it’s natural to reflect upon the year that is drawing to a close and the new year which has yet to begin. We look back some of us with good memories, happy memories, others with bad memories, sad memories, and most of us with a little of each of those.
And it’s natural too, to look ahead with hope and a little trepidation. The new year will no doubt present opportunities and challenges and victories and defeats. Whatever will be will be, and the new year will bring what it will. But we choose to look forward to the new year with great hope and with great resolve to continue to do our best for you in new year.
In 2017, we will begin our 19th year with the little company we call “Cloudeight”. A company that we started as a dream back in 1998. And we too look back with mixed memories at the year that is swiftly coming to an end.
The Internet is a very different place now than it was in 1998; 19 years in computer terms is like a century in real-world terms. And so we all struggle to keep up with the changes that come at us from everywhere.
The trend now is for quick and easy. In-depth articles have been replaced with glitzy headlines and short articles of little substance, written more to “go viral” than to teach and explore. The old generation of Internet users is being replaced by a new generation of Internet users who live in a disposable world of quick free apps and the instant, free, sometimes insubstantial world of social media.
More people access the Internet with phones and tablets than with PCs. When we started back in 1998, 99% of those who accessed the Internet, did so with a Windows PC. Now, Windows users share the Internet with Android and Apple users.
Without the support and help and friendship of those of you who subscribe to our newsletters, we would have long since joined those Web sites and companies who, like us, were born in the early days of the Internet, but who didn’t survive.
We are aware that our survival and our success depends on you. It depends on giving you, our friends and subscribers, what you want. Most of you are Windows users, but more and more of you are using Android & Apple tablets and phones to access the Internet. We will continue focusing on Windows, But we hope to start adding tips and tricks for Android and Apple devices too – and we’ll be asking you to share your favorite Android and Apple tips with us so we can share them with others.
And we believe that 2017 will bring about big changes in Windows – beginning with what is being called the Creators Edition due out during the first quarter of 2017. We’ll be covering those changes and letting you know what to expect.
The Internet world is full of the catchy and superficial. It’s full of free disposable apps – useful and useless. It’s a world of instant communication and instant relationships. A world where paragraphs have been replaced by 143-character “tweets”.
Our mission is, foremost, to give you what you want, butnever sell you out. We will strive to tell you truth and warn you of the dangers both new and old that you’ll face every day on the Internet. But, we’ll try to keep you safe without frightening you or using yellow journalism to scare people into clicking headlines like so many others do. We’ll try to focus on Windows tips and tricks that will make you a better, smarter and safer computer user.
We’ll continue to recommend to you only products that we both use and believe in. And help you save money by avoiding the many pitfalls of buying software based on fake reviews and false claims.
The complete commercialization of the Internet is here whether we like it or not. And though the Internet is vastly different than it was when we started Cloudeight, we remain committed to providing you with information, products and services you can trust and believe in.
We promise you that we will continue to provide information that you find valuable and useful, rather than on empty, catchy, sensationalistic headlines written solely to ricochet around social media.
We believe that if we continue to be a steady, reliable, source of information, products and services you can believe in and trust, you will continue to honor us with your friendship and your support and we’ll will survive in this brave new world of the “new” Internet.
Thank you very much for making it possible for our little business to beat the odds and proper in this brave new world. We hope we will once again earn your trust and friendship in the new year ahead.
May the new year bring you and those you love happiness and good health. And may all your dreams come true.
Again, thank you all for your friendship and support.
Happy New Year!
Darcy & TC
December 26, 2016
I’ve been with you for over 16 years and I’m happy to read that you will continue to help those of us that continue to use Windows and PC’s. I don’t know what we’d do without you.
I hope you both had a wonderful Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year.
Sincerely, Donna
Thanks so much Donna! Happy New Year!
Happy New Year for sure! I would still be looking at my PC & how to turn it on if I hadn’t ‘found’ you two all those years ago! I’m not at all very savvy yet & still clicking around XP., along with my iPad our kids thought “Mother should have one!”
You two just astound me many times over, with all your knowledge & sure wish I could learn even half, or a quarter of the tips you continue to give us.someone we have all learned to trust & in today’s world that is hard to fine!
I hope you will continue helping us old seniors to find our way with so much new technology that overwhelms most of us today. I love your stories & what an impact your Grandfather has had on you!
God bless..
I had to reset my laptop now I can only get Windows mail or bt. Every time I. Try the net. With edge it won’t let me so how’d I cannot get on net at all Realyygrazy. A box comes up saying I haven’t got gui. I think it’s that at moment using my iPad
Good Morning
Just wanted to say hope you both had an awesome Christmas and hope you will have a wonderful Happy New Year and that it will be the best for you both
Thank you both so very much for all you do for your followers. I have used your services a few times and it has been the best. It is very nice to be able to sit and watch your computer be worked on and it done in just a few miutes.
May God bless you both and have a blessed day
Good Morning,
Wishing you all the best in the New Year. I have been with Cloudeight from almost the beginning and all the glitz and glitter comes and goes but the true and the steadfast always comes through when nothing else works. Tell my friends to give you a look see and a try and they are amazed how easy it is to read and understand common sense.
God Bless and many more years of success.
Thank You with all my HEART! For all you do for me.Pray you got all you wished for at Christmas . And the Blessings will continue in our next year, with hope of GREATNESS !! Happy New Year to Both of You.
Happy New Year!! Hoping your Christmas was just what it needed to be. I started with you two in the middle of 2000. I have a whole file of great things that I have learned from you. I have shared you with all of my family and friends and many of them are now a part of your network. When I have trouble or when I buy a new piece of equipment I make and appointment with you and one of you fixes me right up.
Thank you sooo much and hoping that you can stay with us for a lot longer.
Hey Good People: Have a blessed 2017. We are very happy to be a part of the IA audience.
hope your Christmas was filled with love–family and friends and your New year with the same!!!
God Bless you both—been with you for many years and will continue to be—as long as you are there—many times you saved me and others–thank you for that—we all ( your supporters) look forward to being with you in 2017 and beyond>>>>>
I thank you for always being available to me when needed and for daily keeping in touch with useful and interesting tips and information. May 2017 bring continued good health and many happy days to you both, I always feel I have a friend “out there” I can call on when I need help, may you both continue to keep us informed and updated for a long, long time!
Happy New Year !!
I have been with you both from the beginning, and over the past – almost – two decades, you “Little Company” is the only one that I/We can TRULY TRUST. This has been proven over, and over and over again. I have been using your “Start Page” since it’s inception, and continue to recommend it to all my family, friends, students (I taught computer science in colleges), and clients (when I help people with their computer problems and when I was the IT person for our Church) to use your Start Page.
Now at age 80, I’m still learning from the two of you, and pray that the Good Lord blesses+ you both with a long life so that your “Little Company” will prosper, teach, and service not only us “older” folks but ALL who come to you for knowledge, help, and solutions to their problems. And I pray that they will continue to support you – to give you (Cloudeight) “Life” – for many years to come.
God Bless+ Darcy and TC.
Richard R
Darcy and TC , I’m not exactly sure how long I have been with you, but I surely hope that Cloudeight lasts longer than I. I completely trust your judgement and have greatly appreciated your help when needed over the years.
Keep up all the good that you do.
Love and hugs to you both.
Nancy/Nance
You have been with me since my first computer in “98”. You all have taught me all I know and I thank you so much for always being there for me. I trusted you guys completely and you never let me down. Happy New Year and I thank you again.
My membership came as a gift from an early member called Desert Fox with whom I have sadly lost contact. It has proved to be one of the best gifts ever since I started using a computer. The information has always been clear and useful and trustworthy largely because because of the humour that so often creeps in. This makes Cloudeight unique in my experience. Thank you for keeping things light,
And thank you for always being there to help when something goes pear shaped and doesn’t work as it should
even when it is own fault for not heeding your advice or warnings. What always astonishes me is that your news and information comes halfway round the world to reach me here in New Zealand each Saturday, not on Friday as it would for members in North America But the distance is no obstacle to me receiving help when needed.
So my very sincere thanks to you both, Darcy and TC for all the time you give us and the knowledge you share.
May this continue happily and successfully through 2017. Be well.
I knew that I had been with you for a long time but just wasn’t sure how many years. I was real happy to see that you showed your first Stationery as I had that one and many more years ago. My Sister and I would send letters back and forth and with out really saying anything I think we both knew we were trying to out do each other by picking a Very Pretty Stationery to try and out do each other. I thought it was around 18 or 19 yrs, and now I know it was at least 18 yrs. So will be happy to get TB on, already scheduled. And I do have G-Mail as was suggested that I get, but when I had all that trouble I never once thought that I could use it. I won’t ever forget again as I really needed your help then. We have several keys we haven’t had to use and sure would of if I had only thought of it then!! I was so upset at the time!! I tell friends about you all the time.